Better Late Than Never... Right?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! I know it has been a little while since I posted so this will be a long post :) We had a very fun time over Thanksgiving!! Dave had 2 weeks off and we headed over to Texas to spend time with my family. This is a pic of our niece Anna getting ready for Christmas (she fell down the stairs and that is how she got that bruise on her nose. She told me she was turning into the alphabet because it looked like a backwards "C" she is so funny)
Here we are in Texas. Ava felt like such a big girl eating in a booster seat. On a side note.. Ava learned how to crawl a little over a month ago (it's more of an army crawl but she gets around and she is pretty quick. Also yesterday she started growling like a bear.. She is such a funny and sweet little girl)
We met up with some friends that we have been missing since we moved and ate at the most delicious Italian restaurant! Mmm
Before we left for Texas though we were able to explore our new neighborhood. They have tons of trails to go hiking so we did. We wore Ava out though.
We forgot to take into account that we now live in Arizona where there are not very many trees to offer shade... We had to be creative covering Ava up to protect her from the sun :) (Yes that is a nursing cover...)

Having some fun family time!!

It was a nice little hike and Ava did so well.

There were lots of firsts during our trip.. This is our first family plane ride. Ava was an angel on the flight and didn't even make a peep. I think it was pretty soothing for her. Our flight back was so awesome though. We were on the best plane ever. Every passenger had their own TV monitor with tons of movies, TV shows, and games. It was awesome. And the best thing about it was that it was free!! I especially loved it because it was such a nice distraction for someone like me who HATES flying.

This was another first... Ava's first bath in the real tub. She loved it and that is an understatement. She loved splashing that water everywhere.

This wasn't a first but a first in a long time... Sleeping in a pack in play. She was so funny. When she would wake up in the morning she would start scratching the side of it where the mesh part was until I would look over at her and then she would give me the biggest smile. She is so cute!!

We couldn't pass up eating some delicious Mexican food. Ava loved it too!

We were also able to meet up with more friends. Ava still hasn't decided which one she is going to marry though. We were so glad that we were able to see Rachel, Boyd, Nathan, and Hyrum before they moved away to Oregon. We are sad they moved away we will miss them a lot..

Dave was also able to get in a little pre Turkey bowl time. What a handsome man!!

With Thanksgiving over we are now getting ready for all the Christmas festivities.

Ava loves the Christmas tree. I love these pictures of her!! She is such a beautiful baby - and I am not biased.

Our Christmas tree is all set up. Still no lights up outside but we are working on that... Maybe this weekend.

I got to open my present early. I was so excited. This was our Black Friday purchase. Thanks Dave!! I love you!!

To ring in the festivities we had our Ward Christmas party last Saturday. It was a lot of fun and the primary children provided wonderful entertainment.

Even Santa came! Ava was very curious about him and his long beard but she didn't scream when we put her on his lap so that was good.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

What We Haven't Been Posting About...

I realized it has been a while since I last posted in here and lots has happened. We went to more Halloween activities (during Halloween). Here we are at the Midwestern Halloween activity. It was a lot of fun. Ava was a little young to do the activities but we still made her try. I am pretty sure that 90% of the time (since Halloween) Ava has played with those Reeses Pieces. They are now a melted mushy mess but they are still safely contained in the wrapper so we keep giving it to her :)
Here she is dropping some bean bags in a bucket (she wanted to eat it though and not drop it)

And dropping more stuff in buckets

Fishing for prizes

And making cards for children in the Hospital

After Halloween we had Dave's brother Mike and his wife Mari over with little Max and took pictures in their costumes. He was a gnome but could have passed as Ava's dwarf. She was willing to give up her Reeses Pieces for his Travelocity sign though.

They are so cute!

I love this picture of them!!

On Monday we went with some friends to a Train Park. We got to ride on a little train around the park and it was a lot of fun.

Here we are on the train. Ava was a little confused by it but once it started she loved it.

Here's the train! My little nephew Bruce loves trains so I called him while we were there and now they are going to come visit so we can take him to this park. I was so excited! I love convincing people to come and visit :)

And the front view

Here are some cupcakes I made last night. It is a little pumpkin pie on top made out of a caramel and fondant with a little buttercream frosting on top. I thought it turned out pretty cute. Now I need to bring them to people so I don't eat them :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This morning Ava and I went to the park near our house with some friends and swung in the swing (mainly she just sat in the swing - she wasn't too sure about it)

She is so stinkin' cute!!

This week has been pretty crazy... It is finals week for Dave for his first quarter of school and he has been doing AWESOME!! We are so proud of him. He only has one more tomorrow and then 2 weeks off!! YAY! We leave for Texas next Friday and are so excited!! It will be nice to have a break and be able to spend time with Dave and also with our families!

Heigh Ho Heigh Ho... It's Off To A Trunk Or Treat We Go

Tonight was our ward "Trunk or Treat." We went with the Snow White theme. Ava was Snow White as you can see. You can't be a princess unless you have a prince though ... Right? So Ava found the next best thing ... a frog to kiss to become her prince. She was at least trying to! She kept trying to grab little Jackson's hand.
He wasn't too sure about it though...

Here we are with some friends.

Such a pretty princess!

We love her!

She got it!! As you can see she was pretty happy about it.

She is so funny!

I worked all day on those amazing costumes! Dave was a great sport about it too and let me dress him the craziest. I think it was because I was SO excited about it that he didn't have the heart to tell me no. What a wonderful husband I have!! I was pretty proud of how they turned out though and we got a lot of laughs out of them :)

Ava's costume was of course the best (probably because I didn't make it - I did spend about an hour on that bow though) but I am pretty sure she could make anything she wore cute.

Me and Ava. I was the dwarf Sleepy (because that cute little girl doesn't let me sleep :))

And Dave was the dwarf Doc (because he is going to be a doctor). We are so clever :) It was fun dressing up though and suprisingly really cold (hence all the under clothing). I didn't know Arizona got cold... oh and by cold I mean mid 50's... I love it here!! :)

One more picture... I love this one! And yes that is a Butterfinger in her hand. This girl loves candy... well gnawing on it with the wrapper still on anyways. If I ever need to calm her down I just give her some unopened candy and she plays with it for hours (she slept with some candy this afternoon even because she wouldn't let me take it away :)) I have to be careful though because I used this trick at the store yesterday and gave her a fruit roll up (unopened) to gnaw on and the next thing I know the wrapper is off and she is sucking the fruit roll up. She is fast and smart! She was pretty upset with me when I took that fruit roll up away. I think she forgave me when I gave her the wrapper though.

Mr Boogedy

I don't know if anyone else saw this Disney movie as a kid but this was my favorite. I remember being so scared of the Boogedy man. I wish Disney would bring it back and sell it. So I was doing a search for it so I could enjoy it this Halloween and I found the whole movie on youtube! For any of you that want to relive your childhood (or want to watch a classic "scary" movie-which isn't so scary) I have the movie to view at the bottom of our blog. If you want to check it out you won't be disappointed :). Gotta love those 80's movies.

Pumpkin Carving

Dave's finished pumpkin
The group's finished pumpkins. We are pretty amazing :)
My finished pumpkin. I was really proud of it.

The Swiss' (Christina & Nate) had us over to carve pumpkins with them on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun. This was what Dave and I did on our first date exactly 2 years ago. Who would have thought that 2 years later we would be married and have a 6 month old baby (Well it probably crossed my mind on that date but what can I say Dave is amazing and I am just happy he wanted to marry me too :)!)

This was our Halloween pumpkin carving picture. Nate and Christina had their place all decorated for Halloween so I thought it would be cool to have a little bit of the spider web through the picture for a more eerie feel... Not quite as eerie as I hoped but that's ok you get the idea. Thanks for having us over Christina and Nate!! It was a ton of fun and I think our pumpkins turned out great!!