"OH!"

We call this Avery's "Oh!" face. She started doing it over Christmas for no apparent reason. It's really quite funny.

New House, New Couches

Well we've been in Milwaukee two weeks now and are pretty much set up in our new home. It's a second floor apartment with an attached garage. I really like having the whole house on one floor which makes Avery feel more comfortable playing in her own room and much more easy to keep clean.

So here are some pictures of our new place along with our new chocolate brown microfiber couches we got last week.

New Couches in the living room.

Living Room view from the couch. Hallway leads straight to Avery's room, master bedroom on back right.

Avery in the dining room. There's a big mirror wall behind her.

Kitchen with a breakfast bar kind of area looking into the living room.

Master bathroom. I don't have any pictures of the bedrooms right now because they were too messy when I was taking pictures! I'll post those later maybe.

Anyways that's our place! It works fine for us so we're happy to be here.

Avery video

So we got a new webcam for Christmas and Avery loves recording videos of herself and watching them over and over. Here's a cute short one of her.

Correction: COLD-er!

So I woke up this morning and checked the weather and it was actually -5 degrees, with a wind chill of -26 degrees. So a little colder than they thought it would be. I am slightly ashamed to admit, however, that I have yet to actually experience the cold because I haven't left the comfort of my 72 degree heated home yet. I thought about opening the backdoor onto our porch for a little taste but I'm afraid my nose will freeze instantly! I think I'll wait until it's above zero.

Hope you're all warmer than I am!

COLD!

Okay so I just checked the 10-day forecast for my zip code on Weather.com and this is what I found:

Look at that Saturday forecast - 4 degrees as the high!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What are we doing in Milwaukee?!!!

Just kidding, it will be fine. Just coooold! I think we're going to make a trip to Kohl's this week to take advantage of our newly acquired 15% off employee discount and get some hats and gloves to keep us warm!

Helloooo Milwaukee

Well we've arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We had a good trip and made it here Tuesday at 3pm. We checked into our apartment and found it in pretty good shape, especially since we never got to see it before we signed the lease. Our ABF trailer then got here this morning and we had some LDS guys who work at Kohl's come over and help us unload it this evening. So now we sit surrounded by boxes fighting over our one comfortable chair (since we haven't bought couches yet), watching one of the four channels we get on TV (since our cable isn't getting hooked up until Saturday).

We took the drive in three days, the first day traveling 10 hours from Bountiful to Kearney, the second traveling 4 1/2 hours to Des Moines, and the third day traveling 6 hours to Milwaukee. The weather worked out pretty well once we got through some light snow in the mountains.

Here are some of the "not so fun" highlights of our trip:
1. Avery throwing up five minutes after we get into the car the first day.
2. Avery throwing up again one hour after we arrive in our hotel the first day (Luckily it wasn't in the car again!).
3. Merrick getting pulled over in Nebraska and getting a nice $120 ticket. Yuck.
4. Watching the Ohio State Buckeyes lose Monday night in Des Moines with Vanessa's brother-in-law, an OSU alumni.
5. Breaking the glass on our prized Christ picture that we brought with us so it would be safe and not get broken.

But you know, the car worked great, Avery was generally a good traveler, and we made it here so we can't complain too much. It's definitely a different place here in Wisconsin. We've got a lot of changes to get used to now. We'll miss Utah and all our friends and family for sure because everything here is so unknown and foreign to us. But I'm sure we'll figure everything out quickly. Hope all is well with all you.

Christmas Pictures

Here are some fun pictures of our Christmas.

Merrick and Vanessa and Avery having Christmas Eve Dinner at the Smith's.

Avery opening her presents on Christmas morning.

Avery trying on her cute new pink boots! I'm ready for the snow in Milwaukee!

Avery at Grandma Haws' house on Christmas Day practicing her roll-making skills on some handy dandy playdough.

Merrick with Avery and Vanessa's cousin Gavin at Grandma Haws' house on Christmas Day.

Moving Day

Hey if anyone is available we're packing up today (Wednesday January 2nd). The trailer will be arriving sometime in the afternoon and we're having people come over at 4pm to help load. Then we need help cleaning starting at 5 or 6pm for most of the evening.

So any help would be appreciated!! Call if you need any more details.