Cute Pictures of Ava

Ava Got Into Vaseline and Worse Gave Herself A Haircut

          The first week of Tyson's break little miss Ava decided to get into a few things to start it off right.  First she came into our room in the morning and was saying "Daddy, daddy, come I show you."  Both of us were still trying to wake up and so Tyson rolled over to pick her up and she was to slippery to do it.  He opens his eyes and looks at her and she is shinning all over her body covered in Vaseline.  We both got up quick as she keeps saying she wants to show us something.  We went to her room and she had unloaded a brand new Vaseline bottle all over herself, the wall, and her bed.  We were laughing so hard and hurried and grabbed the camera to take a picture.  She would not stay still for us to get one of her until she stopped again to show us what she did.  It took a while to clean it up but we laughed the entire time.  Oh it was a great moment in a parents life.

         The next day was the worst of the two.  Tyson just got Ava out of the shower and put her in our room and came down stairs because he thought I had her clothes.  When I told him no they are on the bed he went back upstairs and found Ava on our dresser with scissors and a bunch of her hair piled by her feet.  He wasn't even away from her for 2 minutes and she did this.  Tyson just said, "Ava what did you do?"  "Go and show your mom."  He said it calmly but Ava knew he wasn't happy.  When I came up the stairs cause I heard them I saw her and she said to me " Mom I look pretty!!!"  She chopped it good down to the scalp on one side.  Tyson was devastated that his little girl had chopped her hair and that her hair took along time to grow to were it was now.  If you know Tyson your hair and how it looks is important.  I put the hair in a bag and explained to her that only mommy and daddy can cut her hair and nobody else especially not her.  We decided to not cut it but just let it grow out and then eventually do a little trim.  Until that time we did have Ava wear a hat or anything to cover her head and its a good thing it is cold in Portland that time of year.

Elders Hiking Activity

             The Elders of the Mount Scott Ward did a Saturday morning hike activity on a trail close to Mount Hood.  It was a short one 1 mile in and 1 mile out which if you know Tyson that was just fine with him.  The scenery was great and at the end of the trail was a big waterfall.  They enjoyed just visiting and getting to know each other outside of the church setting.  Donuts, fruit, trail mix bars, and OJ was had after the hike.  One nice thing is that it was a day where it did not rain so it made the hike more enjoyable.

Ava at a party for her friend Dominik

               Ava went to a party that was held at J. J. Jump where there were multiple bounce houses for them to jump on.  Ava had such a good time and loved going down the slides.  Kaci even joined in on the fun!!!  Her friend Laura was there to play and Chase Brea's brother who Ava loves playing with.  Ava was exhausted after jumping and playing.  She has asked to go again at least once a week.

                Laura & Ava                                   Kaci & Ava       Jessica, Justin, Avery & Chase & Ava

Kaci at 18 Weeks

Kaci looking good!!!!
Ava wanted a picture of her belly to

Elder Ellis Transfered

             Elder Ellis was in our area for 7 1/2 months and was nice to be around and always had a smile on his face.  He showed love to our ward and those he came in contact with.  We were glad we were able to meet him and have him in our home.  It was a sad day when he left but we are glad that others will be able to meet him and see what a great guy he is.

A Day at OMSI

                   We went to OMSI to get out of the rain and go play with Brittney and her kids.  It was a great way to get Ava out of the house so she would not be so stir crazy being stuck inside the whole day because of the rain.  She loved playing in the water and with all the stuffed animals they have.

Kaci at 16 Weeks!!!!

16 Weeks!!!!!



Ava's 3 year old pictures

        Our little girl is growing up so fast it makes us happy but also sad.  We were able to have our friend Jessica take the pictures for us and she did an amazing job.  What made it even better is that Ava was totally into it and doing her "Toddler and Tiaras" poses she does at home.  She is such a princess with a fun and spunky personallity and we are so glad we have her in our family!!!

 

Ava's 3rd Birthday!!

Our little Ava turns 3 and she was excited for her party with all her friends.  She had a jump house, pizza, candy, vegetables, cupcakes, decorate your own cookies, and special made cookies!!  She had so much fun with all her friends and was on a major sugar rush.  At her party we wanted to let people know we were having a baby by having Ava hold a sign saying "I am gonna be 3!!! &..." and the other saying "I'm gonna be a big sister!"  We posted the pictures on Facebook to let others know.  She was excited to say she was gonna be a big sister.  We are so glad for those friends that came to make her day special and also for our family who could not be there still make her feel loved and special.  We love our little AVA!!!!

Ava was so happy on her special day!!

Left top-down (Kaci, Ava,Shaloam and his boys, Kaci and Brea)
Right ( Kaci and Jessica, Matt- Ashley- Lorenzi, Ava and Lorenzi)

Left-(Her bounce house, Ava opening gift, Ava showing Dad how to show 3)
Right-(Tyson and Justin posing, Kaci and Tyson wearing Ava's new dress up hair and crown)

12 Weeks!!!!

Here I am at 12 weeks into the pregnancy. We are so excited to bring another baby into our family!!!

Family Photos

    We do family photos every year around Thanksgiving but since we are living in Portland and did not come down until Christmas we did them after the holidays.  We went to Freestone park in Gilbert and brought an old truck and some other props to use to try and be as creative and different to make the pictures great.  We were even lucky enough to be able to use the merry go round before it was open to the public.  Ava was still battling her sickness she had and was not to happy about taking pictures.  We did get a few good ones though and thought the pictures turned out great.

Our beautiful girl posing for the camera!!!  Except when she was just done and miserable.

New Years Party with the Adair's

    The gift that was given from all the siblings on the Adair side for Christmas was the gift of time.  To make this happen they planned a party New Years Eve for the adults to get together and eat dinner, play games, light off fireworks, and sing some karaoke.  There was a ton of food and candy to last us more than a month.  We played some games were we acted out some person, described them, and last only use one word.  It was funny to see how everyone acted out the different characters.  There were many belly laughing moments.  At midnight we went outside and Dave had some fireworks were set off to start our New Year!!!  The night did not stop there as a few of the siblings wanted to sing and do karaoke and sang late into the early to late morning.  It was so much fun and one of the best gifts given that year for Christmas.

Tyson had this idea of getting a picture of everyone giving their spouse a New Years kiss.  At first it was kind of a joke to see who would do it and who wouldn't turned out to be a good thing as everyone was a good sport about it.

 

Day Shooting with the Boys

   For New Years Eve day the boys went out shotgun shooting and had a tournament using clay pigeons.  They also brought a few other guns to shoot at targets.  They were able to see that some where better at clay pigeons and others at distance shooting on small targets.  Some were good at shooting just the air.  They had a great time together laughing with each other and sometimes at each other.  Nobody was injured except maybe our pride at times.

Left side (Shawn, Jared) Middle (Dad, Tyson, Dad, Shawn) Right side (Jared, Shawn, Dave)

 

Kaci's 30th Birthday!!!

        Happy 30th Birthday Kaci!!!!  I woke up that morning and my mother-in-law Teresa & Tyson woke up early and put cupcake and birthday cake decorations on the ground from the room I was staying in out to the counter top with kisses and a birthday sign and a cake decoration.  I was so surprised and so happy that they would do this for me.  Tyson and Ava took me out to IHOP for breakfast and I was sang to and received a free ice cream.  Tyson gave me a present to go and get a pedicure so I went with my sister in-laws and mother in-law.  The plan was for me and Tyson and Kristy and Shawn were going to Rosas for dinner and then a movie to see Sherlock Holmes.  Well what I did not know was Tyson had been planning a surprise party for me back at my parents house.  While I was getting my pedicure I invited everyone to go and have dinner with us and then to the movie.  The funny thing is that they knew about the surprise party but did not want to say no and be rude.  So when Tyson showed up and met us at Rosas and saw everyone there he started to panic on what to do.  We had a good time at dinner and then everyone was like oh we can't go to the movie and just started making excuses which I thought was weird cause it was my birthday and nobody wanted to hang!!!  Everyone left but Kristy, Shawn, Tyson, and me as we sat and waited for the check which I did not know was planned so the others could hurry and go to the house.  As we were leaving Tyson was on the phone and said Ava had a tummy ache and we needed to go by and just check on her.  We got there and I walked in and saw on the counter a gift from Kelsey with a sign that said, "30 Sucks" and had 30 different kind of suckers.  While I was looking at it I was just rambling on talking to myself while everyone was in the other room waiting for me to turn around trying not to laugh at me cause I was just laughing and chatting to myself.  Eventually I turned and saw them and I was so surprised.  I had no idea and it truly was a surprise.  Tyson then told me how he had to change everything cause I kept inviting people and everything.  We played games and had junk food and laughed at each other as we acted out different characters.  It truly was a good birthday especially for my 30th.  

Christmas 2011

    The 2011 Christmas was such a great time for us this year.  We were able to do our little Christmas as our own little family in Portland before we flew done to Arizona.  We put up the tree and opened a game for us to play on Christmas Eve.  Ava loved decorating the tree and also wrapping herself up in some of the ribbon.  We were able to spend a great amount of time with our families by doing family Christmas parties and Christmas itself.  We were also able to spend time with some of our friends as well.  We were so glad that we had the opportunity to go down and be with our families for the holidays.
   

Here are some pictures of Ava during our time in Portland and Arizona for Christmas

(The game Lets Go Fishing for Christmas Eve)

      Here was Ava looking under our Christmas tree admiring her gifts that she could not wait to open.  Santa Clause came over to pay a visit to Ava while we were at Kim & Dave's house.  Ava is still not a fan of being close to him.  I decided to sit with Santa and kiss his Rosy cheeks.  We did the Nativity at the Markham family party and Ava was the camel for the wise men.  After the Nativity we all rode on the back of trailer with hay and went around singing Christmas Carols.
 

 Here we are at the Adair's Family Christmas Party where we had food and fun as always.

Top left: (Tyson & Kaci) Bottom Left:(Jared & Megan) Middle Top: (Charlie & Dave)            Middle: (Kaci & Kim) Bottom Middle: (Howard & Tracy) Right: Kristy & Shawn

We did an activity called the Nativity Ball that the kids love to do and requested it.  They unwind the paper ball and as they do there are little papers inside the ball every few feet that have specific kids doing something while a story is told with it.  The kids did a cousin exchange this year while doing the Nativity Ball.  Me and Tyson announced to his family that we were going to have a baby by pulling a baby doll out of a bag saying, "We have a gift we brought from Portland and it is.... we are having a baby!!!"  It was exciting to be able to tell them in person.

Here is Ava and her cousin Tessa playing together.  They had each other for the cousin gift exchange and they were both very excited to give the gift to each other.  We did the Nativity again with his family with Ava playing the role of the camel again.  She really liked it.  We did a big pinata that Ava just wanted to hug and ride the reindeer until we told her that there was candy inside and she changed her mind and wanted to hit it with a bat like everyone else to get the candy out.  Lets just say that it was so big every kid had a full bag of candy and there was still a ton left on the ground. 

It is a tradition in my family to go and see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple every Christmas Eve.  We love all the lights and how they decorate all the trees and flowers.  We love to be at the temple with our family and have memories.  Kristin and Ryan and there kids came as well and we got some pictures with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Mikki with all their grand kids.  Ava was so happy to see the lights and was being loving and cuddly the whole time. 

Another tradition is to get a new pair of pajamas to open up on Christmas Eve to sleep in and wear for Christmas morning.  This year was the Little Mermaid.  Christmas morning at my parents house with all the grand kids waiting to see what Santa brought them.  Ava received in her stocking her favorite thing Cheetos.  That was all she wanted and carried it around just eating them.  We had to try to convince her to put them down and open presents and she refused so she had some help from daddy and her cousins.  She's just like her daddy and loves chips! 

Here are some other pics taken at Christmas



Fun Cute Pictures of Ava

   We just love taking pictures of Ava and catching those moment that make you laugh and make your heart melt.  She has such a spunky and fun personality.  The picture with the chocolate face was when she found some stashed chocolate in the kitchen and tried to eat it all real fast before we tried to stop her. (Hence the reason it is all over her hands and face)  The pic in the middle was on a Sunday and she kept refusing to take a nap and just wanted bread and Tyson gave it to her and 2 minutes later she was asleep with her leg up on the wall holding the bread.  She loves mom and dad reading books to her and she loves trying to read it back to us.  Ava likes to work on daddy's table using her baby's and tells them "sshhh it's ok I help you."  The other pictures are of her just being fun and cute.  What a blessing it is to have her in our life and the wonderful spirit she brings to our home.  We always have a good laugh each day with her!!!  We are so lucky to be her Mom and Dad.

Thanksgiving in Portland 2011

       For Thanksgiving this year we got together with some of our friends to have a Thanksgiving feast.  The group consisted of the Atkinson's, Finlayson's, Finlinson's, William's, and the Missionaries elder Ellis and Elder Vang.  We were all assigned different foods to bring to share with everyone.  After eating a ton of food as usual on this day the girls looked through adds in order to prepare for the all night shopping that happens for Black Friday.  We had a good time laughing and enjoying each others company.  Even though we all were away from our extended families we still felt like we were with the people who we loved and who we considered to be our family.

Family Bowling!!!

       We found a deal on Groupon for some bowling and we decided to do a Family Bowling Night!  Ava was so excited to be able to roll the ball down the lane to knock down the pins.  Of course she wanted to carry the ball herself and push it by herself no matter what.  She was just so excited and wanted to bowl like mommy and daddy and no help.  This made bowling with her more interesting to watch.  She dropped the ball on her foot a couple times and pushed the ball to slow so it got stuck on the lane or in the gutter and slipped from going onto the lane.  The picture with her face down was when she did not knock any pins down and she got upset and starting crying.  Even with those things happening we had a great time just watching her be so excited to go bowling.   

Elder Romriell Gets Transfered

      Elder Romriell was in our area for 7 1/2 months and we had many discussions and dinners and laughs while he was here.  He was one of the Elders that helped teach the man Tyson baptized.  When he first came to the area he was very shy and did not say very much.  Very, Very, quiet...  There was major progression that happened in the time he was here.  He became more confident in himself and looked like he was ready to take more things on and not hesitate to talk to anyone.  We have been able to have the Elders in our home and feel of the spirit they bring with them.  We were glad to have met Elder Romriell and be apart of his mission.  

                         Elder  Ellis                                             Elder Romreil                                         Sweet little Ava

Ava's Fun Dance/ Tumble Class

We signed Ava up for a dance/ tumble class that she totally loved.  She caught on very quick with the instructions and the dance moves.  She loved crawling around acting out different animals and running the obstacle courses that were made.  There were times were the parents were asked to join in and you can see us trying to show Ava how to do it.  After the class Ava got to go and swing on the swings in the park next to dance building.  She always looked forward to dance class and asked everyday if it was dancing time. 



Halloween 2011

For Halloween this year we went to our Ward Trunk or Treat which had to be held inside due to the rain.  Our family went as pirates this year and many Ward members did not recognize Tyson at all when he walked in and around the church.  It was pretty funny when they found out and watch their reactions.  Ava had a great time playing all the games and jumping in the jump house and of course eating candy.

We also had a Halloween Party with some of our friends down at our clubhouse.  All of the couples dressed up and we ate a ton of food and candy and played minute to win it games.  There was a dance off between Tyson and Lisa on who can get the ping pong balls out of a Kleenex box the fastest by shaking their booties.  Tyson lost by a tenth of a second but had fun doing it.  There were many laughs that went on in each game that kept us entertained all night.  Much fun had by everyone.

 

(Matt , Ashley & Lorenzi) (Tyson  & Kaci)  (Top-Jessica & Justin)  (Bottom-T.J., Brea & Dominic)

Ava just enjoying every minute of the trunk or treat.


 
(Lance & Marie) (Lisa)




Some of the Minute to Win It Games-Moving a orange only using a banana on a string wrapped around you and stacking dice on a Popsicle stick.



Brea and Lisa squatting down to pick up paper bags with their teeth & Moving the cookie to your mouth by using your face muscles.

Shooting down cans with rubber bands- figuring how many coins in each and lining them up- All the friends that attended.

We all went out Trick or Treating and Ava had a fun time knocking on the doors and saying trick or treat!!! (We practiced on that) Jess was putting on her best pirate impression.  Quick story one door we went to the man opened it up and Ava says, "Pee ewe mommy it stinks"  We all tried to keep a straight face until we left and they closed the door.  It was hilarious!!

Visit from Mike & Grandpa Markham

Uncle Mike and Grandpa Markham came up to visit and to go to the ASU vs Oregon football game.  We were excited to have them and host them while they were here.  Ava got a present to open up from Grandma Mikki and Papa Tom that they brought with them.  Ava loved it but it did not suprise us that they put in a fake rat that looked pretty real.  We were able to have them stay and go to church with us and it so happend that Tyson was speaking in Sacrament.  Ava loved crawling over Papa Markham and sharing everyhing he had.  Loved having them here to visit.  Oct 2011

Papa sharing his milkshake

Ava helping herself

Ava took it over in no time

Mike sporting the ASU gear and the waitress giving him a hard time 

Ava opening her gift from Mom and Tom

Ava loving on Papa Markham

Gee I wonder why she loves him
He is so good to her