It's Summer! . . . . Wait, no it's not. :(

We went to St. George again last weekend with most of my mom's family. We got to watch my cousin Braden play in the sunshine tournament and he did awesome. Seriously, he made the all-tournament team, and, in my opinion, should have been the MVP. :) It was MUCH warmer than it was the last time we went and made me grateful that this baby is due in May and not the end of the summer. Ava got to swim, swim, swim which was the highlight for her. We did a lot of eating, birthday celebrating, and laughing. One of my favorite moments from the trip came at 4:30 on Sunday morning. I got woken out of a dead sleep by Ava LOUDLY whispering, "Mom, Come Here!" I walked over to where she was sleeping and she said, "I need to wake up!" I told her it was night-night time and we still needed to sleep. I thought she had fallen back to sleep, but about 10 minutes later, she LOUDLY whispered, "Mom, I'm all done with Night Night!" Well, it took another hour, but she eventually went back to sleep. It was too funny. Here are some pics from the weekend. Ava has obviously turned into a real ham. Notice her flip flops in the last picture. They are Minnie Mouse and she had to where them the whole weekend. We had a big fight yesterday when I wouldn't let her where them outside in the 35 degree wet and snowy weather. *sigh* I guess that's what I get for giving her a taste of wonderful spring and then shoving her back into miserable winter. :)

Hogle Zoo . . . . . .

We got to go to the zoo with Ava's friends last week and we had a BLAST! The weather was perfect and we saw a lot of animals up close. Ava has told EVERYBODY she knows about the "two big snakes", the "ONE bear" (just ask her, there weren't bears, there was just ONE bear), and the sleeping gorilla. (According to Ava it was very tired and needed a nap). :) We also got really close to the tiger which was a little scary and the Lynx cat was hissing at a lady in a power wheelchair which scared AND thrilled Ava. :) It was so much fun and we'll have to do it again soon!

Birthday Parties!

Ava has been able to go to some fun birthday parties lately and she's LOVED it! I can't believe she's old enough to go to birthday parties! It has been a lesson in sharing because we've gone to the store, picked out a present, and given it to someone else. She wasn't too thrilled about the whole "giving" concept, but she did REALLY well! She ended up getting really excited about giving away her present that she picked out. She's not only given presents to two of her friends, but also her aunt and uncle last weekend. She's going to be so thrilled in a couple of months when she actually gets to open presents. :)

All Ready for her Rockstar Birthday Party!


Party at Boondocks. Ava didn't need ANYTHING except the playground. This kid could play there for HOURS!



Looking longingly at all of the awesome presents! :)

St. George . . . . . . . .

We went to St. George last weekend and it was so much fun. Ava did really well for the drive down. She was entertained part of the time by Cinderella and the rest of the time by an icee, which of course ended up all over her. That is why she is wearing some gorgeous Dora sunglasses in the second pic, but no shirt. :)


As soon as I told Ava were getting off the exit to St. George she started frantically looking around while excitedly yelling, "Where's my swimming soup?" Luckily we got there in enough time to let her swim a little bit before we went to watch softball. It was chilly, so she stayed in the hot tub, but she could not have been happier.



I was SOOOO excited for warmth, but no such luck. We started at Randy and Sam's softball tournament on Friday night and it was BITTER cold! Didn't phase Ava though. She had a blast running around. I couldn't get her to sit down and keep her hood on! We didn't quite make it through the last game before we headed back to the hotel. Seriously, do these pics looks like sunny St. George to you?


The next day we watched our boys play softball, then sent Ava with daddy back to the hotel. They swam for a good 3 1/2 hours and Ava, Randy, Robert, and Sam had a blast. Well, Ava had a blast. The rest of them probably would have been happy with a shorter swim. :) The girls all got to go with Alecia to find her wedding dress! It was so much fun, even if the Bridal Shop owner was somewhat of a Nazi. I won't go into details, but she did lock us all in the wedding dress room with a baby gate and I'm pretty sure she actually had the room bugged so she could hear everything we were saying. Weird. :) Anyway, after finding Alecia a GORGEOUS dress, we headed to Outback where the food was good and Ava was naughty! After that we hit up Nielsen's Custard of course. Pretty typical trip to St. George for my family! Softball, food, and Nielsen's Custard.






Thanks for the fun weekend family!

Fun Kid Recipe . . . . . . . .

The other night while Randy was working, I decided that Ava and I should do something fun. We are always making cookies and stuff, but I wanted to do something different so I found this great recipe for "Homemade Ice Cream in a Ziploc Bag." It worked great! Here is the recipe and some pics to show off the fun:

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup half & half
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (I ran out and used regular vanilla in one batch and
actually liked it better)
2 sandwich Ziploc Bags
1 gal. size Ziploc Bag
2 c. ice
1 tbsp coarse salt

Put one small ziploc bag inside the other. Add milk, half & half, sugar, and vanilla extract to the inside of the bag. Seal both bags securely, removing excess air. Add ice and salt to the large bag, place smaller bag inside and seal firmly. Let the kids shake themselves silly, shaking, tossing, and turning the bag. Ice cream will be soft and ready to eat in 5 to 10 minutes. (We actually had to do it for 10-15 minutes though and I ended up doing a lot of the shaking)

Ava Shakin'!


The Yummy Result!

One satisfied Chef! :)

BIG, BIG BED!!!

Well, we're turning the spare bedroom into the nursery, so we decided to move the queen bed we have into Ava's room in place of the toddler bed. I REALLY wanted some new bedding so the bed would match her room, but basically I didn't want to spend any money. Ha Ha. Well, I just happened to be at Walmart at the right time a couple of days ago. They had the CUTEST bedspreads on sale for $10, originally $60. Can you believe it? I was so exited I bought two different patterns. :) We did a little rearranging of her room and VOILA! it suddenly looks like a little girl's room rather than a toddler's room! It makes me sad, but I can't quit smiling because of my great deal. Here are some pics of Ava's new big bed and her "redecorated" room. We still need to get her a bed frame and bed skirt, but I'm feeling pretty good about it right now and she LOVES it!

The Castle!

We were able to go to the Draper Temple Open House last Tuesday. It was GORGEOUS! Ava kept calling it a castle even though I tried to get her to call it the temple. I think it has a lot to do with her new obsession with Cinderella. Anyway, by the time we left, she was calling it "The Castle Where Jesus Lives." She came up with that all on her own. I think she picked out every picture of Jesus in the entire place! Me, being me of course, got all choked up being in the temple with Ava. It was such a neat experience to be in the temple with my sweet 2 year old who is already so close to Jesus as it is. It was a great experience and I'm so glad we were able to go.

(If you can't tell it is slightly windy and I am still "slightly" pregnant. :)