Potty Training

Oh the joys of potty training! The only thing that has worked so far is bribery. And it works well! So far we've used mini cars, candy, and mini golfing. We told Coop if he sat on the potty 5x and peed then we could go mini golfing. So we went and had a blast. He's surprisingly good for 2 1/2. He definitely didn't get my coordination thank goodness! We also rode the bumper boats and Coop squirted everyone in line. It was pretty dang fun. So, we'll see what else we can bribe him with...

2 Mos and so cute!

These were done in August, but better late than never right?

Jackie~check out the tutu!

Cooper 2 1/2 yrs, Ava 2 mos

Ava slept for 6 1/2 hrs last night. Oh yeah baby

"Shot deer with arrow?"

For those of you who don't know, we go on a yearly campout for the opener of the bow hunt. It's pretty dang fun. There are a ton of people there and we do things like candy hunts, play cards, animal hunt for the kids, testimony meeting, ambushes on the way to Blue Lake, and pretty much just have a blast. Here are a few pics of our adventure this year!

The hippos Coop found on the annual animal hunt. He's sharing the baby hippo with Ava and you can tell she's loving it! What a good big brother

Coop and Izzy are only 2mos apart and they were pretty good buds the whole time! They just followed each other around and played. I'm not sure if the bottom right pic is a hug or a tackle by Coop but it was cute either way =)

Little Ave's first camping trip! She even had some camou for the event. She didn't love camping like Cooper does but maybe next time when it's not quite as windy. Hopefully...

Candy hunt-Justin and I like this just as much as Coop does. We always get to share a few pieces of his candy

It's hard to see but Justin's relative set up a zipline for everyone. It was awesome! This year we actually had a harness which made it much easier to jump off the rocks! Coop picked some really pretty wild flowers for me with aunt Britney and he also got to use his new fishing pole.

One of Justin's cousins got a deer this year and Cooper went to see it. He still says things like, "Tyler shot deer with the arrow?" "Me touched it!" "That deer must be scared we get him with a arrow!" For a girl not raised in a hunting family I sure have one little hunter in the making. Uh-oh

Cooper has discovered that if he doesn't wake us up when he comes in our room that he doesn't get taken immediatley back to bed. This is how we found him one morning dead asleep. I love those jamms!

2 Months!

I can't believe two months have already gone by! Here are Ava's latest stats:

Length: 22.5" 50%

Weight: 10lbs 4oz 25%

Head Circ: 38.8cm 50%

She's only 25th percentile for weight but her cheeks (on both ends) make her seem higher than that. Cooper calls her 'little chubba chubba'

Blessing Day

We blessed our little Ava on Sunday and we had tons of family and friends join us. Justin did such a good job. I'm so thankful for the priesthood and that I have a husband worthy to hold it. We are truly blessed!

Our cute fam and Coop cheesin'

All her grandparents except for two. Awesome huh?

Her little booties. My great grandma Blackburn made these for my sister who Ava is named after and my grandma Brown embroidered the little flowers. She also made the blessing blanket for her. Good thing we have talented people in the fam otherwise it would all come from the store!

Auntie Necia made her adorable dress-Thank you Necia!!

~Four generations~

Almost everybody who came


It was pretty hot at the luncheon after and this is who Coop ended up and soaking wet! Love the saggy drawers

My aunt's friend, Kimbra, played around with her camera and took pics of Ava and they turned out pretty dang cute! It helps that she's so cute though. Thanks Kimbra!

2 Week Follow Up

Length: 21in 50th percentile

Weight: 7lbs 11oz 10th percentile

Head Circ: 37cm 50th percentile

We went to Ava's 2 week follow up (she is actually 3 weeks old) and she's doing great! She has gained abt a lb since she was born-FINALLY a kid that eats! and is getting stronger and more alert all the time. We got a referral for the geneticists but when I called to make the appt they don't have any availability until this time next year-Wow! They must be busy. So we won't know more about the genetic part of things until then. She also has mrks on her forehead, eye, and nose that I thought was bruising but it hasn't gone away so I asked the dr about it and she said it was an 'Angel kiss'. It is just thin skin that you can see the capillaries through. It will go away as she gets older. I'm pretty sure my sister who passed away was the one that gave it to her! Just a good luck kiss on the way out of heaven right? =)

I said I would update on her arms and how that is all going. When she was born everything was pretty much as we suspected as far as the length and number of fingers on each arm. When they laid her on my tummy after she was born we noticed that one of her fingers on her left arm (they were both tiny-I will post pics) was just hanging by a thread pretty much. It turns out that it wasn't functional so they decided to remove it. We cried for a little bit about the loss but were just thankful that everything else was ok. Other than that it is good. Her right arm is about half the length of a normal arm with 2 fingers on it and her left arm is about a quarter of the length with just the one little finger now. We just love her so much and hope that she will be able to do as much as Justin's brother. I am so glad that we knew before hand because it made it much easier but sometimes when I am holding her I am overcome with what challenges might be in store for this sweet little girl. I am still so grateful for all of the prayers on our behalf. It has made it much easier. We are just thankful that she is dong well!

It's kind of hard to see but this is the best pic I have of her fingers before they removed it. It was the finger closest to her body that they took off.

Bear Lake Baby!

We survived our annual trip to Bear Lake once again! Even with a 2 week old baby. It was awesome and Coop had a blast with all the family he had to play with. He was pretty sad when we got home actually. Check out Ava's little swimmy. Cute huh? I didn't get as many pics as I wanted because it felt like I was feeding babies most of the time but here are a few. I even got to wakeboard so it was great. I'm always sad to leave but we'll be back next year... =)

Happy Independence Day

We had a great 4th! Justin and Cooper went to the big parade, we had a bbq, picked fresh peas, hung out with fam, and watched the fireworks! We are grateful for the opportunity to live in this great country!

Introducing...

Ava Marne

June 28, 2009

6lbs 12oz

20in

( Cooper picked out her bow)

In between contractions, anxiously awaiting Ava's arrival!

Ava and Daddy

Mom and Ava

Proud big brother! He thought she was so funny! He's going to be such a good big bro

The pink flowers are a lei Cooper brought Ava from my Grandparents 50th anniv. luau

He even got to help with her first bath!

Some of our visitors

Jackie~Oakley~Ava~Lindy

One of my best friends from high school had her baby the day after me and was in the room across the hall. We couldn't have planned it better!

Birth Story~if anyone is interested

I know some people will be curious to know if I really went through with an all natural delivery and I'm proud to say...Yes! We did it! Thank goodness labor wasn't too long otherwise it would have been a little more difficult. Justin had been out of town camping (I know, it sounds bad but he wasn't far away and I figured I'd be late so I wasn't too worried) so I was all ready to sleep in with no kids at home, but plans changed a little! My water broke at 6:45am so I called Justin and told him to come home. I just started washing clothes and getting last minute stuff done so it would be ready for when we got home. Justin got home about 8am with Cooper who had been sick all night =( We just hung out at home because I only had a few contractions. I started to get a little worried because she wasn't moving very much so we called my Mom to come over. She got there about 2:30 and the contractions started to get closer together and more intense. We got to the hospital at about 3pm and they hooked me up to the monitors just to make sure everything was alright, which it was so they took me off of them so I was able to move around. I was dilated to a 5 when we got there. I was surprised because I hadn't had too many contractions. We were able to just hang out in between contractions and then when one would come Justin would push on my back as hard as he could because most of the pain was in my back which helped a lot! He was a dang good coach actually. After a few hours they got really intense and much closer together. They hooked me up to the monitors again and all of a sudden the contractions were VERY close together and VERY intense so I was pretty much begging to get off the monitors and into the tub. They came and took me off a few minutes later but it felt like forever and I was able to get in the tub. I was hoping it would take all of the pain away (ha, ha) but it definitely helped. I was in there for a few contractions and then I had to push so the midwife made me get out (we weren't such great friends at that point!) I didn't want to have her in the tub but when you are in pain it's so hard to move! So I was able to get to the bed and about a half hour later she was here! Pushing-not so much fun but thankfully it didn't last very long. She's perfect and adorable and healthy. We are so in love with her it's not even funny! I will tell you more about her arms and all those details a little later since this post is forever long. Thanks to all those who have helped us this past week! We love our little girl!

Daddy Time

Coop and Justin went on the annual June Safari with the guys in Justin's fam. This is what they did on my due date. I'm sure Coop loved every minute of it. Before he got on the horse he asked, "Horses buck us off?" We went to the rodeo the week before. He was a little worried but once he found out they were nice horses he was in for a ride!

Top of the 'D'

Justin and his bro derick entered the men's doubles tennis tourny for Strawberry Days and won first place in the 'D' Division! Me, Cooper, and Derick's fiance Sheryl were there to cheer them on when they got their trophies! Maybe next year Wimbledon...

This is how our garden grows

Ok so he looks a little drugged but I couldn't get a good picture! This is our first baby carrot we found! I went to thin them out again and-Surprise, surprise we had a carrot! He was so excited and he even ate it.

Jump On IT!

What do the kids do in a building full of trampolines?

Ride the elephant

Aren't they cute?

That's Coop's cheese-it was the longest elephant ride ever!

The 3 little monkeys

(Spencer, Jaden, Cooper)

and go down the slide!

The only way Cooper dared go down the slide without holding Jaden's hand

I should go back and jump around just to see if we can get this baby here!