Christmas Post

The Christmas was one long weekend.  We headed down to Ogden on the 22nd so we did our Christmas Eve on the 21st and Christmas on the 22nd.  Since getting married Louis and I have done Christmas eve pajamas.  I never did it growing up, but knew many people that did it and always loved the idea.

In our jammies

Saturday, (our Christmas) we woke Avery up a little earlier than usual so we would have time to open presents and get everything packed up to leave.  She was not happy about this.  Not going to lie, I imagined things going a lot differently.  A happy face after seeing the tree and presents, instead we got this:

She cheered up very quickly after we got her her stocking and she saw all the fun things inside!  She really got into it this year, it was so much fun!  She went over and picked out the first present to open and after every present she'd get so excited!

Sunday night we had the Brandley family Christmas party.  There is always lots of food and we get to enjoy people's talents, as well as do a nativity scene.  We weren't able to go last year because of Louis' work schedule, we were glad we were able to go this year and had a great time.

On the night of Christmas Eve we were at my parents house.  Every year we have a big dinner and a program with scriptures and songs.  I sang Mary's Lullaby with Megan and my mom.  This year we were even able to do the nativity with the kids!  We haven'y done that in a while.  After the program Louis hosted a game of Family Feud, Christmas themed of course!  Kids were getting tired and so it was kind of hurried, but it was fun!

We also spent Christmas morning at my parent's house then headed over to the Brandley's.  After the present opening we played Family Feud again.  They really got into it and was a lot of fun!  After Family Feud we talked and ate some delicious food.

ready to buzz in

fast money!

fast money!

We headed home that night around 7:30 so we could be home to put Avery to bed on time.  She didn't get a nap on Christmas, we laid her down, but she never actually fell asleep.  So on the drive home she lasted about 3 minutes before falling asleep!

We had a great long Christmas weekend!  We are so blessed to live close to our family so we can be with them on these special days!

Brandley Bonding

First of all, there's going to be lots of pictures!  This weekend we went up to Bear Lake with Louis' family for some Brandley bonding before Josh and Megan move to Pennsylvania.  It was a lot of fun being all together!  I guess the "Brandley Bonding" actually started at Sterling basketball game Friday night.  He played up here against Logan High.  It's always fun watching him even though I never really know what's going on.  But I'm proud of him!

Sterling with Avery and Mary in their cute "Go Sterling"outfits

Here's the bum of Mary's outfit

After the game everyone headed over to Jake's house for pizza and then everyone but us headed up to Bear Lake!  We thought it was a little silly to drive up at ten at night just to go to bed.  Because believe me, I would be going to bed even if a lot of them ended up staying up until 4:30!  So we waited until Saturday morning to pack up and join the party.  We played games and talked, then went swimming/sat in the hot tub.  I don't love swimming, but it was super fun to watch the Brandley siblings and the kids.  Avery was not loving the water at first.  Luckily her Papa came to the rescue and by the end she was even walking around the kiddie pool!

Tif playing with the babes

Game playing

Game playing for the kids

Ready to swim

Kamila me and Tif in the hot tub

Not having fun!

Chicken fights

More chicken fights

Lots of chicken fights!

Avery throwing her head back and laughing with Papa

Avery walking around in the pool

The rest of the day we played around, watched movies, played games, had cake and ice cream for Josh's birthday, ate lots of snacks, and laughed a lot.  We stayed up until 12:30 then decided to go to bed.  (A lot of the people chose to stay up until 4:30 again!) Mary was sweet and slept through the night for me.  She'll do that every now and then, but is still not that consistent with her nighttime sleeping, but I was grateful for it that night!

Super Isaac!

Phillip and Jake

Siblings

Phill taking a snooze with Mary

Avery and Maya sharing a snack together

Push ups

Doggy pile on Phill

The next morning we got ready for church.  Kind of.  We completely forgot to pack Louis any church clothes and I forgot to pack myself church shoes.  We had some breakfast and were about to head out to church when we found out Joel had locked the keys in a running car.  So Louis went out and got the door opened and by then it was half past 9 and we had just planned on going to Sacrament so we had missed that!  We decided to just stay home and get ready to leave.  People slowly came back from church (some just stayed for Sacrament, others stayed for the whole block) and we ate some food and played games again.  That was it for us because Louis had work, so we headed home.  The drive home was snowy and scary, but we made it home safe and sound.

We loved the time we got to spend with our Brandley family, we are sure going to miss Josh and Megan when they head out on their new adventure.  Hopefully we'll get a chance to visit them after they move!

Mary's Blessing

12/09/2012

Sweet Mary-

Today you were blessed by your dad.  You looked so sweet in your dress.  It is the same dress your sister Avery and I wore for our blessings.  I didn't try it on you until today.  Luckily it fit, it was even a little big on you!  You loved all of the lace and ribbons to suck on.  

During the blessing you were a good girl.  You did cry a little bit at the beginning. Only because you're a little sick and were ready for a nap.  You stopped crying and were a good girl the rest of the blessing.  You were blessed with many things.  

You were blessed on the same day as your Uncle Phill's homecoming talk.  That made it extra special.  It also made it so many more family was able to come.  You have so many people who love you and will always be there for you.

Mary your mom and dad love you so very much!  We are so glad you came to us.  Avery loves you, every morning when she wakes up she's asking for you.  She likes to give you high fives and kisses.  She'll stroke your head softly and say "soft" in a quite voice.  I hope the two of you are great friends.

We love you Mary!

Love,

    Mom

Phill's Homecoming

Last Thursday Louis' little brother Phillip came home from his LDS mission in San Bernardino California.  Louis was able to take off work so we could go down to meet him at the airport.  We ended up waiting for about 45 minutes before he came down and here's what happened:

That is Louis on Josh's shoulders.  Don't worry they weren't totally goofing off.  They were trying to get a balloon that had floated to the ceiling because Teancum really wanted it.  Louis did succeed in getting it and Teancum did succeed in letting it float to the ceiling once again!

After all that fun stuff Phillip finally descended from the escalators!

Maya running up to Phill

Phill and Megan

Phill and his "twin" Kaileb

The whole group

I left my memory card in our laptop so I could only take these 5 pictures before my internal memory was full!

It was a wonderful reunion!  We are proud of Phill and his decision to serve a mission.  He has grown during it and is a better person for it.  We love you Phill and are glad you're back home!

2 Years Old

My sweet, crazy, energetic, bright, silly daughter turned two years old last week!
At two years old she is 28 pounds (80%) and 2 feet 11 inches (85%).

She is a full fledged toddler!  Her tantrums are so funny sometimes.  With her minor ones she'll just collapse on the ground saying "Uh oh, Uh oh."  And her big ones, she also collapses on the ground but screaming/crying and banging her head and hands.  That's when I put her in her room telling her she can come back down stairs when she's happy.  Most of the time she just needs a hug and she calms down.

Avery has been such a great big sister!  She will put Mary's binky in her mouth when she needs it and pats her softly on her head and sometimes not so softly on her tummy.  She gives Mary high fives then tries to get her to give her a fist bump.

Avery is very smart, I love watching her learn.  Seeing that light turn on in her head as she figures things out.  She can identify all of her ABC's, knows all of her colors, and can count to 9.  Although she does skip a few, she'll say "1, 2, 3, 9."  She loves doing animal sounds!  It's so cute!  Some of my favorites are dog, duck, bunny, skunk, and pig.  Avery says a lot of words, but doesn't really put them into phrases yet.  She says a few phrases, but for now, she's still just mostly saying one word at a time.

Avery's favorite things to do are color and read.  She probably reads about 20 books a day and she'd read more if she could!  She's gotten better at her coloring, instead of just scribbling randomly all over the page, she'll scribble on something specific.  (If that makes any sense)

Avery is so energetic and loving!  We are sure lucky to have her!

Since her birthday was on Thanksgiving this year we gave her out presents the day before her birthday.  She didn't really know the whole opening present situation, but she caught on pretty quick.  

On her actual birthday we had a little get together with the Brandley's after the Turkey Bowl.  We had a doughnut cake and hot chocolate.

Here is the Brandley family singing to her, she was a little scared.

And just yesterday we had a Keeffer birthday celebration! We combined John, Lizzie, Mom, Avery, Megan, and Ben's birthday celebrations into one big day.  Avery got so many fun things!  She's been playing with all of them the entire day!  It's been wonderful having new toys around that she's so interested in.

We LOVE our Avery!  The happy moods and the sad moods.  We love watching her grow and learn.  We are so happy Avery came to us two years ago and couldn't be happier with her in our lives!  Love you Avery baby!