Birthday Dinner

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is What Happens...

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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.