Aviel Shopping..

Aviel's aunt Jaclyn told us of a neat little trick to help toddlers build up confidence and start walking a little sooner. Aviel loves pushing everything now. She refuses to be sat is her stroller or in the shopping cart. She would much rather be pushing it.

Aviel Walking and Cleaning...

Idaho Falls Zoo

Last week Shawn took a Saturday off to spend some time with Aviel and I. We tried to make the most of our time together, so we went to the little zoo in Idaho Falls. I was actually pretty impressed with how many animals there were. Shawn's favorite animal were the black swans. Aviel loved the camels and the lions. I think that these were the easiest for her to spot. My favorite animal was the red panda. They reminded me of Aviel. Cute and small.

Here is Aviel hatching out of a little egg. She got some new shoes she loves walking around in. She is a full toddler now. She crawls maybe 20% of the time.

Aviel and the Bagleys

Gran and Papa came to visit for a baptism and a baby blessing. Aviel was a little tired, but very entertained by both of them. She even snuggled into Papa, which is something she only does with Shawn and I. Pretty cute. Gran came home from shopping and spoiled her with even more attention. Aviel is so lucky to have cool grandparents who take care of her and play with her. We went to a friends little girls BBQ last weekend. Aviel felt like a pro racer in the sporty little car. She was pretty tired, again. We had just climbed the 'R' mountain about an hour before, but she was a great sport and loved the watermelon.
Baby update! Liam is now bigger than Aviel was when she was born. He feels a lot stronger and I am a lot more sore and tired than I was with her. I hope to carry him full term and have a big healthy boy. I just can't imagine getting much fatter than I am now!

St. George Trip!

One of Shawn's bosses daughters got married last week and daddy paid for her to go to St. George for a couple days. By agreeing to be gone for the weekend, Shawn was allowed to bring Aviel and me. We loved it down there. Beautiful sunny days, lots of swimming and splash parks, visiting the Walker side of the family; all paid for by the big boys. What more could we want?
Here are Shawn and Aviel at the St. George temple. It was pretty bright outside. And Aviel splashing at the park. She loved it! I was afraid she cry and get cold but she actually crawled for the spouts. She lasted about 5 minutes before I grabbed her to sit her in the sun so she could dry off. She was shivering and cold, but she wanted to go right back in.
She figured out the headsets on the way back. She doesn't have much fat on her, but the headset squished what she did have.

Our Lil' Guy

Much to Shawn's relief, our little boy is still a little boy. Everyone kept telling us horror stories of the gender changing due to ultrasound tech errors. But our ladies had the gender pinned down 6 weeks ago. We had a 3-D ultrasound for the first time ever. Here is how it turned out.
He is very healthy and seems to be the right size.
Aviel turned one last Thursday! She was a little tired by the time we got around to her party, but she did pretty well. We sure are proud of how well she is doing. She crawls everywhere and gets into everything. She will climb the first step or two of a set of stairs and wait for me to notice before trying to climb all the way up before I can catch her. It has become her favorite game, and I love making her giggle all the way up by making loud sounds and calling her name. This is a pic a friend took after Shawn had landed in the Stearman. Aviel was at the airport to watch him land and taxi.

How to Gain Weight

Aviel is doing very well. She crawls around and gets into everything. We introduced her to grass and now she wants to play outside all day. Her first word was "Dadda" followed by "Uh-oh!".
My teenage sister lives in our basement. I yell down the stairs to tell her when breakfast is ready or when she needs to leave for school. I was doing so one morning when I noticed Aviel copying me. She was standing up holding onto the railings and yelling gibberish down the stairs at Veronica. It was pretty funny. It is weird what she picks up on. Now she yells at poor Veronica all the time. She is going to be a great mother some day.
Her occupational therapist is excited by how fast she is developing. His only concern was how slowly she seems to be gaining weight. She is a year next week and weighs under 15 lbs. I think they like to see them at about 22 lbs. He asked us to start feeding her whip cream to try and help her put on some weight. She loves eating the nasty stuff, so it works pretty nicely.

"HI, DADA"

I may be a little biased, but, Avi is not only saying her first word here, but also her first sentence. She has babbled Dadadada for some time now, but the recent development of her adding a subtle "hi" beginning the word gives her a few sentences.

A few of these sentences are:

"Hi, Da"

"Hi, Dada"

and "Hi, Dadphth"

Just one more reason I have the best daughter ever.

Shawn

Aviel in her stunna shades...

Here is Aviel with her newest accessory. Pretty freakin' cute.

Aviel's Tooth

Now that I have time, I want to tell you more about Aviel's first teeth. As you can see, she is just starting to break a second tooth next to the first. The first tooth has been very elusive to pictures until this one. She liked to cover it up with her tongue. When we give her apples you can hear her tooth scraping the apple. We are very proud of our daughter, who is actually ahead in her solid eating milestones.

Avi's WWII Experience (And First Solo)

Yesterday (Saturday February 19, 2011) was Aviel's 9 month birthday. As her gift of reaching that pinnacle, we took her to the Legacy Flight Museum to try her hand at a few of the planes and jeeps.


First Chantal and I put her in the Mormon Mustang, to get her revved up for this year's airshow season. I was impressed that as soon as she hopped in the Mustang, she immediately familiarized herself with the plane. As you can see, she got a feel for the throttle and the stick.
She insisted we take up the plane, so we let her. Here's some in-flight pictures of Aviel flying the Mormon Mustang.
In the Picture above, Aviel is taxiing for take-off. Note that the canopy is open and she is looking to the side, as she S-turns to see over the long nose.This is Aviel pulling out of a loop. The strain in her face is due to the high G-loading.

At the end of her flight, we thought it appropriate to take a nostalgic fighter-pilot picture at the side of her plane.
We thought she looked rather heroic in this picture.
When she was done flying, she told us she was hungry, so to top off the WWII experience she drove the WWII Willies Jeep to get some food.

Blood clots and a new job...

My poor mother noticed her leg was a little tight about a month ago. She decided to take it easy and only run 3 miles a day instead of her regular 7. And then her right shoulder began to hurt very badly. Mom had a hard time sleeping because of the pain. She thought it was a pinched nerve, and, having no insurance, tried to tough it out. Last Tuesday I called her about getting Veronica on some kind of state insurance and my poor Mother Dearest could barely talk. She claimed it felt like her lungs were always tired. She couldn't bend down to kneel and pray. She could barely stand up once she had sat in a chair. And yet she refused to go in and see what was happening. I talked to her about it being a problem that she could barely breathe. Breathing is a big part of my life. She finally went in Tuesday afternoon. She saw a regular doctor, but was quickly rushed to the ER. They did x-rays and found that her lungs were almost completely full of blood clots. Her shoulder hurt because there were blood clots lined up in her arteries trying to make it into her lungs. Her left leg was completely full of clots. She had to have a line ran into her veins from her hip into her calf. The line whipped up the blood clots and got the blood thinners directly into the middle of all the mess. 5 days in the ICU and she was discharged; feeling much better and being able to breath pretty well. She still has a filter in her chest to prevent clots from getting into her heart. I love my mommy and I am glad she is ok.
And Shawn got a new job that he absolutely loves. We are a very blessed family.

Can't Get Enough of Aviel Marie

As the mother, I get to stay home and take care of this little bundle of joy. In Shawn's words, she is pretty stinking cute. She is becoming mobile and loves rolling everywhere. I have to keep an eye on her or she will get herself hurt. She rolled into the stair railing today and hooked her leg. She had the saddest little cry but luckily I got to her before she got hurt. Her personality is coming out. She seems like a pretty happy little baby.

Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year. Growing up, my mom always did two things around Christmas time. She baked treats for the neighbors and we lit candles every Sunday and on Christmas Eve. Having more Davison in the house with my little sister coming to live with us, we decided to keep with the traditions.

Aviel got a lot of cool presents. I hope she doesn't become spoiled. Her is a picture of her and a little present from her fav Grandpa. Shawn has a mustang silver tie pin and I have a matching necklace. And now Aviel has a little piece as well.

Holding Her Own

Shawn's birthday was yesterday. He turned 25. In the last year he has graduated college, gotten a job, and acquired a baby and a 16-year old. My little sister Veronica is living with us for the next two years.
And then there is Aviel holding her bottle like a big girl. She has gotten to where she loves to hold our fingers and walk around the house. It is pretty cute to see. She looks like a newborn walking around.

Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving, we all went down to Orem, UT. Utah was supposed to have the storm of the century. Hospitals, colleges, and roads were closed down. When the storm did eventually hit, it was pathetic. Orem received a 'trace' of snow. My youngest sister, Olivia, was so disappointed.
Grandpa Hart made a delicious ham and turkey. Poor man. He is a great cook, but the doctors told him to lose the weight and go in for back surgery. He was about 276 and he made it down to the 230's Thanksgiving morning. 239.5, but the 230's non the less. As someone who loves good food, I feel for you Grandpa.
Nacelle, his wife, made the best yams, which just happens to be my personal favorite.
Olivia, Kamilla, Veronica, and I played football all morning. We got a little carried away with the face paint. Then we went and visited the Davisons. They absolutely love Shawn. They ask his opinion on everything. We don't know what he did to make them worship him, but its all good.
Curtis and Melanie came over with their girls to salvage what leftover they could. At about 5 o'clock, most of the girls under 25 went for a walk to try and work some of the food off. It was so cold. The little girls, Sara, 5, and Brynn, 9, did great. It ended up being about 1.5 miles. Felt good though.
Black Friday came and went with our family only spending 50 dollars on new work shirts for Shawn and a onsie for Aviel. The onsie says,"Party. My crib. 3 a.m.". Its so true we couldn't pass it up.
Friday night we went to the temple to see all the Christmas lights. Breathtaking.
We left Saturday morning and beat the blizzard home.

Before:1 Month-After: 6 Months

Here is Aviel at about 5 weeks when she had only been home for two days. So different and yet her personality really hasn't changed. Still curious and cute. She weighed a little over 3 lbs. and was about 17 inches long. She had to eat 1.5 oz of high calorie mix of milk and formula every 3 hours. She slept about 2 hours and would be awake for about 30 minutes at a time. Shawn and I were still getting used to being able to hold without having to worry about pulling monitors off of her body. We had to visit the doctors twice a week.


Here she is today. She has been talking a lot lately. She is also sleeping about 5 hours at a time during the night. This is so nice for both Shawn and me. She will take about three 2 hour naps throughout the day. She eats one jar of solids every day and about 6 oz of milk every 3 hours. She has normal check-ups like any other baby.

Aviel at 5.5 months

Sixth Crossing

150 year ago-Hoping for more supply wagons, the Willie Company waited until October 23rd, before undertaking the worst ordeal of their journey...the five mile climb over Rocky Ridge in a howling snow storm with eighteen- to twenty-four inches of snow on the ground. The total distance between campsites was approximately twelve miles and took some emigrants over twenty hours. Wagons and handcarts were taken back to help many that had given up and laid beside the roadside.
Shawn and I were going to go visit Dad and Lue, but Shawn got called on a business trip. Tamazine agreed to go with me.
Here we are on Rocky Ridge. The little girl with me is also named Shantell. Pronounced just like my name.

Rocky Ridge. It wasn't too hard to walk over, but it was pretty hard to push the handcart over. And we only had maybe about 30 lbs of stuff in it. Atleast it looked hard. I was just carrying Aviel.

Here is Aviel bundled up for the day. She actually got a little too warm on the 7 mile walk.

The pioneers used buffalo chips as firewood. We tried cow chips with poor results.

I know she looks a little concerned in the picture, but Aviel absolutely loves her gran. It was nice for me to get a break from taking care of her every now and again.

Dad carried Aviel's carseat everywhere for me. Again, it was nice to get a break from lugging that around.

Shawn was so bummed out he couldn't come with us, but he wants to come next month.
We love you, Dad and Lue. Proud to call you family. Take care of each other and we will keep fattening up little Aviel.

General Conference Weekend

I know these are close to two weeks late. Just took me a while to get the pictures uploaded. But here they are.
There was a forest fire somewhere in the area. The dust particles in the air give the sun light a lot to reflect off of and this makes for very vivid sunsets.

Here is a bunch of cuddle bugs. Shawn, Aviel, Lleida, and Cairo.

Here is Aviel ready for a walk. I kifed the baby carrier off the Brunsons.

This is Aviel starting solids all on her own. Too cute.

Lleida and Cairo had a good old fashioned jousting match where they tried to push each other off of our backs. The girls won this one.