More 2nd Cousins Visit!

 My cousin Wendy and her husband Trent Tripple, came to visit all the way from Virginia.  Avril enjoyed spending time with her 2nd cousins:  Townsend, Tayzlie, and Tennessee.

Playing on the bars at in Grandma and Grandpa Parkinson's backyard

Wendy and Trent :)  Trent works in D.C. at the Pentagon and had a month off so they are vacationing lots of fun places... including good ol' Logan, Utah!

Avril and her 2nd cousin, Tennessee

So cute!

Tayzlie was so sweet to take Avril on the swings with her :)

Hogle Zoo!

Yesterday we were so excited that Jesse had the day off, we decided to take a trip down to the Hogle Zoo.  We'd never been there before so we went down with the whole fam, and the grandparents.  Avril was fascinated by all the animals.  She was so good, without a single fuss the whole time we were there!  What a treat.

Here we are, waiting for the elephants to put on a show...

The trainers put frozen fruits in a block of ice.  It was kinda cool to see how the elephants stomped on the ice in order to get their food out.  There was even a watermelon in there, that they smashed and proceeded to stuff in their mouth, with their long trunks.  The baby elephant, Zuri, weighed 822 pounds, if I remember right... at only 11 months old... that's younger than Avril!  Imagine poor mom giving birth to that baby!

Mr. Giraffe... or Mrs. Giraffe

An aerial view.  Mommy has a baby bump!

Recent Pics

She just brightens everyone's day.  How can you not light up inside when you are greeted by this cute girl?

Welcome!

You want me to pose for the camera?

OK, How's this?

Breakfast in the Park

Our family at the neighborhood, annual, Independence Day, Breakfast in the Park
Look, Avril is making a basket on daddy's shirt :)

Nana and Av enjoying the sunshine at the park

Happy Independence Day!!

Happy 4th 3rd of July!  Since the 4th falls on a Sunday this year and this is Utah, well, we get to celebrate early :)  Jesse has to work like a cazillion hours this weekend... which I guess is nice for the holiday pay, but that means we don't get to spend the holiday together.  Sad.
So... today we spent the day hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, mostly doing yard work.  It felt good to get some things accomplished and Avril wore herself out.
I tried to dress Avril in something patriotic-ish so she wore her cute dress that my friend Amy gave us:

Oh, and the shades were a nice touch.

Call my agent.

So we were out working in the yard... and our beautiful yard attracted some feathered friends.  It was crazy, they just came waddling out of the canal down our newly cleared path and came right up to us in the grass.  We quickly ran inside and grabbed some grub for our company since everyone knows its rude not to provide food for your guests.  They seemed delighted with the delicious whole grain bread we gave them, so they stuck around for awhile to mingle with us... all 9 of them!  Here are some fun shots I got of the duck clan:

Isn't that just so cool?  Avril is even very proficient at saying the words "duck" and "quack."

Update

I must admit that blogging has been a bit of a chore lately.  I normally avoid the computer as much as possible because looking at the screen makes me nauseous... along with reading, watching tv, pretty much everything so I normally hit the sack not long after Avril does.  I know, exciting life, huh?  I just figure when I'm pregnant I can expect to sacrifice 9 months of my life for the joy of bringing a new little angel to the world.
However, the good news is... I am cured!  I just gradually started feeling better and I even went back to the gym today for the first time since getting sick, around my 6 week mark.  It felt fantastic!  With Avril I was sick the ENTIRE time and it felt like I would never get through it.  I remember I could hardly eat anything and was worried about Avril getting the proper nutrients when I could barely get any food down at all.  This time I have slowly been able to start eating somewhat of a normal diet.  This is all very exciting to me.  Today I told Jesse that since I'm not sick I'm starting to worry if the baby is okay.  He said I'm just being paranoid of course.
Well, we get to find out the sex of our baby this month and I'm just dying of curiosity, not knowing if Avril will have a little brother or sister!  We're so excited :)

I like seeing people's guesses so leave a comment with what you think!  I also put a poll on the side bar.
Thanks for stopping by! :)

We Love Visitors!

The month of June brought lots of visitors from all over.  We love having our friends and family come see us and all are welcome anytime!  First, we got to visit with my cousin Joni who currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Her little boy, Drake, and Avril got along quite well.  My grandparents have a playroom in their basement that feels like heaven on earth to little kids.  Here are some pictures of Drake and Avril.  They are 2nd cousins.  I can't explain how to figure this out but Jesse is good at it.  If you have questions, please see my husband. :)

Drake did not want to stay sitting for the picture.  He was too anxious to run and look at the camera to see what he looked like in it :)

Hmmm, that Avril is taking all the good toys!

I'm not sure if this horsey is meant for two...

Yay!  Jesse had a break in his crazy schedule to come play with us.  I love him :)

Cousins :)

Avril loves to ride the deer in front of my grandparents' house.  She let us know that it was "hottt" (enunciate the 't' for Avril talk) so we put a towel down for her.  She loves her great grandma Parkinson, as we all do :)

I love this shot.  Jesse is the greatest daddy!

Our next visitors came all the way from the good old SCV, California.  These are our good friends Sandy and Richard Maxson who we are forever grateful to for letting us stay with them in California.  We had Bryan cook up some meat on the grill and enjoyed the shady outdoors.

Avril is wearing her favorite shoes, which are a little too big for her.  Hence, the missing shoe...

Good times at the Yarger house :)

Mmm, thanks for the delicious grub, Bryan.  My pregnancy gives me several food aversions and red meat is one of them, but I was actually able to eat a cheeseburger which surprised me!

It was so great to reunite with our friends.  Now if we could just get them to leave Cali, and come live in Logan!

Our other visitors were more cousins and 2nd cousins.  A few of my Crockett cousins came up to Logan.  John and Julie came up from Arizona with their kids, and Robert and Kristin came all the way up from Ogden :)  Avril enjoyed playing with more of her relatives.  Oh, and all of the cousins that came are expecting babies too!  (Julie, Kristin, and Joni)  Yay!

Avril plopped right down next to Josie and tried to help her strategize her next move...

Weeeee!

Avril, my dad, and his brother Robert