Avery is here!!

Avery Baby, as she is more commonly know as, was born June 24, 2012!!  Only a week later than when we all thought Amy was in labor!!  Poor girl!  However, I think Avery's cuteness has made up for the late appearance!!  We all love her already and she is such a sweet baby!!  Poor Amy got tonsillitis about a week after, which then turned into an abcess that she had to have drained... poor girl!! Other than that she is doing great!! She is such a cute mom, and it is fun to see this other side of Amy and Justin!

 Happy new Grandpa!

 Has absolutely nothing to do with Avery except I took it at my mom's house when we got home from visiting her... Pretty good picture right!!

 So Amy's power was out the other day... meaning NO AC!!  So they spent the day at my mom's.. where I usually hang out too..  so we were trying to take some cute pictures... Poor girl... she should shoot us for trying to making her pose... hehehe!!

 This is pretty cute.. she was listening to Amy talking to her!!

 I think she caught on to us at this point..

Bike Parade!

 Since we missed the 4th of July parade I was feeling a little sad... But all of that changed when my neighborhood decided to do the first annual bike parade!! This is cool because the neighborhood that I grew up in did a bike parade every July for Pioneer day... and we all dressed up in pioneer outfits and rode our bikes all over.  I also LOVE that I live so close to Mel and Cody!! Luckily this happened to be a day that Melanie had off so she brought Alana and Ellie to come be in the parade too!!  It was so fun to watch all the chaos!!  Somebody brought a ATV pulling a trailer.. hahaha it looks like the most dangerous idea ever!!!  Nobody did get hurt that I know of..

 Alana and her bike!!

 Joni, Mel and Ellie

 This girl had a really cool set up with the jar lids on the back of her scooter!

 And they are off!!

 This was a cool picture of the ATV trailer... not dangerous at all..

 Ellie found one of those grass flags....

 Mel and Ellie picking up some candy!

 Ellie was mad that we were waiting for the big kids to come back and said "I hate being a kid and waiting!"  Haha she is getting to talk sooo much!

 Haha these kids were fun to watch!!

 Alana was doing tricks!

 The was the end result, someone set up lemonade for the kids after.

 Ellie is talking on her phone/rock

 More tricks..

It was so fun!!  I am so glad they are still in Utah so I can go hang out with them whenever!!!

July the Fourth!!

This 4th of July was different than it has been... It was an off year.. but I think it was almost more fun!! We had all planned on going to the AMAZING Kaysville Water Parade... but Amy ended up getting a tonsil abcess.. yes one week after her baby was born.. :(  So they weren't really in the mood for a crazy parade..  Brent and Cindy went golfing.. ? Melanie and Cody decided to stay and go to the North Salt Lake events.. and Kris and Abby were at Lake Powell.. So that leaves Joni and I who slept through the 5k.. we aren't lazy or anything.  So nobody ended up going to the parade because lets face it.. you look creepy grabbing candy from kids.. that is why we take Alana!!  So instead we went down to put tile in my uncles house!!  YEA!! It actually was a lot of fun!!  I can't say that me or Joni helped out a ton.. but we did stand and encourage the efforts and hand them tiles.. Then we went to Uncle Phillip and Aunt Diane's for swimming!! This is becoming an annual thing and we all look forward to it!!  After that we had dinner and set off fireworks!!  It was a really laid back and casual year.. which was just perfect!!

 Brian... they got pretty creative..

 Yeah don't you want us helping!!  At least we look good doing it!

 My dad thought it would be easiest to sit inside the shower.. no idea how he got back out...

 Grandpa

 Ellie has NO FEAR of the water... she is really a FISH!!  Her and Alana could swim all day and never be bored!

 Apparently Brent doesn't want to get a bad tan line... :)

Cute new parents!!

 Apparently Cody has been making Ellie eat at the table... well it worked because she couldn't fathom eating just at a chair.. so she got herself all set up at the serving table.

When I say she set herself up... I mean with the luxury of having your feet up of course!

 Ellie just really wanted to hold "Avery baby" (that's what she calls her)  So grandma helped her... and she wouldn't put her down.  It was pretty cute!!  She just held and held her.. and would lean down and whisper to her!!

 Alana was REALLY excited to launch off the fireworks!!

 Brent got roped into chalk drawing with Ellie!!

This was the set up for the firework show..  We did it at Cindy's house.. so we wouldn't have to clean up.. haha just kidding!  Alana was in charge of picking the line up for the show and let everyone pick out a firework to set off and then she would walk it up to Grandpa to set off!!  It was definitely a 4th to remember!  I am so grateful to live in a country where we are free!!  And I am so grateful that everyone still lives so close.. so glad that Cody got into the UofU, otherwise they would probably be moving over the 4th!!

Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer!

Wow!!  It has been quite the summer already!!  I'm not even sure where to start!!  I have always looked forward to summer because it is the closest to having no responsibility as I ever get!!!  It is nice to just go on your own pace and do whatever you feel like!!  Well... not so much this summer!  I think the trouble is.. the older you get, the more you have circling around you!  But it has still been a really great summer and lots of fun!!  To start with I went to Flaming Gorge last second with Kris and his buddies!!  I love having a brother that is more social than I am... it means I bum off of his plans!!  hehe :)  It was so much fun, and really the break from my strenuous work schedule of 3 days a week that I needed!!  Haha I am such a wimp!!  We had a lot of fun.. and unfortunately my camera is not that good at taking pictures... especially far away.. so you might just have to use your imagination on this one!!

Haha... looking into the sun.. Joni, Justin and Emily Carrigan (our bishop from the 10th ward and his family came too.. yeah apparently we are the ones left of the ward who haven't gotten married yet... :)

 As depressing as it is.. this is the best picture I got of the group... I am NOT good at documenting events..  Heather, Stacey and Kris

 The lovely ladies... Emily and Joni

 Yep.. thats what I look like when I smile

 Travis (I think?) going off the rope swing, a tradition in Flaming Gorge... yep it is a scary as it looks!

 Amazing how ugly it is around the lake.. but how beautiful it is up close.. I guess that is Utah for you!

 This is how you climb up to the rope swing... I believe it is Mitch, Colby and Travis on the rock

 Poor Emily... right before they left to drive up she crashed a ATV... had to get stitches and therefore could not get in the lake at all!!  And let me tell you it was stinking hot.. so sitting on a boat was no fun!!  However, I think she survived after she shoved me into the ice cold water... and I mean ICE COLD... I saw glaciers floating past!  Lets just say it was hard not to be able to retaliate!!

 More of the rope swing victims.. at least we had no casualties this time!

This is what I look like after camping... Funny thing happened... the first night we got there pretty late.  So in the dark we set up our tents out on the sand/dirt mixture.  The check in lady had mentioned something about watching out for sprinklers.. but we figured they weren't in our area.. because there was literally nothing alive for miles...  Well everyone else decided that they would rather just sleep on the concrete, but me and Joni had brought "Ed" our trusty tent. (he's been through a lot with us!) So we climbing in and fell right to sleep..... UNTIL at 5AM when the sprinklers came on US!!  We had left the windows all down since it was 5000 degrees outside.. and guess what?! The sprinkler came right up in front of the tent... making the front door window a perfect place to dose us!!  Joni hadn't woken up from the first phase so I yelled "JONI GET UP THE SPRINKLERS!! AHHHHH" However.. the sprinkler was coming around again.. so all we could do was dive under our sleeping bags and get soaked...  Luckily Joni had the sense of mind to jump out and point the sprinkler away from the tent.. while I crazily jumped around saving all my possessions...(I am definitely NOT a morning person anymore... that is what working graveyards does to you..) luckily Kris, Travis and Colby moved our tent into the non sprinkler section... which by the way was the road... I dunno why they were letting us on the campsite, because apparently they were hydro-seeding grass and it needed to be watered like 20 times a day... meaning our tent stayed in the road.. :)