Avarie's First snow day

Here are some pictures of Avarie's first venture out to play in the snow. Every time Derrick goes out to shovel the snow Avarie has wanted to go with him and help, but we did not have any boots for her. Yesterday we found some and she got to go out and help dad. She was having a lot of fun until she fell face first into the snow and white washed herself.

A funny face

Here is a newer picture of Avarie where she is pulling a funny face.

Avarie's First pony tail

Avarie's Birthday

Here are some pictures from Avarie's birthday. The one with her in the chair is her in her new rocking chair and two of her new toys watching her Elmo video that day after her birthday. The next picture is of her birthday cake.

Graduate school

Derrick got a reply from one of the schools today. He has an interview at bellermine in Louisville Kentucky. We are so excited! hopefully we will hear from the other schools soon.

I hope everyones holidays are going well and Merry Christmas.

Avarie's one year old pictures

Well on Avaries B-day we got her pictures done and the photographer put htem up on his website. You can see the one of her on the first page and then if you click on the blog you can see two more of her. the link to his site is http://steveharrington.net/
Avarie is the one in the polkadot brown dress. On the blog area there is another one in the dress and one of her with the cake. they are adorable. Thanks to the photographer too. He did a great job.

Derrick and Grad school

well I have had a few comments on which school we would like to go to for Derrick's graduate school. Our first choice right now is Baylor in San Antonio. The program is 5th in the nation and it emphasis is exactly what derrick would love to do. He is really excited about that one. The other bonus to the school would be that we would only owe the army 4.5 years and he would get a salary while he was going to school so I would be able to stay home with Avarie.
Derrick keeps going back and forth on which school is his second choice. it goes between regis in colorado and U of U. I think it changes daily, but I am sure if he interviews with both talking with professors and looking at the areas would make up his mind where they both stand.
Derrick's last choice is Bellermine in Kentucky as of right now. Again that could change with interviews and looking at the area. I hope that updates everyone.

Avarie's Birthday

Avaries Birthday was yesterday. It was so much fun. We had 2 sets of great grandparents, both sets of grandparents, all of my siblings and one of Derrick's brothers and his sister were there for a party. I will have to post pictures with this soon.
Avarie got a baby doll from her cousin Kaylee that laughs when you push on the stomach. It is so cute and she thinks it is the funniest thing and has been carrying it around since. Whe she unwrapped the baby doll she pointed to her eye and said eyes. It was so cute. Another word has come out. She also got a rocking chair that is her size that was passed down from my grandfathers grandma through my grandfather to me and then to avarie. It is adorable and she loves rocking in it.She also got some markers that are hard to get away from her once we show them to her. So thank you everybody she loves her gifts and has been playing with them since.

Derrick Update

Well Derrick is currently applying to graduate schools right now. He has applied to Bellermine in kentucky, regis in colorado, and then U of U here in utah. He is also applying to Baylor univeristy in San Antonio Tx. Baylor's applications ar enot due until February, but the other school his application is in to. Regis has E-mailed him and told him that they would let him know if he got an interview by January 5th, but the other schools we have not heard anything from yet. Hopefully we will soon.

Lisa Engaged

Well I forgot to put this on the blog. Last week, I think, Lisa my sister that is just younger than me got engaged. The guy is Seth Lamb. He is a really nice guy, really good to lisa, and is great with avarie so we like him. Congatulations sis and welcome to the family seth.

Up to 7 words

Well avarie is up to words now that she is saying. Her newest is kitty, but she says it "tiddy". She also says "hi, daddy, mommy, puppy, baby, and bu bye." She also is combining words and saying "Hi, mommy and says it also to daddy and the puppy. THe other day she she said "hi pooh" (we call our cat pooh.) so we are excited to her conversations and actually understand them ( she is always gabbering about something), but I guess we are well on her way.

We are also preparing for the big 1st birthday which is on Tuesday december 2nd. I am going to make a bath tub cake with rubber duckies, bubbles and earnie. Avarie is really getting into sesame street. It is going to be so much fun!!

First tooth

Avaries first tooth popped through yesterday. It is great!! Finally she has one.

Update

Avarie trying to feed herself Avarie happy that daddy is home from class

11 months old and cute!!! Her curly hair is coming back!!!!!! I love it!

Here is a newer pictures of avarie. There is one of her trying to feed her self with utensils, which yesterday she started trying to do. Yesterday derrick and I were out of the room and Derrick had put her highchair in the living room so that he could feed her while watching football. At the time Avarie had not wanted to eat so he took her out and was letting her play. Well about 15 minutes later it was really quiet in the living room. I went in there and Avarie had taken her bowl of apple sauce off the tray and was using the spoon to feed herself with suprising little mess.

Hill Aoerspace Museum

Yesterday we took Avarie to the Hill Aerospace Museum. She had so much fun looking at the big planes. She would point at them and then start kicking and giggling. Of course I forgot my camera so I do not have any picture, but it was a lot of fun. There is a lot of military history in my family so I guess I am starting to educate her early.

Walking

Avarie took 3-4 steps by herself 4 different times on November 4th. We are heading closer to walking. She is still nervous though. She could do it by herself but realizes what she is doing and sits down.
Avarie is now very into dolls. The other day we were at walmart looking at the toys and trying to decide what to get her for her birthday and christmas and we saw the dolls. She started kicking and saying Ooohh. I got out one of my old dolls that my mom had given me and was letting her play with it and I showed her how to feed the doll with a play bottle and she would suck on it herself and then feed the doll. It was so cute.

Halloween 2008

Avarie was pebbles for halloween this year. She had more fun that Derrick and I though she would. After she figured out the candy thing she would not let go of her bucket or her suckers (she loves suckers). At the last house they went to she got a sucker and as they put it in her bucket she went "oooohhh" and started kicking. here are some pictures of her during and after trick or treating.

Avarie's Death grip on her bucketAvarie's Costume

Daddy trying to take her bucket away

A close up of avaries death grip.

Disneyland

This is avarie enjoying the treats at disney land the picture above was her eating my sorbet where she probably ate almost half of it. The picture below was of avarie after cotton candy. She loved all of the treats at disney land.

Over UEA weekend we went with my extended family to Disney land. Avarie loved the carousel as you can see. She would get so excited she would wave her amrs up and down and squeal. She also loved to ride the rides in fantasy land such as snow white and peter pan. She got really excited about the Tikki room and the birds also.

Update

Sorry it has been so long. Things have been crazy at the McArthur home. We recently got back from Disneyland and then making Avaries Costume for Halloween has taken up a lot of time. Avarie is doing well and doing all sorts of funny things. I will do separate blog entries for each with some pictures hopefully tomorrow.

Blowing on food

This past Sunday we were eating dinner and I had given avarie some green beans and had blown on them because they were warm. Avarie then had a bean in her hand and was doing something weird with her mouth and kind of spitting on it. I then gave her another bean blowing on it first to cool it off. Avarie then took the bean and then she did the thing with her mouth again. We finally figured out what she was doing. She was mimmicking me and blowing on her food. Maybe it is only funny to a mother and father but we thought it was really funny.

Monday we were at my parent's house for my sister Dayna's Birthday, Happy birthday Dayna, and Avarie did the same thing after Dayna had blown out the candles.

Princess party

On the 16 th of this month we went to my neice Kaylee's princess party. It turned out soo cute. Grandma Karla made princess tutus for both Kaylee and Avarie and then they had the princess crown and the clip on plastic earings it was so cute. I will hopefully have time to post pictures of the two this week. It was so much fun. Avarie loved being a princess and is turning into a girly girl every day. I love it!!

Avarie walking

Well Avarie has started walking slowly only holding on to one finger of Derrick or I. She has wanted to be walking around and is starting to be fearless about it. On Monday the 15th Avarie started this and she was at Derrick's parents later that day. Kaylee her older cousin was there and I was walking with her and kaylee came up and took her other hand and Avarie picked up her pace and feet more like she wanted to be a big girl and walk around with kaylee. It was soo cute. I loved it!!

Avarie

Avarie yesterday decided to stand up without support. She was standing on her own for about 1 minute. She is also starting to walk only holding on w ith only one hand and of course she is now into everything

Bear Lake Triathalon

Last weekend we went to Bear Lake to watch my mother and father compete in a triathlons. It was fun to watch Them compete in the 3 events. My mom took 1st in her age group by 17 minutes and my dad took 1st in his age group by 23 seconds. After we all went to the beach and played in the water. The water was freezing, but Avarie wanted to play in it so I let her thinking she would get cold and want out. It didn't work I had to pull her out kicking and screaming with lips blue.

Tiling Pics

Here are some pictures of the tiling job that we did upstairs. I am still working on the grout downstairs so the pics will come later for that.

Tile

Well we were able to tile the upstairs bathroom this past weekend. It is nice to have all of the flooring in the house updated now and it all looks so much better. I dont walk into the bathrooms now and cringe.

Park Visit

Avarie and I went to the Park yesterday. I worked 3 days ina row and that bothered her so I decided we would have some mommy and baby time so I took her to the park while we waited for Derrick to get out of class. It was so funny she was squeeling at the ducks and geese because they would walkl less than 3 feet away from you (they are really use to people). It was a lot of fun we just walked around or sat and watched the birds for 2 hours. I am posting picture of avarie but it is from my phone so I am not sure it will turn out real well.

New Pics

Here are some new pictures of Avarie. We were able to get new family pictures on the 21st with my family. I think they are going to turn out really cute. Avarie was a real ham.

New Niece

We have a new niece. She was born yesterday August 19th at around 12:00 PM. Tori had her 17 days early and she was 18 inches long I believe, and she weighed 5 lbs 6 oz. She is so adorable. Congratulations Tori and Jason.

Projects

Avarie is "helping" daddy.

Well this week was an eventful week. We got a couple of projects done around the house. We got the rest of the outlets switched out to white ones and hauled rock to one of the flower beds to do some desert landscaping. We also tiled our downstairs bathroom. which was interesting. I am sure there are imperfections, but atleast it turned out a lot better than the nasty flooring that was in there before. The funny story about redoing the flooring is that Derrick was trying to fix the toilet down there and he broke the bowl of the toilet which means we need to buy a new toilet, but while the seal was broken we figured it would be easier to tile the bathroom now than break the seal twice to do it later. So we were kind of stuck. Oh well new flooring whoo hoo. The pictures are of Avarie trying to help Derrick with the outlets and switches.

Avarie the stair climber

Derrick taught Avarie recently to crawl up the stairs herself. He showed her on two steps and then she did it by herself the rest of the way up the stairs.

Camping

Avarie's first camping trip happened on the 1st through the 3rd of auguat. She loved being out in the dirt and playing outside all day. So did out dog Kaelen. both were so dirty by the time we got home they both had to get a bath. We went hiking around and playing in the water at the reservoir at rockport state park near kamas. It was a lot of fun especially when Avarie slept really well and actually slept in. Who though camping would help her sleep better. I will attach pictures hopefully tomorrow or Monday.

Bear Lake

We just got back from Bear lake this weekend. It was great fun. It was the Christensen family reunion and my cousin Cameron and his wife Haley came from Virginia so we were able to see them, which we have not been able to for awhile. It was great to see everyone and play in the water. As you can see from the pictures Avarie loved the water. Every time a wve would hit her she would laugh. She was splashing, giggling, squeeling and trying to eat the sand. I also included some pictures of Avarie on the boat and some pictures of Derrick Skiing. There are none of me skiing due to me being to afraid to ski. We were able to ride Jet skis which was fun. My grandmother rented them for 4 hours each day we where there. It was so much fun. It was great fun!!!

Avarie is standing

Avarie is now standing holding onto the couch. On Monday while I was at work Derrick stepped out of the room to throw something away and he turned around and she was standing holding onto the couch with one hand. Then last night she was standing in the crib when we were trying to put her down for the night and she did not want to.

Avarie's First Zoo Visit

Avarie on the Carousel

Avarie had her first visit to the zoo. She absolutely loved it. I think her favorite was the penguins she was squeeling when they were swimming around and splashing which is the picture with her hanging onto the railing. She was enthralled as you can see. The animal she probably liked second would be the dessert rabbits. Which you can see her looking at throught the glass. When she saw them she got excited and was waving her hands around trying to pet the bunny through the glass. I think she recognized them from when we went to St. George and saw the bunnies at Derrick's Grandfather's Farm. She was also able to ride the carousel and loved it!! The other picture is of her and Derrick standing next to the Elephant statue. It was great!!!!

Fourth of July

Avarie Sitting and watching the Parade
Avarie sitting with great grandma Christensen
Cory with Kaelen
Kaelen's Newest friend my cousing Erin

Here ar some pictures of the Fourth of July. We went to my granparents house and the parade in tooele. Avarie Loved the Parade. It was a great time to see family again.

Avarie

Avarie is crawling now!!! She is not everywhere yet, but she has figured out how to crawl to the TV stand and pull all of the DVDs out. She is doing pretty well and soon will probably all over my house and in to everything instead of just the living room. We went out and bought a gate to keep her from getting near the stairs.

Avarie is Sitting up

Avarie last night decided she wanted to try to sit up. I had her on the floor laying down and rolling around while she was playing. I stepped outside to ask Derrick a quick question and I turned around to go back into the house and she was sitting up by herself. Then last night she woke up at 10:30 pm for some reason and I walked into her room to calm her down and her little head poped up and looked at me. She had sat herself up again in her crib (luckily after the first sitting up incident I dropped her crib). It made me jump. I have not been used to her sitting looking at me when I go into the room.

New pics of Avarie