Ava's 6th Birthday!!!!

Seriously!! Where did the time go?! Our Miss Ava Jae turned 6 on October 14! We love this girl so much! That doesn't even cover how we feel about her. She is our first, the one that made us parents. She has melted our hearts from day one. To sit and look back at her through out the years brings tears to my eyes. She is growing up so fast I'm so grateful to Dave for making it possible for me to be home with her every second of her life. I can honestly count the nights I have been away from her on my two hands. We are best friends according to her! and let be real, me too!  She is an old soul in a young body for sure! The things that come out of her crack me up! I love hearing her giggle or sing down the hallway. I love watching her dance and tumble around on the floor. To hear her reading books to us floors me, and to hear her speak Chinese just about blows my mind! She is a great big sister who is always willing to help with Cash and Jovi. How lucky those two younger ones are to have two moms!! Ava we love you more and more every second of the day! We hope you had a wonderful birthday!

Ava can never wait to open presents. It has to be the first thing we do when we wake up no matter how early it it!

This year she decided to have a Halloween Witch party with her friends. I'm not the best party planner out there but I try my hardest! Plus, Ava is involved every step of the way. She even designed her own invitation after I thought I had it all done! Nope she made me change a lot of the design so it was just how she wanted it. We made mummy dogs, with apple bites and witches brew for dinner. And instead of cake she wanted two different kinds of cupcakes. One hairy spider chocolate cupcake and skeleton cupcake. Thanks to Aunt Mindee and Amanda for helping .

Here's all the witches! top row - Yazi, Ava, Mckenna, and Kinsley bottom row - Charlotte, Emi, Sophie, and Reagan. 

Ava chose two games to play. Mummy Wrap Up and Guess Who.

You should have heard the giggling out on. They all had so much fun wrapping each other up.

They had even more fun tearing up and playing in all the crepe paper.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!

For Ava's family birthday party we went to a local farm for a hay ride to pick out our pumpkins! This is the third year we have been doing this and it is the most fun ever! They have people hiding out in the fields so when you go around a turn on the tractor they jump out and scare you, It gets the kids every time!

Waiting in line for the next tractor.

Lincoln with Charlie, Koi, Rain, Ava with Jovi and of course Cash running around!

Seeing these two looking so grown up is crazy!! They are six weeks apart and the best of friends! 

Loves from Grandpa Steve

Koi and Cash on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin! It seriously took them forever!

black island farm

This outing kicks off our Fall/Halloween season. The kids have a blast running around , climbing, and riding!

Cash and Ava in the huge pumpkin bouncy house.

These are the best slides! They look so scary from the top! That is why the kids have to ride with Dad! 

Dave teaching Cash and Koi how to rope.

Grandma Jack and Miss Jovi trying to stay cool in the shade.

How fun is this! Grandpa Steve, Grandma Jack and Cash.

Ava and Aunt Lauren

This is the first time we participated in the pig races. Funniest thing I have ever seen. Not just the pigs but how Cash reacted to the race! He ran on the outside of the track shouting at his pig! His pig won the race!! But they pick another pig because he ran inside the pin first. Oh well! It was still a blast and a fun way to end our day.

Cash waiting for the gates to open.

firestaion

Aunt Blythe invited us to her local fire station for an evening of fun to see fire trucks, an ambulance, a helicopter, and a crash test simulator. We even got to ride in a fire truck! It was such a fun night with most of the cousins. Ava was at dance so she missed out on this one. We have no pictures of us in the fire truck because both cameras batteries died! and Aunt B doesn't know how to us my camera phone!!

Cash and Koi waiting so patiently in line.

Miss Jovi pulling faces at Grandpa Steve!

Snowbasin

One of our most favorite place to go hiking with the kids is up to Snowbasin.  The gondola ride is fabulous!  We use to take Ava up here all the time.This was the first time we have ever taken Cash up the gondola or hiking. I was a little nervous because he has no fear I thought if there is a way to get the doors open while going up the gondola he would find it! But he was in heaven! He loved looking out the windows. When it came time to hike every two seconds it was "Hey! Look a tree! A Rock! A Stick! come on guys!" The whole way up! Ava and Cash never walked they ran the whole hike until we made them stop for a picnic lunch. Jovi did great! Slept most of the time in the snugly while Dave carried her.

So happy to be out and about.

Riding up the mountain. Cash can't contain all that energy!

Ava wanted to take our picture.

There they go!

Nothing beats a picnic in the beautiful mountains.

Tracy Aviary

The kids have been obsessed with the movie "Rio" So over the weekend we went to the Tracy Aviary. I have always heard of how much fun it is, but WOW! It was amazing. We were some of the only guests they had this morning. We got there just in time to see the bird show (are fav at the zoo too)! Ava and I  voluteered to be apart of the show, a beautiful toucan jumped across my arms to get a grape. Then it was Ava's turn to be a "tree" for a Turaco, cutest little green bird ever! Next we explored the owls, and followed a poor peacock around the park. The kids and Dave fed the pelicans and stood in awe of the Bald Eagle and golden eagles. It is so amazing to see their eyes light up with they see these birds. I love showing them new things.

Here's Ava trying to make the wings fly.

Ava the Toucan!

Heres that poor peacock! I felt so bad for him!

Almost had him!

Ava and Cash lunch for this hungry pelican.

Feeding the pelicans.

Go UTES!!!!!

We love that the weather is cooling down, school is now in a groove, and college football is upon us!!! Saturday was the big rivalry game  BYU vs. UTAH. I was raised a Utah fan thanks to my dad. But, Dave was actually raised a BYU fan since Grandpa Steve played for them back in the day. Somewhere along the way Dave saw the light and has been a Utes fan ever since. So its only right our kids follow our example! We normally have all the family over for the game but this year we kept it just the five of us. We wanted to sit with the kids and teach them about football. Ava was really into learning all about the game, she kept asking all these questions and then doing some pretty funny cheers! In the end it was a great evening, especially since Utah creamed BYU!!!

don't have a clue as to why Cash will not smile when a camera is out. In real life he is a smiley boy, I promise!!

Dave, Ava, and Jovi oh and do you see Cash rolling down the hill?!

1st day of SCHOOL!!!

Wow!! Ava is in Kindergarten!!! How we have dreaded this day since we had her. Not really but kind of. It is a scary feeling knowing that we are starting our school years. We love Ava so much and we are so excited for this new adventure in her life. Ava is so lucky to participate in the Chinese Immersion program our elementary school offers. She spends half her day in English then the last half in Chinese. Her Chinese teacher doesn't speak a word of English in front of the students!Ava is so dang smart that she needed this extra challenge, can't wait to see her progress throughout the year. I went with her to orientation and her Chinese teacher had them speaking Chinese already!! She comes home so happy and loves telling us all about her day. I even walked into the kitchen the other day and she was teaching Cash how to say sticker in Chinese!

Our gorgeous daughter!

Ava picked out everything she is wearing, it took her a good 15 minutes to decide on what backpack she wanted! I love that she is so opinionated even if it does drive me a little crazy sometimes!

Ava giving Cash a hug and Cash trying to act too cool for it!

Mom and Ava. I was crying like a baby!