A New Addition...

SO So so excited that we FINALLY got a piano!!!  This piano was truly Heaven sent, and I'm so thankful to my husband for listening to the Spirit.  It has already been such a blessing in our lives and brought our family so much joy.  About three weeks ago, we were making our usual morning drive out to Ivins to work on our house.  We'd passed about a gajillion yard sale signs up until that point, but suddenly Ronnie said (after seeing yet another one), "I feel like we need to go to this yard sale."  He hadn't said anything about the other ones, so I told him we better go have a look.  We pulled up and it didn't look like anything special.  Ronnie suggested we just keep going, but I told him to at least get out of the car and see what they had.  He quickly came back and I was expecting to just leave, but instead he excitedly told me that they had a piano and they were selling it for only $300!!!!  It was in the garage and all wrapped up from being in storage, so we never would've known had he not ventured inside.  They unwrapped it, we tested it out and were in love!  We arranged to come back that evening when we were done working and voila, the rest is history!  Chloe loves to sing while I play primary songs, or sit and make up her own version while she sings I am a Child of God.  Avery gets super excited whenever I play and flaps and slaps her little hands around.  Love it.

The "Wooden" Anniversary

Ronnie's Charlie Chaplin face and my protective Papa

Getting ready to cut the cake...

After we shoved the cake...

Well, August 10th marked our 5th anniversary!  We started the day with breakfast in bed (made by Ronnie!) and reminiscing on our wedding day.  Even on our wedding day, we were flying by the seat of our pants...Ronnie spent the night in our new apartment so that he wouldn't have to drive from Hurricane on the day of.  He woke up and realized we had no shower curtain, soap or towels.  He rinsed off and used his clothes from the day before to dry off...on our wedding day.  He arrived at the temple before I did and started worrying because I was late.  I was late, because I woke up at 5 am to do my own hair (BIG mistake...not that it turned out bad, it just sucked.) for our 8 am sealing at the temple (another big mistake...we were trying to beat the heat, but in my opinion, it wasn't worth it). and ended up doing my WEDDING DAY make up on the car ride over.  So young and so dumb, but quite memorable.

But even though the day started out hectic, everything turned to calm and peace as we made our way up to the sealing room, hand in hand.  I remember sitting in the little room, just off of the celestial room, just holding my sweethearts hand and watching as people made their way in.  It was so beautiful and so perfect.  Staring at each other from across the alter, there were no tears, but  grins plastered on our faces from ear to ear.  It was just so... happy.  I remember when Ronnie went to kiss me he almost yanked my veil off, and then about 5 or 6 times during the course of the day, he yanked my head back by accidentally pulling on it.

I remember being late to our luncheon and our reception and people slapping Ronnie on the back and giving us sheepish grins.  I remember standing in a line FOR-EVER.  In the end, it was worth it though, since we made money on our reception ;)  We finally dipped out of the line to cut our cake and had a TOTAL food fight.  Ronnie bent low so I could feed him his piece.  I had it halfway in his mouth, then at the last second I decided to shove and smear it in his face.  He was quick on the draw though ( I think he was expecting it...go figure) and wiped it off his face, out of my hands and all over my face.  It quickly got on my dress and his tux as we tried to push each other away.  I loved it.  It was so us, and still is.  We went inside to clean up, and when we came out, everyone was gone and my family was taking everything down!  For some odd reason, they thought that we had left already!  So no Daddy daughter dance and no first dance!  So sad.  Ronnie was sweet and pulled out his yellow lap top (spray painted by himself) and put on Spice Girls Wannabe to dance with my girlfriends and then a little BSB.  He then turned on our song "Everything" by Michael Buble and held my hand as we danced, just the way I like it.  We were among the last to leave our reception (somehow, we usually are the last to leave any function), and were left on our own to see the wreckage of our car.  It was stuffed with ballons, written on, oreo-d and had the handle tied to each other from across the car on the inside.  It would've been funny, except they tied the front doors together and those were the only ones with a key-hole, so we couldn't get into the car!  We were so worn out and ready to go, and it TICKED Ronnie off so much, that I had to remind him not to ruin our wedding night.  He finally pried it open enough to cut the ribbon and we were off.  The only catch was, we didn't have a bed at our new place, and we were too cheap to get a hotel.  Thank Heaven for our amazing best man Jordan Behunin, who volunteered to drive home to Hurricane to get his Dad's truck, then drive to my parents house to get the bed, then all the way out to our apartment in Green Valley.  The best part of it all, was that after he'd dropped off the bed, he couldn't get the truck to start!  He vowed he would walk home if it wouldn't start, because he wasn't going to stick around for our wedding night. Thankfully, it eventually started.

The next day, we went to the demolition derby at the fair.  How awesome are we?!  Our 5 years together have been a lot like our wedding day...a lot of flying by the seat of our pants and going with whatever comes!  It doesn't always work out, and we're learning to prepare and think ahead, but it's always fun...or atleast fun to think back on ;)

This year was pretty low-key, since we're right in the middle of building a house and Ronnie is bogged down at work.  We went out to eat at Brick Oven, then went to a movie.  It was pretty generic, but at this point, it was Heavenly just to get out of the house together.  We have tickets to go see Aladdin, but we'll have to wait for that one.  Our entire date was in gift certificates from the radio station....we're still working on not being cheap!

Chloe Says...

Oh that Chloe!  She keeps us laughing.

• Tonight we went to the fair, and when we got there Chloe asked if there were going to be fireworks.  When we told her there would, she exclaimed "Oh man!  You've got to be kidding me!"
• We have family scriptures every night before bed and we have Chloe "read" a verse by repeating what we say.  The other night she was "reading" and after every word we told her she'd add "dot com!" and then bust up laughing.  So she'd say "And it came to pass....dot com!  Hahahahah!".  It was hilarious.
• She's in love with her power wheels jeep that Ronnie got her at a yard sale and gives us the thumbs up whenever she drives by.
• The other day I was in the other room on the phone and Chloe came in and told me that Avery was poopy. I got off the phone and she came running in with a clean diaper, saying she'd changed Avery's bum. I raced into the living room expecting a mess, and all I found was a naked Avery. Chloe had already changed her, using wipes and wrapped up the diaper and thrown it away!!
• She is currently saving up to buy a toy grocery cart filled with toy food.  Every day she asks to do her chore so she can earn her money.
• Is loving painting right now
• Chloe knows what month each of our birthdays are in, and she knows the day and month of her own.
• She understands the family relationship between Ronnie and I and our parents.  So she'll say "Dad, is Grandma Bonnie your Mom?"  or "Mom, Nana is your Mommy hu!"
• She'll often pick up something at our house and say "Mom, what store did you buy this at?"
• 
  

Fun with Cousins

A few weeks ago my brother and his wife went on a road trip and left the kiddos with my mom.  We were so excited to spend so much time with Chloe and Avery's cousins and had tons of fun!  Going to the splash pad, taking a walk around the temple and just general fun!  Wish we could see those guys more!  The bottom picture is Chloe with her cousin Julia (on Ronnie's side!).  We got to go swimming with them too!  Love summer!

More of the House

I can use power tools now!

Love the red dirt!  This is what our feet look like every time we come home.  

These pictures are a month or so old, but I thought I better put them up anyway!  This is when we were still finishing up the framing stages.  We now have stucco and drywall up.  We're pushing for October 15th as a move in date!

The Gang

Chloe, Hannah, Jackson, Gracee, Lucie, Avery and Emme

Best Buds

We have THE most awesome street of neighbors!  Chloe's best friends Hannah, Lucie and Aiden all live on our street and we frequently get together with their families for outdoor movies, riding bikes, going on walks and just hanging out.  We're going to miss it when we're gone!

7 Months Old Avey

I apologize for being out of order...atleast it's on here!


Wow.  2012 is half way over and my sweet Avery is over half way through her first year.  Life with kids feels like it's always in fast forward...unless Dad is running late coming home from work.  Then time stops and Mom goes crazy!  Anyhow, back to Avery.  She is getting some spark and has found her voice!

• Still a crazy kicker!  We just got her an exer-saucer to get those legs going!
• Is hilarious first thing in the morning.  Chloe and I always sing "Good morning to you, good morning to you, you look like a monkey and you smell like one too!" and she goes nuts!  Kicking, laughing, cooing, screaming.  Hilarious.
• Still wakes up around 5 or 6 for a bottle
• LOVES pear baby food
• Can sit up,  while supervised.  She does really well on grass, but I wont leave her alone in the house
• Her hair is growing!!!!  She's got a sweet little mohawk and I can fuss it up a little bit to look cute behind a head band
• Still grayish eyes, but I think they're leaning more towards hazel brown like Chloe and me
• Has two bottom teeth, LOVES to chomp on things.  She always wants the spoon after we're done eating
• Has a funny, low gravely grunt babble, or a silly sucking in noise.  She's just kind of a noisy jabber-monkey in general.  Sometimes she'll be "talking" so loud I wont be able to hear a movie or whatever is going on...
• Still thinks Chloe is the coolest thing ever.  Love watching them play together, especially now that Avery can sit up.
• She loves to play with my face while I'm feeding her her bedtime bottle.  She'll have one arm over her eyes and the other hand absently grabbing my lips, nose, basically whatever she can.  She loves putting her hands on people's faces.
• Can roll over, but generally wont, little stinker.  I'm pretty okay with it though, since it means she's not getting close to crawling ;)

Avery is just cool.  And super sweet.  We're all totally nuts about her.  I love her cute baby self!

My Little Makeup Artist

Vote for Pedro

Oh my Chloe.  She is turning out to be a little cosmetologist already!  She LOVES brushing my hair, watching me put on my makeup, wearing lip gloss, watching me do hair, painting fingernails and working on my old mannequin doll heads.  The other day she was looking though my makeup and asked if she could put some mascara on and I said yes, just to see how it would turn out.  A few minutes later, this is what she came out with.  Pretty awesome, if you ask me!