27 Years Old

Tuesday I turned 27, and had an awesome birthday! Dustin called in sick, which is one of the best birthday presents ever! I got to do one of my favorite things... Make Christmas treats. I made caramels, peanut brittle, fudge, peppermint bark, and sugar cookies, all the while Dustin played with the kids so I could do this. We went shopping, finished decorating our Christmas Tree, and ordered in from Olive Garden. Spending time with those you love and listening to Christmas music, what gets bettter than that on your birthday? Dustin said he would make me a birthday cake, (I'm not sure if he has ever made a cake before). Ava decided to help him out...

Ian "helped" with the frosting...

I showed him this picture, and told him I liked the one with the red licorice on it....

And here's what he came up with, pretty good huh, considering we don't have any circle cake pans. I think it turned out awesome.

Ian and Ava loved the candles... Ian practically blew them out before I could get them all lit...

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts. There will be more photos to come that will include some of the things I've made with some of my new tools I got for my birthday.

Christmas Confusion

Sorry about the 3 posts in one day, but our internet has been acting up and so I figured while it's working I should get caught up.
I pulled out the Christmas box the other day and my kids were a bit confused about what all the stuff was for. I told them about the Christmas socks, so Ava thought they were socks you wear and had me put them on her. Then Ian found the big bag you put large presents in and thought it would be fun the climb in it and hop around like a potato sack race. It was pretty hillarious.

And yes, we did have spaghetti that night, that's why Ava is so dirty.

Cans

Funny things kids do to entertain themselves....The other day I found Ian pulling all the cans out of the pantry and stacking them as high as he could, then he would put his cars on top of them. (Don't mind the fact that he's in his underwear).

Las Vegas and Panguitch

For Thanksgiving we went to Las Vegas, up to Panguitch then back to Las Vegas. Here are a few snapshots of Thanksgiving with Dustin's family... We had dinner at Andrea and Bryson's house. It was delicious as usual. Daija, Andrea, Sandy, Jana, and Carson....

Daija, Jana, Sandy, Ian, and Dustin...

Ava and Kayla... Ava was the first one to start eating, as usual...

I didn't get any photos of our Thanksgiving Dinner in Panguitch, but we got some of the kids playing in the snow. (Thanks Mindy for letting me use your camera).

Olivia pulled Ian all over on the sled...

Ian and Logan...

Sarah creamed Ian with a giant snow ball... He deserved it, he was throwing snowballs at everyone.

Ian and his icecicle....(spelling??)

Ava was like the kid on a Christmas Story who couldn't put his arms down. Plus her had kept going over her eyes. She didn't stay outside for very long. She had a hard time walking in the snow, so she just crawled around, it was pretty funny.

Thanks everyone for the great Thanksgiving vacation. It was great to see everyone.

IT'S A MIRACLE!!!

Miracles still DO happen. On Sunday after 16 1/2 months Ava finally took her first steps. Ian was talking to his cousin Jeffry on Skype and they were jumping up and down, then falling down. Ava decided she wanted to join in on the fun. So she stood up, as usual, and tried to jump. Instead of jumping she took 2 steps. Dustin said the look on her face was just as shocked as he was. That's all it took, after that she was off and going.

This video is on Monday night.

This video was taken today (Tuesday) It is amazing how much she's improved in just 2 days.

Halloween

For Halloween this year we went to our ward Trunk or Treat on Friday night. Ava went as a ballerina (thanks Holly Llewellyn for the Tu-tu you made for her). We decorated our car with all the Halloween crafts Ian has been making. Unfortunatly I didn't take a photo of it fully decorated when we were handing out candy. Here is Ava getting some treats. I had to put a coat and pants on her, it got pretty cold.

And of course Ian went as Lightning Mcqeen. He only carried his car for about 7 stops, then had Dustin carry it the rest of the time.

Catch Up

I've had a bunch of pictures that I needed to blog about so I decided to lump them all into one post.
Starting out: I made pizza last night and while I was cutting up the pizza Ian grabbed the measuring cup full of flour and decided it would be fun to throw it up in the air and have it come down on he and Ava. Here they are after they had brushed some of the flour off...

Oh if you're wondering why Ava is wearing Ian's underwear, it's because she had a diaper rash and I wanted her to air out a bit, and I didn't want her to poop on the floor.

Here is Ava FINALLY starting to try to stand on her own.

Here is Ava on Lasagna Night...Hey at least she can feed herself.

This is a Family Home Evening of coloring and carving pumpkins. Although I didn't take any photos of the end result, I don't know why...

I just noticed Ava is half naked in most of these pictures. I really do dress her, but by the end of the day she wants me to take her shirt off, or I don't want it to get dirty when she is eating dinner.

We made some really yummy pumpkin seeds the next day.

Ian and Ava's new friend. This poor caterpillar was poked and prodded by these two for hours, I'm glad it survived them. It has been out on our patio for the past few days.

Of course, Ava is using her middle finger to touch the caterpillar.

Ian had his first Pre-School field trip to All Seasons Nursery. They had all kinds of animals, a corn maze, a hay bale pyramid, a pumpkin patch, and a hay bale maze. He had a blast.

This donkey looked exactly like Donkey from Shrek.

Ian and Ava on the Hay Bale ride out to the Pumpkin Patch.

They also did a snack time for the kids...

Here is Ian going down the hay bale pyramid.

Ian and Ava are both crawling through this tube that is in the middle of the hay bale pyramid
Can you see the top of Ian's head in the maze? He's wearing the red shirt.