Friday, July 24, 2009

Avery's Sweet Shop Featured on the Creative Parties and Showers Blog

YEAH! I can barely contain my excitement. As most of you know I absolutely love planning parties - of any kind, but especially kid birthday parties. Travis thinks I'm crazy, but gets a kick out of how much I love doing this. The great news came this morning when I found out that Avery's 1st birthday - Avery's Sweet Shop will be the featured party on Creative Parties and Showers today. Please go check it out, http://www.creativepartiesandshowers.blogspot.com/.



Also, let me know if I can help you with any of your party needs, I absolutely love doing this.



jenny.hacker@gmail.com

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Good Night






The kids love playing for a little bit after their baths. Here's a perfect example. Since Avery got a big girl chair for her birthday that is now in her room, Brock has also decided to move his chair to her room so they can sit in them together. Notice how they are not in their own chairs.

Good Night!

Lake, Pool and Ice Cream




Mommy, Daddy and Avery tubing. Yeah, we know she is only 14 months old, but we were going really slow.






Playing on the new tube...although Brock won't ride on it behind the boat, he loves to jump off it when the boat is stopped or when we tie it to the dock.

Canon BALL.....


Ah, our ice cream princess...
She sat in her little chair for probably 20 minutes or so eating away at her ice cream cone. What you don't see is Bella eyeing her the entire time and waiting for the perfect moment to snatch the cone. She eventually succeeded and Avery was not too happy.


We haven't been to the lake much this summer, but decided to go up last weekend before I left Sunday afternoon for Orlando (for work of course).

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Happy 29th Birthday Travis!

Today is Travis' birthday for all of you who don't know. Although I had to work today, I made sure to get everything ready for a great dinner and birthday celebration last night. It's been a long week at work and I wasn't sure when I'd get home. Travis spent the day with the kids and his mom stopped by for a few hours. We had to take Avery back to the doctor this morning to get her blood tested again for her hemogloblin level and it has gone up 6/10 of a point. We're now up to 10.8, which is good news. We go back again in 4 weeks for another test. Let's hope it continues to go up on its own while we pump her full of iron-rich foods.

We had a lovely dinner as a family - grilled marinated flank steak, twice baked potatoes (Travis' favorite), fresh green beans and for dessert - homemade coconut cake. Now Travis, Brock and Avery all enjoyed the cake and it looked good to me, so we were all happy. My office friends will all get to enjoy the leftovers tomorrow.

After dinner we had an impromtu dance party and it was so much fun to just be a family and laugh and dance with the kids.

Happy Birthday Baby - we all love you and wish you another year (your last in your twenties) of happiness!

Monday, July 6, 2009

All Grown Up

We're going on day two of no bottles for Avery. We've slowly been reducing the number of bottles she's been getting each day and yesterday was the first day with none. She's always gone to bed so easily, but last night was tough. Today though, she did much better and went right to sleep. It is hard to believe that we're done once again with the bottles - YEAH!!!!! One more baby item I can pack up and put away. But at the same time, I'm a little sad, my little baby girl is growing up so fast.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Happy 4th of July

It always seems like a day, ok may be two late in posting to our blog. We had a wonderful time celebrating the 4th with both our families. We spent the 2nd and 3rd at the lake with my family, including Jeff and Jen who were in town from New York. It is always great to see them, we don't see them nearly as much as we'd like.

We swam, swam and swam some more - in the lake, in the pool, etc. Avery even enjoyed her first middle of the lake swim in the lifevest. She did so good, especially when you consider she was in the middle of a laking swimming at 13 months old. Of course, we forgot to bring the camera on the boat...next time.

We watched the fireworks on July 3rd on the boat at the Ritz. I can honestly say that I love all fireworks - something magical about them, but nothing compares to watching the fireworks on a boat with some good WINE. Brock was so cute and keep standing on one of the coolers and yelling "Ladies and Gentlemen...the fireworks are about to begin." It was hysterical.






On July 4th, we got up early and came back to town to meet our friends, The Mathes, and Travis' family for a parade. The kids had a great time and we enjoyed some candy and good old American patriotism.






Later, we went to Heather and Jason for a BBQ and got the best SURPRISE. In January 2010, Brock and Avery will get their first cousin - Yes, that is right, Heather is pregnant. We couldn't be more excited for Heather and Jason. We know firsthand the wonderful joys that parenthood brings and what a lucky little "Peanut" as we have taught Brock to call him or her. Heather and Jason will be amazing parents - I mean they've had on-the-job training for the past three years with our kiddies. They're going to be so much more prepared than Travis and I ever were.
Again, congrats Heather and Jason. We can't wait to welcome little "Peanut" into the family.

After some naps and swimming at the pool, we headed out to Wills Park to again meet the Mathes and enjoy the fireworks.







Fun was had by all this weekend. We hope your family enjoyed the weekend as well.