Look who's walking!

Kadence actually took her first steps around 13 months. She took 9 steps in church (in tights on the slippery gym floor) over 3 weeks ago But it wasn't until recently that she has actually used walking as a main mode of transportation. She still crawls about half the time but she is getting more and more confident in her walking skills and it is SO cute! :)

A few weeks ago we camped out in the yard in a tent. Averi walked all over the yard with Kadence trying to get her to walk.

 Kadence has also become quite the climber and thinks she is pretty cool in this pic when she climbed up on the chair.

 

SWIM

 

Averi recently completed her swimming lessons for this summer. She liked it a lot more than last year since she is now more confident in the water... maybe a little too confident! She did really well and progressed a ton. However her teacher commented on how stubborn she can be. :) She would sometimes do what she was asked, but sometimes when she was tapped on the head to come up and take a breath, she decided it would be much easier just to swim faster so she could make it to the wall. That girl can hold her breath for so long!

 I think she is trying to tread water in this pic :) On her 2nd day of lessons she randomly threw up all over in the swimming pool. I'm talking chunks everywhere! So sick. Poor Kimber jumped out to get the net and got out as much as she could then had to vacuum the rest. We think she must have just swallowed too much water/air or something because she never got sick. I feel bad for the class the went right after us! Haha!

 Practicing her skills in the community pool. I took her out one day to specifically practice just jumping into the pool. She saw me dive in one day, and apparently decided that she could dive too and would do that instead of jump from then on. Then, at swimming lessons the next day, she was supposed to jump off a 3 foot wall through an inner tube "like a pencil". She decided to go head first and gave all of us parents quite a scare when she almost bounced off into the wall. Crazy girl has no fear. She was asked to do it a second time and did the SAME thing. I literally had to DROP her into the tube to show her what she was supposed to do.

Here she is jumping in. She was supposed to jump in (not at Kimber), come up for a breath, then swim to the edge. Not the best listener, but she CAN do it, and I guess that's the important part. :)

Here is Kadence enjoying the show. She loved exploring the yard and stealing kids' rings when they put them on the edge.



A visit from Grandma!

We have seriously been so spoiled this year with all the visitors! I LOVE it! My mom came down from Boise last week to play and help out. Averi was in Heaven the whole time, if you can imagine! She was on non-stop showing-off mode so we never had to worry about entertainment.

 My mom was SO nice to give us a day off on Wednesday so Doug and I went to Tempe and shopped, ate, and hung out. We stayed overnight at a Days Inn and were so excited to jump in the hot tub when we got there. We asked the Hotel manager where it was and he pointed us in the right direction and gave us towels. We got all dressed and ready, headed out to the pool / hot tub area. I dipped my foot in the hot tub and it was stone cold! Why the manager didn't tell us ahead of time that it wasn't working, I'll never know. When we went back to the office to ask him what was up, he just rubbed his face and sheepishly replied "oh we are just waiting for the heater to get fixed". Haha! Good to know! In the morning we ate a fabulous continental breakfast... or more accurately... we ate about 3 breakfasts' worth of food each, then had a nap, then hit up Bashas to get some groceries and headed home. Doesn't sound like much but trust me, it was awesome!! So fun just to get away for a bit :)

 

The kids had so much fun playing games, doing stickers and crafts, and reading with Grandma. We all enjoyed the warm (normal people would say hot) weather out at the pool too.

 

Averi havin a snooze with Grams 

 Averi showing Grandma her "chocolate face" while licking the beater.

Those are the only two pictures I took all week! how sad :(

Easter 2013

Averi woke up on Easter Sunday to learn that the Easter Bunny had paid her and Kadence a visit! They each got a basket full of goodies, and then Averi realized that the Easter bunny hid some eggs all over the living room. She LOVED discovering that most of them were filled with candy!

Averi showing off her Ariel doll that was in her basket.

 Kadence's Easter basket

 Cute little Easter baby!

Moab Canyonlands!

A few months ago me and my sisters decided that we were all going to run the Canyonlands Half Marathon in Moab. That day finally came on March 16. It was SO much fun getting to do this with my sisters who are all awesome. We got to stay in Jody's camper which was super fun and saved us money. This is a shot of the inside of it...its more like a house to me! Maria and Jody are trying to figure out the computer in this picture. We were all excited to watch a movie at night and then found out that the computer was screwed up somehow and wouldnt let us. We still, however, stayed up way too late gabbing like us girls do!

 

Me, Maria, and Kristy ended up running the last part of the race together so we got this action shot... yes we are actually running in this pic. 

The scenery was gorgeous. So much red rock!

 

A shot of the top four finishers:

Ok maybe not but we are still hot!

 

After the race, we shopped and ate (a lot) and stayed up til like 4am or something ridiculous. Then we went to sacrament meeting and parted ways. I drove home by myself (boo), and they drove to Logan all together, then Kristy and Maria drove on to Boise. On the way home, I got within like 3 miles of running out of gas before I finally came across a gas station. Scary! Guess I have been spoiled by the conveniences of a big city. Plus I'm an idiot :)

 

We have decided that we are going to keep up the tradition of getting together every year and I can't wait till the next time!

A DeGraw Visit

Doug's brother Matt gets to come to Phoenix every so often for work, and the last time he came he brought his kids, Payton and Macy, wife, Deanne, and mom Nancy. It was SO fun to have them visit for their spring break. Averi always loves a good visit from "Nammy", and having Matt, Deane, Payton, and Macy there too made her week even awesomer!! Since Matt's work paid for his hotel, they stayed there and the kids and Nammy stayed with us. Averi was in Heaven getting to share a room with Macy (who insisted she sleep on the floor next to Averi's bed). Their hotel had a heated pool so we spent a LOT of time there soaking up the sun while the girls swam their little hearts out! They seriously could have swam from dawn til dusk if we let them!

Here's the kiddos on their first day here. Payton and Macy gave Kadence and Averi super cute Easter presents with little stuffed animals and candy in them.

 

It was Dougs birthday the day they arrived so we celebrated with cake, then two of doug's friend's came over seperately to give him cake as well... so we had a LOT of cake!

Macy freezing from the cold water at our pool.

 

Payton and Macy

 

 

Playing in the hotel pool 

Now, it really doesn't get much cuter than this, am I right?!

 

 

I had to go help out at a funeral one day while they all went shopping. Apparently Kadence was quite infatuated with Payton :)

Some yummy Easter treats we made together:

 We went to Estrella Mountain Ranch one afternoon and ate,walked around the lak,e and fed the ducks.

The ducks attacking Averi for a taste of bread.

 Leave it to Payton to actually PICK UP one of them! Still not sure how or why she did but it was hilarious!

Averi's friend Kaige secretly hid a bunch of Easter eggs in our front yard one night, so they got to go hunt for them in the morning. Such a cute and fun idea!!

Their findings:

 

 Kadence seemed to  really like Payton the whole time so here they are just chillin' on the couch together :)

Eating pizza and ice cream on the patio

 

 

Payton and Macy tried really hard to get Kadence to walk while they were here but unfortunately they werent successful. I think they actually did get her to take ONE step that I saw from the corner of my eye but I probably shouldn't count it since that was 3 weeks ago and she hasnt taken another one since then. Boo.

Kadence turns one!

I can't believe we have had this cute little bug for a year. What did we ever do without her?! We love her SO much! To celebrate, we had some of her little friends (and families) over for a bbq dinner and cake. Since her birthday was so close to Easter, we had an Easter theme and the kids got to hunt for eggs outside after dinner. Low-key but super fun, and cute to see the tiny tots play :)

 

The adorable birthday girl

 Kadence and her friend Cassidy watching their older siblings play outside

"One day, Cassidy, that's gonna be you and me running around out there"

 

"What? Am I not supposed to eat this dead flower or something?"

 

K crawling around under the tables

 

 

 Kadence playing with toys with some of her bday guests

 Enjoying some of the presents she received

Thank you to all of her friends that came for celebrating with us and for the cute gifts you gave her! She really did have fun besides the cake part. Not a big fan of cake I guess...dont know how she can be MY kid if she doesn't like cake!