every last bit

Dresden has become quite the eater! He eats so much and it feels like he eats all the time. He is great at getting every last bit of his food and what ever is left on Ava's plate too! A couple months ago he figured out how to get the last of the milk from his cereal. He put the bowl right up to his little mouth and poured away! It made me laugh when I saw him doing it, it just made him seem like such a big boy! He was slurping the milk so loud the other day I couldn't help but take some pictures. He happened to be using a big bowl that day but he didn't mind!

Dresden you make us laugh all the time and have such a sweet personality. I love all the silly things you are doing right now!

night night

Ava loves to play "mommy"! She takes good care of all her babies and loves to tuck them in. She puts them in her bed, Dresden's crib, or in our bed. Lately she has started to do it with Dresden. The funny thing is he actual listens to her. The other day when we got home from gymnastics I found them playing on the stairs. She was saying "go night night Dresden". He is so cute and just lays down on the pillow. She kisses him and covers him with a blanket. It was so sweet. They do it all the time now. I love when they interact with each other. She tries to talk to him and ask him questions all the time. It makes me laugh because she just repeats her self over and over waiting for him to answer. I usually end up answering for him so she will move on!

fourth of July

We had such a fun 4th of July! We spent the day with our friends the Nelson's. In the morning we headed over to their house for the best ever blueberry pancakes ever! Becca is an amazing cook and the whole breakfast was delicious. The kids played for a bit and then we headed to the pool. The kids loved being at the pool with daddy. After that it was time for naps.

Later we drove up to the much cooler Mt. Charleston. It felt so good and the kids had a blast playing in the trees, finding pine cones, and rolling logs. We cooked some carne asada stake and had a yummy dinner. The kids even watched a movie for a little bit. I think every one's favorite part was the smores! Ava is miss independent and wants to do everything herself! Dresden thinks he can do whatever she does! They both wanted to roast their own marshmallows and LOVED eating their treat.

We figured we could just do our own fireworks the next day but apparently you can't so that here in Vegas! Lame! But the kids did catch a few outside the balcony on the actual 4th!

cute girlies
Dresden loved it and ate every bit!





They both love the showers

everyone attempting to climb the stump at the same time!
Brinley and Ava

It's so pretty up there and the girls were loving all the tall trees!

I was testing the camera angle and timer. I wasn't even looking so when I was going though the pics and saw this I thought it was kinda funny! Thanks for the pose Ryan! :)

Attitide

Dresden has got some serious attitude lately! Ava has demonstrated the mean growl a little too often and he has picked it right up! He can now say don't and stop! His fits are hilarious. I probably should laugh but I never saw the crazy thowing hands around, stomping and then dropping to the floor to to kick the legs thing with Ava.

I don't get many pictures of the attitide(although I should) but the other day they were being so cute on the stairs eating their fruit snacks I wanted to take a picture. Ava tried to scoot close to him and he wasn't having it! He is such a punk! Good think Ava thinks it's funny still!I just thought the pictures captured his little attitide pretty well!

such a mad face!

Rodeo

The rodeo was pretty fun...for the first hour! After that Dresden was wiggly and ready to go. Unless he was riding or touching it, horses weren't keeping his attention. It was fun to be there with everyone though. And we had fun taking pictures before it started.
We had such a good time and did lots of fun stuff. My mom and I even took the kids to Toy Story 3 while Eric went golfing! Dresden actually did so good. I was sad I didn't have my camera he was so funny. He loves Buzz and Woody and was squealing with excitement almost the whole time. Ava liked the barbie and being with a couple of her cousins.

Ava sportin her free sun glasses from the carnival!

my sister and her cute family
right!!? how cute is she!!

Drake and Dresden. He was pretty excited in the beginning.

We also don't leave Utah with out grandma painting Ava's fingers and toes! She loves it and is so proud to show everyone. She wanted to paint grandma's after so we found some clear polish. Ava didn't even care, she was just happy to do it. Thanks for all the fun guys!

carnival and parades

I think the parades and carnival are by far the most fun! We get to see alot of family, friends and cousins we don't get to see that often. Ava and Dresden loved the candy part of the parade. They were a perfect team...Ava would get the candy and Dresden would eat it! We attend all three parades for some reason. It's kinda just what we always have done. Ava still will randomly talk about the things in the parade, like the horse that was painted like Avatar! Dresden wanted so badly to run into the parade and touch everything!!
The carnival part was fun, except that Dresden was just a bit too small to do most the activities. We did run into our friends Brock and Nicole and Ava got to go on lots of rides with Lily!

Little dude has quite the sweet tooth!

so happy about getting some candy

Sienna and Robyn

Ava and Lily. These two can just pick up right they left off and are instant friends. Ava seemed like such a big girl, she was just taking care of her money and giving it to the people. She was even pretty good about waiting in line.

Utah-swimming

We took a trip to Utah for the annual Round-up days. I even convinced Eric to come too. Which made for a very short trip because we couldn't leave til Thursday. It was a fun busy trip but the kids always have fun there. We got in late Thursday night which we will NOT do again, it was like 2:00am Utah time! Day 1 we visited my sister and baby Sienna, who is the cutest little thing ever! And then we all went to the Legacy Center pool to swim. It's such a fun pool and Ava could go down the slides. Ava loved the little slides but one time on the big slide was enough for her! Dresden is such a water baby! He isn't afraid of just going for it. He thinks it's so funny when he is on his back and almost goes under. My sister-in-law, her kids and my mom came too. It was so nice this time Eric was there, he hasn't come for this weekend since we moved out here.

He is a little too brave sometimes

Ava excited about her wristband

going down the slide with daddy!

The kids really enjoyed the lazy river

We had so much fun with everyone

Swim lessons

We decided to put Ava in swim lessons because she has never been in them before and we heard of a cute teacher who teaches at her house. Ava loves swimming and she was VERY excited about swim lessons! They were everyday for two weeks for 45 minutes. I tried to prepare her a little and up until the moment the teacher asked her to put her face in the water she was fine. And after that she was freaking out! She had a death grip on the poor teacher! She looked so scared and confused about why she had to "hum" and go underwater. She was screaming less after the first two days and by the fourth day she was putting her face in while she waited on the stairs! Woohoo!! She was actually doing really well on her back too. Swimming on her belly was a whole other story. She was being such a little stinker and wouldn't even try. I was getting so frustrated with her. Once the teacher worked with her a little she started to try more. I started to wonder if her anxiety about swimming on her belly was because she never sleeps or plays on her belly. The last day of class the teacher said "wow she is so uncomfortable on her belly, does she sleep on her belly"? Nope she doesn't! She also asked about crawling for some reason but actually Ava did only crawled for a month and then started walking! Who knows if that has anything to do with it but interesting that the teacher asked about it.

I was so proud today she swam on her belly and actually put her face in at the same time! We were out of town a couple days during the two weeks so she has some make-up days. She seemed alot less stressed too. Over all I think it was really good for her. She still loves the water and her favorite thing to do is put her face in! We have a lot of work to do with her but I know she'll get there!

After seeing how terrified Ava was I talked Eric into putting Dresden in the last half of the little ones class. I wanted to introduce him earlier than we did Ava. He was awesome and did great going under. I think his favorite part was the starbursts at the end. He got pretty good at blowing bubbles too. By the end he was jumping off the side and not running away when I got him out of the pool! I had fun being in there with him though and we will definitely be doing more next summer!

This doesn't really have anything to do with swim lessons excpet that this was right before one of Ava's classes. I was combing her hair and I turned around to this! Pictures don't do it justice and I couldn't find the video camera but it was so cute. He was sooooo tired he was bobing his head and trying to stay up with eye's closed. After taking a few pictures I felt bad and just laid him down for minute before we left. So sweet though.


So calm on her back

yummy starbursts!

The teacher finally made her go through the hoop...

but this was what she was doing right before that! :)

She lived!!!

Dresden was a good kicker!