Ava Kate Meets the Dentist

Ava Kate had her first dentist appointment a few weeks ago and she was great! They don't do very much. Mostly just introduce her to the moving chair, show her what all of their tools do, and get her comfortable with going. Dr. Jim Williamson is our dentist and we LoVE him and ALL his staff! They are so wonderful that they took all these pictures for us with their OWN camera, and e-mailed them to me. I'm so glad that some people are good at taking pictures of "first-times"; I am not one of those people. :) It was really fun because I learned some things as well. Ava Kate's favorite tool was the water sprayer. She just wanted to suck on it and drink all the water out. She also wanted to just lick the "toothpaste" that they scrub your teeth with, so her tongue was always in the way. Dr. Williamson counted all her teeth and said they look great with no brown spots at all. YAY! I have been losing sleep over the fact that my bottle-loving toddler would develop baby-bottle mouth. She actually has been bottle-free for almost a month now. Mostly because I didn't want to tell the dentist she was still drinking from a bottle. haha. And, we're done with teething until she's 6, YAY! If you need a great dentist check out their website here and tell them we referred you!

I love love love her face in the last one! How Ava Kate is that?

Alabama Tornadoes

Many people have been texting, calling, and emailing us asking if James' family is ok. We're so grateful to say that nobody that we know has been physically hurt from the devastation. However, James' sister Michelle's in-laws are going through what thousands of Alabamans are going through today. Their house was hit and completely destroyed. Our prayers go out to them and everybody in the south that is struggling right now. We've been following www.tuscaloosanews.com for updates. For anybody who reads our blog that doesn't know what's going on here's our story. James is from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. When he was 17 a tornado hit his own home and destroyed it completely leveling everything. Michelle called us last night to tell us Adam's parents' house had been hit. We asked if everybody was ok, and she told us that they were. However, James couldn't get a hold of his mom or his brother. So we were only kind of satisfied with their safety. James' mom's house ended up being on the opposite side of town so they have power and weren't hit directly. James' brother, Matthew, and his wife Charity live in Huntsville, about 3 hours north of T-town and they've been out of power for a while as well. It's crazy to watch the footage of the destruction and know that "that used to be the mall" "or that was this" and "that was that".

Anyway, we just wanted to thank everyone for their love and concern for us and our family, even though we're safe and sound thousands of miles away.

hapari swiming suits

http://www.hapari.com/womens-swimwearhow cute!

Ava kate and alex

catching up

I have no reason for not blogging. So I won't even make up an excuse. Well maybe just one, that I've been watching way too much netflix. I'm quite obsessed with "Lockdown". This national geographic documentary series on prisons across the United States. A lot really has been going on actually. I've thrown 2 baby showers which were both huge successes in their different ways. I'm so excited for all the babies being born. Bringing me to my next point, no, we're not planning on having another baby anytime soon. We're having too much "fun" trying to handle Ava-Kate by herself, let alone adding another one! :) Ava-Kate is growing up so fast though! She has such a personality! One thing that is both frustrating and hilarious is her shoe fetish. She's very very very particular about her footwear. She went through this phase where she always had to have her boots on.

Ava-Kate ready to go outside with her bag as her "purse". No we didn't go out until she had some actual pants on. She insisted on the hat as well. haha

Then she moved to some pink jelly sandals that she would wear even when it was snowing. Yes, I would let her, with socks of course, and I carried her, it's just not a battle I'm willing to fight each day. Thankfully it's warming up because now she takes OFF her shoes and socks the moment she gets into the car! She's talking and talking and just being a doll. Except when she's not, because sometimes she's not, I'm afraid that sometimes she screams and screams. We're working on that.

As for myself I'm growing my bangs out. Ah! I have had bangs for almost 5 years I think, so it's really weird to see my forehead all the time. What do you think?

Also, it's dance competition season! And with that super-sister comes to the rescue when Mom can't make it for whatever reason. Which I love! I did Robyne's makeup and hair for the cutest dance. "Tea Party" If you ever have the opportunity to watch Robyne and her team dance, jump on it! She's so talented and I love watching her. It's also giving me good practice being a "Dance Mom" because I'm thinking it might be Ava-Kate's destiny as well. She dances to all music at any time! And she loves sitting in the kitchen watching her Aunt Robyne practicing her dances.

As for James he's LOVING his job with Fidelity. I'm so happy he's finally doing what he loves! We only have one more year of his undergrad woo hoo! Then we'll see where it takes us. We're both keeping pretty busy though. James has school, work, and now he's in the elders quorum presidency. I have baby and I'm in the young women presidency (the best calling). I love my girls. I do however find myself lacking seriously in the adult conversation skills. I'm either speaking "baby" or "high school" with my teenage girls, (yw). We're also excited for Shad's mission call to Frankfurt, Germany and are so proud of him. I'm going to miss his terribly though, and I'm not even his mother :). We're also planning on going to California in June to go to my cousin's wedding and hopefully see A LOT of family that we haven't seen in a LONG while. Hope everyone is doing well, that's pretty much what's going on with us :)

Christmas Morning

Thanks to everybody who sent us love and presents. It was so fun having a baby to have Christmas with this year. Ava-Kate doesn't know who Santa is, or anything else about Christmas, but she sure knew how to open presents and be excited about it. She received a lot of great presents from all her Grandparents. Everything from a princess purse book to a cell phone, to a baby doll with a stroller, and play jewelry. Ava-Kate is turning very much into a girly-girl. She loves shoes, jewelry, hair clips, makeup, and purses. She cracks me up and is still just a precious ball of energy. Her latest achievement is her first spanish word! James has been very diligent in speaking spanish to her almost exclusively. Uncle Brett actually realized it though, haha, she says "dah-dee" while holding out her hand, translated to spanish is "dame", translated to english is "give me". Also, the only TV show she'll watch is "Dora the Explorer" which is funny because even I'm learning a little more spanish from that. I love seeing her begin to have "favorites". She loves anything "Dora". We were at Wal-mart and she was walking around in the baby aisle and she brought us a Dora beanie with gloves. So fun! She's also sleeping really well through the night and throwing fits and kissing anybody!