A year has gone by....

...since our wedding! Bennett and I celebrated our first anniversary on December 20th. This year has been filled with wonderful memories and adventures. Who would have thought that within 10 months of marriage we would have a teeny little girl? We have been so blessed and are grateful for our little family :) To celebrate, Bennett and I scrounged up a little money and went out to dinner at a Japanese hibachi grill - type restaurant. Delish. Thanks to Avarie's uncle Reece for babysitting :) Here are a few pics of our wonderful wedding day a year ago in Salt Lake, and a picture celebrating our anniversary at the restaurant...enjoy!

Of course I had to throw in sassy shoe pic :)

Here's to a many wonderful years to come!

If I have to glue one more sequin...

This year I decided to take on the task of making our stockings for Christmas. Bennett and I collaborated on what they would look like, and decided to incorporate ideas from each of our stockings growing up. Each stocking would be made of felt and have some Christmas character. Sequins would add the finishing touch :) Unfortunately, I was unaware that felt doesn't sew on a machine well, so I had to do everything by hand...my fingers are literally blistered from this task. The sequins were another story. We bought a big bag of assorted colors to save money, but this just made a ridiculously time consuming task. I had to dump out the contents and sort through the sequins to find the right size and color for each name and character. Then using tweezers I had to hot glue each one meticulously in its' place. I finished them off by hand-stitching yarn around the edges. Poor Avarie has spent many hours in her swing and bouncy chair the last 2 days as I have tried to finish these little stinkers. Finally, at 7:30 am today, I completed the task. Hoorah. Here are a few pics of my accomplishment...

The felt characters

How I looked for 2 days straight...a mess.

The finished product! Our future children will be getting tube socks for stockings :)

Shot Victim :(

Today was Avarie's 2 month appointment - I can't believe how fast she is growing up!! Here are her stats:

Weight: 12 lbs. 8.5 oz (90th percentile)
Length: 23 1/4" (90th percentile)

Head Circumference: 38.5 cm (50th percentile)

We were a little shocked about her being in the 90th percentile....especially in length! HA! Don't know where that came from ;) But here are a few pics of our brave little soldier after the shots...

I think her meaty legs blocked some of the pain :) And I think I cried more than she did. We love our Avarie Shirlene!

Holiday Gala

One perk of Bennett being in dental school is the Holiday Gala we will get to attend each year. The school reserves a ballroom at a hotel in Dallas and we get to enjoy an evening of dinner and dancing! Bennett knows how much I LOVE any excuse to dress up fancy and how dancing is one of my favorite things to do - so this evening was perfect! We had some friends watch Avarie so we could have a fun date night. The food was wonderful (Bennett's favorite part), and the DJ played my requests and songs I love dancing to (my favorite part). Here are a few pics of the evening!

In the ballroom at the Hilton Anitole, sorry the second one is a little fuzzy.

A close up :)

There was a football field made of Dr. Pepper cans! We had to get a pic.

Me outside the hotel. Such a fun night!

Thanksgiving and Baby Blessing

This year for Thanksgiving we were able to celebrate with lots of family! Grandma Mary, Papa Dunn and Christian drove down from Chicago for the weekend. Bryce, Katie and their girls also joined the festivities. We spent Thanksgiving day at Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's and had a lot of food and fun! The rest of the weekend we spent at our place with my parents and brother. We went to a movie and did a lot of chatting and hanging out :) Christian will be leaving for his mission in 2 weeks so we were so excited he could be here with us and see Avarie! On Sunday everyone came to church with us to bless Avarie. It was such a wonderful day and the blessing from Bennett was beautiful. Thanks to everyone who traveled here for this special event! To top off the weekend Bennett and I took a trip to the airport Monday night to see Tyler, Amber, and Ella for a few minutes during their layover. We sure miss living close to them in Utah! Here are a couple pics of our fun...

The Wii was a hit among the boys :)

Me and Ty with our girlies :)

Thanks everyone for helping make this past weekend a good one!