Friday, November 30, 2007

All Better

Brielle's prayer for us to get "all better" has been a constant at our house for a week now. We are trying to recover.

I have spent the past few days trying to get the house all better - tons of laundry, cleaning bathrooms, having a plumber install a new toilet (we had pee water leaking from the upstairs toilet to the downstairs ceiling), dusting, vacuuming, etc. etc.

We also have been trying to get our sick girls all better. We literally have not left the house since coming home from Ava's blessing on Sunday. We got a pretty good snow storm, so it is cold and snowy outside and Brie, Ava and I have stayed nice and warm and sick inside. Brielle got a cough and fever on Thanksgiving. She is up and playing and back to being miss chatty, but still coughing. Ava is so sick though. It makes me so sad to see my little tiny 2 month old sick. She has a fever, cheeks are flushed, nose stuffed up and a horrible cough. Brie didn't get even the slightest bit sick until she was 9 months old and that was an ear infection. I worry about my baby being so small and being sick. I am just so glad that it hasn't progressed to real croup and she is still breathing well.

Hopefully we are all better soon.

(P.S. Brie has been saying all of our prayers lately. She does a much better job of not bouncing around doing it when she is strapped in at the dinner table. Although she cracks up laughing every time she sees herself bounce around during this video. She thinks it is just hilarious. We think it is hilarious that she uses the "safe" sign from baseball to finish the prayer.))

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Ava's Blessing Day


Ava's blessing day was so perfect. It was a wonderful day with family and friends.

I bathed her, fed her and dressed her in her blessing dress right before church. She went right to sleep and was a perfectly silent baby during the blessing (unlike her older sister who screamed all through hers). Scott gave her a beautiful blessing. She was surrounded by Fred Buchanan, Brian Buchanan, Kim Richards, Rudy Schenk, Pete Schenk, Roger Allred, Bryce Allred, Brian Skinner, Tracy Allred and Stuart Allred. What a lucky girl to have so many people there who love her.

After the blessing we came back to our house to nap a sick Brielle and have dinner. We served a potato bar because we call Ava "Ava Potata". Not everyone was able to come for dinner, so I don't have pictures of everyone, but here are the pics I do have from our wonderful day.
It was also Grandma's birthday that day, so we got to celebrate that as well.

Thanksgiving Weekend with the Fam

We had some fun days this Thanksgiving weekend. Friday morning the girls went shopping of course and the men stayed home to babysit and wait for us. That night though we got a babysitter for the kids and had a night out. We went to dinner together and then a musical production at temple square.Saturday morning we took the kids to Wheeler Farm to see the "aminals" before the big game. Saturday afternoon was the football game between BYU and University of Utah. Scott decked the house out in Utah and BYU decor. Mostly he, Brian, Krista and my dad watched the game. Poor Scott was out numbered by BYU fans. He handled the loss as best he could. Scott - surrounded by cougars.The cousins had a great time together. Davin and Kea and Brie loved each other (when Brie wasn't whining). Blake cracked us up and everyone loves to get their hands on baby Ava.

Thanksgiving Day at Our House

Thanksgiving was at our house this year. We have wanted to host Thanksgiving ever since we first looked at this house. The kitchen can seat us all and we have two ovens! Perfect. What other time will we use two ovens? We got our wish and it was just what we had hoped for.

We had a lot of my family here staying at our house for the whole weekend. We invited Scott's parents over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was quite the party. I want to share lots of the pictures because this is our family journal and I think it's fun for the family not here to see. We'll begin with pics of Thanksgiving day:

Davin, Kea and Brie began Thanksgiving day with some light reading on the kitchen floor.
Brian and Laura (holding Ava) and Brielle in front of the first round of food.
Scott and his Mom setting the Thanksgiving table.
Dad and Fred (Scott's dad) "discussing". A favorite past time for both of them.
Bryce telling Grandma how it is.
Jessica and her friend from New York City, Kia.
Waitin for the turkey!Mom and Rama (Scott's mom) finishing up the cooking. THANK HEAVEN for them! Scott and his turkey! Yet another beauty. This year it was a 25 pounder.
Laura and her rolls! (he, he, he. Come on Laura, you and they look beautiful.)Alicia thanking everyone for being with us for Thanksgiving. Yes, Scott was snapping pictures of me blubbering through it. Not cool.Our Thanksgiving table.The tallest person there (Brian) and Kea at the little kids table.
Uncle Bryce holding baby Ava. I hear she got her first taste of candied yams.
Blake and his Thanksgiving feast.Kea, Brielle and Davin with their pumpkins.Mom and Dad relaxing after dinner.
Jessica and Kea smiling at Ava. Ava loves this holiday stuff with tons of arms around to be held in.Ava and her Grandma.