Happy Birthday Avery

Here we are already, celebrating our baby girls first birthday. How does this first year of life go so quickly! Avery is just the sweetest little girl and we are so head over heals in love with her. She has such a cute personality, she loves to be on the go and explore on her own (which is tough with two big sisters), she doesn't at all prefer to be spoon fed but would much rather eat on her own, she is an expert at napping, she is walking EVERYWHERE and loves to climb the stairs. I think she may be our adventurous one (at least that's what Jeff is hoping for)! She is such a giggler, just randomly she will start giggling. I love it and I love how easy she laughs. She is just a happy girl! She now weighs 17.2 pounds, so she is just a small girl like her biggest sister.

We had a wonderful day celebrating our sweet Avery Brenna! We began our day with a cinnamon roll and she was a pretty happy camper and enjoyed her little pieces of cinnamon roll thoroughly!


Here is the birthday girl!


The sisters. I just wish I could for once get all three girls to look at the camera and smile. Maybe one day!?!?



Mommy and Daddy with our sweet one year old.


We had a little birthday party for her on her day.

The cute cute cookies! (not made by me)


The not so cute cake made by me, but it did taste good :) !

Singing "Happy Birthday".


See... Avery liked it!




All the little guests.

She was very interested in opening her presents! As were the rest of the kiddos.


This was her big gift from mommy and daddy. She has had so much fun with it!


She loved her first balloon and it's continued to provide lots of entertainment with all the sisters!

Just a Little of This and Little of That...

So this final post may get me officially caught up, at least for a couple of days. Isn't that how it always is???

We have been busy around here, having fun, learning new things and of course making fun memories!

We have been playing outside a bunch lately. The weather has been gorgeous most days this month so we have really taken advantage of that. Flip flops is January? I'll take it!







And of course we have picked right back up with school, trucking right along!



Aubrey has her name down but she loves to write it over and over. Now we are working on Adalyn's. Here they are practicing writing their names and other letters. I seriously love teaching my girls. It is such a complete joy watching them learn new things and enjoy every part of it.





Aubrey informed us a few weeks ago that if she brings her Bible with her to Sunday School she gets to choose an extra treasure from the Treasure Box. Right after she was born her Nan and Bop bought her a little Bible with her name engraved on it. So we gave it to her to take with her to church 2 weeks ago. We also gave Adalyn her's that Nan and Bop gave her as well. Well these girls been carrying them around with them everywhere they go since that Sunday. They even keep them in their night stands on some nights. Aubrey especially is always "reading" her's and carries it with her in her little purse. She is constantly asking us to read certain pages and how can we say no to that. So here is a little picture of Daddy reading it with her.


A couple funny things that they have said!

Adalyn:
After bedtime the other night I went to tell the girls to calm down, stop talking and go to sleep. Adalyn's response" But Mommy I was talking to Belle on the phone and she told me that they Beast was there and he wasn't being mean." That girl has such an imagination and she is always making us laugh.

The girls were upstairs playing the other night as I was making dinner. I heard Adalyn say "Oh no my kid died". I then went and talked to them and asked them not to play like that. I really don't want them talking about all their babies dying, that's kind of weird! Well she got me back because she said "Oh guess what! Jesus just came and healed her. My kid isn't dead anymore!". What? I laughed for a few hours over this one. We had just read the story of Jesus healing the dead girl and bringing her back to life recently so she apparently was listening very well!

Aubrey:
The girls were playing "family" the other day. This is where usually Aubrey is the mommy (miss little bossy), and Adalyn is the kid or another mommy. They had put their kids to bed and Adalyn had said it was time to go for them to go to bed also. Aubrey responded with: "Adalyn, we are mommies and mommies and daddies don't go to bed when kids do". I guess she is on to us!

Adalyn got a Baby Alive for Christmas. She took it with us as we went to dance the other day. On the way home she had it on and talking the whole time, which I have to admit, got a bit annoying. Aubrey asked her a few times to turn it off because she couldn't hear the music. Finally when we got home Aubrey said "Adalyn, please turn your kid off! If you do I promise I will do something special for you!", this said in a very aggravated voice. The first reason that this made me laugh was the fact that they always call their dolls, kids. It seriously always makes me laugh. Even when they play "family" they call each other "kid", not by a name. The second reason this made me laugh was because she was trying to bribe her little sister to stop doing something. Do you think just maybe she has picked up on some bribing that Mommy does from time to time? Oops!

Avery Brenna

Here we are just days away from Avery's first birthday. I still can't believe it. Look what started happening about a week and a half ago!
Yep, we officially have a walker. She is all over the place now and she is fast! I know she will be running before we know it.


And guess who still thinks Avery needs help with everything?!?! Oh that big sister. When I ask her to please leave Avery alone her response usually goes something like this... "Well Avery just really loves me!". And how can I possibly argue with that.

Look at how big this sweet girl looks sporting her very first pony tail. I'm so happy I can finally get it up and that she leaves it alone!

A Visit to the Zoo

The last day of Jeff's nearly two weeks off, we decided we really needed a family day so we headed to the zoo. This was actually our first visit to the Houston Zoo with kids (we went once before when we lived in Spring), and we were both pleasantly surprised. We both went a little apprehensively knowing that since we had been members of the San Diego Zoo we weren't going to be very impressed. But we were proven wrong. It was definitely not as massive at the San Diego Zoo, but we could actually see it all in one visit. It was clean and they had some really neat attractions. The only negative of our visit was when we caught someone trying to steal our own personal wagon. This really did happen. We left our wagon as we went to go see the lions which was just around the corner. We came back a few minutes later and it was gone! We were both livid and shocked that somebody would actually steal a wagon. Long story short, we ended up catching a family walking around with their kids in it. Adalyn was very upset because she had left her cup in the wagon. The guy admitted they took it and that they were going to take it to the lost and found (mmm hmm, sure you were dude), but the worst part was when Jeff asked what they did with the cup in it. This is when the wife reached into their stroller and took it from their child who was drinking from it!!!! Who does that!!! Ick. So gross. Needless to say Adalyn didn't get her cup back until it was THROUGHLY washed a few days later. So anyways, back to what I was saying... it was a great zoo, a great family day and after all that had happened and how sad I was that my parents were gone it was just what I needed!

The aquarium is always a favorite spot.



Avery loved her first trip to the zoo.



We all loved the elephants!