New nephew and cousin!

Yesterday Scot's sister gave birth (2 1/2 wks early) to a beautiful, healthy baby boy--Mason Michael Cabrero. He was born at 11:04 AM, weighed 6lbs 10 oz and was 19 1/2 in long. Mother and baby are doing pretty well, minus some feeding difficulties due to all the amniotic fluid in Mason's little tummy. Unfortunately they live in California, so we will not be able to see him for awhile, except via webcam. This is mine and Scott's 1st nephew and the girls' 1st boy cousin, so we are all excited about the newest addition to the Bedichek family. Also, I couldn't resist including a few pics of Avery and Kendall that I took this afternoon when we returned from "school":)

Easter

Well, I don't have much to post for Easter this year. My parents came over to Ft. Worth to go to church with us since Scott and I are in charge of Children's Worship this month. They actually decided to come in and watch us teach, which we were thankful for since we had 23 kids (3yrs to kindergarten) and we ended up taking them all into the auditorium to watch 2 baptisms. It was nice to have some extra hands and bodies to "herd" all our "little lambs"! We enjoyed a nice lunch at PF Chang's downtown at Sundance Square and then came back to the house so the girls could open their Easter gift from Mimi and Poppi. We didn't even do an egg hunt since Avery had one at school and then we are having a late Easter picnic and egg hunt with our class at church next Sunday. Since I don't have many pictures, I thought it might be fun to compare our family photo from this year with last years'. I like to think that Scott and I don't look much older, but Avery and Kendall sure have changed!

The Bedicheks

Easter 2009 The Bedicheks
Easter 2008Avery showing Kendall her kitty cat Webkinz from Mimi and Poppigoing for the chocolateKendall liked her puppy dog Webkinz

Disney on Ice and Baby on Foot

A week ago Sunday my parents and I took Avery to Disney on Ice. It was a pretty good show and it was especially fun seeing Avery's reactions to everything since she had never been to anything like that before. When the lights dimmed and the music started, her eyes got so big and she immediately started clapping. They did four stories: Lion King, Lilo and Stitch, The Little Mermaid, which was Avery's favorite, and Peter Pan, which came in a close second. She has been asking me to tell her the stories of Little Mermaid and Peter Pan constantly, and I think we pretended Peter Pan about 100 times last week. It was kind of fun about the first 5 times, and then I found myself suggesting all sorts of activities to avoid playing it again! But I still say the show was worth it to see Avery so excited. Makes me anxious to go to Disney World someday.

waiting for the show to begin

clapping at the start of the show

seeing Peter Pan and the others "fly" was pretty impressive

waving goodbye to Mickey and Minnie

My other little sidekick has been working really hard on walking the past week or so. She finally decided that she actually does want to walk around like the rest of us and can go probably 10-15 steps before falling. She still crawls when she wants to get somewhere quickly and does kind of a combination of crawling and walking when going to another room of the house, but I think we can officially call her a toddler now. Although her vocabulary is not very big yet, she is getting better at communicating with us. She can say about 10-15 words now and can do a bunch of animal sounds. She also signs "more", "please", "all done", and "eat", and she can answer"uh-huh" when we ask her a question. Every once in a while, these big words will pop out of her mouth and then we never hear them again. It's the weirdest thing! I might think I was just hearing things, but several of these words have been witnessed by others. At the allergist last week she pointed to Scott and said "dada", then to the Dr. and said "doctor". The doctor then said, "She just said doctor!" She has also said "elephant", "message", and "crocodile". I guess one of these days she'll develop better control of her "speech mechanism", as we speech pathologists call it, and then who knows what will come out of her mouth! It will be interesting to see! toddling around the living room

looks like some sweet dance moves, but she's actually just falling down

carrying "Freckles" the puppy around

Driving to Heaven

As we were pulling out of the church parking lot tonight, Avery made a funny comment that I wanted to share and remember:

A: "I think God is driving his car up to heaven."
Scott and I: (laughing) "You think so?" "That's cute Avery."
A: "I think God is laughing."
Scott and I: "Laughing? Why?"
A: "Because I said that."

Children have such great imaginations, yet are so literal at the same time! It is so interesting sometimes to get a window into how their little minds work.

To Avery on Your 3rd Birthday

From the moment you were born, I've always felt that you were an angel sent to me by God. When I tuck you in at night you often ask me to tell you a secret, and I usually say, "You are my angel and I love you so much!" I fell in love with you that first night at the hospital when you looked up at me and studied me so intently with your lips pursed in what we've always called "the whistle face", and my love has only grown from there! Knowing how special you are to me, it's sometimes hard to believe that God in heaven loves you even more! But I hope out of all the things I teach you, you learn that fact most of all. Over the past three years, your Daddy and I have so enjoyed watching you learn, especially since it is one of the things you do best. God has truly blessed you with the gift of intelligence and I hope you use it to do great things for Him. At three years old you have a huge vocabulary with words like "actually" and "definitely" and can carry on a great conversation complete with very animated gestures and facial expressions. Sometimes you talk just to hear yourself talk I think! You are so good at talking, however, that sometimes you get yourself in trouble arguing. But we are working on that! You can recognize just about all the letters of the alphabet and even know the sounds that many of them make. You can recognize most numbers 1-10 and can count up to 10 items. You know all your shapes and colors, can pick out rhyming words, spell your name out loud, and have begun trying to write some of the letters in your name. You learn new things so quickly--I tell you once or twice and you've got it down! Books are still one of your favorite things and you really look forward to our trips to the library. You enjoy reading to your stuffed animal friends at rest time, reading books to yourself in the mirror (ha!), and we often spend time reading together while Kendall is napping. Other things you really like doing are coloring, painting, and writing notes, playing dress-up and pretend games, playing doctor, laughing at your sister, watching all kinds of cartoons and movies (although we try to limit it to an hour a day), playing in the backyard, riding your scooter and tricycle, going to school, playing on the playscape with your friends after school, going to Bible class, shopping, taking bubble baths, and eating at Chick-Fil-A. You also like to sing songs a lot and you have started trying to sing in church lately. Some of your favorite songs right now are the theme song from "Land of the Lost", "Home on the Range", songs from music class that you'll be preforming in the Spring Show, and as always, "Jesus Loves Me." Even though you and I were both heartbroken that you were no longer my baby when Kendall was born, it really helped you grow and blossom into the little girl you are today. I am so proud of all the things you can do by yourself and of all the ways you like to help me. Kendall's birth and presence in the house also helped you and Daddy to develop a very close, special relationship over the past year or so. You really look forward to him coming home every day and to the weekends we he gets to stay home and play with you. Some of the things you and Daddy enjoy doing together are playing chase and "wrestling" or "tackling", running errands together, watching Star Wars, playing doctor, and you also like picking out Daddy's clothes for him when he gets home from work. I love watching you give Daddy his eskimo, butterfly, and "real" kisses before I put you to bed at night. You have such a tender heart and a sweet spirit that draws others to you. You are always hugging and patting your friends at school and you are very affectionate with Kendall, Daddy, and me. You have made our lives so rich and full of joy Avery. We love you and thank God every day that he gave us such an amazing and precious gift--you are truly one of His angels!

wearing your birthday crown from school at breakfast

loving on your sister

having some ice cream after playing and shopping at the mall today

sporting your new flip flops and sunglasses while "mushing the bag" of Memaw's friendship bread starter

Avery's 3rd Birthday!

We celebrated Avery's 3rd birthday on Saturday with a "Hello Kitty" party. We originally planned on having the party at Bear Creek Park in Keller, but we ended up having it here at the house since cold temperatures were forecasted (it didn't make it out of the 40's!). Both sets of grandparents, two of her aunts, and her three cousins were able to come and celebrate with us. For lunch we had some party trays from Chick-Fil-A (Avery's favorite!), which were a hit w/ kids and adults alike, chips and dip and a huge bowl of strawberries (also an Avery favorite) w/ fruit dip. Avery chose to open presents next. She got some Dsney princess books, Melissa and Doug lacing beads, a Dora doll with 5 different mini Dora adventure books and matching outfits and accessories, some activity books, a Beauty and the Beast play set, a Putt-Putt golf set, 2 Tag books, a game, and a bucket full of Chuck E. Cheese tokens along with a "coupon" for a trip to Chuck E. Cheese and a sleepover with her cousins. She really loves everything and she made us proud by doing a good job thanking everyone at the party for her gifts. The best reaction by far though was when I read her the coupon for the trip to Chuck E. Cheese and the sleepover--her eyes got so big and her mouth dropped wide open. It was really cute. After presents we had cake and ice cream. The same lady who made Kendall's 1st birthday cake made a cake in the shape of "Hello Kitty" for Avery. It was so cute and was very delicious. Avery blew out her candle before we even finished singing "Happy Birthday" and then started to try to poke her fingers in the cake and even tried to bite it before I had cut it!!! I guess she was thinking that we were expecting her to dig in like Kendall did at her party. It was priceless! Once I explained to her that only 1 yr. olds are supposed to smash their cake and eat it with their hands, she decided to wait for me to cut her a piece and get her a fork. Avery finished off the party by playing with Kendall and her cousins and her new presents-- especially the Putt-Putt set that her cousins helped her put together. She had a wonderful 3rd birthday party! Now it's off to school tomorrow for sharing "Little Mermaid" cupcakes with her friends!

the party set-up

Avery and Mimi

Avery and aunt Amy

family photo

Avery and Memaw

opening her Princess books and lacing beads from Mommy, Daddy and Kendall

reading the Chuck E. Cheese and sleepover coupon

hugging Dora, who now goes everywhere with us

playing Dora vet with cousin Brooklyn

checking out her "Hello Kitty" cake

"Good stuff Mom!"

playing putt-putt with cousins Bailey and Braden

Birthday Beauties

At the end of February, my friend Kerri who owns Freckle Face Photography was in the DFW area, so I had her meet me at Grapevine Springs Park in Coppell to take some pictures of the girls. I was most interested in getting some one year portraits of Kendall, but I figured we might as well do some of Avery too even though she was a month shy of being 3. Of course I'm biased, but I think the pictures turned out great and Kerri did a wonderful job making my girls look beautiful! You can check out her website at www.frecklefacephotography.smugmug.com. Here are a few of my favorites!

San Antonio

Last weekend we took a little trip to San Antonio, along with every other Texan judging by the traffic on I35 in Austin. Seriously, this was early afternoon on a Saturday and it was stop and go traffic from the north side of Austin all the way through town with no major construction or accidents visible-- ugh! My parents and I had originally planned the trip as something for the girls and I and them to do while Scott was in Mexico "shucking teeth" on the Edmond C of C Spring Break mission trip. The mission trip was canceled due to all the recent murders at the border, so Scott actually got to come along. I was disappointed for him about the mission trip, but it was much more fun having him along:) We arrived in time for afternoon naps and then headed out to a great restaurant at The Quarry called Canyon Cafe. Their chips and salsa were so yummy we had to bring some home with us! That evening my Mom put Kendall to bed and Scott, Avery, my Dad and I all headed to the pool. Avery was so excited about her first swim since last summer. She was so brave and went under past her eyes and she had a lot of fun jumping off the side (last summer she couldn't really jump yet and just sorta lunged). Sunday we hung around the hotel in the morning so Avery could swim again and Kendall could take her AM nap, then we headed to lunch and to the Children's Museum downtown. Since we just went to Sea World 1 1/2 yrs ago and Fiesta Texas would be too tough with a almost 3 yr old and a baby, we opted to try out some different activities. The Children's Museum was really neat with SO many exhibits and things to see and do. The kids pooped out before we even got through it all. After naps back at the hotel and a failed attempt at going to a Hibachi grill (they only had one Hibachi chef working and two tables of people already waiting), we ended up at Saltgrass for Scott's birthday dinner. Avery and Kendall really liked singing "Happy Birthday" to Scott after they brought his cheesecake out, and Avery got to have her very own chocolate sundae. Back at the hotel, Scott and Avery squeezed in one more swim before collapsing into bed. Monday morning we headed back home with a stop in San Marcos at Aquarena Springs. We took a glass-bottom boat ride and went to the little aquarium. It was pretty neat, but I wish we could've seen one of the old underwater shows they used to have there with "mermaids" and swimming pigs! Even though we didn't do just a whole lot on our trip, we had some good family time and enjoyed getting away!

catching some air on her way in

she was Daddy's buddy since he took her swimming so many times

learning about milking a cow at the Children's Museum

pretending to ride a trolley like the ones that run downtown

driving a front-loader and moving some rock

playing with some super strong magnets

Avery filled up her shopping cart at the HEB market- it was so realistic!

Dinner at Canyon Cafe--delicious!

waiting for our table at Saltgrass

singing "5 Little Monkeys" and jumping on the hotel bed

some pretty cute luggage!

glass bottom boat ride at Aquarena Springs