2008 Beach Week #1

We loved seeing Mari, James, and George- great friends from Sherman Oaks

Ava and Brooklynn (Andrea & Kyle's little girl) are great little buddies. We are going to miss them!!!

Kyle helped SO MUCH with Ava. She loves hanging out with him.

The Little Mermaids

I love Ava's face in this one. CRACK UP!!!

So many fun memories every year. This year Ava and Grandma Duck made a special connection. We'd go in to tell her good night and good morning almost every day. They are now penpals, and Ava just LOVES making cards for her.

One Last Hurrah With the Sorensen Crew

While Mike moved across the country, Ava, Ez and I got to stay with my in-laws for a while and soak up all the family time we possibly could. Here are some of the family moments caught in Kodak.

Girls Weekend in Cali

Speaking of my incredible husband, as a thank you for supporting him during the crazy business school app time, he gave me a girls weekend in Cali- NO KIDS!!!- before the big move. I got to spend some time with old Sherman Oaks buddies and my awesome sister Bekah, and check out Russ hangin' with us on the beach. So cute!

My Great Catch

I was just going through pictures and realizing how far behind I am on updating the blog. It's been busy with summer vaca's and moving across the country. Do you realize that four out of the five Wood children have moved this summer? Pretty crazy!

Anyway, these pictures are of Shelley & kids visit after the wedding. When scrolling through them I realized how much Mike was in them, and how much fun he and the kids were having together. What a great catch I've got.

Can I also say I am very excited to live only two hours from Shelley, Jake, Evan, Skye, and soon to be #3!!! We are hoping to spend the weekend with them. Hurrah!

Rules of Princesshood

Ava is learning a lot about princesses. If you happen to ask, she will tell you that she is one.
Here are some of her princess guidelines:

1. A princess must wear a dress. Besides church dresses these are far and few between at our house, so if you see her wearing a nightgown during the day, or the same yellow cotton dress 3 days out of the week, you now understand what is going on.

2. A princess needs a prince. Lucky for us, we have a live-in, full time prince. Ezra now responds to "princey."

3. A princess is often in need of help. When Ava gets out of the car lately she'll say, "Mom, come help me! Princesses always need help!" I try to convince her that princesses are tough, assertive and independent, but she hasn't quite caught on yet.

4. A princess wears her hair straight. This means she does not wear pony tails, pig tails or braids. She'll often say, "Thanks for wearing your hair straight," to me, or, "I like it when you're hair's straight. Take that out!" I inform her that I am a woman (she's the "big girl") and get to make hair decisions all on my own now. Doesn't Belle wear her hair back often? Maybe we need to purchase Beauty and the Beast so I can convince her to do something with her lovely little wisps.

5. A princess lives in a musical. Singing, dancing- you name it we've got it!

Park City

What a great week! There are two other guys in Mike's "graduating class" at work ('08 baby!). Mike's off to Wharton (packing the truck a week from today), and the other two, Tommy and Peter are going to Stanford. For their senior trip Tommy and Ashlee organized a family vacation for everyone up at Big Bear in Park City. I have to say I had a fabulous time hanging out with them and am sad to see us split to the opposite sides of the country. All of our kids are close in age, the oldest are girls, and Ez is the only boy, but they all enjoy each other and I love hanging with Sarah and Ash. Here's some pictures of our trip.


Ava and Ezra in the hot tub. Don't worry, it's not hot, and don't look to close at Ez 'cuz I think he needs a little nose wipe!


Hiking around Silver Lake. BEAUTIFUL! Check out Sarah, Peter and their girls in the background.


Ava and mom snuggling on a rock.

Typical Ezra move. He wants to get down and RUN RUN RUN, but I accidentally left his shoes at home, and he'd already gotten one sliver.

Ava LOVES to climb and jump. Here she is with her girlfriends. Don't mind all the bows and clips. It's either all or nothing with her, and I've decided to choose my battles on that one.

The crew minus Ashlee who was great enough to take all the pictures. Not only did I leave Ezra's shoes at home, I brought my camera and left my memory card. Whoops!

The Fourth in Philly

Sadly, there are no pictures, but Mike and I spent the fourth in Philadelphia looking for housing. Grandma and Grandpa Autrey watched the kids so we could be productive. Are we ever grateful! We spent long hours on the road with our Garmin, and Mike's Sprint card in tow, researching and visiting the Art Museum Area and Suburbs. It was a pretty tough hunt, but luckily on the last day we ran into something that I think will be a great fit for our family. It was highly sought after, so Mike and I bidded over the asking price (we are renting) and feel blessed to have been chosen as the new tenants! It's an adorable brick home in the suburbs with a big back yard, 3 bedrooms, finished basement, renovated kitchen, and my favorite... (drum roll please) a tiled SUN ROOM!!!! We won't be in Philly for the summer because of Mike's internship, so having a place for the kids to roll around on their bikes while the ground outside is covered in snow gets me ridiculously excited. Oh! and the kitchen!!! Lots of counter space compared to all the old early-mid century homes that we saw.

We were also able to visit the ward and I was so impressed with the members, as well as the planned play groups and summer socials. Can we move now??? If you can tell, I'm kinda anxious to be done with the packing/transition phase. Ten more days until the move! AHHHH!

Amber D's Photography

Look at what she can do! She's amazing! Why do I get so lucky to have friends with such talent? FYI, she also made Ez's tie. Take a look.

So You Think You Can Dance?

So Ava's sweet cousin, Ellie is a little ballerina. We went to see her perform, and it was really, sincerely so cute. Ava was inspired, and I caught a pic of her dancing her way down the stairs.

Another Ava, Ez update: Ava is constantly a princess in distress, fainting and waiting for her "true love's kiss" to awaken her. Ez has been watching for months now, and mom seems to be relieved of her duty. I'll try to catch a pic soon. Ava is always pleased when Ez's aim is on and exclaims, "Mom! He got me on the lips!"

Disneyland!!

Mom and Dad had the best idea. They figured that while Jess and Danny were on their honeymoon, the rest of us should have a vacation of our own. They took us to Disneyland!! Because Mark is rich, and a member of Club 33 we also had a FABULOUSLY fancy lunch and tickets to California Adventure. Here's some pics of our fun day.
Evan, Grandma, Ava and Grandpa entering the park.

Me and Ez on the carousel.
Grandpa and Ava on Treasure Island. Just yesterday Ava was talking about Grandpa "Saving me, 'tecting me from the scary guys."


Ava meets the princesses!
The Disneyland Crew. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!!!

Jess and Danny's Wedding

Aren't they lovely? They are such a handsome couple and had a beautiful day. I am mixing pictures from all the events here: wedding, and the Woodburry open house.

First of all, look at my Ezra. What a handsome handsome little man he is becoming. Secondly, the bride and groom had a wonderful day, a beautiful ceremony, were serene and perfect little love birds. Weddings are always so much fun.

And thirdly, I'm just glad I made it. Short version of the story- Mike was at a work retreat and planned on meeting me there. I packed the car the night before, and was off kids all buckled up and hit the road at 8am. Around 9 Ava is screaming that her ear hurts and is crying and crying. I then get a call from Mike saying he thinks he left his temple recommend (needed to attend the ceremony) at home. I drive back up to Ava's dr in South Jordan to get a prescription for her earache, scour the house for the recommend, pick up the prescription, end up finding Mike's recommend in his car at his work, and hit the road once again at noon. My poor kids had only been out of the car for a half hour in those four hours and had six more to go. Amazingly, they were angels, and besides a three hour night of sleep (Ez isn't used to sharing a room, and I finally got him to sleep at 3am when I put his pack and play in the bathroom with the fan on), and Ava passing out at the reception, things went pretty well for our little family on that day. We were just glad Mike made it safe from Lake Powell. Poor guy said he was smacking himself to stay awake, and had to take a few snoozes on the side of the road to make it.

Photo Shoot

So I have these amazingly talented friends, Ashlee and Amber. They are getting portfolios together and wanted to take some pics of my kids. Aren't I lucky?!?!? These are some of Ashlee's shots Amber's are to come. Having cute pictures of my kids just makes me love them even more!

Here's the links to their online portfolios if you'd like to see more of their work:

ashsnaps.blogspot.com
addphotography.blogspot.com

Quick updates

Thanks to Carina and Stephan, we are finally back and blogging. Check out how big Ez is getting. He's such a little boy, climbing up rocks and all over the jungle gym at the parks. Just had to let you see.

On Memorial Day we went bowling with my cousin Andrea, her husband and two kids and brought Kelsey along with us. She and Ava are such a cute pair, and it will break my heart to be so far from her when we move to Philly. Anyway, with help of the bowling guide contraption Ava actually got a strike! We were so excited for her, although I don't think she had a clue what a great job she'd done.