24 Years Ago

24 years ago I was here...


This is how I reacted to the news of having a new sibling...


Yep, that's me at 2 1/2, sucking my thumb, with my blankie, in my NEW baby sister's bassinet. But who could stay mad at this little one.


So if you haven't already guess it, 24 years ago my little sister was born. Even though it was a hard transition for me (My first memories are of that exact date), I'm so glad that she was born. HAPPY BIRTHDAY little sis!


If it wasn't for you my entire childhood would of totally stunk! Who knew that having a little sister would be so much fun?!


It was awesome always having a sister to play with. Especially one that liked Barbies just as much as I did.


You're the only one who knows the humiliation of being a wrapped gift for Halloween. (We may be smiling on the outside, but we're not smiling on the inside)


We got married almost a year to the date apart.


And now we are both expecting little baby boys just over a month apart from each other.


Happy birthday and have fun blowing out your candles! I do remember being so impatient that I actually blew out your birthday candles for you. Boy did I get in trouble for that one! Also, here's a little tribute to my Grandma Kolb who just happened to share her birthday with Krysten.


I love you! Wish I was there to celebrate.

I'm going to be an aunt...

...again! But you can never have too many nieces and nephews. Check out my sister's blog to find out if they're having a boy or a girl. Congrats Jared and Krysten! It's going to be a blast having two little cousins so close in age! We can't wait to meet the little one.

Virus Alert

Unless you want a throat as sore as sand paper, a stack of used tissues a mile high, a few hundred coughs an hour, and eyelids so heavy there is no possible way you can stay awake another minute, then come visit me! Otherwise you might want to stay as far away from this household as possible. I sure hope this unwelcomed virus leaves soon. Any suggestions on what to do when Mom gets sick?

I'm a big girl now!

With the due date of Ava's little baby brother fastly approaching, we decided to get Ava her very own toddler bed. We made the big switcheroo last night, and Ava hasn't looked back.


I think the huge cheesy smile tells it all.


To be honest, I was a little sad to see my baby girl moving out of her crib. But once we set it up, I couldn't over just how cute it was. And then when I saw just how excited Ava was when she laid her eyes on her very own bed, I quickly got over it. I wish you guys could of seen her happy dance she did on top of her mattress. She's too funny. She even points to the crib and says "Baby's" and hasn't even wanted to go in it.

Mini me

On the way to the grocery store today, Ava would not leave the apartment without her purse. How could I say no, she was just to darn cute!

First Strawberries of the Year!

I must admit, I didn't take this scrumptious picture of those strawberries below. But Ava and I did fill our bellies with strawberries that looked just as yummy today!


Flip flops, t-shirts, strawberries and warm weather. I think the weather is playing a cruel joke on all us Californians. It's only January. So of course it isn't going to last, but we are totally going to enjoy it while we can!

Why I love CA, Reason #2

You can drop everything and go the the beach.


Which is exactly what we did when we found out the weather was going to be in the 70's this past weekend. The weather was perfect. No wind, no clouds. Sun glasses were a must!


Running to and from the ocean, stomping in the wet sand, building/destroying sand castles and enjoying the warm sun. Ava could of stayed at the beach all day.

Why I love CA, Reason #1

You can still have park outings in the middle of winter.


I can't believe how independent Ava is. She climbed up the play structure and went down the biggest slide without any help from me.

Grandpa

One last picture! I totally forgot to post this little gem in a previous post. I just had to post it because everyday Ava asks where Grandpa is. While out in UT anytime he would enter the room she would shout his name until she got his attention. It might have a little to do with the fact that Grandpa was the giver of Jelly beans and all other sweets. But hey, isn't that what grandparents are for?

New Years Eve

This is going to be so sad, but I've never had a great New Years. Josh and I agree that New Years is totally not a Mormon holiday. But thanks to Kassie and Jake, I actually had a great time stuffing my face with cheese fondue, chocolate chip cookies and sparkling cider. Yum! We even got Shelby to stay up for a non-competitive game of Apples to Apples.

I can't believe it is already the new year. I have only 3 1/2 more months being the mother of one. So, I guess my resolution this year is not have a total break down! If anyone has any advice on having 2 kiddos, don't be shy, share your wisdom!

So that's it! That's all the pics I'm going to post from our vacation. I am so grateful for all of our family. Ava has some awesome grandparents, aunts and uncles to look up to. It makes me a little sad to realize that it's going to be a year and half before we see everyone again. We love you guys!

Temple Square

You can't go to Utah without going to Temple Square to see the lights. Lucky for us the weather wasn't actually too bad. It wasn't snowing or even windy.


Ahhh, isn't the temple just gorgeous.


In the middle of the reflection pool they placed a statue of Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Aren't the floating balls the coolest?




I still can't get over the amount of detail that went into putting up all the lights. Each branch of the tree had lights on it. I have no idea how they did it, but I'm so glad they did. It was beautiful.

The Bean Museum

Doesn't visiting a museum full of stuffed animals sound like a fun time? Well it so is. I'm always so surprised by the variety of animals that they have here. We were a little worried to see how Ava was going to react to all the animals. Especially to seeing the ginormous bear standing on it's hind legs. (Just follow our gaze to guess just how large this bear is!) But we had nothing to worry about. When Ava laid eyes on the bear she excitedly pointed to it, and then ran over to the bear while saying "Grrrrr".


The museum was way better than a book for Ava. She couldn't get enough of walking around and asking her what each animal was.


I'm not joking about the pointing! She is such a curious little girl.




Ava and Josh also loved looking at all of the bugs. I did not.


All in all it was the perfect little outing. We'll definitely be going again in the future.

Cousins 24/7

Ava absolutely loved being around her cousins. It actually made for a rough couple of days once we were back home. I guess Mommy just isn't as fun to play with.


Nana quickly won the hearts of these kiddos once she introduced them to Youtube.




One of the other gifts Ava got for Christmas was a stroller for her baby dolls. Lucky for Ava, Maddie was more than willing to push Ava instead of a baby doll around in the stroller.


One of the days while we were out in Utah we traveled up north to visit my cousins. Of course, they were all way more excited to see Ava than Josh and myself :) I'm so glad that the snow stopped falling for one day so we could make the trip up north.

Christmas

Christmas Eve was full of delicious food. Thanks Shelby for all the hard work and effort that went into such a feast!

After dinner all the kiddos put on a wonderful performance of the nativity story. Now don't laugh, but this seriously is the best picture I had of all the cousins. I wish you could see Anna's costume, she was the cutest donkey I've ever seen.


After dinner all the cousins got to open one present. Surprisingly they all got Christmas pj's in their packages.


Early Christmas morning all of the crew gathered in the living room for some present opening fun. These little girls look like they don't have a clue what's going to happen next. But Josh does!


Ava must of been good little girl, because Santa was very nice to her. I bet it helps that she didn't have to worry about being nice to any siblings. These little velcro fruit were a total hit with Ava bug.


Later that night the boys gathered for a very competitive game of risk.


All in all, it was really nice getting to spend Christmas with our family.

Let there be snow

This year we got to spend the holidays with Josh's side of the family. I was totally excited to get to see snow while I was there. But I don't think I was ready for this much snow!


But I must admit, the snow sure is pretty to look at. Even if I'm now too chicken to drive it in. CA has sure made me soft when it comes to weather extremes.


Here's our little snow bunny getting ready to go sledding for the first time.



Ava was a total sledding junky! Once at the bottom of the hill Ava would keep repeating "Nor, nor!" (Ava translation: More, more)