Got Milk?

I'm happy to announce that Ava is completely weaned onto whole milk. Yay for Mommy...I mean Ava!

Birthday Girl

Here's the birthday girl!

This past weekend we celebrated Ava's 1st birthday.


Since her birthday fell on a Sunday, we decided to do the activity on Saturday. Ava didn't mind cuz she got 2 full days to party!


I really wanted to try to find something to do that Ava could participate in. So we decided to take her to a place called The Jungle. It's sort of like Chuck E. Cheese. They have a special toddler area where you have to be under 3 to play. Ava had so much fun getting to crawl around to all the different toys. Below is a picture of Josh and Ava enjoying the ball pit.


Notice how Ava is the only kid there. It totally pays off to be there when the place opens in the morning! She could go anywhere and not have to worry about being trampled.


This next picture it taken once the ride stopped. You can tell by her expression that she is relieved it's over because she was totally scared for her life the entire ride.



But her most favorite thing was...


Once Ava was done playing around Josh and I decided to trust our luck at the arcade. Together we won over 240 tickets. Oh yeah!


The following pictures are from her actual birthday. Here is a picture of the birthday girl that morning. I'm quite proud of the birthday banner I made.

I don't have any pictures of her opening her presents. But if you ever come over to our apartment we'll be happy to play it for you...we videotaped the whole thing! Below is Ava enjoying a few of her birthday presents.


A family that plays together, stays together!


The birthday girl and her dad on their way to church.


That's right. She's got a bow for a hat...jealous?


I promise the cupcakes looked a whole lot better yesterday...before I put the lid over the cookie sheet. That's why they all look a little smeared. But it didn't affect the taste!

This picture may be a little misleading, because it looks like she's enjoying her cake. Which isn't true! She actually would not even eat it. Every time we would try to give her a taste, she would immediately spit it out. She found it more fun to pulverize it and smear it all over her hair.


I guess it was her birthday and she could eat cake if she wanted to!


I did try giving her a piece of cake the next day and she ate it all. So I think she didn't like it at first because she had never had it before.

Hope you had a happy birthday little girl, because we sure had fun celebrating with you!

What a year!

It's hard to believe that it has already been a whole year since my sweet little baby was born. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing Ava home for the very first time. What a blast it has been getting to be a part of her life. Watching her expression as she tasted her first and last bite of squash, her excitement as she took her first steps, and her uncontrollable giggling as she anticipated a tickle attack are just a few of my favorite memories from this past year. Every morning I remember just how lucky I am to be her mom as I walk into her room and am greeted with a faint little "hi" coming from her crib. Isn't it amazing how it's the little things that you remember the most? I know I can speak for Josh when I say we never knew that we could love someone so much. Happy 1st birthday little girl! We can't wait to see what this next year brings for you!

I searched through all of the pictures we've taken this past year (digital cameras are both a curse and a blessing!) and picked one for each month of Ava's life. I must admit, it was really hard narrowing it down to just 12 pictures! I am always shocked by how different Ava looks now when compared to her newborn pics. I might be bias, but Ava just keeps getting cuter and cuter!

(click on the picture to make it bigger)

Where's Ava?

Probably to my mom's dismay, the past few posts have not included any new pictures of Ava. Do not fret, because this post is chalk full of them! I don't have a funny story, it's just a bunch of random pictures taken this past weekend. The weather was amazingly warm, so we spent most of our time outside. Either at the park, on a walk, or practicing our walking skills.

Can you believe just how green the trees are? It is just beautiful. The whole time we were at the park I tried to get Ava to look at the camera. As you can tell, she wouldn't even humor me with a glance.


Ava was watching some kids ride their bikes on the sidewalk. I was getting all prepared to snap a picture when they rode behind me...


Ha! She didn't even glance at me. The bikers were way more cooler than Mommy :(


Ava hates touching the grass. I look forward to going to the park, because I know I can place her on the blanket and she will not leave it. Well, until she lunged for the stroller. She pushed the stroller all around the park. This girl has got some muscles!


Don't worry, we don't just sit on the blanket at the park. We actually played on all the toys. My goodness, that hat is ginormous (is that a word?).


Ava's little boyfriend from church is letting her borrow his walker. Since our apartment is "cozy", we took it outside to really get some good use out of it.

Look at that hair! I tried to tame it down, but if I don't distract her immediately after putting it in, she will pull it out and hand it right back to me.


This next picture is for Saskia. See, Anna isn't the only one in the family to have crying fits. Ava has them too!


Recently Ava has started sleeping with one limb outside of the crib. Whenever I go in to check on her either an arm or a leg will most likely be sticking through the bars.


Only 5 more days till my baby girl turns 1!!! Today we practiced trying to blow out candles. We didn't make any progress on that front. It was just wishful thinking. Josh and I can't wait to celebrate this weekend!

(notice the 2 bottom teeth. We thought her teeth would never come in)

My name is Korey and I'm an Idol addict

Family sack of fun!

This is pretty ambitious, I mean it isn't even Saturday yet, but I'm already reading over the lesson I'm suppose to teach this upcoming Sunday. Way to go me! After reading through it I decided I needed a little help. Don't worry, I'm not asking you to write the whole lesson for me. But I do have a question for you. The lesson is titled "Encouraging Enjoyable Family Activities." I am planning of having the girls put together a "Family Fun Sack." The girls are going to write down activities they would like to do with their families on a slip of paper and then put them in the sack of fun. To help the girls come up with some ideas, I was going to have a list of super cool activities that they could use if they wanted. This is where you come in. Have you ever had an FHE activity that was totally awesome? It doesn't just have to be a FHE activity. If you have another activity or family tradition that you think could apply, add those too! Thanks! Can't wait to hear all your guys' ideas :)

Krys's Graduation Celebration

After arriving back from Mexico, we had 72 hours before we had to leave for Idaho. Let's just say the house was a complete mess when we left...ummm, and still is :) We usually don't plan two vacations right next to each other, but my sis Krysten was graduating from the nursing program at BYU-I. There was no way we were going to miss that!

The minute we arrived in Rexburg our day was packed. You may be asking, "What is there to do in Idaho?" Well, a lot! After Krys and Jared came over to our hotel we headed over to Jared's dad's house to meet Caleb (Krys and Jared's nephew). Ava is just a month younger than Caleb. This was the highly anticipated play date...more like a play beside each other date. I think Caleb was very infatuated with Ava, because he kept wanting to hug her, kiss her face and touch her. They aren't blood related, so it was alright!

That night was Krysten's graduation. We headed over to the location where the ceremony was going to be held, walked in, and no one else was there. We were just a half hour early before we had to be seated. Who cares where everyone else was, we got to sit in the two front rows! After the ceremony we headed back to Krys's apartment to indulge in some Dairy Queen ice cream cake. I wish I had some to eat right now!

While in Rexburg we also fit in attending a session at the Rexburg temple (thanks Jeanie for watching little Ava bug), had craft time (I made some super cute coasters), went bowling, went shooting, got to pet horses, and had a delicious dinner at Jared's dad's house...can't forget playing games (I won Settlers both times we played!!!) Thanks Krys and Jared for showing us a good time. We had a blast. We wish we could do it more often. We are so glad that we were able to make it out for your graduation. Stressful days of studying, taking tests, and clinicals are finally over...well, after you take the state board exam. We are so proud of you!

I'm still pasty white

Waking up at 2 am, holding an energetic 11 month old for 6 hours, standing in the passport line in Mexico for a few hours, profusely sweating in the back of an unconditioned airport shuttle for an hour, on the return flight missing your connecting flight and staying the night in Salt Lake City. Does that sound like much fun...it was totally worth the effort to go down to Cancun!



This past week we were lucky enough to get to spend a week down in the Riviera Maya with the rest of the Bunting clan. Only one of Josh's siblings had met Ava before our trip, so I was looking forward to getting to introduce her to the family. The first introduction included many tears, but I mostly attribute that to traveling before the crack of dawn and being in a new place. But after the first day Ava adjusted quite well. She loved chillin' poolside, having new places to explore, and eatting sand and drinking the pool water...yuck! But most of all she loved all of her cousins! I think her cousins were just as infatuated with her. Hugs and kisses were frequently exchanged and they all wanted to help stuff Cheerios in Ava's mouth. Which she could do on her own, but I guess it wasn't as fun watching her eat them by herself.

While down there we were able to go snorkeling. There just happened to be a coral reef right in front of our hotel. Another day Josh and I went para sailing. The scariest part wasn't actually being up in the air, it was going on the jet ski to get to the boat. I was terrified that the driver was going to hit a wave the wrong way and I would flop into the water. But mostly during the trip we took it pretty easy and chilled by the pool/ocean.

Josh and I loved getting to spend time with everyone. We are so grateful for the family that we have and wish they all lived closer. Thanks John and Shelby for making this all possible. We hope you had as much fun as we did!

By the way, I realized once I got home that I really didn't take that many pictures. I guess I was just having too much fun! So if you want to see more pics, check out my super cute sister-in-law's sites (Kassie, Saskia, and Ashley). They were much better at taking pictures than me :)