Its going by fast...

We can't believe how fast these last four weeks have gone!  Our little Lily is already 4 weeks old and is getting bigger each day!  She is starting to loose her "newbornness" but it is fun to see how she is changing.  (This first picture is still at the hospital).  We feel a little bad that we haven't been taking a whole lot of pictures of her!   We have more on Amanda's mom's camera, so we will have to get those and post them.  

Lily was blessed this last Sunday.  She did such a great job not crying during the blessing.  She looked liked a little angel to us.  (sorry the pictures are sideways) Thanks for everyone who was able to make it and we missed those who weren't able to come.  

At her two week appointment, she weight 9 lbs and 9 oz and was 21 inches long.  She is a smiley baby and we love to catch glimpses of those sweet moments.

Avery is loving his baby sister, though he can be a little "rough" with her.  One of his latest discoveries is to make her "dance" by rocking the bassinet really fast, making Lily roll back and forth in her bed.  We have to keep an extra careful watch on him.  He is also getting a little mischievous.  He likes to steal Lily's binky and run away with it making his "trouble-making" laugh all the way.  Oh boy we have our work cut out for us!  

Precious Pictures

We have a very talented girl in our ward that has a photography business.  We won a photo shoot last spring, but we never could find the time to have her do our pictures.  We finally got the photo shoot done when Lily was a little over a week old.  We absolutely love them!  Thanks Deanna for the wonderful pictures- they are great!  (If you want to find out more about Deanna's photography business, go to www.adaytoadore.com- we are so pleased with how well she did our photos!)

Lily Joy Turpin

Well she is finally here!  Lily Joy Turpin was born on Nov 11th at 4:49am.  She was 20 1/4 inches long and weighed 8-lbs 6-oz.  She came by c-section because she was discovered breech when we went into labor.  Avery loved to hold her and didn't want anyone's help to anyone to take her from him. (He is going to be a great big brother). Lily is so precious to us and we think she is the most beautiful baby.   We love her so much!!!

The Waiting Game...

Well we thought we would just update everyone on our baby status.  Its been a crazy couple of weeks!  Well we were hoping to have our baby sometime in the last couple of weeks since our doctor had to go out of town.  Well...that didn't really happen.  Yesterday was a our due date, and it has come and gone with baby still baking in the oven.  We have a new doctor covering us this week, and we are scheduled to be induced on Monday the 15th, which means our little girl will be a week overdue!   Well we really do hope she decides to come before then, but we will take her whenever she gets here!   Amanda has been walking like crazy, going for bumpy rides in the mountain, eating pineapple and bouncing on the exercise ball, but to no avail!  Our little girl is just letting us know that she'll come out whenever she is ready.
Well we will keep you posted when she gets here!

Terrific Twos!

Yesterday was Avery's 2nd Birthday!  Wow!  We can't believe its been two years since his birthday.  We tried to let Avery decide what to do for the day.  It was rainy outside and he wanted to go for a walk, so we went for a short walk in the rain.  Later, after the rain was gone, Avery's cousins Boyce & Eve and their parents Mark & Sarah came down to go to lunch together.  Guess where we went?  To McDonald's.  It was Avery's 1st experience on the play toys there.  He really liked to go on it, but to get to the very top level you had to climb a big step and Avery was a little too short for it, so either Brian, Mark, or Sarah had to climb all the way up there to help him out.  Avery still had a blast though.  Then we went over to Fred Meyer's to look at some toys, and Avery found one that he just HAD to have (a helicopter) and Mark & Sarah got it for him (THANKS A BUNCH AGAIN).  He absolutely loved that thing.  Later, we went to dinner with Amanda's family because it is also Grandpa Downs' birthday too!  Him & Avery are 50 years apart!  We then came home to open more presents and eat a sweet carrot-cake Truck.  Avery loved all his presents- which were mostly cars and trucks.

The Truck Cake

Playing on the playtoys at McDonald's

If you can't tell, Avery is saying "Truck" because he opened some "Cars" pajamas.

Avery & Grandpa- the two birthday boys.

Opening his car "video game"

Family Pictures

Before Amanda's brother left, we took family pictures with the Downs Family.  The new photo at the top of our blog is our family photo.  The only thing is it will soon be outdated in November...

Support Our Troops

A couple of weeks ago (we can't believe its been that long!) Amanda's brother Richard left for deployment in the National Guard.  He is at training right now and then will be headed overseas to Iraq.  It was really hard to say goodbye to him, especially since this is his second deployment overseas and he has a wife and two little boys at home this time.  We are really proud of him still and he is always in our prayers.  We just want everyone to remember our troops and all that they do for us!  We miss you Richard (and Lauren & the boys who moved to Arizona) and love you!

Some Awesome News!

Well the awesome news has to do with Brian- He got an internship with ON Semiconductor!  We are really excited because it give him a lot of valuable experience for when he graduates this December as an Electrical Engineer.  I (Amanda) am so proud of him!

Crazy Happenings

Here are some photos from the last couple of outings (the last month and a half).  We went to the Preston Parade and Carnival.  Avery LOVED the parade and was really good at collecting the candy and putting it in his bucket.  He could spot candy a couple of groups down the road and would want to collect it.  He also LOVED the carnival.  We waited in line for a couple of rides for him and at the end of every one, he would get pretty upset that he had to get off. 

We  also went to the Turpin Reunion in Bear Lake.  Even though we had a little bit of wind during the night, the days were absolutely beautiful.  We did skits the one night and Grandma & Grandpa Turpin, Candace, Aly, Mike & Taunya did a fun dance with glow sticks.  We rode in the boat a lot (Avery pretty much stayed out on the lake all day, taking naps on the boat.  He would wake up as soon as they tried to take him off the boat and demand that he stay on the boat. What a boy!

Then we just hung out till school started.  Now we are back in school and back to homework...but at least its our last semester!

Downs Family Reunion

We went to the Downs Family Reunion with all of Amanda's cousins and aunts/uncles at Twin Lakes.  We took out Brian's parents' new boat and had a blast!  Avery really liked riding in the boat and even fell asleep a couple of times while riding.  Brian was able to get up on skiis and everyone else did some fun tubing.   Avery even went for a little spin (very slowly that is). We also had some really good grub and just hung out with everyone.  

Avery & Aiden on the Teryx (or the "truck")

Avery & Mommy on the Boat.

Amanda's brother Richard's sweet crash on the tube.

Avery & Brian riding in the tube.

summer fun & updates

well again, we haven't been posting for a while.  Amanda has been in school, so its been a little hectic.  However, we have managed to have a little fun at the same time.
  Well the first big news, if you haven't heard is that we are having a Baby Girl!  Avery is going to have a little sister!  We are super excited.  She is quite a kicker too.

  We have visited the Zoo this past month, though all Avery liked was the maintenance trucks and the pathways. He liked the grizzly bear for a few minutes.  We were a little bummed that the petting zoo was closed for the day.

  We also were able to go to Northern Idaho to visit our friends the Rios as well as to Spokane to visit Brian's brother and family, Mark, Sarah, Boyce & Eve.
  We stayed with Zech & Emily Rios and their little boy Elai.  The 1st night was the 4th of July and we did fireworks at the lake house they were staying for the summer.  It was a beautiful place.  The next day we went camping up Moie Springs, which was also very fun.  The guys went kayaking while us girls hung out at the camp.  Avery did very well sleeping in his own sleeping bag in the tent.  It was awesome!
   Then we headed off to Spokane, Washington to visit Mark & Sarah.  They are staying with Sarah's parents for the summer.  We had a blast there too.  We went to a couple of parks and for a walk and of course, the boys went kayaking too.  Avery had way too much fun hanging out with his cousin Boyce & also loved holding baby Eve (he's going to be a great brother!).  It was so sad that we had to go back home, but it was still so much fun.  Luckily, Avery did very well on the car ride there and the car ride back.  It was amazing.  We never had to stop because he was upset in the car.

We will get more pictures posted as soon as I have time to let them upload!

Camping in the Rain!

We were crazy yet once again.  We did our annual Memorial Day camping trip with all of our friends in the rain AGAIN.  This time, we went up to Ashton to camp in some property our friends' family owns.  It was alot of fun, but it rained, hailed and even tried to snow while we were there.  On Saturday, all the guys went golfing in the rain, and by the time they got back, they were all soaken wet.  It poured most of Saturday, but all the girls stayed in our friends' camper.

   Avery absolutely loved camping.  He didn't care that it was raining at all.  He loved to wander around camp and he liked to get a little too close to the fire.  We would tell him that it was "hot" so he would try to blow on it and then try to stick his fingers on it to "test" it out like he would when his food is "hot."  Luckily, we managed to keep him from getting burned, but we sure had to keep a watchful eye on him.  We also brought up Amanda's parents' four-wheeler and Avery had a blast riding it.  He hated to get off.  When he would ride he would go "wooooooo" just like Brian would. 

    We were able to drive up to Cave Falls about 20 miles away from camp as well as Mesa Falls.   Avery did not like Mesa Falls- either he was scared of heights or he didn't like the noise, because we couldn't get very close with him.