Thanksgiving 2012

 

 Thanksgiving morning me and the girls went across the street to watch Doug play (or should I say star) in Turkey Bowl 2012! It was fun as always getting to watch the game, mingle with friends, and play on the playground.

 

Dinner commenced at about 2pm.

 The only think Averi would eat was the corn and a roll. And I was left to eat all of the sweet potatoes and raspberry salad on my own :) The more, the better, in my opinion! YUM!

 

 

Here is Kadence finishing off the left-overs. Okay... maybe just bits of a roll.

here's a bit of roll stuck to her face to prove it :)

Dogs and more dogs

So I signed up online a while back to be a host for a dog-sitting website. I didn't really think much would come of it but a few weeks later, I got a "job". Two shih-tzus needed a place to stay for 4 days over the Thanksgiving weekend. Coincidentally, I dog-sat a friend's new puppy over the holiday as well. It all went down fairly smoothly and of course Averi was loving it! She would always tell the dogs "oh, you are such a cute little puppeeeee" while scratching their necks and petting their backs. She is obsessed with animals :)

Here are the kiddos with Tinkerbell and Kenai at the park. They were pretty good little pups overall, and were surprisingly tolerable of the kids.

 Averi surrounded by dogs on the porch...her personal heaven!

 Kadence quite enjoyed towering over the dogs while they were in the kennel too :)

Cute lil pup

Our tiny ball-player

For the past few weeks Kadence has been crawling all over the house and stands up with the help of other objects (the couch, a chair, my leg). Well, lately she has been doing this "half-way-almost-about-to-stand" thing where she sits on one knee and puts one foot on the floor. Doug recognized that she looks like a baseball catcher when she does it so now, every time she does it, one of us will say "Kadence is playing ball again"

Father-Daughter camp-out!

Averi got to go camping for the first time in her life a couple weeks ago (if you don't count in the back yard) and Doug got to go for the first time with a daughter. Our ward was hosting a "father-daughter overnight camp-out just a couple miles away for all ages. We told Averi that she would be going camping with daddy soon and that she would get to sleep in a tent. Every time we would mention this to her, her eyes would light up and she would get so excited about the idea of sleeping in a tent. It was so cute, but honestly I think Doug and I both were a little doubtful that it would be quite so exciting to her in the middle of a cold night. Well, the time finally came and she was still giddy about it. I think she actually loved the fact that I couldn't go and that it was just her and her dad. I don't think I will ever forget the look on her face as they were about to drive away in the truck, Averi perched up in her pink carseat peering out the window at me. She looked like she was trying to stifle a smile as she waved goodbye to me. It was almost like she was about to go on a ride at disneyland or something. Here they are on thier way out:

When they got to the camp site, everyone got to watch "Tangled" on a projector which is Averi's favorite movie. She was in heaven.

Well, much to our surprise, Averi actually slept quite well that night. She did, however, wake up at 3am and tell Doug how excited she was to be sleeping in a tent. I LOVED hearing about that. SO cute!

A shot of them in the tent:

 

They didn't stay too long the next day but she got to eat some food at the campfire and drink hot chocolate before heading home. She talked about "sleeping in a tent" for quite a while afterwards. She probably would haved loved it no matter what, though, as long as it was with her daddy!

Nammy and Papa!

We were so lucky to have a visit from Doug's parents for the week of Halloween. We had SOOO much fun with them...especially Averi!! Surprisingly Kadence warmed right up to them both as well.

 

Here is Averi "riding" Nammy like a horse. She was so wound up that I guess she just didn't know what else to do!

 

Shortly after thier arrival, we took them up to Estrella Mountain Park to feed the ducks. Then we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Averi was in heaven with nearly a free reign of the candy bars and mallows. Kadence enjoyed a graham cracker or two :)

 

 

The next day Papa helped Doug at work while Nammy and the girls and I went to the pumpkin patch. We all had fun but Averi was pretty tired (too excited to nap the day before) so she was pretty whiny and dismal for a lot of it. The look on her face in this picture pretty much sums it up:

 



She did, however, go crazy for the animals, which was no surprise at all. They had a full petting zoo with goats, pomies, ducks, chickens, bunnies, piglets, etc. She was loving it!

 

I thought these pictures of her were so cute. She was just playing in this little childrens barn which she loved last year too.

Averi was a little too tired to enjoy this much but there was this huge trampoline-type thing that the kids could jump on. It was super fun.

There were also big pens full of dried corn to play in. Averi loved this last year too. Here she is being a goof and sticking her whole face straight in it. Wierdo.

 

The next day Averi had her school Halloween party. They got to dress up at school so Averi was loving it. This is her and her friend Caleb who went as a caterpillar:

Probably Averi's favorite part of their stay (and mine) was when we went to the Wild Life Zoo. Averi would be perfectly content to live at the zoo, or at least go there every day. Since it was the day before Halloween, she got to wear her costume yet again.

 

 

Here she is on the scenic train with Papa. They have such a sweet relationship.

 

 Averi enjoyed "bird-watching" with her toy binoculars that they brought for her. You couldn't see through them too well but you would never guess that by this picture, would you?

 Baby Kadence with Daddy. Lucky for us she slept a lot of the time so I guess we could say that she enjoyed the zoo as well. PS...this is how she sits when you hold her. She leans back on your arm with all the dead weight she can muster until usually we finally give up and end up holding her under one arm like a football

What a beautiful baby girl! Love her to bits!

 Averi spotting the white tiger...one of her favorites.

 Daddy's little bumble bee

That zoo also has a very elaborate aquarium which we spent a lot of time in as well. So relaxing looking at al the fish. (and a hawk...which we still have no idea why it was living with the fish, despite asking the young girl working at the exibit. It was actually quite hilarious.)

 

 What a fun week!!! Thanks for coming Nammy and Papa. We miss you already!

Halloween!

So the Friday before Halloween we went to a "spooktacular dinner party" at a friend's house. It was an adults only party so a friend of ours was watching the kids. An hour into dinner I got a text message that Kadence would not stop crying. Poor Whitney had tried everything and she Kadence would not calm down. So I went to her house to get her and of course right after I picked her up, she was all smiles. She was pretty easy to have at the dinner party too, luckily! She is SO naughty!

Then the next night we were going to get a sitter for the  kids while we went to a halloween party. But after our previous night's experience, we opted to just take Kadence along. She wasn't too much of a pain...I mean, no more than usual. Kadence hates loud noises though so when they were announcing costume winners, people would clap and cheer. Every single time they did, Kadence would burst into tears. Then she would compose herself, and the whole thing would happen all over again. The poor thing just doesn't know what to do with herself.

Doug and I didn't dress up for Halloween night but we did dress up for the Halloween party. My mom gave me the idea for us to dress at a nun and a priest...so that's what we did! Somehow out of nearly 20 people, my costume got voted "most scary". Haha! Not sure how to take that. Here's how we looked:

 Tuesday night we went to the ward's Trunk-or-Treat and chili cook-off. There were about ten million people there so I was anxious the minute I stepped in the building, but it was still fun. Since Nammy and Papa were in town, Averi had a blast going to all the cars with them and getting free candy. What could be better than that?!

 

Halloween night Averi went trick-or-treating with her friend Katelyn (the girl I babysit) who was a zombie cheerleader. Averi, of course was a bumble bee. Kadence was a lady bug. The cutest little insects I have EVER seen!

 Averi really got Halloween this year. Last year she was still a little unsure about things and wanted me to knock and hold her bag for her. This year, she would run up to the doors on her own and yell "Trick-or-treat!" the second the door opened. Then she would yell "DankYou" over her shoulder as she ran off with more candy in her stash. Heart-melting every time!

Half Marathon

So since this second child of mine came into the world, I have been trying to stay motivated to get back in shape (or I guess just maybe GET in shape). The only way that came to mind was to pre pay for a half marathon that was to take place in 7 weeks. Well, those 7 weeks were up last weekend and on Saturday I ran my first half marathon. The race took place in South Mountain Park which consequently meant that the race was quite mountainous. Of course I didn't train for hills so needless to say my legs were dead by the end but all went well and it really wasn't that bad. Along the path I saw a few of these "Slow" cautionary signs. Of course they were meant for people in cars, but at the time it felt more like an accusation. Yes I was very slow...but I never stopped running...and I finished! So I guess I can call it a success :)

This is pretty much what the run looked like: