Trip to Monticello

My parents had come up to see the blessing of my nieces baby and they were going to come back up in 2 weeks to see my nephew Josh get baptized. So i saw a wonderful opportunity to spent that time with them. So on April 8th my father in law was kind enough to drive Avery and i down to Kearns so I could meet my parents and drive down with them. I even had the chance to drive from Spanish fork canyon to Moab. We had a lot of fun. the first week the weather wasn't the greatest we even got quite a snow storm. but since both my mom and my dad had projects for me. It didn't bother me. Avery was a little pill the first week. She really hates being pulled out of her comfort zone. Even if her routine stays the same. But close to the end of the first week the sun came out and warmed everything sup. So Avery and i took a break from my parents projects and headed outside to soak up some vitamin D. Avery LOVED the dogs especially my parents st. Bernard Ginger. We played in the grass, played on the swing and grandpa even gave Avery a ride on his mower. She did really well until he stopped then she whimpered a little and reached for me. She kept a close eye on that mower and grandpa the rest of the time we were out there and even a day or so later. After Dad mowed he headed into his green house so we followed. While Grandpa watered Grandma and I showed Avery all the flowers. Both grandma and grandpa gave her flowers which she wasn't sure what to do with. :p She seemed to enjoy them though. She would gently touch the petals and smile, it was really cute. The cat didn't like Avery so much though. Avery got to close and the cat scratched her pretty good. After that I thought Avery would stay away from her. But she didn't she just loved the kitty to much. :p My sister sold her house but they didn't want to move so close to the end of the school year. So they are staying with my parents to finish out the school year. That weekend we had a chance to hang out with their family. Avery loves other kids and she had such a fun time with her 4 cousins. They seemed to enjoy playing with her too. We played a fun game called Mexican domino train. We were all laughing so hard. it was a very fun game. The next week I was getting closer to finishing this huge project. which I just realized I didn't tell you what it was. My mom found 5 boxes full of pictures. So pretty much all my mom and dads childhood pictures plus all their kids and grand kids  so over 50 years worth of pictures. My job was to help mom categorize them and put them in albums. It was a lot of work. But it was also fun to reminisce as well. I am sad to say that I didn't get them done by the chance we had to come home. But that and helping my father set up and understand his new ipad where pretty much a lot of my time there. :p But we did take walks and play with the dogs and go see the horses while we were there. On our last night we decided to roast some hot dogs in the fire pit. Avery was mesmerized by the fire and she likes eating actual food, so eating the hot dog and bun was great fun for her. Over all the whole trip was a very fun and relaxing one. I really enjoyed spending time with my parents, sister and her kids. Here are some pictures of all the fun.

10 Months

Well if I thought 9 months was fast 10 months was faster. June is going to be here before I know it.

At 10 months Avery's favorite things are:

Time with her Nona and Grumpy and Grandma and Grandpa
Play time with her cousins

She still absolutely LOVES her bath time
 She dances like crazy still and to anything she thinks is music

Crawling all over the house
Standing and Walking
Grandma and Grandpa's night light
Pulling things out of the kitchen drawers

Nap time (Yes she still likes her naps :p)
Playtime with mommy and daddy

Playing with the "phone" which is pretty much anything she can get to her ear.

The dog. She especially loves big dogs, like her aunt Denes's dog Roxy and Grandpas St. Bernard Ginger.

Her toys

Anything she can put in her mouth and carry around

Leaning backwards and being upside down

Being outside and going for walks
We have been visiting my parents and she likes to video chat with Daddy

Some of the things she is scared of.

The kitchen aid mixer (but she is getting better)

The garage door
The blow dryer

Some of the new things she is doing:

Her top teeth came in so 2 more new teeth.
standing on her own
walking with our help
Waving bye bye and hello

 Her vocabulary seems to be steadily increasing. She can now say Hello, Uh Oh and Dog very clearly. She is still working on bye bye. We have been visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Earl so she is trying to say grandpa and she says Osko for the dog Rosko

We love and are very proud of out sweet little miss. :)

P.S. I'll post the pictures when I get them off my camera

Baby Animal Days

American West Heritage Center has a baby animal days every year. James and I have been wanting to go for awhile and this year we decided to make it a point to go. This year it was April 4-6. So on April 6th we loaded up the stroller and ourselves and headed to wellsville. The closer we got the darker the clouds got but there was still no sign of rain so we decided to chance it. After we got our tickets we headed in and was just in time to watch the mutton bustin. James and I love watching this. its so fun to see those cute little kids hanging onto those sheep for dear life. The winner was this tiny little boy who stayed on for 15 seconds.

 Right next to that was a horse drawn wagon ride. so we decided to go do that while the line was small. Avery loved it. She jabbered at all the people and couldn't look everywhere fast enough. The floor of the wagon was an open grate so you could see the ground as it went by. James let her stand and she just stared at her feet and the ground going by.

By the time we got off the wagon ride it had started to rain. So we got Avery back in her stroller and all covered up and then we tried to find cover under the goat house to wait it out but people were being to pushy. So we were trying to decided if we wanted to leave or stay. We found shelter under a barn while we pulled out a blanket to cover Avery up a little more so she wouldn't get cold. We waited out the rain and it finally stopped. We went and grabbed something to eat and resumed exploring around a bit more. We went back to the goat house which didn't have as many people anymore and got to see some cute piglets, kids (baby goats) and lambs. There was a donkey there too that Avery LOVED! She was squealing so loud at it it was so cute.

After we were done at the goat house we headed over to find more baby animals. We found 2 momma horses with 2 babies. Avery liked them but couldn't reach them. So we went to the next pen. They had goats and pygmy goats that you could go in the pen to pet and right next to that pen handing their heads over where two cute mules. So we got Avery out of the stroller and headed into the pen. We showed her the mules first which she loved. She was so excited and happy she kept waving at the mule and saying hello to it. She would pet it then laugh and then pet it again. Then she would lean in to give the mule loves. She had such a great time. We took her over to see the goats. James tried to get her to pet the goats but we got kid blocked. :p So we decide to move on.

We found the baby bunny's, ducklings and chicks. The chicks and ducklings had a lot of people crowded around them so we headed over to the bunny's. I got to hold a cute white bunny. It was so soft and fluffy. Avery was so gentle with it and her squeals weren't as loud as they were with the donkey and mule. After we played with the bunny's we realized we pretty much had seen everything and we were starting to get cold so we headed home to tell Nona and grumpy (grandma and grandpa Armstrong) all about our adventures. Avery had a lot of fun and such a big day that come bed time she zonked right out. :)

Easter Update

Well I didn't really get a chance to post about Easter till now. :) Easter was really fun this year. We got a chance to spend it with both my family and James' family too. So Saturday March 30th Aunt Lisa came over to help us make rolls and dye eggs. Avery had a fun time smacking the eggs together. She was also very intrigued at the whole egg dying process.

 Later on Saturday my family had a hunt and dinner planned. So we headed down to my sister Nancy's house. When we got there the older kids were hiding the easter eggs. They had close to 300 hidden all over the yard. When the hunt started we took Avery out and she got to experience grass for the first time. She just sat there, she could see eggs and wanted to go get them but didn't want to crawl over the grass. But as soon as she got an egg she had a lot of fun shaking them and hitting them together. She had even more fun when her cousin Lexi gave her an egg that rattled. She had great fun with that but was a little confused when the egg broke open and jelly beans flew everywhere. She also loved the wind every time it would pick up she would stick out her tongue as if she was trying to taste it. After the egg hunt we all sat down to a family Easter dinner. It was really good to see my family. I got to see my nieces little baby Hazel again and I got to meet my nephews baby boy Ryker. It was really great seeing everyone.

 Well even though Avery isn't 1 yet the Easter bunny still visited her. She loved her basket and had a lot of fun unloading it and finding all the fun new toys. She also got a cute new Easter dress and hat which I need to take a picture of. We had a great Easter Sunday. After church we headed over to Uncle Kim and Gordy's for an Easter egg hunt and dinner. Bob, James and I had a lot of fun hiding the eggs and the kids had just as much fun finding them. :) We hid 100 eggs. Avery had a lot of fun at this egg hunt too. Unfortunately I forgot my camera. :(. But overall we had a great Easter weekend.