Doug and I took Averi on her first trip to the zoo on Friday. We went to the WildLife World Zoo which is actually right by our house and is the most amazing zoo. They let you get up really close to the animals (the Rhino pics are NOT zoomed in). We also got to see a lion having a full on conversation with his neighbor the white tiger. They were roaring like crazy. Then we saw the kangaroos. I was really excited to get a taste of Austrailia since my parents are there. We saw a momma kangaroo eating grass with her cute little joey's head popping out of her pouch and nibbling on some grass as well. SO Sweet! We also got to feed the giraffes which was amazing. They are so adorable. We were too cheap to buy the girraffe food though and tried to sneak them some of Averi's cheerios and they didn't seem to like them very much. Our camera died before we left so I missed some good picture opportunities. For instance we took Averi to the petting zoo area and most of the goats and deer (or whatever they were) were sleeping. Averi would squat down next to them, open her mouth, and try to kiss them. It was SO cute. We fed the rejected cheerios to the goats who LOVED them. One of them even stole Averi's NutriGrain bar right out of her hand. She didn't seem to mind. Then we went on the the aquarium section and saw tons of crazy fish and got to pet the sting rays. Averi loved watching all the fish swim around. We all had a great time.

Snow in Phoenix?!

Okay it's just the cotton fields by our house. I love it though!

Thankgiving and a little mischeif

Averi loves to get into things lately. Here is the proof:
She always climbs into her toy storage baskets and sometimes gets stuck and I have to come rescue her.
Then the other day I was cleaning upstairs and noticed Averi was nowhere to be seen. I went into the spare bedroom and she had climbed into her old baby swing and was just hanging out in it havin a grand ol' time. :)

Earlier that same day Averi climbed into her baby doll's crib and thought she was being so silly. It was adorable. After that she started panicking because she realized she was stuck.

Turkey Bowl!

Doug organized a group of guys to play football this morning. Averi and I (and Sophie, and a couple other people) cheered them on from the sidelines. After the game Averi had fun walking around in her new boots.

This is Averi saying "Owe". Everi time she falls, she says "owe" now. It's so cute!

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Averi LOVED watching the parade with me and sat there with me for half an hour totally mesmerized. Notice Doug's video game station in the back. :)

Dinner: I decided to cook a turkey breast this year instead of a whole turkey. I vowed I wouldn't EVER do that again after trying to do it two years ago and dry-heaving the whole time I was preparing it. Sick. Dinner turned out really good and we have leftovers for at least a week!

Averi "helping" me make the pies and chowin down on leftover turkey.

Doug and Randi's Day Off!

Doug found out last week that he was actually going to be getting Veteran's day off so we decided to take advantage and have a day of fun. Doug did end up having to go into work for a couple hours for a meeting but afterwards we took Averi on a hike up a hill near Doug's office. We had to treck over some rocky terrain with the stroller before we got to the paved path (see picture).

And pushing the stoller uphill was brutal as the trail was pretty steep (see pics)

But once we made it to the overlook point we got to rest and look out over the city of Tempe. It was gorgeous and the weather could not have been more perfect.

Then we hiked back down and let Averi walk some of the way. She got tired after less than five minutes with those tiny legs of hers though so I ended up carrying her which I'm sure would have been easier than trying to restrain the stoller from rolling all the way down the mountain!

After our hike, we went across the street and stolled through Tempe Beach Park. We ate a picnic lunch there overlooking the Tempe Lake. It was SOOO relaxing and fun to actually hang out as a family during the day.

We debated going to the Zoo but Averi was getting tired and grumpy and I wanted her first trip to the zoo to be enjoyable for her. Soooo...

We went to a matinee at Tempe Marketplace and saw Morning Glory (cute and funny... I recommend seeing it) while our perfect angel baby slept the whole time! Doug and I joked about how we felt like we were Ferris Bueller. :) After the movie we shopped around a bit then finally drove home. The best day ever had come to an end. Tear.

Back Yard: Transformed

We have been getting our backyard landscaped in increments over the past few months. We finally put grass in on Friday and what a transformation! Our plants are still small and we only have one tree so far but for now we are done, and loving our "new room"!
This is what the yard was when we moved in:







And NOW...

The view from the back door:

We solicited the help of a few friends and got it done an a couple hours. As you can see, Averi "helped out" quite a bit too. We were laughing so hard at her because she would push her stroller back and forth over the lawn like she was mowing it. Then she plopped right down in it (it is made for dolls, not kids) and enjoyed watching the guys slave away.

Halloween!

Our ward had a chilli cook-off and combined trunk-or-treat celebration on Saturday night. I tried a new recipe that I found online for pumpkin chilli and took third place. I got an apron that says "so so" on it. Pretty funny. Averi went as a leopard kitty since "kitty" was her first word (even though she doesn't even really say it anymore!). Since I had just gotten back in town and we were both busy with other things, we weren't going to bother dressing up. Then about twenty minutes before we had to leave, I informed Doug that we WERE going to dress up. :) So we rounded up some stuff we already had and this is what we came up with... I was a golfer, and he was a baseball player. Kinda random but it works. Here are some cute pics of Averi with some of her buddies.

Notice Averi's "hand-to-the-mouth" nervous expression in most of these pics. Silly girl.

Averi won a Halloween pencil at the Bean Bag Toss. It was so cute to see her catch on to what she was supposed to do.

Sunday night was little more laid back. We stayed home and handed out candy. Then once Averi went to bed, Doug and I watched The Forgotten outside on the patio.

Traveling the Globe (or maybe just a few western states)

Doug went on a work retreat to Seattle two weeks ago to go salmon fishing. Since he was leaving me behind, I decided to capitalize on that and went on my own vacay (Doug is a little bitter that his trip was 2 days and mine was 10) :) Doug's tour guide got them lost a time or two but the fishing they DID get to do was pretty cool. They caught a ton of HUGE fish and he came home with 30lbs of salmon! Too bad he doesnt like fish. Here is Doug trying to reel in a big one: Turns out they went fishing where the Twilight series was filmed. Maybe we will actually watch one of them now. But Probably not. :)

I, on the other hand, went to Salt Lake City to spend time with his family (and let them spend time with Averi). Even though it felt like the North Pole to me compared to AZ, I had a blast and it was so fun to catch up with family and friends. This is how is all went down:

Day 1 and 2: Let Averi get re-aquainted with Nammy and Papa while I (with a little help from Nancy) gave her two bathrooms a facelift. I re-painted the walls, crown molding, and mirror frame, and we made some adjustments to the decor with a new shower curtain, wall hanging, and towels. Here is a before and after shot:

Day 3: Went to Garneder's Village with Nancy, Deanne, Payton and Macy. They all dressed up in their costumes and we went around to all the cute festive shops and got a Halloween treat.

Day 4: Went to Payton and Macy's soccer games. It was SOO fun to see them play (minus the getting rained on most of the time). They are so cute and full of personality. We couldnt get Averi's super duty waterproof wiskers off from the day before so she sported them for 2 1/2 days... as shown :)

That night I got to hang out with my good friend Mikell whom I hadn't seen in almost a year. We got some dinner at Pei Wei then of course did a little shopping at The Rack. I forgot to get a picture :(

Day 5: went to church (did a lot of walking around with Averi in the hallway since she was being a little crazy girl). Then later we had dinner at the house with the whole family over. It was so fun getting to see everyone again and catch up. Everyone thought Averi had grown quite a bit.

That night my sister Jody (and fam) picked me up on thier way back from Provo. Meanwhile, my other sister's Kristy and Maria drove up from Boise and we all met together for a fun "sisters" night in Logan. We stayed up all night (or til 4am or so) gabbing and watching chick flicks then...

Day 6: went to IHOP the next morning. Averi and Kenley were (and are) so cute together. Averi enjoyed feeding Kenley throughout the meal and Kenley enjoyed being fed. Then of course after breakfast we did some shopping at Down East. Got some great deals!

Me, Maria, Kristy and the girlies drove back to Boise that evening. To my delight Averi was a good little girl the whole way home. She even slept some. I am not always so lucky. I think she enjoyed watching Kenley and 'socializing' with her long lost BFF ;)

Kenley and Averi bonding while playing with the toy magnets.

Day 7: Me, Aves, Maria, Mike, and Kenley all went to the Linder Farms pumpkin patch and corn maze. The corn maze was amazing and super fun. This is what it looked like (from the sky, of course):

We got quite turned around as you can imagine but we made it through and rewarded ourselves with some delicious home-made-equivalent donuts. Then after that we went to the Cobb's for dinner and the BSU game. SO FUN! Here is a pic of me, Maria, and the babes, Averi trying to eat a cracker with her mittens on, and the two girlies acting like they cant move in their multiple layers of clothing. :)

Day 8: Mike was kind to watch the girls while Maria and I went on a horse ride in the foothills. Even though we had a lost camera AND cell phone scare, it was so great to be on a horse again and enjoy the [freezing!] outdoors. Then that afternoon we all went downtown to shop around and grab some dinch (lunch-dinner) at La Cafe de Paris (highly recommended). That night we honored Halloween by carving pumpkins and watching Cujo... Spooky!

Day 9: We took the girls to Kiddie Kandids to get their pics taken in their costumes. We knew going into it that we werent going to get two coorperative smiling babies. However the pics could have turned out much better had the photographer not been such an idiot. ugh, long story. Since we were at the mall and all we HAD to do a little shopping afterwards :) Then we went to dinch again at Cheesecake Factory (always a sure bet and is slowly becoming a tradition). Averi was so tired that she was totally content just letting Kenley poke and prod at her most of the meal. They are so cute together.

That night we bought some supplies at CosmoProf and dyed Maria's hair. It turned out fabulous of course!

Bed time stories. Does it get any cuter than this??

Day 10: I slept in and had the daunting task of packing and going home... tear :(