SWEET SEVENTEEN (months)

Averie Emma Brown...aka DIVA aka Ave aka Sisserina aka Ninja aka Angel Muffin. This sweet busy ball of energy changed our lives forever SEVENTEEN months ago today. Time is FLYING! I love everything about this girl even though she gives my patience a run for its money just about every 45 minutes. I admire her thrill to try new things. I love watching her accomplish something and feel so proud of herself. I love how she nods with her ENTIRE body while mouthing words that never actually come out. She's starting to appreciate shoes, and has to wear the pair SHE wants to when leaving the house. Who can knock a girl for that? ;) Averie is VERY Particular, or at least it's starting to look that way. Her food has to be ON her tray and her drink cannot be with it until she's ready to wash her food down. She loves dolls and Elmo and her friend Dmitri. She's absolutely head over heels for her big brother, and watching her wave and blow kisses to him through the laptop while he's away melts my heart. 

The funniest thing about Averie at the moment are her faces. She can furrow her brow and get sassy at the drop of a hat. She will get all serious, let out an "ugh" and purse her lips. Heeeelarious!

The last few times we have gone to give her a bath she has FREAKED OUT while removing her diaper. Jon and I could not figure out why she was going ballistic on us. Two nights ago, I went to take of her diaper and she flipped and ran out of the bathroom screaming into her room. Come to find out, she prefers to have her diaper taken off on her changing table before her bath. Who knew? I sure as heck did not!

The Many faces of Averie are as follows...

My personal Favorite :)

We went swimming with friends today so I took the opportunity to capture Ave in her swimsuit.

I love her chubby little dorito covered hands

Homegirl has the BOMB lashes...wait till she's allowed to wear mascara!

She brings so much joy to our lives. I could not imagine life without her!

LEGO Love

Aiden LOVES legos. It's always a topic of conversation. We have been a little hesitant to bring them into the house since Averie is still small. However, we set a few rules in place and decided it was time :)

 Jon and Aiden were playing with the plane they built. We watched that thing take off and land for quite a while! 

 Mom I am totally uncapable of smiling normal..just sayin'.

 I told Aiden that he could not smile whatsoever, no matter what...this was the result :)

Whoa Whoa Whoa

So much for my New Year's goal of blogging 2 times a week. Here we are wrapping up January and i still don't have Christmas on here! Sheesh....What is a mama to do?

In the light of my procrastination and the pure slackage that has been taking place in my blog world, I will quickly summarize our wonderful Christmas holiday in a few (ok a lot of) pictures.

When Jon proposed on Christmas eve 2 years ago, we all had homemade pizzas for dinner. We have decided to keep that tasty and new tradition alive in our family.  Below are the kids strategically placing their pepperoni.

 Ave naturally had to do a taste test. She's definitely belongs to Jon and I. :)

 Here's the muffin enjoying all her hard work :)

 Abay ate to quick to get a picture...but he's diggin his  snowman straw..

 The sleep deprived but super excited parents!

 Christmas Jammies

 Lucky the Elf brought Aiden and Averie the Rudolph Wii game..Abay is quite the wii master...

 the forced by my mom to smile by the tree picture :)

 Kids in their new PJs

 We made Hello Dollies for Santa this year...we were told that these are his favorite!

 YUM-O!

 Christmas morning the kids were up about 7:15 I think. I'm so glad that they aren't in the "I have to get up as early as humanly possible on Christmas" mode yet. The kids got right to business! Aiden was so happy he could FINALLY open all the gifts that have been catching his eye for a month. Santa brought him a Buzz Lightyear jet pack, a workbench, and a glow doodle. Averie received a little tikes Cozy Coupe (which she stayed in alllllllll day and wouldn't get out unless forced), she got a barbie 4 wheeler as well. We bought the kids so many fun gifts, and it was so much fun shopping for them. Aiden's favorite thing however was from Daddy Jonny. He received LEGOS!!!!!!! He now has a passenger plane, firetruck, boat, and helicopter to start his lego collection. Talk about a boy in heaven!

 The gifts after unwrapping. I must admit it's nice to have our house back :)

 We had our missionaries over Christmas morning for some homemade cinnamon rolls and a few gifts. They were so shocked that they had gifts to open. That made it so much more meaningful and fun. We got them some t-shirts and a flag football set. We also got them the ingredients  to make nutella marshmallow rolls. We made them one night when they came for dinner and ever since they have become famous. :)

Elder Post and Elder Davies with Aiden 

It was a wonderful, quiet, and stress free holiday for us. It was so great to be together and just "be." I hope every year is just as amazing!