One Year

Today is such a bittersweet day! My baby girl is turning ONE! I can't believe how fast the year has flown by. I can still remember the day that she came into our lives. Motherhood has brought me more joy than I could ever expect! I have loved being a mom so much and I am so grateful that Averie has given me the opportunity to experience it! She has changed so much in the past year. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of her.
Our first family photo. I am so glad that my face is not quite as round as it was that day! Gotta love the effects of pregnancy.I miss the wrinkles. Here she is at four days old. My little "monkey". Can you believe I thought her eyes were going to be blue?!? Her big brown eyes are definitely her most complimented feature.
First smiles.Oh the hair! Thank goodness it has filled in!
See what I mean about those eyes? Gorgeous!
Such a happy girl!
Six Months
Super Grins. Love it.
Our favorite Averie face. Unfortunately, she doesn't do it any more...
Well now that Averie is a year old, lets get the final update on her!Weight: 20.4 pounds
Height: 30 inches
Head Circumference: 18 inches

This silly girl is starting to turn into just that, a GIRL. She is lacking most baby attributes.
She has started drinking whole milk and she loves it! I was nervous that she might have a reaction to it, but it has been smooth sailing. It is so much easier than formula too! The only thing I am worried about is her undying love for her bottle. She hasn't shown a lot of interest in sippy cups. I fear the day when we have to wean her. Every morning Averie has a melt down until she gets her bottle. It is pretty funny. She is hysterical until that bottle pops into her mouth.

Averie is no longer eating baby food. She eats anything and everything. She is a better eater than me. The only thing she is unsure about is tomatoes and tuna fish. I can't believe how much this girl eats! She has quite the appetite.

She is still not even close to walking. I think it will be awhile before she starts. She will walk holding on to things, but she refuses to stand on her own. If you try to let go of her fingers she either throws her head back or she lounges forward. It is a bad and good thing. My back wishes she would start walking, but I am grateful I don't have to chase her yet.

Averie's new thing is to point at everything and say "a dis?" or "a dat?" (what's this? what's that?) It is so cute. She always says "ya!" to agree with what you are saying. She also "barks" when Sergeant starts barking. Oh she is so much fun!

Averie has started hitting. Oh my gosh little stinker! She must have learned it in daycare, but if we tell her no she swings at us and says "eh!" Kinda cute, but what a naughty girl.

She is the craziest sleeper ever! We find her in the most odd positions. She will be in a crib for a long time because she would easily fall off a bed 20 times a night.She loves her puppy. Sergeant is so patient with her. He takes all of her abuse and is never mean to her. I wish I could say that Averie is never mean to him. We will just have to keep working with her.
We love our Averie girl! Life wouldn't be the same without her! Here are some Birthday pics compliments of Sunnydays Photography. They turned out so darling!
























Well this is a long post. I will post pictures later of her party. We love you Averie girl! Happy Birthday!

Happy Easter

What a crazy weekend we have had. Yesterday was Averie's Birthday party (stay tuned for tomorrow's post). Today was Averie's first (and almost last of the "firsts") Easter. We had a great visit from the Easter Bunny and Averie was spoiled by her grandparents too. Here she is opening her basket from the Easter Bunny. A new lamb to cuddle and a new swimming suit for summer!Averie checking out her new lamb. She just loves soft toys right now.Doing her favorite thing, throwing things. Silly girl.Here she is opening her basket from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson.A new bunny.A new kitty.
Some yummy animal crackers.A new Dr. Suess book.And a new giraffe that plays music.Grandma and Grandpa Payne came by for a visit too. I only got one picture because my memory card was full. They got her a duck, some yummy treats, a new bib, outfit, and these really cool eggs that come apart with little chicks inside. They were a definite hit!

We were so crazy that we forgot to color Easter eggs. Horrible I know. Oh well there is always next year! I hope everyone had a great Easter.

Families are Forever

On Saturday, April 16th, our family had the opportunity to go to the temple and be sealed together for time and all eternity. The temple was beautiful and it was such a perfect day.


We had a few bumps in the road getting there, but we made it! Last week we went to go get our stuff to go through when we realized Brian's recommend was not signed by the Stake President. I am glad we noticed before we got to the temple. We also found out the there were no shoes for me in the entire state! They were sold out everywhere! I finally ended up getting some Friday night. My sweet friend Megan found them for me. She grabbed me the last pair! So glad she was looking out for me! The last thing that happened was Averie's dress. I bought her dress a couple of months ago online. I finally decided to try it on her Thursday night. It was HUGE. It looked ridiculous. I was in no mood to try to alter it either. I got this idea to try her blessing dress on her, and surprisingly, it FIT!Isn't that amazing?! I was so happy that she was going to be able to wear the same dress that she was blessed in. It is such a special dress!

We were supposed to go through the temple on Friday for the first time, well Brian's work had other plans. They decided to send him to California for the week instead. It was so much fun to deal with all the drama while he was gone let me tell you! I am just grateful he made it home safely.

The day of the sealing went perfectly. The weather was wonderful and everything flowed so well. We decided to get a few pictures before we went in.
Our Eternal Family.
Andy and AmyLyn. Luckily, AmyLyn did not go into labor in the temple. She did say that she was having contractions though. Hopefully, Easton will wait until next week to come. She is just finishing up with the semester.
My parents and me.Brian's parent's and us.
My hot hubby and me.
"Pa pa" and Ave.
The sealing was so amazing. I can't describe the joy that I felt that day. It was like everything was the way it should be. When my mom carried Averie in it was so sweet. She was completely fast asleep. Not what I expected. I expected her to cry or to be really talkative and loud, but not asleep. It was precious. She slept until it was over. When she woke up she was looking up at the chandelier and she looked like a princess. Now I know that she will forever be mine. Brian will forever be mine. We will always be together and that sounds really really good!

I just want to thank everyone for their love and support. Forgive me for my faults during the past few months. This has been such a crazy time for me and I really appreciate everyone's patience and help. I couldn't have done it without you!

First Trip away from the Babes

This weekend was my first weekend away from my Averie girl. I left Friday to go here: (Moab)

To play this:

(Volleyball)

I had such a good time! I went with my friend, Jana, and we left Friday around One. We got to Moab about 5 and the tournament started around 6. We played until about 10 that night. The first night we did awesome! We won all of our games. Well the next day we started playing at SIX in the morning! I don't know what they were thinking starting that early. Needless to say, we didn't do so well that morning. We lost two of our games, but won the last one. We ended up taking third I think for the "losers" bracket. Kinda disappointing... Oh well, we still had fun!
The weather was just heaven! Here is a pic of me, Destin, and Jana enjoying the sunshine between games.This is Trey, he wasn't on our team for this tournament, but I usually play with him Wednesday nights. He was showing off his "glove/shoe" running shoes. So weird! They were the most interesting pair of shoes I have seen in a while!Well we ended up getting done around six Saturday night (yes, that is twelve hours of volleyball). Of course we didn't play the entire time, but it was still exhausting! I sometimes feel like I am 50 years old after I play, but this weekend made me feel like I am 90! What happens to our bodies that makes physical exertion so difficult? I kind of feel like I got hit by a bus! Anyway, our plan initially was to stay Saturday night and go to the Arches on Sunday. We ended up driving home Saturday night because we were so exhausted and we were worried about the weather on Sunday (well I was a little home sick too, I'm not going to lie).

It was so nice to get home early to recover and sped time with my sweet hubby and little one. I missed them so much! I had to post this picture of Ave and me. No I didn't plan the matching outfits, but its pretty cute huh?! It was nice to get home early so that we could enjoy watching conference together. I won't lie, I did get a little sleepy during the second session and took a nice nap, but I listened for the most part. How sweet was Richard G. Scott's talk? I just loved the way he talked about his wife and you can tell he loves her so much. I really want to strive to show Brian how much I love him and cherish him. He is such a wonderful husband and father. I am so lucky. I hope everyone had a great weekend also, hopefully it was the last snow storm of the year!