The Shaw Family Blog

Dane Meeting Avery and James

2012-01-27T12:16:00.009-06:00

Avery and James finally got go meet Dane Monday afternoon. My mom drove them downtown and they came and found me in recovery with Dane. They were so, so excited and also very sweet and gentle with Dane. Both of their faces lit up and they couldn't stop grinning. They wanted to touch him of course, and also were very exciting about checking everything out: Avery wanted to see his toes and his ears, they both wanted to see his hair, James was really interested in his belly button and my incision, etc. We got a few pictures, but I am looking forward to getting some better ones over the next few days.

Everybody stayed in recovery with me for a while and then it was time for them to take Baby Dane up to the nursery for a bath and some check-ups etc. Everybody left to go watch Dane through the nursery windows and I had to stay down in recovery...for 3 hours!!! I thought I was never going to get out of there! I was the only person in there and I don't know what the hold up was, but it was a very long three hours. Al kept texting me to see if I was ever going to show up to my hospital room and I FINALLY did at around 6:30 at night. By that time everybody was starving and the kids were starting to get a little restless in the hospital setting. But they still did very well. They all ate and took turns 'holding' Dane with some heavy supervision and assistance. Avery still has a cold which I'm not thrilled about...but what can you do? Oh well...lots of antibacterial wash going on here :)

Little Dane's Arrival

2012-01-27T12:05:00.006-06:00

Dane was born at 2:19 pm Monday. We arrived at the hospital at 11:30 to get checked in. After getting all of the paperwork filled out and information in the computer we were put in a small room where they monitored Dane's heart rate for a while and also started my IV. We were told at first that they thought they were running ahead of schedule, but they ended up running a little behind by about half an hour. Not too bad for a busy hospital!

We had an attending and a resident from anesthesiology and Al knew both of them, so they were super happy, friendly, and excited for us. They do spinal blocks instead of epidurals for c-sections here. But in the end the result is the same :) It wasn't too long after they started when they brought Al in to sit by me, and then not too long after that Dane was born! This is the only time that they've lowered the sheet so that we can see him being born. Al had been peeking over the top of the sheet to get a couple of pictures, but then the techs lowered the sheet for us and we got to see little Dane for the first time. It was so exciting. Dane was already crying a sweet little cry and his arms were flailing around. We could see right away that he was a chub! His arms and legs were already filled out. We could also tell that he had a ton of hair :)

The anesthesiology resident took over as photographer and got some good pictures of the three of us, and one with the doctor as well. Everybody in the OR was oohing and ahhing over Dane and his cheeks and the little dimple in his chin. It is the cutest little thing. He also has a dimple in one of his cheeks.

It took a while to close me up, but we were able to hold Dane the entire time which was so fun. When they were finished with me they wheeled me up to recovery. We got to keep Dane in there for a long time too, which I haven't gotten to do before. It was great just to be able to hold him right after he was born for a long time before they sent him to the nursery.

More pics and stories coming soon...

2 Teeth Down

2011-12-20T16:37:00.002-06:00

It's been a big week at the Tanner household. My birthday, seeing Santa, Avery's last day of school before Christmas, a couple of different Christmas parties and more. But maybe the most exciting thing is that Avery lost her first two teeth.

She has been waiting and asking about losing her teeth for a while now, since some of the older kids in her preschool class started losing teeth. I told her that it might be a while because I didn't lose my first tooth until I was in the 2nd grade...but she must take after Al in the teeth department. Over Thanksgiving my brother's family and my dad took her to see Puss in Boots and she came home from the theater with a very wiggly tooth. She said it was the popcorn that did the trick. But after asking about losing a tooth over these past several months, when the opportunity finally came she wasn't sure it was that great. She asked my older brother to pull it out and I think she wasn't prepared that it would hurt a little...because he gave it a yank and she ran out of the room crying. After that it took a lot of prompting to even let us see the wiggly tooth, let alone try to wiggle it out. Avery would work on it from time to time, but mostly just let it sit. We had noticed at one point though that actually both of the two bottom middle teeth were very wiggly.

On Tuesday Avery and James had asked for some chocolate milk to drink. They walked back into the family room and just a couple of seconds later Avery came running back into the kitchen holding her tooth, almost in tears because she was so excited. It had fallen out all on it's own. She made a few phone calls that day bursting to tell people all about how she lost her tooth.

The next morning Avery was getting ready for school. She was eating breakfast and had just finished when her other bottom tooth fell out on its own. Two teeth in less than 24 hours! Avery was beside herself.

That night we were eating dinner before we went to see Santa and Avery was telling us all about how she went to school and told everybody about her lost teeth. It went a little something like this:

Avery: I told Mr. Hanak (one of the music teachers) that I lost a tooth!
Me and Al: What did he say?
A: He said, 'Yeah, you sure did!' Then I told the cafeteria worker about it.
M & A: And what did she say?
A: She said, 'How exciting!' Then I told the other cafeteria worker about it and she said 'neat!' And Coach Christy said, 'Wow!' And then I told Coach Budd.
M & A: And what did she say?
A: She said, 'yeah, you already told me.'

Then Al and I just laughed and laughed. I'm sure Avery had walked around most of the day telling anybody that would stand still.

Avery's two permanent teeth are already growing in and I can see that we have some orthodontia in our future...hopefully she takes after Al in that department too and not me! It's all kind of bittersweet. Avery is so excited that she's lost teeth now, but it makes me and Al kind of sad. There little faces just change so much when their permanent teeth grow in. Our little Vee Vee is getting older for sure.

Going To See Santa

2011-12-20T16:32:00.008-06:00

The night of my birthday we took the kids to see Santa. We had told them that if Al got home at a good time we would go to Bass Pro Shop and see Santa there. It is just down the street from us and they do a really cute Christmas display. Avery and James were super excited and talked about it for the days leading up to the 14th. Al ended up getting home early that night so we were able to go!

We took the kids last year and had to wait in line forever, but this year it wasn't busy at all. I guess we picked the right night to go. We only waited 5 to 10 minutes and then it was our turn. Avery wasn't shy at all and walked right up to Santa. James, who had been talking about it for days excitedly, panicked at the last minute and started to cry. So Al carried him up to see Santa. Avery told Santa she wants a "green nutcracker with a sword and a crown on its head" for Christmas. They have been talking a lot about the Nutcracker ballet at school and Avery loves it. She tells me something new about it every day. I think it's neat that her teacher is teaching them about the ballet, but I'm not sure what Avery is going to do with a nutcracker...James said he wanted "toys." After Al prompted him to say cars Santa asked James if he liked Lightning McQueen and Mater. That melted the ice a lot and James finally went and stood by Santa. He didn't really want to sit on Santa's lap still, so he and Avery just stood in front of Santa for the picture.

Besides seeing Santa there are a lot of other fun stations set up in their winter land. James was most fascinated by the electric trains and it was so fun to watch his little face be so excited as he controlled the trains. Avery spent some time on the trains as well and also sat at the table to write Santa a letter. There were several other things to do but after the trains and the letter Al and the kids took off to go see the boats that were for sale. It was a really fun night.

Dane at 27 weeks and 3 days

2011-11-15T12:57:00.003-06:00

Today I had two ultrasounds. The first one was for my gall bladder. I had to go in fasting, which was rough...they shouldn't do that to a pregnant person. I am still feeling sick from it. Anyway, I had a half hour block for the gall bladder ultrasound. The tech was really talkative and she also had a student with her so she was explaining everything, which is how I found out that I have gall stones. Right before she started the ultrasound the tech explained that she was going to take some images, give them to the radiologist, he would write a report and send it to my OB and then my OB would go over the results with me. But as she was sitting there explaining everything to the student I joined in the conversation. It was interesting! So at one point I said to the tech, "Is that my gall bladder?" and I pointed to a white round marble on the screen. She said, "No, that's a stone." It was funny watching her try to track everything down since the pregnancy has displaced all of the organs. And once we saw a little foot up by my organs :)

After the gall bladder ultrasound I had to go to a different part of the hospital and get a baby anatomy ultrasound. My new doctor just wanted to take a look at things since he wasn't my doctor at the time of my last ultrasound. This was really fun. The tech said that Dane weights 2 lbs. 6 oz. right now and is measuring right on my due date. This ultrasound lasted a half hour as well, and there was another student in on this one, so the tech was talking a lot to both of us. I walked out of there with a ton of pictures! It is so fun to see Dane at this stage. Al met me in the hospital lobby afterwards to see the pictures. He thinks that Dane looks like James :)

Tomorrow is a regular OB appointment, plus the diabetes test. My OB is also going to run some labs on my liver and just see what is going on at this point. I am not having symptoms yet of cholestasis, in the past it shows up for me around 30-32 weeks.

Two Little Bats

2011-11-03T09:28:00.007-05:00

We had two little bats this year for Halloween. Avery had her heart set on being Wonder Woman for the longest time. I'm not even sure how she knows who Wonder Woman is...but about a month or so before Halloween she changed her mind and said she wanted to be a bat and she never wavered on it. I thought it would be cute for James to be a bat too. My mom and grandma sewed the costumes and sent them out to the kids. They loved them! The black parts of the costume are made out of a crushed velvety type of material. And you can't really tell in the pictures, but Avery's purple wings were sparkly. I think my favorite part of the costumes is the ears. I love how those cute pointy ears just stick right up.

Avery and James were crazy about the costumes. They have loved flapping their arms and running around the house...so much so that I finally had to have them take off the costumes because my sanity was at stake :) We were able to get quite a few wears out of the costumes. Avery had a birthday party to go to a couple of days before Halloween that she wore her costume to. Then we had the ward Halloween Trunk or Treat, and then actual Halloween. They don't wear costumes to school here, or even have a Halloween party here. Al and I both thought that was sad! We both remember several of our classroom parties and how fun they were.

Al had Halloween off this year which was so fun! He has worked the last two Halloweens. I know he loved going out trick or treating with us. The kids did really well and James caught on very quickly to what he was supposed to do. After we left every house the kids would call out 'Thank you!' and then James would add, 'Happy 'Ween!' Very cute. James would stop and focus on every Jack o'lantern and ask Al if he could blow out the candle. Avery was more focused on getting to the doors :) James was very possessive of his pumpkin bucket and wouldn't let me or Al help him carry it, and it was heavy! The kids loved coming home and dumping all of their candy into a pile. Then we had fun sorting it all out.

I don't really have pictures from it, but Al and I went to a couple's only Halloween party the weekend before. It was a lot of fun. Our costumes weren't that great...we didn't have money to put into it, and we don't have a collection of Halloween stuff to choose from. And I don't have a sewing machine. Not to mention that neither me or Al is super into dressing up. So we decided to go as Juno and Paulie Bleaker from the movie Juno. But the night before the party I found out that my good friend Kim and her husband were going as Juno and Paulie! So then Al thought it would be great to go as ghosts. Just the super classic, lame, white sheet ghosts. I thought it was kinda funny too. Al 'borrowed' some sheets from the hospital which I was totally against. I don't care that he 'borrowed' them. I cared that they had been used in a hospital!! But Al said that they were from the children's ward (he's on pediatric surgery right now) and that he had gotten them from the fresh laundry and that the hospitals actually throw out the sheets very frequently so they never even get used that much. Whatever. I still wanted to wash and dry them again. Al thought I was crazy. Then as we were cutting up the sheets I noticed a small blood stain on the sheet Al said was mine. Al didn't believe me, but then I showed it to him and he was like, "Um...I'll take that one." In the end the ghosts didn't really turn out how we expected, and I was still freaked out about the sheets, so we didn't use them. We ended up being football players...sort of. Al wore his high school jersey and I wore this football jersey t-shirt that I have. We didn't win any prizes for our costumes, but we did win the pumpkin carving contest! We only had 15 minutes to carve, but we did awesome! Avery had suggested before we left that we go with a super mario theme. So Al carved the Boo ghost on his big pumpkin and I carved a one-up mushroom on the tiny pumpkin. I wish we had pictures of the pumpkins 'cause they really were cute.

We are having a...

2011-10-05T15:06:00.002-05:00

BOY!!!

We are very excited :)

I took Avery to the ultrasound with me this morning. Yesterday morning she was nearly in tears saying she didn't want another brother, so I was a little worried about how today was going to go.

Avery had a paper she had made that had a box labeled boy and a box labeled girl and she was all prepared with a pen to mark the correct box when the time came. The ultrasound tech was great at explaining everything that she was looking at. They have a big flatscreen on the opposite wall so it was nice to see everything on the big screen instead of craning my neck to look at the little computer. The baby is developing perfectly and measured just 1 day ahead of the estimated due date, so he is growing right on schedule and weighs almost a pound :)

When it came time for the gender reveal Avery was hopping from one foot to the other, barely containing herself. When the tech told us it was a boy Avery started jumping up and down and exclaiming, "It's a boy! It's a boy!" And then she marked the right box on her paper :)

When we left the ultrasound room Avery told everybody in the hallway, "We're having a boy!!" And of course, everybody smiles back and says congratulations. Then Avery said to me, "Mom, I always wanted it to be a boy." Ha ha ha! Well, good! She did say she was upset she wouldn't get to share her room with the baby. I told her she was probably the only person I knew that was upset about not sharing a room!

I texted Al immediately. He had tried to get the day off, but it wasn't in the cards. Right before I went in to the ultrasound he had texted me saying he was in the OR, so I knew I wouldn't be able to call him. I just texted him, "Little DANE looks healthy and perfect, measuring just 1 day ahead of due date." He ended up calling a couple of hours later. He scrubbed out of his surgery because he just couldn't wait any longer and he said that everybody in the OR was so excited too. I didn't get to talk to him for long because he had to go scrub back in, but it was good to hear from him.

We will be naming our little guy DANE WILLIAM TANNER. Al and I both love the name and are so very excited.

Girl or Boy?

2011-09-29T08:50:00.003-05:00

I don't know if it's too soon for this post, but I thought maybe it was time to put our guesses out there for what the gender of baby #3 is going to be :)

Here is some input that may or may not be helpful:

- I really think it is a boy
- I have been wrong with both of our other kids :)
- Al has a 100% track record of guessing
- He used to be confident it was a girl, but now he is only semi-confident
- Avery of course thinks it is a girl
- James thinks it's a girl
- James doesn't understand the question :) Or that a baby is coming...
- We have a great boy's name picked out. I am really excited about it!
- We have a blank slate for a girl's name...
- All of my pregnancy symptoms/morning sickness etc. have been different with each pregnancy, so no use comparing.
- One Chinese calendar I saw said boy, another said girl :)
- If we follow Al's older sister's family pattern it will be a girl :)
- If we follow my older brother's family pattern it will be a boy :)
- It is great having one of each already, because I will be thrilled no matter what! I just want a healthy baby.

My ultrasound is on Wednesday, October 5th, less than a week away! Finally! I will be almost 22 weeks at that point. I'm thinking of taking Avery with me. I hope the next few days pass quickly!!

Avery's First Week in Pictures

2011-08-27T13:38:00.006-05:00

As you can see Avery's first week of Kindergarten was well documented. And she embraced the khaki and navy blue :)

Avery had a great first week, she loved it. The school is grades K-4 only, which is kind of nice. There are two music teachers and so Avery goes to music class twice a week. They have a PE coach too and Avery goes to PE twice a week as well. They also go to the library once a week. Avery was very impressed when I told her that Grandma Louona used to be a school librarian. Avery is starting to get to know the kids in her class and gives us little details on her classmates. It's amusing :) She brings home a folder every day that has a printout for the first six weeks of school that lists daily homework assignments and a daily behavior report I sign off on. And then it also has the handful of papers that Avery worked on that day. This morning Avery asked me when she gets to go back to school. She is hooked already.

As for me, I did much better on Tuesday when I dropped her off. But then Tuesday night I got really sad again thinking that she was going to be gone the whole next day too. Still adjusting I guess. The rest of the week got better with each day. It is nice/weird being on a routine after a long summer. Wednesday was the last morning I got to walk Avery to her classroom. From now on I can just drop her off at the school entrance. The school had a huge sign posted in the lobby on Thursday morning that said, "Hug them, kiss them, then tell them good-bye!" Ha ha ha! So that's what I did. I can see why they have to have a cut-off though. Avery is fine, but I would walk her every day to her class room if they let me :) And there were a few little kids having freakout/meltdowns as their moms left them in the lobby. That was hard to watch and I'm glad that Avery didn't go through that. Gotta make the separation some time I guess.

James is adjusting too. We have cuddled a lot this week. He's always been a cuddler, but I think it's increased since Avery's been gone. He watched Nemo everyday and sometimes he would come and get me and pat the couch next to him so I would sit by him. Then he would lay his head on my lap. I've spent a lot more time playing on the floor than when Avery was home too. I also think he's starting to talk more! Or maybe I am just hoping he is talking more ;) Thursday morning James threw a fit when we had to drop Avery off at the door. I thought it was because he missed Avery and I felt bad for him. Then Friday morning he insisted on taking a book bag on the walk to take Avery to school. Like Thursday, I dropped Avery off at the door and watched to make sure she headed the right direction. I only watched for a few seconds and then I turned around to look at James in the stroller...and he was gone. I started calling, "James! James!" and was starting to panic when a dad said, "Are you looking for a little blonde boy? He went inside." I don't know how I missed it, but he snuck right in the school. He got a good way into the lobby, with his bag over his shoulder. I grabbed him before he got too far and he had another meltdown. I guess he wants to go to school too :)

Avery's First Day of Kindergarten

2011-08-22T16:44:00.011-05:00

Avery is home from her first day of Kindergarten! It was a success :)

I had to include the picture of Avery in her 'alien mind blocker hat.' The green leaf is something she fashioned on the front to stand for 'nature aliens.' I guess she's a fan of nature aliens in particular...? She made a symbol for James' hat that is yet to be made. I don't think he's too keen on wearing a piece of foil on his head. But if he were going to wear his hat his symbol is a waterfall. For water aliens. Naturally. I know Al is thrilled beyond words that Avery has a huge interest in the solar system and now aliens. She drew a picture of the solar system yesterday that is so cute. I'll have to put it on the blog.

Anyway, Kindergarten!

Last night I painted Avery's fingernails and toenails in honor of the big day, and in honor of our tradition since the first year of preschool. This year at the store she picked out plum seduction, a very nice purple-y pink color :) After her nails dried Al gave Avery a back to school blessing. He talked about it with her before hand, how she needed to be extra reverent and listen to the words. She asked if I was going to help too, but Al said that only he would be giving the blessing since he had the priesthood. Then she asked what my special job was and Al said it was to paint her nails and help her look cute in her outfits, fix her lunch, etc. :) Al gave Avery a really nice blessing. Avery is so funny, when Al started the blessing and said her full name Avery whispered, "yes?" Ha ha ha! Al was saying some really nice things about Avery and the school year and he said something about her helping the kids that were sad. Then Avery whispered, "And also help me to be friends to the people that don't have any friends." Ha ha ha! So Al included that as well :)

After the blessing it was time to get Avery in bed. I took her upstairs and helped her pick out her outfit for the first day. She picked the hot pink polo. Then I opened her drawer full of shorts and pants and pulled out a pair of navy uniform shorts. Avery looked at them and said, "No! Not those!" Then I pulled out a pair of khaki shorts and she said, "Mom, I don't wear that color." Um...you do now! Welcome to uniforms! So we settled on a pair of denim capris. You are allowed to wear denim as long as it's not embellished at all. I guess we'll have to ease Avery in to the whole concept of uniforms.

Last night after the kids were in bed I had a little bit of an emotional moment. It's just such a big deal that she will be gone every day, all day now. I have never been away from my kids for more than a few hours at a time and so it is hard for me to be away from Avery for so long. Al was sympathetic, but said, "You know you can't do this at the school tomorrow, right?"

We woke up bright and early today. Al had the day off which was so nice! We got the kids all ready and headed down for Avery's requested breakfast of powdered donuts and orange juice. But she was just too excited/nervous to eat much of anything. Then it was off to school.

Avery was so excited. We walked Avery inside and to her classroom. Mrs. T was at the door ready to greet the kids and start the routines with them. Right when we walked in she put a name tag on Avery, then showed Avery where to put her lunch box. Avery excitedly told her, "I have a Littlest Pet Shop lunch box and today there are BBQ chips inside!!" To which Mrs. T replied, "Oh that sounds delicious!" Cute :)

We had a tiny hiccup when Avery went to hang up her back pack. There was another mom there with her child. She was wearing one of those long flowy dress things and Avery tripped on it on the way back to me and Al. She fell flat on the ground. Avery stood up bravely, but I could see her face crumbling as she walked back to us. So sad! I was already having a hard time keeping it together! Avery came and buried her face in my shirt and cried. I reassured her that she was okay, but maybe it just scared her a little bit. To which she replied that well, it did hurt a little too. She quickly pulled it together though and found a seat at one of the tables. Mrs. T had a coloring sheet at every seat for the kids to work on when they got there. At this point Al could tell I was in a fragile state so he told Avery to give me a hug and she did. Then I helped her sit back down and gave her a couple of kisses on the cheek and then...we left. I looked at the other moms all around and they all seemed composed! But as my friend Kim told me later, they were just saving up their tears for when they got back home :) What can I say...I'm super attached/worried/overprotective/emotional etc. And I'm my mother's daughter :)

Throughout the day, every so often, I would think I wonder what Avery is doing now. Did somebody help her with her lunch? Have they even had lunch yet? Is she having fun? And all sorts of other things. We all went and picked her up at 3 outside of the school. She came running up to us and before we could say anything she grabbed James' cheeks in both of her hands and said, "Did you miss me?!" It was cute.

The More The Merrier :)

2011-08-09T10:39:00.003-05:00

Yeah! A baby is on the way!

I've had two ultrasounds already and will have my 3rd appointment on Wednesday and everything looks great! This ultrasound picture was actually taken a few weeks ago. I love how you can already see the head and arms and legs :)

I am due February 11th...February is a big month for us I guess since Al and Avery already have birthdays in February! Which puts me at just over 13 weeks right now. But the baby will be born at least 1 week before that, and up to 3 to 4 weeks before the 11th if I get sick again. So probably anywhere between the middle of January to the beginning of February.

I will start shots at 16 weeks, once a week, up until I deliver. My OB is setting up a home nursing service that will come to the house to do the shots. I am sure it is something Al can do, but I need to find out more specifics, like if it has to be on the exact same day every time, etc. Al will start to be gone a lot more in the next several months and so maybe it won't work out to have him just do it.

I think I have already felt the baby move :) But I don't know if that's possible at 13 weeks or less...but I swear I have at night when I rest on the couch. Hopefully I'm not just crazy...

I have felt pretty good, very tired, and more sick with this one than the others.

We have told Avery already. She wants to name the baby Amy Avery T. She will not even try to think of a boy's name. She is certain she is getting a sister. When James saw the ultrasound picture the first thing he said was "Baby!" I know he doesn't have a clue about what is going on, but I was shocked he could decipher the ultrasound picture without any help!

My OB is also pregnant right now and will just be finishing her maternity leave right around when I will be having the baby, so we'll see how that works out. And my OB group is switching hospitals in the fall/winter. So I will be at a different hospital than what I thought. I was kind of worried about that, but Al said as long as it wasn't the county hospital I would be fine :) Besides when I was in the hospital last year we saw another resident from our ward, Al kind of knew the anesthesiologist, and he ran into some people he knew when I was in recovery. So maybe it's just as well that I'm at another hospital that's not linked with UT...

I think that's about it for now, but we'll keep you posted!

Lagoon

2011-07-20T12:53:00.009-05:00

On our second to last day in Utah we spent the day at Lagoon with my mom and dad, Derek and his family. I hadn't been to Lagoon since I was probably about 14 or so and didn't remember a ton about it. I have a very low tolerance for rides...I have to take Dramamine at Disneyland and get carsick if I glance down at a map for even a few seconds. So I knew that it was mostly going to be a spectator day for me. My kids have had very little exposure to rides so I wasn't sure what they would think about it, especially since James got freaked out at the bounce house.

We got to Lagoon right when it opened. It was raining lightly outside and it was cold! Luckily we all brought sweatshirts with us. I was pretty surprised when we got inside the park at how nice it was. I definitely don't remember it being that nice, but it had been a while. There was quite a bit of landscaping, fountains, etc. And it was very clean. The kids were on their first ride within about 3 minutes of entering the park. We started small :) It turned out that Bulgy the Whale was a crowd favorite. Especially with James. He ended up riding it several times that day and was even sort of saying 'Bulgy' by the end of the day.

For the first while we stayed in the kiddie area and let the kids go on the rides multiple times each. There were no lines and so the kids could go from ride to ride without a wait. Derek took Alison off to ride the wild rides. After we hit the kid rides pretty heavy we decided to venture out a bit to see what else the kids would want to go on.

It turns out they wanted to go on everything!! I had no idea what Avery's tolerance for rides would be (or James' for that matter!) and I know my dad was nervous too. He said a couple of times that he thought Avery was going to get sick. But she would come running off of each ride with a huge smile on her face and want to run to the next ride. I kept asking her if her tummy hurt, or whatever, and she always said no.

My parents and Derek and Jen were really nice to take my kids on all of the rides with them. James wanted in on the action after a while and he started to go on the rides he was tall enough to go on, which were a surprising number of rides. Avery went on a couple of different roller coasters, the Chinese Dragon (it goes super fast in a circle on direction and then reverses and goes super fast backwards)the dinosaur drop (takes you high up in the air and then drops you), the scrambler, the tilt-a-whirl, the Flying Aces, etc. A lot of these she went on multiple times. James was able to go on one roller coaster (well, he went on Puff in the kiddie section a few times, but then he went on a bigger one several times later) and also did the tilt-a-whirl and the Flying Aces. The Flying Aces goes pretty fast and gets you a fair amount off the ground. As soon as it was over he shouted "Again! Again!"

At one point the little kids and my dad and I sat it out while my mom, Derek and Jen, and Alison went on a ride called the Samurai. It is a crazy ride. I don't know how to explain it except for that the separate arms are spinning in complete flips, while the whole ride itself is rotating. Avery was really disappointed that she wasn't tall enough to ride and kept saying for the rest of the day that she was sure she would be tall enough next year to ride it. I have no doubt she would have ridden it this year if they would have let her on!

We ended up staying at Lagoon until almost closing. It never got crazy busy to where you would have to wait long for rides. It was a lot of fun to see all of the rides lit up when it was dark. Right before we left Jen disappeared and came back with a churro and a few funnel cakes. She was a hero! I think James would have eaten an entire one by himself if the opportunity had presented itself.

It was a great day and I can't wait to go again. Maybe next year! We'll have to see if Avery's grown tall enough for that Samurai ;)

Temple Square

2011-07-16T08:09:00.003-05:00

One day we went downtown to temple square and the conference center. We didn't end up going inside the conference center, but just walked around outside.

Temple square was so pretty. I don't think I've taken Avery before...and definitely not James. It was fun to be that close to the Salt Lake temple again. Avery loved being up close to it and I explained that Al and I were married in there.

There are so many buildings to go in and see, but we only hit a few of them. In one of the visitor's centers there is a cross section of the SLC temple. It was really neat and very detailed. I got to show Avery where Al and I got married. The kids loved all of the fountains outside, the old fashioned looking drinking fountains, and all of the flowers. Avery actually seemed to really enjoy the older buildings, the old tabernacle, etc.

We walked across South Temple to the section that the church is remodeling. What they have done so far is really pretty. Lots of landscaping and fountains. On one of the fountains it had an official dedication date, I think it was in March of 2012. We spent some time in the remodeled Deseret Book store. They have really improved it and given it some personality. Then we had a late lunch at the Blue Lemon, a new restaurant they put in.

After all of this James was ready to call it a day, so we headed back to the conference center, where we parked. I don't know what happened, but somehow we got extremely lost. We remembered one of the numbers where we parked, but we didn't know you were supposed to remember 2 different numbers. And what also complicated it was that we parked on some weird half level...Anyway, after walking around the parking garage for 30 minutes, several trips to the various elevators and talking to a few people we finally found our car. At that point James was asleep and we were all exhausted. We definitely got our exercise that day.

The Grandpas

2011-07-16T08:05:00.003-05:00

I love these pictures of the kids with their grandpas. They love them so much and had so much fun with them on this trip.

James was like my dad's little shadow wherever he went. He called him "A" for Dave. He loved watching/helping my dad in the yard. The one picture isn't very good, because it cuts off Avery, but they went shopping with my dad to buy some flowers and then helped plant them. My dad also spoiled him and sang/rocked him to sleep every night. We had to work that one out when we got home...but I didn't mind.

James did really good at calling Grandpa Allen "Bapa." It was so cute to hear him say it. Avery and James both loved going on the ward walk-about with Grandpa, and they also loved sharing food with him :)

Gardner Village and Provo

2011-07-16T08:01:00.005-05:00

We had a couple of fun outings with Sarah and her kids. One day we went to Gardner Village with Grandma Louona. We had a fun lunch at Archibald's and then enjoyed walking outside and looking at the cute buildings. James' favorite part was watching the ducks. He kind of rebelled whenever I took him inside a shop...I think Al trained him. So I spent a lot of time walking him around outside, or Grandma Louona was nice and took him a few times so I could wander around the stores. The kids all loved picking out a little treat from the candy store. I think the adults loved it too :)

On another day Louona and Sienna drove down to Springville with us to visit Sarah while she was working on her townhouse. All of the kids, except for Eli (he was napping) went to a bounce house that is just down the street from Sarah. Hannah and Avery had an absolute blast, especially on the tallest slide. Sienna was more reserved and mostly just liked the little rides that you put quarters in. James was freaked out by the whole place. I think it's the noise, but I'm not sure. He had a terrified look on his face most of the time, even when he rode the tiny merry-go-round. It made me nervous for how he would do at Lagoon later in the trip. He did finally find some happiness at the candy machines. Ha ha ha! Typical James.

After the bounce house we hooked up with Sarah and Eli and drove to BYU campus. We were able to go to lunch at the Wilk. I thought it was so much fun being on campus. Sarah and I kept exclaiming over how young everybody looked. I wondered if I really looked that young when I started BYU. Then we figured out that it was a bunch of kids there for EFY. I think that made us feel a little less old :)

When lunch was through we headed to the bookstore. We walked around for a little bit, made our way to the candy counter...of course :) It was great being back in the bookstore. I spent so much time there when I was a student, killing time between lectures. It's a pretty great little store. After that I had to leave, so I didn't get to walk around the quad or see the other buildings. I'll have to do that next time. As we were leaving we did drive up to where Deseret Towers used to be. It is weird that it is all gone. Where S-hall used to be is just a big parking lot now. The new dorms look pretty fantastic. It was fun to see all of the new changes.

The Aquarium

2011-07-16T07:55:00.005-05:00

One day we went to the aquarium. Al had never been there before either. It doesn't look like much on the outside, but I think it's actually a pretty fun little place. Avery absolutely loves it, especially the sting ray area. She just laughs and laughs the whole time she is there and loves touching the sting rays.

James was mostly excited about seeing 'Nemo' and the giant turtle that you can watch swim through the glass.

Dinosaur Museum

2011-07-08T08:10:00.006-05:00

One day we went to the Dinosaur Museum with Grandma Louona, Becky, and Risa. Al had never been before and it was a lot of fun for him to experience it with the kids. The highlights included that dark starry tunnel, the little cave you can crawl through, the gift shop, and of course the water/sand table.

Risa and Avery spent quite a lot of time at the water/sand table building a little home for the dinosaurs. Becky and Grandma helped them create a little dam and then they had fun watching it break and having the water fall through.

James' favorite part was running up and down the ramps in the museum :) Luckily there was hardly anybody there, so it wasn't disturbing anybody.

Book Making

2011-07-08T08:08:00.002-05:00

One morning while we were there Grandma Louona helped Avery make a book. Avery loved this process. She helped watercolor the end pages and also helped sew the binding. I was happy that Avery seemed so enthusiastic about the project and spent a lot of time on it. I love that Grandma Louona does such fun, crafty things with the kids. I know Avery will look forward to doing more projects with Grandma the next time we are in town.

Trip to Utah

2011-07-06T08:01:00.005-05:00

This is the first of many posts...

Well, now that we've been home for a couple of weeks I figure I better start blogging about our trip so I don't forget things. It was a fantastic trip, and as always it went way, way too quickly. It was a week shorter than last year's trip, but I swear we packed in way more things. I think it is the busiest trip home that I have ever had. There was little to no down time. I think the kids and I were exhausted when we got home and it took me quite a while to catch up on laundry, housework, and sleep. I think I'm still catching up... Poor Avery had a rough few days adjusting to life back in Texas with no grandparents and no cousins to play with. It is harder to be away now because she is old enough to understand that it will be a long time before we see everybody again. And she's old enough to ask when we will be going back and I don't have an answer for her. She got choked up off and on for a few days, which broke my heart. But she is doing better now. She still mentions Utah pretty much every day, but without tears now :)

These pictures were taken at Southtown Mall. We just went for an hour or two and let the kids ride the carousel and the train. They also played on that little dinosaur playground downstairs.

Sorry, this entry is going to be kind of long. It's mostly for journaling purposes, for when I can afford to print out my blog entries one day :) Feel free to skip this one...

Things that weren't documented by camera:

We went to two different family reunions, one for my dad's side and one for my mom's. My dad's was on Memorial Day up in Logan. It was a long trip, but I am glad we went. I hadn't seen my grandma for two years and she is getting older. She turns 90 next month. I also got to see all of my aunts and uncles on that side except for the two that are serving a mission in St. George. A few cousins were there too.

My mom's family reunion was in Orem, also kind of a drive, but I know my mom was glad that we went...since I was kind of on the fence about it. My mom's reunion is all of her aunts, uncles, and cousins. I don't know them very well, so the reunion can kind of be a long day. But we made it! It was at a really neat park, so Avery and James had a lot of fun playing outside.

Several shopping trips, including Park City, Gateway, and a new shopping center way out west. I was able to get some amazing deals for my kids. Shirts and shorts for $2.99-4.99. I bought half of their summer wardrobe for next year and was also able to get Avery some school uniform things that were on clearance. Yeah!! I love a good deal!

Al and I went to a session at the Jordan Temple. It was a very nice morning. I am so happy we were able to do that. It is hard to do here in Houston. I know that sounds ridiculous, but the temple is about 50 minutes away and it is very hard to find a 4 hour block that Al is available to go.

Al and I went on a date with Jon and Jessie to an Italian restaurant kind of in Sugarhouse. The place is called Lugano's and it was fantastic. Al said, maybe the best meal of his life :) It was fun to spend time with them. We didn't see very much of them on this trip because Jon was on two different business trips, so the date was a very good outing.

My older brother and his family surprised us by flying out the last few days of our trip. We hadn't seen them for almost a year and it was so much fun to be together. We had another date night with my brothers and their wives. This time Al wasn't there :( But I still had a lot of fun. One morning we took all of the grand kids to JCPenny studios to get their pictures taken. We've somehow managed to do this every year!

I was able to go to a wedding reception for a friend, who also happens to be one of my mom's co-workers.

My mom and I, with the kids, met my good friend Diana and one of her daughters for lunch in Sugarhouse. Diana was our great friend in Saint Louis that really took us under her wing and mothered us while we were there. It was so much fun to see her, it was if no time had passed and we were able to pick up where we left off. Hopefully we can reconnect in Utah again soon.

We had a BBQ with Al's good friends Trent, Eric, Craig, and Kevin. It was good to see them and see their kids and hear about where they are in life.

I got 10 inches cut off my hair!!

I also went and got a pedicure and had my first 'gel toes' experience.

I experienced Kneader's french toast for the first time...and second time :)

We loved seeing the mountains again. It is so flat here that when you go home you really notice the mountains and how much they add to the city. Another thing is, it was so nice to feel cold again! It was cold when we got there. We were freezing!! But we enjoyed it.

I am sure there are other things that I just can't think of right now. I'll have to add them later...

Meeting Conner

2011-06-30T07:36:00.005-05:00

Now that we've been home from Utah for a couple of weeks it is definitely time to start blogging about our trip.

One of the biggest highlights, if not the biggest highlight of the trip was meeting Conner.

Look at that face! He is just so cute.

Jon and Jessie were really good about letting my kids hold him, touch him, play by him, etc. James attempted to touch him a few times, but mostly interacted by just saying, "baby, baby, baby" over and over again. Avery liked to hold him and talk to him. It was all very sweet.

I loved holding him myself, but had to fight Grandma Nette a few times to get a turn, and also had to fight James. He wasn't absolutely sure he wanted me to hold Conner. It would be fine for a few minutes and then all of a sudden James would come over and try to climb up on my lap while I was holding Conner. Then I'd have to do a quick pass off so that James could settle in and suck his thumb...all being right with the world again.

We miss sweet little Conner and hope we get to see him again soon!

Under The Sea

2011-05-20T16:05:00.002-05:00

Next week is Avery's dance open house for the parents, when they put on their performance and have refreshments. But since we will miss it I had Kim watch James and I went today to record Avery's dance routine.

I think it is so cute! The video quality isn't that great, but you can get the gist of it. Avery is right there in the front, in the black leotard. She was smiling really big for me, which was really cute. Ms. Tricia let Avery help make up some of the dance moves for the routine and Avery thought that was the neatest thing ever.

Ms. Tricia is so cute with the girls and I am excited that Avery is already enrolled for more classes in the fall.

Last Day of Preschool

2011-05-19T08:50:00.002-05:00

Today is Avery's last day of preschool. It is definitely a bittersweet kind of day. Avery has absolutely loved Ms. Annie these past two years and so have I! She has been a wonderful teacher and Avery has enjoyed class and learned so much. The other night I was looking at old blog entries and found one from Avery's first day of preschool 2 years ago. I can't believe how much she has changed. I forget that she was so little when we moved here to start this whole residency adventure.

Next week is the official last week of preschool, but we will miss it since we will be in Utah. We are looking forward to our adventures there and know it will be so much fun and the time will fly by as it always does. Then it will be back to the Texas heat and humidity for some days at the beach with friends, spray parks, maybe some more 'camping', and whatever other adventures we come up with. Before I know it Avery will be back at school, but this time it will be full-day kindergarten. We registered Avery last month and I know she is so very excited to go to the 'big school'.

"Camping"

2011-05-15T23:43:00.003-05:00

Last weekend we went 'camping' with our good friends. The Lewis family had a tent and spent the night but the rest of us just went up Friday night for a few hours. We went to Brazos Bend Park which is about 30 minutes away from us. Somehow we have never made our way to this park before. It's a gator park and popular with most people in the ward for a little outing.

When I told Avery we were going camping she told me it was a 'dream come true.' Ha ha ha! I think she really meant it too! She has mentioned camping off and on over the last several months and she could not wait for us to get to the camp ground. She desperately wanted to take her sleeping bag, but I told her we weren't spending the night. She took it really well and just said again that her dream was coming true to go camping.

We got there at dinner time and the campfire was already going strong. We had a fun little hot dog cookout along with chips watermelon, etc. The usual camping fare :) All the little kids had so much fun just exploring the grounds, finding sticks, chasing lightening bugs and sitting around the fire. I didn't get any pictures of Avery for some reason. In fact, not many pictures at all. But I did get a couple of James and some of his best buddies. They thought it was so funny to play together in this little pack and play.

When it started to get dark we pulled out the marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate. Avery piped up that she had a ghost story to share with everybody. I can't remember what the story was about, but I remember all of us adults getting a kick out of it. Our friend, Sean, said that Avery must have really studied up on camping somewhere :)

Kim's boys brought these little folding chairs and James got a hold of one and wanted to sit right next to Dean. Right next to him. If Dean moved his chair even a fraction of an inch James would get up and move his chair. These little guys are so funny to watch. One minute they love to hug and laugh and chase each other around, and then the next they are shoving each other away.

It was a very fun night with great company and good food. I am so glad we could make one of Avery's dreams come true. We will have to do it again soon.

Happy Birthday, James!!

2011-04-27T17:38:00.002-05:00

This is a picture taken today at the zoo. We celebrated James' 2nd birthday yesterday because Al had the ENTIRE day off!! I will post pictures of our adventures soon.

James is a sweet little guy. Here are some things about him at 2 years old:

- doesn't say much. And most words that he does say he uses just the vowel sounds of the word or just 1 syllable of the word. Crazy enough I actually understand what he wants a lot of the time!

- loves to cuddle, be held, get hugged, etc. He is just so lovable and squeezable.

- will not eat any form of a sandwich...unless it belongs to somebody else. If I make a sandwich just for him he won't touch it.

- loves, loves, loves his trains and cars. He literally plays with them every single day. He loves toys in general and plays with them a lot more than Avery ever did at this age.

- likes to take things to bed with him. Lately it is a Nemo stuffed animal which he calls "Mo." Last night it was his Thomas the Train hat :)

- is really good at coloring for his age. It still is a lot of scribbles, but while most kids just grab one color and scribble it all over James takes a lot of time and will use tons of different colors on one picture.

- knows many letters of the alphabet and loves to point them out on signs, in books, etc. He loves looking at ABC books or having me or Al draw the letters for him on the magnadoodle.

- would spend all day outside if he could.

- his favorite item of clothing is his rain boots. He wears them around the house, outside, to the store...every where.

- loves dogs and animals in general. He has a killer growl that he does :)

- his favorite foods are strawberries, grapes, cereal, pizza, cheetos, cheese roll-ups, chicken nuggets, and practically any form of sugar. I caught him several times this Easter season sneaking a cadbury egg from displays at stores. I only had to turn my back for a second and he would find one and have it in his mouth.

- he is fascinated by planes, trucks, trains, and anything that goes. If he hears an airplane while we're outside he has to stop and look for it in the sky, then he points to it and waits for me to acknowledge it.

- he loves little babies and is really soft and gentle with him. I still get nervous when he goes up to a tiny baby, but he is careful with them. It is really sweet.

- the same cannot be said for the way he is around toddlers or Avery... Sometimes he is sweet and hugs them. He really likes his friends "baby" Dean and "baby" Rhett. He calls his friends "baby." They are cute together. But there are also some hits that go down.

-loves blankets, or "Dees" as he calls them. Not sure how he came to that term for them. He gets so excited when I put him to bed and put his blankies on top. And he also loves to pull all of the blankets out of the chest we keep them in.

-he loves to laugh. And is easy to laugh, which is a great quality. He laughs at himself, at what other people do our say, funny noises in cartoons, etc. He loves to be chased, or to run away and that always makes him laugh too.

Anyway, these are just a few of the things I want to remember about James at this age. We love him to death and are so happy he is a part of our family. Happy birthday, James!!

Easter Sunday

2011-04-25T14:00:00.010-05:00

We had a fun Easter Sunday. The kids woke up to their Easter baskets and were so excited for their treats and little prizes. The Easter bunny hid tons of eggs around the house but we tried to wait and find them when Al got home from work. When Al got home he was excited to see his own basket and then we had a nice breakfast together before he headed to bed. The kids were so into their baskets that they weren't too into the egg hunt, but Avery ended up finding the rest of them.

It was fun getting the kids dressed up in their Easter best and then we headed to church. James fell asleep on the way for the first time ever since we've moved to the later schedule and I have to say it was so nice to just hold him while he slept instead of trying to entertain him! Yesterday was my first day teaching my primary class and they were darling. I taught the Easter lesson from the manual and then we made little tombs that the kids loved. I liked Relief Society, but going to primary yesterday was a lot of fun and a nice change for me. It will be fun on the Sundays Al can make it to have him help team teach.

Dyeing Eggs

2011-04-25T13:57:00.005-05:00

On Saturday night the kids and I dyed Easter eggs. The kids loved it. James loved watching the little color tablets sizzle in the vinegar. As I would drop one into each glass James would ooh and ahh. It was pretty cute. The dyes didn't work that great, but maybe that's what I get for buying the kit at the dollar store. I ended up adding some drops of food coloring to the ones that I could to help make the colors brighter. Avery was really good at dyeing her eggs and James just loved taking an egg and dropping it in each color. He would just stick his hand in the glass, swish the egg around, then pick up the egg and move it to the next color. I love how his one hand from the wrist down became a nice purplish/grey color. Needless to say, we went straight from the kitchen to upstairs to take a bath.

Egg Hunt/Potluck

2011-04-25T13:54:00.005-05:00

On Friday a bunch of people from the ward got together at a park and had a potluck lunch and an Easter egg hunt. It was a really good turnout and it was so fun to see all of the little kids with their baskets.

There were a few dads that had the day off and came to the park and they hid all of the eggs while the rest of us ate lunch. The kids got restless and were finally turned loose on the eggs. The girls that organized the hunt didn't really get an opportunity to explain to the kids that they were each allowed to get six eggs. It was organized so that every mom brought six filled plastic eggs per child to contribute to the activity, so in the end everybody would still wind up with six eggs each. I took James by the hand and we wandered out to where the eggs were hidden. James was so excited to add the eggs to his basket, and even more happy to find that they held candy inside. We took our time gathering his six eggs and as we were finishing I heard another mom wonder out loud, "What happened to all of the eggs? We can't find any!"

Just a few seconds later Avery came running over to where James and I were with a huge smile on her face. She proudly presented her basket to me and I looked inside to find that her basket was filled to the top with eggs! There must have been 20-25 in there. So I told her about the 6 egg rule as I took them by the handful and scattered them around on the grass. Avery was a little upset at first but I told her that come Easter she would have so many eggs she wouldn't know what to do with them. And also that the other kids needed to find eggs too. She understood...but made sure that she kept the green eggs for herself :)

It was a great activity and I love that our ward always has fun things planned. The bottom picture is with our good friends Lincoln and Dean.

A James Pose!

2011-03-26T07:44:00.002-05:00

I love these kids :)

Full of Poses

2011-03-25T11:13:00.007-05:00

I don't know if anybody has noticed over the last several pictures I've posted of Avery, but she is super into posing now when I take her picture. I don't know where she learned it from, but she definitely gets into it. In the top picture she is "Make-up Girl"!! That's what she called herself. Like a super hero name. She applied her own make-up from some play make-up she has and came in to show me and Al. Then Al went and got the camera and Avery gave us a signature pose. After Al left Avery informed me that she was Make-up Girl and it was her special power/mission to go around and help people wear make-up that aren't wearing any :)

In the picture with Avery and James I had to laugh because we were running out the door to go somewhere and I thought the kids looked cute so I took a couple of pictures. Avery pulled out the poses and then James was trying to be like her. His pose was hilarious. He held one leg up, with the knee bent and then kind of had his arms out to the side. He couldn't hold the pose for very long and so I wasn't able to capture it, but he still looks super cute.

St. Patrick's Day Festivites

2011-03-24T08:44:00.009-05:00

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day this year. I don't usually do much for the holiday, but thought it might be fun to start a few traditions. A week or so before the 17th I made these rainbow cupcakes for Avery's preschool class. Avery of course was thrilled with the green sprinkles on top and I wanted to add a gold foiled chocolate coin on top but couldn't find any. Anyway, Avery loved the cupcakes and I heard they were a hit with her class, so they might have to become a yearly thing for us.

The day of St. Patrick's I subbed in the morning for Avery's preschool class. It felt like a definite blast from my past and was a lot of fun. Then we headed over to a nearby park for a great party. My good friend, Kim, put together a St. Patrick's day potluck with the rules being whatever you took had to be green or authentic Irish food. We took a pineapple pudding cake that was dyed green and some Irish soda bread. The picnic tables were a sea of green- green veggie trays, green fruit salads, green pasta salads, guacamole, leafy green salads, candies, cupcakes, etc. It was pretty spectacular to see all of that green food! After the picnic the kids had a pinata, which of course was a big hit. It was a lot of fun and Avery loved celebrating her favorite color. Next year I am going to try to do something festive for dinner too!

Houston Rodeo

2011-03-11T16:10:00.012-06:00

Okay, first of all, sorry this is going to be so long. But there is just so much to tell about the rodeo.

It was AWESOME. Truly. We got there at about 10:30 Monday morning, which I think was the perfect day to go because the crowds were super reasonable. We figured out where to park and saw a tram right by our lot. We went over to board the tram and were greeted with that southern hospitality. Everybody working at the tram, and in the rodeo, is decked out in their western gear complete with cowboy hat. I looked at Al as we boarded the tram and heard the country music blaring and we both had these huge grins on our face. The tram took us right up to the gate of the rodeo and dropped us off at the ticket booth. We got the cheaper tickets, which were only $7 for adults and $4 for Avery. James was free, so not bad! The other tickets were I think $14 and that's for if you stay and watch the actual rodeo that's in Reliant stadium, which we opted not to this year with James being so little and probably not sitting through most of it.

We entered this huge building, which has been completely decked out with banners, artwork, etc. and then went into the main part of the rodeo. The first thing that you see is rows and rows of shopping booths set up. I was amazed at how elaborate everything was. All kinds of western clothing, boots, hats, belts (lots of rhinestones :))household furnishings, kitchen/cooking things, artwork and sculptures, etc. It went on and on, so much so that they had named the 'streets' so you could find where you were on the map. Avery had her heart set on getting a pink cowgirl hat. We passed several hat booths and finally settled on one. The salesman was so cute with Avery and had several pink options for her to try on. She would put one on and then he would say, "Now go look in the mirror and see what you think." They had this full length mirror and every time Avery tried on a hat she would go to the mirror as the man suggested and strike a pose. Then she would take the hat back and try another one. She finally settled on one and Al bought it for her with his birthday money. We got James a tiny little hat too :) After Avery's hat was paid for she put it on, went over to the full length mirror, struck her pose, and said, "Howdy, boys!" It was hilarious. Where did she get that from?!

After more shopping we headed into the livestock area. There were rows and rows of cows there that were going to be shown in competition. You can walk down the aisles right up close to them. The kids were fascinated by this, especially James. We watched a few of them get walked around. Avery was super excited when she spotted one with a gold ring through it's nose.

Then we moved on to the petting zoo, which was adorable. Sheep, a llama, a deer, little piggies, chickens, tons of goats of different colors and sizes, ducks and even a couple of kangaroos...? Anyway, these animals were used to kids and would just sit there while you petted them. James would always get right in their faces, which made me a little nervous, but they didn't seem to mind. He also manhandled a big, fat chicken and lifted it up and was holding it, which was hilarious.

There were tons of other animals displays too, and we took most of it in. We went to the birthing center and saw tiny piglets that had been born earlier that day. Very cute.

Then it was time for lunch. We ventured back outside and went to the food pavilion, which was giant. I would say there were 30+ places to eat in the main eating area, and then tons of other places located all around the fairgrounds. The smells were just heavenly...smoky BBQ, Mexican, funnel cakes... We walked the main eating area twice, trying to take it all in and Al made fun of me and asked if I wanted a third walk through. There were just so many choices!! But we finally settled on a BBQ place that was really yummy. Then we headed out into the fair.

There were tons of rides set up, mostly geared towards little kids. It was much more elaborate than I had imagined and so big that they even had 3 ferris wheels! James didn't meet the height requirements on any of the rides, but I knew it wouldn't work to just let Avery go, so we sneaked him on a few rides where the workers didn't seem to mind...nothing too wild, just flying elephants, airplanes, etc. They had a blast.

We were walking through the fair to explore what else was there when I guy called out to us that the pig races were about to start. So we took the kids in and sat in the stands and in just a few minutes the announcer came out to start the races. It was hilarious. There were several races, and each race had 4 little piggies what would race around the track. I didn't know, but Al said they were racing around the track to get an oreo. I didn't know pigs could run that fast! Anyway, Avery got selected to be one of the helpers. So she stood at one point in the track, to help cheer her pig to victory. Her pig was pig #1 and he ended up winning the race, so Avery won as a prize a piggy bank and a little pig snout/mask thing to wear...which James is terrified of. But that's a different story.

We did more rides after that and Avery got her first taste of cotton candy. She has been dying to try it and it was so fun to watch her and James experience it for the first time. We did a few more rides after that and then headed back to the food alley to try a funnel cake, which Al and I had never had before in our lives. It did not disappoint :) And James LOVED it. We also tried a deep fried oatmeal cream pie, which Al didn't care for, but I thought it was pretty good.

By that time I think we were all exhausted. We decided to call it a day and head back to the tram. On our way out of the park we passed several cowboys coming into the rodeo grounds to get ready for the actual rodeo. Fun!! James was asleep before we even reached the tram, and I think Avery almost was. I said to Al that I hoped he was just planning on doing this for his birthday every year, because it was an absolute blast. He seemed happy with making it a tradition.

The rodeo lasts for a few weeks and a girl in our ward that is from Texas told us it was believed to be the best rodeo in the world. I believe it! There was so much to do and see that we didn't even get to. And every night they have a concert that you can go to as well. And it's big names, like Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Janet Jackson, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, etc. They play in the big Reliant stadium after the rodeo show. My friend Leslee went to Keith Urban with her husband and said it was great. Maybe Al and I will have to take in a concert one of these years :)

Avery's Birthday Money

2011-02-16T22:17:00.004-06:00

Avery got a little spending money for her birthday from Granny, my little brother and his wife, and from an alarm clock that she returned since she just got one for Christmas. With Granny's money she bought the movie Despicable Me, which we have already watched a TON. It's a pretty funny movie for those of you that haven't seen it.

When she returned the alarm clock she bought a Rapunzel barbie at Target. She has had her eye on the Rapunzel barbie for quite some time and was so excited to finally get one.

Which left the money from my brother and his wife. Avery isn't really one to hold on to her money for long, and sure enough she had only had it for a couple of days when she stumbled onto her treasures. Al and I were out with the kids Saturday at the local shopping center, doing a little window shopping. Sometimes on the weekends the Town Center has craft booths in the courtyard and it is usually pretty scary stuff that they are trying to sell. As we walked by the booths Avery spied a table that was selling some crazy jewelry, purses, hair accessories, etc. She told me that she really wanted to stop and see what they had but I kind of brushed it off and said maybe when we were finished at the stores. Well, Avery didn't forget, and when we left the stores she said, "Mom, what about that table?!" Oh yeah... So we took her back to the table and within about 30 seconds Avery came across this mask. And she had to have it. I asked her if she was sure, if this was what she really wanted, and Avery was positive that she wanted that mask. As she was paying for the mask she caught a glimpse of these hair clips with the neon hair. And she had to have them too.

She has worn the mask a ton around the house, so I guess it was a wise purchase. So much so that her cheeks and forehead have a green tint from the metallic paint wearing off. She calls it her "Mousequerade" mask. She almost has the word right :)

Sandbox

2011-02-16T14:01:00.004-06:00

My dad built Avery a sandbox for her birthday. I feel badly because the week before my parents got here the weather was in the 60's, and this week it is in the 70's. But the week they were here the highs were in the 20's and 30's. My dad has had the sandbox planned for a while, and since there wasn't anything he could do about the weather, he was out there in the freezing temperatures putting together the sandbox.

Avery spent a lot of time out there with him, 'helping' him build the sandbox. The helping I observed mainly consisted of cheerleading...but I don't think he minded the company out there :) The kids have played in the sandbox several times already. Yesterday they went out there for an hour or more while I stayed inside folding laundry. They were having a blast and I was enjoying a little quiet time while I caught up on my shows and did housework. I have noticed that bath time has become a lot more frequent since the addition of the sandbox. Oh well- a small price to pay for hours of entertainment.

While my dad was building the sandbox my mom and I painted the master bedroom and bathroom. It looks so good! I love the color I picked out. I'm not quite ready to post pictures, but soon.

Loves to Laugh

2011-02-14T14:35:00.005-06:00

James is almost always just a happy, go-lucky little guy. He is so much fun to be around and just so cuddly and easy to laugh and smile. I love these pictures because I think the expression on his face is just pure delight. He loves Al and is always so excited when Al is around to play with. This is what James was doing to entertain himself while Avery was opening her birthday presents. Al was a good sport to let James bounce up and down on his stomach right after the huge Texas Roadhouse dinner :)

Avery's Birthday Party

2011-02-13T18:40:00.013-06:00

Avery had a Tangled birthday party the day before her actual birthday. It was great having my mom there to help with the party. It was so nice to have an extra pair of hands to help pour drinks, pass things out, etc. My mom had flown in late Tuesday night and upon arrival gave Avery this Rapunzel dress. I knew that Avery would want to wear it to her party. She's always one for dressing up :)

Avery invited 7 little girls from church and pre-K. They are a cute little bunch and were all so excited for the party. It was so cute to watch them all bouncing up and down in excitement, being gracious, etc. We started the party off with pizza and a sprite/fruit punch combo that Avery requested. While the kids were eating their pizza and visiting my mom and I hid tons of little jewels around the family room so that the girls could go on a gem hunt. After they were all done eating I passed out their party favor bags to collect their jewels in. I told the little girls that they were searching for gems and the ooh-ing and ahh-ing began. Little girls love sparkly things so much! They all wanted to know if they could keep the gems...it was a big concern :) After all of the gems were found we moved on to a pinata. Avery had a pinata shaped like a tiara that was pink and silver with streamers. The girls each got several turns to hit the pinata and then I finally did the honors and cracked it open. Then the girls stuffed the candy in the favor bags along with their gems. The bags were bulging at this point!

Then we moved onto a game of pass the tiara. The girls played along to the music from Tangled and if the music stopped when they were holding the tiara they won a prize. I found these tiny water coloring sets at the Party Store for $0.50 each and since Rapunzel paints so much in the movie I thought it would be the perfect favor. When everybody had had a turn to win we switched to playing musical chairs. The girls each won a set of hair elastics.

After all the games were finished we sang to Avery and had cake. Then on to presents. The little girls were so excited for the presents too, and huddled around Avery in a big mass. Then the girls got to color a picture of Pascal, the little chameleon from the movie. Afterward they could cute out the chameleon and tape it together so that it could sit on their shoulder.

Later that night we picked up my dad from the airport. He was supposed to fly in the night before, but the entire city completely shut down due to 'possible' snow/ice. A 20% chance of less than .1 inch accumulation to be exact. So that took a day away from his trip here. To be fair...Texas isn't really used to dealing with super cold weather, etc. And so the worrying sets in. The kids were excited to see him when he finally got here though and James couldn't wait to show him all of his cars.

We waited and did our family celebration on the 5th, Avery's real birthday. My parents took us to see the movie Tangled in the theater and then that night we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner-- Avery's choice. After a great big dinner we came home for more cake and ice cream. Avery picked strawberry ice cream and mint chocolate chip (it's green, hence Avery's favorite flavor) and then on to pajamas and present opening from the grandparents and mommy, daddy, and James. I would think all in all she had a pretty fantastic birthday.

New and Improved...

2010-12-28T08:58:00.004-06:00

For part of our birthdays and Christmas my parents gave us a new fan and light fixture for the family room. They look so good! We had them installed a couple of weeks ago and I'm sad to say that we've already been able to use the fan. The old fan barely worked, had 4 smaller blades, and was very unstable. It always shook back and forth when you turned it on. This new fan is much more powerful, which is exactly what we need for the summers here. We had the handy man set it on the highest setting and it feels wonderful and doesn't shake at all! It doesn't provide quite as much light as the last one (which Al is happy about) but I am okay with that.

And the light fixture in the hallway looks so much better. The fan and light fixture both helped update the room so much.

Trying Out the Scooter

2010-12-28T08:35:00.007-06:00

Yesterday the kids and I headed to the park by our house so that Avery could really try out her scooter. She loved it! James and I played on the playground while she rode around. We lasted for about 40 minutes, but then it got cold with the breeze. None of us had mittens on and James' poor hand were so red. I didn't even buy anybody mittens this year, thinking it was a poor investment, but maybe we'll get some cheap ones some where for those few days we might need them.

Christmas Morning

2010-12-28T08:31:00.010-06:00

Christmas morning finally came. The few days leading up to Christmas were maybe the longest of Avery's life. She would ask me every day, several times a day, if it was night time yet. She wanted it to be night time so she could go to bed and have one less day until Christmas :)

The kids woke up at 6:30 am, not too bad since they usually wake up between then and 7 anyway. I remember when I was a kid my older brother woke us up at 4:30 am once. The first thing Avery saw was her bumblebee pillow pet. She had been asking for one of those for months and she was so excited about it. Santa brought James the doggy one since he loves doggies so much. And Avery got the scooter she had been eye-ing for months too. The kids got so many fun things from Santa, grandparents and from me and Al. Avery declared it was the best Christmas ever :) James was perfectly content with Christmas after opening his Thomas the Train coloring book. He oohed and aahed over it for the longest time, thumbing through the pages and immediately colored several pages. Al and I ended up opening most of his presents for him, but after he saw everything else opened he was really excited about his other gifts too.

Al built a huge train track for the kids with all of their new pieces. We have quite the collection now of tracks and accessories and it is really cool!

Al got his Droid for Christmas. Well, actually, he got it on the 14th. I didn't write about it in my birthday post because Al was going to act like he really opened it on the 25th. Verizon wasn't supposed to deactivate his old phone until the 25th. But on the 13th I went in to exchange the first phone that was selected for the one he actually got and I think the girl messed it all up. I even talked to her that day about not deactivating the old phone until the 25th...oh well. So on the morning of the 14th I came home from a run and Al told me his phone wasn't working and then he got a huge smile on his face. At that point I tried to act like I didn't know what was going on for a while, but then I figured the jig was up. So I went and got the Droid out of it's hiding place (I hid it so well too!) and gave it to Al. Then we went to Verizon and got everything set up on his new phone, etc. and he's been playing with it ever since. In a way, it was a good thing he got it early because he was on vacation that week and had a lot of time to get applications and figure things out before he went back to work. Otherwise, he went back to work the morning after Christmas and wouldn't have had time to get his numbers/pics and everything transferred to his new phone. Not to mention that he was able to focus more on the kids on Christmas day than the new phone :)

We had a great big breakfast that morning. I cooked aebelskivers for everybody. We had some plain, and some filled with strawberry cream cheese, and some filled with Nutella. All rolled in powdered sugar. The Nutella were far and away the best ones. Whatever filling you put in there gets all melted and delish. I think it would taste good to have a fruit filling too. We also had eggs, bacon and sliced oranges.

It was a great day spent in pajamas, playing new board games and wii games, watching movies, trains, scooter riding, eating, chocolate, etc. That night we had hot chocolate with a peppermint fluff that was tasty and festive.

The pictures of the kids in their new church clothes was taken Sunday morning of course. Remember how well they did on the last Sunday morning photo session? It went about that well this time too. Avery didn't want to go to church. She wanted to stay home and play with her toys in her jammies again, etc. And James just plain didn't want his picture taken. Oh well. One of these days we'll get a good one.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-28T08:28:00.006-06:00

Christmas Eve was an absolute blast this year. I was worried I would be homesick, but that didn't set in until Christmas afternoon. We were invited to a party at my friend Anna's house. A bunch of our friends that were staying in town were there too. The theme for the evening was "Pasta Night" and the food was fantastic. I made 2 batches of my meatballs and 3 batches of Sarah's marinara sauce, and then spaghetti noodles to go with it. Anna made her awesome tomato cream sausage and basil rigatoni, and Ashli made a creamy chicken and bowtie pasta dish, along with some parmesan and herb rolls. Then Anna also made 2 different green salads to go with. Paola brought a traditional Brazilian ham dish (not pasta...but delish!) and was in charge of drinks. She went all out and brought bottled Mexican coke, and tons of different varieties of sparkling ciders. Meretta brought a yummy spinach and parmesan dip with crackers. Anna also dedicated her entire kitchen table to desserts. Everything was red and green and white and so festive! I wish I had taken pictures. Loni brought a couple of different types of cupcakes to contribute to the dessert table.

The adults all sat around Anna's huge dining room table and the kids were just off to the side. Anna had borrowed Miss Annie's preschool table and chairs and it was perfect for the night. After a lot of eating and visiting the kids put on the nativity play. Avery was Mary. As you can tell from the pictures, she was pretty wired that evening. James was a shepherd. He looked pretty cute in his costume, but as you can imagine the headpiece didn't stay on very long. Anna's husband, Clarke, read the account of Jesus' birth from the scriptures as the kids acted everything out. Then we sang a few carols.

Then it was time for dessert. I think most of the adults were too full to eat much, but the kids loved all of the bowls of candy Anna had set out and the cellophane bags they got to fill with candy before heading home.

It was pouring rain as we left the party and rained for most of the night. We came home and the kids opened their new Christmas jammies before going to bed so Santa could come.

Holiday Baking

2010-12-28T08:22:00.003-06:00

We did a lot of holiday baking this year between what we did at home and what we did in San Antonio.

You can see in the pictures what part Avery likes to help with. And what part James likes to help with :)

Before we left to San Antonio we made chocolate chocolate/mint chip cookies and two batches of chocolate chip gooey butter cakes to take to some parties and to Al's home teaching families.

In San Antonio we helped make homemade oreos and peppermint marshmallows.

Then when we got home we did two batches of sugar cookies, gingerbread boys and girls, gingersnaps and chocolate peanut butter balls. I am ALL baked out for a long time!! I guess I have just over a month to get the baking bug back in time for Avery's birthday.

San Antonio

2010-12-21T08:24:00.005-06:00

Last week we went to San Antonio for a few days while Al was on vacation. He has never been and so it was fun to show him around. We spent a lot of time hanging out at Jon's and Becky's which is always fun. James loves to play with the dog and Avery and Alison play around the clock together. We drove around the city a lot so Al could see what San Antonio is like and did a lot of holiday activities: eating cookies, making gingerbread houses, making hot chocolate, homemade marshmallows, baking more cookies, wrapped presents, spent a lot of time in the sewing room working on projects, etc. We rented several movies, but I think I fell asleep during every one so I can't say whether they were any good or not. We've all been sick with really bad colds and nobody slept that great while we were there.

We went to this amazing outdoor shopping mall they have there and walked around for a while. I found Avery a navy blue polo for next year at Gymboree for $3. This school uniform thing is gonna kill me. I guess that's my new challenge...to make it as cute as I can.

Saturday night Becky and Jon took us out for a night on the town. We left on the earlier side and took Al to see the Alamo. We made it inside for a few minutes before they closed the grounds. Then we walked the Rivercenter mall and the Riverwalk. It was super crowded because of Christmas and people wanting to see it all lit up. It was still so much fun though. They took us to a really nice restaurant and we got a table right on the river. It was a great night!

Now Al is back to work as of yesterday and the kids and I are busy getting things ready for Christmas. I think we are baking today!

Birthday Celebration

2010-12-21T08:03:00.004-06:00

I had a great birthday this year! The kids woke up early and Al was home because he was on his official vacation. They gave me my presents in the morning and were so excited for me to open them. Very cute. Then we took Avery to her preschool Christmas party and I went on a short birthday run with my friend, Leslee.

After we picked Avery up we ran a few errands and then went to the grand opening of a Chipotle that opened just down the street from us. After that we went to HEB to pick out some birthday cake. We ended up with a few different cupcakes. Avery chose the chocolate one...as you could have probably guessed.

Then it was off to the DMV! Birthday fun all day long! Ha ha ha. Oh well, it had to be done, and Al had the day off to help with the kids. The line wasn't too bad and now I have an official Texas driver's license. Plus, the worker at the DMV wished me a happy birthday.

That night my friends planned a big night for me. We met at Annie's house where a couple of my friends had presents for me. Leslee gave me a 6-pack of bottled diet coke and a giant bag of peanut butter M&Ms...she knows me so well :) And this was hilarious...the other night my friend Kim was asking me if money was tighter during med school or during residency. I said for most people money was worse during residency, but for us it's about the same because we didn't have food stamps during med school like most students do, so there wasn't much of a transition for us. And then I was laughing about how every once in a while Al will say that it has been so long since we've had chicken. Anyway, my friend Kim gave me a ton of frozen chicken for my birthday. I think it's the oddest, but funniest gift I've ever gotten.

A lot of us piled into my van and another group met us there later. All the girls were dressed up so cute for the night out and we listened to the Glee Christmas CD that Al and the kids had given me earlier. Then we were off to the Chocolate Bar! It's this really cool place in Rice Village that has 30+ homemade ice creams, all of these elaborate desserts, dipped chocolates, etc. It was a very fun night and we were out late!

It was also so fun to get all the phone calls and texts throughout the day. What a great birthday!!

Avery's dance routine

2010-12-10T14:28:00.003-06:00

This morning was Avery's dance showcase at her teacher's house. The little girls did such a good job and they were so cute to watch! I wish I had gotten a better angle with the camera, but I had James and didn't want to sit in the middle in case we had to step out. Dance is over for the year, but next semester starts the first week in January.

Ms. Tricia is just so cute with the kids and Avery is learning so much and having a blast. I am excited to watch Avery progress as she continues classes.

There were a few dads that were able to make it today and Ms. Tricia started the showcase off by showing some of the steps the kids have learned, some of their routines, etc. Then the girls performed their special dance for the parents. Afterward we had refreshments and visited with each other. It was a very fun morning and I'm so proud of Avery!

Rebelling

2010-12-08T22:55:00.004-06:00

I tried to get a couple of pictures of the kids before church on Sunday. They looked so Christmas-y in their outfits and I thought they would look great in front of the tree. It didn't go so well though...

Cowboy Boots

2010-11-16T23:09:00.001-06:00

I bought these cowboy boots on sale for super cheap at the end of the season last year, hoping they would fit James this year. The other day I pulled them out and James fell in love with them. It was a bit of a struggle to get them on (I still don't understand how it is so hard to put a baby's shoe on and yet they come off/fall off so easily...) but once they were on James wanted them there to stay. I tried to take them off to put on some sandals, since it was hot that day, but he threw a fit when I reached for his boots. Even after his nap he brought the boots to me to put back on him. He's such a funny little guy.

He's been sick with a cold the past week or so and had a rough time with sleeping. The other night Al was on call and so it was just me and the kids. They went to bed really easily, but a couple of hours later James woke up crying. I let him cry for a while, because a lot of times he just snuggles back into his blankies and goes back to sleep. But he cried for quite a while and so I went to check on him. He was standing up in his crib and so I got him out and rocked him for bit and he fell asleep right away. As soon as I put him back in his crib though his eyes popped open and he started to cry again.

I let him cry it some more and then checked on him again after the crying didn't seem to be stopping. Then came more rocking, falling asleep, put him in the crib, then crying again. After that I took him to our bed thinking maybe he just needed to cuddle for a bit. Avery was asleep in there because she likes to do that when Al is gone. So I laid James down next to her and he was just so excited to see Avery that he just kept saying her name over and over, "Avery!! Avery!!!!! Avery!!" Oh brother...but cute too...

After a while he seemed to be settling down. And then I drifted off to sleep, even though it wasn't that late and I hadn't intended to go to bed yet. Shortly after I thought I could hear some kind of tinkling of music from downstairs. I was kind of in and out of sleep and I was starting to drift off to sleep again when I heard the bedroom door shut tight and then the distinct sound of James going down the stairs on his bum. I got up and went downstairs to find James playing with his musical Thomas the Train books. It's like he went downstairs, realized that he was making noise, and came back upstairs to shut the door so he could just keep on playing downstairs while Avery and I slept!

I think he could tell by the look on my face that he was for sure going to bed at that point. No more rocking, cuddling, etc. Because I picked him up, took him back to his crib, and he went back to sleep without another sound.

Time Out

2010-11-16T23:08:00.001-06:00

So James got sent to time out for the first time the other day. For us time out means you have to go and sit on the stairs for a little while, or if you're Avery sometimes it means you have to go to your room for a little quiet time/settle down time.

Anyway, the other day he pulled Avery's hair and bit her and so I made him go and sit on the stairs. He had been there for just a bit when I decided to go and check on him. For all I knew he escaped to upstairs or whatever. I turned the corner and found him on the stair I had left him and he had a really fierce pout going on! He had his little lip tucked in so tight and was looking down at the ground. I couldn't help it...I started to chuckle. And then I went and got the camera because I just needed to capture that moment. These pictures don't even quite do it justice. He is trying not to smile in them. But before that he just had such a down on his luck look on his face. I realize that first laughing, then taking pictures, isn't really conducive to an effective time out...but we'll just have to work on that the next time I guess.

Mickey and Minnie

2010-11-02T14:41:00.007-05:00

Halloween was so much fun this year! Friday night was the ward Trunk or Treat. They started with a dinner and then they did their usual carnival inside with all sorts of games-- donut eating, bean bag toss, fishing pond, cake walk, kissing booth (they just gave out Hershey's kisses), balloon room, etc. It was so chaotic inside! But fun too. There is always a huge turnout for this party. Then they end with the trunk or treat.

Saturday night we had a party with our friends. My friend, Paola, put together a mini trick or treating event just with the ward members in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is divided into 2 sections. So in the first 45 minutes we went to one neighborhood and in the next 45 we went to the other one. Al went with us to the first part and then handed out candy for the second part. We drove in our friends' trucks, which the kids thought was pretty fantastic. They loved just hopping in the back together and then slowly driving around the neighborhoods, seeing all of the decorations and stopping and hopping out of the back of the truck when we got to a house that had a ghost picture on their door. That was how we designated who was participating. Avery is an old pro at trick or treating now and loved it. James caught on at the second house. He was so cute to watch! He picked out lollipops whenever he could and at one point had a tootsie pop in his mouth while holding another lollipop in his hand. He would eat the lollipop and then proudly hand me the stick and announce "Da!" which means done.

After the trick or treating we went back to Paola's house for appetizers and dessert and hot chocolate. Paola had a trampoline and a bounce house in the backyard and so all of the kids went out back. That was when we got into trouble...Avery has had a little cold for the past week or so. And whenever she has a cold she has a super sensitive gag reflex. Between the candy consumed and the jumping on the trampoline and the cold...plus she bumped into somebody on the trampoline. They were both crying, which then started the bad chain of reactions. Anyway, about 10 minutes into the party Al comes rushing through the house, discreetly, but with urgency. I was lucky I looked up and saw him. And so I went over to him and that's when he showed me that Avery had thrown up all over both of them. He just took Avery right out to our van and I ran and told my friend we had to leave and grabbed James and we were out of there. I am sad to have missed the party, but what are you gonna do? On the way home Al and I were just saying it was maybe a little too much candy and excitement. That's when Avery piped in that she knew she ate too many treats, but her tummy kept asking for more sweets. We couldn't help but laugh at that. But I did put all of the treats away when we got home!

Monster Dash

2010-11-01T00:21:00.003-05:00

I survived my first 10K. My friends and I ran a 10K on Saturday morning. It was actually cold for here, which was great! My friends have been running a long time, but have been great in taking me under their wing and letting me start running with them. All of them are training right now for a 1/2 marathon in a couple of weeks, except for Leslee, who is right next to me in the picture. She is running a full marathon.

Look how happy we look to be running early in the morning! Right after, I mean seconds after this picture was taken a race official came up to us and said, "Are you girls running the 10K? It starts in 3 minutes and the start line is all the way up there!" AAAHHH!!! So we sprinted to the start line and made it seconds before the race started. And then we were off! My friends had warned me several times that on race day every woman was for herself. I never even saw Leslee. She was just gone. I saw Annie's shirt for a split second and then she was gone too. For a little while I saw Kim, Megan, and Paola, but then I was by myself. I was afraid of overdoing it at first so I took it at a pretty slow pace. It was a lot of thinking time :)

Prior to the 10K the most I had run was almost 5 miles. I ran past the 5 mile marker, rounded the corner and just had to stop and speed walk part of it. I really wanted to run the whole way, but I just wasn't quite ready for that I guess. I sped walked for a little while and then picked up the running again. It was into the last mile that I thought to myself, "Ya know, I don't know that I love this. Running." But then I crossed the finish line and I really liked it again :) All my friends, Al and the kids, my friends' husbands were all at the finish line cheering me on. Just like my friends had told me, Annie was yelling, "Finish strong Jenny! C'mon Jenny! Lengthen that stride!" I am smiling now as I'm typing this, just thinking about it. We had driven together to the race that morning in my van and my friends had told me that Annie does that at every race. Sure enough :)

My legs have been a little tired today, but I am ready to go out running again tomorrow night with the girls. It is so fun to have such a great group of friends here.

P.S. My friend Leslee won the whole race.

Some Times It's a Good Thing They Are So Cute...

2010-10-13T09:08:00.008-05:00

A few days ago Avery had her friend Anna over after preschool. They play so well together and on the rare occasion have been known to get into a little mischief. The spend a lot of time playing dress ups in Avery's room, which is how this play date was going. As James was napping and I was downstairs doing housework all of a sudden I was enveloped in a cloud of fumes. It took me just a second to place the scent...my perfume. The scent was so strong it was practically choking me now. I cautiously called upstairs, "Um, Avery? Did you get into my perfume?" She did hesitate for a second, but really, how could she hide the fact?! She called back down that she had.

I went upstairs and if I thought the scent was strong downstairs...wow. About this time Anna's mom came to pick her up. Then our friend called from the airport to tell us her plane had landed and they were ready to be picked up. By this time I am nauseated and have a pounding headache. I load the kids in the car, James screaming, and headed out. The smell followed us! It had already attached to our clothes, etc. I apologized to my friend, Kim, for the smell and for James' screaming, since he was still at it. She was super polite about both. But I think her husband missed my explanation about the perfume because about halfway on the ride home I could hear him say through the screaming, "Wow, Avery, you smell really nice." Poor Christian was sandwiched in the back seat right next to Avery.

After dropping our friends off we came home and I suddenly remembered that the exterminator was scheduled to show up at any time. James is still screaming and I was frantically running around the house opening as many windows as I could when Al called excitedly to say he was coming home early. He could hear the screaming in the background and the irritation in my voice was definitely on the rise as I was detailing the perfume incident...especially because while I was on the phone with Al for those few seconds James dumped his snack all over the floor that I had spent forever on my hands and knees mopping while James had napped earlier that day. AAHHH!!!

Al quickly hung up the phone, I am sure wondering if this was the day he really wanted to come home early. James finally stopped screaming and the exterminator showed up right as Al was walking through the door. Luckily things seemed to calm down at that point.

For 2 days, except for at night, I kept the windows open hoping the smell would go away. I would get used to it, but all it took was a quick trip to the grocery store and for me to walk in the door before I was knocked over again by the scent. I washed a ton of things in Avery's room, and of course bathed Avery. It has been 5 days now since it all happened and I think the fumes are mostly gone in the rest of the house. Avery's room still smells lovely, but at least not as strong. I attempted Febreeze a couple days back but I don't know that it worked, except to make the room smell like a Febreeze/perfume combo.

Ready For School Too

2010-10-10T12:15:00.002-05:00

Look how cute James looks! Every day we take Avery to preschool Avery grabs her little canvas bag that is hanging on the door knob on the way out to the garage. James thinks he needs a bag too and grabs another bag that we have hanging up and throws it over his shoulder, ready to go. Every morning he hurries and brings me his shoes too while I am helping Avery finish getting ready. I think he thinks he's ready to go to school too. It's so cute because usually I do put his shoes on for him and then he knows that is the cue that we are heading out and he runs for the garage door and waits for me. He is such a sweetheart.

Just some things James is doing now: says baby, is trying to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but the only sounds that come out are "Ah ah ah ah..." (still very cute), can climb off and on the couch, likes to give you 5, is getting into legos, loves Halloween decorations (especially ghosts), his favorite book is the 1-10 counting book, loves pizza more than any food (can eat 2 pieces!), but also loves strawberries and grapes, still sucks his thumb a lot and sometimes rubs his belly button at the same time, pushes his cars along the ground--I love watching him do this, likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, still a snuggle boy.

One thing he does that I love is when I ask a question to everybody, like, "Who's hungry"? or tired, or whatever, Avery will say, "Me!" and then James will chime in and say, "Me!" after her.

Crafts

2010-09-30T15:42:00.004-05:00

The kids and I just got back from 5 days in San Antonio visiting Becky and her family. It was a blast. Becky spoiled me as usual and had her husband babysit the kids the first night we were there. Then she treated us to pedicures, shopping at La Cantera, and dinner at a great little Mexican chain they have there.

The next day we braved Costco on a Saturday and Jon babysat again so that Becky and I could go to dinner and more shopping. I was super happy to find a $7 shirt the first night, but didn't luck out much on Saturday night. It was still just so much fun to be out with Becky though. We've been best friends since 6th grade and it is always like old times when we are together. Lots of laughing and lots of talking :) But seriously, how much of a champ is Jon for watching the kids 2 nights in a row?! The trade-off was that he got to golf all day on Saturday before our night out...I still think we got the better end of the deal though.

Most of our time was spent hanging out at Becky's house, which is always fun. The kids play so well together and Becky goes to town on her crafts and lets me assist when I can. It always makes me desperately want a sewing machine and money to buy fabric or whatever. But Becky is always super generous and provides all of the materials and talent. We spent a couple of afternoons/nights working on these shirts for the girls. I think they turned out so cute. Becky made all of the coordinating hair bows too. Today Avery wore the Halloween shirt and bow and looked so festive. Becky also made these cute snack bags for the kids. They are lined on the inside with a washable fabric and are more durable and easier for James to use than a plastic baggy.

We did exercise a couple of days while we were there. We worked out at the gym one day and went on a really long walk another day. Becky lives in the "Hill Country" of San Antonio. It is so much different than Houston...lots of hills, lots of trees...I'm not sure the exercising made up for the mass quantity of double-stuff Halloween oreos that were consumed though...

Avery in Action

2010-09-23T21:41:00.004-05:00

So, here is Avery 'water-skiing' and singing her favorite song on Rock Band. Pretty cute :)

Sturdy

2010-09-23T21:37:00.004-05:00

These pictures are from a while ago, and I kind of forgot about them until Avery brought it up today. She said, "Remember when I was driving the car and Lincoln and Cal were on top? I wanna do that again!"

Seriously though, look how sturdy that little car is! They tooled around like this for quite a while. I didn't get a picture that showed Cal's face, but he had a big grin too and they were all three laughing hysterically. I love how happy Lincoln's face is in the pictures too. Later on in the night James got in on the action too. Good times.

Minnesota

2010-09-14T12:21:00.013-05:00

We went to Minnesota for 8 days in August. My parents flew us out there and Jon and Jessie, and my mom and dad met us out there at Derek and Jen's house. It was a lot of fun to be together, and sadly it doesn't happen very often. I think the last time was at Jessie and Jon's wedding.

Avery and James had a blast playing in Derek and Jen's basement in their huge toy room with their cousins. We didn't see a whole lot of them for long periods of time. Besides the mass quantities of toys the toy room is equipped with karaoke, a DVD/TV and a wardrobe filled with dress up clothes. Plus a mini trampoline. Paradise for any kid.

The kids also loved being outside. The weather was perfect!! I think it was in the 70's and 80's while we were there and little humidity. We were outside for hours at a time soaking it all in. My kids especially liked the huge sandbox under Derek and Jen's deck. And one day we were there Derek set up a huge water slide for the kids in the backyard. I kinda wanted to go down it too. How come they don't make those for adults?

But the majority of the vacation was spent on Derek and Jen's new boat. They bought it at the end of summer last year and none of the rest of us had ever been on it before. There is a lake about 10 minutes from their house and we went there almost every day for hours. I haven't had that much exposure to boats over the years, so I'm not an experienced skier or anything. But I did get up a few times :) I also did a little knee-boarding, but didn't brave the wake-boarding yet. Avery's favorite thing to do was swim in the lake. But they also had this awesome tube thing for the kids that is kind of like a cross between a tube and water-skiing. I have never seen anything like it. We all just laughed hysterically when little Ethan popped right up on it and then the same thing when it was Avery's turn. She got up on her first try and stayed up for a long time. They had the tube for the adults too, but I'm not a big fan of that. I really hurt my back on one a long time ago and it took forever to get over. Derek and Jon mostly did wake-boarding. My dad is an excellent skier, but it has been a few years since he's been behind a boat. He ended up pulling his hamstring on his second run...the back of his leg was all bruised and everything. So that was the end of skiing for him on this trip. Sad :(

We did make one trip to the Mall of America. I think you kind of have to if you're out there! Jon and Jessie announced that they are expecting their first baby in March, which is really fun and so we helped Jessie pick out a lot of new maternity clothes at the mall. The rest of us did some shopping and looking around too. I barely saw Avery that day because she went to the amusement park with the guys. And James did surprisingly well for a 1 year old all day at the mall.

We also spent a few hours in a little town called Stillwater. Although none of us could never remember what it was called except for Jen. So we alternated between Stillwater, Sweetwater, and Saltwater. It just has a bunch of fun little shops and restaurants. Just the girls went on that outing.

I think some of my favorite times though were down time at the house. We played a ton of cards and board games, some wii and some Rock Band. Avery loved the wii (well watching...or keeping her character in a bubble for all of you wii super Mario fans) and Rock Band too. She got to sing her favorite song a couple of times..video to come :) I paid respects to the 80's most of the times and I'm pretty sure I rocked 100% vocals on Love is a Battlefield and Rio. My parents actually did a duet to Happy Together, which was a highlight. But I think nobody can top Derek with his rendition of Mr. Roboto. Wish I had footage.

First Day of Pre-K

2010-09-07T20:28:00.004-05:00

Here are a couple of pictures of Avery on the first day of pre-K. She was so excited to get inside Ms. Annie's house that she didn't give me much of an opportunity to take pictures, but these couple turned out cute. I also had James screaming in the car so I didn't get to focus on Avery as much as I wanted to :(

The day before school started we went to Target and picked out a new nail polish color, kind of our tradition. Avery picked out this goldish/bronze color. It is kind of a fun color. So I painted my toenails and Avery's and toe and fingernails.

We missed the pre-K open house this year because we were in Minnesota so Avery and Ms. Annie worked on Avery's preschool bag the first week of school. It is very random and I'll have to take a picture of it. Some of the painting was done by Ms. Annie and some by Avery. Ms. Annie said she did it exactly to Avery's specifications :) There is a spider...?! And the letter 'c' because it is her favorite...?! And a shooting star, the Earth, and I can't remember what else.

Ms. Annie is doing two different preschool classes this year- a 3 yr. old class and a 4 yr. old class. I think it will be nice to have the ages split up. Avery is already really excited about what she learned the first week.

Also, on the second day of school, Avery and her friend Anna jumped in the van. After I buckled them in and put the van into drive they said rather coyly, "We have boyfriends!" Boyfriends?! I didn't even know that Avery knew that word! So of course I had to inquire as to who they were. Avery's supposed boyfriend is the older brother of Anna, the family I babysat for 10 days. At first I was kind of alarmed about them stating such a thing. But then I remembered that I had my first "boyfriend" in Kindergarten. So I guess we both started early ;)

I am really behind on my blogging. I will have to post about our Minnesota trip and the babysitting job soon.

Child Labor

2010-08-08T20:09:00.002-05:00

I was cleaning all of the glass surfaces in the family room and Avery and James descended on me. They thought it looked to be about the funnest thing ever. I let James give it a try with the paper towel, after I had sprayed windex, and he did surprisingly well. I mean, he's only 1! Avery wanted to be the permanent sprayer.

And on another day I was dusting the family room and the kiddies were practically fighting over who got to use the feather duster next. I'm thinking of investing in a second one just to get the jobs done quicker.

It made me remember when I was little I used to beg my mom to let me iron my dolls' clothes and hair ribbons. A little OCD I guess. She used to lower the ironing board to my height and I would go to town. I wonder when ironing stopped being fun...?

July

2010-08-01T13:16:00.004-05:00

July has been such a long and rough month for us, but at the same time I can't believe it is almost August and time for 'back to school.' We didn't get out much for the month, but here is kind of a re-cap of what we are up to. Hopefully, now that we are back on track, I will start blogging more regularly.

The picture of Avery was taken right before church one week. She asked me to take her picture :) And James has taken to wearing the Fisher Price stethescope around his neck while he goes around the house playing.

Avery has taken 3 weeks of swimming lessons, with two more to go. She has really improved. Putting her face in the water is not a problem at all anymore. She can basically do the elementary backstroke on her own, is great at floating on her back, and loves using the kickboard. Right now she is working on using her arms, legs, and putting her face in the water at the same time. She loves the water...just like me. At night she asks me to tell her stories about when I was a little girl. Sometimes I tell her about when I was on the swim team, about my races, etc. She gets really excited to hear about my past adventures.

Avery is very excited to start preschool and I am excited for her. I love to watch her be excited about things. I am also signing her up for a dance class that will run from Sept. through December. One of my friends in the ward grew up a dancer and has been teaching dance for years. She is starting classes out of her home for a very reasonable price and Avery will be in the class with some of her friends. She has also asked about joining soccer. We will have to see I guess. Avery loves to be involved in activity around the clock, loves to entertain, or socialize.

She thrives on hearing about what Al does at work. Every day when he comes home she wants to know what surgeries he did the night before or that day. She hangs on every word and can tell if you are leaving out information. She wants to know EVERYTHING. She will ask all sorts of questions as Al explains why he did what he did, etc. At times I have wondered if it is too much, if Al tells her too much. She is only 4 after all. But she never gets scared, or disgusted, just more enthralled. She was the same way about my recent health problems and was never satisfied with my answers. She could always tell that I was shortchanging her on the info. Or was just really vague. Then she will tell Al about surgeries that she did. She will completely make up some scenario about a person getting hurt, and then what needed to be fixed and how she did it. It really is amazing what she retains from what Al tells her and how she can use it to come up with her own material. Lately she's been doing a lot of surgeries involving the spleen :)

Avery has also been into doing chores around the house. Every night after James goes to bed, and sometimes throughout the day, I will give her tasks to do. She got a charm bracelet and wants to earn 'dollars' to buy more charms for the bracelet. She works really hard and does a good job. I wish I had gotten her the charm bracelet a long time ago! Mostly she helps pick up toys and things around the house. But chores can also include playing with James for a little while, trying a new food, practicing her letters and her reading words, etc.

James stays busy, emptying anything and everything from all cabinets and drawers around the house. Sometimes I just give up on trying to put everything back. We will definitely need to child-proof everything soon. It is driving me crazy. He isn't too much into talking yet. Still just says more, or "Mah, mah, mah!" Always 3 times in a row, really fast, or one emphatic, "MAH!!" I think he said bye-bye the other day. About a month ago he decided he was done with all baby food and also that he didn't want any help with eating. All on the same day. So things have gotten messier, but he is happy. He knows where his tongue and belly-button are. He is learning the animal sounds. He is really good at doggy, cow (a really short "boo" instead of moo), and quacking. He loves to growl/roar. And that is used for dinosaurs, tigers, lions, and hippos...I guess he thinks a hippo looks like it could make an impressive roar. And it really is impressive for such a little guy. I'll have to see if I can get it on video some time. His latest trick is that he throws his dirty laundry into the laundry basket. After he does it he gets the biggest smile on his face. Very cute.

He has also started squealing/yelling a lot. It will be so much easier for him when he can say a few more words...much easier for us too. James would stay outside every day, all day if we let him. He just can't get enough, even in this miserable heat and humidity. He still loves to cuddle, be rocked, and smiles all of the time.

Al is busier than ever. We don't see him much...maybe an hour and a 1/2 a day. Or sometimes not at all. I will be glad when trauma is over. This past month has been hard and lonely. But just one more month and he will be done and onto something else.

Some of my Favorites

2010-06-28T22:37:00.013-05:00

I took a lot of pictures on the trip to Utah, but these were some of my favorites:

These pictures document a lot of what we did, but not everything. We really packed a lot into a month: 3+ trips to Thanksgiving Point, pony rides, The Dinosaur Museum (way cooler than I remembered), 3+ trips to Gardner Village, Park City--hugely successful shopping and we got caught in a rain storm, the Aquarium, 2 trips to Gateway, Children's Museum, 5 private swimming lessons for Avery, 4 trips to Dimple Dell Pool, Kangaroo Zoo (awesome--even worth getting lost on the way home. It made me wish I was a little kid), Fashion Place, 2 trips to SouthTown, 4+ trips to Costco, 2 trips to Baby Heirlooms and some of my other favorite boutiques, 1 date night with Al, Deseret bookstore, 1 unexpected root canal, 1 book read, and ate out more lunches and dinners than I can remember or should admit to, and many other adventures.

What a great trip! It was so much fun to spend time with family and see everybody. Who knew a month could go by so quickly. It was good to get back and see Al...I know he was lonely and we really missed him. It was sooo nice being spoiled for a month though. In a month's time it seems like I have somehow forgotten how to plan meals and have also forgotten what we do all day here. It is always an adjustment to come back and pick up the routine things again...and to come down off of the shopping/dining out/being constantly entertained high. But we do have some fun things lined up here. Avery starts swimming lessons next week and that will be a lot of fun for her. We had a play date today and I am going to Eclipse with some friends on Thursday night.

Most of my friends here are leaving or have already left for the summer. I have never lived somewhere before where people clear out for the summer. I think it has a lot to do with the heat, humidity, and husbands studying for big tests or husbands having horrible schedules. But our trip to Utah was on the shorter side compared to some! I can't say that I blame them though...walking out of the airport at 12 am and getting greeted by the heat and humidity was a little tough to swallow. And Al had the day off after we got back and then started a 10 week rotation on trauma. We survived intern year (yeah!!! We never have to do it again!!!), but Al's hours aren't any better, just different responsibilities now. It is quiet here. I grew accustomed to having people around to talk to. But I got the next book club book and a huge stack of ads and magazines that Al saved for me from when we were gone.

Fire Station Field Trip

2010-05-22T21:28:00.005-05:00

On Wednesday Avery's class took a field trip to the fire station. All of the kids were very excited! I have to say that it was pretty neat. I didn't get to see everything up close like the kids did because I had James in a stroller and was kind of lagging behind the crowd, but what I saw was really impressive. I can't believe how much equipment is stowed on a fire truck! There are tons of compartments all packed with various tools, first aid, etc. The fire man in charge of the tour was very good with the kids--I think they have given quite a few of these tours. He explained what all the tools are used for and the moms and I had a chuckle when he talked about the "jaws of life" and how the kids had "probably heard of them in a movie." They are only 3/4 years old :)

We got to see a huge fire truck that had the ladder on top and then a smaller one without the ladder. Then one of the firemen put all of his equipment on for the kids to see. He explained everything that he put on and then talked to them through the mask. He told them that if they ever see a fireman like this in their house to not be afraid, but to go to them because they are there to help. I thought that was good for the kids to hear.

We also got a tour of the inside of the fire station. We saw where they sleep, watch TV, etc. The kids were fascinated by the kitchen for some reason, "What's in the fridge?" "What's in that closet?" and so on. Kinda funny. When we left the kids all got their own hat and some coloring pages to work on. It was a pretty great field trip.

Powdered Donuts

2010-05-07T14:46:00.006-05:00

This is one of those "I only left the kids alone for a couple of minutes..." things.

Avery got the powdered donuts off of the counter and took them into the family room. Then she left the bag on our ottoman, right at James' eye level. When I came into the room there were powdered donuts all over the floor and James was grabbing them in his hands and crumbling them up. The donut bag was empty. Luckily there weren't many left when the incident started.

When James realized he was caught he smiled really big, and then proceeded to finish the crumbling job, except for the one that he smashed by accidentally sitting on it.

The Train Cake

2010-04-29T13:55:00.007-05:00

I got home from San Antonio on Sunday afternoon and baked the cake so that it would be ready to decorate on Monday night. Al was on-call Monday night, so after I put the kids in bed I set out to deck the cake out. It took me a long time! Over two hours. Because I had to do the tracks and the grass first. And then those little train cars...even though they are tiny they took forever! There were 9 cars total, but only 6 fit on the track. I was kinda glad I didn't have to do the last 3. I guess it's kind of a cross between a cake and a gingerbread house with all of the candy on it. But I thought it was so cute! And appropriate for a boy's 1st birthday.

James smiled at first, but then it spiraled down hill pretty quickly. He didn't want anything to do with his cake. Didn't want to touch it, taste it, see it, smell it, etc. You get the idea. He finally put one finger in the icing and cried and cried. Avery just wanted to pick the candy off the train and Al had a big serving of ice cream and nothing else. So all of that work on the cake for nothing!! Nothing! How lame is that?!

James' Birthday

2010-04-29T13:51:00.008-05:00

Here are some of the pictures from James' birthday. He was sick the day before and the day of his birthday, so he wasn't in the best of spirits...as is evident in some of the pictures. Poor little guy. We took the family pictures at the beginning when he was still pretty happy. We had pizza for dinner, which is usually one of his favorites, but he didn't touch it. Then we let him open his presents. We gave James one of those little cars to ride around in. Avery has been asking for days if James could open that present. I ordered it a while ago and it had been sitting in the laundry room until the big day. So she was more than anxious for the present opening. We also gave James some sand/beach toys which he seemed super happy with. Avery wanted to help wrap presents too so earlier that day when I was wrapping James' she grabbed some random toys from around the house to wrap up for James. It was pretty cute.

I had been toying around with having some friends over for cake and ice cream, but am glad I decided not to because James was sooo ornery. He spent most of his birthday sucking his thumb, crying, whimpering, etc. At 7 o'clock we decided that the party was over for him and we put him to bed. Avery was pretty thrilled that she got the car to herself for a while.

Happy 1st Birthday, James!!!

2010-04-27T10:39:00.001-05:00

Happy birthday, James!! We love you so much!

We can't believe that James is already 1! In some ways this has been a long year, but it is still hard to imagine that a year has gone by since James was born. He is such a cuddly, smiley boy and is really starting to walk. It is fun to watch him take steps. He gets so proud of himself and starts to clap...or turns around to see if I'm going to clap for him. He is starting to enjoy playing with cars, dinosaurs, and balls and loves anything that has to do with water, just like Avery. I watched him go head first into the bathtub, fully clothed, when Avery was taking a bath.

He has a ton of nicknames: James, Jamers, Jamie, Jamies, Jama-boy, Stinka-boy, Bud, Butter-boy, Big-boy, Bigger-boy, etc. If Avery were here right now she could help me remember the rest of them.

We love our Jamie!!

Strawberry Fields Forever...

2010-04-16T16:28:00.004-05:00

Last Friday we went to Froberg Farms with the Friday playgroup. It is about 20 minutes away. It is strawberry picking season right now. We missed it completely last year, so I was excited to go and see it. What is it about strawberries that is so homey? And cheerful and summery? There were fields and fields of strawberries. I loved seeing the bright green and red in mass quantities.

Avery and I were each armed with a bucket and we picked a row that we thought looked good...they all looked good...The plants were really plentiful and it didn't take long at all to fill the buckets. Avery is definitely a strawberry lover. She sampled a few as we picked and then as we walked through the rest of the market. I was glad I put her in an old shirt for the day. Good thinking on my part!

We brought the berries home and I decided to try to make some freezer jam. I have only ever made apricot jam, the old-fashioned way, but I was glad to see that the freezer jam is easy, just messy. I made a double batch and took a few jars to some friends. Then Al got home from work and ate a whole jar in one sitting. The next day he ate another jar. So the kids and I went back to the farm this week and picked more strawberries and I made another double batch.

There is a blueberry farm here too, but it is about 40 minutes away or so. I really want to go and check it out though...I think blueberry jam sounds good too...blueberry pancakes...blueberry syrup...Mmm...

Easter Morning

2010-04-07T12:25:00.006-05:00

Easter morning was a lot of fun. Avery had been looking forward to it for a while and I knew that as soon as Jamie saw the candy he would be excited too.

I just love the smiling picture of James. He is just like that--always smiling and laughing and pretty easy going. I hope he stays this way. Avery told me today that Jamie is her best friend. He thinks that anything she does is pretty spectacular.

The Easter bunny had hidden lots of plastic eggs around the house, so as soon as the kids were done checking out their baskets they set out to find the eggs. James found one and was content with that, so it was up to Avery to find the rest. I think we all spent the rest of the day in a chocolate daze.

Jump House

2010-04-05T20:36:00.008-05:00

When we were in San Antonio my friend treated us to an afternoon at Pump It Up. It was an absolute blast. Avery was in heaven and I have to say that if I was a kid I would have been too. There were 6 or so of those huge bounce house things. Some were the obstacle course ones and some were the huge slides, one was a mini basketball court, a climbing wall, etc. James didn't love it so much at first. It was pretty noisy, kind of like a vacuum sound, from keeping the bounce houses pumped up. James is pretty timid of loud noises: our vacuum, hand mixer, lawn mower, car wash (complete meltdown). So he clung to me for the first hour or so that we were there. The place we were at is pretty strict on the number of kids they let in at one time, so it made it easy to keep track of Avery, which was nice. But it was also Saint Patrick's Day and it was a sea of green in there. I took James into a couple of bounce houses and he liked when we would jump around. Then we found this little car and he could not have been happier. Sucking your thumb and driving a car at the same time takes some real talent :)

I took James down a couple of the slides. He held his ear and sucked his thumb the whole way down. My friend laughed that his expression didn't change the whole time down the slide. He still couldn't quite get over the noise.

In other news: Al started his trauma rotation. I can tell Al is really busy because I barely get a text from him. Last month was Urology. Al was miserable but I loved it because the hours were fabulous. Trauma is pretty hard core and May is Surgical ICU which is a bad one too. I guess when I say bad, I am selfishly talking about for me. Al will enjoy these two months much more than last month. He will be exhausted though and I know we are both looking forward to our vacation in May!!! Then just a month of gen. surg. in June and Al is officially a 2nd year resident!! The contract has already been signed and everything. It always feels like a big deal to cross one more year off.

James is getting closer to walking. He says Mama, Dada, still loves doing the touch down, shows you were his tongue is and loves to clap his hands. He can also bark like a dog. He likes to wrestle with his big stuffed dog. He just grabs the dog and throws himself on top of it. Then he rolls around, etc. Pretty funny. I am trying to get a video of it.

The weather has been great- low 80's and sunny. We have been wearing shorts for the past month or so. We have been trying to spend a lot of time outside because it won't be long before we can't anymore, unless it involves swimming :)

"Easter" Sunday

2010-03-30T15:38:00.006-05:00

Sunday was "Easter" Sunday for us since next week is general conference. So I got the kids dressed up in their Easter clothes. They looked so cute!! I of course am their mom, so I thought they were especially cute. Avery is starting to look so grown up, and so is James. I can't believe he will be one in less than a month!

Avery sang in sacrament meeting with the rest of the primary. It was her first time to do anything like that. We talked about it for a little bit while I was fixing her hair that morning and I don't think she quite grasped the whole concept. She kept asking, "but what am I going to sing?" I asked her if they had been practicing a special song and she said she didn't know. Then I asked her if she was going to sing "He Sent His Son" and she said yeah, maybe that was it.

We got to church a few minutes late and as we were walking in Avery said, "Mom, I'm so nervous!" And I asked, "To sing?" and she said yes. I got a little worried because I started to remember that when I was a little girl I used to cry when we had to go up and sing in front of everybody. That didn't seem like the Avery I know, but you never know...But then the next sentence out of her mouth was, "Everybody knows I'm a good singer." Well, I'm glad her confidence, and a healthy one at that, rebounded so quickly.

Avery was adorable up there. She smiled so big in the front row and sang the words. I was getting all emotional and was looking around and saw that all the other parents seemed to be under control. What's my problem?!

I wish I could crop these pictures to get rid of all of the clutter, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet with the program we have.

And I have a question for all you moms that have little boys. When do you start fixing their hair? And do you use gel/product? And/or what type of product?

Chuck E Cheese

2010-03-22T22:05:00.004-05:00

I haven't been to Chuck E Cheese for years. But Avery has seen it advertised on TV and asks frequently if she can go. When we were in San Antonio my friend Becky treated all of us to a day at Chuck E Cheese. I think it was everything that Avery had hoped for. She had a blast climbing through the jungle gym and playing some of the games. It was fairly crowded because of spring break, but we still managed just fine. It kind of reminded me of Vegas, with all of the lights and sounds, just without all of the smoke. I think a visit every few years is good enough for me when it comes to Chuck E Cheese and Vegas.

Towards the end I started putting James in some of the cars with Avery. He loved them and she was so cute with James in the cars. When the timer ran out on the cars James would sit there and start rocking back and forth on his own, like he was willing it to start up again. Well, maybe I'll have to go back to Chuck E Cheese sooner rather than later. They both had so much fun. I'll just remember to take analgesics before I go...

Bat Girl

2010-03-21T17:05:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Avery was invited to her friend Sevy's birthday party. It was a superhero themed party and everyone was to dress as their favorite superhero or villain. We don't really have any superhero costumes or dress up items, so we borrowed this costume from a friend in the ward. Isn't it awesome?! Avery loved it. She was Bat Girl for most of Friday night and Saturday, rescuing James, Al and I from various problems/bad guys. I think she is going to be sad when we have to give the costume back.

Birthday Dinner

2010-02-16T09:27:00.005-06:00

Avery picked the birthday dinner menu all by herself:) Hot dogs, cheetos, apple slices, pineapple, 7-up, marbled cake and chocolate ice cream. Avery was super excited about the giant cupcake cake and she blew the candles out about 3 or 4 times.

The picture of her on the couch is with most of her birthday presents. Everybody was so good to her this year. Grandma Nette and Grandpa Dave gave her the adorable Fancy Nancy doll and some fun clothes for the summer. Friday is her Fancy Nancy birthday party and she is really excited. She invited the two girls from preschool and the 2 girls from her primary class. I am excited about the things I have planned and hope it all turns out.

I am glad our internet finally worked long enough for me to get all of these pictures up. Finally!!

Build A Bear

2010-02-16T09:20:00.006-06:00

Grandma and Grandpa Tanner gave Avery a gift certificate to Build a Bear. Avery has been wanting to do Build A Bear for over a year, but we always have to tell her no, which makes me feel mean. So you can imagine how excited she was to finally get to go there!

First we had lunch in the food court for the big day. Avery picked Chick-Fil-A. Then we headed to Build a Bear. Al and I weren't surprised when Avery gravitated towards the green frog. Once she saw the frog she didn't look at any other animal there. And she quickly named the frog "Ellie." Avery was a little scared when they stuffed Ellie. You can tell in the one picture that she is holding her hands up to her face, worried. But she really liked when you got to put the heart in and then they stitched her up. There are tons and tons of outfits and accessories to choose from there. Avery ended up getting the Little Mermaid outfit, the Tinkerbell outfit, Rollerskates, and a Love Bug outfit. She loves Ellie so much and loves changing her ouffits, which we do often. I think she likes the roller skates the most of anything.

Opening Presents

2010-02-16T09:13:00.005-06:00

Avery had a great 4th birthday! She got such fun presents. Here are a few pictures from the big day. She got the froggy boots from her Granny. Avery has been eye-ing them for months and months and she has to try them on every time she goes to Target. She is so excited to have her very own pair and has already worn them quite a few times. It rains so often here and so they really do come in handy. Al and I gave her her very own umbrella which she was excited about too.

She also got some new fairy wings, her "Silvermist" wings as she likes to call them. She wears her wings every day and they are starting to really show some wear, so it was good for her to get some new ones.

And there is a picture of her opening the card from Grandpa and Grandma Tanner. It has Tinkerbell on the front and plays "You Can Fly." Avery was as excited about this card as any present that she got. She just loved it. James did too and they take turns playing the music over and over.

I just love Avery's face in these pictures. She was so happy and excited about everything that she opened.

Avery's Birthday- Webkinz Movie

2010-02-16T09:08:00.004-06:00

Avery had a Webkinz Movie Party on her birthday. What we do is get all of her webkinz on a blanket, Avery gets to pick out the movie and then they have some treats. Avery was loving it until James invited himself to the party...then she wasn't enjoying it quite as much...But look how much fun James was having!

Growing Kids

2010-02-09T14:53:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I took both kids in for check-ups- Avery for her 4 year-old and James for his 9-month old. Avery was a little skittish about going to the doctor, but I told her that she didn't have to get any shots this time...note to self: never promise this to your kids.

As soon as we got there the nurse told me that Avery was getting 4 shots. What?! I thought they didn't get anymore until right before kindgergarten. But she said, no, it's 4 at 4.

Both of the kids are growing so much! Here are the stats:

Avery-

weight--41 lbs.--85th percentile

height--3 ft. 5 inches--75th percentile

James-

weight-- 24 lbs. 4 oz. --90th percentile

height-- 29 inches--75th percentile

The doctor said they both look great and are very healthy. I had James get his shots first. He only had two and took them like a champ. He only cried for about 30 seconds. Avery, well, the first two went better than the second two. At our old clinic they always had 2 nurses come in so they could just give the shots at the same time and get it over with. At this clinic there is just the one nurse and she did 1 and 2 on the first arm. Avery was not happy and kept saying she wanted to go home, cried, etc. Little did she know that we had to do the other arm too. As soon as the nurse started going for the other arm Avery really freaked out. I had to hold her down while the nurse jabbed her two more times. The nurse blamed it on the doctor and said that the doctor told her to do it. She also told Avery that she doesn't have to get another shot until she is 11, which is nice to know.

Then we had to take James down to the lab to get blood drawn for a routine screening. That was not fun. They couldn't get blood on the first arm after poking around a few times. I had to watch and hold James. It was terrible. Then she tried the other arm and told me that if it didn't work they would have to take it out of his finger, at which point we had to stay for an extra 20 minutes because I guess they worry about the finger clotting or something. Luckily they were able to get it out of the second arm. I could tell Avery was really glad she didn't have to have that done.

And to top it off Al, James and I have been battling the stomach bug for the rest of that day and today. Avery avoided it gratefully.

Now James has his next check-up at 1 year. 1 year!! Only in a few months! That is crazy to me. And Avery isn't do for a whole year. Hopefully she will get over the trauma of it all by then ;)

Just Like Daddy

2010-02-02T20:10:00.003-06:00

Avery really wanted to wear Al's pager and stethoscope to complete her ensemble.

This is What Happens...

2010-02-02T20:07:00.005-06:00

I found out today that this is what happens when you have 3 3-year olds, a 2-year old, and a nine month old all playing at your house at the same time.

Looking at these pictures now, I don't think they even do it justice. I have never seen my house like that before. I mean, Avery's bed was even made this morning...I'm not sure how that got messed up too. But all is put away now and it looks so much better!! Just in time for tomorrow :)

Broken Pipe

2010-01-08T17:54:00.000-06:00

Well, today hasn't been my favorite day :)

This morning the kids and I woke up at 7. We headed downstairs and I said to Avery and James, "It sounds like rain today." It has been raining off and on the last few days.

We turned on the cartoons and I sat around for a little while catching up on e-mail and such because we didn't have a computer yesterday. We got breakfast were doing all of the things we normally do when somebody knocked on the door and rang the doorbell. This was about 8:30 in the morning. Well, I wasn't about to answer the door. First of all I was in my pajamas, but we also get a TON of solicitors here. More than I've ever had if you combine all of the other places I have lived. Then came another knock and ring. Those salesmen can be persistent! And then I didn't think anything else of it.

A little while later Al called me and I don't remember what, but something made me open the blinds to our front window. I said, "Holy cow, Al! There is water flooding our front yard, the sidewalk, and the street!" Then I got this sinking feeling, realizing that it wasn't rain I had heard...

I ran to the back window and couldn't see much but I could tell that there were sprays of water and I looked at the ground and it was completely flooded.

I threw on Al's heavy coat and some gloves and went in the back yard looking for any lever that I could turn off. It was like a geyser going off! There was some serious force to the water. I got drenched from head to toe, trying to turn the levers, but to no avail. That water was sooooo cold.

I ran back inside and called a neighbor that has the same floor plan as ours, asking where to turn the water off. She said to look in the garage, but I didn't see anything. Then I called the city and told them we needed help. She said they would be over some time to take a look, but that they were very busy. Meanwhile we were continuing to irrigate our street.

A knock came again and this time I opened the door. It was a guy from down the street that I've never met before. He said he had stopped by earlier but that nobody answered. I could have kicked myself. He was so nice and said that he was going to try to turn the water off for me. I went out with him to offer any help I could. He told me to go back inside with the kids and he would figure it out. He finally got all of our water shut off. I thanked him profusely (cookies to be delivered shortly!!). As he left he chuckled and said, "Your water bill is going to be outrageous." Yeah it is. The water here is so expensive and we've been cleaning the streets for 2+ hours straight. Not to mention our yard probably won't need water for months.

After lots of phone calls and texting I got a plumber to come out to the house this afternoon. It turns out that a pipe to our sprinkler system froze and broke. It is freezing here. I know it doesn't compare to Idaho, but for Houston it is really cold. The plumber says they haven't seen a freeze like this since 1989. And the houses here are not built for this kind of weather. It's Texas for crying out loud!! There are icicles all over our air conditioning unit and pipes outside, thanks to the geyser.

The estimate that the plumber gave me to fix the sprinklers is crazy. We won't be fixing that any time soon. We really don't even need a sprinkling system here. And we've been without water all day. Al just got home and he is going to try to get us up and running again. Luckily the one food storage item we could afford is bottled water, and so it's been okay! And I am just so grateful that the plumbing problem wasn't something to do with the house. That could have been a nightmare.

Christmas Day

2009-12-30T07:29:00.009-06:00

I am kind of mad at myself that I didn't document the morning better. I took just a few pictures of the kids in their excitement and then I think I got caught up in it all and forgot about the camera.

I took a few pictures the night before of everything set up. The one picture is a close-up of James' stocking that my mom made for him this year. I think it turned out so cute!

Avery giggled as she ran down the stairs to see what Santa had brought. She just stood and took everything in for a little while. James was pretty wide-eyed through the whole morning. He loved all of the bright paper.

Christmas was a great success!! Avery got some Littlest Pet shop things, some cars, books, puzzles, make-up, play dough toys, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and various other things. James got a big stuffed doggy, new bibs and bottles and treats, a transformer (or was that for Al...?), lots of Thomas Train pieces, books, and a little fisher price table thingy that plays songs, etc. and various other surprises. They could not have been happier. I will post pictures soon of them playing with their toys.

After the opening of the presents we had a huge Christmas breakfast and then spent the rest of the day in our pajamas watching movies, dozing off on the couch, playing with the new toys, and eating.

Christmas Eve

2009-12-30T07:23:00.005-06:00

Al was on-call on the 24th, so we celebrated Christmas on the 25th and 26th. I baked most of the 24th while my mom finished the painting. Then on the 25th we cleaned the house and made all of the party food for that night.

After dinner we all opened our traditional present of new pajamas and were excited to put them on.

Then we let Avery open one more present for the night. She had been so patient this whole month and has not bothered the presents at all or even asked if she could open one. I was really surprised by that. James on the other hand managed to rip into a few before the big night.

We sang some carols and read some Christmas stories and then put the kids in bed. Avery was really cute about leaving a plate of cookies for Santa. She also reminded me that we needed to leave a glass of milk, so I poured a small glass for Avery and she put the cookies, the milk, and her letter for Santa on the fireplace before we tucked her into bed. I thought she would have trouble sleeping, but she went to bed quickly and slept through the whole night!

The adults then watched A Christmas Carol and wrapped a few more presents and got everything set up for the next morning.

This was the first year since I was growing up that we weren't with a huge group for Christmas eve, and my first Christmas ever that I was 'away from home.' It was all kind of bittersweet. I am so glad that my parents were there. It was so much fun having them at our house for Christmas.

We've Been Busy

2009-12-30T07:14:00.009-06:00

Here are some pictures from the week before Christmas.

We were really busy! Al had from the 14th-20th off from work and my parents flew in late on the 16th. I had already taped a lot of the rooms that we were going to paint, but there was still some work that needed to be done. We spent a lot of the week getting the painting supplies, painting, celebrating my dad's birthday, finishing Christmas shopping, driving around looking at Christmas lights, etc.

We also squeezed in a trip to the galleria and my mom and I took Avery to see Princess and the Frog, which we all thought was cute. Oh, and my parents babysat while we went to New Moon! It has been sooo long since Al and I have been out on a date...I think the last time was last December when we were home for Christmas.

James outgrew his infant carseat. The straps were maxed out and were so tight on him that he cried when we put him in the carseat. So we went and bought Avery a booster seat and switched James into Avery's old carseat. As you can see, both seem really happy with the change.

Into Trouble

2009-12-12T22:13:00.001-06:00

James is starting to get into everything. He doesn't crawl yet, but he is army crawling everywhere. He is getting fast too. This morning I was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher. When I came out James had taken off the snowflake ornament, yanked the ribbon off of the bottom of the Christmas tree, and unrolled a whole bolt of silver ribbon.

I came around the corner and exclaimed, "James!!" He looked up at me and gave me the biggest grin. So of course I had to go and get the camera, only he wouldn't smile after that. He also discovered the fireplace today and has been trying to get into that. I guess somehow I will have to block that off. The tree...well, there isn't much I can do about that. He is just so curious about it. He doesn't even mind that it is kinda pokey. He will just grab a bottom limb and give it a good yank. Then the whole tree kinda shakes a little bit. He seems to get great enjoyment out of that. Sometimes he just lies underneath the tree and stares up at all of the lights and ornaments. I remember when Avery was a baby she was intrigued by the tree too, but she didn't like the way it felt so she never really bothered it. I can see James is a different story.

Let it Snow!!

2009-12-08T14:38:00.008-06:00

It snowed on Friday! I guess it was in the news and everything. It only snows here about once every seven years or so. My visiting teacher said that when they were kids it snowed one day and they let everybody out of school so that they could see it. Most of the kids had never even seen snow before!

As you can see in the pictures Avery was absolutely elated. She said, "Mom, it's winter now!!" And then she belted out Frosty the Snowman. Avery has said a lot in the past, and then reminded me at that time, "Mom, you know I like the cold weather." I do too :)

It snowed almost all day on Friday, but was mostly gone by that night. It really is crazy, but the whole city seemed to almost shut down. We were downtown visiting Jon and Jessie and were headed back to our house during the rush hour window. I said that I was worried about the traffic and how the kids would handle it. Jon said, "I don't think there is going to be any traffic today." Sure enough it was like a ghost town. There were a few cars out on the highway, but that was it. The snow hadn't even stuck to the ground downtown! And the valet at the hotel I picked Jessie up at warned her that she probably didn't want to go outside because there was a 'blizzard' going on. Jessie said that she would probably be able to manage it. If they only knew...

Avery was so sad for the snow to melt. She was really concerned that we wouldn't have Christmas because there is no snow now. I told her that it didn't matter and I think she is okay now. Poor little thing.

We had a blast with Jon and Jessie this weekend. Lots of hanging out at the house, showing them around Pearland, eating, shopping, etc. Jon is here for another week, but Jessie flew home yesterday. We always love having company :)

A Perk

2009-12-03T15:48:00.000-06:00

We've had a few colder days here lately (50's-60's) which is our new sweater and coat weather. Avery keeps asking me when is it going to snow and talks about making snowmen and how she can't wait. Sigh. I have been telling her that it is too hot in Houston for snow. So the other day on the way to preschool she said, "Mom, it doesn't snow in Houston. It snows in Utah." I said that's right.

Except...it is supposed to maybe snow tomorrow night!!! Crazy, huh? I don't dare tell Avery, in case it doesn't happen.

But one of the perks of being in this climate is the fruit. The other day our friend brought over a bunch of bananas off of the banana tree that is in their backyard. I've never had bananas like that before! They were so good.

Also, our next door neighbor has a grapefruit tree in her backyard. Part of the tree hangs over the fence into our yard. I'm thinking that those grapefruit are fair game, and they look about ready for picking :)

Ready for Thanksgiving

2009-11-20T16:49:00.005-06:00

I was in charge of Avery's Thanksgiving party at preschool on Thursday. One of the projects was to make these Indian headdresses. I will post more pictures of what we did later. The headdresses were a huge hit with Avery and her classmates...and James :) Avery referred to herself and James and Indian Avery and Indian Jamie for the rest of the day.

We are starting to get ready for the holidays! It finally dipped below 80 degrees last week...so it's starting to feel more like the season ;) Palm trees with lights is a weird combo. Al helped us put up the Christmas tree the other day. It is a little early, but I needed to do it when he had a day off so he could help us lug the box in.

Tonight is the ward holiday dinner. They are having a huge, fancy dinner with turkeys and hams and all of the trimmings. Al is on call, so I will take the kids and go. It sounds like they are going to do a really nice job with it. And on the big day, Thursday, we have been invited to my visiting teachers house for Thanksgiving. At first I kind of declined because I know they are having a lot of family in and I didn't want to crash their big family dinner, but she talked me into it :) And then Saturday, when Al is home, we will have our Thanksgiving dinner.

San Antonio

2009-11-10T20:01:00.009-06:00

This past weekend the kids and I went to San Antonio to visit my friend Becky and her family. Becky and I have been best friends since 6th grade, and even though we've both moved around so much we have found ways to get visits in over the years. It is just so fantastic that we moved to a city that is just 3 1/2 hours away from her.

Becky knows that things are a little tight for us right now, and so she and her husband graciously offered to pay for our way up and back. We accepted, only on the understanding that one day I will return the favor and treat us to a fun outing on our dime.

It was so much fun being back in a city where I lived for four years. It has been over 16 years since I'd been there, so I didn't recognize a lot of things, but some of it was very familiar.

Becky and Jon have a great house and darling kids. As soon as Avery walked in the door she and Alison were best friends. It was so cute watching them play together. They have similar personalities and interests and honestly did not have a single spat or squabble for the entire four days we were there. I don't think you can say that about too many 3 and 4 year olds. Having our kids play together was something that Becky and I used to talk about years and years ago, and so it was really special for both of us to watch it finally happening.

We had a pretty low-key visit. A lot of the time was spent in our pajamas :) But we did venture out a few times. We took the girls to the zoo for a couple of hours. And one day Jon watched the girls while Becky, James and I went to Fredricksburg. Fredricksburg is this quaint, little German town about an hour out of San Antonio. It is full of cute little shops, bakeries, restaurants, etc. We also made sugar cookies with the girls.

We spent most of our time crafting. It has been so long since I've done anything like that and it was great!! Becky is super talented and makes hairbows and customizes t-shirts for her daughter. Before I got there she had gone out and bought Avery tons of shirts and then we worked together on the fabrics and the creating process...well...I just kinda worked on them. I named myself the apprentice. Becky was really patient in showing me the ropes and towards the end I was able to work a little faster.

The only downer of the trip was that both of my kids came down with colds and so did Becky. James slept horribly because he was so congested. And now I am coming down with it too. Tonight I started getting achy and a sore throat/scratchy voice, earaches. Ugh. It's just that time of year I guess.

Anyway, we can't wait to go back for another visit! The kids were wonderful in the car. The only thing is that we hope that next time Al can go with us too.

Six Months

2009-11-03T22:04:00.002-06:00

Baby James is already 6 months old. I can't believe it! He is getting so big. These past few months have seemed like some of the longest I've known, but at the same time James seems to be growing so quickly.

Six month stats:

Weight-- 21 lbs. even-- 90th percentile

Height-- 28 inches-- 90th percentile

He sits up very well on his own now, for long periods of time. He cut his first two teeth last week and is still getting up on his hands and knees a lot. He stays up for quite a while, kind of rocking, and sometimes scooting backwards. James, or Jamie (as Avery has taken to calling him fairly often now) continues to be a great eater. It is normal for him to eat 2 big bowls of oatmeal and fruit for breakfast. He slaps the tray in excitement when I walk towards him with the bowl. He is a funny little guy. He is very interested in what other people are eating around him and really follows you with his eyes whenever you put something in your mouth.

We went to the pediatrician while Avery was at preschool. The doctor said that James is super healthy. He got 3 shots today, and one oral vaccination. He handled it very well, only crying for a few seconds. One of the shots was the H1N1. The doctor said that the regular flu vaccine is not available and they don't know when it will be. The company that makes H1N1 vaccine also makes the regular flu vaccine and they have focused so much on H1N1 that there is a big shortage of the other. He asked me if I wanted the H1N1 while I was there and I said I might as well, so I got it too. Then he told me to make an appointment for Avery, for later that afternoon to get her H1N1.

So this afternoon we went back to the Dr.'s office and Avery got her H1N1 and then Al got his too. The kids' shots were covered by insurance and mine was only $15. Al got his for free...a little hook-up from one doctor to another. He said that the $15 I paid earlier that day covered Al's too :) It is nice for Al to get looked out for by another doctor, since it's a far cry from what he experiences every day at work.

These pictures were taken today. James just playing and then James doing the touchdown! I wish I had gotten a better shot of it, but you can get the gist of it.

Trunk or Treat/Halloween

2009-11-03T00:14:00.008-06:00

Friday night was the ward Halloween party. They put on a big production: dinner, lots of games, and trunk or treating. The weather was perfect and they served dinner outside, but there was really nowhere to sit, so it was a bit challenging juggling hot dogs, chili, salad, a baby, and trying to reign an excited Avery in. I was super happy and relieved when Al finally showed up after work.

After dinner we headed inside for the games. They had a fishing booth, donut on a string eating, pumpkin bowling, a fall scene where they took your picture, and a cupcake walk. Avery's favorites were the cupcake walk and the fishing booth. They also had a silent auction to raise money for cup scouts. I signed up to bring Halloween sugar cookies. Last week they sent out an email to all those who signed up and then the item that they said they would bring. It was crazy!! A new bike, gift certificates to various places, a spa certificate, photography, a webkinz gift basket, etc. I guess next year I'll know what I'm getting into before I sign up. I don't know who ended up with the cookies or how much the went for, but I hope it at least brought in a little for the scouts. My kitchen still hasn't resumed it's normal state :)

The trunk or treat was fun. It is still a little lonely at these types of things. Most of the people in the ward have been here for years and have built really strong friendships. We are still lucky if we know a few peoples names, but we are trying.

Al worked on Halloween, so I took Avery and James out. Avery was still thrilled to get into her costume, even on the third day in a row. She would flick her wand to "cast a spell" and as she flicked it she made a sound effect that was something like "Fwee-wee-wee-wee! Fwee-wee-wee-wee!" And it was like an echoing effect, where she would let her voice fade with each "wee." It's pretty amusing :)

Tinkerbell

2009-10-29T12:24:00.006-05:00

Today was Avery's preschool Halloween party. She was SO excited. She has been asking every day this week about wearing her costume. When I pulled out the wings to put on her she whispered, "Oh...they are beautiful!" It was pretty cute.

I tried to do Avery's hair like Tinkerbell's. It kinda worked, and I thought she looked so pretty, but the humidity makes it a little hard to make the hair stay where you want it to. Tomorrow is the ward Halloween party and I will try to put the ponytail higher and use less product to see if that works.

Miss Annie had a black wig on, which I think kind of scared Avery. She is kind of weirded out by wigs. But after Avery gave her a few glances she warmed up and was okay with it. One of the other mom's was in charge of the party and she helped them make these cute pumpkins! The moms got to go and pick the kids up 5 minutes early, so we could take pictures of the whole class in their costumes. There was a little bit of confusion about which pumpkin belonged to which kid, but the mom knew without a doubt that the pumpkin with the green hair was Avery's. She was the only kid that did green hair. Her favorite color has been green since she's been able to vocalize it, and has never wavered.

Tomorrow is the ward party, so we will take more pictures.

He's Up

2009-10-24T20:18:00.004-05:00

Going Mobile

2009-10-16T08:49:00.004-05:00

James is really starting to move around. He lifts his whole chest off of the floor, and sometimes gets his tummy off the floor too. We've seen some scooting and he uses his feet to give himself little pushes forward. James does the froggy legs a lot, but has also started alternating legs, getting the motion of crawling down. It is fun to watch him in action. He gets so excited! He still rolls around a ton, and is able to get around a lot. Sometimes I find him across the room from where I sat him down.

James is still really enjoying meal time. He eats anything that we give him. He still loves the peach banana granola combo, mangoes, squash, and a sweet potato and corn mix. He even likes peas. The other wake I started giving him teething biscuits, just for fun. Those are a hit too. As you can see, he is kind of a messy eater...he likes to put his hands in his mouth and suck on his fingers while he's eating. Then he rubs it all over his face, in his hair, etc. We've also had a couple of spills where he hooks the bowl with his fingers and sends it toppled over onto the ground. Days later I find splatters in various places.

He continues to be a really happy and smiley baby. The last two days he has woken up at 5 am, ready to be up for the day. I'm not loving that at all and have got to figure out how to tweak that bug.

Making Progress

2009-10-11T20:46:00.004-05:00

Avery is still loving preschool. Last week they talked about the letter 'F' and families. On one of the days they were asked to take a family picture to class so they could tell their classmates about their family. That morning I was getting Avery ready for school and I asked her if she was excited to see everybody's family pictures. She said, "I'm excited to see Tayt's picture!" Tayt is a cute little guy in her class who is also in our ward. I said, "Oh, do you like Tayt?" And she said, "Yeah, he is a funny guy! He makes me laugh. And I make him laugh." Then I started to laugh.

Avery wrote her name all by herself. I think it is really good for a 3 year old. She wrote the letters in proportion to each other and in a straight line, and they are very legible. The other side of the paper is a practice sheet for the letter 'F', so I'm guessing she finished early and flipped it over to doodle on the back. I was pretty proud of the name when I saw it.

She knows how to spell the word 'no' and that if you switch the letter it makes 'on.' And she can sight read Grace, Tanner, Boom, Bob (from a book she likes), and James. She is learning so much. She also said to me the other day, "Mom, do you know what the number 9 is upside down?" I just went along with it and said, "No, what?" She said, "It makes a 6! Do you know what the number 6 is upside down?" I hid a smile and said, "Uh-uh, what is it?" She said, "A number 9!!"

Pillsbury Dough Boy

2009-10-07T19:27:00.002-05:00

We have our own little Pillsbury Dough Boy here. Every time Avery pokes his tummy he starts laughing.