APC Family Blog: September 2010

Friday, September 10, 2010

MY BABY IS ONE!!!!!

While we were at the Cabin my sweet little Avery Jean turned ONE!!!! I seriously can’t believe that a year has gone by already. Looking back it seems like she was born FOREVER ago just because we’ve had so much happen in the past year. But looking at her and seeing how big she is now makes me feel like her first year FLEW by! She went from my sweet little newborn baby girl to a big girl overnight! Not that she’s a big girl but she’s well on her way and it makes me sad that its going so fast!

One Year Ago (Photo by Jewelimage Photography)

Her FIRST Birthday (Photo by ME :-)

A few things about her:

-she LOVES her Daddy! And I mean LOVES him. I don’t think any of our kids have preferred him over me as much as Avery does. Whenever he walks in the room she starts flapping and squealing and saying “daddy”!

-her favorite word is “hi” and she says it to everyone and everything. People walking by in the grocery store, cars next to us at stop lights, pictures on the wall, Lucy, tv’s, toys EVERYTHING!! And when she says it she waves! It is SOOOOOO cute!

-her favorite things to eat are bananas, cheese and anything sweet (yep, she’s mine). When we put things on her tray she starts grabbing with both hands and stuffing her mouth. It’s hilarious!

-She is absolutely LOVED and ADORED by all her siblings. Even after a year they still can’t get enough of her and she loves it!

-She SINGS all the time! I’m not kidding. She LOVES music and singing. Whenever we’re in the car she’s humming, singing, lalaing,etc. She even sings herself to sleep sometimes. Our future American Idol!

-She is quite the flirt. I pick up Spencer and 3 other boys from school every other week and as soon as they get in the car Avery turns on the charm. She flirts, giggles, performs all her tricks and thinks she’s quite fancy. The cutest part is that these cool 12 year dudes melt when they see her and give her whatever she wants. I think we might be in trouble with her!

-She crawls faster than any baby I know and though she has taken a few steps she much prefers crawling to walking!

We are so grateful for the blessing Avery is to our Family. I truly can’t imagine my life without her. She is a fun, happy, lovable little girl and she has brought a peace and completeness to our home. Happy Birthday Baby girl!

Dinner Date- Summer Vacation Part 6

Adult dinner at the Golf Course before the guys headed back to Calgary for golf in the morning and to drop Adam off at the Airport. We were so glad he could come even if it was only for a few days!

Beautiful Golf Course as the sun went down!

Fishing Hole- Summer Vacation Part 5

Granddad has long talked about taking the kids fishing and this year he finally made it happen. Before coming out to the cabin he bought some fishing poles for the kids. After Golf one afternoon he rounded up the troops and headed off to the fishing hole with the kids and dads. Julie and I came along as the Paparazzi. (Shout out to Nana and Heather who stayed at the house with the babies and Josh and Brooklynn because the babysitter had the stomach flu!)

When we first got to the pond Granddad told the kids to hang tight while he put the line in the water of one of the poles. Within seconds of the line hitting the water he had a fish. The whole afternoon continued like that. Each one of the kids caught at least one fish and few of them caught two. It was so exciting to watch and as soon as we would hear “I got one”, Julie and I were there to document it! The best part was when Uncle Steve started gutting the fish. He made the big boys help him. Jacks face says it all. He was sooooo grossed out as was Spencer. Tyler, on the other hand got right into it and gutted his first fish. Steve took the fish back to the house and grilled them up. Everyone had a taste and surprisingly loved it.

Enjoy the pics!

LOGAN- got totally into it (that’s why there are so many pics of him:-). He couldn’t get enough!

BRADY- was just happy to be there. As soon as he caught his fish he handed the rod over and was done for the day. He did love watching everyone else though!

GARETT-loved reeling in his fish. One time he got so anxious to get the thing out of the water that he lost him from reeling to fast! By the end he got the hang of it!

NATALIE- was loving it all. She’s such a cute little girlie thing but she knows how to get her hands dirty and doesn’t mind at all! LOVE that about her!

TYLER- wins the “best sport” award. He had no problems touching the fish and even gutting it. The second picture is him after he got fish guts all over his hands! While I was watching him cut the fish open I couldn’t help but think that he is definitely his fathers son!

JACKSON- I LOVE this pic of JB. Steve forced him (and Spencer) to gut the fish. His face says it all as he sticks his finger down the fish throat!

ANNIE- had so much fun learning to toss the line and slowly reel it in. She caught 2 fish with her awesome skills!

SPENCER- caught three fish! He was a pro by the end and got reeling good at tossing the line out.

THE PAPARAZZI- Julie (pic on the left) and I (pic on the right) had a blast taking pictures of everyone. We weren’t even allowed to try to fish because we didn’t have a license. Only the kids did!

Fun Pics from Morning Walk- Summer Vacation Part 4

One morning we went for a walk with the kids to burn off some energy while we waited for the dads to get home from golfing! I was just messing around trying to learn a few things with my camera. Some of my pics turned out so nice! I LOVE MY CAMERA!!!

And they’re off! I didn’t get any pics of the older boys because they were so far ahead of me!

Two of my 9 (soon to be 10- any day) ADORABLE nieces! Such beauties on the inside and out!

Cute Babies! I love Noah’s fat little feet in the middle picture! Avery was LOVIN’ the walk!

Another one of my adorable nieces! Reecey is SUCH a doll with the CUTEST personality ever!

These pictures crack me up! My kids are still getting used to me constantly snapping the camera in their faces.

Annie’s expression says it all!

A Bear Affair- Summer Vacation Part 3

Sunday dawned. We all woke up, got ready for church and drove the 20 minutes down to Fairmont to the cute little church building that the faithful saints of the Valley go to church. There are only about 10 members in the branch but in the summer the place is packed with families there on vacation. It’s always fun to go and see who will be speaking, leading music, or teaching lessons because at any moment they could ask you to be part of the meetings. This year none of us were asked to help and we all sighed with relief knowing we didn’t have to come up with a talk for Sacrament Mtg 5 minutes before the meeting started (may have something to do with the fact that we were late getting to church—but not on purpose :-).

Anywho, after church we went back to the cabin, ate lunch, changed our clothes and headed off to Kicking Horse ski Resort to visit a very famous Grizzly Bear. He’s famous only to those who know about him but once you know about him, you can never forget him. Upon arrival at the resort we all took the Gondola up to the very tip top of the world, or so it seemed to take some pictures and walk around for a bit. The Gondola ride was a little unnerving and if you’ve read my sisters blogs you know they agree with me. The ride was going just fine until it started to slow down or stop mid way up the Mountain. It was a little bit of a breezy day and the stupid thing started to sway and rock back and forth! I was very nervous but tried not to show it to my kids, but between you and I, I wanted to do something like start screaming “Get me out of this thing!!!!” at the top of my lungs! We finally made it to the top and were able to walk around looking at the beauty around us! What a world we live in! Truly Majestic!

THE RIDE TO THE TOP

11 of our 13 kids (Noah and Avery stayed home with the babysitter)

The start of the ride before any stopping, swinging and swaying was going on. Not too fearful at the point!

PICTURES AT THE TOP

Our Traditional Self Portrait. Took a few tries to get it right!

Four of my Five Babies

Dad and His Girls

There are not many people I have more fun with than my sistas! I LOVE this picture of Julie and Dad!

Nana Surrounded! Had to throw this pic of Brady in!

After our time up “On top of the World”, we rode the Gondola back down the mountain side, walked over to the chairlift and headed back up to a different part of the mountain to meet a Grizzly Bear! You think I’m kidding but I’m serious! The coolest thing about our little adventure was going to the Grizzly Bear Refuge where a Grizzly Bear named Boo lives. You can read the story of Boo the Bear here. Basically Boo and his brother were brought to the refuge when they were baby cubs because their mother was shot and killed by poachers. They were so scared that they climbed up a tree and wouldn’t come down. Finally the environmentalist people were able to get them and brought them to the refuge. Sadly Boo’s brother “Cari” (get it “Cari” “Boo”= like Caribou, an animal in the Northwest) died during hibernation a few years ago but Boo has beat the odds and is still going strong! In 2006 Boo escaped from the refuge, wooed away by a female grizzly who was passing through the area. He ended up returning to the refuge after 33 days, all on his own accord. (The whole story of him is quite fascinating so read the link above!)

The refuge is open to the public to come and see Boo. He is kept in his refuge by an electric fence. that’s it! The pictures I took, for the most part are not zoomed in. That’s how close I was. All that kept us from him was an electric fence! SCARY but SOOOOOO cool!

On the ride up the mountain to see Boo I think Jackson, or was it Natalie, I can’t remember, anyway, one of them summed up how we were all feeling about our pending encounter with Boo. “nervous but excited”.

It’s not everyday that one finds them selves face to face with a real live Grizzly bear!

My husband and youngest son face to face with BOO!!!

A view of Boo from the Gondola. Dad waiting for all of us to get off the chair lift!

This is BOO. When we first got to the Refuge he was sitting up the Mountain side. We could see him but not too closely. Until….one of the workers decided that he needed to fix the beginnings of a whole under the fence where Boo was digging. To lure him away from the spot the worker brought out some Bear Food of sorts. (side note: to fix the fence the guy would have to deactivate the electric fence, climb in the enclosure, fill the hole, climb out and reactivate the fence all while we watched the bear and another employee threw food into him. EEEEK!!!) Anyway, as soon as he smelled the bear food he came galloping to the spot where we were standing. It was AMAZING to see how big and strong he was!