Payton's 3rd Birthday Party!

Avery and I went to Payton's Birthday Party at Amazone Playland in Medina this morning. When Avery saw the tunnels she said "I'm not going in there!" About 4 months ago my mom, Avery, my Aunt and her granddaughter went to McDonald's and let the girls play. Aila who is 5 took Avery up in the tunnels and guess Avery got scared and refused to move so my mom had to climb up and get her! Luckily there was a slide which didn't require crawling through tunnels only over some obstacles and after I went down with Avery a few times she then decided she could do it by herself (thank goodness)! This was Avery's first time in a playland other than McD's. I wish we lived closer to things like this - Avery had a ball!


Payton and Avery.


Other things Avery like doing......

Avery and Payton

I bet Avery went down that slide 50 times!!!


Getting brave "look mom no hands!"

Time for pizza and cupcakes.

mmmmmm.....frosting!

Presents!

My little monkey!


Getting ready to leave....yea let's have some more frosting!

Avery informed me she was not going to sleep....10 mins into the drive she was out till we got to Wooster (so she slept about 20 mins) and then I had to make a few stops and the little stinker wouldn't go back to sleep not even when we got home around 3:15 then we had a fundraiser to go to so she went to Mimi and Pop-Pop's and she was still up at 10:45pm when we picked her up!!! Good grief! She fell asleep on way home and woke up when Josh put her in bed, I laid down with her at 11:30 and she was out and got up at 7:30 and I laid with her again and she went back to sleep till 8:20. I'm hoping for a good nap today :) Oh ya after napping 4 hours (on Sunday) we woke her up!!

Window Shopping!

Since moving into our house, Nov. 19, 2005, we've done a lot of improvements and windows were always on our list to do but it came down to $$ (as does most things)! We thought we would replace them in April 2006 when we did our siding, gutters and shutters but again it was so expensive! Finally this year we decided to spend our tax refund on windows since Josh knew how to put them in himself AND since we had replaced the windows in our rental house last Fall we got a bit of a discount :) Yea! We got 17 new windows and folks that is still not all the windows we have! We started on Friday night, all day Saturday (THANKS so much for Proper's for helping all afternoon on Sat!) and we finished the last 4 on Sunday morning! I forgot how messy/dirty it is to remodel and when you are living in the house at the same time you need to clean ASAP! I could replace a window now but would need some muscles to get it done.


The old windows.


Josh's dad came just in time to help with the big picture window.


New windows. Look about the same except Josh wanted the upper part to have a grid. I could tell a difference in the noise already...so much quieter in our house yea, especially when you live in town!

Another new window.

All our old windows! Now I won't have an excuse not to have clean windows since these tilt in for "easy" cleaning :) WHEN Spring arrives we will take off our storm windows and have somebody come and wrap the windows on the outside then I will take a picture of them from the outside. It is so nice to finally have new windows that open easily, stay open, can clean and will save us $$ in the long run!

Happy Valentines Day!

I decided to take a picture of Avery every day the week before Valentines Day in an outfit that had hearts on it (and was I surprised I STILL had clothes with hearts on them that she didn't wear...oh my! ;)





Mimi she didn't like her heart marshmallow....just like her mommy on that one :)





Mimi notice she is holding the chocolated dipped rice krispie treat she thinks you made for her....she had to take it to Nana's and I told her after her nap she could have it!


LOVE this picture!


My hot chocolate shortbread cookies.....WON'T be making these again. I hate baking! They were dry (I even baked them 20 mins less then what it said too!) which I know shortbread is supposed to be dry but they were just kinda blah. Even dipped in milk they were just so-so.


Avery LOVED the icing I made and the pink sprinkles I put on.


She took one bit and said "I don't like these mama....but I do like the icing and sprinkles and my milk"...ahhh how sweet.











Ready to go to Church



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OK sooooo we had a busy day Valentines Day....go to church, come home, get lunch, run an errand for my Aunt, made icing and cookies, Avery naps, she doesn't get up till 5 and we head to Proper's for Coccia House pizza and don't get home till almost 9!!! I'm laying in bed and realize I never gave Avery her Valentine Bag :( So today after work I give her surprise and she was so excited and said "mommy thank you so much you did good for my surprise.....it was a great day!" and gave me a big hug and kiss!


She was so excited with her candy and heart stickers.


I found sweet tarts that said LOVE BUG just like her jammies :)


I LOVE you Avery, yesterday, today and tomorrow too! I thank GOD for you every day!! Happy Valentines Day!

Avery's Tricks

Avery thought of these tricks all by herself. She's been doing them since Dec/Jan and I finally got around to taking pictures of them.


1

2

3 ta-da! She does a somersault with a blanket around her.

She can jump high!

and kick her legs out!

She can also kick the ball with both feet AT THE SAME TIME!!! I think this is amazing and takes some coordination!

SNOW MUCH FUN!

Josh wanted Avery and I to go play in the snow with some of our fellow jeepers on Sunday morning. I really didn't want to go but glad I did then!! I think snow is my favorite!!! We had SNOW much fun and Avery liked it too! After taking maybe 10 pictures my camera batteries died as did my cell phone!! Denise and Tab had their cameras and so they sent me some of their pictures (it is hard to take pictures of yourself though and the one time I did get out to take pictures the snow was SOOOO deep!) What's nice is the snow doesn't make a mess like mud does!

I think this picture is so cool with the old barn

Jared and Jason Hawkins

Jarod and Tab Hawkins - awesome picture!

Our Jeep

Us :)

Love the blue sky!

This was SOOO cool...we didn't walk down the hill but Denise still got some great pictures.

She looks a little concerned, maybe cuz I told her she had to pee in the snow..lol...2 little drops and she said "I can't mama!" ahhh, felt bad for her b/c it was cold!