My routinely predictable catch-up...

The ridiculousness of my blog is as follows:  Every few months (or years) I'll feel guilty enough to finally do a massive catch up on our lives... but the sheer volume of missed moments that I need to sift through makes my head hurt and I'll put it off for another few months (or years) until I just can't ignore my duties any longer.  So here I am... again... doing my annual photo-dumping.  I'll just be posting a couple of months at a time, highlighting what I remember and burdening blogger with eleventybilliontrillion-a-gazzillion unedited photos that I'll slap on here.  *deep breath*.  Let's go.

May 2012

Ava turns 5!!  What a wonderful girl.

AVA LIKES: 

•    to help her mom and dad
• to help/kiss/dance with/hug/love on/boss around her little brother
• to play with her friends: Leia, Courtney, Tyree, Ada, Alex and Hinder (before he moved to Maine)
• candy
• Hello Kitty
• Polly Pockets
• playing with the ipod touch
• school (loves kindergarten and her teacher, Mrs. Rudd)  
• dancing and her dance class
• to do her homework and chores (yes, she really does)

AVA DOESN'T LIKE:   

•  to sit down and eat an entire meal in one sitting (has led to many evenings of arguements with mom and dad)
• trolls
• zombies (I asked her what are some things she doesn't like... here are some of her answers)
•   when her feelings get hurt
• wearing pants to school
• missing her grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins
• when mom tells her "no, not today"  

 Ava's would-be outdoor, swimming pool party got changed to an indoor, pajama party at the last minute!  No one was disappointed (maybe Mom?  I can't remember honestly!)  And the party turned out pretty darn fun with all the kids!

 Ava wanted a SpiderMan/Hello Kitty party, hence her Spidey pinata!

Ava is our favorite daughter.  Hands down, no questions!  She's a terrific sister to Sterling and I honestly say to her every single day, "what would I do without ya?!" when she helps me so regularly.  Ava gets hit, punched, hair pulled and pushed over by her little fighter of a brother and she NEVER has hit back.  (She's probably too nervous about the consequences?)  But her patience with him is pretty remarkable, until he messes up her Polly Pockets or her Littlest Pet Shop toys, then she can raise the roof on freaking out on him (just screaming and tattling, again, she's never hit him... which is amazing and I fully understand that this WILL change... and probably soon *sadface from mom*).  Even when she's still nursing a bruise from when he whacks her in the head with a toy, Ava will still go over and hug and kiss the boy who is wailing away in his time-out spot.  She's truly a blessing.  Our blessing.

Sterling turns ONE!?!

What?!?  Where did the time go?  I feel like we had JUST barely started to get to know Sterling as a baby (he slept for SO LONG as an infant, pretty much a solid nap till he was about 5 or 6 months old... I'm NOT complaining here) and all of a sudden he's rushing out of "baby-hood" or "baby-dom" or whatever we call it and right into toddler-ville.  And now (right NOW) he's almost 20 months old, and I'm freaking out again.... time really DOES fly when you're chasing a small person around all day long.

Sterling Likes:

• to eat.  Everything.
• Tools and sticks and anything that can be used as a weapon or smashing device
• to get into EVERYTHING.  He's the most curious kid I know.  And the least likely to even bat an eye when we're screaming "NOOOOO!!!" at his back.  
• his nickname (more private nickname from T and I) is Honeybadger... because "Honeybadger does what he wants" (it's a youtube thing)
• dance... he's got moves and shakes his money maker at anything with a beat
• he loves to give people belly raspberries (especially mom. pulling up her shirt during uncomfortable and very public moments)
• to make us laugh.  And he does. Every single day.  He's a very funny kid.
• to cuddle with Ava.  Especially at night when she goes to bed, he MUST have his last cuddle with her or he goes ballistic.
• Puppies and kittens.
• Bedtime.  Normally.  He's always been a very VERY good sleeper.  Of this we are truly grateful.

Sterling doesn't Like:

• not getting his own way.  And he WILL inform you when he's not getting his own way!
• being forced or coerced to do anything, he will do things his way on his time.  Period.
• to sit still for long
• to wear clothes
• when Ava leaves for school

I'm sort of sad that we let Sterling's first birthday come and go with very LITTLE "hoopla".  He's our baby and it just seemed like we glazed over this big day (clarification: big day for mom, I'm sure Sterling didn't care either way).  But we managed to do the traditional cake smash and he was in heaven... that is, until we tried to take the cake away.  Then he crumbled into a mess of tears.  So we caved and gave it back to him.  After we returned his precious cake back to him, Sterling eyed us suspiciously while he cleaned up the rest of the skin-staining blue cake.  

The greatest part about Sterling's birthday was our special guest, Uncle Rico!!  He came down to help us celebrate and the kids were in spoiled rotten heaven with him around!  

 The very last picture in this big collage ^^ makes me laugh so hard.  Our kids are pulling the greatest faces!!  Sterling's "durp!" face and Ava's "slightly stoned" face crack me up.

And lastly: just some random things.  Ava finished up preschool in May last year with Mrs. Nikki who was the greatest preschool teacher in the world.  She was perfect for Ava and a terrific way to show Ava how much fun school is.  Ava still misses her and talks about Mrs. Nikki once in a while.  Sterling starts to make friends (our neighbor's cute little guy), they play and then drink together.  A great and lasting friendship forming here.

JUNE 2012

June came and went a few big moments.

Father's Day for a very good father.  Taylor is just exactly the sort of Dad I hoped for for my kids.  He's actually BETTER than what I hoped for.  In risk of getting too mushy here... I'll just say, Ava, Sterling and I are very very lucky to have him taking care of us.  He's truly the greatest. 

Sterling discovered the water park and loved it this past summer.  We'll be excited to hit it up more frequently next summer.

I cut bangs.  Again.  Loved them for about 3 weeks.  Then the grow out eventually drives me insane.  Can't nail down a good hair style to save my life these days.

Most importantly (that isn't documented in a photo).  Taylor started school this month... again!  After a very long break from taking courses, he's decided to finish up and get his undergrad once and for all.  With two difficult semesters behind him now, we couldn't be more proud of Taylor.  He's doing great in school and we are just thrilled to be getting a move on with the ol' degree!

     

Remember December????....

... and January and February and March and April???

Well, I barely remember them since they were SO LONG AGO.  I've been putting blogging off for many moons now because the sheer mass of photos, stories, and shtuff is just ridiculous.  BUT here I am... at 4 in the morning, slapping photos together in crude storyboard formats and hastily jotting down the high points (or the points I remember). 

Here we go. 

First:  Do you remember a billion years ago when I got my dream come true free photoshoot by an amazing photographer, April Farnsworth?  I completely spaced posting the final photos I chose... so here they are...

 

 

I think the photos turned out wonderfully... just what I wanted. 

Let's just go chronologically here, people.  I'm really less of a multi-tasker and more of a one-trick pony, a linear thinker.  So we start waaaaaay back in December of 2011 (cue wavy dream clouds to transport us to a different time...)

Christmas was spent at our place again this year and it was truly a good holiday (from what I recall).  Christmas Eve was spent with us inviting our friends, the Hursts and the Killians over for some festive fun.  After we let the kids open up their Christmas pajamas, we let the kids decorate cookies (read: smear frosting on every surface they could find while shoveling candy into their wide-open mouths) as we adults ignored them and played a fun game called Dicecapades (I think that's the name). 

 Christmas morning finally came.  I was spotty (at best) with my camera while Ava opened her gifts.  Sterling actually slept until nearly 10am so we didn't (couldn't) wait for him.  Ava scored with some good loot (trust me, we only got her a few things we bought earlier in the year and saved up... dress ups are a great, cheap gift).  And when Sterling finally woke up, he had more fun with the trash than anything else... I wish that phase would stay forever. 

 (The middle photo in the bottom row cracks me up... it's just one of MANY pictures we have of the poor guy being forced to play dress up with his sister.  He's one patient "fairy godmother")

December was kind to us.  We thoroughly enjoyed the super-mild winter.  Hope everyone had a great holiday!  Merry Christmas!!!!  (extremely super insanely late)

 And to end December's photos, I have a few outtakes from the photo files. 

 January is next.  And unfortunately I must have been allergic to the camera that month because I only have a few pictures from January's files.  The major thing that happened was this:

Glorious.  Despite the lack of hair on TOP of his dome, Taylor is mighty proud of the face hair. 

January, I'm sorry but I just don't remember you at all!

But in February, I get a little better.  But only a little.

 *sobbing* My babies are growing up.  So incredibly fast.  I'm not at all happy about that.  I'm contemplating wrapping them up like little Chinese women's feet.  Please don't call CPS on me.

In this next series, I want to take a moment and show the many faces of my son.  He's working on becoming America's Next Top Model.  I advised against it, but he seems to have taken a liking to the circus freak show that is Tyra Banks.  Work it, Baby.

 Other than being the handsome git that he is, Sterling's pretty cool.  He's chubby and cuddly (my favorite kind) and a pretty happy boy.  Unless he's teething... then he's a bear who wants to hug you ALL the time with his snotty nose and his whiny growl.  Fun times.  We're grateful for his sleeping habits, this is one area he has never let us down in.  As of today (not back in February) he's a timid walker (only about 5-10 steps before he slowly sinks to his bum) and he's an open-mouthed kisser.  With lots of drool and slime.  He loves his family, but he really really REALLY loves his sister.

March!   By March we got about 6 teeth all in the space of 2 weeks.  Two horrendous, hellish weeks.  But we came out of it alive.  And drooled on.  And happier, much happier. 

One day in March, I was in the kitchen (probably wasting my time playing Words With Friends on facebook, but I'll pretend I was doing something like practicing the exquisite art of calligraphy... that way I'll sound much more respectable), anyway back to my story... I was in the kitchen doing something amazing when I looked over and started spying on Ava and Sterling on the couch.  The camera was right there, so I just started clicking away.  Part of me is annoyed that I didn't just record the whole interaction, but they were so quiet that the sound would probably not have picked up.  Nonetheless, it was a pretty great moment... I'm so glad I was able to watch this:

 

 Ava's growing up quickly.  She and her best friend, Leia, play together almost every single day for hours and hours.  They love ponies, playing "house", tea parties and dress up.  And I love that they let Sterling follow them EVERYWHERE they go, it requires a lot of patience when your little brother is constantly knocking over your tea party table or chewing on your Polly Pockets.  We just registered Ava for kindergarten next year and met her future teacher.  Life moves quickly.  I'm grateful for a fun and caring and quirky daughter who looks after her brother so well.

And now we'll finish off with April, then I'll finally be caught up!!  We went to Rock Springs for Easter with my parents this year.  What a great vacation.  Ava and Sterling got 100% of the attention from their grandparents and even got to play with their cousin, Bella.  The Easter egg hunt was a success (much, MUCH better than the one our little town offers), Ava had a ball.  We went to the Rec Center to swim at the newish indoor water park... that place is Awesomeville.  I wish I had taken my camera out more... but I tend to eat Easter candy with two hands.

We miss being around grandparents, we wish we lived closer.

Now that we're back in good old Idaho, Taylor has started back into school.  He is loving it and we are just happy to be finishing up!  As for myself, I stay busy following my two nuggets around... and they're fast!

Thanksgiving in Kentucky

 I refuse to apologize for posting Eleventy-Billion photos.  Only because if you KNEW the sheer magnitude of pictures I had to leave out, you would be Thanking Me.... probably tearfully.

This year's Thanksgiving was with T's family in Kentucky (hence my witty title).  It was utter perfection.  I'm not even exaggerating here. After a completely uneventful (dare I say "boring" even?) flight where both kids slept the whole way, we arrived late in St. Louis and were greeted by Dad Wilson.  Spent the night at a hotel and woke up the next morning to hit the grand St. Louis Zoo.  Oh how I LOVE this zoo... I wished I were an orangutan or a penguin tenant there many times, it is THAT amazing.

Here's a fraction of the photos:

 

  

 

  

 

  

 The photo of Ava next to T makes it look like she's displeased with the train.

On the contrary:

 

  

I like to call this one:

"ZEBRAS GONE WILD"

The bottom photo is a shot of The World's Worst Criminal Line Up

 

 This hippo was terrific.  He just came swimming over and, like many of the other animals there, he sort of 'posed' for some photos.

I seriously LOVE this zoo!

 

 

After a wonderful day in St. Louis we finally drove the three hours to Kentucky.  We were VERY excited to see our Beboo (Mom Wilson).

As we waited a couple of days before Ash and the kids showed up, we played...

 

...If only she could be as athletic as her Dad...

 

(Glorious form, my good sir)

FINALLY!  The Cousins show up!!!  And that was essentially the last time we saw Ava.

She was in paradise with her sweet cousins.  We miss them completely.

And this kid was NEVER needing any extra attention either, lucky boy!

 

As of yesterday, Sterling is an official crawler.  No more worming around on the ground for this guy.

I'm tired just thinking about his new-found mobility.

 

Mom and Dad wanted T and Adam to go through some boxes of old things they've kept around and Taylor found his lacrosse helmet.

 

 

Just passing the wee one around.  There were only about 364 trillion more photos just like this.

I'm very blessed to have the family I do.  From our own little family to the rest of our extended families, we are truly lucky.   T and I kept saying many many times during the week and a half we were out there how much we have been loving every second.  Spending time with our parents, sibs, nieces and nephew is always such a treat for us.  We are so proud to be in a family where we can truly say our best friends are among us.

 

Photos my camera DIDN'T get:

• The time I almost threw up on the sweet lady who was talking to me after sacrament meeting in church.  My ears were extremely clogged up still from the flight and so I plugged my nose and blew.  HARD.  Immediately the room started to spin and I got extremely motion sick.  Lesson learned.  
• The Thanksgiving feast.  Or at least ALL of the pies. 
• When we were playing at Walgreens and Uncle Rico had two blonde pigtail wigs sticking out of his hoodie. 
• Ash and T leaving for the Black Friday sales at midnight.  Me staying home to play Words With Friends.
• The squirrel who came right up to Natalie's hand and took the peanut from her.
• I'm sure I'll think of a million more once this post is finally published... but for now, I'm just drawing a blank.

 BLOOPER REEL

(sort of)

  

At the parade in Kentucky the freakiest Grinch ever.  I still cannot believe Ava gave him a high-five... she's even been known to cower in the presence of overly-excited kittens.

 

Two words: FACE GOO

Best app out there!

 

  

Photobombing!!!  It's all the rage and I love everything about it.  Uncle Audi rules at it.  I still laugh every time I see these photos!

And this last one is just thrown in because I don't think there are enough photos in this ginormous post.

 Sterling's first time out in the snow.  It's curious stuff, huh baby?

My Narcissistic Birthday

Happy Birthday to Meeeeee

Sure.  I'll admit it.  I LOVE my birthday.  Love it.  I consider the entire month of October... "my birthday".  And just so everyone knows, I also consider every single thing (good AND not so good) that happens to me part of my birthday celebration.  So that bird that pooped extra slimy doo-doo on the hood of my car last week?  Why, THANK YOU, sweet bird, for remembering it's my birthday!!

I'll just do a quick run-down of how turning 29 went this year.  And I'll start with last Sunday (the Sunday before the Big Day).

• The wondrous celebrations started off with a BANG when I was asked to stand in front of the entire Junior Primary to be sung Happy Birthday to.  (by the way, Taylor and I are CTR 5 teachers in the Primary)  NOTE: standing next to Kenny, who was turning 6 that week, was awesome.  No, really... I didn't feel ginormous and awkward.  AT ALL.
• And my mom and dad came for the weekend to hang out with us!!!  An early bday present to me (even though the kids got WAY more attention than I did by my parents... I'll let that slide though!) :)
• My birthday haircut.  No, it's not a thing I do... but I'm going to put the word "birthday" in front of everything on this list so just deal with it.  The girl who cut my hair at the beauty school was very sweet.  She graciously cut each and every strand of hair on my head ONE STRAND AT A TIME.  Sure sure, it took 3 hours for a trim, but trust me, not a single hair was missed.  Such a dear.
• I got to eat a slice of pie.  A slice of birthday pie.  A slice of HUMBLE bday pie.  Lucky me, I've learned the valuable lesson of NOT getting your bangs butchered cut right before a photoshoot.  Happy Birthday Lessons are the best.
• On my actual birthday, (which was a very normal day in fact), I walked into the group fitness class at my gym and a bunch of awesome ladies started singing Happy Birthday to me and my friend Lillyia gave me some balloons and candy.... which really motivated me to work out even harder than ever since I knew I'd eat every last piece in it's entirety.
• And all day long, Ava would come up to me and say "Happy birthday Mom, I love you" or "Happy Birthday Mom, I'm soooo proud of you" or "Mom, where's your birthday cake?  I love cake!" She really did make this day very special for me.
• Great friends stopping by with gifts and treats and my friends' and family's phone calls.... I look forward to the phone calls all year.
• On Friday we got family photos done.  FINALLY!!!  This was a huge birthday wish/dream come true.  I've been wanting our family pictures taken for years now but each year there's always been a reason not to... not enough money, want to lose 50 pounds, pregnant, etc... But this year I won the greatest giveaway, a free photoshoot!!!!  How perfectly planned that we made the appointment during my birthday week.  Oh I was sure to remind my family right before we stepped out of the car to meet with our photographer... "For my birthday present, all I ask from you is NO Crying.  NO whining.  ABSOLUTELY NO fussing and sassing".  And then I gave my best stare-down to Ava and Taylor.  We knew Sterling could handle these instructions.  The photoshoot went off beautifully and I can't wait to see the final product!  I'll be sure to post them on here once I get them.
• AMAZING RACE date.  This was truly one of the most insanely fun things we've done as a couple.  We got our normal babysitters for the kids and T and I dressed up as Whoopie Cushions to this big group date.  It was set up just like the television show, the Amazing Race.  There were about 10 or so couples who were all dressed up and working in teams of two couples per car, we all raced around the town to find designated spots given to us by clues and completing challenges before we were able to move on to the next spot.  It was a blast!  Everything was so well planned and our teammates were awesome and so fun!  We were doing SO well, but after a mandatory 10 minute delay because we didn't do one of the challenges correctly before we rushed off put us in 3rd place at the end!  I think the highlight of my night was watching Taylor and the other men trying to learn a Zumba dance and perform it from memory to pass off that challenge.  It was hilarious!  After the race was over, we went to the after-party where the grand prize was awarded to the winners and we all ate, talked and watched the video tape of the men learning their Zumba dance.  Greatest night!  
• And to top off my epic Birthday Week, on Sunday we had our Primary Program in church.  Ava did great and said her lines wonderfully (memorized and with no help... we weren't even sure that was going to happen once she got up there and saw all the people in the congregation!)  The kids all did so well and Taylor and I couldn't have been more proud of our daughter AND our little class of CTRs.  

Okay, sure.  So this week was actually very normal, but when my bday comes rollin' around, it's a good thing to put on some rose-colored glasses once in a while!  How thankful I am for such a normal, non-exciting, run-of-the-mill amazing life.

 

(Let's all take a moment and realize that at one point of the night these two Whoopie Cushions were furiously sprinting down Main Street trying to win the Amazing Race.  Beautiful.) 

Ava's new hobby

Making movies with my camera.  There are about a hundred of these small clips on our hard drive.  She's getting better each day.  And yes... she's wearing her swimming suit.  She loves it.  LOVES. IT.

Idaho State Fair

 We had ourselves a grand time this Labor Day weekend as we grilled outside, went to Kung Fu Panda 2, celebrated a friend's birthday and went to the State Fair for the first time in Blackfoot. 

Ava had a blast riding her first carnival rides ever.  Watching her laugh and wave to her "adoring imaginary fans" made spending so much money on tickets worth it...... wait, she ALWAYS laughs and waves to her "adoring imaginary fans".... did we just get played? 

 

 

 

My fans love me.

 

 

Taylor's expression is priceless

 

  Anyone ever wonder what the backside of a pink flying elephant looks like?

Well, wonder no more.

NEXT...

Taylor wanted to ride the kiddie roller coaster

by himself....

I kid, I kid...

She joined him, of course!

Sterling was a champ.  He did what he normally does... just chills.

It's true what they say:  Fat and Happy.

(until you hit your 20's... then that old adage is just pure, false crap)

Oh and he got hungry (can't you see him withering away??) and ate his way out of the baby carrier.

 

Can't go past a carousel without catching a ride  

HEY, Ava!  I'll give you a million dollars if you look at the camera one time.

 Well, THAT'S a mischievous look.  Maybe I should keep the million dollars this time.

 Then there was the petting "zoo".  Since when did the definition of ZOO get confined to "a large gathering of hungry goats, one shy emu and a handful of sleepy sheep"?

 

  

At least ONE girl didn't mind that this petting "zoo" was a bit lacking.

 

This made me chuckle.  Ever since her horseback ride, Ava has been VERY cautious about making sure every animal she encounters gets to smell the back of her hands before she touches them.  Better safe than sorry, but I'm sure the kittens she introduced herself to a few days ago didn't care one way or the other about the back of her hands. 

 On a totally unrelated note, one that I can't justify a whole new post to write about, Ava has a new friend.  His name is Alex and she informed me about 4 days ago that he is her boyfriend.  But when asking her the very next day about Alex-the-Boyfriend, she vehemently denied boyfriend/girlfriend status.  They're just friends... and Taylor is just fine with that.

 Today I was in the other room, putting laundry away, as Ava and Sterling were in the kitchen watching a cartoon on Netflix together.  I walked in on this:

 

She had given Sterling her dog, Blackie, to cuddle with and he must have loved it so much he passed out on him.  

What terrific little people I hang out with every day.