Happy Birthday Avery

Our baby is one! I can not believe how times flies. I feel like she was born yesterday. It is sad to have our baby growing up so fast, but she is at such an awesome stage in her life that it makes it all worth it. She is such a happy little girl(if she is not sick!!) She laughs and talks and does something new everyday. I love you some much my little Aves!
For Avery's birthday we went to dinner with family. It was a wonderful way to celebrate. We had a nice dinner, opened presents and had some yummy cake. As you can see Avery loved the cake.
Papa, Mema and Avery Thank you to all of our wonderful family that joined us in celebrating! It really means a lot to all of us to have you there. The kids will have wonderful memories of their birthdays!
Another birthday celebration at Burger King with the Koster family. We go to lunch every Wednesday with all of us girls and the kids who are not in school. Avery's birthday happened to fall on Wed. so she got and extra celebration. We made cupcakes to share and of course Avery dug right into that!
Jackson and Jaideyn were so excited for Avery's birthday. It is so neat to see the brother and sister bond that they have with each other, especially at times like these. Both of the kids remembered as soon as they woke up to say happy birthday and they couldn't wait to give Avery their present. We have the little tradition in our family that on your birthday, as soon as we all wake up, the birthday kid gets to open one present first thing (as you can see it is done while everyone is still in jammies). What a fun day!

A whole lot of mischief going on!

For those of you who know Avery you will appreciate the fact that she is a very busy girl. And often times very innovative. Today she decided she needed to take a closer look at what was in this top drawer. So, she decided to pull down this basket (that usually sits on top of this table) and she placed it next to the table and climbed on top of it to get a better look! This may all seem very normal, but the child is only 11 months old. To me that seems a bit young to be getting into all this business! But, who knows maybe it is normal and it's extremely entertaining. We also laugh at how obvious it is that she is the third child. If one of the other kids would have done this at that age I would not of sat and watched and taken pics of it. I would have jumped to thier aid and made them get down. Oh Avery, we love you!!!

Jaideyn, Jaideyn, Jaideyn. So, her new thing is that she wants to feed Avery all the time now and share her food with Avery. It is very nice of her and I really appreciate it in the morning when I am trying to get ready. I just set Avery's breakfast on the table and Jaideyn feeds her. How nice is that. Well, today I made a little treat for the kids of graham crackers with chocolate frosting on it (thinking longingly of Sandy Pines and making smores). Anyways, I left the kids to eat their snack while I did a few things and when I came back in the room- this is what I found! Jaideyn was being a very nice big sister-I mean come on - what 11 month old child doesn't need chocolate frosting?! So, while she was being very nice I realized I need to do a better job of letting Jaideyn know what she can and can not share with Avery. It was a good laugh though!
One more cute pic of Avery. She now talks on the phone. It is so cute. She picks it up, puts it to her ear and says "hi" and sometimes she says "hi da-da".

To the dentist we go!

We knew that this day was coming, but it happened a lot sooner than we expected. Jackson had his first filling put in his teeth! I noticed a small brown spot on one of his back teeth and decided we better call Dr. Kevin. Jackson first had his teeth cleaned by Ms. Jill. He loves to go and visit the dentist. He gets excited to use "Mr. bumpy" (the toothbrush) and "Mr. Slurpy" ( the sucking straw). He sat so good and when it was all done he said "Mom, can we come back and visit sometime soon?" Dr. Kevin was very happy to hear those words!!
After Ms. Jill cleaned his teeth it was time for the fateful filling. I was nervous about how Jackson would do. I hate getting filling, so I couldn't imagine how a 5 year old could handle it. Well, he proved me very wrong. He laid in that chair completely intrigued by the whole situation. He did not move a muscle and got excited for each new step in the process. (Even the shot didn't bother him.) So, anyways, he has a beautiful new filling and a wonderful memory of the dentist!

Fun in the last month

So, we have had a busy and fun month. We did alot of sledding, celebrated Christmas and the new year and just had FUN! Here is Jaidey and her friend getting ready to go sledding!
More sledding. In the winter I sure am glad for the big obnoxious hill in the back yard- in the summer, not so much!
Setting up the Christmas tree. This night to me is ALMOST as fun and exciting as Christmas day. I love setting up the tree and decorations. It is getting more fun now that the kids are able to help and enjoy it also.
The finished product- and two goof balls!

As I have stated before I have no idea how to move the pics around, and no matter what order I upload them in they still just go all over. So, these pics are in completely random order and I apologize. Again, if anyone knows how to move the pics, please fill me in!

Anyways, Uncle Mark came home for awhile to celebrate Christmas. We love having him home and try to spend as much time with him as we can!
Opening presents with Papa and Mema "sandy". We had so much fun opening presents with the kids. It was awesome the have the ENTIRE family there this year. Usually we are missing one!
Avery's first Christmas. As usual, she like the paper and boxes more than the actual gift!
A very excited Jackson! He finally got "shark attack" which he has been asking for for months.
Jaideyn got a new princess sleeping bag and is loving it!

More sledding!
Uncle Chad came home for Christmas, which we all love! We spent as much time with him as possible.
We celebrated Christmas with the kids. One of their favorite things is to dig into their stockings!
We celebrated Christmas with our extended family. I thought that since the kids were all dressed up and looking nice I would try to get a cute pic of them. As evidence from this photo, family pics are not really an option right now!