December so far..

Well this month has been crazy busy! Full of fun activities, shopping, and Christmas parties. Oh and Little Miss Ava is most certainly becoming even more independent and getting into her terrible twos ;) We love her more than words and she is so clever in the things she does and says but she can sure be naughty sometimes.

This is the angry face she gives me when she doesn't want to do whatever I am asked her to. Haha I still think she's cute though! I mean how could I not give in to this? lol
The last week in Novemeber we went as a fam to go pick out our christmas tree! A real one of course. I grew up always having a real one when we were in the USA. Russ was use to a fake one but that is one tradition I insisted we keep in our family. So every year we've been married we have had one. I just LOVE the smell of pine! This year Ava got to get in on all the action and help us pick one out. She had a blast running away from us up and down the rows of trees. She was pretty sad to go.

Finally she agreed to hold my hand instead of running wildly ;)

And the finished product! I decorated it with all silver and red. Its hard to see the decorations in this pic but I love our perfect 10 foot tree. But notice how the bottom has hardly any decorations? Ava likes to pull them off. Luckily she hasn't unwrapped any of the gifts yet..

Another fun thing we did was to go to Thanksgiving point to see the lights and meet 2 of Santas reindeer.

We decided to take the horse-drawn wagon ride though the lights. Ava loved it and the horses of course. It was really pretty and the crisp cold air got me even more excited for Christmas!

Love my little girl!

I'm so glad Russ likes taking us fun places! I think life is all about spending time as a family, making memories and living life to the fullest. I am so lucky to have these to to make memories with.

The ride.

Ava meeting the horses up close. She is obessed with horses. Any time she sees one in a book or on TV she goes crazy with excitment. I even got her a stuffed animal one. So I'm sure this was pretty awesome for her.

Ava is so silly. She loves to try on any glasses she finds. These are the 3D glasses from the movie. She though she was pretty funny. MY sweet little muchkin! haha too funny.

I can't believe Christmas is this Saturday!! Where has the time gone? I feel like December has flown by way to fast. I have so much left to do. But I am so excited to! This year Ava understands so much more and will actually be excited and have opinions about her gifts. I can't wait to see the look on her face! We have bought her so many fun things! Christmas with kids really is SO much better! And bringing little Ava happiness is really what makes me the happiest!

Thanksgiving Weekend!

Last weekend was incredible full of lots of fun, family and yummy food! 2 of my older sisters that live out-of-state drove out for the weekend and it was great to see them and just have fun hanging out. Tuesday night we did a big pizza night with everyone and we all made our own. That was fun. Then on Thanksgiving we all got together at my parents house for dinner. It was SOOO yummy and an all around great afternoon. It is a tradition in our family to go around the table and everyone say what they are grateful for. Well, this year I above all was so grateful for my little family! After dinner we a bunch of us went to see a theater movie. We saw the new Disney movie "Tangled" it was adorable! We saw it in 3D and loved it. It was Ava's first theater movie and she did pretty great. Although she wouldn't wear the glasses. haha



Then on Black Friday we just relaxed while Russ had to go to work. Friday night after work we braved the mall to see if we could find any great deals. And seriously we got SOO much! The deals on toys and kid clothes were awesome! It was really fun taking Ava shopping. She was seriously in heaven running around the store grabing things she wanted. She is at such a fun age and knows what she wants (which is most everything). Silly girl. Then kinda spur of the moment we decided to take her to see Santa and have her pic taken. There was no line at all.



Here was her pic. I adore it! I think she looks so cute. She was so brave and didn't cry but wouldn't smile either. She was really not sure what to think.

After the pic was taken the elf gave Ava this yummy sucker, which she LOVED. And then I got THIS nugget of a pic. TOO funny. Its the look, "Daddy don't even think about it. I got my eye on you. Its mine." haha but she was actually very happy to share her slobbery sucker about 5 minutes after this. Once she had had her fair share. Silly little girl. I sure do love her :)

Me and my little miss!

Okay so my cheezy face her was me tryin to get little one to smile.. Haha at least it worked :)

So then after shopping at the mall and getting awesome deals on toys. We headed to Toys R Us. I gotta say something I love about being a mama is getting toys and feeling young again. Its like I get to experience being a kid all over again except on my terms. Ava went for this toy Razor. We had riddin a real one over the summer at the dunes. SO maybe she remembered. She crawled over the metal bars and into the drivers seat. She's even pushing all the buttons. Funny.

Another view.

Another day we got together at my parents and made gingerbread houses. The real kind, not the graham cracker ones. It was fun. Everyone had their own style and ideas.

Silly cute little girl.

A few days later playin at my parents.

Here was Ava and my house. She helped out (by breaking it more than once) and so it was a bit hammered. But still I like my little beach house. It was fun to make and it will but fun to eat even though it will be stale by then. haha I sure do love christmas time and family and everything that comes with it.

As I said before, she is helping me ;)

Another thing happening is Ava and I both got pretty sick. Ava had a awful cold and was coughing and sneezing all over the place. So sad. From that I ended up getting a bad sinus infection and strep throut, not fun at all. I basically completely lost my voice andd was so miserable. I had a fever and was so nausous. After work one night my sweet husband surprized me with these beautiful flowers. He made dinner for our family and took care me. So sweet. I sure do love my man!!

A bit or this a that.

Oh me oh my! Where has November gone?! Seriously this month has just flown by. I can't believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Even 2 of my sisters and their families are here visiting from out of state for the next few days! I love my family and we have some awesome things planned for this weekend. I absolutely adore this time of year. Fall is by far my favorite season and now it's almost winter! These first few pics were a couple weeks ago when the weather was perfect and not too cold yet. I decided to take advantage and enjoy playing at the park with Miss A.



Look at this little angel :)

Ava dear LOVES the slide, even the big one. But she wants me to hold her on the big twisty slide. But the little ones she's got all by her self!

I love this one.. haha the look on her cute little face is priceless. She was actually trying to climb up the slide and it wasn't workin out so well since she was sliding back down.

I love how pretty all the leaves and the trees look. I am so grateful for the beautiful place we live. I really love Utah. It really has something for everyone, 4 seasons, the mountains, lakes, lots of parks and its where I call home!

Little Ava is so fun. I can't believe how fast she is growing up. I feel like time goes by much faster now that we have Ava. And there is never a dull moment. She is so full of happiness and love I am so SO blessed to have her in my life. The other day Russ and I were playing with her and he randomly says to me, "I am so glad we had a little girl. I can't even imagine having a boy right now." It has always been my dream to have a little girl- I love dressing her in cute outfits, doing her hair, painting her nails, dancing around to girly music with her and just everything else. I do want a boy though and I know Russ does too. But for now we are completely satisfited and complete with our little girl.

Me and my little princess!

Ava is my world my everything! Growing up I couldn't wait to get married, have my perfect little house, and a perfect little family with a little girl that I could spoil and love. At this time of Thanksgiving I think about all the things I am grateful for and my family is above all the most important. I never imagined in a time of economic uncertianty when so many things and people around me are falling apart that despite everything I could still find so much happiness and joy within my own life.

As I grow older I see what truely matters in life and it truly is the little things that make all the difference. I am learning not to worry about things that don't matter and not to waste a moment unhappy when I can be having fun and making lasting memories with the people that mean the most to me. I have everything I need. I have an incredible husband that loves me so much and works so hard to provide for our little family, I have the most beautiful little girl- inside and out- she is such a ray of sunshine in my life. She has changed both Russ and I in so many ways. We are better people because of her. I love my little family more than anything else.

Ava loves playing in the leaves.

LOVE HER... to the moon and back 70 times 7.

Right before we headed off to the grocery store. She really is quite a great little helper. Look at her cute piggies. Finally her hair is long enough to all go up:) Love her little smirk her haha

I love this pic. It is so real. so Ava.. so my life. messy hair and all ;)

As I said before I love Utah and I love our house and our neigborhood.
We have incredible views and it makes me smile everyday. Lately the sunsets have been so incredible. I have taken so many pictures!

Ava loves to have tea parties with her stuffed animals. lol

And feeds them :)

Here are my 2 favs, in the last big snow storm about a week ago. I had JUST bought Ava's new winter coat the night before (perfect timing eh..) Thats what that huge tag in the middle is. Russ went out before I could cut it off. Did I mention I am obsessed with Baby Gap and all the awesome sales stores are having right now. Doesn't Ava just look adorable in her new coat ;0 Too bad she hates the snow.. I mean really she hates it. She loves to watch it come down but doesn't like going out in it. You can totally tell by her face here. She is really nervous. I need to work on changing that. I want to have lots and lots of fun snow play days this winter :)

HALL-O-wEEEEn

Okay so this post is a TON of pics.. I edited it down alot believe it or not. But we took so many fun pics and had so many fun Halloween activities going on I didn't want to leave anything good out.
Okay so here we are at over at our friends house for a Halloween party. I was a fairy and Russ was Bret Michaels, the rocker and lead singer of Poison. haha I though he looked so awesome. Everyone could guess who he was so easily so I knew I had hit the mark right on.
Here are all the girls!

Here are all the guys.

This was the Friday right before Halloween I dressed up for work. (And ended up being the ONLY one in costume there) lol Oh well, I just love any excuse to dress up. My costume is "strawberry shortcake" the cute version ;)

This was on Saturday night. The weather was awful so we ended up going to the ward trunk-or-treat. Here is Ava all ready to go... dolly and all!

Because of the rain they moved the activities inside and had everyone going from classroom to classroom instead. I actually liked it better. Ava was so funny! She was hesitant to take the candy from people at first, especially any of the elderly people. lol

Just us.

Then that night we went out dancing with friends to another Halloween party. For this one I was a VS Angel.

The next day, Sunday-- the real Halloween I wanted to do something fun. So I talked to my sister-in-law Becky about planning a family Halloween Party. At first the idea was just to have the kids dress up but after my parents-in-law were on board they decided to go all out preparing yummy Halloween treats and dinner and everyone dressed up. It was such a fun party! I am so glad I suggested we all get together. Plus it was such a hit we are gonna make this a tradition to do every year!

Below are Ava and her cousin, Ethan. They are about a year and a half apart and area already becoming such cute little friends. He followed her around the whole party hugging on her and playing so cute. She just adores him and all the attention he gives her.

Here is me and my little witch. I thought Ava was so adorable in her little witch costume. She even let me do her make-up and put glitter and stick on gems. Aww my little cutie! Love her!

Our little Family.

Here she is with her witch broom I got to go with her costume. She loved "helping" by sweeping the floor.

I helped Ava cut out some sugar cookies.

Here are Ethan and Ava playing again so cute. I'm not sure what Ava is trying to tell him here. haha

Oh wow whatever he is telling her sounds interesting!haha Russ!

This one is by FAR one of my favs! Look how sweet they are! I love the look on Ava's face like she is holding back a big grin but being shy about it.

And finally decorating the cookies.

Mmm.. yummy and eating them.

Here is Ava with her grampa Child. Look how tired she is-- it was a long exciting day.

Well, that about sums up our Halloween this year! It was for sure one of the best so far! We had a blast and having Little Miss A only made it a million times better! Now we are getting so excited for Christmas! Ava has been such a good little girl that Santa has already agreed to spoil her this year ;) Hope you all had a great Halloween too!