Growing up

I know it has been awhile since I have posted but honestly, our lives have been very uneventful, and even a little boring. This is the only exciting thing that has happened in a few months.

Avery had her first dental cleaning with Aunt Stephie. I was a little nervous because I thought she would cry the whole time. She did relatively well. She let Stephanie clean her teeth but would NOT let Dr. Fackrell look in her mouth. Oh well, maybe next time. Jason promised her a toy or getting her ears pierced if she did well at the dentist appointment. Well this is what Avery decided...

P.S. I am loving my new camera!

All aboard!!

This Christmas Season was extremely busy and went by too quickly. We were able to sneak away to Heber City, UT and ride the North Pole Express with my family. It is much like the Polar Express movie. We boarded the train that took us to the North Pole where Santa was waiting for us. While we were making our way north, Santa's little helpers served us cookies and hot chocolate. We sang Christmas songs and enjoyed the lights and deer as we made our way up the canyon. When we finally got to the North Pole, Santa jumped onto the train and visited with each of the kids and asked them what they wanted him to bring them for Christmas. Avery asked for a baby doll and a camera, which Santa did deliver them!

Waiting to climb aboard.

Avery telling Santa her LONG wish list.

Eating our cookies.

Avery sitting with my parents. I took 5 pictures hoping to get a pic with my dad's eyes open. It never happened.

It was fun to be with my family and see the kids excited to meet Santa. Each of them love the Polar Express movie, so each of them thought they were riding on THE polar express train.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...

This is the quote that we heard WAY too many times while we were on our Disney cruise! We went with Jason's family and a blast. Avery loved every minute of it, not to mention Jason and I had a very relaxing time on the beach.

Jason and I went kayaking and snorkeling in Cozumel. I love to kayak in the ocean!


Avery got to see every princess on the boat and got to wear her own princess dress to meet them.



Avery got to enjoy the kids club and play and have story time with Belle. She got to make flubber and got to make cookies with Ratatouille.

On Disney's private island, Castaway Cay, we played on the beach all day and buried Jason and made him into a mermaid. It was an awesome beach there and i could have lived there!

We are being tendered over to Grand Cayman to swim with the dolphins and visit a turtle farm.

Avery was very nervous to hold a turtle but she did and loved it.

We had a pirate night at dinner.

Our bingo group! Karalee and I were addicted to Bingo and lost every time. All of us were only 1 number away from winning the jackpot of $7000.

Bike riding on Castaway Cay. It was one of my favorite things to do. (Whose is the whitey tidey behind Avery?)

Picture at Castaway Cay.

It was a fun trip with Avery and Jason. Loved every minute and loved the people we went with! As Pierre would ask, " How was your vacation on Disney cruise?" I would say, "It was excellent."

Parties, Parties and more parties

The last week of October was super busy at our house. We had 4 parties all in one week. Needless to say , Avery was entertained all week long. They first party was a birthday party for our little princess Avery. Avery turned 4 on October 29th and she had a princess birthday party. It was filled with everything princess! She invited a few of her princess friends to attend her royal ball. When they arrived they handed Avery her present and it was opened before they even got in the door.! Avery was SO excited to have them over to play games, eat cupcakes, and play dolls and dress up. For their games, they played Tiana Kiss the Frog, Cinderella's missing shoe, and Sleeping Beauty Slays the Dragon (it was a pinata that looked like a dragon thay they had to slay to get to the candy). They had a lot of fun and played dolls and dress up most of the party.

These are her little princess friends: Payton, Drama Queen Avery, and Taylee.
(noticed Avery has already changed from her princess dress into pajamas that Payton gave her.)

After her party was done, the very next day was Payton birthday party. Payton and Avery are only 2 days apart. Payton is the daughter of Kimmer, who is one of my best buds in the world! She had a bowling party and Avery loved bowling and partying it up with Payton.

Then it was onto to Halloween. This year we had two families parties that were really a lot of fun. It was the first year that Jason and I dressed up and we think it will be tradition for the whole family to dress up. Avery loved watching us get into our costumes. This year Jason was the best Joe Dirt and I was the evil Cruella De Vil. And what else would Avery be. Princess Aurora with her blond hair.

Cruella, Mario and Luigi, Wicked Witch of the West, clowns,

Princess Aurora, the lion, and Spider man

Avery hitting the witch pinata with Joe Dirt in the background.

Shauna from the 70s, witch, monster, Joe Dirt, Cruella, and 2 slightly overweight vacationers

Cruella De Vil with the love of her life, Joe Dirt.

It was a fun Halloween!

Adoption Awareness Month

It has been 2 years since we started the process of adoption. It has been an emotional and hard 2 years to endure. I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of our struggles and there will come a blessing of another baby if we will just be patient! November is Adoption Awareness month and we hope that everyone still remembers our desire to adopt a baby.

Once again, family pictures

It is that time of year again! We had family pictures and I can't believe how much Avery has changed in one year. I love to have pictures taken just to see the change in her. She growing up way too fast! Isn't her red hair gorgeous?!!

Well, since I turned the BIG 30 this year, I told myself that I was going to run in our local marathon BUT I didn't run A marathon. I would have been dead on the side of the road if I had done that! HOwever, my sister in law, Jackie and I decided that we would shoot for a 5K. It turned out to be really fun. We met up with a friend in our ward and off we went! At the finish line, my mom was there to hand out our medals. It turned out to be really fun and I was very pleased with my time (29:15)!

It was so much fun that Jason felt left out so we ran in a city fun run today and the course ended up being a little bit harder than the previous race. I just knew that my time wouldn't be as good but in the end, I did better than expected(28:19). Jason also did really well. He placed 3rd in his age group and ran right around 24:00 minutes. It was really fun to run with Jase even though he left me in the dust. He ended up being my cheerleader at the finish line. All in all, it was fun running in a couple of races and fun to run with Jase. Who knows, next year I might get ambitious and run the 10K.