{17} Thankful

{17} Laughter

Nothing makes my job as a mom easier than to hear my children laughing. Kate's new laugh is particularly infectious. Love this girl!

{16} Thankful

{16} Friendship

I am so grateful for the many, many wonderful friends I have been blessed with in my life. I tend to be someone who has a few close friends as opposed to many not-as-close friends. That sometimes makes it hard for me to make friends as I search for those I identify with on many levels. There are pros and cons to this approach. Despite this, I have had some of the most incredible people in my life. Many I wish I kept in better touch with. I hope if you are reading this, you know who you are! Women who have inspired me, lifted me up, been a sister, been a shoulder to cry on, celebrated successes, gone on random ice cream outings/girls nights, and been a texting buddy. These friends have enriched and blessed my life in ways I could never have predicted. Thank you, girls! I love you! I miss you all and will see some of you soon!

Since moving to Flagstaff, I have made some wonderful friends. I recently called on a few of them to help/teach me how to can. We did salsa and applesauce. It was exhausting but fun! We all had a good time and learned a lot :) So glad to have people around me who I can wrangle into my crazy ideas!

{15} Thankful

{15} I know who I am, and why I am here

I am a Child of God

And He has sent me here

Has given me an earthly home

With parents kind and dear

Lead me, guide me

Walk beside me

Help me find the way

Teach me all that I must do

To live with Him someday

{14} Thankful

{14} Supportive Family

I never posted about Kate's baby blessing. We were SO blessed to have so many family members come to her blessing. Every single person drove at least 2 hours to attend, and all of Erik's immediate family flew all the way from Seattle. It was so special to have everyone here! We loved showing off our new place and our new town, and we were so grateful to have so many priesthood members from our family be able to participate. Our girls absolutely loved the attention. Ava finally opened up to the Bassett grandparents and loved being read to and played with. We ate at Brandy's (yummy brunch), went chocolate shopping, ate good Thai food and then yummy Cafe Rio after the blessing. We feel so supported and loved - thank you so much for coming family! We sure love you! 

Everyone that attended, except Katie, who got sick the night before (left to right): Bradley, Dad Walker, Mom Walker, Diane, Kelly, Erik, me and the girls, Mom Bassett, Dad Bassett, Loralee, Claire, Chelsea (and baby girl), Josh, Grandma Larson

Four Generations

The special girl on her special day!

{13} Thankful

{13} Tylenol

It's all about the little things, right? Kate is currently cutting her first tooth (it is almost all the way out!) and boy is it obvious. She was up for almost two hours last night crying. She never does that! She finally fell asleep with lots and lots of cuddles and Tylenol. Bless the heavens! She had a rough day too so I am praying she sleeps well tonight. The only upside is that this might just mean that we won't have a teething child when we go to visit our Seattle family for Thanksgiving (hi family!). I don't know if that has ever happened! I'd be okay with making this our first time :) Sure would make our trip a lot more enjoyable!!

{12} Thankful

{12} Daddy-daughter time

For a good chunk of Ava's short life, she has been a true mama's girl. She definitely preferred me over her dad, like when putting her to sleep, comforting her if she got hurt, etc. But now? Now, she is a daddy's girl through and through. She is his shadow when he gets home from work. She wants to go on "adventures" with him, including hiking and getting the mail. She always talks about showing dad things when he gets home from work. He puts her to bed every night and she definitely prefers it! Recently I have started to miss that preference, but it is so sweet to watch! I'm so grateful for Erik and his patience and sweetness with his girls!

soccer at Buffalo Park

{11} Thankful

{11} Braids

Today, I am thankful for these cute little braids (our first attempt!). A good way to brighten the dreary day outside!

{10} Thankful

{10} Ava-isms

I want to remember the way Ava talks forever! I love it!

Favorite phrases:

"Oh boy!"

"____ funny!" (as in "Claire bear funny!")

"I love it!"

"I wear mama's shoes"

"Get the mail!" (she loves to get the mail with Erik when he gets home)

Cute words:

yaygub - ladybug

chapsip - chapstick

bandaba - banana

kini - zucchini

sesea seet - sesame street

an-dra - Andrea

Other memorable -isms:

- loves wearing my shoes around the house - all day long

- still loves spending lots of time in her crib. She takes a 3-ish hour nap a day and will happily stay in her crib another hour if I let her

- loves all things girlie - bracelets, purses, doing mama's hair, looking pretty, putting lotion on, getting "piggies" in her hair, etc

- is almost completely potty trained! (diapers still on at night, but hardly ever wet!)

- LOVES helping me cook (stirring, dumping things in the bowl, etc)

- is getting much better at playing by herself. Loves looking at books, playing with her dollhouse and bouncing on her ball

- has memorized several books now

- sings OFTEN. knows a lot more songs that we realize and sometimes makes up her own words (ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, I am a Child of God, I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home)

- still sucks her thumb religiously when in bed, but also still listens when I tell her she can't suck it during the day :)

- weighs 33 lbs which means she's only gained like 2 lbs since she was 18 months! She is thinning out...a little bit :)

- wears size 2T-4T clothes (2T shirts, 4T pj's and dresses), and size 9.5 shoe (holy moly!)

- loves playing with Kate and will often help distract her for me when she is tired or grumpy

- loves going on "adventures" in the car. LOVES going to stores with mom

- talks about different friends all the time - old and new, particularly after we leave there presence. In typical Ava fashion, she is shy when she plays, and then talks incessantly about that friend when we leave

- still refuses to eat most vegetables (much to my dismay...she was such a good eater until like 20 months...any ideas?)

- favorite foods are circle crackers (Trader Joe's multigrain crackers), fruit leather, cheese cheese and more cheese, avocado, mac and cheese, veggie straws, any fruit ("clementimes" are a current fav), toast, eggs

- can reliably identify pink, purple, white and black. sometimes green, red, yellow

- knows hearts, stars, circles, triangles. sometimes squares and diamonds

Is still the love of our lives!

{9} Thankful

{9} Good music

Sweet Ava dear has always been sensitive to music. One of my mom's favorite stories is when Ava stared at the radio for 3 entire songs as Michael Buble crooned. And she was only 5 months old! Because of this, my mom has always encouraged me to play more classical music in my house. I haven't been very good at following through. I mean, when I'm in the mood to listen to music (which sadly doesn't happen very often any more...dang distractions!), I'm usually in the pump it up kind of mood. Well last week I turned the radio to classical. What do you know, Ava goes ON and ON about how much she loves it. "Pretty music!" and "I like it!" Tonight she requested to listen to music and so Erik put on Yo-Yo Ma (it should be mentioned that I have a not-so-secret urge to push her to play the cello). Ava was in heaven. I told her it was a cello playing and then we found this youtube video for Ava to watch. She was enraptured.

"Play the cello" "It's pretty!" I'm so grateful for good music and for the means and opportunity I have to expose her to such good things. Her love of music is also a good reminder of how influential music can be - for good or bad, and I want to make sure my home is filled with the good!

{8} Thankful

{8} Good Health

I missed posting yesterday. That's because I was in the grips of one of the worst illnesses I have yet to experience. Let's just say that two nights ago I was sleeping on the bathroom floor. Anyway, I am feeling much better today, although still very weak and tired. My gem of a husband stayed home from work yesterday and had to play Mr. Mom as I struggled to roll over in bed without throwing up. So today, I am oh so grateful for our general good health!

(Ava, sick right before Kate was born. She laid on the couch all day long!)

{7} Thankful

{7} Naptime

Oh, beloved naptime. How I love thee. 

(Kate with Gramps, Rosarito Oct 2011)

The key to this mother's sanity. And boy, has that been tested this last month! Ava was a consistently awful sleeper until she was 4 months. We let her cry it out one day, she did awesome and has been a great sleeper ever since. Kate, on the other hand, is a crazy fickle sleeper. She took a paci so nicely and would put herself to sleep for a long time. Then she hit 3 months and wanted the paci every hour or two at night. So I took it away (after these cute pictures), and while it took a little longer for her to learn to soothe herself, she got the hang of it. But now, wow. Some days are good. Others are awful. She got shots last week and goodness...thought we were barely going to survive the 3 sleepless days we had. She was miserable, and so was I. Other days, she goes 5+hrs at night. Mostly, she sleeps in 3 hr chunks and I am exhausted. So when we get good naps in...I am THANKFUL! Still love her though :)

{6} Thankful

{6} Watching my daughter grow

I am so grateful to be a mom as I watch Ava grow and learn new things. Watching her learn to talk has been one of the most amazing things I have ever been a part of (probably has something to do with my degree, too :)). Now, apparently, I get to watch her imagination grow! I have never really seen her "imagine" things before unless we have been playing together. But last night in the bathtub, she told me there was a ladybug (which is pronounced "yay-gub"). I said, "really?" and she promptly showed me where "it" was in the water. I asked if she wanted to play with it, and she said, "yeah, eat it!" and started eating all the yay-gubs in the tub. So hilarious. I love watching her mind work!

Also yesterday, we decided to play "games" which consisted of me printing off various shapes from the computer. She matched them, named them, and told me what colors they were. I was very impressed at how quickly she learned! She kept wanting to play "games" all afternoon!

{5} Thankful

{5} Seasons

Even though this unexpected snow storm put a serious damper on my day (can you say picking up a Bountiful Baskets order [over 80lbs of produce] with two screaming, cold children while the wind and snow whip around you while you're waiting in line?), I'm grateful for the change in seasons. It is so nice to have unexpected changes to your day every once in a while - the kind that force you to stay home and cuddle up to a movie. Ava was in heaven when I took her to the window after she woke up this morning. All I heard the rest of the morning was, "Go outside, see the snow!" 

{4} Thankful

{4} Sisterly love

I know it probably won't last forever, so for now I'm soaking up the fact that Ava loves her little sister to pieces. Really. She's only ever had soft touches, kisses, and concern for the wee one. Likewise, putting Ava in Kate's line of sight is a sure way to get smiles, even when she's grumpy. 

(current favorite past-time is "reading" to Kate)

I sure love my girls!

{1,2,3} Thankful

Here I am catching up on my Thankful posts!

{1} This little munchkins' smiles.

I don't know that I've ever seen a more smiley baby, and I am so grateful for it . She is a ray of sunshine.

{2} The Beautiful Desert

It may seem trivial or silly, but I was a little worried about being able to see the beauty in the desert after living on the East Coast for so long. Luckily, I have found beauty all around and am really enjoying the blue blue skies again (St George, UT).

{3} More of this

It is no secret that I missed my family desperately since moving far far away 5 years ago. I have been taking full advantage of the short 2.5 hr car drive to soak in every family moment I can...namely card playing. A true Walker family tradition.