Just some FUN STUFF!!

Little Miss Avery and yes, she thinks she is Hot Stuff!

Fun times coloring with Uncle Jason. She gets so excited when he comes out to see us on the weekends, but lately if Hannah is with him, she is all Avery wants!! After our relay marathon and Joey's softball game, Roman and Kayla invited us up to the Lake house and it was a ton of fun! Avery loved the boat:)
It was such a perfect day to be on the lake! (still a lil too cold to be in it)
Cute Cody with his mohawk and Avery playing on the boat
With the semester ending we headed over with Tenille and her two girls to Sandy Creek and let the kids play. Here is Avery and Sadie playing in the sand.
CONGRATS to Mama Graham!!! Not only did she finish her nursing degree this year while raising kids and having a large family she was awarded the Spirit Award for all of Georgia Highlands College and we are so proud of her!!
Grandma and Grandpa Yates with Mom. We played games after the awards ceremony and I beat Grandpa by 4 points in Oh Heck. This is a big accomplishment. I am going to frame the score sheet!
Hannah and I after the Lake Hartwell Dam Run 10K! She placed 2nd and I placed 3rd in our age group...(there weren't many in the 20-24 year age group) Cause Hannah's time was somewhere around 51 min and mine was around 64 min. It was funny when they called out my name I swore there had to be another Rachel Graham :)
After finals we drove out to TX for a quick visit and surprised my mom for Mother's Day! We had a great time and Avery loved TX and did pretty well on the 11 hour drive. Above: Avery and Uncle Ryan (he's "Texanizing" her with some authentic cowboy boots)
Avery with Daddy and Grandpa on the piano. The piano, Scruffy, and trampoline were some of her favorites at Grandma and Grandpa Grebe's. She had a blast!
Avery and her shoe fetish. In Grandma's church shoes.... she walked pretty well in them.
I just love her!!!

CoUdAwGaToRs!

This past weekend a bunch of people from our Ward got together and ran the Chicken Mania Marathon relay. Each member ran a 4.3 mile leg on a VERY hilly course! If you are wondering where Joey is, he was back in Athens with the other half of our ward playing in a softball game. Come to find out Joey hit a home run over the center field fence and I was sad I wasn't there to see it.

We left for Gainesville early in the morning for the race and afterwards they had a chicken- cook-off. It was so much fun & I hit a personal record with a time of 39:15! (I know its not amazing but a year ago my goals were just to complete a 5K without walking so this is major improvement) The name Cou-dawg-gators comes from the fact that on each team there were Alumni or current students from BYU, UGA, & Florida. Trust me we were not thrilled to have Gators as part of our team name but for the Westfalls we were willing to make an exception:)
Coming around the last corner and up the hill to the finish line!
Here is our girls team that finished 1st place in the Women's division with a time around 3 hours and 40 min. left to right: Amber Westfall, Tenille Bowser, me, Hannah McClain, Emily Robertson, & Alyson Haslam (who got lost and added about half a mile to the course and still finished with an amazing time) The men's team did awesome as well and placed 2nd in their division (they had a lot more competition)!

My little Avery was such a good sport!
She's not used to getting up at 6am and by 10 she was knocked out on the lawn with loud music playing and people running around everwhere cheering on their team mates.
& Who knows how much they paid this guy to dress up in this Chicken Suit with tights while it was 85 degrees outside?! Avery loved it though and anytime he'd walk by she would point and say, "chicken, bawk, bawk."

Easter Weekend!!

Easter Weekend started out with a fun time at the G-DAY spring game. Although Avery only held out for 3 quarters we had a great time and I ran into one of my old friends from high school (yes all the way back from TX). She married a Georgia boy as well and is living in Gainesville, GA and her brother is drum major in the Georgia Red Coats band(its a small world)! Here is Avery with "THE UGA VII" ... He is a big deal and attends the Georgia football games. UGA VI passed away last summer and they had a big funeral for him in the stadium and the tomb of all the former UGAs is also inside the stadium. I was pleased to hear that amongst the NCAA coaches to call and give their condolences to Mark RIcht and bulldog nation, Mac Brown (longhorns head coach) was one of the first to call:)

When we saw kids heading down to get their pictures taken with the UGA bulldog I told Joey Avery had to have her picture with him, since just this week she has learned to say and identify "Ugga!" Unfortunately, she would not look at the camera but wanted to play with the "puppy."
Avery with Daddy between the hedges and dying to get down and see UGA again!
When we got home we dyed Easter Eggs and Avery thought that was pretty fun
Avery with her eggs!
With mommy dying more Easter eggs to take to Aunt Jill's tomorrow for the Easter Egg Hunt!
Look what the Easter bunny brought!!!
Avery and her Easter outfit! Joey's dad did some professional ones that I'll post later but this is a quick after church picture. Quick story: I had been dying to get Avery a little pettiskirt that I had continued to see in boutiques back when I was home in TX shopping with a friend and that I had seen in online boutiques but they were ridiculously priced... $85.00 (not gonna happen). I was driving by a Children's boutique in Watkinsville (outside of Athens) and happened to notice these pettiskirts out on the porch and a big sign that said SALE. Of course I stopped and got the skirt for $12.99! I then got online to see what kind of shirts they put with it and after looking through a few sights excitedly went on my way to Micheals. I already had the white shirt so I got some stuff to decorate it and made a bow to match! It was a fun and simple project that helped make me feel like more of a homemaker :)
And she prances around in it just like a little princess:)

Playdates and the Color Queen!!

Last weekend we went to Marietta for Conference. By The Way so many good talks; I normally can pick out one favorite but this time I could count out 4 or 5 of my favs (Holland, Snow, Uchtdorf, Monson)and not be able to choose between them. We have made a little tradition that when the guys go off to the priesthood session, us girls head over to Bruster's for some ice cream:) Here is Avery on our way out the door... she was persistent in bringing daddy's birthday balloon! & if you don't have enough hands to carry it all... carry it in your mouth!!! We left early so we could meet Joey's best friend from growing up Roman Hackett and his little family. His little boy Cody is less than 2 months older than Avery and they play together so well:) He is such a little cutie!
More pictures of them at East Cobb Park. It was so crowded, but its a Super Fun park!
Avery has had so many fun playdates lately!! Cynthia came to get her hair done and she brought Kayden and Addi to come play! Avery was so excited!!! They loved the bubbles and would scream and run to pop them as soon as they were blown! I love playdates because she sleeps better afterwards:)
Avery has been quite the artist... I have a container full of crayons and had taken all the markers out. At least once during the day Avery will reach for the container saying Co-wers (colors) then Peas, Peas (please, please). I already have one work of art on my wall with orange and yellow crayon... So I was sure to put the markers up so she could not get them. She pulled a chair over in our room helping her to reach the markers and before I knew it had it on her face, hands and shirt. The good news is she had also reached a blank piece of paper that she drew on with the marker (instead of the wall), it was a washable marker and I caught her fairly early in the process!
They're still so cute even when she is mischievous! My little "Coloring Queen"

Girls just wanna have FUN!!

Last weekend Joey went to Birmingham, AL for a conference with the research lab group he is in at school. We missed him so much and it helped remind me how grateful I am for him and all he does. Although we missed him greatly, Avery and I had some fun! I was in the bathroom in need of a brow wax so while I was doing that I put Avery in the sink and apparently she has watched me enough to know how to put on makeup! Before taking the bronzer from her I had to get a picture. After that I turned on some Disney channel music (yes, I'll admit I love Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana) and we were jamming out to her songs! I think Avery may have thought her mommy had gone crazy cause I'm always stressed with school that unfortunately this side of me does not come out often enough. But I LOVED it and we laughed and danced (by Avery dancing I mean rocking from side to side and jumping up and down) and laughed some more until I was worn out!!!

I love these kissable cheeks!

SO DARLING!!!

Spring Break Mexico Beach

We were fortunate this year to be able to spend Spring Break down at the Hackett's (friends of the Graham family since the kids were small) beach house in Mexico Beach. I absolutely love it down there because it is beautiful and quiet:) It was a good way to spend the break and we are grateful for their hospitality!! We headed down on Tues. March 10 and got sun burnt pretty bad on the first day...:( Joey and I had forgotten how long we've been cooped up inside and were a little overeager to get a good tan; luckily Avery was lathered up well and she didn't burn.
It is so gorgeous here!!!
Family picture on day #2 after we were sunburnt! We didn't take any
chances after the first day; we wore plenty of sun screen!!! Avery loved the water and was a little dare devil running for the water until... the first wave toppled her over! She would still go in after that, but only with someone holding on to her. (which made me less nervous)
She had so much fun with the Beckstead's kids. They were so nice about including her and she thought she was so grown up. Here's is her after they buried her in the sand!
Avery and daddy heading out into the water! She's a little more hesitant here:)
Just a fun pic! The water was a little cold for my liking but the kids dove right on in. We spent a lot of time on the beach and playing in the sand. We had a sandcastle contest on Thurs., we never did declare a winner because each was awesome in its own way. Here is Alyssa and Natalie Beckstead's castle with all the pretty shells used to decorate it!
Joey, Jason and Hannah working on our sand castle... notice the big mote around the sand castle... that served many purposes. 1 being to keep Avery from toppling it over; after she was buried in the sand, she thought she needed to be in every sand pile!
Our finished castle. I took a stick and drew the bricks in; the boys kept making fun of me cause I couldn't wait for my turn to do this. I saw it done on the show where they have sand castle contests and anxiously awaited to participate in my contribution to the castle:)
The Beckstead's and Hannah and Jason watched Avery for us on the night of my birthday and Joey took me to eat at my favorite restaurant in Panama City.... THE TREASURE SHIP!! They have the best Mahi Mahi I've ever had and it was just as tasty that night as well!
It seems to be becoming a tradition for Joey and I to take a picture with this exact prop!
When we got home from our date the kids had decorated and set a cake out for me!
One of the last days at the beach
My little cutie pie!
Here are the kiddos that decorated for me!
Here's a picture of Avery that includes a funny little story: She did not like having to hold our hands while we were walking in the parking lots around the shops (probably because we just let her run everywhere around the beach house and on the beach). She started pitching a fit and throwing a pre- terrible two tantrum by dragging both her feet while we were holding her hands. Not a few seconds later she starts laughing and saying Whee while hanging in this position. Joey and I started laughing too! & were glad that tantrum didn't last long!
Always busy busy busy doing something...............
Awww......Hannah and Jason
This is as we were leaving and I love this picture of the two of them. You can just tell that she makes his heart melt!
On the way home and all tired out! I was glad Avery finally fell asleep because Hannah had fallen asleep and Avery kept grabbing her and saying "Hannah, Hannah." What a great 5 days Now, back to reality!