First day of Pre-school!

Averi had her very first day of (structured) pre-school on Thursday. I was anticipating tears but no such thing. She did so well. She walked right in and started playing with the blocks. She didn't really want me to go but she didn't cry. What a big girl :)

 "cheese!"

 My little girlie-girl playing with the cars and trucks.

When I picked her back up, her teacher said that she was actually pretty talkative and didn't seem too shy. Yay for Averi!

Visit from Uncle Matt

Dougs brother Matt was in town for work so we met up with him for dinner downtown. It was super fun to see him again and to catch up. We ate at the TGIFridays that is part of Chase field so we had a fabulous view of the gorgeous field. Averi was pretty silent the whole time of course and wouldn't talk to him. After we left, however, she kept talking about how she "saw Uncle Matt yesterday".

No this picture was not meant to look like a Chevy ad :)

 Kadence has been enjoying her hand-me-down excersaucer lately. I love watching her play with toys. My favorite, though, is when I see her in the rear-view mirror and all I can see is her two tiny hands reaching up for her toy frog hanging from the car-seat handle. Cute little bug!

 I have tried to feed her rice cereal and she is really interested (she tries to grab the spoon from me and shove it into her mouth herself). Her toungue still thrusts it right back out though so it justs ends up being a huge mess and she hardly gets eny down her throat. She enjoys it though, as you can see from the pic :)

 Averi had quite the fun day on Saturday. After coming with me to play volleyball at the church we went to my friend Shalise's house to fulfill my dog-sitting duties (just for the weekend while they are out of town). She loves coming with me because she has 3 tiny little dogs that are just her size! Then we went to a birthday party in Phoenix of her friend Soren's. It was at Jambo amusement park for kids. She had a blast with Ezra going from ride to ride. They rode on the flying elephants, the swings, the train, and surprisingly they had the attention span to play mini golf for quite a while too. They were feeling pretty independent since they were able to go on all the rides themself with only the help of the staff member. Since Ezra's parents weren't there, I think Ezra was feeling a little reserved at first. But Averi would grab hold of his hand and drag him to whichever ride they had their eye on at the time. They were getting on the train when I happened to see that Averi put Ezra's seat belt on, then her own. She is such a little mother... or maybe wife :) I am lame and forgot to take the camera but I did get this shot of her conked out on her bed right when we got home. Face down on her pillow at the foot of the bed. Wierdo.

Happy Birthday Averi!

So this post is a week late but c'mon...who has time to blog when the Olympics are on?! I love it!

Anyways, Averi's birthday party last weekend was so much fun. We kept it low key and just had a BBQ with friends at the pool. Most of Averi's friends were able to come (with their families) and they all had fun swimming and eating.

Averi enjoying her cake. I just got it from Costco but it was SOOO yummy!

 We decided since Averi already has so many toys that we were going to do a "no gifts" party and just accept donations on behalf of Los Ninos Childrens Hospital. Well, some people are just too nice and can't help but to bring a gift so Averi lucked out ;) She is a great gift-opener. She always gives a very satisfying response. Here she is giving her "I can't believe it. I have always wanted one of these!" face.

We were able to get quite a stash together to take to the hospital and the staff was really appreciative. Thank you to all of our friends that donated!

Kadence was a good girl during the party. And by "good girl" I mean she slept most of the time. Then she woke up and partied with us for a bit. Then here she is again konked out on the couch. Yep she is still a thumb sucker.  When I put her to bed every night, I rock her and feed her. Then when she is done eating, her thumb goes right in her mouth and she's out like a light! I love love love it!

 Sunday was her actual birthday so we had some more left-over cake and opened her presents from the family. My parents sent her this gorgeous painting of Christ. It is seriously so beautiful and precious. Averi will cherish it forever, I'm sure.

Cousin Kenley sent her some princess lip glosses which she dove right in to. She puts them on about 10 times a day. :) She also gave her a super fun sticker activity book and Strawberry Shortcake movie.

She also got an adorable dress from Nammy and Papa along with a super cute doll. She got books, squinkies, and a mini kids computer thing (we call it her iPad) from Doug and me. Grandma and Grandpa also gave her tons of fun bath toys. She never wants to gets out of the bath now...which is quite the contrast from her never wanting to get in!

Just the cutest picture of Kadence enjoying Averi's special day. :) She is so smiley, I love it. I always just wanna eat her up!

Some noteworthy facts about Averi:

She LOVEs to sing and dance. Sometimes she will be doing her own thing and will just start singing while she is playing or while sitting in the car. Lately she usually sings Twinkle Twinkle or I am a Child of God. She also will prance around the house at least once a day and just sing/dance and be crazy. She is pretty shy in general but at times she thoroughly enjoys it when all eyes are on her.

She speaks well but enjoys making up her own words and occasionally her own entire language. Example: (at the pool playing pretend)

Averi: Mommy I'm making you some juice!

Me: Oh yummy, what kind of juice?

Averi: It's Pete juice!

Another Example: (at home doing nothing in particular)

Averi: Mommy, I have a great idea!

Me: You do? What is it?

Averi: Cada sigh dee donna seedu beet!

It is so funny because it sounds like she should be making sense but she definately is not!

She says "crum" instead of "from".

Says "Kay-nence" instead of "Kadence". Sometimes I even find myself calling her that since I hear Averi saying it all day long.

Says "Duh-got" instead of "forgot".

If I ask her if she is something in particular (like a dog, a boy or just cute or something), she will say, "I not a doggie, I a good girl!"

Anything past-tense to her happened "yesterday". She will occasionally tell me that Kadence came out of my tummy yesterday.

Anything future tense will happen "next time". When she sees kids swimming at the pool across the street, she will say "Mommy, I wanna go swimming next time". It makes it pretty easy because I can always reply with "Okay! Let's go swimmming next time!"

Averi is a pretty picky eater. The only vegetable she will eat are tomatoes and occasionally cucumbers. Her favorite foods are tomatoes, applesauce (which she calls "ah-paws"), frozen go-gurts (which we call "yogurt-pops". I think it makes her like them more because she associates them with otter-pops), mac and cheese, chicken, and spaghetti.

Averi is a great big sis to Kadence and always likes to give her toys to play with and make her happy. She always gets excited when Kadence smiles at her. So fun. They will be great play mates pretty soon!