Christmas in Boise

Our trip to Boise got off to a rocky start- Ava and I flew in a week early, except on our way we had an 8 hour detour in Oklahoma City after our plane broke down :/  However, Ava was a trooper and we did make it Boise that same day. 

This was on our 3rd plane that day..... after our major delay in OKC  I had to find different flights to make it home- it was an adventure. 

We visited my Dad in his office- we brought him doughnuts, but I think he was more excited about me bringing Ava ;)

We spent a lot of time just hanging out with this cute face

My Grandma sent Ava a baby santa hat and a bib with her name on it.

 Adorable.

My Dad and Ava read a lot of books together. Sometimes naked.

I love this red Christmas dress my mom got her <3 p="">

I kind of want one in my size.

So cute and happy together. They really love each other. I really wish we lived closer to my parents! It was so nice to their help watching her while we were there.

Such a happy girl  :)

More books with Grandpa

Before church on Sunday

I chopped off my hair and dyed it brown. I think I'm going through a phase of hating my hair. I would've shaved it all off but.... I don't think I could pull that look off.

Look at that cute Grandma!

and that studly Uncle

We went on a lot of walks down by the river. It was so nice to get some fresh air!

First piano lesson with her Uncle Cameron. My little brother is amazing on the piano.

Matt teaching her how to cool. Thug baby for life.

We went out to eat a lot over the break. Ava loved sitting at the big tables and people watching everyone around us. Such a good babe.

She had a lot of Uncle cuddles

Ava's going through a phase of hating getting dressed. Once her diaper's off she likes to break free and roam naked. I don't really let her do this hardly at all. Too dangerous.

Ava and Grandpa supporting BYU. Go Cougs.

Cameron brought back Ava a onesie from Argentina. Cam's been there for the last 6 months taking classes and backpacking.

Sigh. I feel like these last few weeks flew by! Can't believe I'm already back in Texas. sigh. 

#homesick

Matching Cousins

annnnnd I'm back in Texas. 

It's been an amazing Christmas break... but now it's over and it's back to real life. 

And catching up on blogging.

For Christmas, Jeff's mom got the cousins cute matching Christmas dresses. We were able to get some pictures with the Cooks here in Texas and then with the Bakers when we were in Vegas for Thanksgiving. I think they all look so cute! Even with Ava's sad face :(

This one of Logan and Ava is my favorite. Adorable.

Cute cousins

My Family

My good friend Lauren took some pictures for me last month.

 I absolutely love them. 

Lauren was so nice to do this for us when she did- she was 8 1/2 months pregnant! She is so talented and I'm so glad I have these pictures of me with the people I love. 

I should also give a shout out to Jeff whose idea it was in the first place. I wasn't feeling motivated to do family pictures at all, but Jeff pushed for it. Glad he did. 

These are some of my favorites!

Thanks Lauren! 

Love that tongue stick out

p.s. I was thissssss close to chopping my hair off the week before I took these pics. Glad I didn't but.....thinking it's time to make a major hair change right about now...as in I have two boxes of hair dye in my purse right now...... but I just need to decide whether to chop it all off as well as change up the color......hmmmmmmm decisions, decisions......

The Baby In The Mirror

 While we were in Vegas, Ava had some fun with the big mirrored closet doors. 

Very entertaining for her, and I thought it was adorable.

Ava would smile, laugh and talk to herself.

Loved it.

<3>

Park Day

The day before our big ice storm was really nice- it was like 75 degrees. Perfect. We took advantage of it and went on a walk and had a little picnic at the park. 

Ava rolled around on the grass, we looked at the dogs, and called it a day. 

Wish every day could be like this one :)

*Ava Rees* 7 Months

Whew! Late on this one. Time has flown by this last month. We had Thanksgiving in Las Vegas, some gorgeous weather where we spent all day outside, and then we had a crazy ice storm that had us iced in for four days- and now I leave in three days for Idaho! I kept trying to take 7 month pictures but, the little bug has learned how to crawl and will not sit still! Every time I would put her down to take her picture, she sees me and gets excited and starts crawling into my lap. So.....all of these pictures are blurry and I had to take twenty for every one that she is looking at the camera.

My little bug

She still loves her hands. Sometimes I catch her sucking on her thumb, but not too much. I'm okay with her sucking on her thumb for now though- she won't really take a pacifier at all, and since I'm having her put herself to sleep, she needs some way to soothe herself. She only really sucks on it when she's tired though, so I'm good with that. 

Ava has started clapping and it's pretty funny. She'll clap, look up at me, and then when I say yay Ava! and clap, she starts laughing and keeps clapping while I cheer for her. She loves it when Jeff and I cheer for her. While she was getting the hang of crawling, she'd crawl a little bit, get frustrated and start to cry, but then Jeff and I would clap and cheer for her and she'd get the biggest grin on her face and keep on crawling. 

Ava hates putting on clothes! She screams so loud when I get her dressed. She twists and turns and acts like it's the end of the world. The moment her clothes are on she's totally fine- she just would prefer to be naked I guess.

Ava has also become a great eater! Thank goodness. She'll eat most anything now. Took a full month though of every day trying to get her to eat- but now she'll actually eat instead of gagging it back up- so that's progress! 

And this is my view 75% of my day :) My sweet little bug crawling over my legs and into my lap. Sometimes she'll stop and start eating my knees....

.....but usually she makes it to my lap and snuggles in. I'm grateful I have such a cuddly baby.

Ava has definitely been making her strong personality known. She gets very angry now when I take away something she shouldn't be playing with and when I try to redirect her, she goes right back to try to get what I took away. She's very determined. Especially when it comes to our shoes- I keep telling her she's not a puppy but she insists that our shoes are chew toys. I've had to move our shoes off ground level for now.

And here she is helping me with the laundry. 

All the while looking back at me every ten seconds to make sure I haven't left the room. While putting clothes away, every time I would go into the closet she'd scream bloody murder until I came back. 

 On our flight home from Vegas, Ava didn't sleep at all. Thankfully she was pretty good the whole time on our first flight and during our short layover. On the second flight home, Ava made a friend with a cute boy sitting behind us and smiled and laughed at him the whole way home. 

Angel babe. Hopefully she'll be good for us when we go to Idaho. 

We just love her and are so thankful for our little girl :)

Thanksgiving In Las Vegas

This year we went to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. Amy and her family came down as well, and it was so nice to see everyone! Ava got to meet her Utah cousins and pretty much spent the whole time playing, sleeping, and eating.

Ava and London checking out Scooby

That's Maddie on the left. These girls were so nice to Ava and so much fun for her to play with

Here's one with all of them. Brooklyn's on the far left. 

Love girl cousins!

And this is what was going on behind the camera :)

Our family on Thanksgiving

Ava was able to spend a lot of time with Grandma :)

such cute girls

Jeff's mom was wonderful and spent so much time playing and watching Ava so Jeff and I had time to sleep in, nap, and one day we went out to lunch just the two of us (rare). Thank you!!!

crashed

Caroline and I went and did some shopping for Ava and got her this little coat. 

She looked adorable in it.

Staring down Maddie's Mac and Cheese

Such a nice cousin

Ava loved her Uncle Matt! He was so good with her- and she was always pretty happy to sit and play with him.

I have more pictures to post but I'll have to add them later when I get them from Jeff- I just needed to blog this since it's already halfway through December :) 

Thanks to Jeff's parents for having us! It was a great little trip :)