Lately

I promise that we will start including pictures of the parents in the next few posts... You can, however, tell who is at the center of everything we do each day, and for good reason.  These past few months haven't brought us too much excitement just watching Ava's hair grow is about the highlight of it all.  The other day we dressed her up for church in her cute frilly shirt and cute new pink shoes and took a look at how much older she had gotten, in what seemed to be overnight.

I know that every parent says this, but we feel like Ava is the smartest and cutest baby ever.  I have highlighted some of the evidence we have gathered:

1) She loves to climb up in her crib and throw her pacifier out (no other baby has ever done that right)

2) She speaks in languages we can't yet understand in noises that obviously mean she has something important on her mind

3)  she screams loudly at night when she has to go to bed because she knows that mom and dad are probably watching vampire diaries (a show she has watched since in the womb)

4) She has ridden a horse at the grocery store with very little help from mom

5) She has chosen not to have any teeth yet because she knows once she gets them she will have to brush them

6) She prefers not to eat real food too often because it is too messy

7) She loves the camera and prefers to pose when she is looking her best

8) She loves her mom and dad more than anything else

This toy came from a friend in the ward and she was absolutely enthralled with it for about 10 minutes, she's not quite sure how it works yet, but the complexity of it all has captured her attention.

She doesn't look as excited as she usually does, probably because she prefers to be riding in the Kentucky derby on the rose winning horse.

4th of July

We recently thought about the almost six years that we have been married and realized that for all of those years except for one we have spent the 4th of July in Utah.  We love going to the freedom festival and enjoying the parade and picnic with family and close friends.  Given that we are new parents, and this is Ava's first 4th of July, we had two outfits picked out; the outfit below was Christina's choice for the day and the outfit that will come in later posts is the outfit that Brandon wanted for the day.  Obviously Christina's vote was weighted a little more than Brandon's.

We completely enjoyed the fourth of July, and while little Ava didn't seem to pay to much attention to the parade she sure looked cute in her holiday apparel. While these shoes may look cute the right shoe kept on falling off all day.  Definitely not a quality pair of shoes but the looks make up for it!

This picture was planned and taken multiple times in order to get the best view of the parade passing by.  As you can see the parade is packed every year and people camp out the night before to get the "good spots".  We came as the parade was starting and were still able to enjoy most of the colorful floats and balloons.

As discussed earlier the right shoe kept on falling off; fortunately for us Ava loves to wear shoes (mostly so she can chew on them) so she wasn't a bad sport about sitting there while we put them back on.

While at Ron and Patty's house (mom and dad's) we took the opportunity to have a photo shoot with one of the up and coming photographers in the area (he will soon be moving to Tennessee).  These photos are untouched and we can only imagine what they would look like if we touched them up a bit.

Happy 4th of July to everyone!  We are so blessed to be living in a country where we have all of the rights and freedoms that so many have fought for.  Hopefully we continue to be a choice land and choose leaders that will fight for those freedoms!

Our little fishy!

Over the course of the last few months we have been shopping around for bathing suits for little Ava.  Little people swimsuits are so cute and inexpensive, everytime we see one we feel like we have to purchase it.  Needless to say little Ava has her fair share of swimming apparel which can be worn to the pool, beach, or lake.  Grandma Patty came to town for a few days and while she was here we took the opportunity and went swimming!  First rule of taking a baby swimming; make sure they have had plenty of rest or you end up with this:

(Hopefully she understands that we are making an exception with the pacifier here)

Fortunately she took a little nap and afterward she came to the conclusion that swimming is just like taking a bath (a little more cold and a lot more chlorine) and she enjoyed, or tolerated if that's how you look at it, the rest of the time. We really weren't too excited about that first time in the water and knew that if we wanted to continue to enjoy the pool together we had to get her back out. So last weekend we ventured out again and this time seemed to be a lot more enjoyable for all involved.

 (She is such a little Diva sometimes!  I think she enjoys just lounging around and catching a few rays to keep up with Daddy's tan)



She has become an excellent splasher and kicker in the pool and hopefully this is a sign of advanced early childhood development!

Never too early...

That's right, it's never to early to take the little one out for her first experience on one of the most sacred places on earth (top 10 at least).  We took little Ava golfing for the first time a few weeks ago and couldn't help but thinking that there is something special about this girl... The look in her eyes when she was on the course, her ability to block everything out and focus on the task at hand, and just her pure raw talent made it a memorable occasion for all.

Truth is she got tired around hole number 4 and she let everyone on the golf course know it.  Brandon ended up driving the two women in the cart back to the house (which is on hole number 6) and finished the round on his own.

On another note we also began feeding Miss Ava some yummy rice cereal.  We still aren't sure exactly how much she likes it given the strange faces she has given us during the feeding process.  It also seems as though most of it ends up all over her face and hands rather than her tummy.

We sure do love this little girl. She is happy all the time, and aside from waking up at the crack of dawn, she lets Christina sleep most of the time.  Her little bib says it all and we believe it: "I am one of a kind".

Her newest game is to mimic whatever we do with our mouth... I caught her on camera after she was a little bored with the game but you'll see why we can't get enough of her!

Hoppy Easter

It will probably be obvious to most of you that Easter has already passed and I am posting about Easter;  lately most of our time has been kissing these beautiful cheeks and we find it hard to put our sweet Ava down!  

We thought we would take a family picture, Christina got a new easter skirt unfortunately it is not visible in this picture but it is very cute and Ava Jean received a new Easter Dress and matching headband.  As usual Brandon did not receive a new Easter dress nor an Easter skirt, but he seems to be doing okay with it.

We did get Ava a small Easter basket filled with all sorts of wonderful things... well there were only two things, but seeing as she can't count I'm sure she won't mind.



Is there a better way to spend Easter than with your family, at church, learning about the Ressurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Take Your Child To Work

This last week was take your child to work day and we didn't want to rob little Ava of having that experience for the first time.  It was so nice for her to get out of the house and away from her daily chores (yep I said daily chores).  Here is a list of the things she does each day:

 1) Put away her dirty clothes,
 2) Come to think of it she only has one chore....

Well it was so much fun for Daddy to have Ava come and visit him at work, she looked beautiful and really loved the playing with the keyboard and playing with the many things around the office.

We just love our little baby girl, she is a blessing in our lives and brings so much joy and happiness to each day.  And just for the record this is the only day that Brandon has had to wear a shirt and tie to work.

A Year of Changes and Beginnings

As we reflect on 2011 and all that has happened in the life our our small little family as well as our extended family, we can't help but smile at the new beginnings that have brought in 2012. Little Ava was born on December 23, 2011 and has forever changed our lives. She's a little fussy at times, a little crazy at times, a little reverent at times, and a little adorable all of the time.

We went in for a three and a half hour photo shoot with Amber Crowley at her three week birthday and for the first hour and a half baby Ava was a little bit fussy. Eventually she calmed down and we couldn't be more pleased with how her little pictures turned out. A special thanks to Amber for being so patient and professional during the whole session!