Avery's 1st Bird-day!

I cannot believe that it has been a year since Avery was born! Time really does go by so fast. She is so big and learns new things everyday. She is always our best and most enjoyable source of entertainment. We had her 1st bird-day party on Saturday afternoon at my parents house. I wanted to do it on her birthday but since it was smack in the middle of the week it didn't really work because Kurtis would be at work and its not like she knows anyway so it worked out well to do it on Saturday. I am so glad that most of our families got to be there. Kurtis's parents came up from Salina and Krista, Kim, Kathy and Karla were there as well. Kelly had to work and Kenalee is of course in Las Vegas. I always love when we can have an excuse to get almost everyone together.

I kind of went a little crazy on getting ready for the party. It is my first child's first birthday afterall, isn't that what you are supposed to do?! I spent most of the week making the decorations, the cupcake picks, and the cake but it was worth it.

I had a picture in my head of what the cake was going to look like and it didn't turn out exactly how I planned but it worked out well and was pretty cute for the most part.

Avery had a blast and I was so impressed and proud of how long her attention span was. There was probably a good 40 minutes of present opening and she sat on Kurtis's lap the whole time and opened her presents.

She was so funny with her cake at first. She just picked at it very carefully with her fingers.

Then she got all into it and smeared it around all over, and wanted the share with everyone else!

This is the clean up afterward. It was much easier to stick her in the sink then to haul her upstairs to the bathtub!

Lately....

Thank you Kayla. You always remind me when my blog is way overdue for an update. Its not that I'm super busy or anything, its just I really don't think my life is very interesting. And for some reason I always feel like I can't blog unless I have pictures to go with it. Well, I do have a few pics to go with this blog. Two weekends ago we decided it would be a good idea to go down to Las Vegas and visit family and friends we haven't seen in a while. Well, it will be the last time we try to fly stand-by on a holiday weekend. Who really cares about Presidents Day? :) I guess a lot of people must have had a long weekend because it took us a day and a half to get there and the same to get back. Thank goodness my sister lives in Bountiful so we just stayed with her on Saturday night and Kurtis's sister Kenalee was gracious enough to let us stay with her in Vegas and drove us to the airport at the crack of dawn to make the only flight that looked like we might possibly get home on Wednesday. Kurtis had to miss a day of work but oh well, thats what you get when you fly stand by. But, we did have a great time seeing the family and friends and we got to see The Lion King at Mandalay Bay. Thank you Kenalee for watching Avery! It was amazing! Im so glad we got to see it. It was a late Valentines for us, so worth it! Here a few recent pics of the child. She is growing from a baby to a toddler and its crazy how fast it is going! One year in one month! Crazy!

She gets SO excited sometimes that she holds her arms out and shakes! Its really funny!

Just chillin reading the paper at Nan and Papa's house.

She loves bath time!

Christmas 2010

I know, its a little late but I am finally getting around to blogging about Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas. Avery loved it, although she didn't quite understand what was going on, she loved that everyone was together and so excited. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house so everyone was there on Christmas morning. She kept looking around and clapping her hands saying "Yay!" That is why most of the pictures of her are so blurry because she wouldn't hold still long enough for us to take a picture! We probably should have just stuck to getting her wrapping paper and empty bags because that is all she was really interested in but oh well. Santa brought Kurtis and I a iMac that we love. We are still trying to figure out how it works but it has been great so far. We had a great day and then we went spent that night with Kurtis's family. Kurtis's sister Kathy gave us the best gift ever! It really was what I have always wanted...a MONEY TREE! Okay, it was more like a money flower plant but it was so great! Thanks Kathy! The only sad thing about Christmas was that it always goes by so fast. But we had a blast with Avery and all of our family!

In her Christmas dress all ready for church

Avery loves Papa Bear!

Reading with aunt Meg

The stash that Santa brought

This is the season...

I love Christmas. I think everyone loves Christmas, but I am really enjoying the season this year. I really think it has something to do with the fact that I got all my shopping done so I can just enjoy it! I have been very contemplative the last couple months, for no peticular reason. I am so grateful for a whole month where we are celebrating the birth of the Savior. I feel like I always try to be a good person and to live a good life but the last little bit I have been trying extra hard. Im so thankful for Jesus Christ in my life and for the knowledge that I have that even though I may make many mistakes ( alot of really dumb ones) that I can move past them and try again to be better. I think maybe one of the reasons I have tried to step up my game the last little bit is because of Avery. I have this little person in my life now who depends on me for everything. I want so badly to be a good mom to her and to teach her how to be a good person. I know she is only 8 months old and I may be jumping the gun a little bit but I figure if I want to teach her all these things I better make sure I am living the things as well! Im not saying that I have not been but I just want to always make sure that I don't get complacent with where Im at. I hope that I always am trying to do better. Im so thankful for a wonderful, patient husband who is such a good example to me and makes me want to be better and at the same time makes me feel like I am already the best. I am so grateful that we have the priesthood in our home because Kurtis lives worthy and is always trying to improve himself. Im grateful for people around me who improve who I am and who are amazing examples to me. Anyway, I love Christmas and I hope in some small way I can find little ways everyday this season and throughout the year to help others around me come closer to Christ and be happier, because I know there are so many around me that do that for me!

Just Because

I know it's been some time since Daddy has posted on the blog. Well, I wanted to talk a little about my amazing little family, just because. It's not a special occasion or day of the year. I just need to say how crazy I am about my wife and how much I love my little Avery. Sometimes, while I am away, Aubrey has rough days. Many times it is because Avery is cranky and tired. I cannot be there for Aubrey on those days except by phone. Even then I may only have moments to comfort and support her. Not once has she complained about me being away. She has never said she wishes I had a different job. She just pushes through those rough days and keeps telling me how much she loves me even though I can be insensitive at times. She is the most brilliant and amazingly loving mother. Avery is such a blessed little girl, and I, a lucky man. Being a dad is the most incredible experience. There is nothing better than having your little girl lay her head on your shoulder and fall asleep because she is just so tired. Or have her give you such an amazing little smile when you get her out of her crib after a nap. I love that little angel more than I thought I could love anything. It doesn't hurt that she is so dang cute. Each week when I come home from work she has changed. She is growing so fast. We are so lucky to have wonderful family and friends who are close by and support us. Again, another great blessing. In order to keep this post a reasonable length, I will end by simply saying that my beautiful wife and insanely cute daughter are my rock and my light. Anytime I find myself complaining about my life I simply stop and think about how happy I really am. The End!

Halloween weekend

So, I decided that I really like having Halloween fall on a Sunday because its a good excuse to celebrate the whole weekend, which is exactly what we did! Friday night was our 2nd year at the road rally. This years theme was Alice in Wonderland, so Kurtis and I went as the Tweedle twins! We never decided who was Dee and who was Dum, oh well. We had SO much fun! The clues were so great and it was so well done. Heidi and Andrew came with us and with all 4 of us we figured out where we needed to go pretty well. We thought we might win but I guess for only our 2nd year 6th place out of 20 teams isn't bad eh? My favorite part was when Heidi and I were booking it through University Mall to find a clue and we totally got yelled at by the Mall Cop! He was like "if you enter the mall you need to walk!" We were just like "okay" and started running anyway! I was laughing so hard because he probably thought we were 16 and little did he know that I have a child at home!
Then on Saturday night we got Avery all dressed up and took her to my mom and dad's. She looked so adorable in her monkey costume! We put her to bed at their house and went and played games with some friends. We did more this last weekend then we have done since Avery was born. We are SO grateful my parents live so close and are willing to watch her so often!

Sunday we went up to Bountiful to have dinner with Meghan and Steve. They are living in Steve's parents house right now while they are on a mission. We all dressed up and had a great time. Steve even made name tags with a different picture on each one. We waited a little too long to take the picture because Avery was ready for bed and screaming when we actually took it. Overall, it was a great weekend!

What makes a bad day all better?

Isn't she the cutest thing ever?! I was kind of bummed when I was done with work today because Kurtis had a short weekend and had to go back to work for 4 days today. I went to pick Avery up from my mom's and she gave me the biggest smile ever. What made all my icky feelings go away you ask...I picked her up and she wrapped her cute little arms around my neck and gave me tons and tons of kisses! This is a pretty new thing for her and she has to be in right mood but she totally knows what she is doing and she wouldn't stop kissing me. It was just what I needed to shake my bummed-out-ness. I can't believe she is 6 months old already! Time has really flown by. Although she drives me crazy sometimes, Avery is the sweetest, cutest baby girl ever and I don't know what I would do without her. I really feel so blessed to be able to be her mom!