Explain

Today baby Dawson was happily checking out his excersaucer.

Ava was happily trying to climb into the excersaucer.

I told her no repeatedly, but yet she still would try to sneak past me to climb into the excersaucer with her brother.

Finally I told her very sternly "No climbing in the excersaucer."

She looked at me and said "Meme says yes!"

Meme, you've got a lot of explaining to do.



Avery's family Party

Yesterday we had a wonderful afternoon celebrating Ava's birthday with our families.

Thank you so much to everyone for coming to spend the afternoon at our house.  Everyone had a drive to get here, and we really enjoy spending time with you all!

Aunt Tiff, the cookies were amazing as always. 

Thank you Meme for the Dragon Ka-kragon juice.  (I think I've forgotten to mention him, but dragon ka-kragon is Carter's imaginary friend, who apparently died friday.  But don't worry, he's back.)

Singing Happy Birthday

"Oh, we hope you live to be a hundred"

 

Uncle Jay I do believe that is Daddy's signature move.

The hit of the party (for the children) was running around/riding his bicycle in a circle in the garage.

We love you all!

Princess Party

Today was Avery's friend party at a local park.

Four little girls have their birthdays in April so we had a combined princess party.  Here are some pictures from our fun morning!

Daddy planned to take this day off to do something fun, so he helped me at the park. 

The Princess cake that I made. Margie, your cake was way better.

Avery's mouth was stuffed with candy from the pinata.

Carter also enjoyed the pinata, although he refused to take a swing at it unlike his sister.

Baby Dawson was also there in all his chunky baby glory.

The Baby Combover.

Mike also called him baby Blagojevich.

Now, onto our family party tomorrow!  A busy, busy weekend for sure.

Houston, we have a thumbsucker!

Whose dark brown hair is turning lighter by the second.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Avery,  Happy Second Birthday!

Two years ago we were blessed with an independent, sweet, spirited little girl.

You have grown so big.  Avery, you are Carter's shadow and Dawson's little Mommy.  You love to play cars, baby dolls and build with legos.

You are SO independent.  I cannot help you open yogurt or cheese sticks, it must be done by you alone.  And forget about brushing your hair or teeth!  You want to be just like your big brother and you refuse to sit in your booster seat at the dinner table anymore, which has lead to some pretty messy meals. 

Pure mischief.

This past week we were at a restaurant and I kept reminding you to be quiet.  So you decided to yell at me

We are quiet.

Needless to say, it was not quiet at all.  Daddy and I were laughing so hard.

You love to dress silly or act funny and run around yelling "look at me, look at me." You are talking up a storm, asking questions, speaking in three to four word sentences and bossing your older brother around with all your might. In fact, today he did something that didn't please you so you yelled at him "Time out Carter!"

Some of your favorite foods are cereal, crackers, bananas, strawberries, tacos and pizza.  You are such a good eater and will put away broccoli, asparagus and grilled chicken while your brother won't even look at it.

Right now you are sharing a room with Carter and you love to sleep with your "pinky" blanket.  Luckily we got you to give up your pacifier habit a couple of months ago. 

Your current nicknames include:  avey, avaroo, roover, roo and lady jane.  You love to read books but once again, Miss independent you want to do it all by yourself.

Avey, we are so lucky to have you as our sweet little girl.  We laugh at your quirks and spirit every day.  We are so blessed!

We Love you!  

We have been busy, busy, busy.  I have about 10,000 things on my to do list, and I'm struggling just to keep the laundry clean and dinner ready.  We've made some pretty big decisions lately, I hope they end up being right for our family.  Carter is officially a preschool drop out.  I really wanted him to enjoy preschool, but I don't think the class this year was the right fit for him.  So, we are dropping out until the fall to see if a little time and a different class will change his mind.  I just want him to LOVE school. 

We have also been going back and forth about whether this is the right time for us to move.  I feel like we have no storage space and we would love to have a shorter drive to work for Mike.  It sounds like it should be an easy decision to make, but it's  ......not.  There are so many factors that play into a move like this when you have little guys.

Big decisions.  Lots of thinking to do..........

Silly Kids

Some Stories only a parent (or grandparent) could love:

• Carter told me about a dream he had the other day.  He dreamed that he and Daphne (from Scooby Doo) had jet packs and they were flying up and down.  I think he may have the beginnings of a little boy crush on Daphne. 
•  I'm sweaty.  I need a sweater, Carter declared.  Clearly I haven't explained the purpose of a sweater very well. 
• Today I was talking to Ava about how the easter bunny will be coming soon.  She asked me "Leave him cookies?"  She really has some holiday confusion going on.

Now for the Antiquities pictures, taken at Carter's preschool:

I know as a mother I'm biased, but super cute, right?

Teething pain, ouch.