The Duck Toybox

For Christmas, Sid and I knew that Avery - being the only grandchild on both sides of the family - would get spoiled this year, so we only bought her a few small things that we felt she could use. One thing we got her was a new bathtub that is an inflatable rubber ducky. It even Quacks! It's the cutest thing.
As we blew it up she was very curious. Trying to take it from me and pressing the beak to make it quack.
We got it all ready, took it in the tub, filled it with water...all the time she clapped her hands and squealed. Then, we plopped her in it and watched her have a complete melt down! It was really sad! She screamed and screamed. We double checked the water thinking somehow it was too hot, not that, we looked to see if there was something pinching her, not that either. All the while she screamed and screamed. Sid took her out of the bathroom to stop her from crying and I was baffled...Once we settled her down we walked her back in to the bathroom and as soon as she saw the duck she SCREAMED out. She was scared of it!
We put it in the laundry room and let it be.
The next week was rough. She would not get in the bath (her normal tub that she is growing out of). And usually she loves the bath time. Then we started to notice that anytime we would walk past the laundry room to her to her room, she was crank her neck to see the duck and start to squirm more and more the closer we got to the room.
So, one afternoon, I took the duck out and put it on the living room floor and sat her down in front of it. We sat there for 10 minutes before she reached out and squeezed the beak making it Quack! Then the duck was her new found best friend. She climbed in and out of him, chewed on him, played with him all afternoon, and the next afternoon too.
We still haven't been able to get her to take a bath in it, but we decided it holds her toys well and that's it's purpose for now.

Averys First Christmas

This is by far one of my favorite pictures of Avery. She just looks so sweet! We used this as our christmas card this year...I can't tell you how many pictures I took before I got this one - it was a lot of work...but worth it!
See what I mean?
She did so good Christmas morning. I was a little afraid of how she would do, but she just jumped right in!
She picked up on the concept right away of opening presents...although, she wanted to eat the paper more than get to the gift inside. She is wearing a beanie that her uncle Brad made for her. She has one from uncle Tony too (he even made her monkey Mallory one to match)
"Oh Oh Oh" Merry Christmas!

"Aunt" Beth

So, Beth was in town visiting some friends in Evanston and we arranged it so that she could come to SaltLake and spend the day with Avery and I.

It was great! We went to lunch, shopping and even for a walk around Stansbury Lake...

We miss you "Aunt" Beth!!

Chick-Or-Treat

Sid and I debated on rather we should get Avery a costume or not this Halloween - seeing how she is only 6 months old!

Needless to say - I am so glad that we decided to dress her up...although, by the look on her face in some of these pics I am not so sure she is!

The Devil's Butt Crack

Since we couldn't have snow for Miss Lauren, we decided to head south to sunny St. George. It was a beautiful day! We hiked what Sid calls the devils butt crack (tasteful, I know) and took some pretty cool pictures. It has been years since I hiked this and I was pretty proud that I could squish through post baby...

Stace and Lauren at the trail head...behind you can see how narrow the trail is. You literally have to walk through sideways. Sid, Denny and I all got stuck a couple times.

Of course Lauren had no problems getting through!

We made it!! Me, Lauren and Cammie at the end of the trail. We had to climb up from where our feet are dangling.

Sid and Lauren posing after the hike.

Avery hung out and waited for me at the bottom.

4-Wheelin'

Stacy, Lauren, Leah and my grandparents came to Cedar to visit my mom. So Sid, Avery and I went to see them too. It was a lot of fun. Lauren really wanted to see the snow - but it was too warm and all the snow that Cedar had gotten had allready melted. So, we had to think quick! Sid borrowed a 4-wheeler from his family and we took her on a short, but very fun ride. She LOVED it! She was screaming "woo-hoo" the whole time. Denny and I were on another 4-wheeler next to her to get some good action shots.
The best part is that Sid was sure to go slow for her, and she kept yelling "faster!!" Despite the sounds of the 4-wheelers, Den and I could hear her loud and clear.
I loved that she demanded to wear her sun glasses the whole time too. A girly girl through and through.
















Sid, Lauren and Leah giving the 'rocker' sign.

















Check out Sid's hair...and Lauren wanted to go faster! (Check out her snow boots)















Lauren smiling for the camera. They had just gone up and over the mound to the left of them. Den and I were too far behind to get shots of that one.
















Another action shot. This is just behind my mom's house.

Campfire fix

A few weeks ago Sid Avery and I went to Cedar to hang out with the boys while my mom went to have some much needed fun in Vegas with her girfriends. We planned on camping, but it poured down rain and was really cold. We were all bored and wishing we could have been camping, so when the rain stopped on Saturday night, we made the most of it and got our campfire fix by making Hobo dinners in my moms fire pit in the back yard.
Denny got the fire started and we were sure to keep Sid away (he is NOT a fire starter!) I was proud of the boys - they did all the work - from the shopping to cooking and even clean up! All the while Avery and I hung out in the warm house.
We even had smores! It was great.



Denny and Sid fishing out tin foil dinners from the fire pit.













Cammie and Sadie.












Den and Cam

So Happy

Proof that Avery can be happy in the car!

Die Hard Scrappers!

So, despite the down pour - We attended the scrapbook expo in Sandy. It was so cold and rainy out side ,but we were having fun shopping all the vendors and getting some good deals. Avery did really well all day and I think she had fun.
We may have a future scrapper on our hands!



We asked somone to take our picture for us, and did what we could to get Avery looking at the camera...She had another idea...

Top: Naomi (Sid's mom) holding Avery, me, bottom left: Denise and Annie on the right (both Sid's sisters).





We were about ready to leave at this point. We were there ALL DAY. Our feet hurt and we were tired...but it was worth it.
Avery FINALLY looks at the camera :)

Who knew toes could be so fun?

So, Avery's new trick is to grab her toes and try to get them to her mouth. She LOVES it! You can tell she is so proud of herself. She has been perfecting her technique and is now a lot closer to her goal...

Home Sweet Home...at last

So, we finally found a house and closed just a few weeks ago. The movers delivered all our stuff from Boise last week, and now we have the challenge of unpacking...not the most exciting thing to do, but it is a great feeling to have our things back.

We are so happy to be in a home that doesn't REQUIRE anything! We almost don't know what to do with ourselves. Seems like the past two years, we have been in remodel mode and now we can just have fun and make this house ours! Don't get me wrong, there are things that need to be done, but it's been a long time since we have had a fully functioning bathroom - and it feels good :)

We were able to get a few zucchini's and some cantaloupe out of the garden and there is a cherry tomato plant near the porch.

As hard as it is to leave our good friends we have made in Boise, I think we will really like Stansbury Park...We allready feel like we are home.

FIRE!!!

Ever been woken up in the middle of the night to the screeching of a fire alarm? Annoying isn't it...well, once you discover that it's not due to the house burning down that is.
This week's lesson in life is: smoke detectors have a shelf life of 5 years. And apparently Denise and Todd's smoke detectors are 5 years old.

Here's what happened - We were all asleep one night when we woke up to the fire alarm going off. Once we all got up and determined everything was OK, we thought that it could have been triggered by the wild fires that were burning near Grantsville and went back to bed. About an hour or so later, we were awoken again from the fire alarm...this happened a couple more times through the night.

The next day Denise went and bought all new batteries, because someone told her that if the batteries are dying that it might go off and not chirp like it typically does. So, she changed all the batteries and it was hours before we heard anything...then as it got later and closer to us going to bed, they sounded again!

So, we decided to take them all down (because once the "bad" one went off they were triggering each other off) line them up and wait. Sure enough! We were able to find the culprit of our lost sleep and get some rest.

Might seem silly to write about - but we all found it pretty humorous at the time - or maybe it was the lack of sleep?

The Great "Smelly" Salt Lake

I had never "been" to the actual Salt Lake, so we decided to take a detour on the way home one day and pulled off at the Great Salt Lake State Marina.

As much as it's neat that we have this huge body of water so close to us - it was really stinky and there were a lot of bugs.

I liked the sail boats in the marina though.

Dinner in the Mountains

Dispite the look on her face - Avery really did have fun!


Avery and her "Favorite Aunt" Denise (Aren't her shoes too cute?!)



Me, Sid and Avery - It was so beautiful and the weather was really nice. The picnic area that we claimed had a little stream and bridge leading to the main road. It was so quiet and peaceful, and dinner was great!


Todd and Sid collecting fuel for their fire. (Bella in the background)

California or Bust!

Avery took her first trip to California when she was only 3 months old! She was pretty fussy most of the time. Poor baby.
The Boys did really well with her and tried as much as they could to make her happy. Here are a few pics from our beach trip.


Left:Denny and Cameron at Balboa with Avery.

Bottom: We were bored the first night we got to the beach - so we got a little crazy with the plastic cereal bowls...Poor Avery



We Decided to take the Ferry Boat over to Balboa Island to shop...Avery slept most of the time.










Avery and I on the sand...

Family in CA

I got to visit with all the family while we were in Cali. And got to meet Leah (Stacy's youngest) and Isabella (Anthony's first).