Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving (which also happened to be Avery's second birthday) was spent with the Brandleys.  My parents were in Vegas visiting my brother Matt so we didn't see them at all this year.  I really enjoyed our day with the Brandleys.
On Thanksgiving morning as I thought about what I am thankful for this year, my thoughts revolved around my Brandley family.  Every single one of them!  I have been truly blessed in the in-law department.
They have always been so welcoming and unconditionally loved me for all that I am.
They are great examples of service.  They are always willing to serve anyone in need.  I know that they would do anything for me and my family.
They always make everyone feel included and welcome.
They love my children so much!  That is what has really made my love for the Brandley's grow.  Seeing them with my kids and the love they have for them.
They are truly amazing people.
Joel, Annette, Josh, Megan, Bubba, (yep, Bubba) Jake, Celestial, Maya, Mr. T, Baby in the belly, (!) Alisha, Pug, Isaac, Phill, Megan, Kami, Sterling, Tifannee, and Kaileb, I LOVE YOU FAMILY!!

Avery loves you too!

Big Girl

Ever since we brought Mary home Avery has seemed like such a BIG girl compared to her.  She is continuing to learn so much and is so fun!  The latest thing that has made Avery seem like such a big girl is her moving out of her crib.  We moved her out almost 2 weeks ago.  I just moved her mattress out of her crib one night laid it on the ground and decided to see what happened.  She was super excited about it and that first night she got out of bed and opened her door 3 times.  Each time I simply said, "go to bed" and she would run right back to bed.  I also decided to put the baby gate up in front of her  door to prevent night time wandering.  I was really worried about it, but it ended up going very smoothly.  I go in to check on her each night before I go to sleep and sometimes she's laying on the floor next to the bed, but most nights she's curled up in her bed looking like such a big girl.  No longer my little baby.  Even though that's a little sad, I'm loving watching her grow.

Halloween

We had a few fun things go on this past weekend for Halloween.  First off was a party at my sister Megan's house which was last Friday.  We had fun!  We started off by eating some delicious pizza (I could seriously eat pizza everyday) and Halloween shaped Mac&Cheese!  We also watched some silly and fun Halloween kid shows through out the night.  After eating we started carving pumpkins.  I don't really enjoy carving pumpkins.  I don't have the patience to do more than a normal jack-o-lantern face.  Unless I'm carving an upside down jack-o-lantern with a Miss Katie Brandley!  While we were carving pumpkins my wonderful little brother John proposed to his wonderful girlfriend Courtney!  When John got done with his pumpkin and most everyone else was still carving theirs he asked Courtney to go outside to light his jack-o-lantern and outside Sarina had set up a bunch of candles and a pumpkin that John had written "Marry Me" on.  Courtney said yes!  They will be getting married sometime in May in the Brigham City temple.  I am very excited for John and Courtney.  It's pretty crazy that my little brother is getting married.  I love him so much and am very glad that he found Courtney and that they make each other so happy.  After the proposal most everyone left.  We stayed a little longer because Avery loves her cousins Tafton and Mikaela and we don't see them very often.

Oh and about this last picture here!  We went back out after the proposal to take some pictures and John sat down on a candle!  He didn't even notice, he was just thinking, "hmmm it's a little warm right here."  Then when he stood up he realized he was on fire!  Luckily there was snow on the ground to put it out.  It was pretty funny.  And because John might be sad if I don't put this picture up, here's one of him tebowing.

The next day (Saturday) we went to the Hogle Zoo for their Boo at the Zoo.  The kids dress up and go trick or treating.  It was different from what I thought it would be.  Different businesses set up booths through out the zoo and you can wait in a long line for a kit kat bar if you'd like to.  We didn't wait in too many of the lines and only went into the ones with shorter lines.  Mostly we just went to see the animals.  I thought Avery would love it, she LOVES animals.  She got pretty excited about the elephants, polar bear, and the tiger.  She got excited about the tiger mostly because she was convinced it was Tigger!  It was super crowded, but we had a good time.  It was a lot of walking!  I'm hoping we can go back next summer.  

That was our Halloween fun!  We dressed Avery up, (she had two different costumes) but didn't go out to do anything on Halloween.  Avery doesn't know what's going on and I couldn't teach her how to say trick or treat.  I'd try and all she would hear was the work treat and start asking please all excited!  So we stayed home and only had 2 trick or treaters.  3 if you count Kamila stopping by and me luring her into the house with the promise of candy.  I hope everyone had a fun safe Halloween!