Under The Sea

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

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"

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!!

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

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

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

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!

I love these kids :)

Full of Poses

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

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

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

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

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.