2 and half years!

Sweet Avery,

You're two and half! Valentine's Day is such a fun day to have a half birthday! Of course, I sat you in the pink chair with Bear for your pics. When I compare them all over these last 2.5 years, I just beam and cry. You are such a beautiful baby girl and you are growing so fast I can hardly take it. :) In the spirit of Feb. 14 and my baby girl turning 2.5 on LOVE day, I decided to write down 14 things I LOVE about you as a 2 and a half year old. Limiting it to 14 is so hard...

1.You are my first born and greatest experiment. You are very forgiving and tough.:)

2.You are fiercely independent and confident.You can do anything by yourself in your opinion:)

3. You're a cuddle bug. As busy as you are, you love to grab me and say " let's go cuddle mommy". LOVE that!

4. You're completely fearless. Things most every kid is afraid of, you are not. In fact, can't think of one thing that makes you timid. Cracks me up!

5. You're sensitive and you are really concerned when someone is sad. Your MDO teachers say you are a little concerned momma when someone is sad or in trouble at school.

6.You are FULL of spunk and super feisty! You

wear me out most days but I love it.

7. You are the perfect companion for a shopping day at Target or Hobby Lobby and you'll get excited about a sale with me!

8.You're super silly and love to have dance parties with mommy and daddy. You really have some pretty good moves!

9. You love to read and love to "read" books to yourself.

10. You are the friendliest person I know; you get this from your daddy. We cannot go anywhere without you saying hi to every one you see. Yesterday while checking out at the store you held a little conversation with the check out lady that went like this: "Hi lady!! What doing? I wike your hair! See my pink shoes, they pretty. I tt in the potty wike a big girl at Target." As we are leaving you say, "Bye lady! Have good day!"

11. You still want to be rocked like a baby at bed time and sang to. It's one of my most favorite times with you.

12.You get excited about the smallest things. A walk to check the mail, a kiss from Chloe, a piece of candy can all make you giddy.

13. You tell me "baby Jesus" is your friend and you "wike" him. Makes me so proud!

14. You're my baby and no matter what you liked or what your personality, I would still be crazy in love with you!

Happy 2 and half years Avery!! They have been the best of my life.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!! Hope your day was special and full of LOVE. We had a great day. Today Avery turned 2.5 years old so it was extra special. She enjoyed being spoiled by the family with gifts in the mail, a special lunch date with mommy and and special evening planned by daddy. I love this girl!! I can't believe she is half way to three years old! Special post on that coming up:)

Love my little Valentine!!



Daddy took us to our fav, Olive Garden! Avery said, "Yummy! I wuv sketti!"

Enjoying her heart sucker for dessert :)



And this is what you get when you ask a two year old to smile pretty :)

Lately...

You'd think I would have had all the time in the world to blog since we were snowed in for four days:) We were too busy trying to keep Avery entertained and Momma from going crazy! Poor thing actually asked to go to Target at least twice over those four days! Sad, because it shows how much we go. ;) We played with playdough till we couldn't stand it anymore, read a million books and watched a million movies and the list goes on. It was so nice to finally get out and go somewhere by the end of the week. Avery was giddy about school today and ran into the class and said "my friends!!". Girl is not a homebody! On Thursday we got more snow and it was actually the fluffy nice kind to play in so we enjoyed it for a little while. We are supposed to get more snow here tomorrow. I am so ready for Summer! I'll take 100 degrees over 20 any day! (you'll have to remind me I said this when I'm huge and having heat strokes this summer;))

On Saturday, Laura and Blaine came to visit! They brought my new "nephew" Cooper with them. Avery was in total Heaven with them here. She loves Copper! They were best buds. We were picking out Valentine's Day cards for her friends and she insisted we need one to send to Copper as well. :) We went out to eat at The Rainforest Cafe in Grapevine and had a lot of fun. Avery loved all the animals in the resturant.

Silly girl making faces at the monkey!

They were so sweet together I actually thought about getting a puppy and then remembered I'm having a baby in August. I quickly changed my mind!

Seriously, the cutest thing EVER

Avery wanted to sleep in Copper's bed with him :)

When you play with Avery, you have to dress up. Poor Cooper!

Potty Training...

Last week when I picked up Avery from mother's day out, her teacher said, "Guess what!? Avery has used the potty all day!" There was Avery standing there beaming because she knew we were talking about her. I was very proud! Never thought she would just take it upon herself to potty train. She had been talking about it for months, asking to go, and wanting to wear panties but I was planning on waiting till I was done with fist trimester of pregnancy and felt a little better. Needless to say, we went with Avery and jumped right into potty training! We pretty much did the 3 day method and it worked. The first day, I made the silly decision to go to a playdate with friends which was kinda a diaster and we went through at least 5 outfits. :) That evening I wanted to quit and try later. Even though she has done well, potty training is by far the hardest thing I have done with Avery! It takes so much patience! She is doing great now, by day three we had no accidents. We vowed to never put another diaper/pull up on her except at bedtime. I know we will still have accidents, we already have today but I'm so proud of her! It's nice to not buy diapers, although it was much easier back in the day. Confession, I was a Target on Monday and walked through the baby section and realized I don't need to look at diapers till August...I cried right there in isle. Would like to think it's my pregnancy hormones but may just be the fact that I'm too sentimental and hate my baby growing up so fast.:( I'm still trying to get over the thought of taking her in public restrooms...yuck! It pretty much is the cutest sight ever seeing her run around in panties though. I pinch her little bottom every chance I get and yesterday she said, "No momma, it's my heinie!"

We pretty much parked the potty in the playroom the past week!

My big girl!!

Aves

Avery has been growing up way too fast and doing the sweetest and funniest things lately. I just don't want to forget a thing! This is such a fun age. So mainly for me:).....

The other day she ran in the bathroom while I was getting ready and said, "Mommy! I just love you!" Talk about melt me. She loves to sing, I need to record her singing but I get so caught up in how cute it is that I forget! The other day at the store she started randomly singing with much enthusiasm, "There's not a fwriend wike the lowly Jesus, no not one, no not one!" Then she said, "baby Jesus is the best friend!" She learned the song in chapel at school come to find out. :) I remember singing that song in church a long time ago. It makes me so happy the things she learns at MDO. Her teacher says she is the kid in class that entertains them with her dancing and the funny things she says. She told me the other day that when she gets big she wants to play "soccer ball" as she calls soccer. It's really funny because she has never seen a game and Luke and I never talk about soccer. She says not football because only Papa's boys play football. (my dad's FB team) I asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up like mommy. She said she wants to "teacher" like her aunt Laura. :) She tells me she is a big girl all the time but then she follows with, "but I still a baby too" I love that! I hope she still thinks she's my baby when she's 16. She loves church and her friends there. She asks to go to church every other day at least. Makes my heart happy! She loves to cuddle. A few times a day she will go grab a blanket and say, "come on mommy let's go cuddle." I think it's all the bedrest I have had that has taught her to love cuddling, whatever it is, I LOVE it! Her little imagination is started to develop more and more and she is a new princess every 10 min. The other day I found her crawling around on the floor with her backpack on. She told me her backpack was her shell and she was a turtle. Who knows!

I hope I never forget this sweet, sweet stage. Gosh, I love this girl!!

Saturday Sweetness

I personally think two of the sweetest things in the world are newborns and puppies :) Last Saturday, Avery and I got to love on both! My mom and aunt came to pick us up to take us to Austin to meet my cousin's new baby, Rhyder. He is the sweetest thing! I could just cuddle all 10lb of him all day! I am so happy for my cousin, Jordan and his wife Sarah! Can't wait till my next visit. Avery did pretty well with every one's attention on the baby, it was good practice for this summer. :)

I mean seriously....pure sweetness!

That same day, my sister and her husband went to pick up their new puppy! Oh my, Cooper is a cutie! Made me miss when my Boxers were babies! Avery loved him to death! If only I could have just snatched up both the baby and the pup in my suitcase to take home! ;)

Dear Peanut,

I love you already. Before you were conceived, I wanted you. From the minute I found out about you, I have been excited and have dreamed about who you will be. You have already taught me a lot in your short little 10 weeks of life. You have forced me to slow down, take it easy, lay on the couch more, read more books to your sister, take naps, and simply relax and notice the little things in life that matter. Your Daddy and I pray for you constantly and we can't wait to know if you are a boy or girl so we can call you by name. For now, baby peanut works. :) You have the best big sister in the world! She will love you and mother you. She will teach you lots and show you the ropes. She has enough energy for you both, so please be laid back. ;)

Keep growing, knowing I love you and would already do anything for you.

Love, Momma