7 months

This is coming a week late but Avery is now 7 months old!

here are her stats for this month:  

26 3/4 inches long (90th-95th percentile)

18 pounds (50th-75th percentile)

She's is still growing so great!  These measurements are just approximate because they were just done by me at home.  I calculated the percentiles at babycenter.com.  It makes me so happy to see how healthy she is, I just love that chubby little face!  

and I say chubby with the deepest love any mother can have!

6 months seemed like a big milestone to me and now that we're past that it's incredible!  Only 11 more months until she's in nursery!  We just have the most fun with Avery, I love spending my days with her.  I know the more she grows the more fun we're going to have!

Some new things she's been doing:

We started on formula and the transition went pretty smoothly, I wish I could have nursed longer, but it just didn't work out for us sadly.  She loves her bottle though when she sees it she lunges for it and get's upset if it's not ready for her yet!  She's also started having juice from a sippy cup, it took her a while to figure out how to use it, she would just be sucking on it like a binkie then be surprised when something came out of it.  She's really good at using it now though!

Also along the lines of eating, she's tried some new foods this last month.  The ones that she really liked were pancakes and pickles!  The pickle she just tried on Monday and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Avery hasn't been saying any words yet, but she does make a lot of noises, all the time!  She screams a lot, not so good at controlling the volume of her voice yet.  I whisper to her a lot so hopefully she'll get the idea.  She makes  a lot of sounds, ya ya ya is her favorite, she also says na na na, bwa bwa, and she blows raspberries a lot too.  I think she tries to say hi, when I say it to her she looks at me with great concentration  and kind of say ha ha.  So maybe that'll be her first word, time will tell.

Avery is awesome at sitting up now, even when she's on her back she gets up on her elbows trying to sit up.  She also bends in half when she's sitting down and eats her feet.  One time she fell asleep like that.

Looks comfortable doesn't it.

When she's on her stomach she kicks her legs a lot trying to move.  She doesn't get up on her knees yet though.  She does use her arms though to move around in circles and rolls around a lot to get where she wants to go.

She loves playing with her toys, she'll pick them up and play with them for a while and when she's done she'll chuck them to her side and pick up a new toy.  She also has started playing peek-a-boo.  I will put her blanket over her face and she'll pull it off and look up at me with a huge smile!  All in all Avery is just fantastic and still such a happy baby she smiles all the time.  I'm so blessed to be her mother.

Temples

Ogden, UT temple

"The temple was a place of learning for the Savior when He was on the earth; it was very much a part of His life. Temple blessings are available once again in our day."

James E. Faust

I love going to the temple, during my senior year in high school I would go (with Nicole and sometimes Kristy) to do baptisms for the dead before school just about every Wednesday.  Also for my senior trip Nicole, Kristy, and I went on a temple trip!  We started in Logan and went down to Provo doing baptisms for the dead at every temple in between.

  I love the feeling of the temple, you feel completely at peace, it is a sacred place, when you enter you leave the world behind.  It helps you remember God's plan for us, and think in more of an eternal perspective.  I have received a lot of comfort in the temple.  Towards the end of my pregnancy, around 34 weeks I think, the doctor said I was measuring a little small so they were scheduling another ultrasound to make sure everything was okay.  I started getting a little worried!  The week before the ultrasound I was able to go to the temple and in the Celestial room I decided to pray about this.  When I started my prayer I felt so much peace and I just thanked Heavenly Father for the healthy baby I would be able to bring into this world.  If any of you remember my earlier post about this ultrasound, it turned out that Avery was measuring ahead of my due date!  So I really had nothing to worry about!  

I love the work that I am able to do in the temple for those who have passed on without the opportunity of receiving these ordinances.  The spirit I feel from these people and the gratitude I know they are feeling in wonderful.  The last time we went to the Ogden temple before it was closed we did sealings, I love doing sealings.  The sealing ordinance is so special to me and doing it for these families who have waited hundreds of years fills me with the spirit.  Feeling how happy these families are to finally be sealed together for all eternity.  

"Through the power of [the] priesthood. . ., husband and wife may be sealed, or married, for eternity; children may be sealed to their parents for eternity; thus the family is made eternal."

Joseph Fielding Smith

I love the temple and i feel so blessed to live in Utah where they are so convenient to me!  The Logan temple is closing for cleaning soon and the Ogden temple is now closed for the next few years for remodeling and Louis said he heard someone complaining that they're going to have to drive all the way to the Bountiful temple.  Are you kidding me!  We're so lucky!  Some people have to drive hours to go to the temple, some people have to wait years to save the money to take their family to the temple so they can be sealed. I'm so grateful that we have temples on the earth today and so so blessed to have the knowledge that I have of the restored gospel.

Salt Lake City, UT temple

San Diego, CA temple

The temple lifts us, exalts us, stands as a beacon for all to see, and points us toward Celestial glory

Fathers

 I found this quote on lds.org and I wanted to share it:
"Second only to the title of husband is that of father. Next to eternal life, the greatest of all gifts that our Father in heaven can bestow on a man is the opportunity of being blessed with sons and daughters."

(L. Tom Perry "Father-Your Role, Your Responsibility" Ensign, November, 1977)

I have some great father/grandfathers in my lives. I can't think of anything better for Father's day than to share a little bit about each one and why they're amazing and why I love them.

My dad my dad I love my dad. He is an amazing man, he makes me happy and is one of my very favorite people in the world. I have so many great memories with him, one that I know I have mentioned many times is when I would go and do papers with him in the middle of the night. It was fun, we'd have a lot of good talks and I got to form a great relationship with him. Another thing I love is that when I was living there he'd ask my opinion on things for what to get for my mom for her birthday, anniversary, Christmas etc and I'd also sometimes wrap his presents to her for him. I just thought that was fun and I liked that he'd appreciate my opinions. My dad always supports me, even when I've done things that weren't the smartest he always let me know he loved me and he wouldn't get mad or frustrated he'd just be supportive.

My Grandpa is the coolest. Anyone agree? Yes I thought you would. He is. . .I want to say 87, am I wrong? Anyway, he's 80 something and he still competes in the Senior Olympics, and he get's all the golds. He says his strategy is to outlive his competition. Which he's doing a good job at because last year when I went to go see him compete, he was the only one in his age group! I have some great memories of him, he's such a fun person and loves to joke. When he lived in Utah he would come over for dinner most Sundays and that's where most of my best memories of him were made. He is a great man and a fantastic grandpa!

Louis Dad Joel, and Grandpa grandpa to Avery. Joel is a lot of fun, he cares so much about his children and will do everything possible to help them out. I have benefited many times from this in just the two years I've been in the family. He can also always get a killer deal on things. Louis has called him many times to have him go somewhere or call some place to get a better deal than he could have gotten on something. It always works! Ever since Avery was born she's had a special bond with Joel. When she was tiny tiny and wasn't even smiling yet she would still respond to Joel so much! He made a comment that they must have been friends in the pre-existence and I think he's probably right. Avery loves her Grandpa grandpa and I'm glad she has such a great grandfather.

This is Louis' grandpa Brandley. He is always looking for the chance to serve people. In fact we have helped him move dozens of people. One of which we moved three different times. He knows every one. We can hardly go anywhere without him stopping to talk to some acquaintance. Whenever you need him he'll be there. Even if you just need a ride. That was from Louis and I want to add something in here too. I agree with everything Louis said about him, he's such a wonderful person who absolutely loves to serve. He is always willing to serve, he loves doing missionary work, I'm pretty sure most of the missionaries in Ogden know him. I loved Grandpa Brandley even before I was a part of the family, some of you may know that I met Louis through my good friend Katie Brandley who is Louis' cousin so I knew Grandpa Brandley before I even knew Louis. He makes you feel very welcome and loved.

And of course my Louis, the father of my beautiful daughter Avery. It's only been 7 months, but he's a great father. It has been great to see him change into a father. It happened the very first day Avery came into our lives. Those of you who know Louis well you know that he really doesn't show his emotions. Well if you know him like I know him you know what his emotions are, but he can be hard to read for some people. When we were in the hospital about 20 minutes after Avery was born I caught him doing a little dance. This is remarkable for Louis, and it showed just how EXCITED he was and how much he loved that little girl. He is so great with her and helps me out so much. Louis is such a fun person and loves being silly and just has such a fun loving spirit. I just know when Avery gets a little bit older she's going to love running around with him.

Happy Father's Day

Random Thoughts and Pictures

I have many pictures that I love, but they aren't really worthy of having a whole post dedicated to them, so I'm going to do little post with snippets of our days. And yes let's face it they're mostly going to be of Avery because come on, she's more photogenic and a lot more fun to look at.

Well this guy is pretty fantastic to look at too, but

I'm sure you all think Avery is cuter

See, she even knows it! "Miso Cute"! This is one

of the onesies that was made at one of my baby showers

I watched Maya for the day while Jake and Celestial got

ready for a garage sale and we made cookies

She was a great helper and always asked "Can I do it?"

I went through all of Avery's stuff to see what

I wanted to add to J&C's garage sale and as I was

going through her newborn clothes I couldn't believe

how tiny she used to be. This onesie used to be baggy on her

Ever since Avery started reaching out for things she would

lunge at my water bottle whenever she'd see it.

She totally knows how to use it now

Avery fell asleep in Teancum's swing

doesn't she look so comfy?

Avery wearing Louis' hat

She is getting really good at sitting up,

but sometimes she gets too excited and. . .

tips

over

This was just today she did this herself while she was just rolling

and rolling and rolling around as she tends to do now,

tangled up in her blanket it was so funny

And here she is after I freed her, I love her so much!

There is my rambling I'm done now. I love all these pictures, hope you enjoyed them too

Maryland

Caution: Very long post, but lots of pictures! Also a surprise appearance by someone very unlikely so it's worth the read!

Like I said Avery and I flew out to Maryland, my sister Charissa lives in Cumberland and her beautiful daughter Emma was getting baptized. We flew out with Sarina and I was grateful for that because she gave me some help with Avery.

On her first plane ride!

Avery did really well and didn't really cry at all. Maybe about five minutes towards the end of the first flight when I was trying to get her to sleep. I'm so grateful for my sweet daughter. She won over the flight attendants especially one on the first flight, he loved her whenever he'd walk by he'd say, "Hi, Avery". It was sweet and she really liked him too, she'd follow him as he went up and down the aisle. The second flight she slept through the whole thing, what a good baby! I love her!

we put this mask on her to help her sleep, it worked!

The first night we stayed at Sarina's parent's house who live about 30ish minutes away from the Baltimore airport. Her parents are terrific, well I actually never saw her dad while we were there, but I've met him a few times before. Her mom though is so sweet and generous and of course loved Avery because she's so cute and sweet and smiley.

The next day we headed over to the Washington D.C. temple to meet my parent and Ben who drove with my parents. They were all going to do a session and since I had Avery I was going to be waiting in the visitor's center. Little did I know but the day before John had e-mailed saying he was going to be at the visitor's center with an investigator! Ben had seen the e-mail and told me so after they went into the temple I asked one of the Sister's there if there were any Elder's showing an investigator around. She said there weren't any, and I told her the situation and my brother's name and she looked in their appointment book because sometimes they will call to make an appointment so they can have a tour. He wasn't in there darn! So Avery and I just walked around and started looking at the things. As we were listening to the prophet's testimony of Christ. . . (this is Avery looking at him)

. . .the sister missionary I was talking to and some other women came up to us and said "Your brother's here!" Aaaah!! I was a little in shock, they said he was in the bathroom so I got my camera out and waited outside the bathroom and snapped a . . .well, pretty bad picture. . .when he came out

John gave me a hug, but sadly can't hold babies! So he didn't get to hold Avery! She gave him lots of smiles though and she held his finger. The women that was with the sister missionary was the investigator he was showing around (Alyssa) she's pretty awesome and a wonderful person. I told John that if he wasn't comfortable with it I would go somewhere else,but he said he was fine with it so I got to spend two hours with him seeing how he is as a missionary. He's pretty much the same, just more spiritual words coming out of his mouth. The people in the temple also got to see him. We were walking around the temple and my dad saw me and told my mom and I guess she basically went off running, but acted cool when she got to us, like oh John hello. Fancy seeing you here.

walking around the temple

Our family with Elder Keeffer

After that exciting afternoon we headed to Charissa's house! Emma's baptism was Thursday and it was really great. Emma wanted a wedding looking cake for her cake and a lady in the ward made an awesome one. I was able to find a cute little girl topper for it too! There were a lot of people there that love and support Emma. A lot of non members were able to come too, and while Charissa was getting Emma ready after the baptism the missionaries shared a short message. I didn't hear this but Charissa told us later what Emma said to her as she was about to send her into the font. She said, "I can't believe this day is finally here, I've been waiting for this for so long." Is that not so sweet, little children just amaze me with the things they say, and how spiritual they can be.

Friday we went shopping, I'm not sure where we were. It was fun and we found some awesome deal including buy one pair of shoes and get two free! I got Louis two pairs and I got one for myself. It's always fun to go shopping with girls because they actually enjoy shopping, unlike Louis :) We ate at five guys burgers, it was delicious, I had the bacon cheeseburger and it was fantastic. The bacon was very good and crispy and they fries were great, I love good fries.

Sarina with her urban sombrero she found while shopping

Sunday after Sacrament meeting where Emma received the holy ghost my parents left to visit my other sister Jessica in North Carolina for two days and I went to the rest of church with Charissa and Don. Before dinner on Sunday we went to Rocky Gap and put our feet in the water and played in the sand. Avery didn't really think much of it, it seemed like she didn't really even realize her feet were in water!

I've been trying to remember but I can't remember what we did Monday! I have a bad memory when it comes to this. Tuesday Charissa and I went to get pedicures. Ben had come back to stay with us again so he watched Avery for me. It was very nice they had massage chairs to sit on while you got the pedicure, very nice. The guy who painted my toes did not do a good job at all, he didn't even get to the top of the nail on one and it was just sloppy. Charissa called the man who did her toes over and he completely redid them for me. So they turned out good. Later that night we went bowling together, I really don't want to tell you my score. Let's just say that all the kids beat me. Of course they had bumpers and the adults didn't.

Emma and Avery at the bowling alley

After bowling Ben and I left to head back to Sarina's parent's house. Then on Wednesday morning we headed to the airport and now I'm home!!! It's so nice to be home, I always have fun, but miss Louis a lot when I leave. I've been so lucky to see Charissa and some of her family for the last three years.

Memorial Day

This year my mom and dad had headed out to Maryland the Saturday before Memorial day so we spent the morning/afternoon with Louis' family. If you ask me they have a weird tradition. In the morning they head over to Annette's father's grave in the Ogden cemetery and they eat fried chicken. . .yeah. So they go and look at the grave and usually stand around it eating fried chicken, but this year it was rainy so we ate it in the car. As they eat they share things they remember about Grandpa Jack. Louis does remember his Grandpa, he's the one he got the exciting hand rub thing from and I love when he does that. So after the fried chicken we went to the Leavitt's mortuary (I don't know if that's how you spell it) and I was shocked to see concessions. Are you kidding me! I'm sorry, but Memorial Day is not something to make money off of. Stores; do whatever you want have your Memorial Day sales, but not a cemetery, we don't need it there.

Also another thing I saw was a burial plot for sale, I thought that was funny. I know people sell burial plots, but to see a "For Sale by Owner" sign, it was funny.

We then went back to Grandma Steele's house and had a fun time where Avery cried for probably 40 minutes. Her face was all blotchy afterwards. She was just really tired, but would not go to sleep. It was very hard. We ended up leaving before we had planned because of this and Louis took me to Ben and Sarina's where Avery and I were spending the night so we could fly out to Maryland together the next day.

Thank you to all those U.S. soldiers who have passed on and to all of you who are currently serving this country or who have retired.

"I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

I know who I am. I know God's plan.

I'll follow him in faith.

I believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ.

I'll honor his name.

I'll do what is right; I'll follow his light.

His truth I will proclaim."