Starting Solids and the Verde River

We fed Alora her first bowl of rice cereal on July 17th. Her reaction was pretty funny! 

 I have since learned to feed her when she is wearing only a diaper. Then all I wash is a baby and not a baby and an outfit (plus or minus a bib).

 Alora LOVES getting her picture taken. 

 She is such a miracle baby--we love her so much!

 She loves playing with her Dad.

 She also loves to put things over her eyes. If you look close you can see her smile.

 This past weekend we escaped the heat and went up to Chino Valley. 

The weather was perfect for going to the Verde River.

I thought this spot along the river was especially pretty with the reddish rocks.

 Kristy and the "favorite child". Haha...j/k!

 Grandad studied a football playbook. Alora just wiggled and "talked".

 Getting her feet dipped in the river water. Unlike the rivers in Canada this one was on the warm side.

 Garrett fished at the river. He didn't catch anything with the fishing pole but he did catch a minnow with a net.

Alora loves being outside. Even if I just take her with me to get the mail she gets a huge smile on her face and waves her arms around when we step out the door. 

The trip to the Verde River and staying outside for a few hours was heaven for her.

Happy Canada Day!
We had a fun time in Chino Valley celebrating Jared's 7th Birthday. Here are some pictures :)

 Alora with Aunt Denise. We met Aunt Denise and Grandma Nelson for lunch in Prescott.

 Alora has now met all her cousins--

from L to R: Jared, Hannah, Aunt Amber (holding Alora), and Becca

 At the Party

The birthday boy enjoying his pizza 

Hannah and Zach were so good with Alora! 

Becca kept saying (in her adorable way): "She's so cute!" (referring to Alora) 

Alora likes to chew on cloth at present 

Happy Canada Day!

Loving Life and Parenthood

Alora is 3.5 months old. She is babbling away, learning to roll-over, and holding up her head very well. Garrett and I find parenthood exhausting and enjoyable all at once. We've been married 4 years today! Here are some pictures.

We got her pictures taken at a photo studio. She was so happy on the way to the studio in the car and even while I was changing her into her nice dress. As soon as we put her in the little seat so the photographer could start taking pictures she started crying and wouldn't stop! I fed her, let her take a 15 minute cat nap, and then tried again. She was all smiles!!!

She loves chewing on her fingers and wrists. She doesn't seem to have a favorite so far. Whichever finger makes it into her mouth first gets chewed on.

Alora wearing her first head band (thanks to Aunt April)

Hanging out with cousins at Grandma's house

She met my dad for the first time when she was about 2 months old

Celebrating Daniel's 18th birthday

The Many Faces of Alora--3 Weeks Old!

It's hard to believe--but our daughter Alora is 3 weeks old. Here are some pictures of her.

A Joyous Christmas Season

The Christmas season was pretty eventful for Garrett and I. The first big event occurred on December 16th...

After all--he graduated with his Bachelor degree in Physics!

This is the cutest picture! The big balloons were dropped onto the graduates after they had all walked across the stage. Some of the balloons were bounced into the seating area so the audience could take some. Our nieces and nephews loved the balloons. I don't think very many of them got to go home with them because they took up a lot of room in the cars.

I love my physicist!

Garrett and his mom and dad

Garrett had "cap head" in this picture with my mom

The post-graduation luncheon with family. Garrett is opening his graduation gifts.

My dad and my brother Daniel drove down from Canada and arrived on December 20th. On December 21st we had an early birthday celebration for my dad and went over to Uncle Eric's for dinner. My brother Daniel got his cousins to play "Settlers of Catan" with him.

It's his favorite board game right now.

The cousins and my brother Daniel agreed to pose for a picture

My dad turned 55 on his birthday (December 25th)

We opened Christmas presents with my family on December 22nd since they were leaving for California the next day. In this picture, we're all sporting a least one new Christmas gift item we received. We took this picture with a timer so we could all be in it at once and send a picture of all of us to my brother, Elder Cassinat

My brother Daniel and me

Daniel liked his Angry Birds toque

My mom got me a book called "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree: A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas". Love it!

We spent Christmas in Chino Valley with Garrett's family. They got a horse named Sally.

Here's Sally on her first day with the family. Garrett's mom is helping one of the grandkids feed Sally some carrots.

[Sally only paid attention to me if I had an apple in my hand.

Once she at the apple, the interaction was over as far as Sally was concerned.]

Garrett's mom had to negotiate with Sally to get her bridle on.

Mrs. Claus brought Christmas pajamas for the grandkids to wear to bed on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning! Time to open presents.

So many gifts and treats!

Garrett was very excited to open his presents.

And so ended the year of 2011. It was a good year for Garrett and I and we are looking forward to the new year.