Look Who's Back!!

Ha! I just realized you probably thought I was talking about me/us!
10-14 days turned into almost 4 weeks...but I'm glad to have this ol' girl back in time for our beach trip! I know I'm so far behind on blogging. I haven't even done a Father's Day post. Maybe I'll do something late for the special men in our lives!


Avery Claire and I went to Clay County to visit for a few days last week. We did a lot of playing outside {and Mommy spent a little time pool side!}. This girl was excited for days about going to visit. I kept telling her we'd go Monday and she could not wait!! Lately, she is all about doing something "a-day" {today}!!!! Not "a-mara" {tomorrow}!

We got to spend time with Mattie and Abby and we enjoyed it so much! I wish we could get these girls together all.of.the.time! It was fun watching our girls play together!

 Avery Claire loves visiting, but she was glad to be back in her bed. She does NOT sleep very well away from home! It's taken us a few days, but she's finally going to bed easily again! We've been doing lots of playing and trying to stay cool. It's hard with a girl who wants to be outside 99% of the time.

I've been trying to get a few craft projects done. I'll show you a couple more soon when they're complete!

We pulled out Avery Claire's pj shorts last night and she LOVES them! She usually wears pants because she won't stay covered up all night. She asks to wear shorts every day and thought it was so awesome that her pajamas were shorts! She kept looking down at them. And, of course, she had to wear them again tonight.

She learned to ride her trike at Nana's last week and finally got the hang of her slightly bigger one today. She's been riding all day. I persuaded her to bring it inside because the 100 degree heat was killing me - she doesn't mind it a bit. 

 

Running because I asked her if I could get a picture of her pj's

 

We're working on potty training sporadically. We haven't been at all consistent. I keep saying "after the beach." Guess I'll have to get serious soon, huh?

 
Avery Claire has been biting/chewing her nails lately. She acts like she has a hang nail, but she can't have them that often. She'll work on it for a few minutes and then say "I GOT IT, MAMA!!" And she's so proud of herself!

We're leaving for the beach at the end of the week...Avery Claire keeps saying we're going "amara." We've told her the beach won't be open for us until Thursday, so she's okay with that. But she is so excited that we're all going and staying together!

Happy 7 Years

Today, my sweet husband and I celebrate 7 years of marriage. They have honestly been the best 7 years of my life. We have moved and moved and moved again, and not every thing about those moves has been easy, but I am proud that we have trused in God to work it out {and He has}, and that we've been honest and supportive of one another through it all. I couldn't ask for a sweeter, more understanding, more supportive, funnier husband. I love our life together. I truly take such pleasure in spending time with our little family. I thank God every day that we have each other and that we have our sweet Avery Claire.

Rain is Coming

We hear that south AL is being flooded and it's heading our way, so we tried to get as much outside time in as we could before the rain came!
We continued our beach fun in a bucket at home! We were able to get an early bath tonight and stay inside for awhile before bedtime! It was kind of nice to be inside before 8:30!

Beach Day 2 & Biking

Yesterday, we knew how to make Miss Priss happy from the get-go {although the water was so rough I had to fill her bucket up from the faucet so it wouldn't have sand in it!}.




This girl has taken some good naps at the beach 'cause she's been so worn out!
 
Last night, we took the kiddos to Ono Island to ride bikes. They rode and ran and wore themselves out!

Chambless tried to teach Avery Claire how to play dominoes last night. I don't think she's quite ready to learn, but he was a very patient teacher! And he's a very smart boy to be able to teach her!

After a yummy breakfast this morning, we headed home. Avery Claire tried to give Chambless a big hug, but he wanted no part of that! That's almost as gross as people kissing at weddings, right, Chambless?
 
We had a great time at the beach, Kate and Chambless. Thanks for inviting us to spend time with you! We look forward to seeing you soon!
We were glad to get home and see Daddy! I think the house was too quiet without us! 

A Big Bucket

Now I know why we don't sleep in the bed with this bed hog. We have a full size bed, and I slept on the outside 2 inches all night last night!
 
Avery Claire LOVED the beach Monday, so I had high hopes that she would jump in that sand the next day and play away. Ha! I knew better!
At first, she walked around and stopped and wanted her feet washed off. She couldn't figure out why she would wash them off and then the sand would just stick to them again.

This boy, however, dug himself a hole {with the help of his mom}, and jumped right in that sand!
 
It took us about an hour, but we finally figured out how to fix the problem - we stuck her in a big bucket!!
Last night, we headed to eat dinner at Lambert's {aka Hot Rolls} and had a long wait. So, we headed to Foley to shop for a bit. Chambless took Avery Claire to another favorite of his - Toys R Us!! Avery Claire headed straight for the buggies and strollers!
  And Chambless started making his Christmas list!
Look at the monkeys we had in the backseat!
After we ate, we headed to Target!
 
Three of us got coffee, and one of us got a pretend cup!
 
You wouldn't have known Avery Claire's cup had pretend coffee, considering she didn't fall asleep last night until 12:30. Maybe it was the sweet tea she drank at dinner, but I think it was just that she was so excited and so tired and afraid to miss something!

We're At the Beach!

Sunday when we got home from church, we had an invite to come join this cutie pie and his mom at the beach!!

Avery Claire and I packed up our bags and headed to Orange Beach this morning! It seemed like it took us 14 hours to get there. I've never traveled that far by myself with a 2 year old. Whew! And she did pretty well, all things considered. When we got there Monday around 4:00ish, we headed to the beach. Avery Claire loved it! She kept telling me how
"shun" it was when the waves hit her feet!
 
We went in, got showers, and Chambless had to take Avery Claire to one of his favorite Orange Beach spots - Build A Bear!
 
This was Avery Claire's first trip to BAB, and she was really unsure of the whole thing. She watched everything Chambless did, but she wasn't very big on participating.
 
She did, however, love running around the store and showing us all of the bear accessories, like the chairs and "shop-shops." {And as we were leaving, she saw a stroller. If you know her, you know we were lucky to avoid that section while we were inside the store.}
  
 
  
Have you ever seen such cuteness dragging her Pinky Bear around 'cause she was too "heaby?"
Avery Claire was out like a light tonight as soon as I sat down with her in the recliner!

First Weekend of Summer {and potty celebration}

The first official weekend of our summer has been great. Our house is somewhat in order {even though it's a 24-7 job to keep it that way}. We have nothing we have to do and no schedule to follow.

Last night, we had a slight incident with my camera. So, after Avery Claire and I took it to Best Buy this morning, we came home to play. Thank God for extended warranties and cameras that get broken before the warranty expires! But I'll be without my camera for 10-14 days!

Here are some weekend pictures...






I think Avery Claire is ready to be potty trained, but I don't want to spend a lot of time stressing over it. I let her wear panties or pull ups when she wants. I let her sit on the potty whenever she wants. She always tells me immediately after she has peed or pooped.
Saturday morning, after she ate and drank some milk, she wanted to sit on the potty. And she PEED!!!!! We were so excited! I'd told her she could have a Twizzler whenever she tee-teed on the potty. She was so excited and proud. We called Nana and Mema to tell them so they could make a big deal about it, too.

I think it's a step in the right direction, anyway.
I'm going to pack my bags. We're headed to the beach tomorrow to spend a couple of days with Kate and Chambless. We're so excited!

Summer Cleaning

Thank God for a husband that will entertain my child...Avery Claire and Dusty did a lot of this today.



I've spent a lot of time on these this week:



And it was time for me to tackel this:





I do vacuum, dust, clean bathrooms, swiffer every week. But I don't do baseboards and fans often. And I don't clean well under dressers, beds, etc like I should, either. After some serious cleaning, I cannot tell you how much better I felt.
While Avery Claire took a 4 hour nap this afternoon, I ran to Target to buy new bedding. I needed a change. Now I need to decide what color to accent with. Red? Light blue? What do you think? The pillows are white with a pale yellow stripe. It's hard to see in this picture.
I know brown would look good, but I'm tired of brown. That's what we had before this.