A little late but here is Thanksgiving

This year we went to Utah for Thanksgiving. We were a little worried about the long drive with Avery but she was a champ and did really well in the car and there were not any freak-outs! We saw a couple of friends but mostly hung out with family! My mom makes the best Thanksgiving dinner ever. We had everything you could think of! Levi and I even contributed to the dinner by making Levi's Grandma's recipe of pomegranate salad..........DELICIOUS!

Avery had a good time seeing all of her cousins! I think they liked to see her to. All of Avery's cousins(ages 8 months to 7 years) tried out her Bumbo chair. It was pretty funny, too bad we didn't get any pictures of that.

Levi and my dad did a lot of work on my car. We are so thankful for my dad. He always checks out my car when we visit and he usually ends up doing a lot of maintenance on it. It definitely saves us a lot of money! Thanks Dad!

We saw the movie The Blindside. It was pretty good and funny. The last thing we did was get haircuts and I got my hair dyed DARK! Well dark for me. We did it twice. I wanted a slight tint of red when you saw it in the sun, but it turned out a little purple so the second time we put some more dark in it and it turned out pretty dark. It looked almost black but it has washed out some and I like it.

Reed wanted to hold Avery every chance he could get.

It was chilly in Utah so we had to keep Avery bundled up!

Avery hanging out with Grandpa

This is one of the few pictures we got of Avery smiling.

Avery rolling around with her cousin Daxton

Avery 4 months

One of my friends at work is getting into photography and she took some pictures of Avery! It was kind of hard getting Avery to cooperate she either had to be held was crying or had a pacifier in her mouth. So here are a few of the pictures that turned out well. Thanks Noelle! Check out her photography blog here
There were a lot of other pictures I tried to upload but it wouldn't work so these are the two you get. We also just took Avery to her 4 month appointment and she is doing great. She now weighs 14 pounds 6 ounces and is 26 1/2 inches long! Avery just learned how to roll over onto her tummy! Every time you put her down she rolls over then she gets upset because she can't get back onto her back.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. I was a little sad because we didn't dress up this year like we usually do, but Avery did. Avery was a little duck! She was so cute and fun. We went to grandma's trunk-or-treat at her ward one night. Then in our ward we had a fall festival where we did a booth and all the kids came dressed in their costumes and got candy. We carved a PUMPKIN! It was a pirate ship with a skull in the middle. Then on Halloween we visited some friends and family since Avery really isn't old enough to trick-or-treat or eat candy!

Avery got a little scared when she saw Thing 1 and Thing 2

Happy Halloween

Avery at 3 months

Uncle Art and Avery

All of our family doesn't get to see Avery every day, and our family in Utah and elsewhere has been bugging us to put up some updated photos of her. She has been so much fun lately. Recently she has found her hands. She loves to put her fingers in her mouth. She drools all the time and all over everything! I hope that doesn't mean that she will be getting her teeth soon. She is showing more of an interest in toys that she can hold on to. We also have a play mat that has a mirror on it and she loves to stare at herself in it (probably because she is so cute). Avery also got to meet her Uncle Art for the first time. Art seemed pretty excited to have a new baby in the family. Art seems a little baby hungry while waiting for his baby boy to arrive in February. Here are a couple photos we have taken recently.....

Bow/clip holder

I recently learned how to make flower clips for Avery. So I have made a bunch of hair clips but then I had them scattered all throughout the house. I decided to gather all the clips up and store them in a box. However, I would totally forget about them and never put them on Avery. So I found a cute idea HERE! And Voila........this is how mine turned out!

Deep sleeper or light sleeper

We try not to go out to eat to often but we hadn't been to pete's fish and chips in a long time and we had cause to celebrate (Levi got a job.....More to come on that later) so anyways Levi decided he wanted to go to Pete's so off we headed. Avery was awake the whole way there, while we ordered our food, also while we waited for our food. When we got our food she was dozing in and out of consciousness.
As most of you probably know that you sit outside when you go to Pete's. We were just sitting there eating our meals and we could hear a firetruck pull out of the station just up the street. It was slowly getting louder and louder. We were both watching Avery to see what she would do......Was she going to wake up and start crying or what? As we watched her the firetruck got closer and closer. Then it got to the intersection where Pete's is and of course they really turn up the siren and honk the horn to make sure the intersection is clear. We, of course, are sitting next to the wall of Pete's and the siren is echoing off the wall right to us. What do you think Avery does..........Nothing!! She didn't even blink and eye or squint her face....NOTHING! How in the world do you sleep through all that racket? Then what do you know, about five minutes after the firetruck was gone Avery's binky fell out of her mouth and she woke up screaming a second later.

What to do after a doctor appointment?

Avery had her two month check up with the doctor and it went really well. The doctor said that she looked great. She just laid on the table while the doctor examined her and she didn't even make a peep, which is pretty strange for her. If you have met Avery you know that she isn't a quiet baby! The zantac must be working for her acid reflux because she has been a lot calmer lately! At her appointment she got two shots. OUCH!! She didn't like that too much, but she did pretty well. She only cried for the poke and then when I picked her up she was fine.
Avery weighs 12 pounds 2 ounces and she was around the 65%. She was 24 inches long and around the 95%. He said she was going to be tall! After seeing the doctor Avery curled up on the couch with her bear and binky and fell fast asleep.


Avery's favorite things these days: Bath time, curling her long monkey toes around your fingers, being held, getting her toes tickled, being naked(don't worry we only let her do this at home), smiling and sticking out her tongue.

We LOVE long weekends

I think that every weekend should be a three day weekend. It is always nice to have one extra day to get all your stuff together or just relax after a busy week! My parents and my brother Craig and his son Cory came down for the weekend. We decided to bless Avery since it was the long weekend and some of my family could make it to Arizona. We had a great time with them. This is a short and condensed version of our fun.

Swimming and hot tubbing-----EVERY DAY

Tia Rosas Mexican Restaurant

Shop til we drop......It doesn't take long for me to drop. I am usually done after a few stores!

BYU football game....GO COUGARS!!

Neds--BEST sandwich ever

Dart gun war

Family dinner with both of our families

Scorpion hunting


Took Cory for a ride on the ATV


Watching movies and relaxing

Avery's Blessing

Levi did a wonderful job on Avery's blessing! It was a beautiful blessing and perfect for our little girl! My mom still had the dress that I was blessed in so I decided to have Avery wear it. It fit her perfect. She looked so cute! I am so glad that I have a husband that is worthy to hold the priesthood and that can give our family members blessing when we are in need. Thank you so much Levi for being the best husband ever. We had a wonderful weekend and I am really dreading going back to work, even though it will be a short week to me it is still long being away from my two favorite people!

Word Project

I had some free time on my hands so I got these wood letters and decided to paint and decorate them for Avery's room. This is how they turned out.

Plus I had to add a picture of Avery with her bear.

$$$ 250 bucks richer $$$

The last semester of school Levi had to write a paper for one of his classes. This paper was their only assignment and the students total grade. When all the papers were turned in his professor had all the students submit them to a national writing competition. Just the other day Levi got an email that he had won a honorable mention on his paper. He was the only one from his school to win anything. Let me remind you that this was a national competition. Then a couple of days later he received a letter and a check for two hundred and fifty dollars. SCORE!! In the email they didn't even say that he had won any money. Way to go Levi! Levi worked so hard at school. He was always studying and reading late into the night. He did really well in all of his classes and still had time to have fun with me! You are amazing Levi! I lOvE yOu!

ONE MONTH

Avery is now one month old. We took her to her doctors appointment today and the doctor said she was doing great! She weighed 10 lbs 8 oz which was around the 50-60th percentile. She was 23 inches tall which was above the 90th percentile. Looks like we've got ourselves a tall little girl.

We have decided that Avery probably has colic. She likes to cry alot and nothing you can do will comfort her. My cousin who is a PA at a pediatric office suggested that I stop eating dairy products because that can affect babies through breastmilk. That seems to have helped but she still has her bad days. She seems to cry the most when she has gas. So we have tried mylicon drops and also gripe water. Once again they help but she still has her days. Today the doctor suggested we try Zantac and see if acid reflux is bothering her. So that is where we are at if anyone has had a baby with colic and has any other suggestions we would appreciate them.

Avery likes to smile and smirk in her sleep. She LOVES her baths! That is probably the one thing that will calm her cries. She just loves sitting in the warm water and she will sometimes smile a little if you use her legs to splash the water. After the bath we have to swaddle her up for bedtime and she isn't too fond of that. She wants to have her arms free when she sleeps so that she can reach up and stroke the hair on the sides and back of her head.

And lastly here is a list of some of her nicknames: munchkin, munch, chompo, squeaker, princess, The girl, and of course you cannot leave out sweetheart!

It's Official

Levi finally received his diploma from law school.

He graduated,
It's official!
Legal Disclaimer: This just means that Levi has a Juris Doctor degree; he will not be a lawyer until he gets his bar results in October.

Avery's first plane ride

This last week and a half we went to Utah to see my family. We had a really good time hanging out with friends and family. My grandparents even made it to Utah to see the new addition to the family.
We were a little nervous for the plane ride home because we didn't know how Avery would do. We know no one likes sitting next to a crying baby for 2 hours. Avery was a champ. She didn't cry at all. As a matter of fact she slept the whole time. It was great. She also did really well on the drive to Utah. She hardly made a peep until we got to Provo, about 5 minutes away from my parents house. Then she had had enough time in the car and wanted out!
We really enjoy seeing our nieces and nephews. They are a lot of fun to play with. Our niece Alivia kept telling me how much she loved Avery. It was so cute. She wanted to hold her and give her loves all the time. Avery started to cry one time when Alivia was holding her and Alivia said, "Could you please take her now" Then when she stopped crying she wanted to hold her again. Little kids are so fun!

Aunt Elise and cousin Reed holding Avery. Reed loved checking on Avery to see how she was doing.

After playing all day Alivia said, "Uncle Levi I really enjoyed playing with you."

Cousins: Alivia holding Avery, Cory holding Daxton, and Reed

We kept touching Alivias nose to make her go cross-eyed. She wanted to try it after Aunt Kathy did it. She thought it was so funny!

Alivia kept telling me how much she loved Avery and how cute she was.

We went to the Snow Family Reunion and Grandpa Hatch couldn't get over how peaceful Avery was with her arms folded.

2 weeks old already

Does anyone know how to change a newborns sleeping schedule? This little girl thinks that she can sleep all day long and stay up all night long! The other night I was up with her from midnight until five a.m. then it was Levi's turn from five until eight when she finally fell asleep. We try and play with her all day but she won't even peek out her eyes at all. We even have to wake her up to feed her and even then I don't think that she is totally awake. HELP!!!

Besides the crazy sleeping schedule she is doing great. I took her to her two week appointment today and she weighed 9lbs 3oz. She has gained 1lbs since leaving the hospital! Her skin has cleared up from all that baby acne. When the doctor was examining her today he found a bump on her collar bone and he thinks that she may have broken it when she was being delivered. I took her for an x-ray today. The doctor's office called later and told us that her collarbone is broken and mending and that she will have a bump there for a while until it heals. We just thought she might be left handed because she always used her left hand over her right.

But other than the collarbone, the doctor said she is doing great. She is a pretty happy baby if you can keep her moving. She doesn't like to be handed off, especially if you are taking her from her dad. When she is sleeping she likes to reach up and stroke the hair on the side of her head. We will try to post more pictures when we can get pics that are awake and happy.

More Pictures

Here are a few more pictures with the grandparents. I will try to get Kathy to write something soon.

Introducing Avery Hatch

I left Kathy at the hospital for a little bit to come home and shower and put a few pictures up. Avery was born at 1:16 on Monday afternoon. She weighed in at 8 lbs 13oz., and was 21.5" long. I think that Kathy had a fairly easy labor, but I wasn't the one doing the pushing. Both Mom and baby are in perfect shape with no complications. Avery has a good appetite and was just opening her dark blue eyes and trying to look around before I left.
Kathy and I wanted to thank everyone for their advice and support, we couldn't have done it without you.