He’s here! Avery’s newest cousin, Tyler William, was born Wednesday, January 22, 2014. He’s an absolutely adorable newborn with full cheeks and alert eyes. In fact, Jeff and I drove up to meet him the day he was born and he was awake (and calm) during our entire half hour + visit! We are already so in love with the little guy and look forward to all the family fun we’re going to have together. Great job, Auntie Lindsay (and Uncle Pat, of course)!
Avery is looking forward to meeting Tyler very soon. Unfortunately, she came down with a cold that turned into the flu that turned into pneumonia over the weekend, so her visit with him will have to wait a little while. Until then, we’ll make videos for him! (GramCin gets credit for taking the first three perfect videos. So creative and she is clearly over the moon to have two grandchildren!!)
FPT We went to Balboa Park recently and on that trip Avery realized she was super good at duck impersonations.
Avery loves her preschool. We love her preschool. The management is approachable and genuine, the curriculum is top notch, the facility is brand new, the other kids' parents are great and most importantly, the teachers are amazing. I feel like I could sit all day and talk with Avery's two teachers about anything and everything. I feel like they truly know and love Avery like we do. We have had an overall great experience with the school since enrolling Avery last summer and feel fortunate to be a part of a it.
Below are some pictures and a video from the school's Holiday Happenings performance in December. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Essentially, the kids from each class went caroling to each classroom (the parents stayed put in their child's respective classroom). We saw performances from the littlest kids in the pre-preschool class (two year olds and it was pretty much the teachers singing the song while the kids stared blankly at our room full of admiring adults) to the kindergarten class where they seemed like theatrical veterans.
As those of you who know Avery know, she can be shy and sensitive at times and outgoing and entertainment-driven at the others. The Holiday Happenings night was an "on" night for Avery and pretty much her breakout performance, to say the least. Everyone got a kick out of our little girl and her impromptu dance moves during the song had us in stitches!
Oh, hi, Mom and Dad!
This was taken during the song lyrics "ring your bells fast." Avery nailed it.
Avery stopped singing at one point and started doing her own thing...dance moves with dance faces.
After the performance Avery and her teacher wanted to keep the excitement going and had their own dance party!
Avery calmed down enough before we left to take a picture with her other teacher.
This picture is great on so many levels, but check out the blurry photo bomber in the forefront...probably ringing his bell fast.
Another cool part of Avery's preschool...Friend of the Week. Each student gets one week of the school year when they are extra special. From being first in line (big deal when you're a kid...remember?!) to having your family come in for special appearances, being the Friend of the Week is like being a rock star. My parents, Jeff parents and Jeff and I participated that week.
On Tuesday morning my parents brought in photos, fun stories and delicious strawberries to share with the kids from my Dad's garden. Avery goes there with him often to work on her green thumb and spend special time with her Papa.
Jeff and I went in later in the day on Tuesday and participated in the class's music time. It was awesome and a highlight was signing and dancing to Macarena. Yes, Macarena. The kids loved it! I loved it!
Jeff's parents went on Thursday to share some homemade treats (made by GramCin and Avery on Wednesday) and a play-story...all themed "snowman." Check it out. Oh, and check out how serious and proud Avery was. She was so into the performance and took it all to heart that she was performing and showing off her grandparents to the class.
And, if you didn't already notice it, Avery's poster board is in the blue bulletin behind her and GramCin. We made it together the weekend before and it included cool about-Avery info and tons of pictures of her friends and family.
During the week, Avery kept making up songs about being Friend of the Week and how excited she was. The songs were clever and adorable, and it was nice to think back to them the following week when I had to tell her that no, she wasn't Friend of the Week again...no matter how many times she asked.
FPT
Our neighborhood is where little girls go to become princesses.
(Yes, it's January 20th and I'm blogging about Christmas. Yikes!)
Here are some pictures from all of the Christmas celebrations. From Legoland with the Goads to our community’s tree lighting with Cousin Helen, we had a lot of fun this year!
This picture cracks me up. Shows their personalities!
Clapping for the carolers.
One of the boys in the neighborhood has a December birthday, so we all enjoyed hot cocoa and treats one night.
Until we have a fireplace, we'll use our hutch to hang our stockings...
We spent Christmas Eve with my parents, Jeff’s parents, Uncle Brennan, Auntie Moosh and of course, Cousin Helen. Avery gets so excited (like crazy excited) when Helen is around. And, on Christmas Eve just when we thought she couldn’t get more excited, Papa and Danda revealed their gift to the girls…
A play house!! To say the girls were over the moon, on top of the world and on cloud 9 would not do their reactions justice. They loved it more than anyone could anticipate and yes, there were tears when it was time to stop playing and go home for the night. Thankfully, we all visit Danda and Papa often and can play in the house any time we want. Christmas was very special this year. Avery, being 3.25 years, understood and enjoyed all the excitement this time of year brings. She was giddy about Christmas morning, albeit a little nervous that Santa was coming in our house to drop off the gifts. Side fact, she actually wasn’t having that. All month long she warned us that she was not comfortable with Santa coming in, so we told her Santa said he was happy to leave the gifts outside our front door. Ha! Knowing Avery, it may be a tradition in our house that Santa always leaves his gifts outside. After our intimate Christmas morning just the three of us, we headed up to Auntie Lindsay and Uncle Pat’s beautiful home in Hermosa Beach along with an array of grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. A house full of people and so much love! The best part of the trip up was seeing Auntie Lindsay and her adorably perfect baby bump. Baby Wade will be here very soon and we can’t wait to meet the little guy!
A portion of the Christmas day group. Beautiful afternoon at the beach in Hermosa.
Avery helped GramCin pass out the gifts...
And wanted to be involved in the gift opening part, too.
If she got any closer she would be in his lap!
Love.
What a wonderful Christmas this year! We are so very blessed!
(Oh, and I’m not going to do a blog post about New Years, because it was ridiculously anticlimactic. Jeff and I had a normal night with Avery, put her to bed, enjoyed a few cocktails, had a delicious dinner and both fell asleep on the couches before 8:30 p.m. Come on, Simpsons!)
I'm a little behind on the blogging thing. No real surprise there, though, right? Here's a little bit of what we've been up to the past six weeks.
2nd Annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. Maybe next year Jeff will smile?!
A little snapshot of Thanksgiving day... Silly girls sharing cookies!
My mom and I took Avery to her first movie the day after Thanksgiving. We saw Frozen and the whole experience was awesome! Avery ate her weight in popcorn and sat still 95% of the time. The other 5% was her asking to leave, because she was a little frightened at one thing or another. To make her want to stay and feel better I would bribe her with candy and tell her it was just make believe. Ha.
Ocean and fish time after the movie. Gotta love Legoland's aquarium!
Love this face!
Ha!
Look at the gross photobomber in this photo. Eels are my worst nightmare. Ew!
Time to get a Christmas tree, but first a stop at the beach...which is totally winter/Christmas themed, I know. Note: 1) Avery's lack of pants (she wanted to put her toes in...oops) and 2) her sweet dance moves.
Okay, now Christmas tree time! Avery fell in love with an Avery-sized flocked tree on our way into the tree farm. Needless to say, we bought it (in addition to a normal 7-footer) and we might actually make it a tradition. If you can't have a snowy Christmas, why not bring the snow to you? Mess and all!
Testing all the trees with hugs before deciding on...
This gorgeous flocked one!
The Taits were getting their tree the same day as us... Avery was giddy to see Cody.
Dear Lord - the cuteness!
The day after we got our trees, we went to the Goads where the kiddos decorated (and ate a bazillion) cookies while the adults enjoyed some mimosas!
We love all the fun this time of year brings! More Christmas cheer in the next blog post...look for that one in June. Just kidding...hopefully.
FPT
My little elf next to her perfect little flocked tree!
Jeff and I met on a blind date in December 2004 and were married in October 2007. He is the apple of my eye, the hop in my step and the love of my life. In September 2010 we proudly welcomed our first child, daughter Avery Elizabeth and this site was created to share with our friends and family, near and far, Avery's journey through this magical thing called life.
