Terrible Twos. It's a “No, No, No” experience for everyone.

The dictionary defines it as a stage of development in which toddler behavior is a

particular challenge.You think!?

Why hello terrible twos....we've been waiting for you! Yes, it's true my child did not skip "the terrible twos" like I had hoped she would.:) In the last few weeks she has reminded me very often that she is two and can do everything on her own and does not appreciate at all being told "no." Oh my, where did my little innocent babe go?? She is still is just as sweet as ever, just a tad more challenging now!:) And I thought it was hard to chase around a one year old who liked to get into everything, little did I know! I think this is the hardest stage so far because discipline is such a huge part of it and it is exhausting! Luke and I are determined to do our best every day to help her become a good person. She is such a strong willed, very active,inquisitive little girl who is full of personality. Nothing she does is calm, mild or quiet, so you can imagine this stage! Just to give you an idea and to help me remember when she is 16, here are some examples of what happened in our day today:

I make her pancakes, she says thank you very sweetly and sits down to eat breakfast. Next thing I know there is a very unhappy, screaming little girl who is about to knock her plate to the floor until I threaten a time out and she gives it to me instead. Long story short and many tears later, I determine it was all because she needed a "big girl" fork like mommy's. Once she got that, she was thrilled to eat her now cold pancakes!

Later on in the morning she asks me to watch Dora with her. I turn it on and then she asks for Mickey Mouse, I change the show. She throws herself to the floor as if shot and bawls. What in the world?? Once she can redeem herself well enough to talk she lets me know, in her toddler gibberish, that she wants to watch Mouse and Dora at the same time. Of course, why didn't I think of that! I inform her that the TV will only play one at a time and she will have to pick one, another small tragedy has occurred now. She becomes so angry with both Dora and Mouse that we can no longer speak their names. Nice.

We load up and go to Target to get a few things. While in the basket she randomly throws(i mean throws hard, not just a little toss) her sippy cup across the store. I go pick it up and tell her if she does that again she will be in trouble. She looks at me, and then throws it even further. Then the best part, leans over and spanks herself! Wow. I was so taken back and trying not to laugh. She then got a real spanking and there was no more cup throwing. :)

We get home and I am unloading groceries, I look over at her in the kitchen and she has my purse on her shoulder, chewing my gum, wearing my hospital name badge and drawing with a sharpie marker on her hand. OMG!

The rest of the day looks similar, needless to say, this mommy is WORN out by bedtime. :)

To make up for all of the "twoness" I get to hear many times a day "wuv you", "mommy, watch me!", "mommy, come ere"(as she pulls my hand and drags me to the rocker where she wants to be rocked) and "mommy, I baby" ( wanting me to hold her like a baby and feed her the pretend bottle.)

I wouldn't trade a second of any of it! I just love her to bits, the trantrums and the sweetness. I know it won't be like this for long and one day I will look back laughing and wishing she was two again.

On a side note, she had a great day at MDO on Tuesday. She had cried every day until this week. Yay! I was so relieved to see her happier and more adjusted to it. Her teacher says she minds so well and never needs to be told twice. What in the world?? :)

First Haircut!!

My baby had her first haircut today!! It was so sweet. I told her that she would get to go sit in the big girl chair and get her hair fixed like a big girl. She was very excited. She did great(the sucker might have helped some too :) We just barely took some off the bottom to clean it up, you can hardly tell, but she was very proud of it. She told me all day that she was a big girl and a good girl. :) Can't believe that gone are the days of my tiny 6 month old with the baby mullet. She is getting to be so big!

My sweet friend, Emily did a great job! She always does with my hair so I had no worries.

Little Girls

"Remember when all we had to do was to keep our ponytails straight and catch fireflies?"- author unknown

Oh to be a little girl again, when your biggest decision of the day is which princess to dress up as. Avery had a little mini slumber party tonight with one of her best friends, Avery Kate(or "Tate" as she calls her) They had so much fun! A dress up party with close to 10 wardrobe changes, reading many books to each other, a little ABC song singing taught by Avery Kate, lots of hugs and kisses- so precious, a little Mickey Mouse on TV, a pizza party for dinner and a super fun bath time complete with big bubbles and even bigger little girl giggles. As I read to them and put them to bed, I thought of how sweet, innocent and precious little girls are. It's a reminder to cherish every minute before they grow up too fast. Avery will be sad to wake up in the morning with no Tate! It took everything I had to not let them make a big pallet on the floor and stay up giggling till they passed out. I'm sure there will be many years of that to come, can't wait. :)

nothing better than two clean cuties in their pj's!

Little Stinker

A conversation with my two year old the other day:

Me: "Avery, we aren't going to eat any cookies right now. We will save you one for after we eat dinner. Those on the counter are for the neighbors."

Avery: " Otay, after eat"

A little while later I find her like this:

I found her stool right next to the island in the kitchen and she informed me that no, she did not disobey and she did not eat a cookie. Then, two seconds later, "mmmmm, mommy cookies yummy!" Pretty sure she shared one with Chloe too by the look on Chloe's face. Little Stinker!!

These are a few of my favorite things about FALL!

I love Fall! So ready for the change in season.

I love that Thanksgiving is just around the corner! All the yummy food and time with family around the table, one of my favorite things!

I Love Pumpkin Patches! This is my sweet girl at her first one two years ago, seems like yesterday.

Love that our sweet Chloe likes to wear sweaters and outfits when it's cold. Cracks me up!

Who doesn't love that Fall means FOOTBALL season is here! We love us some Longhorn and Cowboy's football at our house!

Love that Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks is back for Fall. I'm not even a big coffee drinker but this is amazing!

I LOVE that BOOTS are back!! Nothing better than a comfy pair of Uggs, and you don't have to keep your toenails painted anymore. Woohoo!

I got Avery these at the huge Gymboree sale for close to nothing and I love them! She does too and already wants to wear them every day.

I asked her to show me her boots and this is the pose she gave me. Little diva!

Something else I love about Fall, babies in HATS! Precious!

I was getting all the Fall stuff out and Aves found her hats. She had fun wearing a few that still fit her. And yes, the flower is the size of her head, that's how we roll. :)

Yay for FALL! Can't wait!!

"Babies are the best way to start people."

The Jackson's had their baby this week! Oh my goodness, baby Allie Grace is sweet and precious. It was so fun to be there to meet this new little girl. We love the Jackson fam and are so excited for them! Avery now has another Jackson girl bestie. :) I can't wait to get my hands on this baby again, I can't get enough! She reminds me of my Avery as a newborn because she weighs only a couple of ounces less than Avery did when she was born and is sooo cute. Tiny and perfect! I wonder if there's any chance I could have an overnight babysitting this week?! Ha! ;)

Pure sweetness

Mommy, new big sis and sweet baby girl :)

Avery was very interested in baby "Awie" as she called her, except that she would NOT let me hold her unless she was in my lap too. She preceded to tell me many times later that day that she was a baby and I am her momma. :) A little jealousy I guess.

The girls with Avery & Allie's daddy, Chris, and their Mimi checking Allie out. So sweet!

Luke was in Heaven and wanted to take her home with us!

Happy Grandparent's Day!

"Grandparents are just moms and dads with lots of extra frosting."

Happy Grandparents Day! Avery is so very blessed to have grandparents and great-grandparents who love her so much. Each of you are so very special to our family and we know that we wouldn't be the people we are without you. Thanks for loving our little girl like we do, we love you all!

Her great-grandparents:

Random Cuteness

How cute are these two!? Sweet Avery Kate will be a big sis in just a few days. Avery and I hung out with AK and her mommy the other day and had so much fun. Avery loves her so much and I can't wait for her to be friends with little miss Allie Grace after she's born too. These pics crack me up, I can hardly handle the cuteness. I wish I had gotten a pic of one of the million times they hug each other when they are together. Total sweetness! :)

My little TEXAS fan! She already loves football(girl after my own heart!) She calls football players "papa's boys" because my dad is a football coach, so sweet!

She's saying " We're #1!"

"GO Horns!!"