My Sweet Avis...

Avis, my sweet girl is 5!!! She had a good birthday, even with Daddy gone...he called that night from Alaska. She is in her jammies in these pictures, because as soon as she woke up she wanted to open her gifts! (Artfully wrapped in Christmas paper, I know) She loved her Barbie house with accessories and her purse, watch and other girly products. She is my girl, all girl and proud of it. I wanted to remember some of the reasons I think Avis is special and individual in our family. First of all it is peaceful to be around her...she seems to have the talent of making me feel calm and relaxed. She is so low maintenance, as a baby (I'm ashamed to say) I would forget she was there...she is so easy to live with, like her Daddy. She is so affectionate and never witholds or is elusive. She is a considerate sister, getting gifts for Bubs and Goob when on a shopping trip for herself with Grandma Mopsi! She even gets free samples for Goob, at Great Harvest, not wanting her to miss out on cookies while she is in school. She is a good friend to Brody, even though he repeatedly hits/kicks/scratches her. She is my buddy, always my shadow I love to have. I have pictures to illustrate some of the other reasons...

She is a Momma's Girl, (with boogs, sorry)
She was the most beautiful baby and toddler, here she is putting up with her sister annoying her and is still pleasant! Classic, Avis!

Hers was my favorite birth, so relaxed, with my sisters there. My Mom and Dad and Rob's Mom were there too, it was so much fun...a birthday party!

She can fall asleep anywhere, as shown in the next few pictures...there is even one of her in a camp chair with her plate of food on her lap, that I couldn't find...the child is a sleeping prodigy! She is so easy, when she is tired she tells me and goes and gets in bed!

She is beautiful, and has her Daddy's deep, heavenly, brown eyes. It is so wonderful to look at her when I am missing him, those eyes! They are my favorite, so gorgeous!

She really got the short end of the stick being smushed between two such outgoing and dynamic personalities, plus being so young when the little man was born. She has been so under appreciated, I'm sure, most of the time. This isn't really something that makes me love her, but the fact that she is so loving and individual in her talents and preferences, even though there are two beside her screaming what they want...that makes me remember that she is amazing. She doesn't make a big fuss, but she has a quiet determination to get what she needs!

Last, but not least...she is charasmatic and clever. I'm not sure why her eating meat like this relates, it was just so funny! Avis is a special girl and I hope I can always help her to see and feel that. If I could give her one thing, it would be, to see herself through my eyes. Or better yet, through Heavenly Father's eyes...just so that she can see her value. I love this girl, she is my little lady...my little mini, different sex, Daddy. Five years has gone by unbelievably fast. Avis as a baby is the only newborn I would willingly relive, just to kiss her soft cheeks and sing our sunshine song. She really is my sunshine! I love watching her grow! One more year down, many more to go...

Oooeee BABY!!

My beautiful sister, Debra, has had a beautiful baby...Claire. She is a sweet little wibjit, and I love her, a lot. Being a mother to a newborn is difficult and Deb is doing great! Nic and I went out to visit Deb and officially introduce ourselves to fabulous, ladylike, and lovely Claire. It was so nice to have good sister time, which is so priceless to me, and to eat very good food. (Which is obviously very priceless to me, as well.) Vacations are all about the food, and this one was no sloucher. It is too bad I live so far from EVERYTHING, I might eat better...but, then again maybe that is a really good thing! We went to see Tyler's office on campus and took a little tour, that was really our biggest outing...besides the fabulous resturants! Claire seemed to love the motion, such a mover and a shaker that girl. It is so amazing how a newborn baby makes you feel, I just love how they smell...that I do miss. I am excited for Deb, getting to enjoy seeing her personality come out and hear her funny little comments when she starts talking. That is the best. Kids are such a miracle and a blessing, keep up the hard work Deb...you can do it!

Remember When...

The day she was born, such fun to have our own little human to love!


She always had that tongue out, so classic Gracie...

She was such a happy baby and so sweet, smelled so good...such a lovebug. We love you, Gracie. Being a mother was so much more difficult than I anticipated, but looking back I wouldn't have it any other way. You are worth it, every bit of time is so priceless to me now. I watch you come in from school and walk right back out the door to play, and I am so thankful for every moment I held you and loved you as a baby. Being a mother, to you, is the best thing I have ever done. I love you, here's to another fun filled year, my little firecracker!!

My Baby is 7!

I can not believe how quickly this last seven years has gone. Gracie has been, and is such a great kid. She is friendly, creative, outgoing, fun, crazy at times, affectionate, considerate to a fault, and so beautiful! She is my buddy, I really enjoy the time I spend with her. I am so blessed to have her in our family. She had a great birthday on Saturday, first she made lipgloss with her friend Jess for a little while (Compliments of Grandma Mopsi and her lipgloss making gift!) and then we went for a bikeride on the rail trail (an awesome dirt/gravel trail here that runs from Park City to Coalville), then we went to lunch/icecream and to Kung Foo Panda.(funny, despite having Angelina Holina in it.) We took her cute friend Jessie with us, and they had all kinds of giggly girl fun:). Then, on Sunday (her actual birthday) we had all of the Watterson side and my parents to dinner to celebrate. It was nice, I am ever reminded how thankful I am for family. It is so wonderful to have them all here and be able to enjoy them, it gives me resolve to be able to live with them all someday after this life. Family rocks and so does my Goob. Love you, Gracie! Making lipgloss, soooo girly!

How much do you love Rob's mountain biking gloves? Seriously.

Lunch at a VERY fancy resturant, called Training Table! (yumm cheese fries)

Seeing her new bike, we had convinced her we didn't buy. (Because Bubba blabbed and we had to do some massive lying to keep the surprise intact!)

Riding the bike, in the house!

Labor Day Camping, Kind of...

It is labor day tradition that my sister, Nicalee and I go camping. The tradition is that Nicalee goes camping and I drop in to say Hi in between doing other things. We are such flakes!!! This is the second year we have not come for the whole trip and this time it was so funny. We went up at 6 am on Sunday and came home around 7 pm on Sunday. It was a torrential downpour about an hour after we set up our tent! On Friday we watched the girls perform at the highschool football game I, of course, forgot my camera (please send my Mother of the year awards to my home and not to my Mother of the year headquarters), and on Saturday we went to chop down 20 thousand trees in the Uintas to get wood for the winter. It was crazy hard, but really nice, the mountains were beautiful! I have a disproportionate amount of pictures for the amount of time there! (12 hour "camping" trip) We hiked Donut Falls and played Pit and Apples to Apples, it was an all around good time...next year we will shoot for 52 hours.

Some Catch Up to Do...

I have to confess, I am not very good at blogging. I just don't make the time to update like I should, but since this is such a good journal of our family life I will make more effort! This is some catch up on the last month. First, we went to the Summit County Fair Rodeo and let the kids participate in the little bukaroo (is that how you spell it?) rodeo. They were able to chase sheep with ribbons for prizes and try to milk a sheep for prizes, they had a lot of fun. We also entered some of our chickens into the poultry contest and all of the kids won a first and second place ribbon, and eight dollars! They love the money part, of course. Especially Gracie. And yes, my son is in a slightly pink, white trash, batman tank top. (I put it in the washer with something red, so me.) The kids had a lot of fun, it is a good tradition for us.

Then the girls had a fun slumber party with Madi and Jess (Rob's sis and their cousin). We painted their nails and had a movie night.

Then it was back to school...Gracie is off to 1st grade! Crazy. Avis is in her last year of pre-school and Bubba is in his first year of pre-school. They go to the same school, one in the morning and in the afternoon. It is fun for them and they absolutely love it so far. You can tell Bubs feels like such a big man. Well, that is the update for now, I need to put a picture of Gracie on here, but I forgot to take one...she gets on the bus really early, so my brain is not awake yet!