Summer So Far

We have all been so busy as of late that I have been MIA from the blogging world. So much has changed. I am now officially a stay-at-home mama and let me say I am LOVING every minute. Ava and I spend our days playing at the park, going to the Lindon pool, taking long walks by the river, playing in our little backyard pool, watching Tinkerbell and staying busy doing everything else in between. I have noticed such a change in Ava since I have been home. Even though before I only worked part-time and in the mornings, we have grown a million times closer these past couple months. She always wants to give kisses, hugs, snuggle and jibber jabber non-stop to me. I just love it!! She is such a funny silly little girl. Her little personality is just overflowing with attitude.

These past few weeks she has become obSESSED with banannas. Every morning she goes over to the kitchen counter saying.. "nana.. naan.. nana" So in the pic below she is enjoying a bowl of some on our balcony.

If you ask her where her hands are she claps them. Anytime she does anything clever she claps for herself. (she is her #1 fan I guess) and whenever anyone else claps on TV or wherever she joins in.

Here she is showing me where her belly is. She also knows where her toes, feet, ears, nose, ears and hands are.

While on our daily walk we saw this little cat laying down near the track. It started rubbing up against my leg and was so friendly. It must belong to someone who lives nearby. So after I pet it I decided it was friendly enough for Ava to. She loved it and we played with him for about 10 minutes.

Then Ava accidentally stepped on the cats foot, which he didn't like and he hissed and jumped back scratching her on the arm. She freeked out and started bawling.. the cat just ran away. She had to small scratches on her upper arm. I was freeked out so I called the dr. for advice. He said just to clean it and she would be fine. And she was and now they have healed. But I learned a valuable lesson. Cats are not very nice... and cats I don't know can't be trusted. So no more cat petting for Ava. I mean Ava steps on our dog all the time and he is so patient with her and would never hurt her, but cats just are so random and unpredictable.

Ava is CONSTANTLY making messes everywhere she goes. She is like my own personal tornado. Where ever she goes destruction follows But she is just so dang cute when she's messy haha.

Ava quite enjoys playing in Lucky's kennel. This particular day she decided it looked fun to go hide inside. Right after I took this pic she got upset since she couldn't get out as easily as she went in. I had to rescue her..

We went to 7-Peaks for my birthday. It was fun but Ava isn't really a huge fan of the water. I was surprized since she loves bathtime and our backyard pool. She might of been overwhelmed by all the people there. I'm not sure why she was scared. I am still trying to warm her up to swimming. Russ somehow convinced me to go down these freefall waterslides. We did both of them. WOW.. what a rush. It seriously too my breath away so scary but fun too. The blue slide next to it I did too and was WAY WAY more scarey then the yellow. It went straight DOWN! But I survived :) Below is a pic of me.

This is Russ.

Here is Ava with her Grampa's sheep.

This was on my Birthday. I turned 26!

Little Ava knows how to get into EVERYTHING. She manages to escape out of any fence, finds things to climb on to get things we try to keep out of reach. We call her our little monkey!

We took Ava to the Strawberry Days Rodeo!

On one of Russell's days off we took her to the Lindon pool. It's my favorite one that's close.

I just love her in her cute swimsuit and hat!

Everytime we took her in the pool she would get scared and cry. So finally we moved our towels to the grassy area here and she was totally happy again. I think she didn't like the crowds of people. She loves little kids her size and will be so social and talk to them and share her toys. But she doesn't like adults at all. She will be so shy around any adult. But kids she loves.

Riding her 4-wheeler.

She LOVES it!

Here is her attitute. She is happy most the time but if you do sometime she doesn't like or ask her to take a nap and she will frown at you. I think its so funny!

With dad!

In our backyard pool... the best part is no crowds. I guess she just likes it all to herself.

She loves giving hugs. And after she does.. she claps.

At the park. If you look behind her this is the park near our house that we go too all the time. The slide is her favorite part for sure!

Here is Ava with her blankie. Let me say she won't go anywhere without this thing. She drags it everywhere behind her. She can't sleep at night without it.

Best Daddy's Around

I just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to the 2 best daddy's in my life...

My wonderful, incredible hubby Russ. He is such a perfect dad to Ava. We couldn't ask for more. He is just so cute with her and she just adores him and so do I!!

And also to my Dad. He is such a loving unselfish father. I am so lucky to have such a great example in my life. I have never known such a hard worker. He would do anything for our family and taught us kids so much. He is so kind hearted and I am so lucky to be his daughter! I love you daddy SOO much! Below is a pic of him and Ava when she was a few days old. Already she loves her "yeye" so much!

Bubble Baby

Let me just say at OUR house we have been enjoying every second of this incredible weather lately! I take Ava on long stoller walks and take her to the playground. She loves the slide the best. She is warming up to the swings. She likes it for like 5 seconds tops then starts to freek out. But she LOVES LOVES the slides. She even goes down by herself and giggles the whole time. It is seriously the cutest thing. I just adore this funny little muchkin.
One of her favorite things is to chase bubbles and watch Lucky, our dog, try to catch and eat them too.

She just looks so grown up in all these pics. She's not a little baby anymore she is a TODDLER! What?! Where has the time gone. She is just growning up so fast but I love every second I spend with her.

It was SO hot outside Russ decided to take her for a dip in the stream. The water is really cold still. She was laughing actually right before this shot. But then frowned right as the flash went off. haha. She really wasn't mad..

She spend alot of the time chasing Lucky around trying to steal a hug or kiss from him.

I kept tickling her.. she LOVES that. Even if you don't do anything she anticipates it and laughs so hard anyways.

Or chasing her everywhere

Laughing as daddy was trying to catch her!

And I was laughing so hard I couldn't even keep her in the frame.. opps haha

Kisses from daddy. One of her favorite things to do lately is to give us kisses. She will kiss you then clap her hands. She knows she did something clever. So now anytime she thinks what she does is cute she will clap. ahah pretty dang cute I tell ya.

So this smile was during the 5 seconds she loved it. After this shot she was DONE.. and let us know.

Parks and Playtime

As the rain is pouring cats and dogs outside. I can't help but look back and enjoy a few pics of the sunny days we've enjoyed playin' at the park...

Her fav part of the outing was.. dumping out all her Cherrios and then putting them back in.

Look at that little cutie patootie :)

ZOO

Last Saturday we took Ava to the Hogle Zoo. This is her 3rd time. The first was when I was about 6 months prego-- so she doesn't remember that one and the second time was last summer. This time I think she enjoyed it alot more since she was way more interested in the animals. Her favorites were the monkeys and giraffs. She would growl at them. It was pretty cute.
In the pic below she was actually enjoying sitting in the lap of this iron gorilla. haha

Making friends with a little monkey.

Dumbo the elephant:)

Big turtle

Strike a pose baby! Looovvvee her SO so much!

This pic is one of my FAVS for sure. Action shot-- we were trying to take her pic seeing how she compared the size of the infant monkey, same size. She was trying to run away from it. SO cute!

We took the train ride around the zoo. It was super short but I guess what did I expect from something that was only $1.50. Little Miss A liked it though.

Overall we had a great time at the zoo. I love my little fam and getting to do fun things. I can't wait for summer. We are gonna live it to the fullest and keep ourselves busy making memories and taking a million pictures along the way!