My Supermom

I have the best mom in the whole world! (she's the one on the left)

Ava's First Steps

San Diego Rocks!

We are having so much fun in San Diego. So far our trip has included deep sea fishing, ferry rides, yummy food, boot camp, fishing off the pier, bike rides along the boardwalk, barbeques, shopping in Seaport Village (so cute), exploring the tide pools in La Jolla, laying out, boogie boarding, skim boarding, and my boys new favorite, SURFING! I'll have to post pictures later, technical difficulties :)

But...........here's one picture I was able to get to load :)

Ava decided that she is ready to walk, and we got her first steps on video! How many babies can say their first steps were taken on the beach??? Well, probably not too many, especially since babies can't talk. Anyhoo, Ava is such a big girl and is almost a professional walker now.

Ugh! I Love It Here!!!
Soooooooooo, here's Ava's debut video of her first steps on the beach. Love you, baby!

Little Blessings

We're here in San Diego for our family vacation.  We plan on staying for a month and I'm already in heaven.  

I LOVE THE BEACH!

This morning the kids and I went for a bike ride along the bay.  It's so beautiful and the kids found a great place to play on the side of the bay.  I sat down on the rocks to watch them play and felt so content with my surroundings.

A lady and her son came walking down the bay and stopped right where we were playing and had her son take off his shoes.

I thought this was kind of strange that she would stop right where we were when the bay was pretty much empty.

Then she tried to get her son to go play in the water with my children.

I was a little annoyed that she would get right in our space and stand in front of me with her camera.  There was plenty of room along the sides of us.

Then Colton looked over and saw the boy who was too afraid to join them and without a moments hesitation, walked over to him and said, "Hey buddy, would you like to play with us?  It's lots of fun, look."  He picked up some mud and threw it.  The little boy smiled and cautiously walked out to join them.  The kids all immediately included him in their game and he played with them for quite a while.

My thoughts and feelings were immediately changed.
My heart felt overwhelmed with how Colton changed my whole perspective of the situation.

I'm so grateful Heavenly Father sent my sweet children to be Christlike examples for me. 

Next time I'll do better.

New York

New York City

A few weeks ago I got a call from my stalker asking me if I would like to join her on a business trip to New York.  Now, normally I would have found some excuse to quickly get off the phone with her, but, I've never been to New York, so, I of course told her how much I've been hoping and praying to get to go on a trip with her and two weeks later we were off!

We stayed at her friend Mary's house, who by the way, was the hostess with the mostess!

Mary seriously gave us the best tour of New York.   We never would have been able to see all of the things we saw if she hadn't been our top dog tour guide.

Thanks for the best trip ever, Mary!!!

There were so many beautiful buildings.  These pictures don't do them justice.

This was the church and at the top is the temple.

The only thing that scared me, was the godfather who was the security guard in the lobby.  Sca-ry.

Oh, and Julia found her new passion...................

long scooter rides with a handsome man who is not her husband.

Doesn't she look fab with her helmet on.  Don't worry Julia, I'll never tell Dusty.

Julia and I even got to grab a bull by the..........................no, not horns :)

(she's so immature, she totally made me do that)

I'm pretty sure this is when we were lost in Central Park trying to make our way over to the Met.  We never saw the Met, but isn't this view amazing :)

Of course we had to work a little on the trip.  

Julia had her photo shoot in Central Park, which I got us safely too, since Julia was always so lost.  She's a little bit helpless on her own.  Her husband kept calling me secretly, to threaten me if I didn't keep his little pookie safe from danger.  So cute :)

I was Julia's very special, number one, assistant.

Here I am fanning her and giving her a drink in between shots.  I also gave her some of my very best posing ideas.  I'm not sure I remember her using any of them though.  Hmmmmmmmm.

A trip to N.Y.C. wouldn't be complete without a stop at Serendipity for the best frozen hot chocolate ever!  Mmmmmmmmm, yummy!  I have no idea who's other dessert that is.  We would never order so much dessert and each pretty much all of it.  These modeling bodies of ours don't just happen on their own you know. 

Times Square at night  

That was almost as fun of a place to watch people as the subways were.  Almost.  I think the subways drew in a few more of the crazies.  But, it was close.

Julia and I in Central Park

The highlights of the trip:

Staying with the sweetest family ever

Getting a behind the scenes tour of New York from my own personal tour guide

Spooning with Julia to keep warm at night

Seeing 'Nine to Five' - So Awesome!

China town (aaaaaaaaaaah)

Being locked in a secret safe and then angering the woman holding us captive (thank goodness I know ka-ra-tae)

Our nice long jog through Central Park

Pink Berry

Sneaking into the church and making it out alive (remember the godfather security guard)

Shake Shack

Taxi drives (aaaaaaaaaaah)

Chasing a bus until we were practically where we wanted it to take us to

Throwing away my brand new face wash and toner at the airport :(

The BIG, SWEATY, ODORIFFIC man that was leaning on me on the airplane and then followed us through the airport

Walking until my feet felt like they might explode

and last but not least:

Julia begging me to give her back rubs but not to tell anyone

Thanks babe for being Daddy and Mommy for me while I was gone!  You're the best!

One Year Old!!!

Ava Lynn's 1st Birthday!!!

Ok, I'll try not to cry while I type this, but, I guess you wouldn't know whether or not I was crying anyways, so................ I'll probably cry after all.

My little Bean is 1 year old!

Where did the year go???  It seems like I just had you and brought you home.  You have brought so much joy into our family.  I don't know if a baby has ever been adored the way we adore you.  It took a while to get you here.  We prayed as a family for several years that you would one day join us.  Heavenly Father had a special plan for you and we were so ecstatic when the time was finally right for you to come.  I don't think anyone could have been as excited as your big sister, when she found out she was going to get her little sister she had prayed so hard for.  Your big brothers tried to convince her that they had prayed for a brother before she prayed for a sister, therefore you would be a boy.   Gracie was just devastated.  But oh the joy when the Dr. informed us you were a girl.  Gracie gloated that obviously Heavenly Father hears her prayers louder than he hears the boys prayers.  Not quite the best lesson regarding prayer, but still very cute :)

From the day you were born, you have been the sweetest baby ever!

You sleep through the night, and have from just a few months old on.  You are always smiling and happy.  You hardly ever cry.  Lately you have learned how to tease and find it quite enjoyable.  Sometimes I just want to devour you, you're so deliciously sweet and perfect.

You're still trying to master walking, but I'm sure it won't be long.  You walk yourself around on every piece of furniture we have.  My favorite thing you do, is you'll be playing and all of the sudden stop and crawl over to Daddy or I and give us kisses.  Just like you wanted to tell us you love us, and then you'll go back to playing.  Ugh!  That's definitely my favorite :)  You LOVE playing tag.  You get laughing so hard when we chase you that you can't even crawl and you get the hiccups.  So cute!  You also LOVE it when your brothers take you for rides on the scooter.  Scares mommy, but you thoroughly enjoy it.  You are definitely Daddy's girl.  The second Daddy walks into the room you light up and make your way over to him to snuggle.  Your Daddy LOVES that :)

It's been a wonderful first year.  I would say I can't wait to watch you grow up, but that wouldn't be the truth.  I am perfectly fine with you just taking your time getting older.  You can stay my sweet little baby forever and I would be ok with that.   I love you so much and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the blessing you are in our lives.

Happy 1st Birthday, Ava!!!