missing home already

due to the fact that our days left here in the states are short numbered, 16 days to be exact, we've been taking advatage of the opportunities we can to visit family. i dont really like to talk about it much cause it sorta makes me sad, but i sure am going to miss home! it wouldn't really be much of a stretch to say that avery loves her grandparents almost as much as she loves her mom, and nothing beats having a 2 moms every time we visit meag. the next two weeks will probably be a little rough for me but i sure am super blessed to have such a fabulous family.

at least moving soon means that i get to see meag more often. she's coming to visit tomorrow and i. cant. wait.

in love

absolutely in love with this girl. cant even believe how happy she makes me everyday. we took her to the park the other day to let her play and to snap a few pictures before we leave logan. naturally she was way more interested in all the other kids playing than a silly camera in her face. luckily kell snapped a few winners.

this last picture could possibly be my very favorite, ever. man she makes me laugh!

ps... she finally started walking today!!

does this mean i'm a bad mom?

she'd gone down shorter slides all afternoon by herself. i thought it would be fun for her. perhaps it was a little to big. good thing she's very forgiving and still loved the slide.

baby animals

(wow- another picture loaded post. just be patient with me)

we spent our lovely thursday afternoon at the baby animals days with kell and her sis in-law mindy and her 4 adorable kids. avery was in little animal heaven and cute as ever holding and petting all the animals.

we took a short little train ride around the park area. everytime ave heard the train she would make her choo-choo train noises.

one of her favorite things was sticking her hand in the baby goats mouth. she just giggled the whole time.

she got to hold a baby turtle. i think she gave the workers a little scare cause the first thing she did was squeeze her little hand shut and almost smashed him. it crawled all over her hands and little arms. she wasn't quite sure what to think about the pigs. they weren't very active but ave managed to get a little rise out of one by stepping on its tail.

she was in love with the bunny rabbits and totally amazed by thier little wiggly noses.

did i mention how cute mindy's kids are. they had so much fun tossing bean bags and going down the inflatable slides.

it was a fabulous day to say the least.

here we come

remember when we took a fabulous vacation to brasil and argentina two summers ago.

well folks, we are packing our bags and heading out for a hopefully equally as fabulous, yet significantly longer vacation to brasil. we have about a month until we move to south america. i still haven't wrapped my head around all this craziness, but ready or not, we're coming. trae graduates the first week in may and we leave the next week.

we're still not sure how long we will be living in brasil but as of right now we're thinking it will be 8 months to a year, depending on how the work goes and when trae decides to start grad school.
i have to keep telling myself that this experience is more for trae because it probably wouldn't be my first choice of residency but i am so ready for the challenge and know that we will have so much fun on our little adventure. what a blessing it will be to have trae's family down there...and what a party it will be when all of trae's siblings (minus matt) will be living there at the same time this summer.

i can't believe i thought that moving from provo to logan was going to be a challenge. that was a piece of cake. but like i said, change usually is for the best and i know that we will grow from this experience.

to look on the bright side, we are moving to the exact place where trae served his mission, he is going to love that.
to look on even the brighter side, we will literally be living on the beach for the next year, good thing little ave loves it!

now all i have to to is start packing, and cleaning, and moving, and shopping for a year round summer wardrobe, and saying goodbye to all our family and friends, and learning portuguese....

looks like we'll be ready to go in no time.