The Story of Us

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter

We had a lovely Easter weekend, spending time with family and hunting eggs! I love Easter...it seems to signify the "real" beginning of spring and the upcoming END of the school year!
**I'm editing this...after I looked at it and realized how absolutely selfish it sounds. I listed the self-centered reasons I love Easter. But I didn't even mention what an awesome thing Easter means to me as a Christian.
Since I've become a mom, it's even more clear to me the love our God must feel for us. He gave HIS SON for us. His son suffered and died for us, He knew it was going to happen, and He sent Jesus for us anyway. How great his love for us must be, really. And now we get to serve a risen Savior AND live with the promise that He's coming back for us. I wish I had the words to even describe the enormity of that, to me.**

I don't think our pictures need much explanation, so here goes...

It's so hard to get a good family picture these days.

It's even harder to get a good picture of 11 kids {cute Cali wasn't into taking a picture with the kids. Who could blame her?}

Please look at all of their faces! I'm not sure what they saw.

Cute cousin Makenna

This girl LOVES her Uncle Matt.

Avery Claire was a couple of weeks old for her first Easter. And I thought she was so big last year {her 2nd Easter}.

On the way home....thanks, Hudson, for our birthday gift! It saved us on the ride home!

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

2 Year Stats {and a Mommy/Daddy Milestone}

Last Friday, Avery Claire had her two year well check. We saw Dr. Crenshaw {of no relation that we know of}. She's one of our favorites at the pediatrician's office!
Avery Claire's stats were:
Weight:29 lbs, 9 oz (80th percentile)
Height:35 3/4 inches (90th percentile)
Head Circumference: 19 1/8 in (75th percentile)

Dr. Crenshaw declared Avery Claire a very tall, healthy girl! We already knew she was perfect! And we don't really even think about her height until they measure her and talk about how tall she is. We have noticed that she is almost as tall or as tall as the 3 year olds at daycare.
We love every little inch of our sweet girl! {I didn't ask her to strike these poses. These are all hers.}

These are the shoes she picked out of my closet to wear Friday afternoon at home. She went and dug out the matching pair for me to wear. Aren't they lovely?

Dusty and I reached a big milestone last night in our workout lives. The year before I got pregnant, we started working out at the fieldhouse 3-4 times a week. We lifted weights, did lunges, that kind of thing. We got in pretty good shape...or so we thought. I got pregnant that summer and we haven't done a thing but chase a busy girl around since then. A few weeks ago, we casually discussed beginning P90X. After all, we've had the disks for about 3 years now.

30 days ago {last night}, we started the classic P90X program. We've made it 1/3 of the way through our 90 days, which is about 28 more days than we thought we'd make it when we started. Especially after the first Plyometrics workout. And considering that we don't get started until after Avery Claire goes to bed.

I think we both kind of expected to lose weight. We haven't really lost a lot of weight. We have, however, noticed a really big difference in ourselves. Each day, the workouts get a little easier to make it through. We notice that we are more flexible as we workout, we can do more reps. We may not be shedding a lot of pounds, but I really think we are building a lot of muscle. We certainly don't look like Mr. Tony Horton, who created P90X. And let's get real. We never will. But we are definitely toning up and getting in shape. We are highly doubtful that we'll make it the full 90 days. But we've surprised ourselves so far. Who knows what we'll look by summer! :-)

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Spring Break {2012}

As you know, we started out the week celebrating Avery Claire's birthday. I loved beginning our spring break with her big day. It was fun knowing I had the whole next week off to spend quality time with my girl!

We spent lots of time playing outside {the weather couldn't have been better for most of the week...85 degrees and sunny}! We spent time on Avery Claire's new slide and down the street at our neighbor's awesome swingset.
Avery Claire did go to daycare Tuesday{at around 9} and Wednesday {at around 10:45} so that Mommy could get a couple of things done {like the dentist}.
We visited Daddy Wednesday at school. Here is my diva on the way.

We spent lots of time at the park! Avery Claire loves the park. Now she specifies where she wants to slide. If it's outside or at our neighbor's, she just says "slide?" If it's at the park, she asks "park slide?" I heard her talking to her baby tonight and saying "yew won park slide, baby?!" The girl would live at the park, seriously, if we'd let her. Wait til they open the splash pad this summer. We may have to drag her away kicking and screaming {at dark}.
Look at the playground, though, really! What kid wouldn't love it?

We went to Spring Park {which is different} Thursday morning, and we didn't love it as much. There wasn't nice mulch on the ground so our feet got really dirty. And I Avery Claire loved the ducks - from afar. If she thought they were remotely turning in her direction, the girl ran like she was being chased by the cops. It was hilarious!

We did some shaving cream paint in the bathtub. Avery Claire wasn't too sure about it at first, but it didn't take her long to realize it was okay to be messy and she had a ball!

Thursday night, my sweet friends, LeAnn and Stacy, from RES came over. We had a lot of catching up to do. LeAnn brought her sweet little boy, Grant. Avery Claire calls him "baby Gants." She did surprising well with Grant. She made she he had his paci at all times. She didn't mind if I held him, which surprised me. {I can just hear you saying "that means it's time for another one!" Ha! You're too funny!
Stacy and LeAnn, we enjoyed our time with you and Baby Gants. Avery Claire is still talking about how sweet and "cewte" baby Gants is! She tells him "night-night" every night!

Friday, Avery Claire had her 2 year well check. I will post those stats as soon as I can find the paper that she stuck somewhere in this house. She got one shot, cried an ugly cry for about 5 seconds, then was okay. It was when I made her wear her bandaid that she had a meltdown. We went to Target and TJ Maxx in the pouring down rain, got her favorite meal {a Boberry biscuit from Bojangles}, and ate lunch in the garage.

Papa had a meeting in Nashville, so he and Nana came Friday night and left Saturday morning. Mommy and Daddy got to have a date night!

Our spring break was great! I enjoyed spending time at home with my girl. She is such a funny, sweet little girl. She really is so much fun to be around. We made lots of messes and played and ate and played and ate. She was a great sleeper, going to be around 8:30 and sleeping until at least 7:30, then playing in her bed for 30-45minutes after she woke up. I really hope we can get that schedule back in play by summertime!

Miss Priss thinks she is grown and played in her bed for an hour and a half Sunday afternoon...instead of nappying. This is her at 6:15.

We let her get a catnap and then made her get up to eat supper. She played a little and hit the sack before 8:00.

She's probably been capable of putting this puzzle together for awhile. She pulled it out Sunday night and put all the pieces in the right places, over and over. I was one proud mama!