Thanksgiving weekend

Thursday afternoon we went to our friends the Allen's house and at a delicious turkey feast with them and the Chattertons. It was so fun and the food what YUM! Averi had fun playing with their combined three boys but didn't exactly play with them. While they were busy playing dog pile and jumping off a chair onto a pile of pillows, she was having the time of her life playing with my Christmas bag and pretending like it was her purse. She is definately all GIRL I guess!

Doug and Averi watching the Thanksgiving Day parade. Averi LOVED it!

Thursday night me and Whitney went to Toys R Us to try and score some cheap diapers. We got there AFTER the store had opened but still ended up waiting over an hour just to get in. Then they were out of diapers so we missed out. We did hide some squinkies that were on sale though and came back later and got them without the line!

After Toys R Us we went across the street to Old Navy and missed out on the free cameras but were early enough to get some free gloves. We scored some pretty good deals there. Then we headed over to Target and didnt get anything but just looked around. We got home at 2am but it was so worth it! :)

Doug and I went to Frys on Friday to check out their deals. Averi had fun pushing around her own little play shopping cart the whole time. Then she got stuck watching the Grinch movie that was playing on one of their demo flat screens. She was pretty upset when we actually had to drag her out of the store.

We took Averi hiking on Saturday.

Belly shot

24 weeks and counting.

Baby Girl!

We are so pleased to officially announce that we are expecting adorable baby girl number two! She will (hopefully) be making her debut somewhere around March 15th and we couldn't be more excited. She has been buggin me since 16 weeks with all of her kicking so I think she wants to come a little early and I think I would be okay with that :) I will be posting an Oh-So-Glamorous belly shot in a few days but until then, feel free to picture me as super skinny!

Halloween!

For Halloween we went to the Trunk or Treat party at the church. Averi was in her cute cupcake costume, Doug was the Geico caveman and I was Flo from Progressive. I think most people got it but some needed a little help figuring it out. I made my pumpkin chilli for the chilli cook-off and took 2nd place! We had tons of fun as we do evey year. Averi was still a little shy the whole time with all of the commotion going on but she had fun getting candy from people and seeing some of her friends.

Here is my handsome caveman and my adorable cupcake. Doug got swindled (by me) into wearing MY wool pants that were quite slim fitting on him...much like the real geico caveman would wear :) Too bad theya ren't really showing in the picture.

 A blonde Flo

 I tried to get Averi to pose for the pic but I guess she just wanted to dance with Daddy.

 About to go trick-or-treating. Averi got excited when I informed her that we were going to go get candy from the neighbors.

 Averi did really good in the beginning walking, knocking on doors and holding out her own bag for them to put candy in. But after a few houses she wanted us to hold her bag for her. I was still quite impressed that she actually walked the whole time without asking to be picked up (or insisting to be picked up like she normally does). Maybe the sugar gave her the energy she needed.

 Averi goes to a moms-day-out babysitting group one morning each week. She loves it and they always to fun things with the kids. She got to paint mini pumpkins the week of Halloween. She LOVES to paint and do any sort of craft so this was right down her alley. So cute.

 When we go done trick-or-treating, we watched a little football while Averi did Doug's hair. You can see by her face here that she is quite proud of the bow on his head. This has been a recent hobby of Averi's (doing people's hair) and we love it because she is so gentle that is it actually feels really good!

Halloween Party!

My friend Whitney and I hosted a small Halloween party for some of our friends' kids. The theme was owls as you can tell from the invites and refreshments. We played a modified version of hot potato (with a pumpkin), had a doughnut eating contest, and decorated caramel apples. The kids were all so darling and I think they all had fun. 

 We had two heats: Over 3 and under 3. This is obviously the little ones, and they didn't quite get that you had to keep your hands behind your back. :) So dang cute!

 The kids playing Hot Potato. Averi sat in between two older boys which was probably good since she wasn't really into the game. She had fun watching the other kids pass it around anyways :)

 My little cupcake eating a cupcake! She was ALL ABOUT the sweets at the party and there was no shortage of them either. I was surprised she didn't get sick from all the sugar.

Utah

Doug had a work retreat in Utah recently so Averi and I decided to take advantage and tag along. We hung out with his family of course and he had to do a lot of stuff with work but it was still way fun. Averi was a lot more social and opened up MUCH quicker this time than last. Last time we went, she would cry every time Macy would walk in the room or looked at her. This time, however, Macy was her favorite person in the whole world and they were little buddies the whole time. She loved Payton and everyone else too of course :) 

This is Averi playing with their new bunny. Of course she was IN LOVE with it and asked for it all the time. It was the cutest little thing! 

We went to watch Payton's last soccer game of the season and were lucky enough to catch Payton scoring the winning goal! It was an awesome game. This is Macy and Avers at the park by the field Payton was practicing at. They went down the slide about a million times and mow it looks like they are working on their arm strength.

 Macy, Payton and Averi (and the rooster that Payton chased for ten minutes until she caught it) at Wheeler Farm. It was SO pretty and of course Averi enjoyed the goats and other animals.

 Everyone decked out in their Halloween costumes at Gardner's Village. Averi just stayed in her stroller the whole time. Usually with Averi the options are: be held, or be in the stroller. She doesnt usually like to walk on her own which makes it extra fun for me!

 Macy was awesome at keeping Averi entertained while we were there.

 Here is Macy helping Averi decorate Halloween cookies. So fun!

 Averi got a pony ride while we were there. I thought she would be more excited about it but she was pretty stoic the whole time. Just one of those moods I guess.

Doug and I flew seperate on the way there but together on the way home. Since Averi refuses to walk, I have to get a little creative when I am by myself. I always use a wheel chair and pile my luggage on it and then put Averi's car seat (with her in it) on top of all that. When we were on our way back it was obviously a lot easier since I had Doug to help. I kept reminding him that I had to do this all by myself just to make sure he was impressed :) Here is Doug pulling Averi's car seat like a leash on our way to customs. Why dont I get that kind of treatment?!

Averi was really good on both flights, but she was perfect on the way home because we actually had the iPod charged and she got to watch movies, drink sprite, and snack the whole time.

Unfortunately when we got home to the Phx Airport we realised that one of Doug's bags didnt come in and it just so happened to be the bag that had his keys (lesson learned). So we had to spend and extra hour at the airport till 11pm and were lucky enough to get a friend to come pick us up. Poor lil Averi was SO tired but was such a good girl and just wanted her back tickled most of the time :)

Children's Museum and Farmers Market

I took Averi to the Childrens Museum a while ago and she loves it every time. I took Katelyn with us (the 1st grader that I watch sometimes) and we met up with some friends so the kids could all play. Averi had a blast as usual.

Here she is playing house with her dishes all lined up in a row.

 Averi and Ezra on the motion activated floor fan. She loves that thing.

 Just running around being crazy

 Whitney and I took the babes to the Farmers Market to look around a while back. There was a small petting zoo there that Averi would have gladly spent all our time at. There were the cutest little baby pigs there that I just wanted to hold so bad but of course they weren't in to being held!

Pumpkin Patch

I took Averi to a pumkin patch/corn maze/etc a couple weeks ago with her friends Braxton and Kylee (and their parents). She had sooooo much fun so now it looks like its going to be an annual event for us! She loved playing in the corn kernal boxes, riding the "choo choo" and just running around exploring. But her favorite thing as usual was the animals. She could have stood there feeding scraps of hay to the horses the whole time! She is an animal lover just like her parents :)

Here she is petting the goats with no shoes on. She took them off for the corn box and then refused to let me put them back on her. Oh well!

 Playing by herself in the little red house and having the time of her life.

 Going down the tube slide. I thought she would be too scared like some of the other young kids but she loved it and went on it like ten times.

 Playing in the corn box with Kylee

Showing the other kids how it's done :) She was the bravest of all the kids when it came to dealing with the animals. 

 Riding the train with Brax. I thought she would be too scared for this too but I just kinda threw her on it and hoped she didn't try to jump off. I think she actually enjoyed it :)

California

 Our computer has been on the fritz for quite some time now so now I get to play catch-up. Doug and I had the opportunity to spend a few days in San Deigo last month. The weather was still pretty hot here so it was a nice escape from that! I drove down with my friend Whitney on a Tuesday since her husband was already there for work. Then Doug met us there on Thursday and we stayed at their parents house. We had a blast just laying low and hanging out on the beach most of the time. The kids had tons of fun at the park that is right there by the water too. Doug and Mark were the only ones to brave the cold water though. Doug tried his hand at boogie boarding while Mark showed us his mad surfing skills.

 Doug boogie-boarding

 A Gorgeous California sunset

 I think this is the cutest pic of Averi and Ezra walking together when we were at the street fair on evening. They thought they were so cool and grown up that they wanted to walk by themselves up ahead of us. I love how Ezra hauled around his cars in his Elmo backpack the whole time too :) What cuties!

 Averi running at the park by the beach

 The beach/park we spent most of our time at

 A not-so-roomy car ride!

 The kids making their silly faces at the park

We also got to meet up with Doug's cousins Michelle and Frank. They live in a gorgeous neighborhood right on the beach in Solana Beach. That was the first time I had met them and they were super nice. I wish we got to spend more time there with them. Of course we forgot to get a picture!