To Avery on Your 5th Birthday

Sweet Avery,

Five years ago today you entered the world and made me a Mommy. What an amazing journey it has been! Although I loved you immensely from the very beginning and knew what a precious gift you were, I couldn't have fathomed how much joy and pride you would bring me. Daddy and I are so blessed to have a daughter like you. You are intelligent, kind, tender-hearted, polite, funny, and a true people-person. You play alone sometimes, but you had much rather hang out with your family or with friends, and you are starting to really enjoy making new friends as well. In your 5th year of life you have definitely become more confident and independent, which has been such a joy to watch. In the past year, you have learned to do quite a few new things including: ride a bike with training wheels, swim, do a back roll and a cartwheel(and other gymnastics skills), buckle and unbuckle your booster seat, say the books of the old and new testaments and the 12 apostles, write all uppercase and lowercase letters, write numbers, tell time on a digital clock, read short books with sight words and 1 sentence per page, simple addition, and right now you are learning to play soccer! You love drawing, coloring, crafts, playing pretend with Kendall, playing computer games, watching your favorite shows and movies, playing dress up, playing rough with Daddy, and going to gymnastics, Bible class, and soccer. You have become such a good big sister to Kendall and I cannot wait to see how you interact with Judson once he is born. With a little brother on the way and Kindergarten starting in the fall, you have a huge year ahead of you and it will be so neat to witness the ways you grow and change! As Daddy reminds you in his "life lessons" every night at bedtime, we are confident that God truly has a special purpose for you in our family and in your own life and walk with Him. We love you so much Avery! Happy Birthday!

Love,
Mommy

Sea World (spring break part 2)

We spent the second day of our spring break trip at Sea World. We had decided to go on Sunday rather than Saturday hoping that it would not be as crowded. I think we made a good decision because it was not near as crowded as I have seen it before and it was also cloudy and not too hot. We spent pretty much the whole day there, so we were able to see 2 shows, all the major animal exhibits, and then the girls were able to ride several of the kiddie rides. It was Kendall's first time to ride a roller coaster and afterward she said, "That was awesome!" While Avery and Scott were riding some other kiddie rides that Kendall was too short for, I took Kendall over for some pics with the Sesame Street characters. She was just a little hesitant, but assured me that she wanted to meet Zoe, Bert, and Ernie. Cookie Monster seemed a little too scary for her though. The girls both really liked feeding the sea lions and watching Scott feed the dolphins. It was also fun to see their little faces as they watched the Shamu "Believe" show and the "Azul" show with dolphins, beluga whales, acrobats, and parrots. We had a really great time, but this pregnant Mama sure was tired by the time we left the park!

Avery rode the carousel all by herself

Kendall, Mommy and Zoe

Kendall, Mommy, Bert and Ernie (my old favorites)

Kendall rode the carousel twice and was so excited that she got a purple horse (her favorite color) both times

a dolphin jumping at the "Azul" show

the divers were pretty impressive too

Avery and Kendall watching the "Azul" show

an acrobat in the show

Scott, Avery, my Dad and Kendall rode the Shamu Express kiddie coaster together. There really was no good angle for getting Avery and Kendall's faces, but they were smiling and screaming the whole time.

We fed the sea lions several trays of fish. There was one huge one that kept snagging them all and another one that would bark and slap it's flipper on the water to beg for more.
Watching the sea lion encounter. This Dad and his 2 kids got to make the sea lion do tricks and swim with it.

A family pic before the Shamu "Believe" show

There were 3 killer whales that performed in the show. We also got to see the baby whale that was born fairly recently.
The killer whales are so big and impressive. When I see animals like this I just have to marvel at God's design and handiwork.
Avery was upset that she didn't get splashed at the Shamu show, so Scott took her up close to one of the water rides and let her get wet.
Kendall decided she wanted to get wet too, but she wasn't as happy about the result as Avery was.
We fed the dolphins and it was really neat to see them so up close. Avery and Kendall were a little scared when they would open their mouths for the food and you could see their teeth, so Scott ended up doing all of the feeding.

Spring Break Trip- Part 1

At the end of spring break week we took a little mini vacation to San Antonio. My parents, the girls, and I left Friday morning to drive down there and then Scott flew in to San Antonio Friday night after work. Friday was pretty much just a travel day, but Saturday we went to the Children's Museum downtown and then went to the Riverwalk that night for Scott's birthday dinner. We had been to the Children's Museum 2 yrs ago, but of course it was even more fun for the girls this time since they are both older. The museum had many of the same things this time, but there were a few exhibits that were different. When we asked her afterward, Avery had a hard time picking her favorite part of the museum. She spent a lot of time in the ball wall exhibit waiting for the balls to drop on her, and also liked milking the cow and playing general store with Scott and Kendall. Kendall also liked milking the cow and playing general store, but her favorites were pretending to shop at the HEB market and playing in the kitchen/restaurant area. After lunch at Fuddruckers and naps back at the hotel, we went down to the Riverwalk to eat dinner for Scott's birthday. It was incredibly crowded and although we did end up eating Mexcian food, it came from The Republic of Texas rather than one of the places that are more well-known for Mexican because of the crazy-long waits everywhere. We topped off the night with some ice cream from Marble Slab and headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep before heading to Sea World the next day.

Avery with an overflowing cart at the HEB market. She insisted on counting out 6 of every fruit and vegetable they had-- one for each family member there.

Kendall doing her shopping

Scott played checker for Kendall. They had a real working scanner and touch screen!

They loved the ball wall that used vacuums and various devices to get plastic balls up into a basket that would dump them all out on the kids when it got full.

Yee-haw!

Scott and Kendall taking a nap in the cowboy's house

Digging for fossils and other treasures

Taking a break in the child-size Victorian sitting room

Ready for take-off!

The cow actually squirted out water when you milked it correctly

Kendall enjoyed the water table where you could make a path for the boats and rubber ducks

Avery liked making bubbles around herself and then karate kicking the ones that the museum workers were making with bubble wands.

Playing general store with Scott

Checking out Avery's face when she pressed it into the pins

Avery's hands

Posing silly while we waited for a table at the Republic of Texas down by the riverwalk

1st Soccer Practice

These were the poses she gave me when I said I wanted a picture of her before her first practice. She is such a ham sometimes!

Avery went for her first soccer practice today. She has been wanting to try it out since last fall, so we signed her up for the spring season with an Upward Bound team at The Hills C of C. I thought she did pretty good for her first time ever. I don't see her being the star of the team or anything, but I think it will be a good experience for her to play a team sport and do something a little less girly for a change. Her team is mostly girls, but has a few boys on it and their jerseys are going to be orange, so they chose Tigers for their team name. The coach seemed like a nice guy and Avery even knew 2 of the girls from YCW (her school). After practice she said, "You know what that was?. . Awesome!" So hopefully it will continue being fun for her. We don't know when the first game will be, but I'm sure there will be more pics to come of her in action!

3rd Trimester

I am now 28 weeks pregnant and in my 3rd trimester. Some things are becoming a little more challenging to do now, and some nights I have trouble sleeping because of hip and back pain, but overall I am not too uncomfortable yet. I get such a kick (no pun intended) out of feeling this little guy move around inside me! I don't know whether he is strong, big, or a combination of both, but it is rare that he moves without me being able to visibly see my stomach move as well. And every night when I get in bed he likes to scoot over to whichever side I'm lying on and nestle down, which makes rolling over a bit challenging sometimes! Although I know this last part of pregnancy tends to drag on, it seems like it's going by fast right now with Spring Break, birthdays, and other things going on this month. It's hard to believe that after my next appointment, I'll start going to the doctor every 2 weeks. I'm really starting to look forward now to meeting and holding my sweet boy!