Who brought the saw?

The day after Thanksgiving we went to a tree farm to pick a christmas tree for Grandma and Bo's house. Carter had a ball because he was able to see a horse, go on a wagon ride and hike in some fields. What more could a two year old ask for?


Horses! And Mike in his girly coat, I mean boy scout coat.

Enjoying the wagon ride, bundled up to enjoy the snow! (Yes, it even snowed a bit!)

Are your eyelids frozen?

Who brought the saw?

The christmas season is here!!!

A's first Turkey Day

Happy First Thanksgiving to our little Avaroo! We are still at Grandma and Bo's house and enjoying every second of it. Ava tried a little bit of squished sweet potatoes, but really wasn't very impressed. But she sure is digging the pureed baby food right now, she ate four jars today! And as for Carter bean's favorite part of the Thanksgiving feast, that would be the pumpkin pie and Reddi-whip. Actually just the Reddi-whip. He had thirds on the Reddi-Whip until he was cut off.

Carter bean is also in seventh heaven with all the little boys running around. He's got two little playmates (which are actually his second cousins). Jordan is 3 years old and Tanner is 5 years old. Not a day has gone by without the floor being covered in cars, trucks and trains. I love watching him interact with these little boys. He spends most of his day imitating Tanner; laying on his belly to play just like him and making the same exact sound effects while playing with cars and transformers. Jordan and Carter are fun to watch as well, but they also can go head to head at times. Today Carter walked around turning on the lamps and Jordan would go over and turn them off. It was lamp wars for awhile, until I laid down the law and said that no one could touch the lamps. It makes me so excited for the time when the Bean and Roo can spend time playing together.

A Thankful Wedding Anniversary

Happy Turkey Day! And coincidentally it's also our five year wedding anniversary. I really can't believe it's been that long already. So Mikey here are the things that I am thankful for:

• your sense of humor


• supporting me unconditionally


• the way you treat me with respect even when I don't deserve it


• your interest in Twilight


• our two beautiful, wonderful kids


• your wonderful t-shirt collection and singing voice (insert sarcasm here)

I really am wonderfully blessed to have such an amazing partner. Your are the best friend I always dreamed to have. Happy Five Years!

Avaroo meets a Kangaroo

Avaroo met her very first Kangaroo at the zoo yesterday! She was quickly named Avaroo when she was born because as Mike says "she loves to be in her Mom's pocket." Her dream would be to have a kangaroo mommy and live in her mommy's pocket. And let me tell you, it is beyond adorable when Carter walks up and coos at her "Aroo."

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

We saw Lions!

and Tigers!

and Bears! We had a blast at the zoo! The weather was gorgeous, we were about the only people there, and we got to see so many different animals.

Carter loved riding the turtle.

Avaroo is on safari.

Daddy and Carter checking out the animals.

Mama and the babies.

A wedding to remember

Last night we went to my cousin Rachel's wedding. As you can see she made a stunning bride and a good time was had by all. (And Carter was able to actually eat the cake, because it was not made in a bakery. This is a HUGE plus in our book. And the cake was fabulous!)

Avery was a super tired baby, but she was really beyond good. We skipped naps, moved her schedule all around and still she was amazing at the wedding. (Although that night did not go quite so smoothly.)

Carter LOVES his Meme. When Meme is around he gets animal crackers, gum, Altoid mints and as you can see in this picture yogurt melts. I wish we could have stayed longer, but the kids already went to bed two hours later than normal. And if you know me, you know this drives me crazy. Carter dealt with this change well, but the baby not so much. So here's to a wonderful wedding, yogurt melts, and getting the kids back on schedule!

Smiley Face

Avaroo is in love with her Daddy. LOVE I say. When he comes home she immediately turns to smiles and giggles. And the other day she added a new smiley face to her Daddy schmoozing act. When Mike comes over to smile at her she scrunches up her face, narrows her eyes and makes one big "cheese" face. It is totally, utterly adorable.

growing up

Today Carter and I were building with blocks, as you can see from this picture. He looked over at me, pointed to his structure and said "flag." I know you're thinking what's the big deal about that? So the kid built a flag? But really, it marks the incredible transformation that is going on in his brain right now. He used blocks to symbolically represent a form he sees every day. That's a huge leap that shows growth in his cognitive development.

Ok, enough of the preschool teacher bragging about her baby. It's just that I'm so amazingly proud of him!

phone conversation

Carter playing in the toy room with a play cell phone to his ear:


Hi Bo! Hi! Hi! BO! BO!! Love you. K?

phone bok.

(translation: phone broke.)

I guess we will have to call Bo on a phone that isn't broke.

How quickly the years pass

November 2007

November 2008

November 2009

Seven Months!

These past seven months have been the best little girl! In the past month you have:

• started saying bob-bob-bob
• begun rolling from back to front
• tried yogurt, apricots, raspberries, strawberries, corn and mango
• been to the zoo, twice!
• dressed up like a pumpkin for your first halloween
  

NOT a merry christmas

Wow, is it hard to get a decent picture of our two kids together! Carter has decided that he will put up with Avery, as long as we don't let her touch him. And boy is it hard to get a picture together without them touching. We were finally able to get two good shots of the kids seperately (for our christmas cards). But I thought you might enjoy some of the outtakes.




Dad, I don't want her to touch me. Please, I might melt. or die. or spaz out. Yup, I'll definetely spaz out.

Carter munching on a lollipop, Avery munching on a leaf. Bon appetit!

Carter, we said to smile, not act squirrely!

I swear, Mom and Dad, I did not push her over.

So for those of you that have asked for a picture of the kids together, I say sure! When they're eighteen and twenty I bet we'll be able to get some good ones. But for now, just enjoy the leaf and lollipop picture. Or maybe the squirrely one.

wrapped in a bow

Hi Roo! What's that? You rolled around and around until you got wrapped up like a present? Big brother let you play with the ribbon while Mommy was unloading the dishwasher? Well, I must say that you make the prettiest present around.

I call this one: Toddler Choice.

Smiling Bob

There is just something special about the relationship between a daddy and his little girl and as I'm just now finding out, something even more special about the relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter. With that in mind comes the following story:

Ava has been making plenty of vowel-consonant sounds but I've really been encouraging her to make some consonant-vowel sounds (such as mama or dada). So I've been saying mamamamama or dadadadada to her over and over. (Maybe focusing on the mamamama a touch bit more!) And yesterday Ava looked at me and said "bob bob bob bob bob." What a little stinker!

Updated to add: We now have a new favorite game! Carter will start saying "Bob Bob" to Ava and she will imitate him just about every time. Then once Ava starts saying it, Carter will start yelling at her "MEME" to which she replies "Bob bob." And it goes back and forth and back and forth. SOOOOO much fun to see these two interacting with each other.

The most wonderful time of the year

Do you know what time it is???????????


Time to decorate for christmas! What's that you say? It's only November 9th? It's way too early to decorate for christmas? Well, we think that you're way too late!!

Mike and I love christmas. LOVE it. (In case you weren't there, we even had a christmas-ey wedding.) I can't speak for Mike, but I love everything about it: decorations, slowing down life to spend time with family, delicious food, the music and movies.

It's official, our tree is UP!!

Photo Editing

I recently found a website to edit photos online. I wanted to share them with you because I think they look awesome!



Bo and Avery.

Grandma and the kids.

Daddy and his little girl.

Carter riding the train at the apple farm.

Hope you enjoy!!

Butterball

Well, my little Carter bean got into some more mischief today. When we got home from Mighty Max, I started getting lunch ready and then realized I needed to put Ava down for a nap. I allowed Carter to stay downstairs (you think I would have learned my lesson by now!) while I put her down. And I forgot to put the butter away.

So Carter took it upon himself to take care of that. "Butter food, mommy!" Yes honey, yes it is. Although normally we don't eat it by the spoonful.

There used to be butter in this container. I guess butter is from the dairy group, right?

Roly Poly

Our little Avaroo has recently cruised into a new stage in her life: rolling. And boy, does she love it. She's in that fun stage where she's not really mobile, but she rolls all over the floor. Today during a twenty minute time span she found herself in the following predicaments:

Help Mom! I'm stuck under the TV stand.

Mom, you better get off the computer QUICK! I'm stuck under your chair.

Ok, now I'm back on the other side of the room guys. I think I'll just hide under this chair to protect myself from big brother. He learned the word tackle today.

Snuggle Bunnies

Any parent (mom or dad) who has ever stayed home with their children can unanimously tell you the most exciting time of the day. Of course, when the other parent gets home! And in our home, that means time for some Daddy love. It's my favorite time of the day: children have been feed, some adult conversation to enjoy and snuggles all around.

Pardon the distracted zombie look on Carter's face. Dragon Tales was on TV, what can I say.

Melt my heart. Daddy and his little girl.

Soaking it up

This morning we spent a little time at the park, soaking up the last little bit of park weather. We really enjoyed the sunshine and had a little fall walk. We spotted berries and leaves, and even heard birds chirping.

Say "Cheese."

We picked the very last dandelion of the year and tried to blow the seeds off.

Carter is getting more and more daring every time we go to the park. He has been dying to climb this rope structure. This time he actually managed to get his legs wrapped around the blue ropes and shortly after took a little tumble to the ground (he wasn't more than a foot off the ground, so no major damage.) But this did give me a horrifying flashforward to next summer with a daredevil two and a half year old and a mobile one year old who won't stand to be confined to a stroller.

We found the letter "M" on a motorcycle (which he identified and named independently.)

Smiles all around!

Mom, you are totally right (well about lots of things but this too) Ava definetely has "sunshine eyes." When she smiles her eyes turn into little suns.

I hope you are enjoying this last little bit of sunshine too!