Today is Avery's third birthday! She's been telling everyone all day long that she is '3'. What a fun day! Tomorrow will bring her bowling party with friends, but tonight was the family celebration. She loved all of her presents- thanks to all of you who remembered her and were so generous! She really was so excited! She can't wait to start playing with all of her new toys!
We were able to enjoy the 2nd Annual Avery's Birthday Seb-ee-get-ee (aka spaghetti) Dinner. It's still her favorite meal and Erica and Ella were able to join us this year.
Here's Avery enjoying her favorite new present. She's been wanting binoculars for some time now... who knows why, I'm sure its something to do with a tv show, but binoculars have been her only request. So, here she is in adventure mode, crouched down, looking through the new bicocs.... backwards?
And finally, enjoying her cupcakes!
And since Avery shares her birthday with her friend Hopey, here's a special treat just for her! Happy Birthday Hopey!!!
It's Friday night and Avery's on her way to sleep, and Steph suggested that I blog about a couple cute things Avery said tonight (and that she's said a few times lately).
So one thing is that we've sporadically been praying before bedtime, whenever Avery or one of us remembers it. Most times Avery makes me or Mommy do the talking, but the past few nights she's done the talking, and it's been sooooooooo sweet. Here's her quoted prayer from tonight...
"Dear God, thank you for all the help. Thank you for Mommy, and Daddy, and Avery, and me, and all the people in the town. Amen." She then repeated the exact same prayer two more times, and then we were done. She's such a cute little thankful girl (even if we're not sure what she's talking about sometimes).
Then a while later, since she rarely falls right to sleep these days, she was shouting to us through the wall as she does a few times a night on her way to sleep. After shouting to ask for a differnet blankie, and then also asking Mommy to come help her get under the covers, it was quiet for a few minutes. But then a commercial for the office came on in the living room with its loud theme music, and Avery says, "Mommy? You watching the Office? That's Daddy's favorite show." She cracks us up sometimes.
Hi there, everybody. This is Jeff, finally getting around to putting some photos on our blog again. We were quite busy for a while there, and then I think we just got out of the habit of posting, and well... enough excuses, LET'S SEE SOME PICS!
I'm planning to go sort of chronologically as we catch up on photos, and here's a disclaimer that there are quite a few of these things. But I figured there are some folks out there who have been in Avery-withdrawal, and need a heavy dose, and I'm happy to oblige.
The first pictures are of Avery going to visit Santa at the mall back in December. She was excited about it, and happy as we threw money in the fountain...
...and SIGNIFICANTLY less excited when she actually met Santa...
... and then eventually willing to pose and smile, at a safe distance from him. (Isn't it weird that he's not wearing a red suit, by the way? Huh. I wonder if it's some kind of Colorado thing or just an eccentric Santa.)
And then she was much happier to give a hug to an inanimate reindeer-shaped object.
So now we'll fast-forward to a few pics from Christmas in Arizona. Avery got lots of fun stuff, including the coolest little indoor trampoline ever from Steph's folks. She was also a great little helper to Daddy as they make pumpkin bread together.
Hey all. Sorry about the lack of posting lately. I don't know what's wrong with us. What is it that can renew my interest in blogging?? Maybe lots of comments that tell me people actually read this??!!
We had a great trip to Arizona. In fact, this is the first blog on our hotshot new laptop and wireless connection that Jeff slaved over! We had great weather both directions for the drive- long drive with an almost 3 year old!! We tried the whole "drive at night thing so our kid can sleep" and boy that didn't work very well. She didn't sleep that awesome and Jeff was "dizzy" and not really seeing the road well upon arrival in Scottsdale at 3 a.m.
Avery was
soooo into Christmas this year! It was great- she was so excited to open presents- the four Christmas' she got to celebrate definitely spoiled her! But she was so thankful and loves all of her toys, books and clothes! Anyone seen the movie Babe? Ya know that part when the granddaughter gets her awesome dollhouse and then throws a big fit because its the wrong one?? I had nightmares of Avery doing that. She's been known to be a little particular and
volatile. So, we had a little talk about being thankful. Holy smokes I've never seen a talk work so well with a two-year old! How did that happen? She kept telling grandma and grandpa thank you for everything! It was nice to see her so appreciative for at least a little while!
Shortly after Christmas came Avery's first bout with the stomach flu. Jeff and I were out and about shopping while Grandpa was babysitting (Grandma was already down with the flu). And poor Avery wakes up throwing up- no clue what's happening, and poor Grandpa had to deal with a distraught little girl- he does not like to see his
grandkids cry! We weren't too far away and rushed home to help the little
puker. She survived and was tearing around in a few days.
We got to visit with only a couple of friends. Family and sickness took up most of the time, so hopefully we can catch everyone in March. Jeff's Dad and Step-mom came out to watch the ole'
IU Hoosiers play in the Insight Bowl. We went too and had fun despite
IU's play.
So, that's the Smith Family Christmas break! Someday we'll put pictures on the blog again.
Hi Friends! The Smith Family home is under quarantine, so we've not been posting much lately. Avery had croup all last week and now I'm sick, so the energy/interest to post is on the back burner. Maybe when we get to sunny AZ. Santa photos to come soon... gotta go blow my nose.
Hi Folks! The Smith's have been MIA for a while... not for any reason in particular, we just haven't taken that many photos lately! So let's catch up!
Early November brought a really fun reunion with my (
Steph's) friends from high school. We get together every two years or so and have a relaxing, no-kids weekend! There is something so refreshing about being with people that you have such history with! While we may not talk as often as we'd like and we're spread out all over the world, there is such refreshment in getting together and hearing each others lives, making each other laugh, and sharing each others hurts. I love it! This year we were fortunate enough to go to a cabin near
Heber, AZ. There were seven of us that were able to attend this year- representing 20 kids! There were lots of funny stories, a ton to catch up on, junk food to consume, cheesy movies to watch, naps to take... does it get any better??!! Who wouldn't want to spend a weekend with these awesome women??
With the start of the holiday season, I've been working a crazy amount of hours. Jeff's been crazy busy at school- he's revamping a physics unit for his team of teachers that teach the freshman science class... yikes. This team teaching stuff bring out Jeff's
perfectionistic side! So, we didn't really see much of each other for a while.
Then, Adam and Stacey came for Thanksgiving!!! YEAH!!! It was so awesome to have family around on our first holiday away from Indiana! Avery loves Uncle Adam and Auntie Stacey, so it was a great week! We didn't do too much that was exciting. We had one nice day early in the week and I took Stacey on my favorite bike ride. The got to see Avery at tumbling class! Avery enjoyed showing off all of her skills for Daddy and Stacey! Then it got really cold and snowed- which Adam loved- sometimes he's a little crazy like that. I'll say, for a bunch of rookies in the Thanksgiving dinner preparation area, our dinner came out pretty good! Not too much of it was from scratch or anything, but everything was relatively hot at the same time, nothing was too burned- pretty impressive!
I worked at 6 am on Black Friday- yikes!!! Then, we went and bought our Christmas tree!!! We watched Christmas movies, decorated our tree, and put presents under it for "Christmas morning". Yup, that's right, the Bouse's and the Smith's did Christmas morning on Saturday morning! It was soo fun to see how excited Avery was! Grandma and Grandpa Smith sent some gifts for Avery with the Bouse's, so she got lots of fun stuff!
Here's the sign of a good Christmas... Avery is wearing her new dress-up dress, playing with her new cash register! Doesn't get any better!
She's finally gotten the idea of naming her toys something other than their title- her stuffed cat is 'kitty cat', stuffed Bambi is 'Bambi'. But, she got a new stuffed puppy and the above seen penguin- they are now Erin the puppy, Bob the penguin, and a Christmas decoration she found is Jo the Moose! So fun!
Hi All! Here are Avery's Halloween pics. She had a great time trick-or-treating in Erica's neighborhood! She couldn't believe that she just kept getting more and more candy. After every house she'd shout, "Oh boy, Oh boy!!!"
Erica's neighborhood was really fun- what I remember Halloween being. Tons of kids everywhere, people just walking in the street safely, all of the houses participating, and tons of streetlights and sidewalks! Muncie folk, you know why I appreciate the light and sidewalks!
Avery ended up spending most of her time with a little guy that was a bit younger than she was- a neighbor. He was dressed as a little bear. She kept saying, "come on little bear, let's go!" She continually refrenced him by little bear instead of his name... sorta cute!
She has since forgotten all about her stash of candy... good for her, bad for us!!!
