A night of disappointments for Ava

After dinner we decided to take our little family on a drive to look at Christmas lights...again. Yeah, so we like looking at Christmas lights. But if you saw our neighborhood, you'd be going out a few times too. The people around us spent some major time and effort getting their houses ALL decked out. And boy, we sure are enjoying it. After getting our fill of the lights we decided to drive over by the temple so the kids could see it all lit up. On our way out of the parking lot a very tramatic event happened (just so you don't get all freaked out, it wasn't a car accident, just a funny conversation)

As Josh starts to drive out of the parking lot Ava has a complete meltdown. She was so upset that Josh had to pull the car over until we were able to get her to calm down enough to tell us what was wrong.

Ava: (while fighting back tears she is able to muster out) I wanted to go inside!

Doesn't that just break your heart? Josh and I tried to explain that she needs to be a bit older before she can go inside the temple, but she still was pretty upset. So I asked her if she would like to get out and walk over to the huge nativity scene they have on the temple grounds. She responds with the following...

Ava: That's why I was crying too. I wanted to see Jesus.

So Ava and I get out, while Josh and Reid wait in the car. Ava was literally bouncing all the way over to the nativity. After arriving, she checks out the nativity for a few seconds, then informs me she is cold and wants to go back to the car. Okay, I thought she'd enjoy it a bit more. Especially since the nativity was practically life sized. Once back in the car, this little conversation goes on.

Josh: How was the nativity?

Ava: (in a disappointing tone) It was fake.

How disappointing would that be, to think you were really going to see baby Jesus, only to find a statue. And to top it off you think you are going to get to go inside the temple, only to find out you get to look at it from the car. Hopefully she was able to enjoy some of our trip tonight :)

Am I dreaming?

Last night we got the keys to our new house! Josh and I couldn't be more thrilled and quite frankly, shocked that we actually have the keys in our possession. Bring on the moving truck!

Miss Cinderella and Miss Snow White

Aren't these girls the prettiest princesses in all of the land? Ava just loves when Maddie comes out to Utah for a visit. It will be a sad day when these girlies stop dressing up every time they get together.


The following story has nothing to do with Ava's cousins, but I just thought it was too cute not to share.

Me: I wonder who Nana is on the phone with?
Ava: She's talking to hun.
Me: Who?
Ava: Grandpa.

*update* The following conversation happened a few days after the previous conversation.

Shelby: (phone ringing) It's John.
Me: (talking to Ava) Who's John?
Ava: It's Nana's hun.

Just to clarify, John, Grandpa and hun are the same person.

He's official

Reid is now 18 months old and is legally allowed to attend nursery.


If you can believe it, Reid loved every minute of nursery. He didn't cry at all and loved getting to play with all the other kids. It might have a little to do with the fact that he's been attending nursery ever since the beginning of July, and ummm, it could also help that both of his parents are his nursery teachers, and his sister is also in nursery. It's sure going to be quite the adjustment for this little guy whenever we move out of this ward. But since I am his teacher I can honestly say he did awesome :)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween had a little attitude this year. Around 3pm the rain came and just didn't stop untill 5-ish. Seeing a break in the rain we got the kids ready and started taking them around the neighborhood. We had only gone to a few houses when the rain came back in full force accompanied by wind, thunder and lighting. Boo! After returning home and feeling pretty bummed, we decided to have a little dinner. Shortly after, the clouds parted and it was perfect outside. The rain was gone and the temp was just right (for Utah), so we gathered the kids and went for round two. Here are the kids all dressed and ready to go.


Here's our very own Tinkerbell.


Ava was over the moon excited to get to wear her costume. Here she is showing Reid the awesomeness of her costume. Can you believe I found those wings at the Dollar Tree for just a buck. They match perfectly! I couldn't of made wings cheaper than that!



Arg, here's our wee little pirate.


Can you believe I got this costume for only $3.49 off Ebay. Might I add the tags were still on it and it had never been worn. For reals! I did end up sewing his pirate hat. Which I'd like to thank my little pirate for wearing it the entire night.


{knock, knock}


{ahhhh! Someone's coming}


{trick or treat} or {treeeeee!} as Reid like to say.


We had multiple people mention just how much Ava made their entire Halloween. Check out the video to see why. Here we are going trick or treating to our next door neighbors. Love them. They are just the sweetest. The password is Halloween.

Ava seriously jumped up and down at almost every house we went to. A few of the neighbors even asked Ava to spread a little pixie dust with her wand and she happily obliged. We absolutely had a blast getting to take the kids around this year. They both really got into the whole thing. It only took going to a few houses before Reid had the whole treat or treating process down. He would knock, yell "TREEEE!" (treat), pause for 10 to 15 seconds while he searched for the perfect treat, pick it out of the basket all by himself and them place it in his bag. Adorable.

The kiddies with all of their loot.


Happy Halloween!

Presenting Ava's Preschool Class

A few days before Halloween Ava's Preschool class had a little Halloween Program. Little 3 year olds dressed in their Halloween costumes singing songs. I'm so there. Check it out, the password is: program.

Woohoo! That's my baby girl!


Ava and her wonderful teacher Miss Rebecca.


On a sad note, this past Thursday was Ava's last day attending her Preschool class. Way back in July we put an offer on a short sale. Doesn't that seem like ages ago? After months and months of waiting, we were finally going to close on Thursday afternoon. 2 hours before closing we get a call from our lender telling us that the title company found a huge tax lein that was just put on the house. Meaning, we weren't going to close that day. Actually we aren't going to be closing until they are able to clear the lein off the title, which could take a few weeks. That was not something we were too excited to hear. I had already told Ava's preschool we were moving, they had filled her spot, we had people on both sides of the move all ready to help us move, most of our things were packed, and we had deliveries scheduled. Luckily our landlord didn't put us out on the streets. Thanks John and Shelby! Which I have no idea how other people would of dealt with this situation if they had already given 30 days notice to their landlord. So right now we are in limbo. Most of our things are all packed and we are just waiting for word that everything is good to go. Looks like I'll be homeschooling Ava for the next few weeks until we move. Hopefully the next post I do on the house will be about us closing. But we've had some many ups and downs throughout this process, that Josh and I aren't holding our breath until we actually have the keys in our hands.

Add "snow" to Reid's vocabulary list

Thank goodness he only needed to use it up until lunch. After that it melted away and hasn't been seen since. But look at their cute little faces. It was a nice surprise for them to wake up to.

What is going on outside?

Crap. It's snow.


I might not be ready for it to get colder, but I can't wait for the kids to wake up in the morning!