Cougar Courage

BYU's football home opener was the same weekend that Larry's mom was in town, so we of course all went to see the game. We unpacked Ava's BYU cheerleader outfit she wore to last year's home opener and it surprisingly still fit her (albeit much more tightly). With so much on the line for the cougars this season, Ava was visibly nervous.

Nala reprised her role as a "cougar" for our pictures. We thought Nala's presence would reassure Ava, but it was no help.

However, then Ava gave Nala a hug and her courage was bolstered.

So much so that she flexed her muscles for the next picture.

Our collective apprehension of course proved to be misplaced as BYU went on to win the game with authority. Two weekends later, Ryan and Kelly flew out from North Carolina to see BYU's second home game against UCLA. The Cougars won that game handily, 59-0. Here's a picture of Jamison, Ryan, Kelly, and Larry at the game. As of today, BYU is 5-0 and ranked #8 in the country.

For those wanting to take a brief stroll down memory lane, here's a picture taken during last year's home opener of Ava with Grandpa Furr. You can read the blog post here.

We're guessing the outfit won't fit her again next year, so we've begun collecting donations for the Buy Ava a New Cheerleader Outfit Fund (BANCOF). Operators are standing by.

Favorite Things

One of Ava's favorite things to do is to play with her stuffed animals.

Lily Mae may get most of attention on this blog, but in reality Ava has a lot of stuffed animal friends.

Nala started out as her favorite, but was eventually replaced by her dalmatian puppy. Lately, however, she's been loving her bunnies.

Among Ava's other favorite things are her binkies. Here she is doing "blast-off" (the Little Einsteins is her favorite show).

But why have one binky when you can have three?

Ava's favorite place to be in her room is sitting in her rocking chair.

Playing outside is also one of her favorite things, if not her most favorite things. But we'll save those pictures for another post.

Hats! (and Socks)

Ava is at that age where she loves dressing up.

She will try on anything, whether it is hats, jewelry, or shoes.

She will spend hours going through all of her shoes and hats trying them on one at a time.

Not only does she like to dress herself up. She also likes to include Nala in on the fun.

Though Ava isn’t much of a shopper (yet)—she quickly loses her patience when I take her to the mall—she certainly likes trying things on when she’s at home.

Considering the number of hats that we have bought for Ava, I am so glad to see that she has finally started taking a real interest in wearing them and keeping them on for more than a minute.

You can see here how excited Ava was to hear that she was wearing one of her Aunt Maddie’s old hats.

Here Ava is thinking of how to get even more hats.

Ava also loves going through my closet and trying on all of my shoes. The other day I even found her putting on my socks.

I know that these are quite scarily bright socks, but they are actually so comfortable (I only wear them to bed).

Next up: getting her to love shopping!

Costume Controversy

Witch In Training

We told Ava that she was going to be a witch for Halloween. As you can see, she was very excited.

As she imagined herself dressed up as a witch, she decided she should try to learn some magic spells.

She summoned all of her witch powers in preparation; and then tried and tried to cast a spell on her friend Nala to make her come alive.

She finally gave up, discouraged that her spells would not work.

We told her she could still be a witch even if her spells didn't work. This made her feel better, although she vowed to figure out a way to make Nala come alive some day.

Perhaps we will need to send her to Hogwarts.

My First BYU Game

Two weekends ago I attended my first ever BYU football game. Before leaving for the game, my mommy and daddy dressed me up in a BYU cheerleader's outfit and took what felt like endless pictures.

Then they made me sit next to Nala and proceeded to take even more pictures. (Someone needs to clue them into the fact that Nala is a lion, not a cougar.)

I finally asked my fairy godmother if she would please get my parents to stop taking pictures and take me to the football game already.

Alas, we were off to the game.

But first we had to take a detour to Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kelly's apartment. Once there, everyone wanted to have their picture taken with me. First my parents...

...then Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kelly...

...and then Grandpa Furr, who was visiting from Pennsylvania. I was just glad that we were finally headed to the game.

Once there, I decided that football games are actually quite boring. All I wanted to do was get down on the ground so that I could crawl around and discover new things, but my parents wouldn't let me down.

Then Cosmo wanted to get his picture taken with me too. My parents were trying to get me to look at the camera, but I was too busy trying to figure out how to get down on the ground. The guy in the headphones was no help either.

Next I got my picture taken with a real BYU cheerleader. However, I was upset when I discovered that my outfit wasn't the same color as the cheerleaders were wearing. Apparently the cheerleaders hadn't gotten the "wear blue to the games" memo.

I stared longingly at the ground hoping she would take the hint, but she didn't. I guess it's true what they say about blonde cheerleaders.

Football games are also very hot. I had to wear my pink hat most of the day, which unfortunately clashed with my outfit. The water bottle was my only consolation.

Whilst re-hydrating myself, Uncle Ryan and Grandpa got their picture taken with some guy named Chad Lewis. Personally, I didn't see what was so special about him. He wasn't even wearing the right color.

Bored out of my mind and unable to get anyone to put me on the ground to play, I decided to take a nap.

I woke up later feeling very refreshed and got my picture taken with the BYU Cougarettes. I decided I liked the Cougarettes better than the cheerleaders since they were wearing the right color. Plus, they have better dance moves.

Finally the game was over. I was so happy that BYU beat Arizona, but mainly I was just happy to go home.

I think I'll be watching the rest of this season's games on TV.