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!

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 :)