Visitors from SC

Surprise!!  I am blogging about  2 weeks early!  We have had a lot more action around here the last few weeks and had taken more photos than normal.  Plus, I have 2 sweet ladies/devoted fans of this blog (Ryan's mom and sister :)) who always want to see more photos.  

A week or so ago, Ry and I were cleaning the floor (or something along those lines) and needed Avery to stay still for a minute.  I had the brilliant idea to swaddle her.  She didn't think it was too funny, but Jaxson loved it. I was actually surprised she couldn't get out of it. She is quite the Houdini as you can see in a couple of photos. 

 WARNING: NEXT PHOTO IS GRAPHIC AND ISN'T FOR WEAK STOMACHS.

Ryan's parents came into town last weekend to play and to watch Jaxson's primary program.  Well I decided to get up quite a lot earlier than normal on Sunday to make sure we got to church on time to get good seats.  Sure glad I woke up early, because when I went to go wake up Avery, she looked like this.  Took her pants and diaper off.  And pooped everywhere.  Yucky.

 Cleaned up and ready to go to church.  It was Jaxson's first primary program and he did a great job!!  We had a practice on Saturday at the church, where my friend snapped this video.  Jaxson is the 2nd little boy who said his part.  He also had another part in the program where he said "Je suis enfant de Dieu" (I am a Child of God (in French)).

After the program, we came home and had a feast ... Glazed carrots, fresh bread and honey butter, filet mignon, and roasted sweet and white potatoes AND my chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  I think it was probably my favorite meal ever.  The only thing that could have made it tastier was putting truffle butter on the steaks (I didn't have it yet, only ordered it at that point. But is it EVER tasty!) A big thanks to Lee for being my sous chef that weekend - he was always chopping veggies and doing dishes.  Please move closer and we can make this a habit :)

 The kids enjoyed some grandparent time at the park.  Lee and Rhonda are so good about playing with the kids.  Jaxson just loves it, and calls Rhonda his Best Friend.

 Awe, best buds!

 Spending more playing time with Guh Goh and Papa before we took them to the airport.  It was so much fun having them here.  Jaxson and Avery sat in these green bins and Guh Goh and Papa would scoot them across the floor- they loved it.

 And they love each other.  We are still trying to teach Avery to kiss with her tongue in her mouth! Haha

 Love these next 2 photos!

 Jaxson has a great imagination.  He and Avery were pretending to be pirates on his pirate ship bed.  ARGHHH!  They both made great faces anyway!

 After dropping of the grandparents, I tried to easy the heart break of this little guy (he honestly LOVES when people come visit, and has such a hard time when the leave) by doing some fun science experiments.  We had 2 spoons with food coloring and baking soda and a cup of water and a cup of vinegar.  Jaxson was pretty excited when he mixed the baking soda and vinegar .... a scientist in the making (its in his genes).

 Avery always brings me my (worn out) knee pads and wants me to put them on her.  She knows that we play volleyball once a week, so she knows exactly how to put them on.  Love this photo - I hope she grows up to love volleyball and basketball as much as I do!

 We just got a picnic table for the back porch, and this little girl was a GREAT helper.  She was mimicking our every move - sound effects included.  It was adorable.  She used that screw driver to screw in many imaginary screws.

 Argghh!  We found this hat at hobby lobby the day after Jax and Avery were playing pirate and like Jaxson has been doing lately, he re-dressed himself mid-way through the day. BYU pirate - it works.

 One of the nice things about tile is that you can pull the kids around in a blanket and they love it.

 Jaxson also filled up his "fuzzy jar" (he gets to put fuzzies in his jar when he listens to mommy and daddy and does good things).  Normally, he would get a date with Mommy or Daddy as his prize but I have been wanting to get the kids a kitchen for a while.  Christmas would have been a good time, but because we will be in South Carolina, we thought it would be better to get it now.  They love it, and are learning to be nice to each other while playing (avery loves to dump out all the food Jaxson just organized and it makes him mad. typical I am sure :))

 Hello?  Bye!  It's amazing and cute how much kids pick up from watching adults.  Avery loves this phone.

Happy October!!  Please send your cold weather vibes down here ... I want to start baking up a storm and wearing sweats because it is cold!  Wishful thinking ... it doesn't ever get cold here :(

September

Another month has flown by ... I figured I would check the blog again today to see when the last time it was updated - a whole month ago.  This whole getting old thing is really tough and my memory is going (that, I am uber-super busy with etsy, training for a half marathon, cooking, church callings, eating cookies, etc) Apparently we (and by "we" I mean "I") didn't take too many photos this month ... so here is what we've got.

Happy 7th Anniversary to this hunk.  We had a wonderful lunch date to a Brazilian steakhouse and we went to the mall and bought me a pretty purse.  Thanks hunny!

 I love Autumn (wish it got a little colder here and the leaves started turning colors, etc). With September comes football!  It was BYU's first game of the season, so I had to dress the kids accordingly.  Go BYU ... hopefully next year we can actually beat our rivals.

 Avery has officially found Jaxson's old Halloween costume and loves to dress up in it.  She moos like a cow and runs around in it ... adorable!

 This guy has been waking up too early, and as a consequence has been falling asleep mid afternoon while playing Donkey Kong on the Wii.  First world problems.

 After me trying to wake him up.

 I had the camera out, so the girl said cheese.  Yes Avery, I will take pics of your cute face!

 The kiddo's helped me make chocolate chip muffins and they loved taste testing them too.

 Guess who turned 18 months today, and is an official nursery going?  This princess!!

 We tried to get her to sit still and smile ... she didn't have any of it.  But look at how cute her sad face is.

 Good thing Daddy is there to save the day.  The girl LOVES her daddy.  She is constantly calling out "DADDY!" throughout the day, and just loves it when she hears the "beep beep beep" (the alarm system telling us a door has been opened) at dinner time because she knows daddy is home.

Ryan's parents are coming to visit this weekend and we are all super excited to party this weekend! 

August

Another month has flown by and I was thinking to myself, "I blogged about a week ago."  Nope, it was about a month- whoops. Oh well, this is probably how it is going to be from now on.  I have been trying to do much better about snapping every day photos - so this post is a lot of that.

I love this.  Breakfast time, so I ask Jaxson what he wants to eat.  "A muffin and a big carrot!"  This cracks me up.  He doesn't love vegetables per se, but he knows that with lunch and dinner he needs to pick a veggie.  I just think he forgot it was breakfast.  Either way, I gave the man what he wanted!  The best part is ... the muffin he is eating is full of broccoli, zucchini, and carrots. HAHA

 Don't remember where we were going, but Avery looked adorable, so we had to take a photo.

 Jaxson wanted to be in one too. Trying to train the kids to love the camera.

 I realized I didn't have a sleeping photo of Avery in a while, so I snuck in her room when she was supposed to be waking up from her nap.

 Had the flash on :)

 Jaxson and Avery are still enjoying the ring pops that he won while we were staying in Myrtle Beach (at the arcade).  Notice how Aver is naked.  I think I have finally learned my lesson ... If I want her clothes to stay clean, she has to eat in her diaper and nothing else.

 Loving that ring pop.

 Whenever Avery sees me with the camera, she immediately says "cheese!"

 Our beach babies at our community pool.

 A good friend of mine - Jacquee - came back into town to visit her mom and have a family reunion.  We had fun catching up with them.  Jaxson got to see Claire (his girlfriend from California ... or so he says) and had a great time.  This is us eating lunch at Five Guys (never had it before). This is my suck-in-my-stomach-because-I-just-ate-a-double-cheeseburger-and-fries pose. I ordered a single, they gave me a double. I didn't want them to feel bad if I pointed out the mistake, so I was a saint and ate it all.

This girl and her necklaces.  I can't stop.  Avery loves them.  I love buying cute ones for her.  Good think I sell headbands and can pay for all of Avery's cute stuff!! 

Another "cheese!!" photo

 This week we made a deal with Jaxson.  If he didn't pee in his night diaper all week (he is day potty trained but still had issues at night) then Daddy would take him to a real cave (its what Jaxson really wanted).  Well he did, so yesterday Ryan took Jaxson to a REAL cave! :)  Jax loved it.  I added lots of photos so you can see the pure joy on Jaxson's face.  Proud of that kid.

 I love this - how cute!

 Jaxson just loves his Daddy so much.  I love these twins!!

 So happy!  Thanks for being a great dad Ryan and taking him to the caves!

A quick shot out to the hubster.  We got married 7 years ago this upcoming Thursday.  I am so glad we found each other and were married for time and all eternity.  You are incredible and I love being your spouse.  Here's to another million years together! :) LOVE YOU!!