3 Year Old Avery

Our sweet little Avery has grown too fast. I remember holding her when she was 3 months old and talking to Lacey about Chase who was 3 then. I remember thinking that my little baby would never be that big. And here I am now with a sweet, funny, imaginitive, talkative, silly little 3 year old. Did I mention bossy and dramatic? But that comes with all 3 year old girls, right? Little miss Avery has such a soft spot for all things baby. In other words anything tiny. Anything. Worms, shoes, dolls, animals, toys. She loves to talk about how they need to find their "famiwees" and especially their mommies, that is if she is not their mommy, and that is a very rare occasion. I usually have to address her as mommy. If I call her Avery or Sissy I am usually corrected that she is mommy. I am usually the sister or grandma. Mike usually gets to be called Dad though him and Pierson are interchangeable. Pierson is baby if he is not daddy. And to speak to anyone you have to call them that name. I can only imagine what people think of us when we are out in public.

Avery has names for things. Like the pajamas above are called elephant booty jammies.

Whenever we see a bridge or there is some way to make a bridge Avery calls it the "troll fridge" (from Dora). I will try to have her say b,b,b, bridge and she will say b,b,b, fridge.

Avery LOVES the color pink. Anything that is pink is 10 times better than anything not.

Avery likes to be silly and make funny faces for us. She told us her first joke, "Guess what?" and I said what to which she replied "chicken avery" or "chicken mommy". I guess daddy taught her that one but with the real reply "chicken butt". Bad daddy. We like chicken Avery better.

Avery LOVES to take pictures. I have been meaning to do a post with just pictures she has taken because it is fun to see the world from her perspective. Pierson is usually a main object in her pictures since he is usually trying to ge the camera from her.

Avery loves her buddy, Pierson. She loves to take care of him, she loves to boss him, she loves to annoy him by touching him or pinning him down. She loves to play with him and they usually do really well together. Those first six months of having two kids and wondering if it all was going to work out really have paid off. It is so fun to see these two interact with each other. I love when they can make each other giggle. I love when they give each other kisses. It warms my heart.

Avery really is a good big sister and watches out for her buddy. Not many 3 year olds are as good at it as she is.

Avery loves to sing songs. She does all different kinds of Avery remixes, where you can hear Book of Mormon stories intertwined with Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, Popcorn Popping, and a little freestyle. She has especially enjoyed the Christmas carols, mainly Away in a Manger.

Avery loves to be outside and playing with her friends, especially Soso. Those two are so fun to watch and listen to as they play. They are telling each other what to say and what to do and where to go. They usually play house and Avery is usually the mom and Soso the dad. They have their good days when they play for hours without a single problem. But they also have their off days when you can hear Avery say, "your not my friend" or "don't say my name" or "leave me alone soso!" But they usually get over it pretty fast.

Avery loves to tell stories. These stories can last up to a half hour. I feel like when she tells her stories she doesn't even take a breath. If she does stop it is usually to tell you to say something or ask her a question. It's pretty amazing.

Avery has been known to have booty-crack from time to time. In the picture below I had already told her to pull up her pants and you can still see a little crack. It is pretty cute, but soon it wont be as cute so we're working on it :)

Avery loves to read books. We have a few books that have the pictures in place of words so the kids can help read and she loves those books and will say all the pictures and sometimes make silly faces or use a funny voice when she says them.

Avery has been in joy school for about 8 months now. We rotate houses and a little group (started with 6, about to start again with 3) of kids get together and learn all sorts of fun stuff. At the beginning Avery wouldn't tell me too much about it once she got home, but now she is excited to show me pictures and tell me what she has learned.

Avery can count to 14 by herself. She still skips 15 and goes to 16. But we working on it. She can identify numbers 0-10 and if you tell her 12 is a 1 and 2 she can find it for you.

Avery knows her ABCs and can identify them all and tell you their sounds. If you sound out a word she can tell you what letter that word starts with.

Avery is getting pretty good at tracing letters and if you give her instructions on drawing a letter she can do it okay. She can write an A, V, H, S on command. Some times she will be drawing and will accidentally write a letter and then get all excited about it. That is how she learned to do Hs. She will also play with string or sticks or blocks and make letters out of those too.

Avery can spell her name. A V E R Y. She knows her big name, but still can't spell her last name.

Avery loves ice cream cones, especially cotton candy ice cream from Rite-Aid. They are pretty delicious.

Avery has an imaginary friend named Tinkle. He is usually only a bath time friend though there have been a few instances when she will talk about/to him other places. We first learned about him when she was wrapping toys in the bathtub with washcloths and giving it to him.

Avery is a pretty good eater. She might not like everything I give her but she will eat it, especially if there is a treat incentive. I wish her brother would follow her example.

Avery's favorite cereal is rice krispies with a handful of marshmallows added in. She doesn't really like sweet breakfast foods like pancakes or waffles. She'd rather have cereal or a piece of bread. And fruit of course.

Avery loves Cinderella. Like if I let her she would watch it over and over and over. She loves to dress up as Cinderella. She loves to talk about the naughty girls who ripped her pretty dress. She loves to talk about the fairy godmother and boppity boppity boo. She loves to talk about gus gus. She especially loves to reenact any scene from the movie. The other day she came up and told me that when I lose my shoe and they find it that i need to say "thank you, thank you so much" (as she clasped her hands and looked up). It was really stinking cute.

Avery and Pierson's carseats are interchangeable and Avery is always switching what carseast she wants to sit in. She'll be on a kick of sitting in one and then if you put P in there first she wants that carseat. That's when she gets the "too bad so sad" line.

Avery is obsessed with her cousins. We talk about them daily. She has decided that a family that has 4 daughters in our church are her cousins. She loves cousins. Especially cousins that come visit us :)

Avery has a pink baby that she is attached to. It goes everywhere with us but also has to be in bed at night. She still has her blankie that great-Grandma Haynie gave to her that she cannot sleep without.

Avery does not like: to clean up, dress herself, turn the light on herself, to go to bed, to go potty before naptime, when Pierson pulls her hair, having to come inside after playing, and having to put her nose on the wall.

Avery is 3!

Saying that Avery loved pink and princesses would be a serious understatement. So Michael and I decorated the house in pink from the living room to the bathrooms so this little girl would be excited and feel special. She couldn't keep a smile off of her face. Every new room she walked into she just giggled. We decided to throw Avery a little party with all her neighbor friends. When asked what kind of party she of course wanted a princess party, especially a "Simbrella" party. So that is what we did! Here us Princess Avery (and L) in the castle.

Here's the whole party crowd after they made their crowns. The girls got jewelry and the boys got a sword and shield.

Here's the babies eating their lunch. Aren't they cute! They acted like the big kids and just sat there and ate. Pierson was a serious champ at the party. He was so good it was as if he wasn't even there.

Here's the rest of the kids eating their lunch. They called it princess (and prince) pizza. Yum!

Here is the Cinderella cake. She's got really big hips from all that cake!

I kept the cake a secret from Avery and she was so excited when she saw it. It makes a mom feel good when her little girl loves something she worked hard on :)

Here is Avery blowing (or should I say trying to blow) out her candles. She was afraid of getting too close to them to blow them out. Silly girl.

Here is one last shot of the cake before cutting it. It was kind of sad when I had to cut into it so I asked for one last picture. The kids though it was funny that they were eating Cinderella's skirt and kept giggling about eating her underwear... oh dear.

Avery had so much fun opening her gifts. She is one lucky girl! Here's the party oowing and aawing over the last gift.

Here is Avery sporting her loot. She either got puppies or Cinderella gifts. She was in heaven.

Avery with all her presents. Thank you friends for a wonderful birthday. Avery kept quoting the line from Cinderella, "Thank you, thank you so much for everything." It was really cute.

Here's the family after the party. Saturday really was such a great day. Avery and Pierson went down for naps easily and then were happy when they woke up. We had a yummy dinner and played around then the kids went down for bed easily again. I seriously couldn't have asked for a better day :)

Oh and for breakfast Avery wanted bread, with nothing on it and not cooked. Sounds exciting, right?

Cheesin' It Up!

So I am really excited that Shutterfly is giving away 50 free Christmas cards! My friend L told me about Shutterfly's amazing offer and told me how easy it is to sign up for! I love Christmas cards and I love them even more when they are free!

I started using Shutterfly when Michael and I got married and did personalized thank you cards. They turned out great and I am sure they were a lot more exciting to get then a plain card. It was fun to post pictures of our special day and share them with everyone.

I also made my dad a wall art canvas for Father's Day one year that he loved! He put it in his office and so everyone gets to see just how adorable his grandkids are.

My mother-in-law made all her kids' families calendars with pictures of the grandkids through out it. It makes the calendar a lot more fun to look at on the wall and Ave always gets excited to see the new pictures of her cousins each month.

I LOVE Shutterfly especially for the quality items that we have purchased from them. I am really excited to get our Christmas cards from them and I know they will look great! Here are a few that I am really loving right now: Picture Joy Christmas, Love Scarlet, Starlight Flurries, Bliss and Cheers, and Christmas Card. If you can't tell they have so many great cards and it is going to be hard to settle on one! Let me know what your opinion is! Oh and go sign up yourself!

Today is Sunday, Nov 7

Man it is hard to believe that we are already in November of 2010. Didn't this year just start like yesterday?

It is hard to believe that Pierson is 13 months. Yikes.

At 13 months Pierson:

Is not shy. In church on Sundays he finds older men to fill in as his Grandpas. He brings them his toys, wiggles his way onto their laps, plays with their watches, and won't come to mom until he is done. Bribes don't work. I am just glad that we have such a great ward and that these men don't mind Pierson or entertaining him. In fact they are probably just entertained by him. He is a silly little boy.

Loves to give loves. In church last Sunday he was kissing on two different girls. He even kissed them so much he knocked them down. He gives his mom and dad and sister lots of loves too. We don't mind all the slobber that comes with it either.

Has two new teeth coming in. The ones to the right and left of his middle bottoms. Thats eight teeth total now. (Avery was getting her one year molars at this point.)

Will walk short distances on his own. He has been taking steps on his own when we would make him but now he'll let go of whatever he's holding onto and walk towards whatever he wants. He has minor balance issues but it getting pretty good. I think we'll have a full fledged walker by the end of this week.

Is very determined. He will figure out how to open whatever it is that you don't want him to open. Or go where you don't want him to go.

Wrestles. He and Michael like to wrestle and then Pierson will try to wrestle Mom and Avery too.

Sleeps through the night. Again. Hallelujah. We moved Avery out of his room and he has done much better. He even sleeps in on some rare occasions.

Goes to sleep easily.

Is a picky eater. (Until he meets Grandma Great Brimhall)

Plays with his friends and gets excited when he sees them.

Doesn't like shoes or socks. Sometimes they'll stay on for extended periods but he usually will pull them off within minutes of being on. Though he does try and put shoes on himself a lot.

Points to things and yells "daaa" and then will grunt and make noises as if he is having a conversation with you.

Tries to do big things. Like dress himself, put a diaper on himself, feed himself with silverware, put the laundry in the basket, brush his hair, and other cute things.

Makes a lot of people smile every day.

Dances.

Halloween

We had a really great Halloween this year. It was super low-key... the way I like it :)

We started the day by going to church And then we ate a big dinner with some of our neighbors and then went to a little Halloween get together at another neighbors house and ate lots of goodies. In between all that we ate candy, so our bellies got nice and big and full.

We scared our trick-or-treaters...

But we mostly just hung out together and had a good time.

And then we went to bed. It was a great day.

Shout Out

to my main man.

Hey you! Yes you handsome man in the RailPros shirt with brown pants on. Sitting in your office hard at work (well kind of... you are looking at this blog) Thanks for cleanin the kitchen after dinner (even mopping!) and vacuuming the living room.
Those chores were on my to do list all day but I never got to them and it made me feel like this: But then you came home and thanked me for dinner and told me how good it was and then cleaned the kitchen, mopped the floor, picked up the living room and vacuumed it. Husbands seriously don't get better than you. This is how you make me feel:
I wish I were there with you right now to give you this fishy-lipped kiss. I love you so very much I can't even tell you. You make me happy in every way. Just thinking about you puts a smile on my face.

Thanks again babe. I love you.

pictures courtesy of Avery

Junior Olympian

Here is Avery, our Junior Olympian, she is just so talented.
This is probably the third time she did the jump. The first time she made it she was nothing but pure excitement. She ran over to me and hugged me tight and just giggled...



When we watched the video after (3 times) Avery laughed at herself when she fell down. What a good sport. So maybe she won't be a junior olympian but maybe winner of America's funniest home videos.

Carving Pumpkins

For FHE one night we decided to carve pumpkins.

(for some reason the pictures look fuzzy... boo) This was Pierson's first year to join in on the action and he LOVED it. You can tell by the pumpkin goo hanging out of his mouth in the picture above. Getting him to focus on me for a picture was impossible because he ws loving the pumpkin mess so much. I miraculously captured his eyes in the picture below in the quick second he looked at me.

Avery also enjoyed carving pumpkins... but in a slightly different way. P was all about the goo and pumpkin mess and A was all about the company. She didn't really do much of the pumpkin stuff, she just sat and watched and laughed with us. We were calling the pumpkin goo 'gooby' and she giggled and giggled each time it was said. It was a little past her bed time at this point and she was super slap happy. I'll have to see if saying gooby brings out her giggles at a normal hour.
Needless to say we had such a good time carving pumpkins.
Mike remains the master pumpkin carver of our house. He has skillz that killz mine everytime. But I do make the best pumpkin seeds (or I at least make them).

Here is the pumpkin I carved. It lasted one night and then the next morning the babies were all over it like white on rice. It is now in the dumpster.

Here are a few videos for your viewing pleasure. They sum up our pumpkin carving pretty well. My favorite part is when I ask Avery if we are going to have fun and she says no.

Happy Halloween!

Tiller Days

So the night of October 1st (same day we went to Tanaka) we went to check out Tustin Tiller Days. It is at a school park really close to our house. I'm not one for fairs most of the time (they are so grimey!) but our friends talked us into going to see what Tiller Days was all about. Here's Pierson (minus a shoe) and his two besties, J and A. The babes were pretty good to just hang out in the strollers and watch all the crazy that was going on around them.

Avery rode this roller coaster by herself... she thought it was fun at first but on one of the turns it jerked her around in her seat and she wasn't too happy about it. But the ride went around a couple of times before stopping. She tried to be okay with it the first couple times but the third time it went around she nearly lost it. I wish I could have gotten it on tape because she was trying so hard to smile but just had sheer dread on her face. I tried to take a picture but I was laughing so hard I dropped it. Love you Avery :)

This ride was much better! She got to ride with R and S and it was slow and smooth.

She also liked this ride because it was slow too.

Here's me and P waiting in the face painting line so Ave could get her face all pretty.

And here she is with a pink sunshine. Fits her perfectly.

Here's Ave and R and S with their painted faces and balloons. They really had fun together enjoying all the rides and fun things to do and see. Michael especially loved watching all the interesting people there. Tustin Tiller Days didn't totally win me over but I'm not opposed to going back next year :)

Sundays

October 10, 2010 Church is 11-2 so by the time we get home the kids are READY for naps. Avery is a perfect example of this in this picture. Bless her heart.
Pierson on the other hand was ready to play as he slept the last 15 minutes of church. Luckily he still took a nap once we put him down.

And here is us today October 24, 2010

Today Pierson broke my necklace in Sunday school.

Avery tripped walking in the church parking lot as we were rushing to get there. Her little knees were skinned and her arms and legs were black. Luckily the black washed off easily and the knees were good after a cleaning, a kiss, and a promise of a Dora bandaid when we got home because she could "squish blood out".

Here is me and the Perdes (what Ave used to call him and what most people call him). He's given me a LOT of kisses today and I love it. He is such a sweet, cuddly, lovey boy.