Our Christmas Adventure

I would have to say that this year was one of our best Christmases ever with adventure after adventure. It all started about 7 months ago when I convinced my whole family to come to Arizona for Christmas. I figured I would be nearly 8 months pregnant by then and wouldn't want to be traveling much and AZ is the perfect middle ground for everyone (plus we haven't had a Christmas together in over 5 years) so it was the perfect ploy and it actually worked :)! I convinced them all and with that my parents decided to rent a cabin in Pine, AZ (about 90 miles away from us) to accommodate our whole family - 10 adults (one of which is 91) and 7 children 5 and under. It was a beautiful cabin and perfect size and location. We were nestled on top of a very steep mountain - I was worried our little Camry wouldn't make it up the steep roads. We all made it though and it was perfect. The weather the first few days was very nice which was perfect for chopping down a Christmas tree and going on some hikes.
Christmas morning was wonderful, except for Paul being a little slow and little Evie disowning him as her friend - being patient isn't a Mathews trait. It was so fun seeing the children so excited that Santa found our cabin and all the fun toys he brought them. I'm sure Bruce's reindeer food we sprinkled outside on Christmas eve helped Santa find our place with no problem. Santa brought Ava a little doll set with a stroller, swing, high chair, car seat, crib, etc that she loves playing with and feeding her baby - I hope it will be a good distraction when baby #2 comes. Ava was in heaven though with all of her cousins. She loves being with friends and making new ones, our little social butterfly. (On a side note to demonstrate this I had my OB appt. on Monday and there were 2 people in the waiting room, one was a man with long hair, a beard and lots of tattoos who she pointed at as we walked in a called "JeeJee" (Jesus) - we need to teach that a little better I guess :)- and then another woman waiting for her appt with a doctor. We were probably waiting about 15 minutes and Ava became best friends with both of them and kept going up to them and talking to them and wanting to share toys and treats with them. She is so funny and not afraid of anyone.) But anyways back to Christmas. Everything was perfect until Tuesday evening when we were starting to put the kids to bed. Ava had a habit of wondering around and losing her binky and blanket so every night I searched the cabin for them. On this particular night I happened to wander into my 91 year old grandpa's room. I saw a Barbie doll on the ground so I just went to pick it up thinking nothing of it and just that one of the kids had gone in there until I looked on the ground next to the doll... My grandpa's pills had been open and some had spilled on the ground and there was vomit on top of them. So of course I freak out knowing it is either my daughter or my sisters so I start yelling to figure out which child just ingested a bunch of pills. It was Eve (my sister's daughter who is 2) she had vomit all down her shirt. So my sister in law calls poison control and they tell her to take Eve to the hospital which was about 25 minutes away. Luckily none of the other children got into the medicine, but we were sure worried about little Eve who was pretty oblivious to the seriousness of what she had just done. She had the time of her life at the hospital and getting a ride in an ambulance down to Mesa, a new stuffed animal, etc. I don't think the hospital taught her much about consequences but thankfully she was fine and they released her the next afternoon. At this point the snow started coming. I blame my husband for this because everyday Dave was hoping for snow and wanting a white Christmas. It came a little late and lets just say it wasn't just a little snowfall. We got 2 1/2 feet of snow and were completely snowed in! We were supposed to be leaving the next day but there was no getting out. Luckily we moved all the cars, except our truck, to the bottom of the mountain before it started but even at the bottom those cars weren't budging. Finally some nice man with a big truck and tow cable was able to save our cars from being stuck and we were able to move them but we were still a half mile STRAIGHT UP the mountain with all of our luggage. On Friday we decided it was time to go and all the men made several trips in knee deep snow up and down the mountain to bring all of our luggage down and then lastly they came for the rest of us. We all got to experience a little pioneer moment trudging down the mountain in knee deep snow. I am just grateful I didn't go into labor or anything crazy like that. I think we had enough adventures for one week. We are happy to be home safe though (it's another story for our poor truck that is still stuck on the mountain) and close to a hospital (for when the baby comes in just a few weeks)! What wonderful memories though that will never be forgotten.

Halloween

I love Halloween! I know I am crazy but it really is one of my favorite holidays. I think I love it because it is the start to Fall and cool weather (unless you live in Arizona where it is still in the 90's) and Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. Also I love to dress up. I think it is so fun. Dave is so patient with me and allows me to make him costumes each year that are slightly crazy (you may remember Doc from last year). I think deep down he loves it. This year Ava was a monkey so I made us some awesome banana costumes. I was pretty proud of them I must say and they turned out way better than I thought they would.
It is fun having children though that love Halloween too. Ava was in heaven for our week long of festivities we were able to participate in. She loved getting candy (she gets that from me I'm sure...) and I tried to teach her to say thank you after people gave her candy but she didn't quite get that down. Her response was "MORE!" Oh she is so crazy and by the end of the week the sugar and excitement high caught up to all of us and we were ready for the festivities to be over :). We had a blast though.

AVA

Well I am finally getting around to posting on our other computer with the newer pics of Ava. I haven't wanted to because it has been so hot in our upstairs study where the computer is (since we turn our air off during the day to save $). But I am actually really cold right now (probably because I just got drenched in the rain and haven't fully dried yet) so I figured it was a perfect time to post.
So our little Ava turned 18 months on September 28th. I can't believe she's that old. It's sad how quickly they grow up but so fun watching them grow. She went to Nursery for the first time two Sundays ago and I was the only one getting teary eyed. Ava didn't even look back. She is such a social little girl and truly isn't afraid of anyone or anything. It is kind of a good thing and a bad thing especially when we are out and she goes up to some pretty interesting people to say hi and wanting to sit on their lap. She is pretty crazy and it does make me slightly nervous sometimes, but I love her little personality. She is such a fun little girl to be around and keeps me on my toes. She also helps me to be more social which is good for me. I love our sweet, little Ava.
We had her 18 month check up last week and she is now 21 pounds (8th percentile) and 31 inches (31 percentile). Still our little runt but growing. I don't know how she stays so small since she is constantly begging for food all day long and eats a ton. It must be her great metabolism because she is always on the go and doesn't stop till bed time. I just can't believe my baby isn't a baby any more...
For some reason I can't write captions under the pics that I post so I will explain them down here. The first pic is of Ava playing the piano - which she loves to do - thankfully we don't have one :).
Ava's new favorite thing is swinging on mine and Dave's legs and saying "Weee" it's pretty cute and a great leg workout!
We also had a hail storm here a few weeks ago. They were larger than golf balls and I thought our house was going to fall to the ground when it started. I had no idea what was happening :). It was pretty cool though and we're just glad nothing got damaged.
We took Ava to Peter Piper Pizza to play the games and she had a blast! It was so fun watching her get so excited. If you look close enough in our family shots you can see that I am growing quite plumply :). Sorry I don't plan on posting any pics of my growing baby belly. If you want to see it just come visit me :) Oh and for those that haven't seen my highlighted hair that I did a while back you can see it in the last shot. The end!

Garage Sales

Every October and April is a fun time of year here. Not only is it General Conference during these times, but here in Glendale it is garage sale season. I have become slightly obsessed with it... But most of you have probably not seen anything like it. They have community garage sales here, every weekend, for the whole month. It is total chaos with people up and down the streets getting the greatest deals ever. I need to take a picture of it but it really is so fun (at least I think so). I found some great finds over the past weeks that I had to share. I got Ava a sandbox, a little table and chair, a rocking horse, small rocking chair and a toy organizer all for super cheap. You can see it in the picture with the free kitchen I got and love :). That corner used to be a mess, but now at least it is an organized mess. Also I got an awesome desk for $5. Yes it was probably worth that and did nearly fall apart bringing it up the stairs but it is awesome for organizing our study which was a disaster. Also my greatest find is that white dresser. I can't help but just love it! I have been wanting to put something there for months but couldn't find anything I liked/was in my price range until now and it was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks Nicole and Stephanie for finding it!! I love it! That small black table too was given to me by my mom. It was my grandmas and I finally got around to repainting it and love it too so I had to take a picture of it. Now our home is fully complete - the way I have wanted it to look since we moved in. Thank you garage sales!

It's A...

I know we are a little late with this post... but anyone who actually follows my blog knows that I am pretty late with all my posts. But for those of you that are a little behind we found out that we were pregnant over the summer. We were so excited to find out and Ava is definitely in need of a little buddy. Dave and I were certain it was a little boy. I don't know why really but I was certain it was (not that I was necessarily hoping but just felt boy). My pregnancy has been COMPLETELY different which is awesome because it has been so much easier. Well after weeks of researching boy bedding/boy everything... We are having another little girl! We couldn't be happier. We were surprised but definitely not dissappointed. It is way better for our bank account:) So now we are transitioning from boy to girl. We already had our boy name picked out and everything. Coming up with our next girl name has been harder than I thought it would be. We have a few names we have been thinking about but right now I just don't know what her name will be... Any suggestions??? We like the names Claire, Ella, and Taylor but not sure where I stand with any of them somedays... I guess we'll surprise you all along with ourselves when it comes time to name her. We are so excited though to have another little girl and can't wait till she comes... well not too soon! Here are a few pics of Ava to tide you over too... All my more recent ones are downloaded to our other computer so I'll have to do a post from there sometime soon.

Just Ava