Life in Utah

Eric starts his first day of class tomorrow. We are back in UT, where it all began :) Eric is going to the MBA program at BYU. We are excited to be here and for the adventure this will be for our little family. Adalea is 2 years old 8 months and Avanna is 8.5 month. The girls are doing great and are having fun exploring Utah. We live in on campus housing which is really proving to be a lot of fun.

Hot Utah day...thought we would introduce Adalea to a slip n slide. She wasn't super crazy about it, the idea sounded a lot more fun than actually doing it.

They tackle Daddy when he comes home. These girls love their Daddy and oh how he loves them. He's doomed. Living in a house with 3 girls he's totally smitten by. How will he ever survive? :)

We found the coolest (free may I add) splash pad park in Alpine. Went there last Saturday and had a blast.

 Adalea just had to get a big girl bike so she could keep up with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood.

 Happy 4 year anniversary to me and Eric. My dear friend Cortney watched the girls for us so we could go out to celebrate.

 Our dear Adalea. She was suppose to be taking a nap, I found her walking around her room in her hat and boots :) She's so cute. Love this girl!

Sisters...Friends

We have entered a new phase and this is a phase I like. The girls play together...without me there to referee or entertain. It's great. I love most of all seeing them becoming not only sisters but friends. They love each other so much. Avanna's face lights up when Adalea enters the room. No one can make Avanna laugh the way her big sister can. Adalea use to run to me after waking up from naps, but now the first person she greets and kisses is her little sister. I love it!!!

It's been a while since I have posted or even read others posts. Tonight, I finally decided to catch up. I have LOVED reading all about those I care about. I forgot how great blogs are at helping you feel close to those you may not talk to on a regular basis or in my case those people that live so far away. It has inspired me to do a better job blogging. I'm hopeful that as I post little glimpses of our life it can help all of my family in North Carolina feel close to us even though we are miles away.

Just to catch up a little. Avanna was born December 3rd 2011 and has been the sweetest baby. We love her! Most of all I love to see her and Adalea together. I'll have to say transitioning to 2 kids has been one of the hardest things I have ever done. I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of it though. We are getting into our routine...Adalea is learning that she can't ride on her sister's back like she does her Dady's and lots of other important things to keep Avanna safe :) She is actually a huge help now. She loves helping with diaper changes and as you'll see in the picture she likes to feed Avanna. I'm suprised at how well she does it.

I feel so blessed. I love my family so much. It doesn't really matter what we are doing. Most recently we went to the zoo. Another fun thing we did was go to IHop. Every time Eric see's an IHOP he always wants to go, so finally a couple of weekend ago we went. We were amazed. Toys for kids to play with, the fastest service ever, and kids eat free.

Avanna just a week ago. She is 6 months old.

Potty Power!

Potty training Adalea has been a work in progress for quite some time. We are very proud to say that she is doing great...as we say, "we've got Potty Power". She worked very hard to fill her star chart. Once she recieved 14 stars (2 weeks without accidents) she was able to go shopping for her very own back pack. Even more motivating than the back pack was what she was able to put in her back pack....FRUIT SNACKS, Adalea's favorite.

It was a lot of fun to go out together at the end of the two weeks as a family for Adalea to pick out her back pack. She felt pretty special and quite proud of herself. As you can see in the picture she raised her arms up high and declared "POTTY POWER"! :)

There are days we still have accidents, but our star chart is always a nice reminder that she can do it!

The Olympic Game Forest and More

Eric took Friday off and we headed out for a little road trip to the Olympic Game Forest with Adalea. The idea is that you get to drive your car through fields of animals like yaks, bison, zebra's, deers etc and feed them bread from your car window. Pretty crazy huh, but so much fun. Adalea wasn't so sure at first when the yak stuck his head all the way in our car window, but she quickly warmed up to the idea and wanted to feed all of the animals.

Earlier in the week we met our friends for "Park Day" at Kelsey Creek Park, a little farm park not far from our house. Adalea and Clara enjoyed looking at the chickens until one pecked Adalea's finger. She still talks about that chicken and says "owie".

She's not so sure what to do here...she had her first try at milking a cow.

Lots to share...

From Adalea's first day of nursery to swim lessons and everything fun in between...we just wanted to give you all an update. There are lots of pictures in this post. I will do my best to tell you about each one. :)

Let's start with today. We went with some friends (Nylah, Mac, Brenna and Luke) to an indoor water park. This place was perfect for our little ones. Adalea had a blast. She loves the water and suprises me each time we go swimming with how much more comfortable she seems to be. Mac and Luke must be two of Adalea's favorite people. Little boys are so laid back and easy going...I think Adalea likes the balance it creates :) She is wearing Mac's shirt and Luke's pants in this picture. We had a little accident and no change of clothes.

So last week (you will see a picture below) it was 78 degrees and beautiful. So, I planned to spend the entire day outside with Adalea since this was the warmest day since last summer. We went to the Lake. The water was freezing, but it didn't stop Adalea. She totally suprised me and jumped in, clothes and all. So...I thought it might be a good idea to sign up for some swim classes. We go every Monday and Wednesday when Eric gets home. It has been so fun to watch her enjoy something so much. Taking Adalea to a "class" seems like such a big girl thing to do. I can't explain the joy it brings to my heart to do something for that brings such a big smile to her face.

Some sad news to share....Eric sprained his ankle a couple of weeks ago playing basketball. The story is much better when I add that it happened after he made the winning shot of the game :) Adalea has been very aware and very concerned about "Daddy's booboo" She has been taking very good care of him.

The picturesbelow are at the Lake (from the entry above). So they call it a "beach park" here...its not really a beach, but it is a really beautiful park on Lake Washington.

Adalea's first day of Nursery. Well, I guess I should say her first official day. Toddlers begin going to the nursery during the second part of church after they turn 18 months. Adalea couldn't wait so she has been going occasionally for the past couple of months and loved it. I'm not sure what happned this particular Sunday, but she decided that she doesn't like it quite as much. She cried and cried! Maybe they should just go ahead and call me as the new nursery leader :) it looks like I might be in there a lot. :)

We love to make smoothies. It appears as though we are sharing, but Adalea usually gets most of it. :)

Memorial Day weekend long awaited bike ride.

So we decided that maybe if we weren't cut out to be a hiking family that we could be a biking family. So....we started preparations. I needed to buy a bike (thanks Mom and Dad for the Christmas present) Eric decided to fix his bike and use his Christmas money for something else. We already had a bike trailer for Adalea... just needed helmets and that should be it right? We worked hard all weekend from stuffing a bike in the front of our car to working on the tire of Eric's bike to making a shopping trips for just the right helmets and figureing out how the bike trailer safely attached to the bike. After a lot of hard work we took off for our first ride. Itwas well worth all the work. We had a great time.

Finally some pregnancy pictures!

Adalea 18 month shots at the Park.