Happy New YEAR!!! But lets not forget Christmas....

Okay, I'm SUPER bummed. I took all these pics of Christmas eve and morning and "thought" I uploaded them on my laptop. Nope. So they all got deleted, thanks to me not reading the import message right. And to top it off, I don't think anyone else in my family took pics of Christmas morning present opening. :( I had a super cute one of Ava wearing her new jammies, slippers, a headband on w/ hair all poofy, and carrying a purse. I'll get over it....

So here are some pics from the weekend..... ony Aunt "Lissa" could get Ava to nap, and it was usually right before dinner time. Oh so sweet when she sleeps.

Lovely girls Shanda & my sweet niece Kiera (don't forget baby Liam hiding in the belly behind Kiera...we'll meet him in Feb!!!)

Melissa helping out my nephew Kael w/ his new puzzle.

If Grams is around, then so are GAMES! She's always trying to whoop Jeremy at everything, they have a fun competition continually going. My mom is in the red sweater and my bro Brian to the right.

We had LOTS of fun w/ the family, ate WAY too much, and were just plain LAZY!! Good times!!

Ava loves her Uncle Andrew, when we were telling her on the way to WA who we would see, she got all excited about Andrew and proclaimed "....Andrew? Oh I LOVE Andrew! Andrew, where are you Andrew??" Then everytime she saw him she'd say his name all sweet, so silly.

I so need to get a video on here that I took of Ava singing Jingle Bells, she did this over and over and over all weekend. She is becoming quite the singer lately. Jer's favorite is when we sing "Old McDonald" and ".....on this farm he had a ????", Ava always says a Mommy! heehee

More pics to come of our snow......

I'm sooo lame.

I'm always on the computer, but yet do I take the time to update and post some cool pics, ummm no. Promise I'll put up some Christmas pics in a couple days. Though my computer ate the ones of Ava opening her gifts, dangit! I'll be back soon.....




PS And I'll post pics of the fun snow we had today, Ava LOVED it and wanted to go for a walk. Unfortunatly the crappy traffic it caused made it so it took Jeremy 3 HOURS to get home, normally a 35 min drive, ahhhhh....

"Tis the Season"

Tis the Season to be SICK! Okay, can't complain too much because I really haven't got it bad yet. But today I'm home sick from work because I had the chills and aches last night. Today it's just a sore throat and I just feel "blah". So I'm chillin' here watching Finding Nemo w/ Ava on our new TV and blogging on our new laptop. Yes, we splurged a little this Christmas. I thanked my boss for the TV, gotta love Christmas bonuses. And being that my last fertility treatment didn't produce a child, they refunded me ALL the money, hence the new laptop and new tires on my car. Though I'd rather of had the baby, I do like my laptop.




Okay I'm just rambling, thanks to the stuffed up head of mine. Here are some current pics-nothing exciting, but an update for the family.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Jeremy built this little race track so Ava & my neice and nephew could race their cars. Jeremy is just too creative when it comes to play, I do love that about him!

I TOTALLY ruined Ava's bangs recently, so I decided it was time for her 1st salon haircut. They fixed up the bangs a bit (though nothing could be done about how far over I cut them) and I had them cut off all the layers in the back. I wanted them to do a little shorter bob, but the lady thought this was good enough. She's still the cutest girl!

I came into kitchen one day to find this, half naked and eating white chocolate chips from the cupboard. Ava is just TOO TALL, not a good benefit right now. Silly monster!

I'm sooooo excited for my sister Melissa to get here Sunday. She'll stay w/ us all week, till we drive up to WA on Christmas Eve and spend the weekend w/ the fam up there.
Merry Christmas to all of you!!!!

Catch up time....

I've been meaning to put of some pics from our Thanksgiving weekend, just too busy w/ the RS dinner (womens organization at church). Whew, it's over now and I'm ready to enjoy the rest of December now. So my bro and his family came down Thanksgiving weekend and stayed at my house, which was a blast. Thankfully sleeping went a little bit better than their last visit, we all survived. My Aunt & Uncle across town hosted dinner, think we had 28 relatives total there. Lots of good food and good company.

Kiera, Shanda (baby Liam~due in Feb!!!) & Ava~kicking back in their jammies.

Someone stuck olives on the girls fingers, Kiera wasn't a fan...

...but Ava was and i think she filled up her fingers a second time. Yuck! So not my child.

Too much good food, could use a nap!
Trish~Shanda~Grams Clift

The cousins cruisin' together in my minivan (it's the coolest since it has the DVD player!).

And check out the back windshield, it was a HORRIBLY wet day on Thanksgiving, but suprising clear and nice the 2 days before it. Go figure.

The next day we went to a nearby pond and let Kael do some fishing. The rest of us tried to keep the girls from falling off the dock....

....ooops, slipped in some mud! I knew that was going to happen.

Big teeth Trish & cutie pie Ava. :) (Seriously hope Ava doesn't inherit my teeth, really serious)

My oldest brother Brian & his girl Kiera

Gone fishin' Jeremy wanted take Kael fishing, and since J doesn't have a license but kids can fish for w/out one, it worked out. Not that he caught anything, but he was very serious about it. Jeremy needs a little boy!


We just got back for a Sing-a-long w/ some church members & had lots of goodies, so much for going to the gym this morning. Speaking of which, note to all~ eat lots of protein and good carbs before taking Nazi class. I almost passed out a couple times, just got really dizzy and vision got blurry. I had to leave the class early, how embarassing! I normally do this class at night, but thought I'd give the 9:45am one a shot. Learned my lesson.

To add in a funny moment: Last night Jeremy playfully smacked Ava on the butt, well she turned to him and said all seriously, "Daddy, you HURT my butt." I just died laughing...good thing she doesn't know what a real spanking feels like! Funny girl.

Oh how they grow....

2 days old...

2 months old...

5 months old...

10 months old.... (my favorite hair)

15 months old...

17 months old..

19 months old...

2 years old!!!

I wanted to do this when Ava turned 2, which was a couple weeks ago now. But Ava and I were looking over her photos (when she was supposed to be sleeping, but wouldn't) and I thought I'd do it today. Their are times I can't even remeber what having that little baby around was like, I know we did alot of laying around just staring at eachother! I LOVE the little lady she's becoming, even with the sassy attitude I get at times. I know I posted it on Facebook, but we hit a big milestone! GOT RID OF BINKIE! That thing has been plaguing me for months. Not that I think she is too old for it, but when I'm still woken up 1-3 times a night because she's lost the dumb thing, it's more than time to GO! It's been a week now, and we are doing pretty good. It takes a little longer to go to sleep at night now, but most the nights she has slept through okay. Hooray for sleep! And suprisingly she's only asked for it a couple of times. She is such a BIG girl now.

Who ready for TURKEY DAY???? Cause I am! And the minor detail of my birthday 2 days before, but who really cares about that....

My 2nd try....

This post is just to brag about my highly accomplished skills on the sewing machine! HA! So far from that, but I kept at it and made Ava yet another dress. This one was much easier, but still took me way longer than it should have. I have another one planned to make for another special little girl for Christmas (not giving away names though-and it's not Ava).....

Ava is getting a "little" better at smiling for the camera, just looks awkward though. She sure loves her TWINS though, thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Frey.

Modeling her new dress. Thanks to my Mom for showing me how to sew on the buttons a couple weeks ago, how lame is it that I couldn't even do something so simple. I toss clothes in a pile that need their buttons back on, but now I can actually do it!

Just had to take a pic of her being a good little Mommy and feeding her baby!

We are excited for Thanksgiving and seeing some of the family again (also for my BIRTHDAY a couple days before!). I just LOVE this time of year and all the celebrating and being with Family!

"Divine Design"

"Families by Divine Design" was the them of an Adoption Conference we went to this weekend. It was put on by FSA-Families Supporting Adoption, which I think is a support/advocite organization that is branched off of LDS Family Services for adoption. I just have to say, it was AMAZING! I've been reading books and researching on the web about Adoption for years now, but meeting people that have been through the process and in all different situations was the best. We went to lots of different classes pertaining to all subjects of the adoption process and people involved. I just feel uplifted and more sure that this is our next step.....and I'm EXCITED! We still aren't sure when we'll actually start or which way to go. We are deciding between LDS Family services or adopting from the State Foster care system. I was really glad we went so that Jeremy could learn alot more also, as he hasn't been the one researching the topic. One of the best things I learned from the conference is how amazing birth mothers are!!! There was a couple ladies there that had placed their babies for adoption and their stories are very emotional and hard, but they all feel so blessed by the process and feel total peace with their decision. To my friend who will read this (not naming you), that is such an wonderful gift you gave your baby and I'm sure to the adoptive parents. I've gained a better perspective on the whole process and I have a strong feeling this is the route to building our family, I think the Lord has been preping me for this.

I just wanted to share that with all of you. Even though we spent 5 hours in classes on Friday and 6 hours today, I'm more excited for this new journey from all I've learned! I'm open to any questions or advice or experiences from any of you out there! Love to you all!

End note: My Grandparents (Ava's Great Grandparents) rock for watching Ava while we attended! She's always an angel for others when we aren't around-thank heavens!