Coming back from the edge...!

Avery didn't start getting better after a few days of being home so I took him into the dr. to make sure it was nothing more than a cold. I'm glad I did, cause the poor kid had a double ear infection! So we got an antibiotic for that and I was hopeful that everything would be normal.
Then I got sick, and Andy didn't really get better either and Avery's cold was still lingering. That was over a week ago and we're just barely starting to feel alive again! Well, at least me. Andy's been feeling better for the last few days and Avery has shown major improvements!
I don't remember being this sick for a long time!! It totally wiped me out and I ended up sleeping a lot. A lot, a lot. Like 2 naps a day sometimes.
Now it seems to be passing and we're all feeling a little more normal! I can breath, Avery's eating more and Andy well, he's just fine.
so hopefully I can get caught up on everyone's blogs and maybe put some pictures up of Avery.

Tomorrow my sister (Selissa) and her family are coming to visit for a couple days. I'm really excited! I don't know what we're going to do, but it will be fun to hang out!
And then we're leaving Friday early afternoon to go down to visit my brother and his family for the weekend...and the next weekend we're going camping! We're trying to get some fun out of town type stuff done before the baby's born! So we've got about 8 weeks to squeeze all the non-newborn activities in!! :)

Random Avery cuteness

Avery LOVES to color...really loves. I actually have to make sure he doesn't see me using pens and pencils or else he'll whine about coloring until I let him. Which wouldn't be a problem except he not only has trouble staying in the lines, but also staying ON the paper! Thank goodness for the etch-a-sketch!
So here are some pictures of Avery and Andy coloring, he would seriously do this for hours if I let him!


Every night we read scriptures and say our family prayer with Avery before he goes to bed. He's really great about sitting with us reading, and loves to fold his arms and copy us (sort of) saying prayers. A few weeks ago he started loving to read his scriptures by himself, and I'd find him several times just sitting on the futon in his room "reading" scripture. It's really adorable! I love that he's learning so much, and already loves to say prayers and read scriptures. It makes we feel like we must be doing something right!!

Favorite Avery words and phrases

Avery talks a lot. a lot a lot. And he copies everything we say...so we really have to be careful! We say bummer a lot now, and are always trying to think of "safe" things to say. Not that we even have "potty mouths" (does that help make my point?!), but it's amazing how things sound so much worse coming from a little one!
He says some pretty adorable things though, some of my favorites are "you okay, Mommy?", he asks this whenever he thinks I've made a sound or face like something hurts, so sweet!
He's somehow combined hug and cuddle to create the cutest word ever "Huggle", he says this when ever he wants to sit with someone or be held, how can you say no to a kid when he asks to "huggle" with you?!
And it always makes us smile when we hear him say "I got it!" (except it sounds more like "I dot it!"), he yells this excitedly when he's "helping" me get the buckles done on his carseat, or when he picks something up off the floor.
He also gets a little confused when talking about people "getting" him (as in tickling or playing with him), like when Andy tickles him Avery will yell "I dot you Daddy!" instead of saying "You got me". And if he wants you to play with him he'll say the same thing, way cute!
We think he's pretty great, I'm sure there are tons more cute things he says...but that's the problem! There are so many cute things I can't seem to write them down fast enough!
I just can't believe how big he's getting, time is just going by too fast!

He has a name...

We decided on a name for this new little boy, it was hard because we want to use family names but between the number of kids already in our families, and the names that are left leave much to be desired...there aren't many names left to pick from!
So after pouring over baby name books from the library, the internet and looking through our family names we've decided on -

Jackson (Jack) Robert

Jackson isn't really a family name, but it was easier to find a middle name that flowed the way I like. We will call him Jack, after my great uncle Jack Hoyle who lives near us, he doesn't have any children of his own and we both really wanted to name this baby after him. We don't get together with him very often, but we both really felt like that's the baby's name.

Mom, Jack, Me

Jack is also my younger brothers middle name and my dad had an uncle named Jack, but this little guy is primarily named after Jack Hoyle, just a bonus that there are more Jack's!

Robert is after my dad. After almost 30 grandkids no one has my dad's name, so we're going for favorite grandson status with this kid! :) And I love my dad, and it sounds good with Jackson, a couple added bonuses!Dad (Robert) and Avery

So now that we're telling people the name we can't change it! :) I don't think we would anyway!
It has been much harder coming up with a name this time than it was with Avery, with Avery we decided on his name early on so it seemed easy. This time I actually had to think about it and do some digging!

Airplane rides, sickness, baby showers, oh my!

We flew home last night and got to our house a little after midnight. I'm SO glad we decided to fly instead of drive, totally worth it!

We ended up flying out to Missouri on the same flight as my older brother, it was way fun! (he was out here looking for an apartment and job in Logan) Avery loved playing with him, and it was a lot of fun visiting in the flight.
Avery did really well, he didn't love sitting on our laps the first half of the flight, but the second half was empty enough we were able to get him his own seat. He watched episodes of Elmo's World on the iPod...with no sound, and loved it! :)

Avery and Gramma Joleen playing

Avery being spoiled by everyone, he thinks he's got to be the center of attention now!

We spent the 10 or so days we were out there visiting with family. It was fun. We were back and forth between parent's houses a lot, but it was great being able to spend so much time with everyone. We were able to go to Nauvoo for a family temple trip (Aitchison side), we went up the night before and stayed in a motel with my sister and her family. It was really great being able to go through the temple with so many of my siblings.

Avery and cousins (Josiah, Cole, Claire) at the Nauvoo temple

And it was the first time I'd been back to the Nauvoo Temple since I took out my endowments in November '04. We had fun walking around town and just hanging out afterwards too.

We played lots of games and ate lots of food! and didn't take near enough pictures! Sis and I got new matching cell phones, we watched some of the kids at karate, spend an afternoon at the park with my sisters and their kids (fyi, tubes at the park aren't meant for pregnant people!), I got to visit with Karen and see her sweet new baby, Scarlett!

Avery and Grandma Westover lounging on the big pillow

Group shots at my parents house

Avery getting a nap with Grandpa Rob

Avery was lucky enough to get sick a couple times in our short visit and is still recovering. First he got a fever, nothing else just the fever. It went away after a couple days and he was okay, then Saturday night as soon as we got out of the car and into the house he spewed all over! When he stopped throwing up he got a cold, which we're still battling. But he was surprisingly well behaved and happy even though he wasn't feeling well. He LOVED Josiah, and is still talking about him.

Avery and Josiah, right before Avery threw up the chocolate milk that Josiah gave him!

I think he's bored with me. He Keeps asking where random family members are. Cute, and sad.

On Thursday we had planned to have a nice dinner with Mom and Dad so we could actually visit a little. When we got to the house Sis and Mom both had cameras out and were taking pictures...and I couldn't figure out why. I'm slow. They were sneaky and surprised me with a baby shower!! How awesome is that?!

Baby shower cake

Baby shower food and some of the decor

Opening gifts, the one I have in this picture are some crocheted cowboy boots my sister made, WAY cute!

Mable did a lot of it, including sending out the invites, paying to have it catered, party favors, and the decorations. Mom, Sarah and Sis helped out too. I'm not 100% sure who's idea it was or who the official hostess was, but I'm so grateful for my family and the trouble the went to to throw me a shower! We had a great turn out and I got some really adorable things for this little guy. I didn't need anything...but it sure is fun to get new things!!

It was fun for me to go out there pregnant. Weird, I know, but living away from family they missed out seeing me in all my chubby pregnant glory when I was pregnant with Avery. So now they've seen me! :)

Sarah(sister, due 9/15-ish), Me(due 7/18), Bethany (cousin-in-law, due 7/17)

And it was fun since my older sister Sarah is also pregnant, we got some pictures together. Who'd have thought I'd be pregnant at the same time as my oldest sister!? This is my second and her seventh! :)

We just had so much fun being with family, even when it was crazy it was so fun! It's always hard to leave, but I'm glad we'll have people out here this summer for the family reunion/baby blessing.

Avery slept almost the entire flight home. He was so tired, but it made the flight so mush easier.
When we got to the SLC airport Avery saw a teenage boy running around and thought it was Keenan playing hide and seek with him and started yelling "Keenan, where are you" and "where'd he go?" "Keenan?" It was so adorable!!

And today he's been asking for random family members. He loved looking at pictures on the computer from the trip. I was impressed at how many names he got right while looking at pictures. I'm glad he had so much fun with the cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents, it just makes me sad that we're so far away from everyone and he can't see them more. Someday...

I'm sure I'm missing something about the trip, but that's bound to happen! It was so fun and I'm so glad we were able to go for so long, even though I wasn't ready to leave when we did! I can't wait to see everyone again later in the summer!!

And we're off...

Tonight we'll be "home", and I'm SO excited!! So we'll "see" ya in a couple weeks!!

(this is Missouri, in case you don't know your state shapes!! :) )

I hate packing!

The end.

But seriously. I'm supposed to pack everything I'll need for the next almost 2 weeks...and then some extra things for other people too! I know I'm forgetting something!

We're leaving tonight and I think I'm packed (When I say "I'm packed" that also includes Andy and Avery's stuff! I'm no longer just one person!), which is nice to be done early in the morning as opposed to cramming things in the suit cases 30 minutes before getting in the car and racing to the airport to make our flight on time! AAAHHH!!!

I'm also nervous about flying with Avery. He's not 2 yet so we opted not to get him his own seat...but now I'm worried it's going to be horrible!! Wish us luck!

So we're off for a while now. I'm not taking my laptop with me, Andy will have his...but I'm hoping we're too busy having fun with various family members to spend time blogging...but who knows, I might post some pictures so I don't have as many to post when I get back!