Hepworth Family

Caysley Update

2010-07-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Well, Caysley is over eight months now and I just realized that I haven't posted an update on her in quite some time. Let me start by saying that she is the sweetest baby ever! She loves to sit and observe and play with her toys and she does not like to be left alone unless she is in her crib to go to sleep. She had a slow start rolling over...possibly the slowest in hisory, it took her six months to finally roll over and crawling is no exception. She is so mellow and giggley...when I try to get her to do things like say "mama" or "dada" or try to make her crawl she just looks at me with the sweetest look in her eye and giggles.

This is what happens when I leave the room. She cries and cries and cries and cries until she falls asleep. Not sure what to do about this. Most people tell me to just let her cry but it is so hard for me to do that and it isnt helping her. I do love it that she feels like she needs me and I know that this phase wont last long. Oh how I love my sweet little lazy girl.

Check out that perfect posture from all of her practice sitting up:).

Eating berries from Great Grandma Ruth's house. So yummy!

And ohh so messy!

She fell asleep on the shuttle on the way in from the houseboat and every time Michael tried to take a picture she would open her eyes and look a little crazy because she was being squished by her life jacket.

Cute toothy drool face, love it!

This girl is so fun in the pool. For about a week straight she hated it and she would get so irritated that she would just fall asleep but now she loves it. She thinks she can swim and pushes away from us when we try to hold her in the pool. I love that my kids love to swim.

Ava is still a little jealous of her little sister but she loves her so much. Ava does not like it when Caysley cries and she will try so hard to make her happy and usually it just makes her even more mad. Occasionaly she will stop crying and play with her big sister, I love it when that happens.

I love this picture. I love how Michael and Ava are looking at Caysley. She brings so much joy and calmness to the family. Ava and Caysley have completely different personalities and I love that they even eachother out a bit. I hope that someday they will be best friends.

Caysley just switched to formula at eight and a half months because mommy was no longer producing milk. She loves formula and sucks her bottles down so fast. My milk supply dropped at eight months with Ava too but she would gag if we tried to give her formula and she got very skinny because she was drinking so much water. I have to admit that formula is so much more convenient but I really do miss nursing my baby.

Wildlife

2010-06-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

My sister and her boys came up for a visit a few weeks ago and we thought it would be fun to take the kids on a little field trip to a cool little wildlife rescue close by for my nephews birthday. We opted not to take a two hour tour because we knew the kids would not pay attention so we just walked around and looked at all the scary wild creatures. It is a really neat facility that we had always heard about and never been to. The facility was bigger there were quite a few more animals there than we had thought.

When I was a senior in high school I was doing my homework at the kitchen table late one night. On the porch right next to me was where my mom kept the cat's food. I heard something on the deck and then I saw it eating the cat's food through the screen door. I woke my mom up to tell her that there was a mountain lion on the deck and she told me that it was probably just a big dog. About ten minutes later my dad called from the car and he told me that he saw a mountain lion running out of the driveway! Seeing this mountain lion reminded me of that night. Look at him licking his chops like he was going to eat us...creepy!

And another lion looking at Ava like a piece of meat.

"Hey Celeste, is everything alright in there?" The kids kept knocking on the door to make sure she was okay, they were hilarious.

Waiting for the reptile show to begin.

The lady was so sweet. She would tell them about the reptiles and then ask them if they had any questions and then she would finally let the kids pet them with two fingers. The kids did not care to hear about the animals and kept interrupting her to ask if they could pet them.

Hiking and the lake

2010-06-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we hiked Feather Falls with some friends. We just took Caysely this time because it would have been really hard to take Ava on a 8 mile hike. We took Ava when she was a baby so we had to make it fair by bringing Caysley this time.

Mommy and Caysley at the Falls

Daddy and Caysley taking a break.

Daddy and Ava in 2008 (proof that we really did take her:) After the hike we met up with my family for an evening on the lake. It was the perfect end to our day.

The kids love to watch the wake boarders or skiers behind the boat. Michael put this funny little life jacket on Brycen (my 36 pound, five year old nephew). He use to wear it when he was a baby and it still fits, sort of. He is too funny.

Silver Dollar Fair

2010-06-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day weekend we headed to Chico to the Silver Dollar Fair with my sister and her boys and my mom. We didn't get there until 9:30 so it was a very late night. Ava liked the swings the best, no surprise there. At first she went on the swings for little kids and she had fun but when it was over she looked over at the big swing and said, "I want to go on that!" so Michael took her on it and she loved it!

Caysley in her cowgirl hat from grandma Terri

Cute little piglets. Yes, Michael does want a pig now. What am I going to do with that man?

Mothers Day 2010

2010-05-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

I love being a mom! Here is our pre church Mother's Day picture.

I just love this picture. She looks so much like her dad...they even sleep the same!

Baby Tara

2010-05-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

This child reminds me so much of me when I was a kid in so many ways its crazy. Two silly examples are she is always playing in the dirt or anything messy and she is always naked and so was I. She makes me laugh so many times throughout the day. She is defiantly my wild child but surprisingly she is starting to be really timid around kids, especially kids she doesn't know...she wont even look at them! I was also a wild child at home but I was painfully shy around kids I didn't know.

Love my family!

2010-05-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

We were looking at pictures on the camera and Ava wanted to take a picture, so we did.

Sweet baby Caysley

Sleeping in the highchair for the second time, EVER!

Sisters, love them!

So sick

2010-05-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

The day before Easter Ava came down with a fever of 104 and it didnt go away for 9 days! After two trips to the doctor and two trips to the emergency room we finally accepted that it was just RSV and nothing more serious. I hated seeing my baby so sick. All she wanted to do was lay on the couch or in my bed and watch movies. She didn't want to eat anything and she would not take her medicine...it was horrible but she is back to her little spunky self now and we are glad that is over and that the baby didn't get sick.

Happy Easter!

2010-05-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Despite Ava being very sick with RSV and the bad weather we had a great Easter. In Ava's Easter basket she got a bunny. His name is Fluffy but Ava calls him Bunny Easter. He is very cute and the perfect pet for our family. I am having some problems uploading the video but she was so excited when she finally realized that it was a real live bunny. After the excitement of the Bunny we went down to grandma Maggie's house for a Easter Egg hunt outside right before it rained.

Then we headed to Oroville for another egg hunt inside because it was raining.

She wanted nothing to do with the real eggs. She only wanted the plastic eggs and she ate the candy out of them as she went and there was no stopping her!

Here is our cute little Easter Bunny, we LOVE her!

Bike Riding

2010-05-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Ava is getting so good at riding her bike and she loves it. She hops on and heads to the street to go to grandmas house constantly so we really have to watch her outside. She usually will not stop when we tell her to so we end up chasing her down the street and she pedals faster and faster to try to get away from us...she thinks its funny and doesn't care about getting in trouble when we catch her.

Princess Party

2010-03-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

We got to have Ava's friend Olive over the other night and we had so much fun. The girls stayed in Ava's room and played the whole time and they didn't fight once! Olive came over in her Tinkerbell dress and Ava was so excited to put on hers too. They listened to princess music and Olive read Ava princess books. I was amazed at how she could look at a picture in the book and tell Ava exactly what happened in the movie. She could even put the princess song with the movie...we were impressed.

Sooo Sweet

2010-03-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

I just have to say that Caysley is the sweetest baby ever. She is always so happy and she is just a joy to be around. The other day I had her laying in my bed as I was getting ready for the day. I looked over at her and she was sound asleep. Ahh, I just love that little baby face!She has discovered her feet and they are so awesome!

And she has a cute little friend...well, some day they will be friends. I just like this picture.

A not so welcome visitor

2010-03-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

This picture gives me goosebumps just looking at it! Yuck! We have been working hard to get the pool ready for summer. The other day Ava and I were out cleaning the pool and I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. Needless to say it was a skunk. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my whole entire life, no joke. The Poor animal control guy who came out to kill it for me did not have as good of luck as we did. He got sprayed for the second time in two months. He has a really stinky job!

San Fransisco

2010-03-24T23:31:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Ace had to have surgery on his neck in San Fransisco. We went down the night before to be at the hospital in the morning to wait with my mom. The surgery went a little longer than usual and the girls were troopers hanging out in the waiting room all day. We went to the pier and saw the sea lions. It was fun but I'm not sure it was worth the $21.00 parking fee...stupid, stupid, STUPID! We were ticked but it was our fault for not reading the signs.

After my dads surgery my mom took us out to get lunch by the ocean. We had the best crab sandwiches ever! Ava loved sitting on this rock looking at the ocean. When we said it was time to go see Grandpa Ace she said, "I just wanna sit on my rock!" She really did not want to leave the ocean.

Riding Classified

2010-03-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention this guy in my previous post. Downtown St. Helena is so cute with nice little boutiques. We cracked up when we saw this guy. He was straight out of China Town and he stuck out like a sore thumb. We had to take a picture of him. We laughed even harder when we saw his sign. He wasn't even selling anything! Any takers?

Michael's Christmas Present

2010-03-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

For Christmas my mom got Michael a Hot Latin cooking class for two at the Culinary Institute of America in Calistoga. Back in December I thought I would be okay with the idea of leaving my baby with my mom for a weekend in March. Oh man was I wrong. I knew everything would be fine and I knew my mom is more than capable of taking care of them but I was worried that I didn't pump enough and I didn't know if Caysley would take a bottle. As the day we were supposed to leave approached I was a worried wreck. I took this picture of her right before I left and kept looking back at it the whole trip...I missed them like crazy! I realized that I really had nothing to worry about. It was really good to get away with my Michael for a weekend, we had a lot of fun.

Michael was in charge of the camera...there were about 10 that looked like this.

Just one of the many vineyards we went wine tasting at...;)

I was cracking up because I felt a little out of place. Michael on the other hand was in HEAVEN. The class was two hours long. We got split up into groups and each group had a different recipe. Our recipe was Meatballs in Smokey Chipotle Sauce and oh boy were they GOOD. At the end of class we had a little potluck of all the food the groups made. This is Michaels oh my gosh this is sooo good face. We had fun and got some really yummy recipes that we have been trying out at home. This is Michael leaving the school. He didn't know I was taking a picture. He made me do it too because it was sooo much fun. ...and it was. That is the school in the background.

Yummy

2010-03-24T17:07:00.000-07:00

Caysley is eating food now. Her favorite is sweet potatoes!

Snow Trip

2010-03-24T16:18:00.000-07:00

Last month we took a quick day trip up to the snow to play. Ava fell asleep in the car on the way to the snow and when she woke up there was a giant snowman out her window. She was one happy little girl.

We were surprised to find out that sledding was a little bit scary for our little dare devil. Caysley on the other hand loved every second of it.

"I just wanna eat the snow." She didn't care what color it was, she just wanted to eat it.

So Cal Trip #2

2010-02-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

Day three of our trip was Michael's birthday! We celebrated his birthday in the afternoon because he went to work with my brother in law who is a CHP that night...all night. Michael had a lot of fun on his ride along, he talks about that night every day. I think he had a great birthday.

Day four of our trip we took the kids to a childrens museum so the boys could get some sleep. The museum was in a super cute little old town with a lot of shops and fun things to do. Ava thought this was pretty cool.

Later that day we headed to Santa Monica to meet up with the cousins from Michaels side of the family. We met at the beach and had a great time. As soon as we got there Ava stripped off her clothes and headed for the ocean...shes our little water lovin' baby. Greta was so nice to play in the ocean with the kids, they just love her.

Running from the waves.

I had to add this picture for proof that me and sweet baby Caysley were there too. She is the happiest little baby and she was a joy the whole trip...she always is.

On day five of our trip we walked around the L.A. temple grounds then headed to Michael's sister's house in Ridgecrest. This is a picture of Ava in a cool tree at the temple.

Love, love, love LOVE baby Caysley!

The girls:)

In Ridgecrest Michael got to go on a long motorcycle ride in the desert with Omar. He had a great time and now he wants a dirt bike so bad.

And Ava got to go on four wheeler rides with Greta and Mom and she loved it.

So Cal Trip #1

2010-02-16T15:21:00.000-08:00

Last week we took our very first vacation as a family of four and we had a blast! Ava has been asking to go to Disneyland since Christmas because her cousins who have season passes kept telling her how fun it was. She really didn't know what Disneyland was all she knew was that really wanted to go there. She really wanted to go to the temple where all the princesses live (the castle) and she talked about it every day. We told Ava that if she filled in the whole potty chart we could go to Disneyland. She had to go on the potty 88 times. Each time she went she was so excited to color a roll of toilet paper on her chart. We had been planning on going to Disneyland for Michael's birthday a few months but a friend suggested that we should use Disneyland as motivation for her to be potty trained. Here is a picture of her chart...not quite complete but it was close.On our way down we stoped at Harris Ranch and had some delicious brunch. My parents use to take us to this restraunt every time we went to Southern California when I was a kid.

When we arrived at my sisters the kids were so excited. The boys wanted to show us all around their new house and Ava was just so happy to be with her cousins.

Day two of our trip we went to Disneyland and California Adventure. We were there for 9 hours and it just flew by. Its impossible to squeeze in everything you want to do at both parks in one day because there is so much to do. We just had so much fun, it was a great day. Here we are on the tram on the way into the park.

The whole Disneyland crew.

Ava's favorite part of both parks were the characters, hands down.

The picture spot.

Ava freaked out when she spotted Minnie Mouse. She chased after her crying becuase she didn't think she was going to get to meet her.

The Teacups were definitely a hit.

Some people think its cruel to put a child in a harness but I do not. The thought of Ava running away in a crowd really scared us so we stoped at Walmart on the way and bought one. She didnt even try to run away when she was wearing her harness. This video is not the best quality but it is hilarious. Kids were surrounding Donald Duck and Ava was ready to meet him. She was on a mission. She said, "It's Avas turn!" and ran over to him cutting all the kids that were waiting to meet him. Donald grabbed her hand and they started walking...just watch the video, its funny.

Thumb Sucker

2010-02-09T16:50:00.000-08:00

I love it that she is a thumb sucker. I don't only love it because I think it is cute but she puts herself to sleep with it. She is just too cute.

I took this picture when I was in line at the store. As I was taking it a girl said to me, "Excuse me your daughter just stuck something real big up her nose." She had ripped a tag off of a shirt, rolled it up and stuck it up there. Thank you lady!

Here fishy fishy

2010-02-06T12:23:00.001-08:00

It looks like we have two little fishies on our hands. Caysely loves the pool so much she kicked and smiled the whole time she was in it.

This girl scares me, she really thinks she knows how to swim. She is going to swim lessons one day a week to get her ready for summer. The goal is to get her swim safe. After swimming we were taking showers next to the pool to get the chlorine off and Ava booked it for the pool and jumped in. I chased after her but didn't jump right in after her because I wanted to see what she would do. She tried to swim to the steps but needed a little extra help so I jumped in after her. Hopefully in a few months she will learn to swim to the edge or the steps to get out on her own.

Soo independent in the pool.

Doing the "monkey walk".

A lady that was watching felt so bad for me because I was taking all the pictures and I wasn't in any of them. She kept taking my camera and taking pictures of me...this is the only one I am willing to put on my blog.

Oh to be two again!

2010-02-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

Who would have thought that Ava's bff was a fiery little red head? These two are so wild together and they have so much fun. The other day we went to grocery shopping. I put the baby in the cart and Ava was following behind me. We walked in and she noticed that Halle was sitting in the cart in the checkout. Ava spotted her and they both went crazy so her mom dropped her off later that day so the girls could play. We had a lot of fun.

I love Halle's face in this picture.

Once we figured out how to share the handle, they loved pushing the baby in the stroller.

They ran away from me...

Far, far away from me.

But I got them back by intriguing them with Greta's tire swings. Ava was trying to make a silly face but wouldn't let go of the rope.

Running to the mud puddle.

And played in the mud.

Two year olds are so much fun!

MiScHiEf

2010-01-30T12:36:00.000-08:00

"There's my mommy, there's my mommy, run away, run away!" (to the tune of Thumbkin) is Ava's new favorite song to sing to me. Isn't that just adorable? One of my friends told me that she is the most mischievous little girl she knows. I like to say that she is just full of life.

Nap time schnap time! I just wanna get naked and climb on my dressers!

How cute are they! I thought they were just playing cute together behind the couch. Little did I know Ava was taking all the moss out of the tree while Kendall played cute behind the couch.

This girl loves makeup and knows just were to put it. She actually did a really good job getting it on her lashes.

Although she is mischievous she has a very sweet side as well. She loves her baby sister.

GiddyUp!

2010-01-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

Cute little cowgirl.

First bath together=nightmare

2010-01-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

Ava and Caysley took their first bath together. I think that they were a little too young for this. I was so excited and I had the camera ready to document it. But really, I am such a bad mom for taking pictures of the whole thing because it caused me to take my attention off of Ava for two seconds so I could take the picture. I picked up the camera and Ava decided she was going to pour a bucket of water on the baby's head because that is how mommy rinses Ava's hair. Luckily, I stopped her before she did it...this time.

Next attempt to take a picture. "Ava, only mommy washes baby sister...okay?" I got the camera to take another picture of them, she said okay and grabbed the bucket and poured it on Caysley before I could do anything but somehow I still managed to take a picture. Baby was startled and did not appriciate it at all, my poor baby.

"Ava, only mommy washes the baby!" All she wants to do is help. Sometimes she can be a little too helpful.

She was still so excited to be in the bath with her sister.

Sweet baby after her bad bathing experience. We'll try that again in a few months.

Two and a half month comparison

2010-01-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

A merry little Christmas

2010-01-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

Our first Christmas as a family of four was great. Christmas just keeps getting more and more fun each year with our growing family. Here is cute little Caysley on Christmas Eve before all the action.

And here is another one of her sleeping right before we went to grandma Maggies.

Three angles and baby Jesus...getting ready for the Nativity scene.

Ava made a new friend. Michael's youngest cousin Kevin played with Ava a lot and she had a ton of fun with him.

The smallest Nativity I have ever taken part in with Michael's family. There werent enough people to have wisemen this year so Michaels cousin and his wife Skyped in as Wise men, they are on the camels back.

Ava helping daddy open his stocking suffers. She was so cute this Christmas. She is pretty bummed that Christmas is over. Today in the car I mentioned something about Christmas and she said, "Mom Christmas is over." She is always listening to us from the back seat. Goodbye Christmas! See you in 11 months.

twocember

2010-01-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

December 8th 2009 If you ask Ava how old she is she will tell you that she is twocember (two in December). She started saying that a few months before her birthay. Well, she turned two she still tells people that she will be two in December...silly girl. Its hard to believe that she is already two but at the same time it fells like she should be much older. She is a very fun little girl to say the least. She is so social and loves people and is not afraid of anyone, its actually pretty scary. She loves to push your buttons just to get a reaction. She is so smart. She usues her smartness to get things she wants...for example; the other day she asked me for a vitaman and her asthma medicine. She loves her medicine because it tastes like candy. Without even thinking if Michael had already given her medicine to her I let her have it. As soon as she swallowed them she said, "I already had it today. Daddy gave it to me." Ahhh what a little stinker and oh how we love her anyways. She also has already learned that if mommy or daddy say no, ask a stranger...they will always give you what you want...grrr. Here are a few fun birthday pictures. On the morning of her birthday her daddy was so excited. He went into her room and took pictures of her waking up, they turned out pretty cute.

Ava ran into my room and said, "Its my birthday, I wanna open it!" I had to hurry and wrap her presents because we werent planning on giving them to her until later in the day.

Ava and Halle at Ava's birthday party. We got a pull string pinata instead of the kind you have to hit with a bat...it was fun.

Ava and her cute little friend Halle opening presents.

The birthday cake made by grandma Terri

Fun, fun, fun!

2009-12-03T16:21:00.000-08:00

So much has happened in the last few weeks and I havent blogged about any of it. Michael blessed Caysley in the relief socitey room after stake conference. We chose to do it that weekend because my sister and her family and Michael's sister and her family were in town from southern California to meet the newest addition to the family. We had a lot of fun visiting with them and our sweet little nephews. Here is a picture of Caysley on her blessing day.

Brycen and Kolbee loved holding their new baby cousin.

She can SMILE! I know there I am a little bias but I think her smile could possibly be THE cutest smile ever!

Michael is so funny. He loves the Moby wrap and he wears it around the house all the time but would never be seen with it on in public.

I got to have two days full of birthday celebration! My parents took me out to dinner the night before my birthday becuase Michael was supposed to go to school on my birthday. My parents gave me a really cool amber necklace with two bugs in it! I love it! After dinner my parents took the girls home and put them to bed and we got to go Chrismas shopping without kids! It was amazing! My parents are so great, they have always made birthdays feel so special, thanks guys! Michael took me to a cool Christmas tree farm in Paradise where you could cut down your own tree. It was a lot of fun. These donkeys followed us all around the tree farm, they were so cute! If you ever ask Ava where she wants to go she will say, "I want to go to the park." She loves the park so much. She loves the swing the most. She is scared to walk on the big play structure becuase she thinks she will fall through the holes.

We went bowling with Michael's family. Ava wasnt too sure about bowling at first but warmed up to the idea. I dont think she really understood what we were doing. She and I tied with 92 points but she had bumpers.

This kid makes me laugh every single day. The other day she told me she needed two "nandaids". I didnt ask why, I just gave them to her and walked away. A few minuates later she came to me like this with bandaids on all of her owies. These are totall Ava faces, she is too funny.

One month old!

2009-11-21T12:16:00.000-08:00

Oh, Michael

2009-10-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to a Halloween party and dressed up as biker dudes. We tried to take some tough biker pictures and Michael really struggled with it. It was pretty funny.

Lookin' a little sad

One Of a Kind

2009-10-31T11:00:00.000-07:00

Oh, how we love our little Ava Belle. She is full of so much personality and she is so fun. We just moved her into a big girl bed and she is doing great. She liked her crib a lot and didn't really want to give it up. She never tried climbing out of it (not because she can't but because she is kind of a chicken.) We moved her to a bed because we felt like she was ready to move on. She loves to be the center of attention. When we are not giving her our FULL attention she will do something "naughty" to get our attention. She usually grabs something she knows she is not supposed to have and runs straight to the closet with it. We know if we haven't heard or seen her for even a minute she is in the closet doing something she should be doing. There is really never a dull moment around here. Celeste gave Michael a biker dude mustache and Ava wanted one too. After she gave Ava a mustache she found Ava in the bathroom giving herself black lips with the paint pen.

Sweet baby Caysley

2009-10-22T11:27:00.001-07:00

Our first family picture

She is seriously a great baby. She is hardly ever fussy and sleeps all night. I think she has cried a total of two times at night since she was born. I know I should not get too excited because she is only a week old. I keep thinking its just fluke that she sleeps all night but I sure hope not. She is such a sweet little baby. I love having a little cuddly baby again and I am trying to soak up every second of her newborn stage because it goes by way too quickly.

For anyone who may be interested in Caysley's birth story, here it is. Our doctor thought it would be best to induce labor a few days early because Caysley was measuring big and my blood pressure was pretty high. I was so ready to meet her but I was still a little hesitant to be induced because of increased complications and I have heard that it is a longer/harder labor. On Thursday, October 15th we headed to the hospital at 7:45am. On the way to the hospital we were brainstorming names because she had been Cayleigh or Caylee the whole pregnancy. Michael came up with the name Caysley and I had to think about it for two days. Anyways, we arrived at the hospital at 8:30 and were put in a room and I was on a pitocin drip at 10:30. I immediately started having contractions that were 3-5 minutes apart but they were not very intense. At 5:30 my doctor came in to check me for the first time and I was at a four. He asked me if I wanted an epidural and I told him that I wanted to "wait to see if I thought I need one." He then broke my water and left. As soon as he walked out of the door my contractions became one hundred times more intense. I was having pretty bad back labor so by 6:30 I told Michael that I needed an epidural. The nurse told the doctor I was ready for an epidural and he told her that the anesthesiologist was about to head into surgery and it would be a while before he would be in. Michael was so great, he rubbed my back for hours. I would not let him leave my side. At 9:00 my contractions were so intense, I was dilated to an eight. The anesthesiologist finally got to my room at 9:30 and tried six times to get the epidural in but could not do it. The nurse ran out to get the doctor and he came in and told the anesthesiologist that I was almost ready to push and that he needed to do a spinal. I was in so much pain I don't even remember the doctor coming in but Michael told me that he could tell that the doctor was not happy at all. I got the spinal and felt so much better for about forty five minutes until I started to shake really bad and had really bad pains in my lower back. I told the nurse and she said ok, that means you are ready to push. The doctor walked in right then and Caysley was born at 10:22. As soon as she was born the doctor put her on my chest and I held her for a long time. That moment was so surreal to me, nothing compares to meeting your child for the first time.

Big Sister

2009-10-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems to be curious about how Ava is handling having a new baby at her house. Anyone who knows Ava knows that she loves attention and to tell you the truth I was really worried about how she was going handle having someone to share the attention with. Let me tell you that she has been AWESOME! She is so gentle and loves her baby sister so much. She really does not get jealous at all unless her daddy is holding the baby. Daddy is Ava's best friend and nobody is allowed to touch him, including me.

Welcome baby!

2009-10-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

Caysley Ruth was welcomed into the world on October 15th. She weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and was 22 inches long.

Welcome to the family Caysley, we love you!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2009-10-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

I am always amazed by the things that come out of the mouth of my little 22 month old girl. She cracks me up. This last week she has really been hilarious. This morning Ava woke up right before Michael had to leave for work and I was still in bed. He brought her in my bed to snuggle and she looked at him and said, "Daddy goin' school?" He told her that he did have to go to school tonight and she said, "awww, cool dude." Then she said, "Daddy goin' work?" He told her yes he had to go to work. Ava said, "Ohhh, daddy home sick?" I guess I really need to watch what I say around her now. A lot of mornings I jokingly ask Michael if he just wants to stay home sick. He never plays hookie but I probably ask him this a few times a week to be funny. I never really thought that she was listening to me. I am not going to ask him that from now on. Though these last few weeks have been fun, it has not been all smooth sailing around here. I can defiantly see a new meaning to "terrible twos". She is not terrible, she just throws terrible little tantrums every now and then. She will lay on the ground kicking and screaming for a minute then be perfectly happy and laughing the next minute. 99% of her tantrums are about me telling her no candy. Last week she had nightmares almost every night. I would go get her out of her bed and she would tell me that she wanted out of there because there were scary butterflies in her bed. I would put her in my bed, go to the bathroom and come back to find her fast asleep hogging my spot in bed. One night she would not get in her bed and she wanted to sleep on the floor in her room with her dad on her big stuffed dog. Now she always asks if she can sleep on her dog.

Michael kept Ava busy during general conference this weekend by painting her toenails...he did a great job! Look at that bed head...I love it.

Cayleigh Ruth's first pictures

2009-09-22T14:40:00.001-07:00

Today we had a 4D ultrasound to check the size of the baby. I have been measuring 1-2 weeks bigger that I actually am for the last couple of months so my doctor wanted to see how big she was. The ultrasound said she weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces! Look at her chubby little cheeks, she is so cute!

Side view of her face

A cute little hand in front of her face

Isnt she cute? Yawning

Sooo cute, we can't wait to meet her!

Labor day weekend- Ft. Bragg

2009-09-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

We spent Labor Day weekend camping in Ft. Bragg Ca. We had a great time!

We camped r.v. style...my parents offered to let us have the bedroom and they slept in a tent. Surprisingly, it was my dads idea. The funny thing was that he let us sleep in the bedroom because he thought I was only a week away from my due date. If he would have known I still had six weeks to go he probably wouldn't have offered. Here we are peeking out the window.

Michael often has silly ideas and 99.9% of the time I tell him hes crazy and change the subject. We were walking in the little downtown part of Ft. Bragg with lots of cute little shops and we saw a sock store called "Pippi Longstocking Sock Co." Michael had a fun idea that we could go in and he would pick out a pair of socks for me and I would pick out a pair for him and we couldnt show eachother what we got and we would both pick out socks for Ava and the new baby. Five pairs of socks and $42.00 LATER we came out of there with some pretty awesome socks. We will never be spending that much on socks ever again! Gotta love Michael's fun ideas though.

Ava playing in the sand at the beach by our campground.

My parents offered to take all three kids on the Skunk Train for the day. They left at 10:00 am and got back at 4:00 pm. My dad let us take his Corvette to Mendicino and we had a really fun date day and we made it back to the train station for the kids big arrival. Ava and Brycen were so excited looking out the window, Kolbee had fallen asleep on my dad. Needless to say grandma and grandpa looked a little wiped out.

Here come the happy campers...

As soon as Ava got off the train she ran straight into the gift shop and starting collecting all the trains she could find and of course a stuffed skunk that she had her eye on the day before. We bought her a little remote controlled train and now she is slightly obsessed with trains. My mom surprised her later with the stuffed skunk, she calls it her kitty.

The only time we ever went down to the water was late at night. Ava loves the ocean and we felt bad that we didnt take her down to play during the day.

And here I am at 35 weeks...Michael made me put this one up. He was the photographer the whole weekend so I dont have any to put up of him, sorry Michael.

The Fair

2009-09-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

We love it when the fair is here every year at the end of every August. This year was even more fun because Ava got to go on rides all by herself. She wasn't really tall enough to go on any rides but we were able to sneak her on to a few and she absolutely loved it!

Michael must have taken her through this fun thing 20 times. She would go through all the obstacles and down the slide and run over to the stairs to do it again...and again...and again. I think her dad probably had just as much fun as she did, they were so cute.

Her first Merry go round...another one of her favorites.

Her crooked smile-just like her dads before his surgery.

And another favorite, the cars. She loved to switch back and forth from the drivers seat to the passengers seat.

Checkin' out the chickens. I love how they are focusing so hard, mouth wide open and all.

All about Ava...

2009-08-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

This post (like most) is really all about Ava. I look back at my pictures from the past few weeks and they are all of Ava so she is really all I have to blog about right now. She is a funny little girl with a spunky little personality, shes always on the go. We love her to pieces...here is what she has been up to. We took a quick trip to our favorite little swimming hole with our friend Rhiannon. It turned out to be the perfect place for Ava. She hiked herself in and out. She would get tired of walking and sit right in the middle of the trail to play in the dirt and rest. When she wasn't sunbathing with Ree or playing in the water she was walking around making friends with people with picnics. She is always trying to mooch food off of anyone that is willing to give it to her. How do you teach a 20 month old that this is not okay? We brought our own picnic but apparently our food wasn't as good as all the other people's. She loves to make little nests out of laundry baskets to watch cartoons in...so cute! She usually just puts a blanket in the bottom and sits on the blanket but this particular day she put down a blanket, got her little stool out to use as a table, put her monkey on the table, put her water on the table and finally she was able to sit down. She sat like this for a good 30 min. watching Monsters Inc (one of her favorites). We have been spending a lot of time getting things ready for the baby. Ava knows that its the baby's room and likes to go look at all of the baby's stuff. One day I was getting ready and I didn't know where Ava disappeared to. I walked around the house saying her name and she never answered me. I found her like this in the baby's room she didn't even budge when I went to see what she was doing. I wonder how she is going to adjust to having a new baby sister... First time roller skating! Kaylee had a birthday and we got to go to Cal Skate to celebrate! Olive was so nice to let Ava borrow her skates... and her mommy... and her aunt... and her Gigi. We had a great time, thanks Kaylee! Kaylee helping Ava out to the skating rink. Once they got her going she didn't want to stop...they were so sweet to keep going around with her.

Michael and I just got to sit back and watch, so fun!

Puppy torture. She still wont leave him alone but I think he feels the same way about her (most of the time).

Meet Ava's puggle, Kikko

2009-08-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

Ava couldnt wait to bring Kikki home and push him in her baby stroller, read to him, spin him around in her chair and show him around the house. She is a great mommy! I have said this before and I will say it again...I am not really an animal person. I like the idea of animals but I am not good at having animals. I think a big part of this is that I have always had bad asthma and I am allergic to them. But, we have been wanting a dog for a long time now and we finally found one that we absolutely love. He is a puggle- 1/2 pug and 1/2 beagle. He is awesome and the best part about him is that my asthma really hasn't bothered me since we got him. I saw an add in the digger for puggles and I was so excited because those are two of my favorite breeds of dogs. I think he will be the perfect dog for our family! Ava absolutely loves him. She thinks that she needs to hold him 24/7. She is her little baby and gets so jealous when anyone else is holding him. Because of this, he has been spending a lot of time in the laundry room.

Henry

2009-08-06T23:03:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago we were talking to Greta about what she wanted for her birthday and she told us that she wanted a small animal like a hamster, guinea pig or rabbit. She had never had an animal before so we thought it would be fun to really get her one. We decided not to ask her parents because we didn't want the answer to be no. If they did say no after we gave it to her the animal could live at our house (luckily they let her keep it). Soo...this is her new bunny, Henry. A perfect first pet! Hes a nice little dwarf rabbit. Greta loves him...and so does Ava. He even lets Ava hold him!

Monkeyface

2009-08-06T21:31:00.001-07:00

For activity days I decided to take the girls on a quick 3/4 of a mile hike. Well, we took a few wrong turns and it ended up being triple what it was supposed to be and it turned into more of a mountain climb than a hike. The girls did so well and hardly complained a bit. Wendy was great...she tried so hard to be positive and teach the girls from our experience. When I told Wendy that I thought we needed to climb over this huge rock to get over to the good trail she looked at me like I was crazy but went along with it anyways. Coming down the right trail was a breeze. It would have been a really boring hike if we went up the right way so we were all glad that we took the more difficult route.

The month of JULY

2009-08-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

We are having a really good summer and I haven't blogged in a month! What the heck happened? Where does time go? I am about 7 months along and I'm feeling quite large already. I think I look like I am about to pop already and I still have two months! We are so excited about the baby coming but I have yet to prepare for her arrival. I really haven't done a thing in preparation for her. Actually, I started cleaning out her room this weekend...that kind of counts for something, doesn't it? And the best part about having another girl around the same time Ava was born is that I really don't have to do a whole lot. I get to reuse all of Ava's cute clothes...yey! Heres what we have been up to in a nutshell... We went to visit my sister and her kids in San Pedro. We had a really good time. Ava finally discovered that her cousins Brycen and Kolbee are two different people! She fell in love with Brycen this time she picked on Kolbee a lot. She was quite jealous of him. The boys taught Ava how to play "light savers", transformers, and swords. She had a blast! I taught swim lessons for a few families in my ward. I use to be a life gaurd but I have never taught anyone to swim before. These cute boys were my first victims. I had a lot of fun learning as I went. All of the kids were so great and I really enjoyed doing it. Amanda, I hope you dont mind that I took this off your blog! We had some friends over to swim and a barbeque. These little girls played so cute together. I love watching Ava play with my friends kids that are her age. There are so many that are the same age, its a lot of fun. We have taken Ava to the Gauche Aquatic Park a few times and she loves it! She loves the water so this is the perfect place for her. A couple of my really good friends from high school happened to be in town for a weekend so we went out on the lake. It was a great little reunion. Just like old times but not really because this time I was pregnant with my second child. I really don't think that they are even close to thinking about kids yet. Have you ever wondered what its like to take a picture with a bunch of skinny girls in bikinis when you are 7 months pregnant? Yeah, not so much fun...needless to say I felt HUGE. I came real close to burning the house down. I bought a Yankee Candle for a bunko prize and left it in my car in the 110 degree weather and it melted into a weird shape. Instead of throwing the candle away I thought I could revive it because those things are expensive! So, I put the candle in some boiling water on the stove and I was going to melt it back into its original shape. Right when I put it on the stove a friend came over to swim so I went out to join her and completely forgot about the candle until I smelled it outside an HOUR later. When I went inside I found this so I snapped a quick picture so I could show Michael what I had done. Then I had a great idea! I decided to fill up a huge glass of water and pour it on the fire not thinking that wax is OIL and water on an oil fire makes it 100 times worse. So, anyways...a lesson well learned. Oil fires need to be smothered so all I had to do was put the lid on it. And no, I did not think about that myself I had to run outside to ask how to put a fire out. Last week we had the opportunity to go up to Tahoe with some family. We caught Ava and Brycen snuggling on the couch watching t.v. I had to take a picture, they looked so cute! We hiked down to Emerald Bay and had a quick tour of Vikingsholm castle with 5 kids under 4, 6 adults and a pregnant woman. People thought we were crazy but we managed. The kids had a fun time playing at the beach. This stick and all the sand kept Ava busy for a long time. Ava was much happier playing in the sand. She didnt want anything to do with our family picture. Michael was such a trooper. He hiked a lot of the way down with two kids, I was impressed!

18 Months

2009-06-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

At 18 months Ava Belle…

Calls everything soft a kitty (i.e.- dryer lint, my body pillow, my hair…)
Loves to go on bike rides in her trailer

Loves anything “pretty”

Is obsessed with shoes…still.

Loves babies- she thinks every grown woman has a baby in her belly.

Can’t tell the difference between her cousins Brycen and Kolbee.

Says pretty much everything, talks a lot

Her favorite songs are “Popcorn”, ABC’s, Baby Bunting??, Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider…in that order.

When she wants to be picked up she says, “I wanna hold you!” and when you pick her up she says, “hold me, hold me, hold me!!”

LOVES to swim

Loves to be the center of attention

Talks about her Grandma’s and Grandpa’s…a lot

Thinks that she needs to go WEE (swing) every time she walks out the door

Still hasn’t had a “real babysitter”

Has to hold hands on walks, both mommy’s and daddy’s

Is not nice to her mommy when daddy is home but during the week she loves her mommy so much

Is very bossy

Loves to pretend to eat candy and other yummy foods

Loves to dance and color

Does not like nursery

All kids are babies until they are about five in her world

I could go on and on about her, she is so funny. I love being her mom and I love watching her grow. I can’t believe how fast the past year and a half has flown by!

Going on a bike ride with daddy

She picked out her shoes and grabbed her wand and wanted to go outside to "pay"

She insisted on holding baby Halie who just so happens to be the exact same age as her.

Daddy's Day!

2009-06-21T11:20:00.000-07:00

Since it is Fathers Day, I thought it would be fun to pay a little tribute to all four of the dads in my life. All of these men are so special to me. I love that we have one day a year that we get to show our dads how much we love them. So here are just a few things that I admire about these four amazing men.

MY DAD

The one thing that I love my dad is that he has always been so supportive of me. Growing up, I played basketball from fifth grade through to community college. I can only remember maybe three basketball games he did not attend. After the games he always complimented me on something I did well and he gave me some kind of advise on what I could have done better. I also like that he let me make my own decisions. Although I knew he did not always agree with me, he supported me 100% in every decision I made. My dad is also one of the hardest workers I know. Even though I am constantly picking on him, I love him and he knows it.

PAPA

My grandpa is just an amazing man. He is the hardest working person I know. My grandpa officially "retired" from being a general surgeon about twelve years ago. After he retired he could not sit still at home and continued to work for a few more years. He is constantly studying and learning more so he can keep his medical license. It seems like my grandpa knows a something about everything. We call my grandpa every time we have a medical question and he is always so happy to help us. My grandpa is always working on some project around his house. Right now he is working on tileing and carpeting the upstairs of his house, with the help of my uncle. He just loves keeping busy, hes quite the handy man.

Grandpa on Thanksgiving/his birthday

MY BABY'S DAD

Michael is the sweetest dad in the world. He loves his little Ava and she is definately a daddy's girl. When Michael is home she wants nothing to do with her mommy:(. My mom always teases Michael because right after we got married she asked him if we were going to have kids right away and Michael said, "well, no...it takes nine months!" I always knew he would be a great dad because I saw how he was with his nephews and little sister and just about any little kid he was in the same room with. I love that he loves kids so much. He loves to teach Ava new things and introduce her to new things. He gets so excited about the next stage in her life...right now he is really looking forward to start potty training and getting Ava into her big girl bed (two things I am dreading). Not only is he a great dad, he is a pretty sweet husband too.

The reality hits...I'm a dad!

Photo shoot after church

Only daddy is allowed to brush her teeth. I don't know what I am going to do this week when he is at scout camp. All ready to go swimming

Reading to the kids

DAD IN LAW

Gampa Steve is great. He loves being a grandpa. He is one of the most selfless people I know. He is always putting other peoples needs before his own and he is always right there offering to help. I love that everytime I get irritated with something silly Michael does he tells me not to complain because, "he warned me before I married him." Hes a great father in law, its nice to have him so close.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!

Kick, kick, kick!!

2009-05-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

For the last week or so I have been trying to teach Ava how to kick her legs in the pool. Her favorite place to play is on the stairs in the pool so I decided to put floaties on her arms, just to be safe. She went down to the the bottom step and accidentally walked off and started swimming around the pool (with the floaties on of course.) She just kept saying "weeeeeeeeeee! Weeeeeeee!" as she swam around the shallow end and back to the stairs. I guess our little swim lessons are paying off! Good job Ava!

In the month of MAY

2009-05-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

Ava discovered mommy's makeup while mommy was on the phone.

She was so proud of herself! She looked so pretty she didn't want mommy to take it off.

Ava and I were twinners on Mother's day:). We had a great day, Ava and Michael are so good to me. Thanks Nikki for taking a picture! We went to the Red suspenders day parade with Great Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Steve. Ava was pretty interested in the horses and fire trucks but she was most interested in all the candy that grandpa helped her collect.

Greta and Ava trying to cool off inside after the parade.

This is the lovely smile she gives me when I tell her to say, "cheese."

We spent Memorial day out on the lake with my parents. Ava is loving the lake this year. She gets so relaxed out there and falls asleep so easily, she even let us rock her to sleep!

Lookin' cool in her shades.

Ava's first tube ride. She held very still the whole time she sang her ACB'Cs and eventually fell asleep. She did not want to get off when her ride was over she told grandpa that she wanted to go more.

We also had a sonogram and found out that we are going to have another baby GIRL! We are so very excited!

Does anyone wanna go swimming?

2009-05-10T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today I was going through Maggie's pictures on her computer when I came across this lovely picture of our pool taken about three years ago. I was SO EXCITED to see these pictures because I couldn't remember what the pool looked like before the makeover. I remember it being gross out there but definitely not this gross! I hope that this picture doesn't change your minds about coming over to swim this summer my friends!

Maggie also had these pictures on her computer. Here we are putting on the final coat of paint last summer with all of our great helpers.

Finally finished!

Oh, my...

2009-04-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Some days I really do think that I am about to go crazy. Today is just one of those days. This morning I decided that I needed to wash our chenille throw blanket we received as a wedding gift, bad idea. The blanket was my favorite it had pretty tassels and we keep on the back of the love seat. I took it out of the washing machine and the pretty tassels were not so pretty anymore- I knew it was ruined but I thought if I put it in the dryer it might fix it...another bad idea. I opened up the dryer to get it out and the dryer was filled with fluffy lint. I decided to take the blanket into the living room to cut the tassels off. While I was cutting the tassels off I could hear Ava running around from the laundry room, to the kitchen, to her bedroom, to my bedroom and to the guest room but I didn't look to see what she was doing. I finally got up to check on her and realized that she was taking the fluffy lint from the dryer to every room in the house. I laughed a little, got out the vacuum and started cleaning up the lint from the laundry room and her room. While I was doing that I thought Ava was watching t.v. but when I went into the kitchen to check on her she was holding a measuring cup and there were potato pearls everywhere. I just looked at her and she had THE biggest smile on her face. She gasped and said, "ohhh no!" I didn't think her mess was quite as funny this time.

Funny girl. This time she got out the broom to help me clean up.

Easter

2009-04-22T16:15:00.001-07:00

All three and a quarter of us on Easter.

Dyeing the eggs with a one year old proved to be much harder then we had expected. We let her help for about five minutes then decided it would probably be best if we just put her down for a nap and did it ourselves. We spent Easter in Oroville with my family. We went to my grandparents house for dinner and an Easter Egg hunt. The Easter egg hunt was just up Ava's alley because she loves to collect things. Before Easter she would walk all around the house with her Easter basket putting random things in it. She knew just what to do and didn't want any help.

Swim season is finally here!

2009-04-22T15:16:00.001-07:00

My little water baby

She thinks she is a big kid...she also thinks its so funny to splash people.

All of the little kids love aunt Greta and love to play with aunt Greta, lucky girl. She is so good with Ava and Ava adores her. In the pool the other day I was trying to play with Ava but she only wanted Greta to play with her. I was trying to take a picture of her in her itsy bitsy teeny weenie yellow polka dot bikini but she wouldn't even look at me because she was too busy staring down Greta and her friend. Ava got out of the pool, walked over where Greta and Avery were playing and stared slapping her leg yelling, "Come on Greta!!" (like you would do if you wanted a dog to come to you.) It was hilarious, I wish I would have got it on camera.

Table Mtn.

2009-04-22T15:10:00.001-07:00

It is so nice to be outside in this beautiful weather. I love it!!! We went up to table Mountain to look at the wildflowers. Ava was more interested in the cow poop than the flowers, what a little lady shes turning out to be.

Daddy running to catch up

Trip to L.A.

2009-04-22T13:55:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Ava and I got to go visit my sister in Southern California with my parents and grandparents. We went down with my grandparents and mom in my grandparents R.V. The plan was to leave Gridley at 4:30am and arrive around noonish. After a few technical difficulties plans changed and it ended up being a much longer trip then expected. We finally arrived at my sisters house around 8:30pm. Ava was THE BEST traveler ever. She was so happy the whole trip she was so excited to finally get to see her cousins.

She was so excited!

Then she became exhausted from her long trip.

We celebrated my mom's birthday down there. My sister ordered her a special cake from a gluten free bakery. We went to a fish market. Ava kept saying "touch it" because she wanted to touch all the dead fish (I didn't let her). I told my sister to pick up a fish so I could take a picture for her four year old. She would only touch it if it was wrapped with a plastic bag. One of my best childhood friends lives in the same town as my sister. It was so fun getting to see her. She took me out on a date, sushi and frozen yougert. I sure do miss her! And we watched the sunset together over the ocean. How romantic. Checking out the fish at the aquarium/kid museum.

Ava and Kolbee looking at the sharks teeth. The kids got to dress up as sea creatures and watch themselfs on a T.V. screen.

At the Santa Moncia boardwalk- it was very windy! Ava didn't want to go on any of the rides. Who's kid is she, really? Maybe next year.

Pictures!

2009-03-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

My camera had to be sent in for a repair and I just got it back on Tuesday. Since blogs aren't really any fun to look at without pictures I haven't posted anything for quite a while. I'm jumping back into blogging now that I have a functioning computer and camera. Here is a cute picture of Ava and daddy at the park on Tuesday. Since Michael has a late night class we go to Chico every Tuesday to have lunch with him so he can see Ava because she is in bed when he gets home. This is Michael's little rule and we love getting out and going to see him, Ava really misses him during the week. Just a cute story about that- The other day I was sittiing on the couch and Ava said, "Mommy bye daddy. Shoe!" I asked her if she wanted to go see daddy and she said, "yeah" I didnt get up because we couldn't go see him that day so she came over and started pulling on my hand saying "come on!" She is getting so big I can't believe it.

The rest of these pictures are from Ava's play day with her little friend. Here they are playing in Ava's sand box. This kept them busy for about 20 minutes. That's a long time for Ava to be doing one thing, I was really impressed!

Apparently sand is "yummy yummy" she just kept eating it.

This was a fun game they made up. They thought it was really funny to look at each other through the tunnel and pop back up really fast. Its really fun to see her start to interact with kids her age, I love it! They were so cute together, we had a lot of fun. She can seriously come over to play ANY time.

Back it up!

2009-03-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

I've been saying for months that I need to start backing up all of our pictures but never really got around to doing it. I always thought about how awful it would be to loose everything on my hard drive and last week guess what happened? My worst nightmare! My stinkin hard drive crashed! I talked to the Geek Squad to see if they could do anything and they said yes, probably and that recovering a hard drive can cost up to $2,000...ouch! Pictures are priceless, right? I guess I had to learn my lesson the hard way. For all of you who are like me and are too lazy to back things up, do it!

Super cat!

2009-03-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

When I was in fourth grade all I wanted was a little white kitty. My parents told me that if I could learn my multiplication table and pass the test with a 100% that they would take me to the pet store to pick out a kitty. I quickly learned my multiplication table and my kitty Sabrina (after my favorite t.v. show- Sabrina the Teenage Witch) has been living with my parents ever since, for fourteen years! I really am not a big fan of cats but she is so sweet and I just love her. So about two weeks ago my mom called me to tell me that Sabrina had been missing for a week and she thought she was dead. Today I was telling Michael that I was sad that my kitty had died and about two hours later my mom called with some news. The neighbors down the street knocked on my parents door and told them that they had accidentally locked her in their shed THREE weeks ago without food or water and she was still alive! What a trooper, I'm so happy she is alive!

Little squeaker

2009-02-27T10:39:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I still take videos this way, sorry I still haven't figured out how to flip them. This video is of Ava in her favorite pair of shoes, her squeakers. I love these shoes because they are fun (and I can take the squeaker out) and they are nice because when she is wearing them I always know where she is. She loves kitty's and is constantly meowing...she even meows herself to sleep every night. This video isn't too exciting but it shows her squeakers, her love for kitty's, and how busy she is- listen carefully for the squeaks! Last night, Michael was working on some homework and he wanted Ava to color with him while he did it. He taped down her paper, got her chair all set up on phone books on the bench and gave her some crayons. She colored for about one minute and then she thought it would be funny to eat the crayons. She really thinks its funny when she does things she knows she is not supposed to, she really likes to push or buttons. I told her if she put the crayon in her mouth again she was going to go ni-night. She put the crayon in her mouth then looked at me and said, "ni-night!" Maybe she just really wanted to go to bed.

Daddy's are so much fun!

2009-02-19T18:12:00.000-08:00

We love Thursdays because that is the only day Michael gets to come home semi early. Today he came home with car washing supplies to clean our filthy cars, I was so excited! After dinner he changed Ava's diaper and she came out wearing a swimsuit and sandals, heading straight for the door. This is how she spent the rest of the car cleaning...trapped in the back of the car with lots of toys to play with, she was definitely not a fan. Since we are talking about Ava's fun daddy, here is my cute little hubby on Valentines day. We have never been out on Valentines day we just like to stay home and make seafood. On Saturday we went to the farmers market and bought some butternut squash to go with our dinner. If you have never had butternut squash I highly recommend it.... yum!

Coming this October...

2009-02-12T22:04:00.000-08:00

A BABY!

Yep, it's true...we are pregnant! We are only about five weeks along and we just found out a few days ago but we just couldn't keep it a secret. We are so excited!! I love digital tests they are amazing and surprisingly they don't cost any more than regular tests. Happy birthday to Michael!

My Abey Baby is 26 today!

Today was Michael's 26th birthday! Michael was in class all day today so we celebrated his birthday tonight with family at his favorite restaurant, 5th Street Steak House in Chico. Dinner was delicious! We came home for cake and ice cream with everyone and we wanted to tell them all at the same time that we were pregnant so we put Ava in a shirt that said, "Im going to be a big sister!" with shoes that squeeked so everyone would pay attention to her. Everyone was too busy focusing on her shoes and didnt notice what her shirt said at first...it was a fun night.

The stats...

2009-01-31T09:30:00.000-08:00

Last week I FINALLY took Ava in for her 12 month shots and a weight check...better late than never, right? She now weighs 20.2 lbs, shes gained a whoppin' two pounds in seven months! But the doctor said she is still getting taller so its nothing to worry about. After taking her to the doctor we went to get her pictures taken. That was the first and last time I will ever do that in the same day, what was I thinking?

kissin' cousins

2009-01-22T21:13:00.001-08:00

My bro in law is graduating from the CHP academy tomorrow and my sister and her family are moving to So Cal:(. Last night we got to have a slumber party with their kids and we played all day today. We wanted to do something fun with the kids so we decided to take them to a cool place in Chico Michael had heard about called Theatre, ETC but they were closed so we took them Chuckie Cheese insted. Ava has developed quite a thing for my two and a half year old nephew, she calls him her baby and can't get enough of him. On the way home Kolbee and Ava held hands in their car seats for about 20 minutes, so sweet! The quality of this picture isnt the best because I took it as I was driving on the highway, don't tell their dad!

Brycen in the "tube" at Chuckie Cheese

Kolbee so excited on the dragon ride.

Ava's favorite part of Chuckie Cheese was all the balls. What can I say, she is obsessed.

Oregon

2009-01-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

I have a friend who plays basketball for Arizona State University and they were playing University of Oregon last weekend so we decided to go. We didn't only go to Oregon to watch a basketball game, my aunt also lives in Eugene so we got to go visit their family. We have been wanting to go for the past two years but things have come up last minute and we haven't been able to. My aunt and uncle spoiled us and we had a really good time. It was the perfect little mini vacation! They are definitely animal lovers and Ava loved it! They have tree inside dogs and a cat. Ava thought she was a cat and crawled around on the floor and meowed their cat. The parks in Oregon are way more fun than the parks in California because they have merry go rounds, teeter totters, tire swings and really big slides (all the dangerous stuff the use to have in the parks here when we were kids.) I think we probably had more fun at the park than Ava, she just wanted to walk around and check everything out.

Ava going down the tube slide!

I just thought I would throw this one in there! Michael had a little bit of poison oak on his knee before we left but while we were there he had a reaction to it. His whole leg swelled up and he had to keep putting gauze on it because it was leaking, gross! He had a wet spot on his right knee the whole time we were there, poor guy.

They took us to the sea loin caves. It was pretty cool but the smell made it almost not worth it.

Ava covering up Erin's nose from the smell.

The Oregon coast is cold but beautiful

Up at the lighthouse This is what Ava does when I blog. Shes at my side wanting "up". Ava had a lot of fun but shes always so excited to be home. This picture is of her spinning in the big chair when she got home, one of her favorite things to do.

2009-01-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

Im not going to try to catch up on all that has gone on over the past few weeks but here is just a little bit of what we've been up to. My friend Rhiannon was in town and my mom was on winter break and wanted to babysit Ava so we went snowboarding. I wasn't even sore afterward!

Sledding. I still haven't bought a snowsuit for Ava so she got to wear a onesie, a shirt, 2 sweat shirts, a jacket, vest, sweats, corduroys, two mismatching gloves, a hat, two pairs of socks and boots...she looked goofy but it worked.

Michael and Ava going down the hill. She would cry at the bottom because she wanted to keep going.

For Christmas this year we made bird houses and let Ava paint the back side of each house. I don't think she really understood what she was supposed to do...she wanted to paint all over the houses and herself. She kept trying to eat the paint brush and stick it in her belly button.

One of Ava's Christmas presents...she loves it!

Kolbee and his "police man motorcycle"...the boys each got one for Christmas. They go 3 mph and grandma lets them drive them all around her house.

Go Pups!

2008-12-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks I have been spending much of my time coaching basketball games and practices. This weekend my basketball team hosted the Kiwanis tournament at Sycamore school and last weekend we played in the Tierra Buena tournament in Yuba City. Last weekend the girls placed fourth out of four and Tierra Buena ended up winning their tournament. This weekend we had three games, one on Friday and two on Saturday. They beat the first team by quite a bit and the second game we won by two points and we ended up beating Tierra Buena (the team that won the last tournament we played in) the championship game by three points. Here they are receiving their well deserved trophy. The girls played hard...they were down by fourteen points at one point of the game but they didn't give up. This was the first time that Sycamore (boys or girls) have ever won their Kiwanis tournament. They were so excited that they got to add a trophy to the schools trophy case.

Waiting to find out who they chose for MVP and all tourney...

Recieving all tourney and MVP awards

All of their hard work paid off! I was so proud of these girls, this was definitely the highlight of my short little coaching career. I've grown so attached to some of these girls after being able to coach them the last two years. Its so fun to watch each one grow and learn. They have made me want to go back to school to follow through with my original teaching career plan. Even though they have occasional silly teen girl drama, they are such a fun group of girls and I really do enjoy them...go Bullpups!

Ava's first birthday bash

2008-12-08T15:45:00.000-08:00

I just can't believe that she has been here with us for a whole year now. Its so weird because it seems like she was just born yesterday but at the same time I have a hard time remembering married life without her. What a sweet little blessing she is, we love her to peices. Today is her first birthday!

-Flash back-

Ava was born at 2:15 pm on Saturday December 8th weighing 8 lbs 8oz and she was 20 inches long. Here she was just a few minutes old Her first outfit, I was so excited to see her in all of her cute little clothes.

We didn't get the "don't cut your newborns nails until they are hard enough to cut" memo. That probably explains why she hates getting her nails clipped.

PARTY! Last night Ava had her first birthday party with all of her grandparents, two cousins, three great grandmas and great grandpa, two aunts and three uncles. It was a lot of people for our small house but it was a lot of fun. We had a Mexican theme so my mom made enchiladas, Michael's mom made salsa, my grandma made chili rellenos, Michael made his Dominican rice and beans. The food was delicious! My mom also made Ava a really cute teddy bear princess cake that I forgot to take pictures of! I am so mad at myself! She also made Ava her very own little cake that she loved! Here she is in her play room waiting for her guests to arrive Opening her presents. She got snowman that lights up, sings and dances...one of her favorites. Another one of her favorites, a princess book that sings. Meet Viola. We started working on Viola about a month ago and she was finally finished Friday night (I really only worked on her about 5 times the whole month). She was delicately and thoughtfully crafted so she could be beaten to smithereens! Poor Viola, look at that sweet face! Getting stuffed with lots of good candy. Viola on her death bed. And of course we can't foget the cake! She didn't quite know how to blow the candle out so daddy had to help her. She knew just what to do with her cake! And the finished product- a dirty tired baby. Daddy let her run around in her birthday suit after the cake while he was getting the bath ready, she loved it! WE LOVE YOU PRINCESS, HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY!

Shoe fetish

2008-12-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

This little girl loves shoes. If we leave our shoes by the door she takes them by the laces, throws them over her shoulder and carries them all around the house. Just recently, she has liked picking out shoes for herself. Today, she thought that her black patten leather shoes would go nicely with her argyle sweater vest and jeans. She brought them to me and wouldn't leave me alone until I put them on her. After I put them on she was so happy and couldn't stop looking at them as she walked around the house.

Uh-Ohh!

2008-11-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

Lately every time the phone rings she will stop what she is doing and say, "Uhh-Ohh" with a funny look on her face. Today I wanted to catch her on camera doing it so I called home with my cell phone. Maybe this is a sign that she won't like talking on the phone when she gets older? Notice how she throws the phone off her highchair.

Ava has always been vocal in a language only she can understand. Lately she has started saysin some new words and she has quite the vocabulary for a 11 month old. It always amazes me when she says a new word. These are some words she is saying these days...

mama
dada
hi
bed
eye
"boo" (book)
"nana" (banana)
"pee" (please)
up
dog
meow
oww
"ree" (read)
shoe
woof
"jew" juice
cheese
more
ball

Toady she said mommy for the first time!

random...again.

2008-11-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

This really should be about five separate posts but I'm lazy and I am just going to combine them... Last week my dad came over and brought a dump truck load of gravel for our driveway. Ava, Brycen and Kolbee were so excited about it and played in it for about an hour. Ava would not let me hold her she only wanted to roll around in the gravel. She is the dirtyiest little baby...she cant walk around outside because she always heads straight for the dirt and it always ends up in her mouth. My mom has lots of pictures of me outside covered in mud and eating dirt. She just let me play, maybe I should let her eat it so she can see for herself that it really doesn't taste good.

She is obsessed with the kitty who really doesnt mind being tortured.

The other day I was trying to give her an orange in her highchair and she kept spitting at me. Spitting is her new favorite thing to do (thank you aunt Celeste for teaching her how:)

I just love her.

Running out of the rain. I got her this raincoat at Old Navy last year at the end of the season...it was only two dollars! I love bargin shopping! This picutre was from my activity days Halloween party and I just had to post it. Its too funny to not get recognized on my blog. And here we are on Halloween. Michael was a good sport and dressed up as a card with me. He was so excited to be a skeleton but I didn't want to be a card by myself, thanks sweetie!

YUCK!

2008-11-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

We spent the day cleaning out the barn. This was probably THE dirtiest and nastiest thing I have ever done in my entire life but it was totally worth it. Some of our treasures included: a cat skull, cat spine, a chicken nest with eggs, an oven full of rat nests and lots of other rat nests, black widow spiders, lots of walnut shells shells the critters drug in. All in all- it was a fun day. The barn is big with four sections and before we moved in it was full (and I mean full) of garbage...seriously not one useful thing. How does one accumulate so much crap?! We cleaned out the other sections of the barn a while back, we were putting this one off because it was sooo gross.

BEFORE:

Voila-the finished product...who knew it was a concrete floor?!?!

One happy Michael...he is excited to start doing woodworking projects out there. Wet and Dirty and ohh so happy to be DONE!

Pumpkin Patch and Trunk or Treat

2008-10-28T17:13:00.001-07:00

Last week we went to Bishops Pumpkin Patch for the first time. It was a lot of fun...here is Ava riding the baby goat in the petting zoo. Checking things out on the train ride around the pumpkin patch...this was my favorite part. Brycen drove everyone to the pumpkin patch on the "cool bus" aka the short bus. They had mattresses covered in hay, it was like a huge hay covered spring floor. It was really fun and Ava loved it!Trunk or treating in Oroville...Ava was dressed as a fairy and she looked pretty cute. She even got to wear makeup for the first time (she had red dots on her cheeks and one on the end of her nose). This picture was taken in my sisters trunk. My sister said Ava was acting like she knew she looked really cute, I never knew they started this young. She would say "hi" and wave to everyone even if they weren't looking at her...I was glad she was in a good mood. Grandma fixed Ava's costume to make it fit her because it was size 2T...

Tagged: 4th picture 4th folder...

2008-10-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

I usually don't participate in tags but this one was easy so I decided to be a good sport! Here is the 4th picture in my 4th folder for you Emily! This picture was taken on a fairy in San Fransisco with our friend Sara! For those who didn't know Michael before his jaw surgery...this is really what his smile really used to look like. I kinda miss his cute little crooked smile:) I tag Sarah Scott, Sara Austin, Nikki, and Jamie:)

cousins, camping, eczema, walking ...random

2008-10-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Fridays I watch my sisters kiddos. This Friday the kids were being crazy in the house so we went on a bike ride. My trailer only is supposed to hold two kids so we had to improvise with what we had. Kolbee was such a trooper on the floor of the trailer and the kids had a blast! Michael had another camp out with the boy scouts this weekend. When he got home he was all excited about his camping gear and got it all out for me to try out. He is so sweet, this is just one example of his kindness. He gets excited about everything and wants everyone to experience good things (usually the food he makes). Last week I broke out in another strange rash on my face, arms and legs so I went to the doctor to find out that I have eczema! Just another one of those hidden perks that is given to some of us with asthma:) Sunday my family went down to the feather river to take some family pictures with all four generations. Thank you Maggie for taking the pictures for us, they are great! Ava is getting a lot better at walking but still looks like a drunken sailor. She is not stable at all but its so cute to see her trying to do it. Its near impossible to get a good video so here is my best attempt. (I am having trouble flipping my videos, sorry Jinny!)

Playing catch up!

2008-10-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted anything so I am doing a little catching up. Nothing really new or too exciting but here goes... Just one of the many reasons why going to grandma's house is so much fun. My mom got Ava this cute little snack-o-lantern outfit for Halloween. What can I say, the girl loves to snack just like her mommy! A few weeks ago Michael went on a camp out with the scouts and Ava and I went to Tahoe with my parents sister's family and grandparents. We took a fun detour to Apple hill on our way home and got some raspberry apple juice and apple pies. We had a really good time but we sure did miss daddy! This is my mom with all of her grandkids in Tahoe. They were too busy looking around to look at me, funny kids. Ava got a cute new sweater and hates it. She doesn't really mind the sweater but she really isn't too fond of the hood. You can see from this picture that she has already stretched out the hood from pulling on it to try to get it off. This may have not been a nice mommy thing to do but I couldn't stop laughing at her trying to take her hood off. This is what Ava did while we watched conference. She really has never been a cuddly baby. Ever since she was a tiny baby shes hated to be rocked and sung to. Grandpa Steve taught us a trick to put her to sleep and it works like a charm. You put her face down on your knees like this and juggle your legs. I think its funny when people look at me like I'm crazy when I do this but it really does work! I just like this picture of her posing on at tree at grandma Maggie's house, she so cute and so much fun. Her personality has really been coming out the past couple weeks, she's a ham...I love her so much!

Water Baby

2008-09-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't decided how I feel about winter coming. Summer is definitely my favorite time of the year. Im not looking forward to having Ava cooped up inside the house all day, she loves to be outside and she especially loves the water. These are a few shots of her on the lake. She doesn't like to be held in the boat she tries to get down and climb up on the engine cover when the boat is going fast this scares mom but dad lets her do pretty much whatever she wants. The last picture is of my dad water skiing. I have to say that he does pretty well for an old man. He says hes going to do it until hes 70...we'll see if that really happens.

Some new bling

2008-09-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

Today we decided on a bike ride that we were going to pierce Ava's ears on daddy's day off. My brother in law thinks I'm a "cruel parent" for causing my baby unnecessary pain and I guess it could be seen as that but she was so brave, she only cried for a minute. Hopefully now people will stop thinking shes a boy when I dress her in clothes that are not pink or that aren't super girly. She looks so cute!

Ava Dancing

2008-09-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

Ava loves to dance. We turn on the kid tunes channel so she can practice her moves.

A few years from now...

2008-08-30T14:30:00.001-07:00

My sister in law Cari had this on her blog so I thought I would try it to see what picture it would come up with for Ava. I guess I can kind of see a resemblance?? That was fun, thanks Cari!

Summer Fun

2008-08-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

This summer has been very busy but a lot of fun. Last week we got to go to Utah for a Hepworth family reunion. On the way to Utah we went to Ridgecrest to visit Jinny and Omar and help them get settled in their new house. After Ridgecrest we drove to St. George Utah to stay at Michael's aunts house. On the way to St. George Michael got a speeding ticket in Barstow from the officer who trained Caleb Stewart...pretty random. While we were in St. George we got to see the play Les Misérables at the Tuacahn outdoor theater. We had a lot of fun and the play was amazing, thank you Maggie for watching Ava so we could go! After St. George we got to visit Tracie and John in Cedar City. They took to an ice cave (it was freezing) and on a short hike in the mountains to this waterfall with a cool tunnel that goes miles back and leads to a lake. We had a lot of fun visiting with them and we are so glad that they finally got married! We got to visit with a lot of Michael's friends that he hadn't seen in a while and we got to see a lot of Michaels family on the Carlin side as well as the Hepworth side. The reunion started off at Michael's grandpa's favorite restaurant, Chuckorama, which actually wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be. After dinner we went to the cultural hall and played games. It was a lot of fun getting to see everyone again. We forgot to take pictures but here is a group shot of everyone that was ab le to come.

Dominican Republic

2008-08-05T10:27:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago we were able to go back to visit Michael's mission in the Dominican republic. It was an amazing experience and I hope that we will get to go back someday. We rented a twelve passenger van (my mom and Michael's parents joined us on the trip) and Michael was our tour guide. He drove us all around the island showing us all of his different areas. We were there for 8 days and we were on the go...we never stayed in the same place for more than two nights. I felt kind of bad for Michael because he had to translate for all three of us because none of us know Spanish. Because I don't know Spanish I didn't really get to really communicate with anyone, but they all were so sweet to us. Everyone loved Ava, strangers would come up to us to ask us if they could take pictures of her and they all wanted to hold her. Michael was such a great sport, thank you for putting up with us sweetie!

My first dress

2008-07-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

i I've been wanting to make Ava a dress ever since I got my sewing machine for mothers day. I went to Wall mart with Jinny and found the perfect pattern and fabric but talked myself out of buying it because it just seemed like too much work. Michael and I went back to Wall Mart and I showed him the fabric and pattern and he gave me a little bit of encouragement and we bought all the stuff I needed. I had the wrong bobbin for my machine so I decided to go to my moms house to use her machine. My mom is soo great, she helped me read the pattern and guided me through it. We stayed up until 2am working on it, it was a lot of fun. She was so excited that I actually wanted to sew and to help me with it. Thanks mom for showing me the ropes, I love you!

Fourth of July

2008-07-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

We spent the fourth out on the lake with my family and had a blast! We took the ski boat out to see the fireworks, and went back out to stay the night on the houseboat. We had a lot of fun. The next day we got up early and went wake boarding and skiing. I grew up on the lake and love going out on it. Michael laughs because I get so excited and I turn into a little kid again when I'm out there. I loved being able to play this year, the last few years I haven't been able to because of injures and last year I was pregnant. My dad skied for the first time since his back surgery and did a great job! Ava loved being on the boat and playing in the sand with her cousins.

Ava is six months old!

2008-06-19T12:28:00.000-07:00

So, I've been slacking...it's been about three and a half weeks since I've posted anything and so much has happened I don't know how to catch up. Here is what we have been up to. #1 Michael is going back to school so we don't get to see him too much. We like it when he has training for work because we get to stay down in Sacramento with him and do fun things. Two weeks ago we had a special treat, Billy and Tanya were in town so Michael's family met us down at Scandia...it was a lot of fun! #2 We finished the pool! Our goal was to have it finished by June and we made it! It really looks good! #3 Michael took a day off and we too Ava to six flags with my mom, my two cousins and Greta. On the way there we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory. The kids got to take a tour of the factory while we shopped around downstairs. Michael spun a wheel and had to eat a skunk spray jelly bean...it was disgusting. His breath really smelled like skunk spray so I made him eat some toothpaste jelly beans to make his breath less stinky. Six Flags was fun! On the way down we were talking about roller coasters and discovered that all of the kids were scared of them. My mom, Michael and I were a little bit disappointed because we were really excited about going on them...after babysitting the baby while we went on the first ride they decided that they would give it a whirl and were bragging to everyone that they went on a roller coaster when they got home. #4 We have discovered that Ava LOVES the water. She thinks it's so funny when people splash, it's really cute. She also loves going out on grandma and grandpa's houseboat but doesn't appreciate the life vest grandma makes her wear on the ride out to the boat. #5 Tracie got married! We are so happy for her! We got mixed up on the time and ended up getting to the temple three and a half hours late...luckily Tracie was very understanding and she wasn't too mad. Anyways, there are a few highlights from the past few weeks. I'm not going to wait so long to post next time!

Trauma

2008-05-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

. Okay, so I'm really not a huge fan of animals but I just witnessed a very sad thing outside my office window and I thought I would share. I was cleaning out the closet in the office and looked out the window because I wanted to see the crazy wind. Right when I looked out the window two baby birds fell from the palm tree. I ran outside and one seemed to be okay and the other had died (dead bird not pictured). I was trying to think of something I could do to save the little guy that survived the fall and ran inside to look up... umm I guess someone else to save him. When I looked back out the window he was laying down so I went back out to see him and he had died!! This was really a very sad experience for me, thats big for someone who doesn't like animals, right? So this experience reminded me of something else that happened a few days ago. I was babysitting my nephews and took them over to play with Helaman (he has all the fun toys!) So As soon as they got to Jinny's house I noticed that they were all huddled over by the bushes so I went over to see what they were looking at. It was a dead baby possum. Brycen said, "awww cute!" Helaman said, "Look Tara, he's resting."Jinny was brave and scooped him up and threw him in the orchard. Side note- I don't know why I decided that all the dead things I'm talking about are male. Jinny Rinsed off in the pool afterwards.

Endless Projects

2008-05-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

Our latest project around the house has been the pool. We didn't really know if it was fixable because it hasn't been kept up for about ten years but we decided to call the pool guy to see what we needed to do to get it going again. The first step was to pressure wash to get all the built up gunk off. I actually really enjoyed doing this...it was fun to see an immediate improvement. Pressure washing took all week (it could have taken less time but the only time I could do it was when Ava was napping) and Michael spent a few more hours finishing it off on Saturday. I don't think he enjoyed it as much as I did but he was a good sport about it. A few more steps and we hope to have the pool up and running again in about a month!

Big Girl!

2008-05-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

Ava is so in to her big cousins these days. She thinks it's the greatest thing in the world when they play with her. When they aren't playing with her she just likes to sit and watch them play. Brycen is so sweet to her...he loves to play with her and hold her. He always makes sure she has a blanket, binki and a toy to play with. On mothers day we were all at my sister Celeste's house and Brycen brought his Spiderman couch out for her to sit on while ate brunch and covered her up with his Spiderman blanket. Kolbee also kept her entertained with his tractors. He took away all of her girly toys and brought her lots of tractors to play with.

Sacramento ZOO

2008-05-01T08:20:00.000-07:00

Michael has to go to Sacramento often for work training and Ava and I like to join him. Michaels training starts at 9:00am and check in to the hotel wasn't until 12:00pm so we decided to take a trip to the zoo. I thought it would only really be fun for me because I haven't been to the zoo for years but Ava also had fun! We got to the zoo right when it opened so we almost had the whole zoo to ourselves for the first little bit, it was really nice not having to dodge all of the kids on field trips that showed up later in the day. Ava's favorite animals were the flamingos, she thought they were really funny. I wish I would have taken a video of her looking at them. My favorite animals were of course all of the apes and monkeys...I've always thought it would be really fun to have a pet monkey:).

Feather Falls

2008-04-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went hiking up to Feather Falls. It was beautiful, everything about it was beautiful. The dogwoods were blooming, the wild flowers were out, the baby was happy, the weather was PERFECT, and the company was great.

The Park

2008-04-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we finally finished fixing the fence that blew over in the big storm in January (we=Michael and his dad). We have been planting pretty plants inside the pool fence getting ready for the summer. The next step is getting the pool ready...we dont know exactly what we need to do to make it functional but we plan on doing it so we can stay cool this summer. The ultimate goal is to teach swim lessons in it...we'll see if it really happens:). Anyway, after we finished with all of that stuff we got to take Ava to the park for the first time! It was a lot of fun, she loved sitting in the swing and watcing the older kids play. She also liked to be pushed but it was still a little bit scary.

Look Who's Sitting Up!!

2008-04-13T05:17:00.000-07:00

She's getting sooo big and growing way too fast! It's so fun to watch them grow and do new things every day. Ava's latest is sitting up all by herself. She can't do it for very long, after a while she tips over but shes trying so hard.

Ava and friends

2008-04-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

Ava and Halle finally got to see eachother again...the last time they were both pretty new. I thought this picture was funny because they were both making the same face. I try to get good pictures of Ava with her cousin often but its hard to get them to both cooperate so this one turned out to be my favorite...it makes me laugh.

Ava's first snow trip

2008-04-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

We finally got to take Ava to one of our favorite places, Tahoe! We had so much fun shopping around the new Northstar village and hanging out with family at the cabin. Michael and I even got to leave Ava to go out to dinner at my favorite Italian restraunt in Kings Beach called Lanzas, it was delicious!

The cabin was packed with 18 people... it was great. We got to visit with a lot of my cousins that we dont get to see very much anymore and they finally got to meet Ava, it was a real treat.

Happy Easter!

2008-04-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

Ava had a very happy Easter first at grandma Maggie's house where she helped me find Easter Eggs then at Grandma Cay's house in Oroville where we watched all the kids search for eggs. Ava loves to be held so she was so happy all day with everyone around so willing to hold her.