What a sweet little boy

I walked into the playroom to find that Reid had replaced Ava's dollwith his own frog and blanket. I have a silly little boy.

In other Reid news I open my computer to upload this pic to find I am missing the command key on my keyboard. Earlier Reid was over by my computer and I thought he was showing me a piece of Kleenex, so I told him to throw it away. Not a piece of Kleenex! Luckily I realized my mistake and found the button unharmed and not covered in any goo :) It snapped right back into place perfectly. Whew! This boy of mine. Can't leave him alone for a second! I didn't have time to shower this morning before Josh went skiing with his dad and brother. Looks like I won't be until he gets back. Would you trust this kid alone while you showered?!!!

Love Tap

Reid gave a love tap to the tv last night. Who knew that the metal end of a spatula would shock our tv and crack the glass. I guess Reid is just a lot stronger than he looks! Having a guy come look at the tv next week. Good thing for being able to watch Hulu and Netflix online.

Ava's got a little secret

Ava's got a little secret. Watch the video to hear what she's got to say! The password is: secret.

My little boy is growing up

Let it be known that today was the first day that Reid did not cry when he was being dropped off at nursery. It really did happen! No crying in the hallway on the way to nursery. No crying once in nursery. And no crying once Mommy left nursery. All 3 instances would take place every week...until now! Reid has got some very proud parents right now!

My own little sunbeam

If you can believe it people, Ava has left nursery in the dust and moved up to Sunbeams. She couldn't be more excited about singing time with the big kids. Her favorite part is singing with the piano.


Here is Reid. Just as cute and adorable. He wishes he could also leave nursery in the dust, but not to move up to primary. He would much rather be clinging to his parents. We have been really talking up nursery these past few weeks. When sacrament meeting had ended, I excitedly asked Reid if he was ready to go to nursery. "No!" was his instant response.


While driving in the car today, Ava and I were talking about heaven and Ava said, "I can't see Jesus, but I can feel his heart." Sweet girl.

A little bit of baking

For New Year's Eve my lovely sister-in-law made Oreo Truffles. They are to die for! I called them little drops from heaven. It was a sad day when the very last one was eaten. It just so happened that we had some new neighbors move in next door at the end of December. Perfect excuse to make more. So one afternoon Ava and I worked together and made more of those delicious heavenly morsels. Here's the recipe here. (I totally didn't add the vanilla. It doesn't need it.) This was the perfect recipe to have Ava join in on because she could do almost every step.

Here is my baking princess ready to get started and probably secretly hoping to sneak a few oreos for herself. Which she was successful.

I was so excited to pull out my food processor and grind up the oreos to a fine pulp. Especially since it has only seen the inside of a box for 6 months. But sadly it died somewhere between CA and our new house. I plugged it in and nothing happened. Nothing was going to stop me from making more of those oreo yumminess, so I pulled out my meat tenderizer. Here is Ava working on her half of the oreos. Ava loved getting to smash all those oreos! The tenderizer actually worked really well and got the oreos pretty darn fine. And plus I didn't have to wash the inside of a food processor container.


We mixed the oreos and cream cheese and had ourselves a little ball rolling contest. Ava rolled about half of the balls. And I quote, "Mom, all of my circles are the perfect ones." She insisted on re-rolling a few of my balls and she even had the nerve to give me tips on how to roll my balls better. Where does she get this from? Gotta love a little self confidence.


After rolling all the balls we popped them in the fridge to cool for a half hour. Which is just enough time to watch a little bit of Toy Story 3 (Ava can't get enough of Jesse).


After dipping the balls in chocolate, putting them back in the fridge to harden, here is the final result. Total perfection in bite size. Sadly, all of the Oreo Truffles have been eaten or given away. Josh and I have actually caught ourselves looking at each other at night and both wishing that we had just a few more Oreo Truffles left.

Family, family and more family

The first of our family rolled in on Dec. 17th and the last chunk didn't head home until Jan. 7th. Having family visit for that long did indeed keep us really busy, but we loved it! Sadly, pretty much everyone but Ava and Reid came down with a cold. So the first week was pretty low key, but once everyone got feeling better we got to do more activities. I think everyone will agree that getting sick during vacation completely sucks!

Here are all the cousins after reenacting the nativity story. This was a full on cousin production. The two oldest cousins read the entire story (super impressive) and the younger ones were the actors. Sadly Reid and McKay wouldn't stay still enough to be pictured.


Poor Anna was fighting a double ear infection, a viral and bacterial infection. So she wasn't able to be Mary this year, but Ava happily agreed to be her stand in.


After a fun night of festivities at the in-laws we headed home to open the kids new jammies and get all the preparations ready for Santa. Now before you start thinking what a horrible mother I am to let my son not wear any socks in the dead of winter, know that he did get slippers too but would not fathom the idea of letting me put them on. Luckily, he has since changed his mind and loves putting them on now.


Ava made sure to pick out the most perfect and yummy cookies on the tray for Santa. Only the best for the jolly old man.




I just love Max's expression in response to the younger cousins trying to participate in a game of Stratego. Actually, all of the cousins got along pretty well. It's really a shame that we live so far away from each other.


Much playing was had while everyone was visiting. We played lots of games, played lots of princesses, fit in a few games on the Wii, went to the Dinosaur Museum, and made a stop by Kangaroo Zoo.


Happily, my sister made a stop by too after Christmas. So my kids got to see all of their cousins during the break! Here is cute little Colely.


Reid saw Cole sitting at the table and wanted to join him. We had to keep a close eye on my little boy because he kept stealing Cole's food from off of his tray. I can't wait till the weather warms up and we can make trips back up to Idaho to see this little guy.


Excitedly we got to have everyone over at our house sometime while they were visiting. Yay! Here are the girls making good use of our barren living room. The girl cousins took great time and effort preparing their very fancy tea party. Saskia was the lucky one who got chosen to join the tea party while Kassie and I were in charge of making sure the little boys didn't ruin the party.


There you have it. A little snap shot of the fun that we had during Christmas. It has been nice being able to get back into a normal schedule again, but the kids sure miss their cousins. Reid still believes that his cousin McKay is still at Nana's house. It will be a little sad when we head back over to Nana and Grandpa's and find that all the cousins are gone. We sure did love getting to spend time with everyone. Hopefully the next time you come we'll have furniture in our living room!

Jesse Ava Claire Bunting

Here are Woody and Jesse watching a little Toy Story 3 for FHE. For a few days this cowboy hat wearing girl insisted we call her Jesse. But whenever we did she would make sure to point out that her real name is Ava and that she was just pretending to be Jesse. Later she decided that her name was indeed Jesse Ava Claire Bunting.


While my sister was visiting a few weeks ago Ava was telling them how she was Jesse, I was Buzz and so forth. Jared stated that he was Woody (if anyone knows Jared they know if anyone is the cowboy in the family, it's him) but sadly Ava responded, "No, my dad's Woody". Ouch. Poor Jared had to settle for being Mr. Potato Head, mostly because Krysten wanted to be Mrs. Potato Head.