What a fun trip it was

Here is the last post dealing with my mom's visit. Whew. Going through 250 pictures is sure a time suck. Sorry for the amount of pictures ahead of time. But just be glad I didn't post more, because I so could have!

I guess Reid is just paying Ava back for all of the kisses she's given him.

Ava's a really good sport. She never hits Reid and just says, "No Reidy, don't pull my hair." She might have to add, "Don't eat me" to her response.

Reid sure loved having the extra attention from Grandma.

She even got Reid some cars to play with.

Finally some boy toys for the little guy. He loves taking a car in each hand and then slamming them together. Ava never did that. Gotta love little boys!

Shoes, check. Sunglasses, check. Backpack filled with nothing, check. Now we're ready for our walk.

Grandma's little helper.

Ava really does like animals. Just not in person.

Reid's now able to sit upright in a big kid stroller. He loves the new view.

Since the closest Jamba is 4 hours away from my mom's house, she makes sure we make a stop whenever she is in town. Ava sure doesn't mind one bit.

After getting our Jambas we headed over to the park. Since it was Halloween day, no one was there. No waiting for toys, free reign of everything, and not having to worry about just how long we've been on the swing. This must be what it feels like to have a backyard :)

For some weird reason, the first thing Ava wanted to do when we arrived at the park was push me on the swing.

Ha. I don't think she expected me to come back.

Reid observing all of the park fun.

Hey bud, I have an idea. Do you want to go on the swing?

I think that's a yes!

Wow. How did he grow up so fast?

What a handsome little guy. Makes me want to go upstairs and give him a big squeeze. But I'll restrain myself until the morning.

Grandma knows the way to Ava's favorite people list...stickers.

You can faintly notice a purpler marker mustache. Luckily it came off before Halloween.

Grandma sure knows how to make a little girl feel special. They enjoyed some one on one play dough time.

Ava even got to help Grandma make rice crispie treats.

They were delicious. Especially when you happened upon a whole marshmallow in your piece. I guess Ava decided that there just were not enough marshmallows in them and threw in a handful last minute (Notice the white blobs below).

We went downtown to find Reid some new shoes, but came up empty handed. But we sure had fun while we were there.

Ava always loves the fountains. Grandma even gave her a coin to make a wish. She wished that everyone would feel better. We were all fighting a cold while Grandma was here. She's such a sweetie.

Here she is trying to fish her coin out. Okay, not really. She just likes to touch the water.

I just realized a lot of the pictures had to deal with food. I promise we did more than just eat food!

Thanks for coming Mom. Ava still randomly will state, "I miss Grandma."

Hope you enjoyed the pics. We have quite the aspiring photographer at our household. I might just have to do a post with pics taken by Ava.

6 Months

Reid had been waiting for this day for months. I've never seen a kid so interested in what I'm eating. This poor little kid would stare at our food all during dinner hoping that just maybe we'd give him a taste. But finally, it was his day to try some real food. So here come the pics.

This kid knew exactly what to do when I tried feeding him his first bite. No explanation needed.

What do you think? Did he like it?

I'll let the picture speak for itself.

A few of the times Reid got so impatient with, the speed at which I was feeding him that he took matters into his own hands. Literally. He grabbed the bowl and shoved it into his mouth.

I must admit that I am pretty excited to have one kid that likes to eat. Maybe his eagerness in eating will rub off onto a certain little girl.

A Wicked Trip to the City

While my mom was here, Josh offered to watch the kids while we took a little trip into the city. Who could say no to that! Our first stop was the 9 story Macy's store that has a Cheesecake Factory on the top floor. We both got the herb crusted salmon with lemon sauce. Yum, yum, yum!

We finished the night by going to see Wicked. Amazing. It was just as good as the first time I saw it. I don't know what my mom did to score this, but the two seats in front of her never got taken. So she had a perfect view of the stage the whole night. But the people who sat next to us were not so lucky. They had two people in front of them wearing top hats during the entire play. Bummer for them, but luckily it wasn't us!

Pumpkin Drawing

You might be wondering what is "pumpkin drawing". In short, we decided to opt out of carving our pumpkins and decided to draw on them instead. Ava is quite the little artist and didn't care one bit. She was very careful with each and every stroke. She made sure to cover every inch of her pumpkin. She paid special attention to the stem.

Ava was quite proud of the horse she drew on her pumpkin (hint: it's the red spot right in the center of the pumpkin). Don't feel bad, she had to tell me where it was too.

Reid even got in on the fun too. I helped him hold the marker. Which is a lot harder than it looks. Especially when he was trying with all his might to get that marker into his mouth!

Reid is quite proud of his first pumpkin!

Here is Ava and her finished pumpkin.

Halloween '09

This past week my wonderful mother decided to fly down for Halloween. More to come on that visit in a future post. But I wanted to make sure I posted pics of Halloween before it got much later. Hope you're sitting down because you won't be able to take your eyes off of the computer screen for awhile. Ava and Reid are just that cute!


Lucky for us, Reid was able to fit in the same costume that Ava wore her first Halloween. That costume was the best $2 I spent (thanks ebay!).


Any guesses on who Ava dressed up as?


Maybe these "slippers" will give it away.


My little princess told me that for Halloween she wanted to be a blue princess so she could dance and twirl. Sidenote, Ava thinks if she puts her fingers in her ears and screams "I can't hear you!", that she doesn't have to do what you ask.


What a little lady we have. It's kinda hard to see in the picture, but she's trying to walk up the stairs.


I don't know where this came from, but Ava laid down and told me to take a picture.


Here is a picture of my beautiful mother and the gang.


Gosh, could I open my mouth any wider?


That's better.


On Friday we attended our ward's Halloween party. We couldn't believe it, but our chili won the golden ladle. Five years ago our chili won at our BYU married ward (it's the exact same recipe), but I figured it was because in college no one knows how to cook. We're trying to find the perfect place to display our award.


The next night we went downtown to go trick or treating. The weather was perfect. Notice that we are not wearing jackets or long sleeves for that matter.


Ava sure loved having Grandma take her around trick or treating. I think Grandma enjoyed it just as much!

It took 4 months

We've finally unpacked every single box from our move! It might have something to do with my mother coming to visit today. Just maybe. Okay it did.