Ava is TWO!

We spent the last week and a half
in Salt Lake, which included Ava's Second birthday. We had fun with the family. Here she is digging into her cake.

Ava and Uncle Wyatt singing "happy birthday"

Here she is with a few of her presents, her new digital camera and her spinning Elmo chair.

And this is her new table (and I got her a Tea set too, but left it in Utah...Oops!) She loves it. She eats on it, reads, plays Play-Doh, and all with her new Bear she got for Christmas.

We took her to the Aquarium, because she loves fish and things. It was a lot of fun, there were things you could pet, like sting rays, star fish, and some other aquatic creatures. She had a great time running around and looking at everything.

Here she is at the Sting Ray petting part. She was such a champ and not scared at all. She is with her Uncle Sam in this picture.

Here is Ri touching the Sting ray. I touched it too, but was a little nervous and all, especially after what happened with the Steve Irwin.... so his 12 year old girl came up next to me and was like, "It isn't scary you know. Just do it!" I was like,"Well I am just afraid of that stinger sticking out of the water right near me." She was like, "They don't sting, they are special ones, just do it. watch..." Then she proceeds to stick her hand in the water and pull it out really fast and freaked out. She was like "The stinger touched me!" I looked at her and was like, " I thought these were special ones that don't sting....Uhm huh....you are scared too! hahah!!" I was a little imature, but it was a good time. Then we both ended up touching the sting ray together.

Ava could have stayed there all day. She loved it! Thanks everyone for a great birthday!

Ava's Almost 2!

I can't believe that my little baby is almost 2 years old! The picture above is her last year on her 1st Birthday. Just a few more days and she will be two!! She is becoming such an independent girlie....

She loves to dress herself....

She loves to snuggle with Elmos....

Tries to rearrange her furniture....

and is only a little scared of Santa.

We went to the Doctor today and she was weighed and measured....
Weight: 23.8 lbs (15 percentile)
Height: 34.5 inches (71 percentile)
So Not much has changed since her 18 month. She has gained a pound and about an inch.
She also had to get her flu shot and another shot, and she was a champ. She didn't cry. I told her that she was going to have a little owie and then she would get a bandaid, and she is obsessed with bandaides, so she ended up skipping out of the Doctor's office cause she got sparkly bandaides. She is such a great little girl. We love her so much! After we got to go look at the fish that look like Nemo and Dory. She stayed there for about 15 minutes just looking and saying "Ahhhh Nemo.....look! Dory!" She loved the fish!

Happy Day!

Today was the official last day of school for the semester!

WOO HOO!

Welcome Home Hermana Griffitts!

Can you guess which one is my sister??? hahaha

Well another year and a half of my life just flew by! I can't believe it. Just wanted to give a quick SHOUT OUT to my little baby sister who returned from Peru today. She served a mission for our church down there for a year and a half.
The funnies part of it is that it was just getting ready to be summertime in Peru, and now she has to come home to wintertime here. Haha two winters in a row!! (Love ya Darb, really I do, but it is funny!)
We are glad she is home, and Ava even says "Darbtee" now. It shouldn't be too hard to warm up to her, cause Darbye is the name of the super slooth on Winnie the Pooh. Ava loves that cartoon!

Anyway, back to finals and writing endless papers! We are glad you are home Darbye....Darbster......the Darbinator....... Darbye Doo!

YARD WORK!

Here are a few pictures that we got from Thanksgiving break. (We forgot our camera and just had our phones, but it is better than nothing :)
So we had the chance to rake leaves. It was really a lot of fun. I wasn't thrilled about it at first. When I lived at home we just had people to do our lawn the last ten years or so, and now that we have been living in apartments, they have people that do the lawn. Needless to say, I forgot how fun it was to do yard work. Amy (my aunt who is also VERY pregnant:) and her husband Jeremy, Riley and I got to go rake my Grandma Shar's leaves before the snow starts. It was really wet and they were really heavy, and there were LOTS of leaves but we managed to finish before it got dark. Then we went inside for some Hot Cocoa (or warm chocolate as Tytan, Amy & Jeremy's little boys calls it)

Here is Amy and Jeremy loading the last little bit of leaves from this section.

This was the hardest area to rake...Amy and I raked most of it, while the guys raked the lighter stuff (but they filled most of the bags while Amy and I held them open so it turned out to be equal work)

Thanksgiving Break

We had a great time with family. We love the Holiday Season! Here are a few pictures we got from the phone. Grandma and Grandpa Griffitts with Ava on a sleigh downtown. It was decorated beautifully there.

Ava and Grandma rockin out. My mom has a marimba too, that Ava loved to play. She learned how to play the recorder while we were up there. It was great fun to hear her. Se loves music.

We went downtown the day after thanksgiving for the annual Christmas parade, carols, fireworks and lighting up downtown and the lights on the boardwalk. It was rainy, but a lot of fun.We had good covered seats at a condo downtown. Ava loved the horses. It was really cloudy, so we only got to see about 1/4 of the fireworks, the other 3/4 were hidden behind the clouds.

Here is miss Ava and Grandpa on Muddgie the Moose. There is a Moose map downtown and stories that go along with the moose I think. Anyway she took a ride on Muddgie while we were downtown for lunch one day.

Thanks Family. We had a great time!!

We {Love} Kendal

We had such a great Thanksgiving break. We made the 8 hour trek to Northern Idaho, and we love it up there so much! It is such a beautiful place. We forgot the camera though! Usually I am a picture maniac so it was really hard for me to not take a ton of pictures. I "borrowed" this one from Camille's blog. (Hope you don't mind :) When we were home, we had the opportunity to see Kendal get sealed to her parents. It was the best experience I have ever had. It was so amazing. Camille and I have been friends for a few years, and we met in the single's branch in Coeur d'Alene when it was just her and Kendal. It didn't take long to fall in love with Kendal, she has such an amazing spirit about her. Anyway, Camille finally met a great guy (Yeah Chris!) and they got married. Kendal was finally able to be legally adopted by Chris and was able to be sealed to Camille and Chris in the Spokane, Washington Temple when we were up there. (For those who don't know, in our Church (The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) we are sealed when we are married, so it isn't just for time, but we are together for all eternity. When you are sealed as a couple, the children you have together are then born into the existing covenant and therefore sealed to you as an eternal family.)

It was so amazing. Riley was asked to be one of the witnesses, and the spririt was so strong. (side note: When we found out we were having a girl when we were pregnant with Ava, Riley was nervous, coming from a family of all boys, and he said, "I want our little girl to be just like Kendal.") I thought that was really cute. Kendal will always have a special place in our hearts and are so happy that we got to be apart of this awesome event!
WE LOVE THE ENGLISH FAMILY!!!