Avery's First Week in Pictures

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

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 :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!