Avi Grace Anthony

New Blog Address

2010-08-07T14:34:00.002-05:00

Since this blog address only had Avi Grace's name on it, I have moved our blog to: www.theanthonygirls.blogspot.com . I love the new look of the blogger templates. Lots of fun!

Two Week Update

2010-08-04T20:35:00.006-05:00

I took Sally Sharp for her two week checkup yesterday. She is growing very nicely! Her stats are:

8 pounds, 13.6 ounces, 90th percentile (8 pounds 1.8 ounces at birth)

20 and 1/4 inches, 75th percentile (19 inches at birth)

Head circumference 35 cm, 50th percentile

Family

2010-08-01T17:38:00.010-05:00

We've had lots of company over the past week and a half. Here are some snapshots of our family members with Sally Sharp. There are a few missing that are not on my camera, and I'll post those as soon as I get them from other people.

Nana

Aunt Joan

Uncle Cory

Aunt Susan

Shug

Granddaddy

Mimi

Papa

Cousin John Michael, Aunt Sheri, Cousin Madison

Cousin John Michael

Cousin Madison

Uncle Joel

Aunt Abbi

What's in a name?

2010-07-27T17:21:00.008-05:00

I wrote in a previous post that I was intrigued by everyone's desire to know what we were naming this precious little girl and their willingness to offer suggestions. Drew and I truly did not make a final decision on her name until the night before we went to the hospital. In fact, Drew was still questioning me the morning of her delivery to make sure I wanted to stick with what we had picked. I have to admit it wasn't his first choice, but it was always mine. To me, family names and names that have a meaning behind them are very special. And, that is exactly what the name Sally Sharp is for me. My mom and Grandmother's (mom's mom) first names are Sally (my Grandmother goes by Sally and my mom's name is Sally Elizabeth, and she goes by Betty). Sharp also comes from my mom's side of the family. My great, great Grandfather was John Sharp Williams. He served as a United States Senator and maintained residence at his family home, Cedar Grove Plantation, outside Yazoo City. I have always been fascinated by him, and obviously, I love his name. He had a daughter named Mary Sharp and a daughter named Sallie as well (I chose to go with the spelling of my Mom and Grandmother). My Grandmother says she remembers calling Mary Sharp, "Aunt Sharp," as she was growing up. I thought that was interesting, and thus the name Sally Sharp was created in my mind. I've had many people ask me where her name came from and if it was family, so here is the explanation of how we came up with sweet Sally Sharp. I love it more now than I did before I named her, and I think it fits her perfectly:). Oh, and for now, we are going with the double name--Sally Sharp. I'm thinking it might stick this time (we started out with Avi Grace, but Drew and I mainly call her Avi now).

And this is the only picture I have been able to capture of proud big sister and her baby sister. For some reason Avi does not want us to take any pictures of her. She keeps saying, "No pictures today." I'm not sure how I managed to snap this one, and I didn't even realize I had it until I was going back through pictures yesterday! Hopefully she'll warm up to the idea. She is still loving "the baby" as she calls her most of the time, and she wants to kiss and hug her all the time. It's very sweet, and Sally Sharp is one lucky little girl to have such a sweet big sister.

Sally Sharp Anthony

2010-07-25T10:18:00.005-05:00

Sally Sharp Anthony was born Wednesday, July 21 at 7:53 a.m. She was 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long. She looks SO much like Avi did when she was born. We've determined Avi had a bigger nose at birth, but their faces look very similar! Speaking of big sister, she is adjusting very well so far. She LOVES her baby sister (I was a bit worried in the hospital; her first reaction was more of ignoring the baby). She gives her lots of hugs and kisses, and she is copying everything I do with baby sister...and I mean everything. It's quite funny. Overall, we are doing great. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. We're glad to be home and adjusting to our new life! I'll post more pictures soon...just wanted to get a few up to show her off!

Five years ago today...

2010-07-19T16:04:00.004-05:00

Five years ago today our sweet Austin was born. It is extremely hard to believe he would be 5 years old today. What would his personality be like? What would he look like? Interesting questions to ponder, but we just have to continually remind ourselves to be thankful for the time we had with him. We are also over the moon thankful for our adorable Avi Grace that God blessed us with and another baby girl that God will bless us with on Wednesday! We miss his sweet smile!

But WHY, mommy?

2010-07-12T14:22:00.004-05:00

I found myself cracking up at Avi several times yesterday, so I thought I would share with you some of the things she said that made me laugh.

1. I told her it was time to get dressed for church. She said, "Am I going to wear a dress?" I said yes. She said, "Oh, I LOVE dresses, mommy!"

2. Her new thing in the past few days has been to ask WHY about EVERYTHING. Yesterday she asked me why several times in a row (and it is usually, But why, mommy?), so I asked her if she had to ask why about everything. Her response: "But, why not, mommy?!"

3. As she was eating dinner last night, I gave her some applesauce and a regular spoon. She said, "This is not my spoon. I want a colored spoon with some color on it!" Really? A colored spoon with color? So, I went and got her a plastic spoon that was colored, and she said, "Is it pink, mommy? I LOVE pink." She's not opinionated or girly!

4. Again, as she was eating dinner, all of a sudden she busted out with, "Does everybody have a daddy?" Interesting question. The easy answer...yes, sweetie, everyone has a daddy. I tried to go on to explain to her that her Papa is my daddy and her granddaddy is her daddy's daddy. Not sure that really went over well! Probably just confused her more.

5. Lastly, I took Avi to the dentist about a week ago for the first time. I didn't expect her to love it or anything, but she really acted like a baby while we were there. She wouldn't lie in the chair and she whined and cried the whole time we were with the dentist. Not fun. When we finished there, I told her I was pretty unhappy with the way she acted while we were there. I guess that was the first time I had used those words with her, because now at least 2 or 3 times a day she asks me, "Mommy, are you happy?" Wow. Maybe telling her I was unhappy was a bad choice of words? I don't want her to be worried about whether I'm happy or not! I am reassuring her we are happy, but she keeps asking!

My reaction: WHOA

2010-07-07T16:09:00.003-05:00

Soooo, this is what Avi looked like one day last week when Drew brought her home from school! All I could say was, "WHOA!" The pictures really don't even do it justice...she was absolutely dirty from head to toe. Right before Drew got there to pick up Avi, her teacher said she fell on the playground and got mulch ALL in her hair. The entire part of her hair was jam packed with mulch. The only thing I could think was how in the world am I going to get that mulch out of her hair?! Just washing it didn't do the trick. I had to run her hair under the faucet in the tub for several minutes to work all the mulch out! The bathtub was FULL of mulch, which she thought was hysterical until later that night when she saw how dirty the tub was. She asked her Nana to clean it out it was so dirty!

Obviously Avi thought being so dirty was funny! Oh, and of course she was wearing her "extra" clothes when Drew picked her up. It must have been one of those days!

Her flip flops were permanently embroidered on her feet!

Happy 4th!

2010-07-05T16:59:00.006-05:00

We had a fun, family-filled weekend celebrating Independence Day this year! On Saturday, we spent the day with my family. Both of my sisters were here with their husbands/families. We spent the day playing games and we ended the day with a great supper my mom and dad cooked. On Sunday, we stayed around our house until mid afternoon, and then we went over to Susan and John's house (Drew's aunt and uncle) in Browning Creek to spend time with his family. We enjoyed another great supper and the fun fireworks. Avi was mesmerized by the fireworks this year (she was scared of them last year). All in all, we had a fun weekend. Time to get back into the routine tomorrow. Only 2 weeks left until new baby Anthony arrives!

Avi hugged Abbi before they left, and I was grateful to get a good snapshot of them together.

Avi is very into "watching and helping" anyone cook these days. She loves to stand in a chair next to me and help me stir. Lots of fun.

She was so proud of her "little ponytail" I put in her hair yesterday. Usually I just put a barrette or a bow in, but her hair is thicker now, and the little ponytail seems to help the bow stay in better. She loves it.

More fake smiles! They're growing on me, though! I tell ya, she really is a sweet child, and she brings us so much joy. Oh and, that gap between her front teeth is awesome! I love it.

Boppy Popcorn

2010-06-28T15:40:00.005-05:00

I feel like I have so many things I want to blog about, but I can't seem to get them organized in my head to blog about any of them! I guess that's what happens when you are 36 weeks pregnant! Yes, you read right, I am 36 weeks, and I will be having this baby girl in 3 weeks. I talked with my doctor last week, and we are planning to have a scheduled C-section on Wednesday, July 21st unless she decides to come sooner on her own (unlikely, I'm sure, just because I'm smoldering in this heat!). Anyway, we still don't have a name nailed down. It's kind of a non-issue around our house it seems; Drew and I just don't really talk about it. However, I find it interesting how important it is to other people! It doesn't bother me, it's just funny! I keep assuring everyone we will have a name by the time we go to the hospital! On the other hand, Avi decided a little while back that the baby's name should be Boppy Popcorn. Quite a lovely name, huh? Boppy is what she calls her blanket, and I can't remember why she chose popcorn to go with it, but she does love popcorn! We've thrown it into the mix of names, but I don't think it's really in the running. What do you think? My dad and my nephew got out my dad's high school year books and started looking up names. They definitely came up with some interesting ones! My "favorite" was Jeffie Jane...yes, he had a girl who went to his school who was named that (sorry, not trying to offend anyone!). So, the name game has been fun, but it will soon end, and we will move on to bringing this nameless child into the world, which brings me to my next update...

I've told my husband for a while that I wouldn't have another child in the house we live in now (it's only 1250 square feet), and I also didn't want to be pregnant/taking care of a new baby while building a house. Well, guess what? I'm doing both of those things I swore I wouldn't do. I'm so glad God has a sense of humor! So, we are set to start the foundation on our new house any day now. The dirt work has been finished for a few weeks now, and we are just waiting on the builder start the foundation. So, needless to say, we have a lot going on around here. I'm excited, anxious and nervous about both endeavors. It is going to be an interesting next 6 to 8 months!

I couldn't post an update without a few pics of Avi. She's having a great summer. I can't believe she will be 3 in September. She's lots of fun, and I'm amazed at how girly she is...she loves playing with her baby dolls, she wants to wear a dress to school everyday ("I wanna wear a big dress mama!"), and she loves to put on lipstick to "make me even prettier." Not sure where the lipstick thing came from at all...I hardly ever even put it on myself! She's a sweetheart.

Avi loves to play in the sink, "doing her dishes." Oh, please lord, let her keep that desire as she grows older! Ha!

Avi loves to make a pallet on the floor. On this particular day, she unrolled her school nap mat and wanted me to take a picture of her with her baby dolls, Penny (left) and Amy (right), hence the fake smile!

The Beach

2010-06-07T12:10:00.006-05:00

Avi and I went to the beach last week with my mom, my sister, Sheri, and her two kids, John Michael and Madison. We missed having my other sister, Abbi, there. Unfortunately she is teaching a class right now and couldn't get away to join us. We tried out a new venue this year--the Beach Club near Fort Morgan, AL. It was very nice, and I think we will go again. The first two days we were there, it rained in the morning. In the above pic, Avi was looking outside checking out the rain...wishing it would quit, especially since we had already put on our sunscreen and were ready to head to the beach!

SO, while it was raining, Avi and Madison decided to make funny faces at me!

And we finally got to go to the beach!! Avi loved the sand, and thankfully we had a week of fairly mild temperatures with nice breezes. The oil clumps started coming ashore late Friday afternoon, and we left Saturday morning, so we were very lucky to enjoy a clean beach while we were there. The rest of the pictures are of our "photo" session on the beach. Since Abbi wasn't with us this year, I had to play photographer. Not sure I got anything great, but some of them are pretty good. I love beach pictures!

Pony Pigtails

2010-05-21T14:52:00.002-05:00

(FYI, I've posted several entries today.)

After mastering the ponytail, we moved on to "pony pigtails" as Avi likes to call it. Yesterday, I fixed her hair in pigtails for school, and when I picked her up from my mom's yesterday, she still had them in! I was shocked. She was SO proud of them. They were really cute, too.

She had to show off the back of her pony pigtails.

Loving her daddy :)

A ponytail & an afternoon on campus

2010-05-21T14:33:00.002-05:00

Avi's loved her first ponytail...although you wouldn't be able to tell by the picture! As I mentioned in the previous post, she has a habit of not wanting to smile for the camera. She's not unhappy; she just wouldn't give me a smile. All afternoon, she kept feeling her ponytail to make sure it was there! Doesn't she look like such a little girl with her hair pulled back?

A couple of weeks ago, we enjoyed a beautiful spring afternoon on the drill field at MSU. Avi thoroughly enjoyed playing in the water fountain. She got the entire front of her dress wet! She wasn't bothered by it, though. She also colored with some sidewalk chalk, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of that.

She made Drew climb all the stairs in front of Swalm with her. The girl loves to climb stairs.

Had to throw this one in. Last summer, Avi's cousin, AnnaClaire, passed a cool Barbie Jeep down to her, and I finally bought a replacement battery for it last week. She loved riding in it last summer (even though she couldn't steer it; we just got her going in a circle and she loved it!). However, this summer she just wants to sit in it and pretend to drive. Why did I spend money on a battery if she doesn't want to ride in it, I don't know! Hopefully as the summer goes on, she will get used to it again and actually "drive" it! Looks like Drew is enjoying it more than Avi! I think he was trying to coax her into driving it.

The fake smile

2010-05-21T14:20:00.002-05:00

It's official. I think we have entered the fake smile era, if she will give one at all! Lately when I'm taking her picture, she either turns her head and won't look at the camera, won't smile at all OR she gives me the fake smile. Lovely :).

Notice the shoes in this picture...she LOVES to wear my shoes, and these have been her favorites lately. She clomps around like they are her shoes. It's pretty funny.

Such a poser!

2010-05-03T20:21:00.006-05:00

Drew took Avi swimming at the Sanderson Center (indoor pool) a couple of weekends ago, and before we left the house, I told her to let me take a picture of her in her cute swimsuit. She immediately gave me this pose, and Drew and I died out laughing!
Have no idea where that came from!

She's graduated...

2010-05-02T17:34:00.004-05:00

That's right, she's finally graduated to her "big girl" toddler bed! Yes, I know she is 2 and a half, but she never once tried to climb out of her bed or even attempted to get out of her bed. However, with a baby sister coming who will also need to use the crib, we decided it was time for Avi to start transitioning into a big girl bed. I must say she has done VERY well so far. She has not tried to get out of her bed at night or during nap time, which of course has been my fear, especially since she has always been such a good sleeper.

Her new favorite pastime is putting all of her stuffed animals in her bed (and anything else she can find) and playing with/reading to them. Lots of fun.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a conference in Memphis. Avi stayed mostly with Drew, and I think they had a pretty good time. The above picture was taken on Sunday morning before they went to church. Drew said he was kneeling down trying to take a picture of her and she decided she needed to bend down as well!

Of course, she also napped really well while I was out of town...Drew had to wake her up from a nap because she had slept so long. Too sweet.

And this, well, we found this big guy on our back patio one evening. Drew went outside to put something in his truck, and he found this huge turtle. Crazy.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T18:05:00.002-05:00

We had a fun Easter weekend spending time with family and friends. We went to church this morning and then went to eat lunch with Drew's mom, grandparents and aunt and uncle. It has been a beautiful weekend.

Avi enjoyed running around Nana's yard and picking flowers.

Yesterday (Saturday), we went to an Easter egg hunt in Blackhawk, MS, with Drew's grandmother's extended family. There were a ton of people there, and Avi had a great time. She was exhausted by the end of the day and slept all the way home.

Ahhh, the joys of being 2 and eating a cupcake. Usually Avi just eats the icing off the cupcake, but this time she actually ate most of the cupcake!

We started off the day with a fun trip to Jack Fountain's birthday party at Jumping G's. Avi was shy and not sure she wanted to participate at first, but then she got into it and started sliding down this inflatable. She had a blast, and she didn't want to leave when it was time to go to the egg hunt! Happy birthday, Jack!

Spring Break?

2010-04-04T17:57:00.004-05:00

Well, we spent most of our spring break like this...on the couch watching Mickey Mouse. You may think that sounds like a great spring break, but unfortunately the Mickey Mouse watching also came with a pretty sick 2 and a half year old. My mom, Avi and I headed to Georgia to visit my sister on the first Friday of spring break, and when we got to Birmingham, Avi started running fever and she had a pretty bad cough. We ended up turning around and heading back to Starkville. She ran fever for 4 days straight and felt pretty yucky. We were glad to have our sweet little Avi back by the end of the week. So, spring break turned out a little differently than we had planned, but I guess that's just the nature of taking care of children!

Too Cute for Words...I'm not Biased Am I?

2010-03-28T20:27:00.002-05:00

I was able to catch her singing this one morning while I was getting ready for work. So sweet.

You're a good mom

2010-03-06T13:19:00.002-06:00

This morning I gave Avi a bath, and I washed her hair. Drew usually dries her hair after her baths, but he was running, so I started drying her hair. Right after I started drying it, she looked at me and said, "You're a good mom." Can you say MELT my HEART?! I said, "Thank you sweetheart," and I gave her a kiss. SOOOO sweet. And, yes, she's been calling me mom or moms lately, unless she's whining, and then it's usually mommy. I'm not making a big deal about it, but it is strange to hear her calling me mom like she's a teenager! And for the record, I find it sad that on a Saturday morning we were up by 6:30, and she and I both had bathed before 8 for no good reason! I've been fighting getting up early on Saturday mornings for a long time, but I think I should just start owning it, especially since there is another one on the way! And, I promise the next time I post there will be some pictures involved!

It's a Girl!

2010-03-04T21:26:00.003-06:00

Drew and I went to the doctor in Jackson last Thursday. We got a great report. The baby looks great so far, and we are having another girl! Very exciting. Of course, Drew's first response was "at least we don't have to buy anymore clothes." Ha, if he only knew it doesn't work that way! We told Avi she is going to have a baby sister, but I'm not sure she really understands. She did tell her Sunday School teacher Sunday that she was going to have a baby sister, so maybe she does understand! It will be interesting!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-22T21:15:00.003-06:00

Avi enjoyed Vday this year. She especially enjoyed the candy hearts; if you can't tell she has one in her mouth in the pictures! She's in full "cheese" mode these days. I can't take a picture of her without her saying it, and she always raises head as she says it. On this day, I told her not to raise her head as she said it...the result equals the picture below!

She loved her Balentine's shirt, as she called it! She told everyone she had it on, as if they couldn't already tell by looking at her! Fun times.

Yes, It's true

2010-02-18T14:39:00.004-06:00

So, if you haven't had a chance to watch the video below, I'll go ahead and share the news with you. Avi is going to be a big sister! I'm due at the end of July. I've been pretty sick thus far, and it still has not completely gone away, thus, the lack of blogging lately (sorry). Avi likes to tell people that she will be a big sister, but I'm not sure she has any idea how much this is going to rock her little world. We will hopefully be finding out next week if we are having a boy or girl. We didn't find out with Austin or with Avi, so this will be a new thing for us. I'll let ya know what we find out!! Please pray for a healthy baby...of course, that is the most important factor to us.

Avi's News

2010-02-15T19:00:00.002-06:00

The video is worth watching, I promise.

Random Christmas Pictures

2010-01-30T08:03:00.004-06:00

Loving her new tricycle that Mimi and Papa gave her.

Reading Billy Goat's Gruff on her new tricycle.

She got a cool M&M holder for all the M&Ms Mimi and Papa give her!

She L.O.V.E.S. her purple sunglasses that Emilie and Jon Jon gave her for Christmas!

Reading a book to her baby doll, Amy, who is resting in her new baby

bed from Grandaddy and Shug.

Amy enjoys a ride in Avi's new shopping cart from Nana.

Amy and Avi take a spin on Avi's new spinner from Santa.

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of this. One morning Avi went in her room, and a few minutes later I heard her talking up a storm. I peeked around the corner to see that she was reading one of her new Mickey Mouse books to Amy in her room. As you can see, she was showing to Amy like her teachers show the books to her. It was pretty cute, but she had seen me at this point. I was trying to get a picture without her seeing me!

Christmas Morning

2009-12-29T09:20:00.004-06:00

What a picture to start with, I know. But, this is how Avi looked when she woke up on Christmas morning! She had some crazy hair going on. She took a bath and washed her hair at my mom's house the day before, and for some reason her hair went crazy. It looked like she had stuck her finger in a light socket. We even rebathed her that night and rewashed her hair, and it didn't help! Drew was VERY concerned about her hair!

So, of course, he had to brush it before she could go see what Santa brought her! It looked a little better after he brushed it, but it was still very funny looking.

I love this picture! When Drew put her down, she started running to her toys! It was so cute.

She loved gettting all the things out of her stocking. I'm sure it was like a treasure chest!

Showing us her Hello Kitty playing cards.

And, of course her favorite, M & Ms. She was very proud of them!

Opening one of her presents. You can see it in the bottom of this picture...she got a sit & spin. She loves it. She spins and tells us to look at her spinning. Very cute. I think she had a great Christmas morning! It was fun to watch her slowly discover and understand Santa this year!

Drew's Gaming Abilities

2009-12-29T08:54:00.004-06:00

Okay, those of you who know Drew will really get a kick out of this video! Joel, my sister Abbi's husband, has a Wii, and he brought it home with them for Christmas. He got a new set of games for Christmas, and one of the games was sword fighting. And, so the video is of Joel (in the back) and Drew (in the front) doing their best sword fighting. Ya think Drew got a little into it??!! Notice the difference between Drew and Joel!

I don't wear diapers anymore, I'm a big girl!

2009-12-28T16:55:00.007-06:00

This is the phrase I hear every morning when Avi wakes up & I am changing her diaper!

She says, "I don't wear diapers anymore, mama! I'm a big girl. I only wear diapers at nighttime!"

And, I am very happy to say she is right. I would venture to say she is potty trained! It just kinda happened. She decided she was ready...she's had a few accidents, but really not very many. I'm sure she will have more over the course of time, but she's doing pretty well! She pretty much tells us anytime she needs to go to the potty, and oh how nice it is not to be changing diapers all the time! I guess the focus has shifted, though! We're constantly asking her if she needs to go potty. Most of the time she says, "I don't." It's been fun to see her figure it all out, and it's pretty amazing that she understands when she needs to go potty now! So, I guess I got my Christmas present after all! And, it's a great one. Oh, and I promise, Christmas pictures to come. I'm working on it!

Big Girl Panties & Boots

2009-11-15T19:58:00.003-06:00

Yep, it's hard to believe, but we are potty training. Notice her big girl panties in the picture (Elmo panties at that)? She loves wearing big girl panties. She's been potty training with pull-ups at school since September, but it's been pretty slow going at home. Even last week I would have told you she really wasn't cognitively ready. However, all of a sudden this week she seems to have turned a corner. She tells us when she needs to go (most of the time), and she's really making some progress! We are very excited. I'm hoping to be done with diapers very soon!! Wouldn't that be a great Christmas present?!

Bob, Judy & AnnaClaire gave Avi her adorable boots for her birthday. She L.O.V.E.S. them! I have to admit, she looks pretty cute in them. As she would say, "thanks, y'all!"

Every morning this past week Avi got a pillow off my bed and would pretend to take a nap on the floor. Then she would instruct me to take her picture! I made her pose with her baby doll, Amy! Aren't they cute?

Halloween Fun

2009-11-01T18:34:00.003-06:00

Halloween started out with Drew, Cory & Joan completing an adventure race Saturday morning. They won the race, and they were the only team that did not consist of college students! I think they had fun! (Sorry, I don't have any pictures of it; I forgot my camera). In the afternoon, we played outside at home, and Avi loved the owl on her Halloween shirt...she was showing it to me in the above picture.

Avi was clapping because we were getting ready to go see Jack Fountain and Emily Adkerson.

Avi and Daddy

I tried really hard to get Avi to let me take a picture of her in her rain boots. She was totally ignoring me, and she did not want me to take anymore pictures. It's starting already!

Jack (the firefighter), Emily (the cowgirl), Addie (the zebra, oh wait a horse as she said...it's a long story), and Avi (the ladybug)

A close up of the girls

This picture is of Avi walking down the road to go trick or treating.

Walt or "Walt Man" as Avi loves to call him!

So, Walt was in the stroller, but soon into the trick or treating, Avi was so over it, and she booted Walt out and got in the stroller herself...she was relaxing!

Avi enjoyed the little kid's room at our church's Fall Festival. She loved riding that tractor, and she kept asking for the keys to it! All in all, we had a fun, full day. I'm glad Halloween only happens once a year! It's pretty tiring! Hope you all had a fun Halloween.

What's Red, Black & Polka Dotted All Over?

2009-10-30T21:28:00.006-05:00

Why it's a lady bug, of course! Isn't she cute? Avi got to wear her costume to school this morning for a Halloween costume contest. Most of the kids and the teachers at her school dress up on Halloween. It's a lot of fun, and the kids really enjoy it!

This is Avi's best "cheese" smile. She kept saying, "Cheese. I wanna look at it, mommy." Everytime I took a picture, she wanted to look at it on the camera. Funny how they start understanding technology at such a young age.

These are a few of the kids in Avi's class. From left, Morgan, Miller (aka Miller Man), Avi, and Peter.

The kids with Ms. Elaine, their wonderful teacher

Haircuts & Pumpkins

2009-10-24T13:59:00.003-05:00

I finally took Avi to have her haircut last Friday. It had gotten fairly long in the back, and it had some beautiful curls. However, the piece in the center of the back of her hair had gotten significantly longer than the other part, making it look like she had the infamous 80's rat tail. Drew had been on me for a while to get it cut, but I was just so hesitant to cut the sweet curls off. I took the plunge last week, and I am very happy with the results (the picture above is after the cut was finished). Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, and I took these with my phone; thus, the poor quality.

I had promised Avi M&Ms if she didn't cry and if she was a sweet girl while she got her hair cut. Needless to say she loves Ms (as she calls them) enough that she was an excellent little thing while she was in the chair getting her hair cut. I was very proud of her.

Last night we went to Starkville's first Pumpkin Palooza in downtown Starkville. We had a fun time, and it was a chore to get Avi to take a picture with the pumpkins. Again, I forgot my camera, so my phone had to do.

As a side note, we're headed to tailgate before the MSU/Florida football game. Go Dawgs! Hope we pull off a major upset tonight!

Where does Jesus live?

2009-10-13T22:22:00.007-05:00

I had an interesting conversation with Avi this afternoon. I picked her up from school and as she was climbing into her car seat, she saw our Sunday School book. She started calling it mommy's Bible, and I didn't have the heart to correct her. And thus the following conversation took place :)

Avi: (gripping the Sunday School book to her chest) This mommy's Bible.

Me: That's right, that's mommy's Bible (again, not having the heart to correct her).

Avi: This Abi's Bible.

Me: No, that's mommy's Bible, but you may look at it (trying to teach her that not everything is hers...not sure it's sinking in).

Avi: This mommy's Bible (maybe it is sinking in)

Me: Avi, who does the Bible teach us about? (fully expecting her to say "I not know")

Avi: Jesus

Me: (extremely surprised and excited about her answer) That's right, the Bible teaches us about Jesus.

Avi: I see Him; I find picture of Jesus.

Me: I'm not sure there is a picture of Jesus in that Bible (thinking maybe I should have told her it wasn't a Bible??)

Avi: (she looks through the book several times) I not find picture, mommy.

Me: Well, I'm sorry sweetie. We'll look for a picture of Jesus when we get home.

Me: Where do you think Jesus lives? (I have no idea why it occurred to me to ask her this question)

Avi: in JACKSON!! (very excited that she knew the answer :)

Me: (trying to control my laughter) Well, I'm not sure he lives in JACKSON! I think maybe he lives in Heaven.

Avi: Yep, heben.

Me: Who else do you think lives in heaven? (thinking she might bust out with God or brother Austin or something like that)

Avi: Ummmm (one of her favorite things to say lately) Japheth (yes, she said Japheth, who is one of Noah's sons, as in Noah and the Ark...my mom taught her Noah's sons names, and she knows all of three of their names: Shem, Ham and Japheth!!)

So, really it was a fun and enlightening conversation on my part to be able to get a glimpse at what goes through my 2 year old's mind. Too funny.

Lots of Happenings

2009-10-07T20:18:00.004-05:00

Last Friday night we went to a small fair that the Mississippi Horse Park had in Starkville. Avi had so much fun. We met up with Cory, Joan, Laura Leigh and Walt and had a good time letting the kids ride on the rides. Avi really enjoyed "driving" the cars. It was cute.

Riding in another car with Laura Leigh!

Avi also enjoyed a climbing/play gym that they had. She was really too young for it, but sweet Laura Leigh helped her go through the whole thing twice, and Avi was so excited. I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but she is dying out laughing coming down the slide at the end! Laura Leigh, thank you for taking time to help Avi go through the play area!

This picture cracks me up. She looks like she is glaring at me like a teenager! I made her let me take a picture of her :) at the tailgate on Saturday. I had to show off my abilities, though...I made the little outfit she is wearing in the picture (I made the pants and appliqued her name on the shirt). I was pretty proud of it.

Adorable Walt man!

Joan really had Avi's tickle box turned on at the tailgate!

We had dinner with some friends, Michele and Hans Herrmann. Their daughter, Petra, is about 9 months older than Avi, and they see each other at school a lot. They had fun playing with Petra's stash of princess dress-up clothes.

They were so cute sitting on the coffee table together!

Finally, about 2 or 3 weeks ago after church I went to grade some papers. When I got home, I saw the most magnificent rainbow I have seen in Mississippi, or anywhere for that matter, except for Hawaii. I could see both ends of the rainbow. It was just above our house, and it was beautiful. By the time I got into the house and got Avi and Drew to come out side to see it, it was almost gone. It was very neat to see, though. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Sesame Street Live

2009-09-26T10:44:00.009-05:00

My sweet mom bought Avi this very large Elmo balloon

Since the RAIN ruined our plans to tailgate with friends before the MSU vs. LSU football game this morning, I thought I would post pics of our trip to see Elmo (been meaning to post this for a while!). Back in August, we went to see Sesame Street Live, Elmo's Green Thumb, in Jackson. We had a great time. I got worried there for a few minutes after the characters came out and started dancing because Avi turned around and put her head on my shoulder and said Rock Sing. It took her about 10 minutes to decide the characters were okay, and she finally turned around and started watching the show. From that point on, she loved it. She danced and clapped her hands!

She still had to have Boppy and her thumb, though!

Madison, Sheri, Mimi, myself and Avi all ventured to see Elmo!

The show was very colorful, and I definitely recommend it if you have a little one.

A Sweet Request

2009-09-17T13:08:00.005-05:00

On this past Saturday morning, Avi's birthday, when she woke up, I put her in the bed with me for a few minutes ~~because I wasn't ready to get up yet~~ to cuddle. Once she decided it was time for us to get up for good, I had a sweet (and funny) conversation with her. It went something like this:

K: Who's birthday is it today?

A: Abi's birday!

K: That's right, it's Avi's birthday today.

K: What do you want mommy to fix you special for breakfast today since it is your birthday?

A: Pause

A: Huge grin

A: Eyes cut over at me

A: CUPCAKES???

K: CUPCAKES??? (much laughter from me)

A: Mmmhmm

K: Well, that's a good idea, but I think we better wait to have cupcakes this afternoon at your birthday party.

A: Disappointment

A: Okay, pancakes bananas?

K: Sure, that sounds much better!

So, all I could do was laugh when she asked for the cupcakes. It melted my heart. It was so sweet and she thought it was the best idea she had thought of in a while! Very sweet.

Birthday Fun

2009-09-13T15:17:00.007-05:00

I should warn you, there are a lot of pictures in this post! We had a small party for Avi Grace yesterday. I think she had a fun time playing with the water toys. Thankfully the weather held out for us. The party ended at 5 and it started raining about 5:30!

Isn't her cake adorable? Carol Taylor (Sweet Temptations in Starkville) made it to look like a cupcake. She did a great job, and it was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. Everyone raved about the taste of the cake. Thanks, Carol.

Nana Gayle and Avi

I should have practiced blowing out candles with her prior to her party! She wouldn't blow at all! Oh well...there's always next year!

She chose a pink cupcake!

Her 2 favorite things, cupcakes and cheetos!

She was saying, "Hey!"

I think she was a little overwhelmed with all of the gifts.

Well, this was it, her favorite gift for her 2nd birthday: a broom and dust pan! Thanks Aunt Sheri, Uncle Mike, John Michael (aka, Sun Michael) and Madison!!

Avi loves to put a diaper on her new baby doll. She says, "Peeyew" change your diaper baby." We named her new baby Amy :)

Loving the step stool. Thanks Mimi and Papa! Now she will be able to reach the sink to wash her hands and brush her teeth. Also, a big thanks to my friend Sarah Largen who painted the adorable step stool for us. You can't tell in this picture, but it has paisleys and Avi's name painted on the stool Love it. If you are looking for aunique step stool, you should check out Sarah's blog.

Drew rigged up this little number: our borrowed slide from the Fountain's into the baby pool! It was a hit, I have to admit.

This is one of my favorite pics from the party. Jack Fountain was moving the elephant's snout around to spray the other kids, and he cracked himself up!!

Okay, Emily had this pose she would do every time she got out of the water from sliding. It was hilarious, and I am glad I was able to catch it on camera!

Avi enjoyed writing with the sidewalk chalk.

Clay & Will Patterson, Avi's sweet little cousins. We're so glad they were able to make it to the party. They came all the way from Memphis!

Well, I had to throw this one in there. After the party was over, Drew immediately started cleaning up the water toys (bless him), and I looked up only to find him draped over the kiddy slide. I guess that position was helping him let the air out of that pool?? Not sure about that one!

Happy 2nd Birthday Avi!

2009-09-12T22:11:00.002-05:00

Happy birthday Avi Grace! We had a great birthday! Many more pictures to come!

Mommy and Daddy love you, Avi!

Cupcakes and Goggles?

2009-09-11T17:50:00.005-05:00

I made cupcakes for Avi to take to school with her today so her class could help her celebrate her birthday a day early. She wanted a cupcake very badly before we ever left the house this morning. Thankfully I was able to coax her into waiting until after nap time! When she got home this afternoon, she had to have another one, which produced the above picture.

Do you see a theme here? Avi LOVES cupcakes. And cheetos. But, cupcakes most of all! So, we are having a cupcake-themed party, and her outfit also boasts cupcakes to bring it all together (btw, we are also having cheetos at her party!).

I know, this is a totally random picture, but I had to share. These are Drew's swim goggles. She loves to put them on, and it cracks me up everytime. She looks hysterical in them! Hope you have a laugh as well!

Mommy Grace Anthony

2009-08-31T16:52:00.003-05:00

Last night as Avi was eating dinner, she kept saying, "Mommy!" over and over again. I was over at the sink putting the leftover spaghetti up. Since her repetitive Mommy wasn't getting my attention, she said, "Mommy Grace Anthony!" I looked at Drew, and said did she just call me Mommy Grace Anthony? He started laughing and said that she had indeed called me that! Of course, I started laughing. As I mentioned in an earlier post, she knows her full name is Avi Grace Anthony, so I guess she thought she would get my attention by calling me by my full name--Mommy Grace Anthony!! So, Drew took that time to explain to her that my name was Kelli and his name was Drew and only she could call us mommy and daddy. She thought that was funny, and she went on to finish her dinner. Later while she was in the bathtub, I was on a phone call, and Drew was sitting with her, and I heard her call for me--"Mommy Kelli Anthony!" She's figuring it out, I guess!

I Stand Corrected

2009-08-26T15:11:00.002-05:00

Yesterday morning, I was reading a book to Avi before we left for school. The book is a counting book, and on each page it has a different animal that you are supposed to count. About the middle of the book, I turned the page and said, "Look Avi, 6 sheep." She precisely looked at me and said, "No mama, those lambs." I guess I heard that! Indeed she was correct. They were lambs and not sheep! She amazes me every day.

What a Difference a Year Makes

2009-08-24T07:26:00.002-05:00

8.23.09

3.22.08

AVI-isms

2009-08-13T10:33:00.008-05:00

Avi with her Daddy's shoes and socks on yesterday morning!

So, Avi has really got this awesome vocabulary going on these days. Every day I love to hear the new things she comes up with. So, I thought I would share some of my favorites with you as of late! Oh, and she is totally saying sentences these days. And yesterday she sang the entire ABC song by herself without stopping!! It was exciting! Finally, her SOUTHERN DRAWL has really started coming out! It makes me laugh pretty hard!

1. NOT CRY, BIG GIRL. She started this at the beach. One night when I was putting her to bed, I told her she needed to be a big girl and not cry. So, from then on, almost every time we put her to bed, she says, "Not Cry, Big Girl!"

2. ROCK SING. This is what Avi says anytime things go south or she wants me to comfort her. We also rock sing before bed each night. One afternoon back in the spring sometime she woke up from a nap early, but she was still very tired, so I sat in the rocking chair with her and told her I was going to rock her and sing to her so she could rest. Since that day, she loves to ROCK SING!

3. ABCs & JESUS. Avi's two favorite songs. When we rock sing, I always ask her what she wants me to sing, and usually her first answer is ABCs. Then either during the middle of ABCs or right after, she says Jesus...meaning Jesus Loves Me. Jesus loves the Little Children and He's Got the Whole World in His Hands are the "other Jesus" songs!

4. AVI DO IT...MOMMY DO IT. This is what we hear constantly. When Drew tries to do something for her, she usually says, "Mommy do it." And, of course, she wants to do lots for herself these days as well!

5. SILLY...GIRL, MOMMY, DADDY, AVI, SUN, YOU NAME IT. Everything is silly these days! The sun is silly in the morning when we are driving to school because it gets in her eyes! Mommy and Daddy are silly when we do something she thinks is funny. L.O.V.E. H.E.R.!!

6. HOW 'BOUT THAT? This is probably her favorite phrase these days. She just says it out of the blue or when we do something that she likes! Too funny.

7. MR. BROWN CAN MOO. CAN YOU? Oh how she loves Dr. Seuss! She loves this book so much she has practically memorized it. She says the next animal sounds before I even turn the page. I love reading this book with her! It makes my soul happy!

8. NAAWW. This word is Avi's substitute for no! In the past week every time we ask her to do something that she doesn't want to do, she says, "NAAWW!" Like, are you kidding me?

9. I-UTE-SIIIDE. Have you figured this one out yet? OUTSIDE! When we were at the beach, she started saying outside with such a southern drawl that I couldn't help but laugh at her.

10. ABI.GRACE.AMNTONY. Didn't you know this was her name?? She was in the bathtub Tuesday night, and for some reason I was talking to her about her full name. Now when you ask her what her full name is, she says, "ABI GRACE AMNTONY." LOVE IT.

Friday Fun

2009-07-31T20:41:00.002-05:00

We had fun this afternoon playing with the Mardi Gras beads we have collected over the last year (mostly from eating at Oby's). We put them on as necklaces and then she loved that I made them into bracelets for her. It was pretty funny because she kept either holding her arms up or holding them close to her because she thought the bracelets were going to fall off. It's fun when small things can occupy for long periods of time!

School is Fun!

2009-07-31T20:23:00.009-05:00

Well, this picture does not do justice to the way I found Avi when I picked her up at school on Monday! I was really worried about her transition back to school on Monday after being out for 2 weeks. On Monday morning when I dropped her off, she went right to her teacher and seemed happy to be there. When I picked her up Monday afternoon I died out laughing when I saw her! They were on their way in from the playground when I got there...she was chasing Channing, a little boy from her class. She didn't even notice me standing there for several minutes! Her teacher said that she and Channing had even been holding hands on the playground! She was having a blast. She actually ran away from me when she noticed I was there. She didn't want to go home with me! She wanted to stay and play. Her hair was ringing wet, and her cheeks were bright red from playing so hard! The funniest part of it all is that she had gotten something on her clothes during the day and had to change into her extra clothes...and, well, the ones she had to change into were still her winter extra clothes! I guess I had never updated them since the summer began, and she hadn't needed them until now! So, she was also wearing clothes that were: a.) too small and b.) not season appropriate...the pants were above her ankles and the shirt was now a 3/4 length sleeve instead of long sleeves! And, really I had to bribe her into getting into the car with me. I had a pretty good laugh from it all, and I think she needed a break from me as much as I needed a break from her :). I didn't take the picture until we got home, so as I said, it really doesn't do the situation justice, but I thought I would at least try to share my laugh. (I know she looks unhappy in the picture, but she wasn't; she just wouldn't smile for me!) Oh, and a side note: she hasn't needed extra clothes all summer, but Monday she had on her extra clothes when I got there, Tuesday she had on her shirt and someone else's shorts, and yesterday she had on an entirely different outfit (an extra from the daycare) when I got there! Crazy.

Beach Pictures

2009-07-24T08:00:00.010-05:00

This was one of the last pictures we took last night on the beach...she was so tired! However, this is a pretty typical look from Avi!

Mimi, Avi, John Michael, Madison

Abbi & Joel (my sister and her husband) moved to Athens, GA last week, but we are so glad they joined us for most of the week at the beach. We will miss them greatly!

Another typical look from Avi :)

This has been one of Avi's favorite things to do this week...she loves to get buried in the sand.

Sweet cousins!!

Avi decided she might need to take a little nap!

This was the demise of "boppy" at the beach last night! She dropped boppy when she was getting some sand, and needless to say it got very wet. I thought a meltdown might happen as a result, but she handled it pretty well!

Love this one...wonder what she is thinking about!

Adorable John Michael

Beautiful Madison

Love this one too!

Avi has kind of had a love-hate relationship with the water! She loves it but she's not too sure about it!

The sand is so much fun!

I brought out trusty Mr. Potato Head for this trip. This is the first time she has played with him, and she has loved him. She played with him a lot on the way down to the beach, which by the way was very successful! (I was very worried about it.) Anyway, as you can see, she found something else to do with "tata head's" eyes!

Okay, these last 2 pictures just make me laugh so hard! Avi loved putting on Uncle Joel's socks (these were ankle socks on him by the way) and his shoes! Too funny!

The Beach

2009-07-23T22:03:00.003-05:00

Avi and I have been at the beach for almost 2 weeks (Saturday will mark a full 2 weeks). We have had so much fun. Avi has been such a trooper. She's had her moments, but all in all she has been terrific. I am headed to bed right now to gear up for our last full day at the beach. However, I wanted to post a sweet picture that I got of Avi Grace tonight when we were taking pictures. Many more beach pictures to come!!

Happy 4th & a late Father's Day!

2009-07-02T09:52:00.012-05:00

Happy 4th of July! I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday. It has been a very busy summer so far. I taught a Maymester class and I taught a class in June. Thankfully the June term ended Wednesday, and I am SOOOO looking forward to having some time off in July! Avi Grace has totally enjoyed swimming this summer. She LOVES the water. We went to Geyser Falls (water park in Philadelphia, MS) one day last week, and she had the best time. She also loves to color these days, and I was just a hair late getting the camera out the other morning when she was coloring...she was lying on the floor on her tummy coloring; I hate I missed that one! But, I did get a few other cute ones of her on the floor with her red color.

She had some wild hair that morning!

Love this one!

Happy Father's Day daddy!

Avi and Drew before church last Sunday.

She liked playing with the camera lens cap instead of smiling at me for a picture.

Avi Grace and her teacher, Miss Emily

Avi's school had a 4th of July parade on Thursday. Her class rode in their bye bye buggies. She was waving the flag they made in class.

Waving an American flag

One of Avi's FAVORITE things to do these days is to pick vegetables out of the garden with her Daddy. They started out picking cucumbers together and have now moved onto picking peas. She loves it! Above is a funny video I was able to get of them picking cucumbers. She took a little spill, which was pretty funny. Enjoy!

It's a Heat Wave!

2009-06-08T15:54:00.015-05:00

Well, sorry for the long hiatus again (and this is a long post--sorry). I haven't posted in part because my camera has not been working for a while now, and I haven't had any pictures to post :). There has been so much going on that I really don't even know where to start! I guess I will start with Avi. She is just turning into a little girl so quickly...no more baby around our house! She is saying phrases fairly easily these days and seems like she is just going to bust out some sentences any day now. She's something else...it's so amazing how much she understands and is able to comprehend. Her personality is blossoming, and she is really beginning to get upset when she doesn't always get her way. When she doesn't get her way, and she feels it worth getting upset over, her new thing is to arch her back, start crying (completely fake), and plop down on her rear end. The other day I took something away from her and she plopped down and then gently lay her head back on the hardwood floors and then proceeded to start crying about it. It was quite a site!

Avi has also become quite the copycat. She tries to do everything we do and say everything we say. It is so cute. I love to tell her she is a copycat; of course she says, "topeetat." It's too funny.

Drew competed in the Heatwave Triathlon in Jackson on June 6. He did great...it was a 1/2 mile swim, a 24.5 mile bike ride and a 6.2 mile run. He did it in 2 hours 5 minutes and came in 42nd out of about 475 people. It is called the Heatwave, but actually they had GREAT weather that morning, very low humidity and lower temps than usual in June!

Avi wasn't too interested in taking a picture. There was too much going on for her to look at the camera! Drew will probably kill me for posting this picture, but it's the only thing I have to document the race!

After the race, we went out to Clinton to visit with Memom (Drew's grandmother). Isn't she adorable? We had so much fun.

(Left to Right): Laura Leigh, Cory & Walt, Vicki & Zach, Memom, Drew & Avi Grace

We tried hard to get a good picture of eveyone at Memon's house, but that was difficult!! The above picture was the best we could do! The kids had a great time running around and playing together. And, somehow they got out of order, but there are more pictures below of the kids playing!

Before we went to Memom's house, Avi and Laura Leigh pulled out the water toys. Avi LOVED it. She thought it was the greatest thing! I'm thankful small things can amuse her! She had a little routine that she went through...there are pictures of it below.

1. Avi steps into the water and tries to "part" the water with her hands!!

2. Avi got in the middle of the water and clapped for herself!

3. Avi headed out of the water.

4. Again, she clapped for herself!

Look at me!

Oh how much fun this is!!

Avi is pretty obsessed with pacifiers. She never really took one except when she was a tiny baby and she hadn't found her thumb yet. However, anytime she sees another child with a pacifier, she automatically says, "paci," and points to it. Walt takes a paci, and Avi pretty much spent the whole weekend fetching it for him and giving it back to him!

Yep, he needed help with his paci again :)

Uncle Cory is so much fun to play with.

This is one of Avi's favorite things...Uncle Cory holding her shirt as she tries to go forward!

Jumping on Laura Leigh. Glad she found someone else to do this with! It just about kills me!

Let's just say getting Avi to take a picture with Memom wasn't the easiest thing. She was a little shy. So here's the first try!

Here's the second try! I'll sit here, but very still and I won't get any closer!

Okay, I'll give her a kiss if I can have my banana!

Finally as we were about to leave, she reached over and gave her a very sweet kiss!

Back Row (L to R): Cindy Lochart, Arma Salazar, Paula Yates, Mary Paige Huxford, Charlotte Cox, Meredith Martin

Front Row (L to R): Lynda McReynolds, me, Jamie Perry, Shannon Barrett

Finally, this is what has been pretty much consuming my life: tennis. My tennis team (I co-captained a spring 3.0 league team with a sweet friend, Paula Yates) won our local area, so we got to go to the state tennis tournament. We competed this past weekend, Thursday-Saturday in Jackson. It was hot and we didn't win too much, but it was a great learning experience and so much fun! I got to know many of my teammates better and I truly enjoyed the experience. Fun times! Mixed doubles matches start tomorrow night! Whew.

It's been too long

2009-04-15T10:15:00.012-05:00

Well, lots has been happening at our house lately. I have survived another advising period at my job (it was very hectic!). We only have a week and a half left in the semester--WooHoo! I have been playing a lot of tennis, and drew has been training for his upcoming triathalons, bike rides and runs. He did his first big event of the year in January. He ran the Starkville Frostbite Half Marathon. He came in 3rd for his age group with a time of 1 : 33 : 44 (28th overall out of 252 runners). He did very well! Drew also did a 100-mile bike ride on the Natchez Trace this past Saturday. It is an annual event. He had a lot of fun. He finished the ride in just under 6 hours. Avi and I are very proud of him! He has several events coming up, and I'll let you know how he does!

Drew with his new Trek bike before the 100-mile ride on the Natchez Trace.

And now for what you all actually came to the site to see! Avi is just becoming a big girl right before our eyes. She is talking up a storm. She can say pretty say much anything she wants to say. This past week she really started saying her "s" sound very well. It is adorable. I love to hear her say "silly." I love to hear her talk...unless it is when she is being sassy and saying "no" to me! We had fun dying Easter eggs with Emily Adkerson and Jack Fountain. Avi wasn't as interested in the actual dying process as Emily and Jack. She found a tricycle to play on while they were dying eggs, and then she did some right at the end. I let her color on a couple of the eggs, and she thought that was fun! We also "borrowed" Jack's small slide that he has outgrown. Avi has LOVED playing on it at our house. As you can tell from the pictures, she has to work pretty hard to get up on the platform where she can slide, but she really enjoys playing on it. Thanks, Jack, for letting us borrow it! OH, and note her hair in the pictures on the slide...there was so much static that her hair was standing straight up!

Sliding down the slide.

Working SOO hard to get up on the platform!

Aren't the eggs colorful?!

Totting around on the tricycle while Emily and Jack dye eggs

Emily and Jack...too cute!

So much fun with the eggs!

Avi wearing daddy's boots! She thought she was too cool!

No, No!

2009-03-11T09:53:00.006-05:00

Avi Grace really enjoys saying, "No, no!" these days. The other morning she was repeatedly throwing her food off of her high chair tray, and I pointed my finger at her and said, "No, no, Avi Grace." She pointed her finger right back at me and kept repeating, "No, no." As much as I tried not to, I couldn't help but laugh. So, when Drew got home that night, I let her show him what she had learned!! Too cute.

I also forgot to tell y'all that the week we got back from our San Francisco trip, Avi had some interesting days at daycare! I picked her up on that Wednesday after we got back, and she had an "incident" report that said she had scratched one of the little boy's face that day! The next day I picked her up, she had an "incident" report that said she had bitten one of the boys on the arm and then tried to bite another boy on the ear. Thankfully they caught her before she bit his ear, and they made her sit in time out and took her blanket away!! She and I had to have a little talk about biting and scratching at that point, needless to say! And, speaking of her blanket, we have always referred to it as her blankie, but she is now calling it boppy, so that is what her blanket is now officially known as, "boppy!" Anytime she gets upset or hurt, the first thing she says is, "boppy, boppy." It is sweet.

And, lastly, I am very thankful that she seems to be a pretty tough little girl. On Monday evening we were playing outside (enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather we have had since last Saturday), and I was trying to get the bubbles out for us. I couldn't get them open, so I told her I'd be right back ("bight back" as she likes to repeat). I ran inside to get the bubbles open and when I came back out, she was on the very top step of our back porch steps. I turned back around to let Drew open it completely, and the next thing I knew she had started tumbling down the stairs...all I could do was SCREAM loudly, which of course did nothing to help her. She slid down a few and then went heels over head and thankfully landed on her bottom at the bottom of the stairs. She cried hard for about a minute until we got boppy. THANK GOODNESS she did not hurt herself. She had a very minute scratch on her face, but otherwise she was good...WHEW, close call!

Let It Snow!

2009-03-01T20:53:00.005-06:00

Sweet Pea outside in the snow!

Our house in the beautiful snow.

Avi Grace's tiny footprints in the snow.

We had SNOW this morning...and I do mean this morning! I woke up to a text from my sister, Abbi, telling me we had SNOW! It was still coming down when I looked outside, and it was beautiful. We had a light dusting last year, but I don't remember the last time we actually had snow, not ice, like this. It was fun while it lasted. By mid to late morning it was all melted :). This snow just reaffirmed what I already knew: I could not live somewhere that had snow and the cold air/wind that comes with snow all the time! We enjoyed our morning nonetheless. And, by the way, Avi Grace is feeling MUCH better today. We only stayed outside for about 5 minutes (it was way too cold for us!). Thanks for all of the well wishes.

Battling the Flu :(

2009-02-27T13:13:00.003-06:00

Avi Grace coloring at home

Well the week started out normally, but by Tuesday afternoon Avi Grace was sick. She threw up at school twice on Tuesday afternoon and since then she has been running a fever. I thought she must have some type of stomach bug, but I finally took her to the doctor this morning because she was running a 103.6 temperature. Turns out, she has the FLU. I knew the high temps weren't from a stomach bug, but I also didn't expect the flu, really. On the plus side, I guess she's probably halfway through with it now.

Avi Grace has really been interested in using a pen or pencil these days. We decided that giving her a pen to color with wasn't the best idea ever. I've been meaning to buy her some colors, so while we were at the drug store this morning getting her tamiflu, I bought her some colors. She enjoyed coloring with the green color when we got home! Actually she REALLY wanted to go outside, even though it is raining a flood here today. Thankfully the colors distracted her. We almost had a meltdown over going outside :).

These pics from the bathtub were from 2 different bath time occasions. Here hair is getting pretty long (and wild), especially in the back, so we can now make a pretty good mohawk with the shampoo. The top picture in the tub makes me wonder what in the world we are in for when she gets older!! She's like, "mom, enough already!!"

Avi Grace is really growing. Most of her pants are getting too short, but we are trying to stretch her wardrobe through the next month or so until we have warmer weather! I can't bring myself to buy her more pants and long sleeves at this point in the winter.

As I type this, she is sleeping on the couch next to me. While she has been sick, she has refused to take a nap in her bed. It has been frustrating, but I guess she just wants her mommy. I'm just thankful she is taking a nap at this point!

Avi Grace is saying ALL kinds of words. She pretty much tries to say EVERYTHING we say. Our favorite words that she is trying to say now are helicopter (tetetopter) and belly button (belloo balloo). She rolls the ls in belly and it is hysterical. Drew gets her to say it just so he can hear it and laugh! It's pretty cute. She's communicating pretty well these days, though, I must say!

More California Pictures

2009-02-20T19:57:00.011-06:00

Lance Armstrong (in the middle with the yellow and black Livestrong gear on) with several other cyclists in the Tour of California

We had a WONDERFUL time in California. I just can't say enough about how much fun we had and how beautiful the Pacific Ocean is. On the last full day of our trip, we went to Santa Cruz to see Stage 2 of the Tour of California. It was a lot of fun, and although it was raining when we woke up, thankfully the weather was nice before and during the race. We saw on the news later that night that Santa Cruz had a hail storm later that afternoon! Glad we missed that! And, although our glance of Lance was short-lived, it was fun to see him ride into the finish line!

This is Levi Leipheimer, the Tour of California leader and Lance Armstrong Astana team member.

A picture of the Pacific on the beautiful 17-mile drive at Pebble Beach.

Okay, I just got a kick out of this! We had driven North of San Francisco on this scenic route, and when we were trying to get back on the freeway, we came to this red light! It seriously was a 5-minute red light. Seemed like we sat there forever!

Yes, I got a little out of control with the pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is such an amazing structure. This isn't even half of the pictures I have of the bridge, but I thought I wouldn't bore you with all of them! Truly a sight to see!

For those of you looking for new pictures of Avi Grace, I promise I will post some of those soon too! She is a mess...talking up a storm!

Sunny San Francisco??

2009-02-15T22:43:00.004-06:00

Drew and I have been in San Francisco since Thursday evening. We are having a wonderful time. Unfortunately, though, sunny San Francisco has turned out to be a fairly rainy San Francisco. On Friday we toured the Muirwoods Redwood forest (above picture). Thankfully the rain held off until we got back on the tour bus. Then we headed to Alcatrez where we met up with my friend Chris Bushby and a couple of her sweet friends.

This picture was taken outside Alcatrez. What a crazy place. It is so strange that there used to be a prison out on this island. Very strange. While we were touring Alcatrez, it started POURING DOWN RAIN. Thankfully the ferry was waiting on us when we came out!

Isn't this a magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge? I have MANY others, and I'll share more later, but I was dying to post some of our pics. Yesterday we went across the bridge and headed up this fabulous mountainside road where we got these awesome views of the city and the bridge! Very cool.

These last two pictures were taken today in Carmel. We are staying the night in Carmel tonight, and I have absolutely fallen IN LOVE with this place. I LOVE CARMEL!!!! I want to move here...those of you who know my husband are laughing your heads off right now because you know that will NEVER happen! The picture just above this one is of one of the greens at the Pebble Beach Golf Course (maybe 18th??), and this one is a picture of the shoreline just down from that in Carmel. I'm in heaven (minus the horrible rain and wind we endured today!)

Tomorrow we head up to Santa Cruz (passed through there today) to HOPEFULLY catch a glimpse of Lance Armstrong in Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California. Looking forward to that and praying for a break in the rain until the race is over. According to the radar, doesn't look like that prayer is going to be answered the way I want it to!!

More Christmas Pictures...FINALLY!

2009-01-21T14:19:00.008-06:00

Avi got a huge stuffed dog for Christmas from her Mimi & Papa (my parents). I thought she would like it, but I had no idea how much she would like it! She LOVES that dog...as you can tell!

Avi enjoyed lying on her dog!

Still lying on her dog, but now with her head back!

Avi gave her dog many kisses. She is in a kissing phase right now. She kisses everything. She will open a book and kiss what is on the page. She also gives AWESOME kisses to people as well...no slobbering or anything, a very sweet puckered up kiss! Cory (Drew's brother) got one, if not the first, "real" kiss she gave. He was so excited, and it was very sweet!

Lying on her dog again!

Avi loves to ride Papa's "horse"... actually she loves to ride anyone's

"horse!

Avi loves to stand on anything and do her penguin dance!

Avi was checking out her Mimi's Christmas tree.

Avi and her aunt Abbi.

Avi loves to look at the book about babies.

We finally got a shot of us together.

Avi loves to play the piano at Mimi and Papa's house.

Papa taught Avi to wink, and this is her version of a wink!! I love it!

Okay, so I know that I posted pictures a while back of Halloween, but I didn't have these from my mom's camera, so I thought these were cute and wanted to share them with you.

Look at my sweetheart!

Christmas Pictures...Having Issues

2009-01-07T20:49:00.006-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted anymore Christmas pictures. Most of them were taken with my mom's camera, and near the end of Christmas day her camera went kaput. We have since sent it off to Canon to be fixed. So, we are at the mercy of Canon for now. I promise I will post them as soon as I can. In the meantime, here are a very few from Christmas morning before we went to my parents' house, as well as some other random pics from the holiday break.

Avi and I got Drew a new Tri/Time Trial bike for Christmas (we totally pulled off a surprise for him, and that was a lot of fun!). So, this is Avi checking out her daddy's new ride on Christmas morning!

Avi eating breakfast...she couldn't wait until we got to my mom and dad's house (my dad always cooks a wonderful breakfast on Christmas morning; I usually eat more at breakfast than I do for lunch!). (Please ignore her nasty nose!)

This is Avi Grace talking to one of the balls that goes to her favorite toy...it pops balls up and out of a hole. It is pretty fun. She loves it.

I'm not sure this picture does the mess she made justice. I was doing some things around the house one day in December, and she got quiet for a few minutes. I went to find her, and this is what I found...hand towels, wash cloths and toilet paper all over the bathroom floor! She was having a blast!

Abbi and Joel (my sister and brother and law) came over for dinner one night. Avi Grace had a blast playing with them. She especially enjoyed sitting in Joel's lap and playing with the startings of his beard (as the pic below shows).

Avi Grace playing with Joel's stubble!

I made a chocolate chip pound cake one day over the holidays. Chocolate cake batter is one of Drew's favorites, and he shared some of it with Avi Grace.

Licking the spoon of the cake batter!

I think she liked it...don't you?

Mud Pies & Christmas Times

2008-12-27T16:13:00.008-06:00

Well, we finished our Christmas adventures yesterday. Last Saturday, the 20th, we had Christmas in Birmingham with Drew's mom's extended family. On Sunday, we did Christmas with Drew's mom and his brother Cory. Unfortunately Jonathan, Drew's other brother, was not able to join us because he had to be back in Atlanta for work on Sunday. On Thursday we did Christmas with my family at lunch. And, yesterday we did Christmas with Drew's dad. We were also missing Drew's stepsister, Susan, from Christmas yesterday. She is pregnant with twins and was unable to join us this year because she is due in the next month or so! Whew! It has been a whirlwind of a week, but we have had fun and we were blessed with a wonderful Christmas! I have a lot of other pictures to post from our Christmas times, but these were all taken yesterday, and I thought I would start with these. The first couple of pictures of Avi Grace were taken before we left our house yesterday! She loves to be outside, and she was just too cute in her dress for me not to take some picture of her!

She loves to sit in any chair, so here she is sitting in one of our patio chairs!

Um, yes, she also loves to STAND in any chair, and my commands for her to "sit down" were not working at this point!

It was such a nice day yesterday. In the afternoon it was about 72 degrees and sunny. We had a big time outside. Avi Grace enjoyed playing in her first mud puddles. I tried to keep her out of it for at least 10 minutes, and then I just gave up and took off her shoes and her pants and let her have at it! She had a big time.

As you can see she wanted to ride the 4-wheeler as well. Thankfully Uncle Cory was there and helped with that mission!

AND, we went down to the small creek that runs behind our house and let Avi Grace and Laura Leigh play in the water. The water was extremely cold, and Avi Grace didn't stay in it too long!

Uncle Cory and Avi Grace on the 4-wheeler.

Laura Leigh by the creek.

Laura Leigh, Uncle Cory, baby Walt and Avi Grace ALL on the 4-wheeler together!

Laura Leigh riding on the back of the 4-wheeler!

Avi Grace and her Grandaddy (Drew's dad) riding on the 4-wheeler.

Needless to say, we had a fun day yesterday. We thoroughly enjoyed the weather and the company! I hope all of you had as wonderful of a Christmas as we have had. I will post more Christmas pictures soon!

Odds & Ends

2008-12-21T14:54:00.010-06:00

Well, we had our Christmas get together with the Fountains, Waltons and Adkersons last weekend, and we attempted taking some pictures...as you can see, Avi Grace was having a little difficulty!

And, she's almost back up in a seated position!

What's that up in the sky? Is it Santa Claus or Dars

(Jack's Elf on the Shelf that he named to rhyme with Cars!!)??

Ahhh, there we go. That's about the best we could do!

(Left to right: Jack Fountain, Riley Walton, Avi Grace & Emily Adkerson)

What, doesn't everyone play with their toothbrush in the bathtub??

And, doesn't everyone try to brush their hair with their

toothbrush while they are in the bathtub??

Finally, brushing her teeth in the tub!!

She loves to ride her Zebra that was passed down to her by Jack Fountain!

Telling me she's ready to "go" to school. And, she's sucking her thumb, one of her favorite things to do. For the longest time she wouldn't suck her thumb unless she was holding her "blankie," but now she has started sucking her thumb some even without it.

Now she's really read to go to school!

Avi Grace loves to pull all of the pans and paper plates out of

this cabinet. So much fun!

She will NOT leave a bow in her hair these days! And, isn't this the cutest dress? Aunt Susan McAllister made it for Avi Grace!

This is how I found her hair one morning when I went in to get her!

Very bad bed head! AND, we had to take her pajamas off because she had leaked out her diaper! This picture kind of looks like a mugshot, huh??!!

A fun Thanksgiving!

2008-12-01T21:01:00.002-06:00

George Walter "Walt" Anthony

We had such a fun Thanksgiving. We went to Jackson on Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving with Drew's mom's side of the family, and got to visit more with Avi Grace's new cousin, Walt. Isn't he a beautiful baby? He is so sweet, and he slept the entire day we were in Jackson! Unfortunately that meant a not so fun night for mommy and daddy!

Avi Grace, AnnaClaire & Laura Leigh at Thanksgiving in Jackson

Avi Grace enjoyed playing with the big girls! She also loved it when the boys went outside to throw around the football. She roamed all around and kept saying "ball" "ball" "ball." It was funny. She just loved being outside most of all! She was hard to keep up with.

The extended McPhail family at Thanksgiving

After Thanksgiving in Jackson, we headed back to Starkville to eat lunch with my family on Friday. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and great company. My nephew and niece are growing up so quickly. John Michael is in the 7th grade and Madison is in the 4th grade! The weekend before Thanksgiving, my older sister, Sheri, and I went to Memphis to see Mamma Mia, and Madison and Avi Grace both spent the night with their Mimi. Madison taught Avi Grace to do a "penguin" dance. It is so adorable and funny! I have it on video, and if I can ever get my computer to load it to the blog, you can have a laugh over it as well. Avi Grace had so much fun that she didn't want to leave when I went to pick her up on Sunday evening!

Avi Grace & Papa after Thanksgiving lunch

When it was naptime, Avi Grace sought refuge with her Papa. She was doing anything she could to keep from going to the crib for her nap! Isn't she sweet cuddling with her Papa?

Halloween Pics & First Major Bobo

2008-11-06T22:04:00.005-06:00

So, this was Avi Grace's costume. She was a PIG! I fell in love with the costume when I found it, and I had to get it even though I had a passed down lion costume already. She did so well in her costume! She left the head piece on every time that she wore it. She didn't even bother with it.

We had SUCH a fun time at the Fall Festival at our church. Avi Grace walked around like she owned the place! They had a room just for toddlers, which is where the first couple of pictures were taken, but when we first got there, we walked into the gym. That is where the "big kid" games were taking place. As you can see Avi Grace decided she was going to be a pumpkin thief!! It was funny. I would return the pumpkins and then she would just take them again!

Isn't this the most adorable costume in the world?? A SKUNK!! This is cutie Turner, who is in Avi Grace's Sunda School Class. His parents work with Campus Crusade for Christ at MSU. Loved the skunk costume!!

Emily Adkerson as a clown

Brent & Jack Fountain as Curious George & the Man in the Yellow Hat

Cy & Nicholas Hallberg as Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat!

We enjoyed getting to see some of our friends at the fall festival. Aren't the costumes cute?! Amy Fountain has more pictures on her blog if you want to look at them.

See the blood on her dress?

See her fat lip?

Yep, that's right. Avi Grace got her first major bobo today. I'm glad I wasn't home when it happened. I know that may sound weird, but I think I would have freaked out more if I had been there. It happened right before I got home. Drew was very sweet and picked her up from daycare this afternoon. They were about to take a ride on the 4-wheeler to check on the cows. The 4-wheeler is very old and extremely temperamental, and as Drew was struggling to change the gears, it jumped a bit and Avi busted her lip on one of the handlebars. Drew said she cried for less than a minute. She got blood on her dress, but we have already washed it, and it came out! After about 5 minutes she acted like nothing had ever happened. Her lip is fat, but I don't think any other damage was done!

One last note. Those of you who know us well know that Drew drives a 1990 Toyota Forerunner. Yes, that makes the truck 18 years old! It has had no air conditioning for at least 5 or 6 years now. Anyway, just thought I would share our monumental news. Drew bought a new-to-him truck today!! Woo-hoo! Avi Grace and I are so excited! It is a 2006 Toyota Tacoma. It even has air conditioning!!

Halloween Party & Sneak Peak of Avi's Costume

2008-11-01T21:39:00.006-05:00

Avi Grace wearing the head piece to her costume before Halloween

Avi Grace at school on Halloween

Avi Grace & Miller playing with my cake carrier

Avi Grace & Miller sitting in the fun chairs

Peter & Avi Grace

Avi Grace eating Cheese Puffs at her school party

Miller, Peter & Nohl, 3 of the 4 boys in Avi Grace's class

Aren't Halloween parties so much FUN!

I've got lots of pictures to post from the Fall Festival at our church with Avi Grace in costume. It will take me a few days to get it all on the computer and then on the blog! So, you'll have to enjoy the preview of her costume for now! The other pictures are from Avi Grace's party at school on Friday. I enjoyed being able to go to the party and seeing the kiddos eat cheese puffs, cookies with orange icing and drink juice drinks. Avi Grace LOVED the cheese puffs! It was the first time she had eaten them...it took her a long time to eat one of them, but she really liked them! Thankfully her teacher was smart enough to put spare t-shirts on the kids while they ate their "party" food! I had fun watching them eat and play. It was fun to see Avi Grace in her element with other children!

Spaghetti Anyone?

2008-10-25T13:59:00.002-05:00

First spaghetti experience.

Second spaghetti experience.

Third spaghetti experience.

Well, first I have to apologize for taking such a long time to post another blog. It has been absolutely crazy around here. We have had one thing after another with little time to relax. Thankfully we are having a peaceful afternoon today! In spite of all of the things we have had going on, we are doing pretty well. Avi Grace has been sick off an on with the normal daycare illnesses. I am hoping we get rid of the runny nose and cough soon, but I am not counting on it seeing as how we are entering the winter months!

Avi Grace is just a bundle of joy these days. She is such a happy little thing. She's practically running, and I'd have to say that she owns this place! She still struggles with just having the one nap at daycare, but she has learned to tolerate it pretty well! All this week she would become giddy when we pulled up in the daycare parking lot! I guess that means she is enjoying herself when she is there!

The pictures above are from her first real spaghetti experience. I cooked spaghetti one night for dinner, and she LOVED it! She stuffed herself so full several nights in a row that we thought she might explode! Really, one night after she ate a ton of spaghetti, some green beans, a whole banana and some peaches, I had to cut her off! Her belly was so full and tight! As you can see from the pictures, she became progressively messier with her spaghetti eating! We just laughed at her, which made her smear it even more!

A couple of things she is doing right now that I absolutely love are: 1. Last week she started humming to herself. Mostly it is when she is in her car seat, but it is the sweetest thing, and it just makes my heart melt every time I hear it! I am dying to get a video of it, but the timing hasn't been right thus far; 2. She is able to do 3 signs: the sign for more, the sign for eat, and the sign for all done. The sign for more is my favorite. We haven't really tried to teach her other signs, but I am sure she would pick those up too, if we showed them to her. She is also trying to say thank you, which is sweet!

I promise I'll try not to let it take so long before I blog again! Take care.

Tailgating, Reading Books & Daycare update

2008-09-18T09:01:00.006-05:00

Reading a book in the chair she got for her birthday!

Isn't she adorable?

Sitting sideways in her chair, as she loves to do!

Standing in her chair, as she loves to TRY to do before I tell her No, No!

Tailgating before the first home MSU game

Doesn't it look like she is trying to play center??!!

Okay, now she looks more girly with the football!

One of my favs from the photo shoot as we tailgated!

She's like, "you talkin to me?"

Well, I've been meaning to post these pictures for a few weeks now, but I didn't want to take away from her birthday pics! Avi Grace LOVES to "read" books. It is one of her favorite pastimes...and she loves to do it sitting in the chair that Wan and Granddaddy gave her for her birthday! Most of the time she sits as she is supposed to, but as you can tell, sometimes she likes to stand in the chair! She has gotten better, but you still have to watch her closely. She also had a hard time getting in and out of the chair at first, but now she has pretty much mastered it with a few mishaps here and there. Of course just the other night she was sitting in her chair, and I commented to Drew about how well she was doing getting in and out of the chair now, and as soon as I got it out of my mouth she took a nose dive! Oh well, I guess that is how she learns to be careful! (It didn't hurt her...she cried less than a minute.)

We tailgated with some sweet friends, Kristi and Steve Brown, before the first home MSU football game a few weeks ago. Avi Grace had a blast. She walked everywhere...wouldn't sit still! There were 2 little boys throwing a small football right beside where we were, and she was having a fit to be involved with it. They sweetly brought the football over to her, and she was excited. I love the picture of her looking like she is about to hike the ball! Cracks me up! We had a fun time, and we could not have asked for better weather...overcast and a fairly mild temperature.

So, daycare is going pretty well. She is doing great at drop off! Almost every day last week and every day this week, she has gotten down and started playing with her friends and not even worried about me leaving! That has been very nice! Naps are still hit or miss. Some days she takes a good nap and others not so much. When she takes a good nap, she seems to be happy when I get there, but if not, the afternoons are kind of rough on her and on the teachers! Maybe she will get it down pat soon and it won't be a problem. That is my prayer for her right now...that and that she gets in a better sleep pattern at night. She is a great sleeper...always has been at night. For the longest, probably since she was about 4 months old, she has been going to bed around 6:30 and getting up anywhere between 6 and 8 (varying over time with different phase). However, lately she has been waking up a lot earlier. Now, I don't mean to complain by any means because as I said, she is a great sleeper. However, she went through a phase for several weeks where she was waking up at 4, 5 and then finally 6 (going back to sleep in between most of the time, and I didn't have to go in there or anything), which meant that I was also waking up at those hours. Then she finally quit doing that, but now she is waking up really for good sometime between 5 and 6:15. Now, I know that it could be a lot worse, but I would really love for her to sleep until about 6:30. Yesterday morning she woke up at 4:40 and I am not sure she actually went back to sleep until around 6 for a short nap before having to get up for good. This morning she woke up at 5 and fell back asleep around 6:15 before waking up for good about 6:45. We are trying to put her to bed around 7 or so to push back that wake up time, but so far it has NOT helped!! Anyway, all is well, and again, I don't mean to complain. I guess if I had a perfect world she would wake up when I wanted her to!! No worries, though. I just praise God every day that she is a happy, healthy, sweet child. That was my prayer for her when I was carrying her and really before she was even conceived, and I still thank God for that blessing every day.

Daycare

2008-09-14T22:18:00.010-05:00

Well, Avi Grace started daycare two weeks ago at the Creative Learning Center, which is at our church, First Baptist. The first week was pretty rough...for both of us!! There were a lot of tears...again from both of us! However, I must report that last week (the second week) went a lot better. It has been a huge adjustment for Avi Grace. Before starting daycare, she was taking 2 good naps a day. Sometimes on the weekends she would take 3 naps to get us through the day. At daycare, they only take one nap a day as one year olds. She really could still use 2 naps, but I guess you've got to do what you've got to do! On Friday she took her longest nap yet--an hour and 45 minutes! Woo Hoo! Most days it has been 45 minutes or so, so a longer nap will definitely help with her moods!

Judy Coffey, the wonderful person who has been keeping Avi Grace 3 days a week since January, took a part time job outside of her home. So, that is why we started daycare. We really miss Miss Judy! She was SUPER with Avi Grace, and AG loved her. I never thought twice about leaving her in the mornings. She was happy there, and we miss it. We also miss seeing Emma, Judy's granddaughter. Judy also kept Emma 2 days a week, and Emma and Avi Grace played well together! (The 2 pictures above are of Emma and Avi Grace and Judy and Avi Grace on AG's last day at Judy's house.) We miss you Miss Judy and Emma!

Avi Grace is a very social child, so she really enjoys playing with the other children in her class. She is the ONLY girl in her class! There are 4 boys and her! She will be bossing them around in no time, I am sure. She loves to take pacifiers out of Emma's mouth and the mouths of children that she sees at church! One of the kids at daycare took her blanket from her the other day when I was picking her up, and she didn't like that too much! I guess the boys will teach her a lesson on taking their pacifiers!

So, for now we are still getting used to daycare. She was happy every day when I picked her up last week, and she only cried one morning when I dropped her off. So, I think we are doing pretty well!

More Birthday Party Pictures!

2008-09-07T14:10:00.015-05:00

Jack, Emily & Zach had a lot of fun playing in the big orange pool. It had a lot of water in it, and it was a lot of fun to splash in and jump into!

After having lots of fun in the pools, Avi Grace decided she wanted to go exploring out in the yard. You can only imagine how dirty and grassy she got!

After Riley got out of the frog pool, Jack had a fun time playing with the water spraying out of the front of the pool! He would put his hands over the spout so the water wouldn't come out and then let it go and it would spray everywhere!

This is Avi Grace's birthday hat that Bob, Judy & AnnaClaire gave her. She wasn't too fond of it being on her head, so it didn't stay on too long during the party! It is adorable, though!

Did anyone get a better picture of her in the hat? Maybe one from straight on instead of from the side? I'd love to have a copy if you did!

Avi Grace and Laura Leigh both enjoyed playing in the water! Yes, I know my child doesn't have a swimsuit on, but I decided it was too much trouble to get her suit on (it is tight and takes some maneuvering to get it on her!). So, we just put the swim diaper on and enjoyed the water!

I have no idea what Avi Grace was telling Emily here, but I thought this was a sweet picture!

Riley loved the frog pool (he has this pool at home, too, so he is probably used to it)! I'm not sure he got out of the frog pool the whole time he was in the water! It is a fun pool, though. As you can see from the picture, it squirts water out the front!

1st Birthday Party

2008-09-01T19:23:00.009-05:00

We had Avi Grace's birthday party on Saturday. Her birthday is not until September 12th, but we decided that this past weekend would be the best time to go ahead and have her party. We had so much fun!

She ate some of the icing on her cake, but she didn't much care for it after a few bites. She never even ate a bite of the actual cake! She had had enough before she got to that part!

We had baby pools for the kiddos. They loved it. Avi Grace LOVED the spraying water, and she enjoyed going from pool to pool as usual! She also enjoyed venturing out into the mud and into the grass! She had a blast!

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate Avi Grace's birthday. We are so thankful to have such wonderful family and friends!

More pictures to come...these are from Abbi's camera, and I still need to get the ones from my mom's camera. So, enjoy this preview! I'll post more as soon as I get them. It will be later in the week!

She's growing up so fast!

2008-08-20T17:47:00.013-05:00

Avi Grace was 11 months last Tuesday, August 12th. And, we have the beginnings of a walker! She had been taking a a step here and there, but on Saturday she stood up for the first time from a sitting position without pulling up on something. Then she took some steps. It has only progressed since then. Today at the babysitters she took about 11 or 12 steps without stopping! She has been walking from one place to the next this evening at home as well. It is so cute. She walks some and then crawls some...I think she realizes that crawling is still the easiest way to get where she wants to go! I have captured some video of her walking, but of course I still can't post video from home...I guess my Internet connection is too slow.

Yesterday morning before we left the house I was emptying the dishwasher, and Avi Grace was playing on the floor in the kitchen. I was putting up the last of the dishes and when I turned around, this is what I found (I promise I did NOT stage this picture...Drew accused me of staging it, but that is simply where I found her!)!

She was so proud of herself! I just had to laugh at that adorable smile. The following pictures also depict one of her favorite pastimes (yes, this is how you spell that word...had to look it up, though!)! She loves to open and close cabinet doors. I have locks on the ones that she doesn't need to get into, thankfully.

Avi Grace also LOVES to open and close books and to turn the pages of books. Sometimes it occupies her for 15 to 20 minutes, which at this point is a long time for her to do one thing!

This past Saturday afternoon/evening our Sunday School class had a party at the Overstreet's family farm. It was so much fun. We had baby pools for the kiddos, some of the older children got to ride horses, and we cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. Avi Grace had a blast in the baby pools. I brought a little pink one for her because I knew the older children would be a little more rowdy than she might be ready for...however, she wanted to check out all three of the pools! She went from pool to pool to pool! Avi Grace also found a very gentle dog to play with. Since the first time she saw a dog, Kay's golden retriever puppy, she has loved them. She usually just laughs and chases them. Well, this dog was little luckier than that! She was so excited that she put her hand right in his mouth! Thankfully the dog was very gentle and let her do whatever she wanted to do to it (she also loves my sister's cat, Tang, that she gets super excited about when she is at my parents' house!). Anyway, thanks Kane and Katey for your gracious hosting!

Finally, here's just a favorite pic of mine that I took of her while she was playing with ALL of her toys! I can't resist her smile!

Oh yeah, and I got her some adorable pink Sunday shoes that squeak when she walks (she has them on in the pictures of her opening and closing the cabinets. She wore them Sunday to church for the first time, and she loved them! It was funny. She would stomp her feet just to make them squeak! AND, I can't believe I forgot this one...AG is completely off the bottle!! She hasn't had a bottle since last Friday, so it has been almost a week now! It is crazy. She has been eating table food SO well, and she was already down to just 3 bottles...one midmorning, one midafternoon and one before bed. She had kind of tapered off on the one before bed already, so we finally just tried to go a day (Saturday) without the bottle, and it didn't phase her. So, she hasn't had one since! You have NO idea how thankful we are that she kind of gave them up on her own! She is now fully on whole milk and eating table food like a big girl! Did I mention how quickly she is growing up??

Heart O Dixie

2008-08-02T16:16:00.005-05:00

Last weekend Drew competed in the Heart O Dixie Triathlon. It started in Louisville at Lake Tiak-O'Khata with a 1/2 mile swim. Then they biked 27 miles to Philadelphia, MS, and finally they did a 7 mile run to the Neshoba County Fairgrounds. Drew did great...finished in 2 hours 52 minutes. I think he was proud of himself, and I was definitely proud of him. I couldn't have even THOUGHT about doing any of it! Here are a few pictures of Drew starting the bike ride. Our friend Jeanne Holland took these and sent them to me--thanks, Jeanne (I forgot my camera!). Anyway, I've spared you the pics of Drew in his Tri-shorts only...I'm sure he will appreciate that as well! Avi Grace stayed with Drew's mom while I went to support Drew in the Triathlon.

I took this picture of Avi Grace napping yesterday afternoon. It had gotten late, and I had to wake her up from her nap so she would still go to bed on time, and I got the sweetest picture of her in her bed sucking her thumb. Unfortunately she has been sick since Wednesday afternoon late. She started running a fever and I finally took her to the pediatrician on Friday morning. He said her throat looked horrible and she had some secondary ear troubles. She seems to be feeling a little better this afternoon, thankfully. I hope she is on the mend!

Checking Cows...and other tidbits

2008-07-06T13:50:00.003-05:00

We have a daily ritual of checking the cows with Drew each evening just before bath time. This is when Avi Grace gets to go riding on the Polaris Ranger to go check and see how the cows are doing. Sometimes we have to move them and sometimes we just feed some of them. It all depends on what daddy says we have to do that day! AG loves riding on the Polaris (thanks Papa, my dad, for letting us borrow it for an extended period of time!). She usually gets pretty sleepy while we are riding, but she loves to go outside and take a ride. I've been wanting to take some pictures of her with the cows for some time now, but it just hadn't worked out to be the right day. On Thursday, however, I was able to capture some cute video and some pics of Avi Grace and daddy with the cows!

We had a good 4th of July weekend. I tried to get some cute pics of AG in her red, white and blue dress. She didn't really want to cooperate, so I just snapped some quickly! It was a cute dress, though. Unfortunately AG started running a fever on Saturday. She did not have any symptoms really...only fever. She felt a little better today, and hopefully will be back to her old self tomorrow!

The other picture is after her bath the other evening. She had some wild hair, so I made Drew take a picture!

P.S. I have been trying to post the cow checking video for 3 days now...it won't post from my home computer for some reason. I'll post it the next time I am at my office. Thankfully I am off in July (yipee!), so it may be a bit before I get it posted. Enjoy the pics for now.

Laughing with Daddy

2008-07-02T21:14:00.005-05:00

We love to make Avi Grace laugh! This was a funny video that I captured yesterday. She laughs the most (for some reason) in the late afternoon when she is tired. Enjoy! P.S. Sorry about the sideways video. I have tried to turn it, and it won't do it for me! I'll keep trying.

Grunting...cause I'm frustrated!

2008-07-02T21:07:00.006-05:00

About a month and half ago or so Avi Grace went through a phase where she liked to grunt about everything...anytime she couldn't get to something she wanted, she would grunt and make fists with both hands. It was pretty entertaining. Enjoy this video of her "grunting." By the way, her best grunts are toward the end!

Look mom, I'm standing!

2008-07-02T21:03:00.001-05:00

Standing up in her bed in the morning!

This is how I found my child about a week ago...standing in her bed when I went in to get her in the morning! She thought it was great. I can't believe she is able to go from a lying down position to sitting up to now standing up in her bed. She is growing up way too quickly!

One more picture

2008-06-24T20:57:00.001-05:00

Avi Grace loves looking at herself in the mirror! Sometimes I put her in the sink in the bathroom and let her just talk to herself! I love this picture.

Pictures from the previous post!

2008-06-24T20:41:00.008-05:00

"Food Explosion"

"Eating a graham cracker"

"Chilling in my swing"

"Playing with daddy!"

Sorry it took so long to post the pictures! Avi Grace is so sweet. I just can't get enough of her, but I guess that is how it should be since I am her mother! She just started eating graham crackers in the past few days, and she is loving them!! If you look closely at the "food explosion" pic, you will see that she has a little bit of food in her hair! It is hard to see in the picture, but it is there!

Da da da da...enough already!

2008-06-12T21:26:00.003-05:00

Avi Grace started saying Da da da da several weeks ago. Then she took a break from it for about a week or so. Then when we were at the beach, she said Ma ma ma several times. I was SO excited. Of course when we got home all she would say was Da da da da, ba ba, ga ga, etc. She still hasn't said Ma ma ma for Drew, OF COURSE! I keep saying it over and over again to her, but she doesn't want to cooperate. Hopefully it will come soon!

Avi Grace is 9 months old today. It is hard to believe that she has now been around as long as I carried her in my belly! That is a weird thought! Anyway, she is doing so many things these days. She is babbling all the time (of course not ma ma yet). She started "crawling" on Sunday. I put quotes around crawling because I have to say it is some sort of modified crawl. I guess you could call it a monkey crawl. She pushes with one foot and has the other knee down. I guess all that matters is that it gets her where she wants to go. She is still pretty slow at this point, but the nice thing is that she quickly figured out how to get from a crawling position to a sitting position. The first day or so she would just stay in the crawling position until she got tired of it and then she would start to get upset. It is nice that she can now get back to sitting by herself! She still loves to walk with someone holding her hands. She can scoot on those little legs if you will hold her hands! She almost runs to where she wants to go and then she plops down. It is pretty funny. My mom gave her some plastic eggs for Easter, and she has really just now begun to play with them. I like them because they keep her entertained. She likes them because they are a challenge! They get away from her easily and they roll and turn and finally stop and then she'll crawl over to them. As she tries to reach for them, they roll away...it is a fun game!

She is also trying to clap her hands. She doesn't do it on command, but I see her doing it often. That is fun. I am trying to get her to pat a cake, but we haven't mastered that yet! She will also drink from a sippy cup when she wants to. I started giving it to her with water in it about 3 or 4 weeks ago just to let her start playing with it and get used to it. She still mostly likes to bite on it and play with the cup, but she will take drinks out of it too if she is thirsty.

The most frustrating thing that she is doing is spitting her food. She thinks it is hysterical. I am trying to teach her NO, but she doesn't quite understand that either. Yesterday I was feeding her, and right as I put a spoonful of food in her mouth she spit (she usually at least waits until the food is halfway down before she spits). The food exploded all over her face, into her hair, and all over me. Needless to say, this did not make me happy! So, in a stern voice I said, No Ma'am and I pointed my finger at her. She died out laughing...I mean belly laughing. She thought that was just the funniest thing. I stopped feeding her at that point!

We also took her swimming at the Sanderson Center (the MSU indoor pool) last Sunday. She LOVED it. For some reason the water was pretty cold. She was shaking she was so cold at one point, but she loved it and didn't want to get out! It was cute.

I have some pictures to post of the "food" incident and some others, but I don't have the energy to post them right now. I'll post them soon, I promise!

Missing the Beach!

2008-06-01T14:09:00.001-05:00

We had a wonderful time at the beach! Avi Grace was an angel. Of course, she did have 7 people giving her everything that she wanted for 5 days straight! She loved the beach and the pool! She loved to splash in the pool, and she loved for me to lift her off the side of the pool into the water. The only time she cried while we were gone was when we tried to put her down for naps and she knew she was missing something in the other room! There was too much going on for her to nap! Wishing we were still there...

Greetings from Destin

2008-05-29T08:49:00.000-05:00

Well, we got to Destin yesterday and got to go to the beach late yesterday afternoon. This was Avi Grace's first trip to the beach, and she loved it! She played in the sand and let the water run up over her feet. She had a great time yesterday! I'll post more pics when we get home this weekend. Have a great week!

Visit with Cousins

2008-05-21T20:59:00.001-05:00

On Monday we got to visit with Laura, my cousin, and her daughter Taylor, aunt Betty Sue and Uncle Wimp! They were kind enough to drive all the way to Starkville from Rolling Fork to visit with us. This was the first time for Laura and Taylor to meet Avi Grace, and only the second time for me to see Taylor! We had a very nice visit, and I am so thankful they took the time to come and visit! Yes, Laura, I know what you are saying right now...I only posted a picture of the back of your head! Blame it on your mom! She took the pictures! Just kidding aunt Betty Sue!!

Happy 90th Birthday Memom (yesterday!)

2008-05-19T21:05:00.003-05:00

Memom and Avi Grace

The Anthony Family

On Saturday, we went to a wonderful SURPRISE 90th birthday party for Drew's grandmother, affectionately known in our family as Memom. We had so much fun. Memom seemed very surprised! We got to visit with cousins that we don't get to see very often. We got to meet the newest addition to the family, little Hannah (Drew's cousin's daughter). Thanks Gwen and Johnny (Drew's aunt and uncle) for hosting all of us and for making this such a special birthday for Memom!

Daddy's Mishap

2008-05-09T20:49:00.004-05:00

Well, before this morning I thought Daddy's were good for something (yes, I know that sounds harsh...keep reading). Last night I took dinner to a friend who had a baby a few weeks ago and then went to a movie with some friends. Drew stayed home with Avi Grace. When I left he had her in the Baby Bjorn and they were having a good time. He gave her a bath and got her dressed for bed and fed her a bottle. Then he put her down for the night as usual. When I got home she was sound asleep...it was great. However, this morning I was in the shower when he got her up to feed her. When I saw that she was up, I went over to tell her good morning and my conversation with Drew went like this:

Drew: " You are never going to guess what I did last night."
Kelli: "What?"
Drew: "When I put her sleeper on her last night and put her down, I forgot to put a diaper on her."
Kelli: "You did what?"
Drew: "I forgot to put a diaper on her. The whole bed is soaked and she was soaked when I went in to get her this morning."
Kelli: "You are kidding right????!!"
Drew: "No."
Kelli: "How in the world could you forget to put a diaper on the child?"
Drew: "Well, you didn't put a diaper out for me like you did the other stuff."

EXCUSE ME????? Did my husband and my child's father just try to blame that fact that he did not put a diaper on our child on me?? Could he be serious about this?? Yes, he was!

So, Avi Grace slept all night in wet clothes and in a wet bed. She never cried once. What a tough, or very sleep little girl, we have! I cannot believe that she never cried or did anything to let us know that she was wet. Oh my poor sweetheart. Needless to say I gave her a bath this morning! She didn't seem too traumatized about the event. I sure am glad Drew found her like that this morning instead of me! And, thankfully I keep a waterproof "sheet" on top of her regular sheet on her bed, so all I had to do was take that off and the bed was fine...thankfully!

All in all, Drew is a great Dad most of the time. Last night's mishap was just one of those you have to tell because it is so darn funny and amazing that he could have actually done that. I'm sure it won't be the last stupid thing either one of us does when it comes to raising our child! Hope you got a good laugh from that one!

Had to share! Have a good weekend!

New Photos

2008-05-05T08:06:00.011-05:00

I meant to post this with the last pictures, but I forgot! About a week ago I took Avi Grace to have some pictures made. We spent about an hour and a half with 2 very talented photographers, Sarah Berry and Melissa Bell, in Mathiston, MS. We had a lot of fun taking pictures! Click on the link below to go to the photographers' blog where they have posted some of Avi Grace's pictures. You will have to scroll down some to find Avi Grace, but they are fantatstic! I got an email last night saying they had the proofs for me to look at...42 of them! I'm not sure how in the world I am going to choose! Enjoy looking at the pictures!

deja vu Photography

Such a big girl!

2008-05-04T18:35:00.003-05:00

Avi Grace is getting to be such a big girl! Yesterday I was getting ready when Avi Grace woke up, so Drew fixed her bottle and changed her diaper. He needed to brush his teeth so he could go outside to help vaccinate all of the calves we have running around here. Anyway, because we were both in the middle of getting ready, Drew propped Avi Grace up on some pillows on our bed, and she fed herself!! It was pretty funny!

Today we went to Brandon, MS to see Avi Grace's cousin, Madison, get baptized. It was a sweet baptism, and it was fun to visit with the whole family. Congratulations, Madison, on your baptism! We are proud of you!

Developing Every Day!

2008-04-23T11:03:00.002-05:00

She really enjoyed her carrots on this particular evening!
I love that smile!
I think I am going to have to take her mobile down soon because she pulls on it so hard that she is going to break it!
All smiles this morning before we left the house!

Wow! It seems like Avi Grace is just developing overnight! Yesterday she was really babbling and talking to us. She also REALLY wants to stand on her own. When I am holding her hands and she is standing, she wants to let go! I guess she is trying to tell me that she wants to do it on her own. I'm not so sure she is ready for that yet...or maybe I'm not ready for that yet! She FINALLY rolled over from her back to her tummy last night on her own! We have been "practicing" this every night for several months now, but she just hadn't quite gotten it together. She was getting more frustrated than anything. Thankfully she made it all the way over last night! We clapped for her and she got very excited! I think we almost scared her because we were so excited! We are having so much fun with Avi Grace! I love going home in the afternoons and having outside time with her. She LOVES to be outside, so we usually stay outside until it is time for her to go to bed!

OHHH, and she has gotten her first tooth!! The bottom right tooth popped through on Saturday (or at least that was when I felt it for the first time!). I had noticed she had been sticking out her tongue a lot, but now I realize she has just been feeling her tooth with her tongue! I'm sure it was a new texture for her!

A lot going on...

2008-04-04T08:42:00.011-05:00

Avi Grace seeing her first snow!
Avi Grace, Jack & Emily at an MSU basketball game

Avi Grace enjoying her swing

And she sleeps...

Love this picture of Avi Grace & Grandaddy!

Avi Grace playing with her great grandparents
& Great Aunt Susan on the back porch!

Sorry I have been a slacker blogger as of late. We have had a lot going on in our household! The last time I posted, I was sick. I ended up missing an entire week of work. I don't remember the last time I did that. Then Drew got sick...I guess it wasn't going to go away until we all had it! Then advising started at my work, and I have been swamped with paperwork and lots of appointments with students. I still have lots waiting on me right now on my desk! On Tuesday of this week, Avi Grace started a little stomach bug. She threw up 4 times on Tuesday, but then she was fine after that--slept all night and was fine on Wednesday. Then yesterday, she had a few not so fun diapers while she was with the babysitter and she threw up again yesterday evening. However, after that she slept fine all night. This morning she has thrown up again, so I am not really sure what is going on! Between her episodes she plays and seems to be fine. It is really strange. However, there has been a major stomach bug going around Starkville, and I guess it is going to just have to run its course. It is lasting a little longer than I would like for it to, though!

Anyway, I have had many pictures I needed to post, so i just posted them all today! Back at the beginning of March, we got a light dusting of snow one night. I was able to get a picture of Avi Grace in the snow before it all melted very quickly when the sun came out!! We also went to the MSU vs. LSU basketball game before spring break, and we managed to get a picture of the kids together--Avi Grace, Jack & Emily. We got Avi Grace a swing (actually a friend of ours--Kathy Parker--let us borrow the swing; thanks Kathy!). She LOVES it! She will sit and swing for 20-30 minutes and just look around and kick her feet and smile. She loves to be outside, and this just gives her a way to see everything!

Finally, great Grandmother and Granddaddy Elliott and Aunt Susan McAllister came to visit us last Saturday. We had lots of fun playing on the porch swing and being outside. We have 3 purple martin bird houses out in our yard, and we have about 12-16purple martins who live there. They are wonderful birds. Their singing is beautiful, AND they eat mosquitos!! Very nice! So, Avi Grace LOVES to look at the birds. When we walk over to the houses, the birds all fly out and swarm above us and she just looks at them and follows them as they fly around. It is fun to watch! She and Grandaddy walked out to see the birds together.

Well, hopefully this stomach bug will go away very soon. I just hope Drew and I don't get it! Y'all have a nice weekend.

What a Spring Break!

2008-03-18T12:56:00.010-05:00

Avi Grace with Uncle Billy, Great Memaw and Uncle Bobby

Avi Grace playing with Nana on the porch swing
Avi Katz, Avi Grace and Me

Vickie and Greta
Jack and Emily Playing in the bath tub!

Jack and Emily kissing!
Waiting out the carbon monoxide scare and visiting the fire department.
Avi Grace playing in the cabin

Well, I'm not really sure where to start. Our spring break was very eventful. On Sunday Nana Gayle came to visit from Texas. She kept Avi Grace for several days while I ran errands and tried to get us ready to leave on our trip. On that Monday, my grandmother and 2 uncles came to visit. Uncle Bobby had not seen Avi Grace yet, so it was fun to play with him. To start our trip off, on Tuesday afternoon, Avi Grace woke up with a slight fever. She didn't really have any other symptoms. We watched her and gave her tylenol for the fever. She slept well that night, so I wasn't too concerned about her. We got ready to leave for our trip on Wednesday morning. Avi Grace seemed to be feeling okay. So, we headed off to Birmingham to visit our friends at Children's Hospital and left our luggage with our friends to be packed in their vehicles. At Children's, we got to visit so many of the friends we made while Austin was in the hospital. We got to see Greta, Vickie, Jenny, and Angela--all nurses who took care of Austin in the NICU. We also visited with several dialysis nurses and Linda in the lactation center (we hate we missed Patty!). Avi Grace finally got to meet her namesake, Dr. Avi Katz, the nephrologist who took care of Austin. It was so great to see him and catch up. We've been wanting to make a trip to Children's for a while now, and this was the perfect time to be able to do it.

By mid afternoon on this day, Avi Grace wasn't feeling all that well. But, our friends the Adkersons and the Fountains picked us up at Children's to head on to Georgia. Avi Grace did okay on the trip...one melt down, but we made it. We got to our cabin at about 9:30 or 10 p.m. We were all tired! The cabin was very nice, though. On Thursday, the girls went to the grocery store and we spent the afternoon playing outside and wandering around downtown Blue Ridge. On Friday, the girls got to go to the outlet mall in Dawsonville, Georgia. Very nice mall, by the way! Drew kept Avi Grace all day by himself (and the other guys and kids) for the first time. He did a great job, and I was very proud of him.

On Friday night, we had some drama. About 30 minutes after dinner, the carbon monoxide detectors in the cabin started going off. It kind of freaked us out. We opened the windows to air things out, and they quit going off. However, right after we closed everything, they started going off again. We called the owners of the cabin, and they basically told us there was nothing they could do (they live in Atlanta), so we called 911, which is what the detectors said to do if they were flashing 4 times...and they were. The Fannin County Fire Chief, Chief Thomas, and several others from the fire department came to the cabin and when they first came in he detected a good bit of carbon monoxide, so we got the kids up and out in the sprinkling rain so they would not be exposed to the carbon monoxide any more than they already had been. Finally someone from the gas company came and realized that the gas tank outside was too low and that is why the gas from the stove and the furnace were not burning properly, thus producing carbon monoxide. So we really did have carbon monoxide in the cabin, but the gas company came back and filled the tank up, and we were okay again--AFTER we spent about 2 and a half hours with the fire department and the gas company!!!! It was MISERABLE! Thank goodness for the carbon monoxide detectors--if your house has any gas appliances or heat, you should definitely get one for your safety!

On Saturday most of us hung around the cabin and Blue Ridge, but Drew and Jonathan (Drew's brother who lives in Atlanta) hiked up to Springer Mountain on the Applachian Trail. I think that was probably the 2nd or 3rd time Drew had done that particular hike, but he was dying to hike. It was pouring down rain and hailing that day, but they went anyway! MEN! The rest of us went to the Blue Ridge Fire Department to let the kiddos see the fire trucks. Chief Thomas had invited us to come by when he was at the cabin the night before! Jack and Emily had a great time together on our trip! As you can see from the pictures, we might just have a litle romance budding!!

On Sunday, we headed back home. Avi Grace was a super girl on the way home, thankfully. She was very fussy while we were gone. I am sure she just didn't feel well and she was in an unfamiliar environment. She has developed a fairly bad cough since we got home, which is concerning. She has her 6 month checkup on Friday, so if she is not better by then, it will be a sick baby visit along with a well baby visit!

On top of everything, I started running fever on Saturday afternoon. I am still running fever now. I think I have the flu. I am VERY miserable. I wasn't looking forward to going back to work yesterday, but I would much rather be at work than feeling like I am feeling now. Please, I hope it goes away soon! I haven't felt this badly in a long time, in fact; I can't remember the last time I felt like this. I feel just well enough to sit up right now and type this blog post!

So, we had an eventful spring break. I think I have summed everything up in a not so short way. Sorry this is so long!

Loving some baby food...and my feet!

2008-03-07T19:08:00.010-06:00

Chilling in my bathtub!

Loving some carrots!

Eating my feet!

Avi Grace is LOVING some baby food these days! She eats oatmeal every morning when she wakes up, and then she eats various vegetables throughout the day. So far she has eaten green beans, green peas, carrots and squash. The first few times we gave her green beans and green peas, she would shudder! It was SO funny. Then, we got them warm enough, and she finally started liking them! As for the carrots and the squash, she will eat them straight out of the jar. She really likes the carrots! She ate an entire jar of carrots and squash the first time we gave them to her! Next we will try sweet potatoes and then move on to the fruits! I think we have an eater on our hands!

She is also sitting up pretty well on her own. You still have to be sitting right next to her because she tends to fall over easily (and not catch herself at all!). She isn't rolling over yet, but she is sitting up great! She had her first experience in a high chair at a restaurant yesterday. She did very well until she got tired of her toys!

We are off to the mountains in Georgia for part of next week during spring break. We are going with our friends the Adkersons and the Fountains. We are getting very excited! Just hoping AG does okay with the time change this weekend and the time change we will experience in Georgia!