Happy Birthday to Aunt Shannon!!!

Happy Birthday to Avaree's Aunt Shannon!!! We love you soooo much! We hope this is your best year yet! :)

Coversations with an ALMOST 2.5 year old in the Car...

Avaree and I spend a lot of time together in the car. This is just the tail end (last 6 or 7 minutes) of our drive home this afternoon! :) I never want to forget it. Precious!

Me: Avaree, do you see the cows?
Ave: Mommy, I see cows. I see cows. Hi Cows. Thank you for milk, cows. Mommy, Cows eat lettuce. Mommy eats lettuce. I don't want it lettuce.

.... (laughter) (a minute or two go by)...

Ave: Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to trucks. Happy Birthday to you. Mommy, say happy birthday to trucks.

(laughter)...(another minute goes by)...

We had just arrived in our driveway and Avaree thinks that Daddy will be home when we get there. I told her we would be home tonight. She starts yelling at the top of her lungs...
Ave: Daddy, come open the door. Daddy, come see Avaree. In white Car. Daddy, open the door now. Please, Daddy? Mommy, tell Daddy to open the door.
(smiles all around once I convince her that he will be home soon.)

Ave: Mommy, I be Doctor Dora. Okay? Mommy, I be frog. Ribbit Ribbit. Mommy, where the cows go? Cows, where are you? Come see Avaree. In white car. Mommy, it's okay. (Laughing makes mommy cough!) No coughing. It's okay. Daddy home soon. Don't cry.

:) Oh, how I love her! Her little mind...

Daddy's Youth Choir Concert: The King of Kings!

Sundays are always long days for us consdering we live about 50 minutes (with no traffic) from our church. Avaree and I usually leave here around 8:20 am and return around 2-2:30pm. She always sleeps on the way home, and she almost always sleeps another hour in her bed once we get home. This Sunday we decided to stay at church because Daddy's King of King's Youth Choir Concert was that night at 7 pm! We didn't get home until after 10 pm (and we drove home in the first snow of the season!!), but, as usual, my girl was a trooper! She sometimes comes into my Sunday school class (I teach in the classroom next door to hers), but this time she wanted to go to hers and her teachers even told me that she was extra wonderful that morning (YAY!)! We stayed after church and visited with everyone (the fishies included) while Daddy and Mr. Mark worked on the stage, then we ran and grabbed lunch with Daddy! We came back to church and helped a little with preparations for the concert (but mostly we played).

 What can I say? She is going to be a performer of some kind. The girl LOVES the stage.

 She was singing and making up her own choreography to go with it!

The classic "look at Mommy" pose! She was enamored with Daddy's cool microphone!

Then GiGi, Pops, and Mema came to surprise Daddy! Avaree had lot of fun playing with them!


We were soooo happy to see Mema! It had been forever!

 Daddy hugging Gigi!

 Mema kisses!

 Sweet Pops walked around with Avaree stickers on his face! :)

 kisses for everyone... :)

 She finally gave out and slept on me for about 45 minutes during rehearsal! She was WORN OUT! (Thanks for taking this picture, GiGi!)

 Daddy doing what he does best...

 I packed her supper and brought it with us that morning. She is enjoying her favorite dessert with Daddy: applesauce!

 Yes, she is still obsessed with the Britney Spears microphone! :)

 Daddy's favorite audience members! :) Thanks for coming, y'all!!!

Thanks to Pastor Jeff (love him!), Avaree had FIVE suckers to help make it through the concert, ha! But, it turns out that all she needs is MUSIC. I don't have any more pictures of the concert itself because I spent my time trying to make sure that my child didn't distract everyone from the concert! :) She danced in the aisle the WHOLE time, and she looooved clapping for her Daddy! She might have even gotten mixed up with the teenagers while dancing in the aisles! :) Pastor Jeff told B on Monday that he was certain Avaree enjoyed the concert more than anyone!

We are so proud of all of the students and so thankful to allllll of the volunteers that helped make this silent auction and fundraising concert happen! All of the money that was raised goes directly to help fund travel expenses for the summer mission trip to WASHINGTON D.C.!!! :)





February Fun: crafts, friends, and applesauce!!

We painted Valentine's Cards for Avaree's grandparents, aunts, uncles, and Daddy! :) She had LOTS of fun. Can you tell?

Avaree always wants to hold Timber! It is SO cute. She will hold her little hands up in a cup formation and say, "Hold you?" :) So, Mrs. Ginger and I let her try! :) I think these pictures are so sweet. Some days, Avaree will share her little heart out with Timber, but other days she wants to hord all of her things. It is hard learning to share, but she is getting there!!! :)

I have no idea why she was holding her head! :)

Sweet blue-eyed girls!



I LOVE the way they are looking at each other here. Sweet friends!



My BIG girl. She still LOVES apple sauce. :)

I just love this sweet sweater on her. I just can't get enough of this face. It's raining, and neither of us feel good (apparently we can't just get a cold around here!), so we are just having a quiet, lazy day at home while Daddy is at Disciple Now in Hurst!

My big girl and her big girl room!!!

Avaree has started wanting to play dress up! (YAY!!!!!!) :) Here she is covering Daddy a couple of Saturday mornings ago while she was all dressed up! She loves to play Mommy to her two baby dolls Lilly and Lucy. Her new favorite thing, though, is for Mommy or Daddy to lay down and play baby! :)

  a kiss for Daddy!

 I think she looks so grown up here...

 Introducing.... Avaree's BIG GIRL ROOM! :) I still need to change the curtains, but every thing else is pretty much finished.

 That big stack of books on the right hand side of the rocker gets read EVERY night! :)

 We don't use the changing pad anymore (she is too long!), but I just can't bare to part with it yet. It is the last piece of "baby" left in her room.

 Cuddle time! Avaree likes to stay in her owl towel and cuddle for a few minutes before we put her jammies on! :)

 She usually wants to cuddle with me in the rock rock chair, so Daddy was eating up his cuddle time! :)

 Daddy reading before bed!

Sometimes I still have to remind myself that she is growing up. She's been pretty sick the last few days (i know, i spoke too soon on the "we're all feeling well" thing.), so I have found that espeically when I am in a delirious state in the middle of the night, I'll open her door and find myself stunned that her crib is not there. Regardless, I love my sweet big girl sooooo much. Speaking of, I think i'm going to go crawl in to bed next to her! :)

Stay tuned for pictures from Daddy's Youth Choir Concert!