Our dear Avery

This one is dedicated to our little Aves. She is growing up much too fast and it often makes me sad, but on the other hand she is learning so much and amazes me every day with what she can do! She is still extremely photogenic as you can see! That explains why I have still not gotten her one year pics taken. Its not the 3rd child syndrom, its simply the fact that she does not smile and does not take fabulous pics. I am hoping as time goes on she will get better at this so that we can get her one year pics done!
Tim yells at me for this, (maybe it brings him back to the twin days!) but I just think that it is too cute when the girls are dressed alike. I thought that I would never do it, but on a whim I bought them the same spring dresses and I just love to see them dressed alike. I know its not the best pic, but it is all I could get!
And here is our Miss Independant!

So, I just love these pics. They were taken at random at the mall one night and I didn't know how special they would be! The first pic Papa and Mema are looking down and enjoying Aves. The next pic Aves is looking up lovingly at Papa and Mema. How awesome that I caught that in the pics. It sets the scene perfectly. Papa and Mema adore Aves and Avery adores her Papa and Mema!

We love you so much Papa and Mema and (as you can see) we treasure every minute that we spend with you!

Avery is a very independant girl in many ways and she is also a mamas girl. She always knows what she wants and is sure to tell us what she wants. It is actually rather cute. If we ask her something she will shake her head yes or no and she always knows what we are talking about. Also she has quite the vocabulary. Just for fun I am going to list her words!

dada - which much to Tim's delight she has been saying for months!

mama- which she just started saying about a month ago and I was so excited, now I'm not so sure! I hear mama at least 50 times a day!

Sorry, I must have hit something that double spaced the writing and I can't figure out how to get rid of it.

papa- melts papas heart

bubba- Jackson

Jaidey

doggie-refers to every animal!

piggies- toes

kitty- she figured this one out

up- when she wants mom to hold her (as if the constant momma isn't enought to get my attention!)

Rora- Dora

Abby- our babysitter!!!!!! ( One day about 3 days after Abby watched her- Avery came up to me and said "Abby" unbelievable- she really loves you Abby)

All nunight- Avery pretends she is sleeping

All dirty- this has several meanings- one is when I am changing her diaper she always says it, also when she is done eating I ask if she needs to be wiped up and she shakes her head yes and says "all dirty" and it also is said if she is playing outside and falls or gets her hands dirty she looks at me and says "all dirty!"

I think that is about it. We love you so much Avery! We look forward to you continuing to grow and learn and to amaze us. We thank God for you everyday!!

Chicken hair!!!

Our overnight vacation!

On April 11 we went to the Holiday Inn Express with our friends. We had so much fun (or should I say that the kids had so much fun!) We got there at about 4:00 and headed right to the pool area. All 3 of the kids had a great time in the pool and enjoyed running around.
Avery loves the water and thinks that she can swim. She likes to walk around in the water, but does not like to hold my hand. I let her go one time and of course she fell face first into the water. I grabbed her and sat her up and she laughed and thought it was funny! We had to keep a very close eye on her. She was only with us for about an hour and a half and then Grandpa and Grandma came to pick her up. Thank you Dad and Mom for having Avery for the night. It made things much quieter!! (Please notice Jaideyn jumping into the pool in the background!)
Jackson is a fish. He is getting so old. What I love about this place is that the whole pool is shallow and so we can basically just let Jackson do his own thing!
This is not a great pic, but it is of Jackson and Jaideyn enjoying putting their feet in the hot tub.
Here they are again with friend Ashley. We had a wonderful time and we look forward to going back sometime soon.

The pet show

Saturday we went to the pet expo at the Delta Plex. Our kids are so afraid of animals and we thought this would be good for them. Tim was not too excited about this but I just kept telling him that this will be a great "life experience" for our kids. So, off we went. It was nothing fabulous, but the kids got to see all the animals in a controlled environment and most of the time felt comfortable enough to actually pet them!
We also learned alot about the kids. Avery will pet anything you put in front of her and she really thought it was neat!
Jackson pet all the dogs, cats, bunnies and ponies- but would not even consider touching the snakes, lizards and crocs!
Jaideyn would not even consider touching the dogs, cats, bunnies or ponies- but did not hesitate for even a second to pet the snakes, lizards and crocs.
This was all extremely interesting to us. We have always know that the kids are annoyingly afraid af animals, but to see what they would and would not pet was fun.
All in all we had a good time and we will definately try to go back next year. Hopefully it has eased the kids fears a bit, but you never know!

Round two!

This past week Jaideyn was sitting on the arm of the couch (which I have told her not to do 100 times) and she fell of and went face first into the little table sitting next to the couch. She got the corner of the table right in between her eyes! Suprisingly there was no blood lost - only tears!
She is fine, but it was a bit scary for dad and mom!

The girls!

These didn't turn out too bad. Avery is so photogenic I love it! Oh well, we love her to pieces anyways.

The pictures say it all!

Avery says "What mom? Are you still talking and am I supposed to be listening???"

On this beautiful Easter morning we got all dressed up and ready for Church. We then went to the Koster household to have dinner with the fam. I had this great idea that since the kid's were all dressed so nice I should take some family pictures. Of course in my mind I was so excited to get a recent photo of all the kids together and thought this would be perfect! Well, as always, I was wrong. Those of you with 3 little ones will understand. It is next to impossible to get all 3 of them looking in the same spot at the same time, and then expect a smile! Needless to say, my plan failed, but I thought that you might get a good laugh. Looking at these pictures says alot. It is like a little window into Jill's life!

Jackson at his best. Always the little goof ball!
On the bright side- no one is crying, yelling or hitting each other. So, I suppose its not so bad. They are truly enjoying each other and that it awesome to see! Better luck next time with the pic -hopefully!