Beautiful Girl

This kid melts my heart every day. She is growing up way too fast. I wish I could freeze time and enjoy each stage with her a little longer. She is such a beautiful person inside and out. We love our sweet Ava Claire so much and are thankful she is part of our family!

FROSTY

The other day when it actually started snowing and looked like it might stick around for awhile, I decided to go out and buy Ava a sled and a shovel. She loves both!

I let her play with the sled inside until her dad got home from work. Then we all went outside to play in the snow.

She did not want to come inside but it was really starting to get cold, so we headed in for the night.

The next morning Ava started putting on her boots, so Joel took her outside to make a snowman.

"Frosty the Snowman" is one of Ava's favorite movies at the moment...so they named this snowman they built Frosty.

Hopefully the weather stays cold. Ava would be so sad if Frosty melted away.

Family Night

Last night for our family night activity we took Ava swimming at a local YMCA. She has been looking at a digital scrapbook that I made of our trip to the Oregon Coast last summer with our great friends the Blacks, and constantly saying that she wants to go in the water. The other day she found her old bathing suite in her dresser and begged us to put it on her. After we got it on her she told Joel that she wanted to go outside in her pool. The problem was that it was in the 30's outside. She cried when we told her that it was too cold. With that said...you can only guess how excited she was when we told her that we were going to go swimming last night.


Ava absolutely loves the water and is not scared of it at all. I cannot decide if that is a good thing or not. Once she learns how to swim I will be more excited for her love and no-fear of playing in the water.

Ava thought that the kiddy end of the pool was the best. She could swim like the big kids.

But her all time favorite part of the night was riding down the water slide with dad.

She is still talking about it, and saying that she wants to go on the slide with water.

It was a lot of fun just spending time together and watching Ava's face light up.

We will have to go again soon.

CHRISTMAS

December just came and went for our family. Ava was sick for half of the month starting on the 15th and is just starting to feel better today and Joel and I were crazy busy with work. We decided that we are going to slow down next year and really try to enjoy the month of December and fulfill some of our traditions that we were not able to do this year. However, even with the illnesses and busyness of life, we were able to spend some time with family over Christmas which is really the best part of the holiday season.

On Christmas eve we went to Joel's parents house to listen to the Christmas story, eat, enjoy the company of family, and watch the kids open presents. Ava is starting to really enjoy opening gifts. She was spoiled this year.
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One of my favorite gifts that she received was a family edition of the scriptures. I love it!! Hopefully it will make family scripture study more enjoyable in the years to come.


One of our good friends Stacy brought Ava a gingerbread man decorating kit. Ava loved making him cute with colored candy buttons all over his body. It gave her something to do while she was not feeling well. (Anything to keep her occupied and not thinking about her itchy rash)

On Christmas day we headed to my mom's house to have Christmas dinner and open gifts with them. Her husband Mike dressed up as Santa for the kids. Ava was too scared to enjoy this part of the evening and would not let Joel put her down.

We had a wonderful time with family. We are so thankful to our Savior Jesus Christ and hope to remember him always, not just during the holiday season. 2011 was a good year, and we look forward to the adventures that lie ahead for our family in 2012.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We have a 2 year old.

Ava has been so sick these last few weeks that there were a few days that I thought she may never get to have a birthday party. We had to cancel it once because of her illness, and then almost cancelled it again after being in the ER with her the night before. Ava had a cold and fever for several days, and then on Christmas day she woke up with a rash on her stomach and back. They think that it is a reaction to the medication that she was on, but we have to keep an eye on it since it is lasting a little longer than normal. She was a trooper and the doctors said that we could still hold it, but she might not look the best in pictures. The theme to her party was "The Hungry Caterpillar" (one of her favorite books). My mom made a super cute caterpillar cake and Joel's mom made adorable cookies.

We had the party at the gym of our church so that we could have a jump castle for the kids to play in. I think that it was the hit of the party for anyone under age 8.

We made crayons for the kids to take home with them.

Ava had fun but was extremely tired by the end of the party. You can kind-of see the rash on her face in the picture of her opening gifts. We gave her some benadryl before the party and by the end of the two hours she was beat. I cannot believe that she is two already. Our baby is a little girl now. These last two years have been amazing and gone by way too fast. Joel and I cannot imagine life without her. She brings us so much happiness and adds such an excitement to our days. We love you Ava!!


These last two pictures are just for document sake...

This is how her rash looked the first day (a few bumps on her belly and back).

This last picture is two days into the rash. It is even worse now. Hopefully it will end soon because she is incredibly uncomfortable.