Avery's Blessing

I am having lots of technology troubles lately! The blog has suffered, but I am hoping to catch up soon! On Sunday, November 22nd, we blessed our sweet little Avery. Our church is at 8:30 AM and since most of our family lives an hour or more away, we decided that wouldn't work for anyone, so we had the blessing at our house that Sunday afternoon and it was really nice. I thought it might be kind of weird, but it was a really cool way to do it - It is much more intimate and great to have that experience and spirit in our home. It was great to have most of our family there to support us and share our special day. After the blessing, we had a yummy dinner and somehow we managed to fit everyone in our house!

Our family

I was hoping for a picture of the kids with Avery, but they wouldn't cooperate! Too many people to play with!

Darren and I with our sweet baby girl. She was an angel all day, as usual. She didn't seem to mind being passed around at all and was happy the whole time everyone was there.

These are lots of pictures of Avery all dressed up. I know it is silly to spend a lot of money for a dress they will wear once, but I had to have the perfect dress! I shopped everywhere here (which isn't a lot...not too many places to shop!) and ended up ordering it online from the same place I got Rylee's. I loved it!

I love the bottom of this dress!

I love this sweet girl! It is so fun to dress up baby girls with matching bows and bracelets!

Avery and her proud daddy! I am so grateful that Darren is able to give our children blessings and use his priesthood. It is such a great blessing for all of us. He is such a great daddy!

Me and my Avery

Avery and Grandma and Grandpa Boman

Rylee and Avery with Uncle Dean and Aunt Laura. Rylee was SO excited to see them!

These are all the people who stood in the circle to bless Avery. That is an advantage of a blessing at home - You can snap pictures after! I don't think they were too happy with my request, but they are used to me by now. Avery is so blessed to have so many people who love and care about her. They are: (l to r) Great-Uncle Rex (my dad's brother), Grandpa Boman, Uncle Dean, Grandpa Bill, Uncle Kevin, Robb Lifferth (a good family friend), Daddy and Avery, Uncle Brian, Uncle Cory and Uncle Jay. (Uncle Matt had to work and Uncle Curt lives in North Carolina so we were missing a couple of people. The Bishop was also in the circle but he snuck out a little too quick for a picture. Avery was so great during the blessing and the bishop commented that she looked like she was listening very closely to every word. Darren said she was so sweet and just looked up at him the whole time.

Avery with Great-Grandma Pauline. This was the only time she was upset all day - Just when I wanted a few last pictures.

Avery and Great-Grandma Mary

Avery with Grandma and Grandpa Webber. I didn't do a very good job of getting pictures of everyone there, but we had a full house! We have LARGE families, so with just our families and a couple of friends there were about 50 people! It was a little crazy, but so fun!

We are so grateful for Avery. She has been such a special blessing and added so much to our family. It is so funny how another little person can come into your home and change everything so much, yet I can't remember life without her here and she just seems to fit with our family. She is the sweetest baby I have ever seen. She is always so happy and I think she was born with a smile. She has brought a special spirit to our home. Heavenly Father truly does know what we need when he sends these sweet babies to us. She is perfect for our family! It has been hard adjusting to 3 kids, but I love watching Logan and Rylee and how tender and sweet they are with her (most of the time...) I'm sad at how quickly Avery is growing, but I also am so interested to see what she has in store for her because she is truly a special little girl and we are so lucky to have her. One of the things that Darren mentioned in her blessing is that Avery has a calming influence. She really does. She is so mellow and sweet and it is so hard not to smile and be happy around her! I want Avery to know how much she is loved and how grateful we are that she is part of our family. I also want her to know how grateful I am to have the gospel, especially so that we can all be together as a family forever. We are so grateful for everyone who came to spend our day with us and for all those who love our kids. It is such a great blessing to have so many people who want to help us and who love and care for them.

Our Little Sunbeam!

Logan had his very first Primary program on November 22. He was so excited and practiced all the songs for weeks. Our primary is so great and gave the kids a CD several weeks before and Logan was great at singing all the songs. His favorites to sing are "Fair is the Sunshine" (I don't think that is the title but that is how it starts and what Logan calls it...) and How Firm a Foundation. He likes to sit at the piano and "practice" and belt out the songs while he plays. He knew them so well it really surprised me. He also had a little speaking part. His whole class said "The family is ordained of God." They were supposed to say it all together, but Logan was sitting closest to the mic and said it first before anyone else, and then they all said it together after. Then they each said a little part. Logan was first and said "My name is Logan and I have a family." It was so cute and he did a great job! He knew his part so well and wasn't scared at all.

I have to say that the Primary Program is always my favorite sacrament meeting of the year at church. (Probably because I have never been in the Primary to have to do all the work for the program.) There are always funny things happening. Our Primary is HUGE! All the kids wouldn't fit on the stand so they had the Sunbeams in front of the pulpit on some little stairs. They had little footprints for them to stand on and they did a great job staying there. We were on row 2 so we had a great view. A couple minutes into the program, the little boy sitting straight in front of us did a HUGE sneeze and then he looked down and just kept his hand covering his face. The teachers in front of us were all scrambling for a tissue and when they gave him one and he moved his hand, his whole face was covered in boogers! So gross, but a little funny! Luckily, he covered his mouth or we would have been showered! All the little Sunbeams sat so perfect in their spots....except Logan! He wasn't being noisy or bad....just active! He was up and down the little stairs and turning around to see all the kids behind him and all over the place and playing with his tie and he loved to do all the actions to the songs, which I think the director was just doing to help the kids remember the songs...I don't think they were actually supposed to be doing them, but he knew them all and was doing them pretty intensely. I was told after that Logan was very entertaining. I don't know if that is a nice way to say that he was a bit naughty or not, but he was pretty funny! Isn't he handsome in his shirt and tie?
Rylee was so proud of her brother! She was standing up on the bench to see him and kept asking where he was and watched him so close. Grandma Boman and Uncle Kyle also came to watch Logan. Kyle was in heaven because he got all the sweet after program primary treats in primary that day. He thinks our primary is the best and is considering moving in so he can get some more of the candy and cool stuff they gave out.

In other news about Logan - In November, for show and tell, he had to choose something he was grateful for, so he took a picture of Avery. He is such a proud big brother and the second he walked into school, he told his teacher that he had a picture of "my sweet little Avery". It was so cute! I'm sure he is grateful for Rylee, too. He is such a good big brother to both of them! Also, about 2 weeks ago, his teacher called in the middle of school. I was pretty worried that Logan had thrown up or peed his pants or punched another kid or something, but she was calling to tell me he was reading. I already knew that he knew a lot of words, but the teacher was amazed at how well he was doing and sounding out words, so she sent him home with the books they read in Kindergarten and he is doing so great with them! He started with about 5 and as he passes them off, he takes them back and gets new ones and he loves it! He is so proud of himself and gets so excited to take books back to his teacher. It is the first thing he tells her when he walks into school. I love that he loves learning! It is so fun to watch him grow!

Princesses on Ice

In November, I took Rylee to Princesses on Ice. She was SO excited and we were counting down for weeks! We went with our friends, Carlie and Olivia Lifferth, and Rylee loved to say that it was GIRLS only! No boys allowed! That made Logan a little upset, especially since we usually go to Disney on Ice as a family. Anytime a commercial came on for it, I would stop the TV and have Rylee come see so she could get even more excited and then Logan would point out that Aladdin was in it, so there WERE boys and he kept saying "See Mom. Its for FAMILIES! There are Families there!" I finally convinced him that he and daddy had been to lots of football games and hockey games and BOY things. He still wasn't happy about it, but it was good for me and Rylee to get out for a girls night. We met up with Carlie and Livi in Layton, since they have ditched us in Cache Valley and moved away!:( Darren and Robb hung out with the other kids and Avery did pretty well for her first time away from Mommy for very long. Here is Rylee watching the show. She is quite different than Logan - When we take Logan to this stuff, he is jumping up and down and shaking with excitement the whole time. Rylee was quite different - She just chilled and watched the show. I couldn't tell if she liked it very much, but she did. She watched everything very intently and could remember everything about the show afterwards. When I asked her her favorite part afterwards, she said "EVERYTHING!" and if I asked her who her favorite Princess was she said "All of them!" I guess she just loved it all! We had to go to the Dr that day because Rylee had been complaining about her ear, and she had a pretty bad ear infection, but he said it was OK to take her. We started her on the medicine and she did great and had so much fun she didn't complain about her ear once! I'm so glad we didn't have to miss it!

The show started with Aladdin and then they did a bunch of small little scenes from other Princess movies. This is the queen from Snow White - She is one of Rylee's FAVORITE characters! Anytime we have watched Snow White or see anything about Snow White, Rylee talks about the witch or when the witch is coming on. She was so excited to see her at Princesses on Ice. Should I be nervous? The Princesses dancing with their Princes - The first half of the show had short bits of lots of the Princess stories. Just before intermission they all had their happy endings and danced together. The had Jasmine, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel, Mulan and Pocahontas.
Me and Rylee at intermission. We took pictures instead of being tempted by lots of expensive Princess stuff!

Olivia and Carlie

What cute little friends! We didn't plan it, but they ended up in matching hats! Ry showing off her Princess shirt! I wanted her to wear one of her Princess dresses, but she didn't want to, which really surprised me. She loved the t-shirt though.

The second half started with Mickey, Minnie and TINKERBELL!!! That was when Rylee got excited and started waving.

The whole second half was the story of Cinderella. Rylee really loved this one. I realized that Rylee doesn't probably know as many as the Princess stories as I thought since we are usually watching Cars and those movies that Logan chooses. Cinderella is a story she knows though and she loved it! Especially when the Fairy Godmother came down from the ceiling. She told Darren that was her favorite part!

Me and Rylee in a self portrait! We LOVE the Princesses!

At the end, all the Princesses came out and skated together. It was great! This castle was really neat too and changed for each Princess story.

This is Rylee with the castle in the background, but it didn't turn out very good.

Rylee's favorite - Tinkerbell!

Rylee waving to all the Princesses and Tinkerbell at the end.

Rylee also loved Mickey and Minnie

Me and my cute Ry girl! I loved having a girls' night out with her! I think we are going to have to have more of these. We had so much fun together watching the Princesses! I love my little Princess!

Smiles

I swear that Avery has been smiling since she was born. She seems to always have a least a little half smile on her face. She is just so happy! She is now doing HUGE grins all the time. Of course, I haven't been able to catch any big smiles on camera. Here are a few of her sweet smiles from November.

This isn't really a smile but one of the many funny faces she can pull! She is a girl of many faces just like Rylee.

That is the closest to her big grin that I have gotten a picture of.

Avery at Six Weeks

This post is a little outdated, but I have to start somewhere in catching back up! Here are some photos of Avery between 4 and 6 weeks old. Avery turned 6 weeks old on November 6. She is so cute and we are loving this sweet baby!
Avery at 5 weeks old

At 5 weeks old, Avery celebrated her first Halloween and was a cute little monkey!

We took a road trip down to visit Darren's family and for Avery to meet her Webber cousins, aunts and uncles at 5 weeks. (November 1st) It takes almost 2 hours to get there, so it was Avery's longest car ride and she did great! While we were there, we found out that Uncle Cory is engaged!!! This is his new fiance, Katie, and all the girl cousins (except for Raegan who lives far away). :( They wanted to take this picture since the girl likes to always ask Katie when her and Katie were getting married.

Here is Avery with all her cousins (except for Raegan and Mason who was there but hiding somewhere) and Uncle Cory and Aunt Katie. It was fun for Avery to meet all the cousins!

Haley was SO excited to hold Avery! So were Madi and Parker - they fought over her most of the time, but I didn't get a picture for some reason.

Avery and her cousin Katie

Six weeks old and oh so cute!!!

Avery is so cute when she talks to Daddy. She is becoming a lot more social these days and loves to look at everyone and is talking more and more. She gets so focused and talks so sweet. We love her little coos. They always make us smile! She really concentrates on your face when you hold her and is so sweet! She has made a few little giggling sounds, but hasn't really laughed yet. It almost seems to scare her when she makes that noise.

Avery is getting so big! She is wearing her 0-3 size clothes now and they are getting pretty tight.

Rylee always likes to jump in the pictures with Avery. She loves her sister...and the camera!

Those pretty eyes and a little bit of a smile. She smiles a lot now and is so sweet! She is a really happy baby all the time. She is also starting to sleep better at night, which is happy for mom! Our favorite time of day with Avery is in the morning. She wakes up so sweet and happy and talks and coos and smiles. It is adorable!

Logan wanted to be in a picture with Avery, too. She loves Logan and always wants to look at him and smile at him. So far she has survived all the love her siblings have given her!

Look at those chubby cheeks! She is really putting on some chunk now! I love the chubby cheeks and little rolls on her sweet legs. Avery likes to see everything that is going on around her and loves to be out and about. We haven't gone out too much yet, but whenever we do, she is so great and loves to check everything out. She is holding her head up really well and likes to be held looking out so she can see everything going on. She also really likes to be bounced and that can calm her down in the rare moments that she is upset. She is a great sleeper and loves to be wrapped up.