Family Photos

My favorite friend, Carlye, took our family pictures again this year.  I think they turned out so great!  I love them all.

Cute Things

The exterior of our new house seems to be near completion and I think it's cute.  I am getting really excited to live in this house!

 And of course our little nugget is pretty much the definition of cute.  This picture is from our family pictures Carlye took.  She's the best (both Carlye and Avynlee in their own rights) and I can't wait to see the rest!

 

Avs is pretty much the best ever.  She has adjusted to living in my parents basement really well and loves having so much attention.  She is the champion of a talker and is super funny.  Her humor involves a lot of lies...like, "Daddy has a stinky bum" and then she laughs and laughs.  She likes to read and can recite a lot of her books from memory.  She likes to try to learn letters.  She knows so many colors and shapes.  She is loving her new nursery class and asks to go to "Church time!  Nursery time!" most days.  She thinks pajamas or sweats are just as good as any other outfit...wonder where she got that...but she still likes to wear "sancy clothes" and "pwincess cwowns."  She is super affectionate and throws out hugs, kisses, and "I love you"s all the time.  She likes to pretend (to be a mommy, to cook, to be sick, to be a doctor, to be a baby, etc).  She still can't jump and it's so so funny.  She loves to dance and sing.  She loves going to the park and to library school (what we call toddler time and the library).  She is a crazy daredevil. She sometimes asks us to take her back to the doctor for more shots...she really likes him.  She is obsessed with Halloween and pumpkin patches which has been so fun.  She loves other kids so much.  Her cousin Melee came to visit last weekend and Avynlee was so excited to see her.  She is not subtle about wanted a sibling.   "Pleeeeaaase, daddy!  Avs has a baby Boss too?"  We'll see.  She loves to help sweep, cook, fold laundry, do the dishes, etc.  Having her help isn't always super helpful but we, of course, encourage it.  Avynlee is the light of our lives.  How could you not love that face!

Goodbye Eagle Mountain

We have officially moved out and handed over our keys.  It has been kind of bittersweet.  We really loved this house.  It's strange to think we will never go back to the place we lived for four and a half years...unless we become friends with the new owners and visit them or something.  That seems unlikely though.  Bye Avs yellow house!  We'll sure miss you.

Our cute first home.

 Living room (from the kitchen)

 Ginormous kitchen (taken from the garage door, the back door is to the left)

 I don't have a picture of the half bath.

Avs bathroom:

 Still Avs bathroom:

 Avynlee's cool, v-shaped room.

 Avs room:

 Office/sewing room.  The only room with all right angles.

 Master bedroom and closet:

 The biggest bedroom we will ever have:

 Master bath:

 Master bathroom:

This is mostly so I can look back and remember our cute first home together and show Avynlee her first house.  She really loved "Av's yellow house" and it's a little sad to me that she will likely not remember it.  I'm not even sure she realizes we don't live there anymore.  Luckily she is super comfortable at my parents house.  They are kindly housing us until our new house is done.  We have a new house and a whole bunch of great new memories to look forward to!

Avynlee is Two!

I officially have a two year old (who seems to be about as tall as an average three year old).  The past two years have not at all been what I had planned on but they have been amazing and I wouldn't have traded them for anything.  Avynlee is the light of our lives.  She is so crazy and silly.  She gets into everything.  Seriously.  More than any kid I have ever seen.  She loves exploring and learning about things.  She loves giving hugs, cuddles, ugga muggas, butterfly kisses, squishes, really anything affectionate.  She is a sweetie pants.  She says hi to strangers and is obsessed with kids and babies.  She speaks really well and can pretty much carry on a conversation.  She loves being read to and sung to.  She knows the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black, and white and while assign them "light" or "dark" adjectives sometimes.  She knows triangle, circle, heart, square, rectangle, star, and moon.  She loves learning numbers and letters and can identify "A" and sometimes "B".  She likes to pretend to sound things out but is rarely correct ("K says mmm, mmmm, mmm...L says buh buh!").  She can count to ten but usually leaves a couple numbers out.  She is brave as can be and will climb on and jump off about anything.  She loves swimming and thinks she can do it on her own and she sometimes can...for about three seconds.  She isn't so great at holding her breath.  She thinks she is a big kid and always wants to wear "big girl undies" or sleep in a "big big bed!" or "dive next" or "skooter all day long".  She thinks she can jump.  She can't.  And it's hilarious.  She lkes to pick out her clothes and pajamas (sometimes several times a day) and is very particular about what she wears.  She often has a really strange mix of outfits on.  She loves animals, her friends, and her family.  She talks about her grandparents a lot and often mentions a few favorite friends and family members.  Madee is her best friend and she loves Baby Boss )and has asked us several times "pleeeaaase!  My baby boss?"  We'll see).  She loves her cousins Maxwell and Solo and baby Melee.  She loves their animals and talks about "Patti's kitty" and "Patti's horsey".  She tells us that "Baby Toy (McCoy) lives at Sadie's (the dog) house.  He's tuuute (cute)."

Avynlee is the prettiest, smartest, sweetest, funniest, craziest kid I have ever met (biased much?) and I am so proud of my little two year old.

Side note:  You know how you reach half your adult height by age two?  My girl might be six feet tall as an adult.  Good thing Adam and I like swimming, volleyball, and basketball.  We may be watching a lot in our future.

House Progress

Our new house is coming right along.  We are getting really excited for it to be finished!

Our glorious hole!

Foundation:

 The basement is framed:

Our house is starting to look like a house! 

Pardon the rain droplets but I didn't want to get all wet!

We close on our current house in less then a week!  Most of the big stuff is already moved into storage and most of our clothes are already hung in closets at my parent's house.  We are camping out for a bit and then we will be saying goodbye to "Av's yellow house" (that's what she calls it).

This little cutie made good use of our boxes.  Where better to sit and watch a show?

Thanks to our awesome family and friends for helping us with our move!  I especially grateful my parents are willing to house us until construction on our new house is done.

Tomorrow we take the world's least comfortable mattress to the dump (new house, new bed, right?) and Saturday our wonder nugget turns two.  TWO!  She isn't a baby anymore!  I don't know how it happened so fast but I love have my chaos causing, hilarious, dramatic, affectionate little sidekick around.  I wouldn't change a thing about her...except maybe her current potty training status.