Avery is TWO!!

Happy Birthday to our Ave babe!! Saturday was her birthday and it was a very busy, fun-filled day.

Fun at the Kiddie Park

Her favorite rides were the ones with horses. I think the big horse outside our back door has had some sort of influence on that.

Lunch at Wienerschnitzel

Both girls must have been starving b/c normally they would have ripped the breading right off of their corn dog

Birthday Shopping

       Avery got some money from her Great Grandpa and a gift card from her Aunt and Uncle so we went and let her spend it.

Then it was off to get ice cream!! And after all of that she (and everyone else) was exhausted!

Once we got home and she saw the package waiting at the front door she was wide awake for the rest of the night though.

We played with all of her new toys until we woke Daddy so we could head for dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

Buddy & Kim - this is what Avery picked out with the gift card - it's a FurReal Friends Furry Frenzies....really cute and lots of fun. They BOTH love it!!

They both fell asleep on the way home from dinner. It really was an exhausting day. We didn't even have time for the cake and opening presents from Mom and Dad so that was all done yesterday (Sunday).

cheezin' it up w/ her caterpillar cupcake cake

Avery's Favorite Things:
Brushing her teeth
Playing with her sister
Her blanky
Climbing onto anything and everything
Saying "What?" and "No"
White cheddar popcorn
Hot dogs
fruit (even though it makes her bottom really sore)
Running really fast

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Avery is still napping every day for 1 or 2 hours. She used to be really good and not fight me about it, but she definitely fights me just about every time anymore.

She is just now starting to talk a little bit more. I think she's probably way behind in her communication. I'll definitely be working with her more when Allie starts school (gasp!) next week.

She's very active, but also very clumsy. She falls at least 2-3 times a day just while she's walking.

She's extremely ornery and stubborn. She definitely challenges us, but I think that's a good thing.

She's the complete opposite of her sister, but they get along so great.

We're starting to learn that she loves the water! She doesn't mind going under and is not afraid of anything.

That's about it for now..........Happy Birthday Bug!!

Mehson

Meh-son (medicine) is one of Avery's new favorite words. When we tell her it's time for her medicine she shouts mehson over and over and runs as fast as she can to the kitchen to get it. Who knew a kid could love medicine so much?! Although, as I'm typing this I feel like I've said something like this before. I don't know if it was about Allie or Avery or if I'm just dreaming that I've said it. At any rate, Avery's been taking this medicine for some fungus under her toenail. Well, we weren't sure if that's really what it was or not because her toenails have been growing kind of weird since birth.....but we're pretty sure that is what it was because it seems to be clearing up.

The doctors are pretty sure she's going to have psoriasis like I have (I developed it about 9 months after I had Allie). She already has indentions in her fingernails like me. She has a dry scalp too. I feel so bad for her if she's going to have to live with it all of her life.

The doctors also suspect she may be anemic so we had to go get some blood work done yesterday. The lab tech put the rubber band around her arm to feel where her veins were and Avery started crying. Allie had this done about a year ago so she knew what was going to happen and she covered her eyes and said, "She's going to cry just like I did." The lab tech was really good. He told Avery that she was strong and told her exactly what he was going to do and what it was going to feel like. He even gave her a little pinch with his fingers before he stuck the needle in. When he went to stick the needle in Avery just watched and then looked away until he was done. No crying!! We were all amazed. What a trooper!

She goes back for her two year check up/toenail check up in a couple weeks so we'll see what the results are then.

showing off her "pook" bandaid

Little Book Worm

We have the smartest little girl ever! The other day I walked in the room to hear Allie reading a book to Avery. I peeked over her shoulder and she was reading it almost word for word! Where in the world did she learn this? I know it has to be just from memorization. I hate to admit it, but we don't read to our kids all that often anymore. We need to get in the habit of doing it again.......and going over the alphabet and numbers. Allie really is so smart. Her little brain is like a sponge right now. She just absorbs everything and doesn't forget it. That's why it's so important for us to really start teaching her everything now. Avery is a smart cookie too. She picks up a lot from her sister and I have noticed her talking more and more and we're able to understand what she's trying to say. Kids are just awesome!

Anyway, I recorded Allie reading a book the other day. I tried to get up by the words, but the sun was glaring right onto the pages so it's hard to see.

Weekend Review

Last weekend I got a facebook message from an old friend of ours from Scott AFB, Illinois. They were in the area while her husband was doing some training out at Randolph AFB. We tried to get together during the week but it just never worked out so we had them over for dinner Friday night. It was so great to catch up on things from the last 4 years!

Thursday was their daughter's birthday so they brought cupcakes, hence the messy faces

Saturday evening we went downtown to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium and Wax Museum. It was pretty neat, but probably one of those once is enough things.

The Alamo was right across the street - we didn't visit it this time, but it's on our "to-do" list

this elephant's bones were found in Ohio!

Sleeping Beauty

Look-alike Meter

I've been wanting to do this for awhile now. I, personally, think both of our girls look like me. When Allie was born everyone said she looked just like me, but now most people say she looks like her Daddy. The opposite goes for Avery. When she was born, she looked like her Daddy and now most people say she looks like me.

I used the look-alike meter from heritage.com to see what our results would be. The pictures I used of Derek and I with the girls are when we are at the same age as the girls are now. I was surprised with the results! I changed Avery's picture 3 times to try and get the results changed...only to find the percentage of her looking like her Dad go from 3% to 4% to 42%!

Projects Around the House

The girls room

Before:

After:

The Back Yard

{still a work in progress}

Before:

After:

Computer/Office Desk

Before:

this desk was free, very heavy duty

this is what happens if you're not careful when moving it! oops. We've since fixed it, but it still needs repainted

After:

not the best picture, but we really love how it turned out. The top is black, the handles gold. Perfect for our Purdue themed office!

A LOT MORE TO COME!!

Can I Have A Dog?

The other day Allie asked me if she could have a dog. I said no, because if you had a dog you'd have to deal with this:

Potty training isn't easy! Especially with a stubborn, ornery little one. I think she was going to get a diaper, so we commended her for that........now just to get her to understand that she needs to go on the toilet.

(Avery is sitting on my lap as I type this. She saw the picture and said, "Poop, ewww!" as I'm sure anyone reading this will say.) It is Avery's favorite word though, so it's fitting.

Sea World.....Again

We've got to get as much use of our passes as we can....in a few weeks it's only going to be open on the weekends. We spent 4 hours there today! It actually went by really fast. We got to see a lot more of the park this time.

 The girls and I rode one of the kiddie rides.

yes, this was the first thing we did....look how hot she is already!

Then we went on to see the sea lions

After that it was definitely time to hit up the water park!

Lil Gator Pool

I later convinced them to try something else in the water park. We went to the lazy river. It's probably one of the best lazy rivers I've ever been on! It was more of a workout for me though...carrying Avery and trying to keep up with Allie. After 3 laps my legs felt like jello!

We managed to get in 2 shows this visit.

The Cannery Row Caper

Cool Vibrations

One last stop to see the flamingos

Don't let this fool you........this was at the beginning of the day. By the end, Avery was SO ready to be out of there. She fell asleep before I even left the parking lot!

Mony and Papa's Visit

We were so sad to see Mony and Papa leave for home today. It was so great to see them and show them a little bit of San Antonio. We're going to miss them a lot.....and look forward to seeing them again 2 months when we head back to Indiana. The ride to the airport this morning was a quiet ride. When we pulled up we all got out to give our hugs. I know that Avery had no idea that Mony and Papa were leaving. I do believe that Allie knew and she was being so strong. I could tell that there were moments where she was trying so hard not to cry (as was I). Once Mony and Papa went through the doors into the airport we put the girls back in the van. Right away Avery starts crying for Mama (that's what she calls my Mom). That was Allie's breaking point........she said, "Avery want's Mony and Papa to come back." Then she just let all of her tears out. That, in turn, lead to my breaking point. After that we ran some errands and Avery started crying for her Papa. I'm sure we'll hear that a lot over the next few days. Love you Mom and Dad! So glad you were able to come and visit and can't wait for the next one!

While I'm thinking about it I have to share a cute story from dinner last night. We went out to eat and my Dad and Derek were throwing their money back and forth at each other because they both wanted to pay. My Dad starts handing the money to me, Avery and Allie. We all gave it back, but Allie's response was super cute. I don't remember the exact words but she said something like - We don't need that Papa we already have a bunch of it! - it was soo funny!

And I can't believe I didn't mention Allie's arm coming out of socket again. I don't even remember what night it was now. Her and Derek were just playing and she took off while Derek still had her hand and it popped out. She was in a lot of pain. It took forever for us to get approval to take her to Urgent Care. We hate going to the ER because the waits are always so long. We finally get to urgent care and the paper work is almost completely filled out and it pops back in! We were all relieved and we just left. Anyway, I just wanted to get that down for our record.

The Slippery Road

Schlitterbahn - in German this means slippery road. Derek, however, would translate it as "toilet flush." We were at the park for 7 hours and we rode THREE rides!  Total waste of money and time. Don't get me wrong though, the rides were a lot of fun....but come on........3 rides in 7 hours and $40 a ticket (that's at a discounted price). The three rides we rode were, Master Blaster, Black Knight, and Cliffhanger/Tunnel Chute. Master Blaster is rated the #1 waterpark ride in America - it was AWESOME! According to the Travel Channel, Schlitterbahn itself is rated the #1 waterpark in America. (at least the last time I watched it anyway).  Allie rode the Cliffhanger ride with us. We didn't realize how long the line was - it ended up being a 2 hour wait for that, right in the hottest part of the day too. She was such a trooper. I felt so bad though. She was so hot she was sweating. You don't see many kids sweat when they aren't doing anything! Then when we got on the ride I thought she was going to freak out. The whole ride was basically a river ride with big drop offs every 10 ft or so. Allie had to be in her own tube (luckily hers had a bottom to it). Derek held on to her tube...I went first and it kind of freaked me out a bit. I looked back at Derek and Allie coming down and it looked like Allie was crying, but then I got a closer look and she was laughing! Too bad we don't have a waterproof digital camera - we don't have any pics of the rides.
We did, however, get a few pictures of the girls swimming around in the kiddie pools. They had so much fun! My Mom said Allie never stopped. She just ran from one slide to the next. Once Avery got warmed up (about 5 hours in) then she couldn't be stopped either!