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!

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.

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.

Birthdays Galore

We been in serious birthday mode for the past 5 weeks and have several more to go before the end of the summer including daddy's and Brock's in the next two months.

Here are a few photos from Brock and Avery's friend Caleigh's 2nd birthday party at this great place called PLAY in Crabapple.

Summer Fun

We've been having a fun summer and are trying to do new things with the kids each weekend. We've gotten together with friends and had some BBQs. Here's a few photos from our get to together recently at the Shaws. Avery and Charlie had fun and as always Brock and Kailey were best buddies!

Since Avery is finally more than 20 lbs, we decided it was time to move her to the big girl car seat, which means Brock graduated to a booster. He was so excited about his new carseat that after it arrived in the mail he wanted to sit in it all night.

Last night we took the kids to see the laser show at Stone Mountain for the first time. Travis and I hadn't been in 8 or so years, not since we first started dating. We had a great time and the kids loved it. We stopped and got some yummy BBQ for our picnic and brought the glow sticks for pre-show entertainment. Brock fell asleep toward the end of the show and Avery surprisingly stayed up for the whole thing.

Happy Belated Father's Day

Happy Belated Father's Day to my wonderful husband and the best dad I know (except for mine of course). We spent a fun day together as a family that started with breakfast for daddy. Brock helped me make muffins, eggs, hashbrowns and fruit for everyone to enjoy. We then headed off to church and spent the afternoon with the Hackers. Brock and Avery later saw Momo and Papa and ended up spending the night there. But, wow do we pay for it when we run our kids all day with no naps.

Travis and I had the great pleasure of doing something together on a Sunday night (after 8:30 p.m.) so we took advantage of the time away from the kiddies. We went to the river and went rollerblading, something we haven't done since before we had Brock. It was so nice to spend some time together doing something we used to love doing - just the two of us.

Hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Father's Day.

First major accident

So we had our first major accident that required medical care yesterday morning. Brock was bouncing around on the bed and fell and hit his chin on Travis' knee. He managed to hit it just right and pushed two of his bottom teeth forward and gushing with blood. A great way to start a Thursday morning when I was trying to get ready to go to work.

We rushed to find a pediatric dentist that would take an emergency new patient and luckily we found a great one at Imagix.

Dr. Andy and his team were so great with Brock and made the whole process painless. Brock was such a trooper the whole morning and handled it so well. The whole way there he kept telling me that his teeth fell out and that they were missing - LOL. I can imagine he thought so since they were pushed forward and he kept playing with them with his tongue.

The x-rays showed that his permanent teeth are fine - THE GOOD NEWS, but in the meantime he'll enjoy two crooked and now dead bottom teeth for the next six or so years.

I guess we're not doing too bad if this is the first major accident we've had in almost three years.