Family Weekend!

Last weekend was a big family weekend with Ted's family.  They came from near and far, we ate and played and built a fort and went to a pumpkin patch, fed goats, took lots of pictures.  The kids bonded and had lots of fun together.  4 cousins ages 3, and the rest 16 months and under makes for lots of chasing, diaper changing, feeding, cleaning, and of course lots of cute pictures!  It will be a while before we all get together again, gotta cherish these times together, love all the little babies!  Great memories!

 Aunt Tikki Bird and Tanner came and spent the week with us, so we had lots of time to play!

 Natalie and Tanner had the best time together!

A little trip to our favorite park!

 Watermelon night!

 Grandpa and a couple of the little ones!

 Our little nephew Cooper, 6 months!

 A trip to the Pumpkin patch.. feeding the goats!

Love this picture of Dan and Tanner covered in goats!

 Avery LOVED her pony ride!

 Dan, Tisha, and Tanner at the pumpkin patch

 Our silly family

Grandpa, Nana and the kiddos

 The kids in their matching Halloween outfits from Aunt Jennifer

 Avery did so good holding little Cooper

 The kids

 Avery taking Tanner for a little spin in her jeep

 Natalie and Tanner enjoying the new swing set!

The proud guys in front of the new swing set/fort... the girls love it!

 All of us with our kiddos

Sam, Tisha, and Ted and their babies. 



Baby Shower with Friends!

Last weekend, we hosted a baby shower for 2 special couples that will be welcoming new babies very soon!  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends!!!

 The cute pregnant girls

 So thankful for each of these girls... Love them!!

The guys... did they ever come inside?

Cherish the little moments

It seems like it is getting harder and harder to take pictures of the girls.... life has just been busy busy since we have moved into our new home.  We really worked our tails off the first few weeks, trying to get boxes unpacked and rooms organized and decorated.  But now that we have been here for about 6 weeks, we are really starting to enjoy the space.  We still have a few things to do, but we are getting to play out in the yard and just feel like we are at home now.  We really love it. 
The girls just seem to be growing up so fast.  I just took them for their 15 month and 3 year old check-ups.  Both are healthy and meeting or exceeding developmental milestones.  They are really thriving at their "school." 
Avery is 32lbs and in the 65th percentile (this is the first time she has ever been above the 25-50th percentile)!  She wears size 3-4T clothes and size 9 shoes.  She is so smart and very sweet.  She continues to love books, she has several memorized word for word, she loves singing and dancing and performing, she LOVES dress-up, she enjoys playing outside, adores DORA, she wants to take showers now, she loves prayer time, she loves church and looks forward to going every week... we just love her to pieces!
Natalie is 26lbs and in the 85th percentile... she wears size 18 month clothes and size 5 shoes.  She just seems to be growing up so much faster than Avery did.  She thinks she should be able to do everything that her big Sister does.  She will only drink strawberry flavored milk, she knows lots of words, knows what noises several animals make, can point to most of her body parts, knows some baby sign language, loves climbing and scaring Mommy and Daddy.  She loves playing outside, riding the jeep with Avery, reading books, picking flowers, singing, bath time... She is such a little blessing!

 Hunting birds with Daddy

 Our little princess... ALWAYS dressing up!

 Flowers!  We just love our back yard!

 Natalie loves Cooper... not sure if he feels the same way about her right now haha

Fun times on the jeep! 

These days, when life is fast and furious with these 2, we just have to stop and cherish the little moments.  It is sometimes exhausting going to work every day and taking care of 2 under the age of 3... but I know that these days are just going to fly by, and we will one day wish we could go back to these days when we played out in the back yard and our only worry was if Avery was going to run over her little Sister's foot or if Natalie was going to fall off the rock wall, or who had the ball first....  These are little moments we should be grateful for.  We have 2 healthy beautiful girls who adore us and eachother... God is good.

My girls

Love my sweet girls...

 

Such a privelege to be a Mom, such a blessing to be THEIR Mom. 

Friends for life

We are so blessed to have such great friends.  Our friends celebrate with each other, support each other in tough times, and most of all just love each other.  Our friends are like family.  There are friends that can be away from each other for a year or so, and then pick right up as if we were never apart.  Our friends are like that.  I thank God for them every day. 

 The 3 of us have been friends for 14 years... Love these girls

 Some things never change...

 Our gang helped us "stock our bar" at our new house.  Love all these girls.

 The guys... doing their thing

 The two cute prego girls... toasting their water.

 These 3 just get better with age...

Our kids (the morning after).  5 under the age of 5.  So priceless!!!  

Avery's 3rd Birthday!

In the midst of all the craziness with us moving into our new house, Avery turned 3 on Sunday!  We celebrated her birthday with a Dora party at a gymnastics place (just as she requested!) with lots of family and friends.  She had an absolute blast!!!!  We cannot believe we already have a 3 year old.  She is turning into just the sweetest, smartest, most fun little girl.  What a blessing she has been these 3 years!  We look forward to many many more birthdays...

 Avery at 5lbs 12oz, 1 month early

 1 year

 2 years

 3 years... our pretty little girl

 Party time!

 The kids had such a great time!

 Happy Birthday Avery!!

 This girl had the best time at her party!

 On Sunday, NaNa and PaPa suprised Avery with her jeep!

 Taking it for a little spin after church

Taking Sissy for a little ride, so much fun!!!

Can you imagine all the trouble these girls are going to get into in 13 years when this is a real jeep?!?!?  haha...