I LOVE AUTUMN!!!

This is a tribute to my favorite time of year. I L-O-V-E the autumn season! During the fall, I am happier, more energized, more goal-oriented, and I just have this overall sense of well-being. It has always given me the feeling that no matter what I am going through, good or bad, the weather always changes. I always feel like I get a fresh look and a better perspective on my life. It feels like magic to me. Somehow I get into the "autumn spirit" much earlier than a normal person would . . . about the middle of July. Ask my husband, he thinks I'm crazy. I bought Aiva's halloween costume 2 months ago. It's hard for me to contain myself until September, but finally it's here! The harvest smells, wearing sweaters, scarves and hats, pumpkin carving, the timeless classic "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," the changing leaves, . . . I love it all.

Bear Lake . . .

For Labor Day weekend, we went up to Bear Lake with Mike's family. My sis-in-law Sarah's family has a condo up there, and they weren't using it, and they were kind enought to let us Coles go up. We hung out on the beach, played on the playgroud, and stayed up way too late playing games after the kids were all in bed. I must say that I have the best in-laws in the world. There's never any drama, and I can honestly say they are my best friends. We had such a wonderful time!

Aiva and Grandma Margaret

Our nephew Jacob

Firstborn TAG . . .

My baby girl just had her first birthday. So it only seemed appropriate to post a tag that my friend had on her blog about firstborns. Here is a description of my day one year ago . . . to date the very best day of my life.

Yes, she was born this fat! This is moments after her birth.

BABIES FULL NAME? Aiva Elise Cole

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THAT SPECIFIC NAME? We wanted something very feminine, different (we didn't know at the time how popular it was becoming), but also timeless. I always loved that name, but Mike didn't. We had already picked out a different name. One day out of the blue, Mike said, "If you could name the baby anything you wanted what would it be?" I told him, "Ava" and he said, "Hmmmm...let me think about that for a couple days." The next day, he said. "Okay, I've thought about it, and I really like it now." His only concession was that we change the spelling, because 'ava' is a word in Tagalog (the language he spoke on his mission) so it weirded him out. So . . . "Aiva" it was. And we thought my first name sounded pretty with it. So there ya go.


WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yep. We'd been married for 2 and a half years when she was born.


WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Of course we were ecstatic. It actually had taken us a year to get pregnant. Along with that, surgery for endometriosis, and months of hormones and AI with a specialist. It was all so stressful that we actually had decided to "give up" for a while. First month after giving up . . . we got pregnant. I was actually almost 8 weeks along by the time I took a pregnancy test. After so many negative tests, you just can't stand the thought of not seeing those 2 lines so I was putting it off until I was sure. I was at work, and eating my way green-faced through my lunch, after which I ran to the toilet to try to throw it all up. My coworkers rolled their eyes at me and forced me to go home to finally take a pregnancy test . . . "positive." We laughed and cried together when Mike came home. We were so excited.


DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Absolutely. We were first told that it was a boy. About a month later, I had a coworker scan me just for fun, and to "make sure" it was "still" a boy . . . nope.


DUE DATE? August 24th, 2007

DID YOU DELIVER EARLY OR LATE? 6 days early


DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Yes. Bad. I threw up every day at least once. Evening was the worst. I think the last time I threw up was the 16th week, and I stopped feeling nauseous at 20 weeks.


WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Ice cream


WHO IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Everyone had their moments

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? girl

DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS WITH YOUR PREGNANCY? A little bit, though nothing too serious. One month before my due date I passed out at work due to the heat, dehydration, being on my feet too much, and the fact that Aiva was already past the size of a normal full-term baby (though we didn't know it at the time). Luckily I work in a hospital, and they wheeled me down to the ER. After tests showed that I and the baby were okay they made me start maternity leave early. It sucked . . . I wasn't allowed to drive for the rest of the pregnancy, and I so huge, I just sat on the couch and read, crocheted, and watched TV for 3 weeks!


HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 6 1/2 hours. Easy breezy.


WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Mike. It was a planned induction so it was nice to have a nice calm morning, driving to the hospital knowing that we were going to have a baby that day.


WHO WAS IN THE DELIVERY ROOM? Mike and my mom.


WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Natural


DID YOU HAVE AN EPIDURAL? Heck yes! Except for feeling like a sack of potatoes, it was utter bliss. I will never have a baby without one.


HOW MUCH DID YOUR BABY WEIGH? She was 9 pounds even and 21 inches long! I remember when the doctor handed her to me when she first came out, and I remember just looking at her and thinking, "this girl is HUGE! Is this really what a 7 1/2 pound baby looks like?????" (They did an ultrasound the day before and told me she was around that.)


DID YOUR BABY HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS? None. It was a beautiful delivery start to finish. The most beautiful moments of our lives.


WHAT HOSPITAL DID YOU DELIVER AT? Davis Hopital in Layton


HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRSTBORN NOW? She turned ONE on August 18th.


I TAG EVERYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN.......

Happy Birthday Aiva!

On Monday the 18th at 6:45 pm our little Aiva turned one year old! We had a party at our house to celebrate. Three of Mike's brothers and their families were there, as well as his mom and dad, and my mom and two little sisters. We kept it simple: cake, ice cream, and presents. It was so much fun, so laid-back, and it was nice to have our familes with us to celebrate the life of our sweet little girl!

Happy 1st Birthday Aiva!

Aiva and Grandma Margaret (Mike's mom)

Mike's brother Dave and his girls Jaycee and Jaqueline

My little sisters Chelsee and Paige

Aiva and Grandma Vicki (my mom)

Aiva's Backyardigans cake

She cried when we put her hands in the cake, but she would eat it with a spoon. :)

Aiva and cousin Jaycee

Jane, Aiva and Courtney playing in Aiva's new RadioFlyer

Thanks to everyone for coming to celebrate this happy time with us! We have loved having Aiva in our family this last year. She has brought us more joy that we thought we could have. We are so appreciative to all of our friends and family who are such a positive part of ours and Aiva's lives!

CrAzY WeeK!

We have had one of the busiest week of our summer this last week! It's been crazy and a lot of fun. Monday night we went to Lagoon for Mike's mom's stake Lagoon Day. It was Aiva's first trip to Lagoon. We rode the carousel and the train ride. The coolest part was when the train went past the tigers. For some reason, one of the tigers was pretty angry and started roaring at us! It was exciting but also a little scary! I've never seen that in real life. Wish I'd taken pictures . . .

Mommy and Aiva at Lagoon

On Wednesday, Mike's good friend Jake Martineau got married, so we were attending those festivities all day, including the wedding dinner the night before. Jake and Julie are the CUTEST couple, and we are so happy for them. It's one of those couples you just don't worry about at all. They will be so happy - we love them both! Congrats guys!

Thursday night all of Mike's friends from high school got together at one of their homes and we had a BBQ! Mike is so lucky to have made such great friends in high school. EVERYONE is just so nice! You know how MOST girls are very territorial of "their boys," even the ones who are just friends? And how it's not always fun being the girl to butt in and start dating one of said boys because of that??? Well, these girls are not that way at all. So this group of guys and girls are all still friends, and now also friends with each other's spouses. It's pretty dang cool.

Our Aiva & Annabelle Jarrett

Friday was our ward party. Also good times. Saturday morning I went garage sale shopping, one of my pasttimes, and found Aiva some cute clothes. Later, my dad and his wife Raye met us at Layton City Park and we had a picnic to celebrate Aiva's birthday, which is Monday. Aiva LOVED feeding the ducks, but thought they were dogs, and kept calling them such. She also loves the swings and slides. The most memorable part, though, was the group of fully grown adults (like 30- and 40-year-olds) participating in some kind of knights-in-armour club. Seriously, it looked like we'd stepped into Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They were going at eachother with swords and shields, and were jousting. It was AWESOME!!!!! And of course, Saturday evening we had to watch MICHAEL PHELPS win his 8th gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. What an incredible part of sports history to have witnessed!! We have really enjoyed watching the olympics so far. Way to go Michael Phelps!!!!!

Aiva modeling her new jacket that mommy got for $1.00!!!
And in MINT condition!

My dad and Raye walking with Aiva

Check out the knights in the background!!

To top off our amazing week, Aiva has mastered walking! Also along with that . . . falling. She has acquired her first black eye by falling on a chair at Grandma Cole's, and today at church she fell on her head/face 4 times, I think, followed by major crying and needed to be taken out of the class. It is so fun to watch her learn to master these new skills! I guess my baby is a toddler now???? Her 1st birthday is TOMORROW!! :) / :( I don't quite know how to feel about it. But either way, we are going to have a party! More about that to come!!!!

TOMORROW IS FINALLY HERE . . .

Okay . . . I have to admit, I have been sucked into the Twilight craze. Yes, that's right. And TOMORROW the 4th and final book Breaking Dawn comes out, and I am OOOOOHHHHH, SOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!! Just had to do a quick shout-out about that.

And, as I have found that there are many differing opinions on what route the plot should take, I thought I'd clear mine up:

Go EDWARD!!!
and . . . Bella should TOTALLY become a vampire. :)

Okay. Sorry about my litte rant. I'm just very excited for tomorrow. :)

PICS OF OUR LATEST ADVENTURES . . .

We went to Cherry Hill with Megan & Bentley,
and Katie & Jackson. We had a ball! I wish I'd
taken more pictures, but we were having so much fun, we
forgot all about the camera!
Aiva was scared at first, but after she had time to
adjust to all the new sights and sounds she loved it!

We went through the doll isle at Walmart and I handed Aiva
this baby and she LIT UP and hung onto that doll for dear life.
I ended up buying her her first baby doll.

Aiva LOVES walking. She feels like such a big girl when she
walks around with this walker - and she lights up when she sees it.

I'm sure every mom thinks their baby looks like
an angel when they sleep . . . I'm no exception.

Looking out our front room window.

Ogden City's fireworks at Weber State University:
Aiva's first big fireworks show. I was expecting a lot
of tears, but she did very well. She kept saying, "ba...ba...ba"
which means "ball." :)