Avery turns 2!

These are some pictures from Avery’s birthday last week.  We began the day with presents from Mommy, Daddy, and Cayden, and ended the day with her party.

KITTY!!!

 

 

Mommy picked out an outfit for her birthday that would make her look just like the Hello Kitty that would be the theme of her party.

 

Birthday Breakfast of Champions a.k.a. Pop Tarts

 

Erin blew up a ton of balloons the night before so that Avery would wake up and get to play in them.  The kids loved them!

These pictures were before and during her party that evening.

 

Cayden had a few gifts of his own, and camped out next to them in anticipation…

       

She couldn’t wait to get the doll out of the packaging to start giving it a bottle.

She got a TON of dress-up clothes, and loved every bit of it.

 

No, she didn’t get an outfit that looked just like Cayden in a Transformer mask, it’s really him.

  

Cayden drew a card that he taped to one of Avery’s gift.  It’s a picture of “me and her with a hook so you can hang it on the wall.”

 

And it earned him a hug from the birthday girl.

 

Nana put together a scrapbook of the past year for both of the kiddos, and they loved looking at them.

These are all of the partygoers…

Thanks to all of our family who made her birthday so special…she loved it, and so did we!

Snow White and Optimus Prime

We had our church’s Fall Festival a couple of weeks ago and here are a few pictures from that day:

         Then, today we had our Sunday School fellowship and let our kiddos put their costumes on and decorate cookies together:

Tonight, we put our costumes on again to let Nana take pictures and go trick-or-treating to our neighbors house and to another party at the church:

Random Moments

Cayden and Avery reading their magazines:

At bedtime, Avery always asks us to “ock” (rock) in the rocking chair, but the past few weeks when we try to rock her she says, “ME!” or “MINE!” meaning she wants to rock herself! So, we had to show you a picture of Avery rocking herself:

  Cayden and Avery each filled a shoe box for a little boy and girl their age who won’t get anything else for Christmas. If you aren’t familiar with this is it through Samaritan’s Purse and it’s called Operation Christmas Child. I worried that Avery wouldn’t part with the Hello Kitty coloring book, but she loved the idea of giving it to another little girl…she is a sweetie.

  Last, but not least, Avery had some great “bed-head” going on the other day!

Dinner on the back porch

Not an exciting post today, but we haven’t taken many pictures the past couple of weeks. Monday night the weather was perfect…not to hot and not too cold, so we ate dinner on the back porch and while the kids played on the swing set and slide, Damon and I got to swing on my newly reupholstered (Thanks to Mom and Granny) outdoor glider. Damon also lit up the chiminea  so it smelled like Ruidoso or Glorieta in our back yard. We are LOVING the cooler weather!

College Retreat

Our family had the opportunity to go to Ruidoso last weekend for our church’s college retreat. Yes, I know we aren’t in college anymore (thank goodness!…just being around college kids talking about professors, classes and the dorm made me tired!) Actually the entire staff and their families went on the retreat because they led in the Bible studies and worship. We had a great time with our friends and Cayden and Avery loved every minute of it too!

Damon got to play tennis with Nathan:

And Cayden and Avery got to play too!:

Cory, our Youth/Missions Pastor bought Cayden a fishing pole and Cayden loved getting to fish with his friends:

  Cory and Cayden acting goofy:

Kelly and I (Kelly is Cory’s wife)    Anna, Nathan (our Worship Pastor) and Kenna’s daughter, Avery and I on our townhouse back porch:

We had a great time and the weather was a lot colder than back home, but it felt nice. It was weird going from humid and hot at the beach to cold in the mountains. We loved both extremes!