Christmas in pictures...lots of pictures

Pre-Christmas activities

Christmas Eve

Christmas

Our Christmas was just wondeful! My favorite part had to be Avery as a Shepherd in the Nativity play. It was just hilarious! I will try to post a video of it later. Hope everyone's Christmas was grand :)

EXCITED ...

that Scott is off work from tomorrow til Monday, to visit friends in Malibu tomorrow night, to go to Knotts on Christmas Eve with our Smith cousins, for the nativity and PJ party Christmas Eve night, for Christmas morning with little Avers, for my Dad's egg burritos, for Christmas day and night festivites, and for the McDonald fam to come visit us for New Years. Very grateful for the holiday season to celebrate the birth of our Savior and to be with those we love. Happy holidays!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Laguna Lovin'

A couple weekends ago we visited our old church in Laguna Beach. We have been to Laguna a ton of times since we moved but we hadn't been back to church there. It was so fun to see so many familiar faces and crazy to see how much the kids there had grown up. After church we went and walked around the Montage. If you haven't been there you definitely should go. It is beautiful! We wished we would have packed lunches and some extra clothes so that we could have had a nice picnic but ... we had a nice time wandering around and snaping pictures:)

Turkey Time

We started our Thanksgiving nice and early with the annual Turkey bowl and volleyball game.

The weather was sooo nice (80 degrees) so after we went swimming! The boys played melon ball and had a blast beating eachother up!

My family has a talent show every year and this year we decided to do a silly lip sinc with Chris and Nicole rather then our usual guitar song.

The day after Thanksgiving my brother Tyler put on his turkey tennis tournament. Ty and Rachele took first place leaving us in the dust.

We spent the rest of the weekend at the beach and hanging with family and friends. We missed the McDonald's but were glad we got to see some of our family on Scott's side:) Oh how I love this time of year!

Happy Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a happy and grateful day!

Gone Fishin'

Our weekend was a lot of fun! We had some friends up on Friday until Sunday morning and then Abe and Merivale and their girls were here from Sunday afternoon until last night. It was so nice to have a full house. These pictures are from our visit to the BEAUTIFUL Kern river on Saturday. We loved it there. We really enjoyed the gorgeous surroundings and Ethan had a good time fishing (even though we didn't stay long enough to catch anything). We are excited to go back.

The 2 year old and the lady bug.

We celebrated Avery's 2nd Bday a couple weekends ago. She had so much fun with her friends and enjoyed opening her gifts. Every time she opened a present she would have the most surprised expression on her face and say oh my goodness! It was too funny:)

The same night of Avery's party was my parents trunk or treat. We dressed as a family of insects. Avery LOVED trunk or treating. Sadly Scott and I missed out on Halloween night since we were in Mexico but Avery had a blast trick or treating with her cousins!

Way down in Mexico

Our trip was so much fun! We stayed in Todos Santos which is an adorable little artsy town (kind of like Laguna Beach but in Mexico) about an hour north of Cabo. We rented a place with my cousin Jake and his wife Lindsey. The house turned out to be amazing (minus the mosquito infestation).

Sadly the surf wasn't amazing but we had a blast exploring the coast, being in the sun and playing in the warm water. Every meal we had was SO delicious and we managed to only get pulled over by the cops twice. We were sooo sad to leave but so excited to see our little Avery girl:)

Remember this picture...

Probably not:) I posted this 2 and a half years ago when we got back from Cabo. Tomorrow we are heading back for a whole week (and this time I won't be pregnant). We are going with my cousin and his wife and leaving Avery behind... I am sure she will have a blast with her 3 cousins! See you when we get back.

Two years ago today...

Our little Avery entered this world. It was a crazy entry but she has blessed our lives since the day she arrived. Avery is spunky, super funny and a bucket of love. We feel so blessed to be her parents and have loved watching her grow. Happy birthday Avery girl we love you like crazy!!

Garden of Weed'n

Lately we have spent all our free time on our new yard. Growing up with the last name Gardner you would think that I would be some what of a pro. However...I am not:( Avery on the other hand stays close to her Gardner roots by helping us with yard work every chance she gets. She is hilarious and always wants to be right in the middle of whatever we are doing. Which is usually right in the way (hahaha).We have done a lot of work and still have a long way to go. We will have to post before and after pictures when we are done (if we finish before we are 100 years old).

Pumpkin Patch Kid

Halloween time is one of my favorites!! We went to pick out our pumpkins last weekend at Murray Family farms. We took a hayride out to the patch and got to pick the pumpkins right off of the vine. It was very cool. Avery's grandma McDonald was in town to help us pick the perfect pumpkin. We had fun at the petting zoo and in the corn maze. The corn kernel pool was the best though. I think we need one for our backyard. Now time to decide what everyone will be for Halloween...

It's a jungle out there...

Ok, maybe not a jungle, but we have had some of nature's friends visiting us lately. We have had butterflies (Avery likes to call them fee-flies),

frogs and toads that live in our bushes,

and a very large tortoise (we named Leo) that I tried to catch for a pet but got out run by. I know how pathetic it sounds to get out run by a turtle but he ran into our neighbors garage before I could catch him.We are now on the hunt for Leo. If you see him tell him we miss him:)

Chris and Nicole are hitched!

A couple weeks ago these two love birds tied the knot! Their wedding was magical and the whole weekend was a blast! Friday night we went to their wedding dinner on a Yacht in Newport, Saturday they got married in the Newport Beach temple and then had their reception that night. It was a major party at my parents house. Avery and her cousins seriously danced the night away. Chris and Nicole are now living in Costa Rica...waiting for us to come and visit them. Oh, the life...

In the craziness of moving...

(since we moved twice in 2 weeks) I forgot to mention we got into our HOUSE and are loving it!!

I think Aves is loving it the most. She loves having room to run and a backyard to prance around in:)

LOVE~LOVE~LOVE~LOVE~LOVE~

LOVE~LOVE

We TiEd ThE KnOt 7 YeArS AgO ToDaY:)

It WaS a LoVeLy DaY...aNd It HaS BeEn An EvEn LoVeLiEr 7 YeArS.

HeRe'S to 7x7x7x7x7x7x7x7x7x7x7xx7x7x7x7x7x7 more together:)

LABOR DAYIN' IT RIVER STYLE

We went to my parents house on the Colorado river for the weekend. It was a blast and Avery had the time of her life!

Inland Gidget

Sorry for the Euro swim attire she wanted her rash guard off ;)

Lately... We have been busy visiting friends and hanging with family. Gotta love the summer:) Can't believe it is August already!

Ocean Blue
I stole my brother Chris' camera to take some photos of Avery girl. My sister edited this one for me and I think it is just so precious.

Christopher + Nicolette = MARRIAGE My brother Chris is getting hitched to this beautiful bride-to-be August 29th! We love Nicole and are excited for her to join our family!!