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Lots of words but no pictures.
Sorry this isn't going to be a very fun update. I haven't found our camera jack and cant download any pictures till I do. But I can update you. :) I don't know if I mentioned in any of the past posts. But James applied for a job with Ogden Clinic to work for their orthopedic section. When we came up for the Armstrong party he had a 2nd interview with the doctors. Well a couple days after we got home James got a job offer. So he broke the news to Dr. Bunker. He said he took it pretty well. The ladies in the office however did not. :p Well I started the job of packing, we have the apartment till Feb cause we couldn't break the lease or do a buy out. So the idea at first was to keep everything up and going (utility wise) and just take up north the valuable things and then slowly through the next month bring the rest up. Just in case though I decided I was going to pack up everything. Well Avery's 6 month check up came and so did her last visit to an awesome pediatrician. Seriously LOVE Dr. Newbold. He is going to be very tough to replace.
Well we took a break from packing and headed to Monticello to spend Christmas with my parents. We headed down on the 22nd. This is the first time Avery has seen grandma and grandpa's house. She loved Tukker but wasn't quite so sure about Ginger (mom and dad's new puppy St. Bernard). Probably cause we couldn't get Ginger to hold still long enough for her to see her. :p the 23rd we went to some of mom and dad's church but we cut out early to head to Blanding to watch Tanner receive the priesthood. James got to be apart of the circle to give him the priesthood. I am so proud of my hubby to be able to do this. Unfortunately Avery wanted her voice to be heard as well so her and I had to spend most of the time out in the hall so she could jabber away. We stayed and talked a little after. But decided that we needed to leave so we didn't interrupt the other meetings. Denese invited us to come over later for dinner though. So we headed back to mom and dads for some lunch and naps before heading back to blanding for dinner. good thing to cause we were running low on diapers and food. :p The whole evening was a lot of fun. After dinner 9 of us sat down for a rousing game of shang-hi. Yes 9. That game went a long time. Avery had a lot of fun watching us and trying to figure out what was going on. She got some high quality, Daddy, mommy and Uncle Loren time too. :) If you want to know what Shang-hi is leave me a comment and I will post about it.
Christmas Eve as I was getting ready for the day James came in and told me I needed to come out to the living room. "Avery has decided to start a new tradition". I went out to find Avery had rolled over to the tree found a present (luckily it was hers) and started to rip it open. By the time I got there she was half way through it. So we just let her finish opening it up. Again I got some really cute pictures that I will post later. Well both dad and mom had to run into town before the big storm hit. So dad and James went first, then mom and I headed in to the grocery store and to run some other errands. We made it back just in time for the snow to start flying. The rest of the day we just spent inside. Grandpa kept trying to get Avery to open more presents. Grandma kept telling him she needed to wait for tomorrow. At one point my dad asked where mom was. I told him in the kitchen cooking..."why?" He grabbed a present and handed it to Avery. Again I have some super cute pictures of grandpa down on the floor with Avery with this present. Well before mom noticed Avery had the wrapping off and her new boots on. She had this proud look what I did expression on her face. :) After that both mom and I kept a closer eye on grandpa. Well I got the job appointed to me as being Santa's little helper for my mom's Christmas sock. Since I was going to be the last one going to bed as soon as I could get Avery to go to bed. Slowly everyone headed to bed. First Grandpa then James and then Grandma and then Avery. After Avery went to bed I followed Santa's instructions to the tee and got to bed myself.
Santa's instructions was to take a plastic coke piggy bank and fill it up with Pepsi. It took 4 1/2 2 liter bottles to fill it up.
CHRISTMAS DAY!!! Dad was so excited for Christmas he woke everyone up at 7AM. He claims that he did it so that he could clear the drive way for the bleaks. but for some reason I just didn't believe him. :p Mom was really surprised the see her huge bottle of Pepsi. She was even more surprised when she realized it was real. It was a lot of fun watching Avery on Christmas Morning. She woke up as cheerful as ever and was very intrigued about what was going on. She had a lot of fun with her stocking and even the first few presents. but then she lost interest and started to play with her toys and the wrapping paper. Closer to the end though she became interested again in enough time to open her last present. We let her sit and play with her new toys while mom and I started to get breakfast ready. Pretty soon I couldn't hear her jabbering anymore. When I went to check on her, she was out like a light. :) The Bleak family came over the Christmas brunch and presents. We had A LOT of food. My sister made these awesome pancakes that I want to try sometime. She substituted applesauce for the oil and eggnog for the milk. They were so good. After breakfast mom and dad gave the bleaks their presents and Avery gave her cousin Tia her gift. I was excited to see if she would like it. She asked for University of Utah stuff. I think we complied pretty well. I made her a bow, then had a U sock full of U stuff. A shirt, necklace and earrings. She seemed to like it a lot. :) Well after presents they headed home to do their own family Christmas fun. Christmas night was a lot different then what I am use to. I am use to a lot of people (a min of 15) which means a lot of noise and chaos. This year though it was just the 5 of us so it was really quiet. But still fun. Mom and I made Christmas dinner and pies. We had a quiet meal and then watched a movie. The 26th was just a re coop day
Well I hope you made it through there is still part 2. :p
