bite me

go here to check out the first chapter of Breaking Dawn, due out August 2nd. i cannot wait. literally. i don't know what i'm going to do with myself.

BREAKING DAWN CHAPTER ONE!

it's picture perfect

jcpenny photo shoot for avery's birthday/mother's day.

phoenix rising

avery and i spent the last week in phoenix with my family for my little brother spencer's graduation and birthday. klayton drove us to salt lake so we could catch our plane, and he picked us back up last night. we got back around midnight and i am exhausted, but it was really good to see my cousins and family. here are some pictures from our trip!
we stopped in Provo to see daniel before heading back to SLC to catch my plane. i miss daniel and it was really good to see him! this is a picture of him and his gorgeous girlfriend, selena.

avery playing at melissa's house. she had a blast chasing mckenna and the dogs around. we stayed at melissa's until avery got sick! it was awful to leave, but we still got to see them lots. i love those guys so much!

mckenna and spencer have the same birthday, and avery and i got to celebrate with mckenna and her family! here's my cousin, jessie, with the girls.

chris (melissa's husband) and mckenna waiting for the candles to light!

mckenna ate every last bite of birthday cake!

playtime!

once my family got into town, avery was lavished with attention every second. she misses them all a ton already.

here's avery telling adam that his molester mustache scares her.

grandma and avery

congrats spencer!!

mallory came with us to the airport to see avery and i off. she leaves for england in a few weeks and i'mma miss her.

avery is so sweet!

of course, i didn't get any pictures of melissa and i (we are always the ones taking the pictures!), but it was really sweet of she and chris to put us up for a few days. they have a gorgeous home and mckenna is so sweet. melissa is supermom for sure and it was great to get all of her good kiddie tips. yay for family! i can officially say that i am not going to travel for as long as i can help it. this trip wore me out! it's good to be home!!

you say it's your birthday

well, the day has come and gone. on friday my baby turned one. ONE! i feel like time is slipping through my fingers. a whole year has gone by. this weekend has been lovely and perfect and all that i could ask for. my mom, my little bro, zach, and both of my grandmas came up for avery's birthday and i have loved having them here! friday was pretty low-key, but saturday i threw a kiddie carnival 1st birthday party like you wouldn't believe!! i felt it necessary to throw avery a huge birthday party for many reasons. 1) i love throwing parties! 2) i wanted an excuse to get all of the family and friends in one place that i could. 3) avery is a miracle in every sense and she deserves to be celebrated (even though she won't remember this at all)!!! anyway, now that i have justified this excess, here are the picks.

setting up... the cake, the food, the 2 pound 1 ounce (avery's birth weight) jar of jelly beans. if you had the closest guess to the number of jelly beans in the jar, you won them (congrats mandy!). in case you were wondering, avery weighed 817 jelly beans at birth!

avery slept for the first half hour of the party. she is a party animal.

the gift table... i just can't justify this excess. i love our friends and family and i especially love that avery is too young to realize that she is spoiled!

i think that the boys had as much fun (if not more) than the kids. they all took turns getting sponges thrown at them.

here are the carnival games i set up. throw the wet sponge at the boys, drop the clothespin in the bottle, and throw the ping-pong ball in the bowl. the kids earned tickets and then cashed them in at the prize table for cotton candy, toys, games, etc. they loved it!

it was the most beautiful day ever. the first real perfect summer day idaho has seen. perfect for a carnival!

here's klayton's mom, mackenzie and milo. i just had to post this picture because kenny is gorgeous.

i made a cake!

and avery thought it was delicious. check out those teeth!

to speed up the process, all of the kids jumped in to open avery's presents. they had a blast... and avery loved playing in the paper...

while everyone looked on. i still have no idea what present was from who. thanks everyone! everything was great and cute and perfect! :)

my mom got avery this tent from ikea and zach set it up. elle and alexis enjoyed the shade for a bit before the party ended.

standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams

here are some pictures from our trip to california a couple of weeks ago. we had an amazing time with some of our best friends, zach and liz, and their son, ian.





we went to california adventure the first day we were there. A is for Avery.








here we are on the tram from the parking lot to the happiest place on earth!

besides seeing our wonderful friends, giving avery so many firsts was my favorite part of the trip. she had a blast! the hat that we bought her was the infant size, and it was enormous!

ian is the sweetest kid alive. every morning he and avery played in their pjs.







zach and liz took us to huntington beach and avery got to dip her toes in the ocean for the first time! it was pretty cold, and this was her reaction...

until daddy picked her up and cuddled her. that part she liked.









the hollywood walk of fame was fun. this is klayton's face saying "they spelled it wrong!"

ahh the dodger game. the reason LA exists. for the dodgers. these are our seats...

avery was the center of attention in this hat that my brother, zach, lent me. i even made klayton wear a dodger shirt! i finally convinced him by letting him know that it upped his hottness level (previously believed to be impossible).

avery and i in our dodger duds.









we hit an excellent saturday night game vs the rockies. in the first inning the dodgers scored 10 runs! halfway through the game the ump behind the plate took a 93 mph pitch to the neck! this is a pic of the ambulance driving him away. he's fine now.










an usher took a pic of all of us during the ump mayhem.









and avery (FINALLY) conked out against daddy. every time we got up to cheer she stirred, and finally landed mouth-open, catching flies and fly balls.

twilight again

last night i (somewhat pathetically) stayed up until 4am re-reading Stephenie Meyer's masterpiece, Twilight. i opened it (for the 6th or 7th time) around 11pm last night (Klayton took a waiting shift and was at work until 2am!) intending only to read until drowsiness took hold of me. unfortunately, i was hooked (as usual) and i couldn't put it down. seriously, books like this aren't the most eloquent or whatever, but it is a must-read.

ANYONE who is reading this post who hasn't picked up this book for whatever reason must do it now. i command you. last summer when my sister-in-law, Mandy, handed me a book with a black cover and started going on and on about how great it was, i was intrigued. then she said the word. the dreaded silly word that still makes me slightly embarrassed to be such a fan of this book... vampires. suddenly i was bummed -- now i had to read this crazy book so i could lie to Mandy about how cool i thought it was so i wouldn't hurt her feelings by saying, "VAMPIRES!? LAME!!!!" i even made super fun of it to my friend, maria (who is now as big a fan as i am - muahaha). by the way, don't know why i was so skeptical. hello- Harry Potter is my boyfriend!! and what's more lame than wizards and crap? anyway, read it. i double-dog dare you. HP too, if you haven't picked that up (aka you've been living under a rock. the really gross, smelly kind).

also, re-reading this book got me curious about the movie goings-on, and i came across this sweet little sneak peak at the Twilight movie (comes out this December). ch-ch-ch-ch-check it out here...http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1585900&vid=226476

ALSO i realized this morning that her new book (not in the twilight series) THE HOST comes out this week! double joy! i declare this week Stephenie Meyer Week. get on board or i will send a scary vampire after you. i mean it.

attention rexburg runners

it's always fun to find a group with your same passions and interests, and now that the weather is nice (FINALLY!) i think that joining a running club is the coolest of cool ideas. if only i still lived in rexburg, but i'll keep you posted on if i find an IF one. anyway, i just wanted to post this for all of you rexburgers out there. check it out!

www.tetonroadrunners.com