happy happy birthday avery dear!

our sweet little avery turned ONE this week!!! can you believe it?!?  this year has seriously flown by.  we had a wonderful day filled with lots of balloons, streamers, cake, and yummy food.

my parents joined us for dinner + the festivities that night and we had a great time!  i made avery's favorite meal: roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, salad, and strawberry cake.  she devoured every last bite :)

 

after we ate our strawberry cake the birthday girl opened gifts.  we got avery a little set of 7 disney princesses.  we decided it was time that she had some girlie toys (and since we got a $200 gift card to the disney store for signing up for a disney credit card...we couldn't help ourselves!)  she was so intrigued and wanted to hold all of them at once.  (i love how she is kneeling in the photos below!)

 

my parents didn't want max to feel left out so they brought him this cool little lion that shoots a ball out of it's mouth.  he loves it!  and they got miss. avery her very own miniature piano.  it has become the new favorite toy at our house.  thanks to everyone who made avery's birthday so very special!

 

avery, we love you so much.  you are constantly on the move (just like your brother!) and you are taking more and more steps every day, which is so exciting for all of us.  you've definitely got an opinion about most everything and you are really good at making it known :)  you are so curious and love to explore and follow max around.  you have an obsession with balloons currently and have a balloon string in your hand at least fifty percent of the day!  you want to be able to go down the stairs like max and so you get very frustrated when i pick you up and try to teach you how to go down backwards.  you give the most wonderful open mouth kisses (which are so so slobbery!) and you love it when daddy comes home.  you have 8 teeth now and your drooling has finally subsided a little bit (the last few weeks you've been wearing a bib to try to contain it!) and you've got a gap between your two front teeth which makes for the most adorable smile.  you love bath time.  you love to listen to music.  and you absolutely love bedtime.  as soon as we hand you your blankie and zulie (your stuffed zebra) you give them the biggest hug (with a huge smile on your face) and lay right down on the floor.  you sleep like a champ (this morning you slept until 9!) and you are such a happy baby.  we love you little goose :)

.....

ps. in case any of you are interested in how the potty training is going...we survived!!!!! we followed the 3 day potty training method and really liked the techniques she uses.  however, by the end of day 5 with no success, we were ready to give up until max reached kindergarten!  i felt defeated.  we were discouraged.  we felt like horrible parents because we were getting so frustrated.  max was uninterested and acting up like never before.  it was not a happy time.  but then, we prayed about it and since heavenly father has such a wonderful sense of humor, he reminded us about the pink potty we had sitting in our garage waiting to go to the d.i.  to make a long story short, it was just what max needed.  since monday max only has accidents during nap time + at night which is leaps and bounds from where we started.  so the moral of the story?? endure to the end!!  and if you need moral support, i am here :)

favorites.

one of her favorite things is crawling over to the window as fast as her little body will carry her, standing up, and peering out at the big, wide world outside.

once she's up and standing, gripping onto the window frames with her chubby, dimpled hands,
one of her favorite things is playing peek-a-boo in the curtains.

one of my favorite things is tickling her through the curtains and hearing her deep little chuckle.

but one of my most favorite things of all is being her mom.

the terrible twos have begun!

you guys!  i don't know what to do about my sweet, energetic, happy, runningahundredmilesaminute little boy.  just within the last few weeks i feel like he has entered the terrible twos.

now, it's not all the time.  most of the time he is still his happy, good-natured little self.

but sometimes, a monster emerges...and i need some advice :)

just a few examples:

+ he hits avery at the most random times.  i'm not sure where this is coming from, but i sure hope it's normal!  most of the time he loves her SO incredibly much, but sometimes he just takes his anger out on her.  she is getting pretty tough!  today i caught them playfully wrestling and avery was totally holding her own.  proud mama moment :)

+ he insists on changing his outfit at least three times a day (if not more)  

his favorite outfit of choice?  pajamas of course.

(on the flip side, he has gotten a million times better at getting himself dressed!)

+ he doesn't eat well during meal times.  he used to be a champ about this, but lately he either refuses to take one bite!! or he takes a bite and then plays with the rest of his meal.  when danny's mom watched him the other day she told us that he "ate enough to feed a mouse!"  what a great description!

+ and don't even get me started on potty training!!!!! holy moly.  it's been an exhausting three days.  and i'm a little teeny tiny bit super-de-duper frustrated because today was probably the worst day of all. he did make it to the toilet ONCE today (after peeing mostly on the bathroom floor...) and yesterday he even pooped twice in the toilet (major accomplishment in my opinion!) but it has been incredibly hard.  i can't tell you how tempting it has been to just throw diapers on him and wait another few months...or few years!!!  danny has faith that things are going to work out.  i sure hope he's right.

........

ok.  i think i'm done venting :)

i really do love my little maximillion soooo much.  he brings so much light into our family.  he is full of energy and is such a lovable and loving person.  he is talking so well lately and has even started singing some little snippets of songs.  the other day in the car he started randomly singing "the itsy bitsy spider" it was the first time i've ever really heard him sing more than a few words and it was so cute!

+ one of my favorite phrases of his lately is his version of the word "noodles."  he calls them "nerdles" and just typing that makes me laugh :)  he is such a cutie.  another random cute thing he did the other day: he hurt his knee and instantly leaned over and kissed it better himself :)

+ he loves "craft time" with mommy and totally gets into it with me.  we've done all sorts of fun things lately (especially since we've been cooped up in the house getting "potty trained") and it's been great to try out some new things.

 

+ he is such a boy and can spot a truck, bus, car transporter (he actually saw one the other day and said, "mom! a transporter!" so funny!), tractor, etc...anywhere!  he was especially excited when a tractor got to stay at our house for the night.  a dream come true in his opinion!

 

+ speaking of singing, here is max singing his version of "scripture power."

we're still working on most of the words, but we love it!

happy easter

our easter was pretty low key this year--we stayed at home and had a very small easter egg hunt (think four eggs within a ten foot radius...) but we did manage to make a delicious meal + we were able to spend some quality time outside where it was absolutely beautiful!

i taught my primary girls this last week, (was easter really almost one week ago??)  and we had a great easter lesson which definitely helped contribute to the spirit of the day.  i am so grateful to have a testimony of my Savior and for his atoning sacrifice.  the knowledge that he still lives and cares about me is something that gets me through some tough days.  what a wonderful holiday!

thanks to some awesome balloons (with mega helium) from my friend natasha, avery has discovered that she cannot live without a balloon string in her hand.  it is actually pretty darn cute.  we have balloons scattered all around the house, and whenever she sees one (and believe me, if it's there, she will spot it!) she reaches towards it saying "ohh, ooh!" and she doesn't stop until she's got a firm grip.  silly girl.

 

  

 

birthday festivities

i'm sure you are all dying to know how DAY ONE of potty training went.

(we're following the 3 day potty training technique found here)

 let's leave it at this:

lots of water, juice, popsicles, and kool-aid

candy land, craft time, and curious george

15 accidents

one grumpy baby...meaning avery

 (good thing danny has spring break!!)

and two very exhausted parents.

please tell me this gets better?!?

.............

on a happier note:

the last few weeks have been jam packed with birthday festivities!

we've got three birthday's within 3 weeks!! craziness!

my birthday comes first, right after conference weekend.

we were able to spend the weekend up in layton with danny's family and we had a fabulous time.  

wasn't conference the best?  danny and i were able to attend the saturday afternoon session at the conference center with our friends sam + penny and elder holland starting off the session was pretty much the coolest thing ever.  the lighting in the conference center isn't totally conducive to staying awake, so danny struggled a little bit but he did remember something about "scottish grit."  :)

we ate at blue lemon after our session and i think it's safe to say that it has become my new favorite restaurant.  i ordered the black bean tortellini (yummy) and their slushy ice definitely helped to curb my ice addiction!

monday was my actual birthday and it was a wonderful day.  birthday's are great!  thanks for all the texts, phone calls, letters, packages, balloon bouquet, and facebook messages.  i felt very loved!  danny even had his classes send me birthday text/video messages with them singing happy birthday.  can't get much better than that!

and to top it all off, avery took HER FIRST STEPS!!!! she won't say mama yet but she walked to me on my birthday!  it was the greatest gift she could have given me.  (ok, i guess after today, the greatest gift would have been to potty train herself! haha)

that night, we drove up to provo to celebrate with my family and to cheer my little sister on in her school musical, cinderella.  she played perla the mouse and did a fantastic job!  my mom made a delicious dinner + we had costco cheesecake for dessert.  the perfect ending to a perfect day!

(above: the only pictures i have documenting my birthday)

(below: ave walks!  this video was taken on day two)

potty training!!!

the day has arrived.

we are potty training this little guy:

there's no turning back now...wish us luck!

ps. i've got a bunch of catching up to do, so stay tuned :)