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!

A Little Catching Up

Since I havent posted anything about us recently I better document the goings-on of the DeGraw family as of late...

• Averi-  Loves to "count". And by that I mean that she says "two, wee, two, wee" over and over again (counting from 2 to 3). She absulutely refuses to say "one" and if we ask her to, it will go like this:

ME: "Averi, say one"
AVERI: "two"
ME: "no, Averi say one"
AVERI: "two"  ... And so on. I guess she is just used to hearing "two" come after "one". SHe hasnt learned anything besides 2 and 3 so I guess we can say that she can count from 2 to 3. haha.

• Loves her blankets. She doesnt care what one she has but whenever I get her out of bed she HAS to take her blankie downstairs with her and she also loves to cart it around the house.
• Still loves her babies. She is always asking me to change her baby's diaper because she is "poopy". She also wants me to help her swaddle her baby a lot and she always says thank you to me when I do. :) She likes to feed her baby and will make the chewing sound like she is really eating it.
• If you ever ask her where something or someone is, 9 times out of 10 she will reply "mmmm, it up-ders" (upstairs). Then when you find it, she will say "there shee!" (there she is, there it is).
• She LOVES Sophie and it's usually the first word out of her mouth when I get her out of bed. She wants to make sure I let Sophie out of her kennel so she can come downstairs with us.  She also gets the giggles when Sophie peeks over the edge of the bath tub while she is bathing, or if we blow bubbles at Sophie and she tries to bite them. Whenever we are leaving in the car to go somewhere, Averi always says "Bye, Sophie" and will repeat it over and over until I say it too. She also asks about her when we are getting ready to go back home in anticipation of seeing her again.
• She LOVES her daddy and usually comes running towards him when he gets home from work giving him a big hug. Then she often runs around downstairs yelling "Dada! Dada!" hoping that he will chase her. She is quite the show off in front of him.
• Averi will often refuse to walk when we are out and about and cry in one place until I cave in and pick her up (it's a good thing she's so little). So I still end up carrying her about everywhere, unless I have a stroller. When Doug is with us, however, she usually wants to walk, probably to show her daddy how grown up she is.
• Her best friend lately is Ezra. He is her little boyfriend and she also asks about him a lot too. She will randomely say "Eza went bye bye" and gets so excited and hyper when she sees him. They are parteners in crime. A couple days ago we were over at his house and when we went upstairs to check on them, they were in the shower pumping shampoo into their hands and "washing" themselves and the shower walls. Averi's guilty concience kicked in when they got caught and she acted really worried. Ezra, on the other hand, thought he was pretty cool and was laughing it off. (see pics below)
• Averi loves to sing and dance. Whenever we are in the car with the radio on, she will bob her head to the beat adn sometimes try to sing along. She loves to sing twinkle twinkle/ABS's. Can't really tell which since they have the same tune and she doesnt really know the words... although she does sing "Now I  ee I ee" which makes me think its "Now I know my ABCs"
• Still pronounces "Love you" like: "I know". No clue why she does this but we think it is hilarious.
• She is still the pickiest little eater. She would happily live off of ritz crackers, juice, and dry cereal if I let her (and maybe cheese). I have to get pretty creative to get her to eat any fruits or veggies. She likes apple sauce so I feed that to her every day and today I tried mixing in pureed squash. Luckily she didnt notice. That is my success story for the day. :)

Doug:

• Is enjoying life a little more since work has slowed down for the end of the summer.
• Is enjoying football season and continues to root for BSU, BYU, etc.
• Is excited to visit his parents in SLC next month! (and so am I!)

Randi:

• Is keeping busy with Scouts (8 year olds), making wreaths, and being a mom... the best job ever!
• Is loving that it is starting to cool down (from 112 degrees to 105 degrees!) so that I can actually go on walks with Averi in the mornings.
• Loves keeping up with the fall tv shows The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family.

Wreaths!

My friend Whitney and I are starting our own wreath-making business (of sorts). It has ben fun working on these together and we are getting really good at it ;)  Anyway, here are some of our wreaths that we have for sale. They are all going for $30 (plus any appliciable shipping) They are very sturdy and can be used on the front door or anywhere inside...also great for gifts! If you cant tell from the pics, they are made with yarn (wrapped around a foam ring) and the flowers are hand made out of felt. They are really cute when hung with ribbon but also look great with just a wreath hook. They are all about 12 inches in diameter (the top right one is more like 14 inches)

 A close-up of some of the flowers:

Just let me know if you are interested in purchasing :)

Fake Laugh

Averi started doing this hilarious fake laugh all on her own a while back. Now we beg her to do it on command and sometimes we get lucky :)

Homecoming!

 My parents finally came back from their mission in Australia a couple weeks ago. Doug, Averi, and I all went down to visit (me for 2 weeks, Doug for 4 days). It was fun to see Averi get re-aquainted with her grandma and grandpa since she was only about 6 months old when they left. She actually warmed up to them really quickly and loved spending time with them.
Here is Averi and Grandma teasing each other. Averi thought this game was pretty funny.

 

Averi and Kenley getting re-aquainted :) They had somewhat of a love-hate relationship while we were there. They would fight and pick on each other but yet they would also hold hands and ask for each other when they were apart. Averi would always be concerned about Kenley if she got hurt or went to bed. She would say "Keh-ee eh uh ny ny" (Kenley went night night) or "Keh-ee eh uh owee" (Kenley got an owee). I have gotten pretty good at cracking all her codes and translating her language for others.

This is the girlies in their strollers when we went to the farmers market.

The whole time we were there Averi was infatuated by the ponies and the horses (or as she calles them "ah-seez") The would probably sit outside and just watch them all day if I'd let her.

We had a late combined birthday party for the girls. Averi got spoiled once again with some great gifts and everyone had a great time.

The Cobbs hosted a dutch oven dinner one of the nights with tons of delicious food and of course a game of baseball and football. The girls got to play baseball but we opted to be spectators (and some cheerleaders) for the football game. As the photo shows, the guys did not play lightly and most were about dead when the game was finally over.

Here is Averi insisting on helping Kylie make the lemonade.

And of course no trip to Boise would be complete without my dad pulling the kids behind the 4-wheeler in the old toy Jeep. Averi LOVED riding in it with Kaly and she would wave and say "Hi Mommy!" every time she drove by me. So cute.

I had tons more pics but they somehow got "corrupted" on my camera so this is it.

2-Year Birthday Bash!

Good morning birthday girl!

That's right, it has been two years since we first welcomed that little bundle of joy into our lives! Seems like yesterday, yet it also seems like we have had her forever. Life was so boring without her :) On friday night we had a luau themed party and invited over all her friends and their families for a big hawaiian feast and celebration. Averi had a great time with friends and got SO spoiled with gifts.

Chicken/veggie kebobs. I skewered about 80 of them! Glad to have that over with. Its a darn good thing that they turned out yummy!

Doug and Eddy on grill duty.

 The par-tay!

The cake (Thanks to the Walmart bakery) 

The kiddos making their own fruit loop leis.

 Present time!

Averi really did get spoiled with gifts. But she loves every single thing she got and is very grateful!

 Cake time!

Averi sharing her cake with Sophie.

 After the party we let Averi open a couple more presents just from us. Here she is playing with her new baby-doll (one of three that she got for her bday...She can never have too many!).

 The after-math...well worth the mess!

On Saturday morning we went to Averi's friend Soren's birthday party at the fire museum. We got to ride on the back of a fire truck! Averi was actually a little nervous but I think she had fun ;)

We pulled the plug on Averi's binkie a couple days ago. She has actually done okay with the adjustment but it looks like she has taken a liking to her baby doll's binkie! It now has Averi teeth marks all over it!

Here she is trying to peek throught the fireman cutout. Still a little too short :)

I think that is enough partying for one girl in a weekend! SO FUN!