21 Months

I realized I haven't done a post for Avery in a long time.  The last one was when she was 18 months!  That was way back in May.  So it's probably time for another one.  Things have been fun, she's still so cute and continues to learn new things just about every day.  Things are also not so fun sometimes!  Since we were called into nursery she's been pretty clingy.  She's finally started getting better over the past couple of weeks.  She throws little mini tantrums as well so that's fun.  When she gets upset she'll hit herself in the face crying and saying ow.  Does she really think I'm going to sympathize and give her what she wants because she's hitting herself?  I don't really know how to get her to stop doing this.  So far I just ignore it and she stops pretty quickly.  Her tantrums never last long though.  Over all she's a perfectly happy little girl.
An exciting new thing she's learning is her colors!  She knows blue, green, purple, yellow, and red.  I'm including yellow even though she calls it banana.  It still counts.  She still loves to dance whenever there is music, and sometimes when there isn't!  She likes to sing too.  She loves songs with actions.  She dances and sings along to the Blue's Clues songs.  Her other favorites are Popcorn Popping and Pat-A-Cake.  She loves to stack things and get them to balance, she is definitely her father's child.  When we were out shopping I had a large jar of salsa in the front of the cart with her and she was holding two things of spices we were getting.  She spent the shopping trip stacking the spices one of top of the other on the top of the jar of salsa!  She loves putting on jewelry, she calls them pretty's.  Her favorites are bracelets and beaded necklaces.  Often times she has 2 or 3 necklaces on and bracelets all the way up to her elbows.  Over the past week or so she's really started picking up on words.  It makes me happy!  I don't really know what to expect from her speech wise at this point so it's something that worries me just because I don't know where she should be!  She still loves Blue's Clues and Winnie the Pooh.  She calls Pooh Bear Pa-Pooh,  it used to be just Pooh I don't know why she added the Pa to the beginning, but it's cute.
Now it is time for a photo dump of pictures from the past couple of months.  She gives the cheesiest smiles when she see's the camera!

Cutie pie with a silly face!

After playing in the sprinklers!

Brushing her teeth

Taking a ride on Dad's shoulders

Laying on my tummy

4th of July

Silly face

She doesn't like the vacuum so she hides from it like this

Putting a baby in her tummy

Relaxing (a lot) and having a snack

Wearing some of her pretty necklaces

She's saying cheese

Avery and Dad

Avery and Mom

She still loves shoes

She loves brushing her teeth

Brigham City Temple

Saturday afternoon we went to the Brigham City temple open house.  It was beautiful!  Go if you can.  We got there around 2 in the afternoon, Avery is usually asleep for her nap at this time so I was a little nervous about how she would do.  She ended up being just fine, she didn't like sitting for the movie at the beginning, but a nice sister missionary offered to blow bubbles for her.
My favorite things from the open house were:  When we pulled up in the bus to the temple and Avery said "wow!"  It was sweet.  The way the little booties looked on Avery's feet and how she kept looking curiously at them.
I didn't realize it until my mother-in-law pointed it out, but there were peaches/peach blossoms all around the temple.  (This was after we had left)  I remembered seeing a picture of a women putting peaches in a basket and thinking, "that's weird"  now I get it!  There are also peach blossoms on the carpets and on the windows in the dressing rooms and on the lights.  I like the little Brigham City touch that adds!
It was nice to be able to bring Avery along with us and walk through the temple.  I'm grateful for all the temples we have around us, we are very blessed here!  I'm very grateful that I have a forever family!

Isn't this last picture so cute!!

3 years

Saturday was our 3 year anniversary!  We had a great time celebrating!  Louis' parents took Avery for a loooong weekend.  I dropped her off Wednesday night right before her bedtime and we picked her up this afternoon.  So that's 3 whole days without Avery.  It was a long time and we missed her a lot, but it was also quite nice to have some time that was just Louis and me.  So let's start with Thursday.  Louis had to work until 11 in the morning so when he got home I made brunch for us:  scones, scrambled eggs, and some grapes with juice and water.

Louis had to work that night as well so we just stayed home and played games and watched a movie.  On Friday we went to breakfast at Village Inn, even though we didn't get the best service, the food was delicious.  Then we went to the D.I. to find a temple dress that would fit me so I don't have to rent one when I go to the temple.  I have a skirt and it doesn't exactly zip up over my tummy.  Let me tell you it's a lot cheaper to find one at the D.I. for $4 than to buy a new one for $40.  We found a dress and we also found a cute little man tie and vest!  Even though we don't have  a boy we got it for if we do, because it was adorable!

We already had the little white onesie

Then we went to get a few groceries!  After we had gotten everything we needed we headed back home and packed a picnic for lunch then headed to Providence to go to the Willows Miniature Golf Course.  Louis and I had never been miniature golfing together!  It seems silly because it's such a generic date that everyone has done.  It was a lot of fun!  The course was great!  There was only one other group there which was nice.  It's 18 holes and very shady through the whole thing.  The only weird thing is that they give you a huge clipboard to hold your score card, so we had to hold that huge thing through the game.  I was winning for most of the course, but then Louis ended up beating me.  I am proud to say though that I got a hole in one and Louis didn't!  The winner of the game gets a voucher for a free game too, so we'll be going back some time!

Louis and I heading out for the day

Getting ready to play

Louis in action

The confusing huge clipboard

After the game we headed over to a park for our picnic which was nice!  Then we headed over to Arctic Circle and we shared a Huckleberry shake, it was delicious!  Go and get one before they stop making them. Since Louis had worked that night we headed home so Louis could take a nap and I got ready for our plans for the night.  We were staying in for dinner and dancing!  So I did my hair and got dressed and prepared dinner.  I made Louis' favorite, Lasagna.  I also made rolls and we had some vegetables.  I also found this adorable little bottle of sparkling cider.  It was a really nice night, and I think that this day was my favorite of the whole weekend.  Now here's an awkward picture of us from before we started dinner, I have a weird double chin almost going on.

Our table

Cute little bottle!

Saturday we went to do sealings at the temple.  It was super hot in there, but the workers are always so nice and kept saying, "are you doing okay??  Just tell us when you need to stop!"  We saw about 7 or 8 weddings while we were there.  After the temple we went to look at a couple houses, we've kind of been looking into buying a house.  When we were done with the houses we did a little bit of window shopping until it was time for our movie.  We saw Men in Black 3, we both liked it!  Then we went home to relax before it was time for dinner.  We decided to go to the Beehive Grill.  We had never been there and have heard good things about it.  They brew their own root beer and we had heard it was really great.  In reality, it was only okay.  We really liked the food and the environment though.  It was a really relaxed, fun  atmosphere.  I had the Asiago & Garlic Ravioli and Louis had the Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich.  After dinner we came home and played some card games then went to sleep.

It has been a very wonderful 3 years!  We have continued to grow closer together and our love has grown deeper.  We are very happy and love our life together.  We look forward to this next year and all that it will bring, especially our new baby girl!  We had a great long weekend together and think we'll do another at home anniversary celebration next year, but Louis will plan instead.
P.S.  We've finally decided on a name for the baby!  Louis was even the one to come up with it!  Which is surprising since he suggested one name and I suggested at least a dozen.  We don't think we're going to announce it until the baby comes, so until then I'll leave you in suspense :)

33 weeks

I'm now just over 33 weeks along.  If things go the way they did with Avery I'll have this baby (still currently nameless) in 4 short weeks!  I know I probably won't have her as early as I had Avery, but I really hope I do!  You never know I suppose, I could.  I'm ready to meet this baby girl!  I'm also ready to be comfortable again.  How wonderful it will be not to have heartburn, to be able to bend over, to be able to sleep comfortably without 4 or 5 pillows, and to not have constant back and hip pain.  I've been getting Braxton Hicks contractions for the past 4 or 5 weeks.  Just a couple a day usually.  Things are generally good though and what is to be expected at this point!

 

This is me a few weeks ago

My belly button is sticking out all the way now!  Before it was totally out Louis would say the baby just wasn't done cooking yet.  Now that it's all the way out I asked if that meant the baby was ready to come out and he said no.  So I don't understand.  My stomach is also big enough to balance a cup on it.  It's pretty handy.

We love this baby girl a lot and enjoy feeling her move around, but can't wait for her to come join us!  Hopefully we'll agree on a name by then!

Photo Book

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I got a code for a free 8X8 photo book from Shutterfly and decided to make this book of Avery's first year!