Pioneers, Pies, and a little string bean

We went to the stake 24th of July Pioneer celebration on Saturday. Averi had so much fun with the country music they had blasting. She could hardly sit still enough to eat, she couldnt stop dancing. Here she is dancing with daddy :)

 Here is the cherry pie I made. First time making cherry pie and it actually turned out pretty good.

After church today Averi insisted on wearing my belt. So here she is with my belt going around here twice (complete with tights and bloomers:). She is my little string bean. And we are dog-sitting that big awkward thing that is following her around. She loves him but has to be a little more careful to not get knocked over.

 ...And here she is reading scriptures to Sophie. She was determined to get her to pay attention as you can see here with her hand motion. Obviously Sophie is really enthused about it!

Dallas!

Averi and I had the opportunity to visit my brother Jared's family in Dallas last week. We had SOOO much fun and Averi absolutely loved all of them. Last time we visited she was a little unsure about things and was pretty shy. This time around, however, she came out of her shell entirely. She had a blast.

Averi getting geared up for swimming. She LOVED their pool and never wanted to get out!

 More swim time fun

 We went to a rodeo over the weekend where Cam participated in the race to get the tag off the cow's tail. He didnt win but as pictured here, he had a great time :) Averi absolutely loved the rodeo too. She loved dancing to the music and seeing all the animals. She has a new facsination with "horshies" now so it will be fun when she gets to ride one at my parents house next month.

 Anyone who has been around Averi much knows that she is obsessed with music. So naturally, she was in love with their piano and keyboard. Here is Dayton showing her a few things on the piano :)

 I was able to celebrate Preston's birthday with them on Sunday. Here he is opening more precious leggos!

 Averi of course loved their chickens! They had 6 young chickens that they keep next door. Kaly took me over to see them one day only to find a HUGE snake in their cage and a poor dead chicken right next to it. It was horrifying. Luckily Dayton came to the rescue and chopped the beasts' head off with a shovel. SICK! Anyways, the chickens were so so cute and totally made me want to get some. They are a smaller variety and are pretty tame. Here is Averi kissing one. Real sanitary, I know! She just loves animals (just like here mama!)

 Averi loved playing anything with Kaly. Here she is enjoying Preston's new leggo set with her.

Averi loved their dog Oreo. Oreo on the other hand didn't exactly reciprocate those loveing feeling but put up with her pretty well all things considered! Here is Averi taking her on yet another mandatory indoor walk.

 

 Oh yeah, and she loved walking Camden too! :)

 Another favorite game of hers was "jumping jumping". She would stand on their couch (like so) and jump up and down chanting "jumping jumping jumping" laughing all the while. She thought she was pretty cool.

Late night snuggle with Janese. Of course Averi still loves Janese;  I have my doubts that she would even miss me if I left her there with her!

Aside from the last 2 days when I caught the flu (or something equally as horrible) we had a fabulous time and cant wait till we see them again! Thank You J, J & Fam!!

This picture was taken at home but I had to include it because I just love how in to coloring she is lately. Here she is coloring with TWO hands.

Fourth of July

In honor of the fourth we had bbq with our friends the Saraiva's, then went to see the fireworks in Verrado with the Taylors and Daynes. It was absolutely gorgeous. The fireworks were lit from a golf course and we were watching them from up the hill on one of the greens. Averi was a little nervous from the noise but got used to it and it helped using my hands as ear muffs.

 Can you tell we are posing??