To our daughter with love

We've watched you grow up these past three years and are amazed by how giving, kind and wonderful you are. You are such a big girl now and so many things have happened in the past few months to show us how big you are getting. You are now a big sister, going to preschool and learning all kinds of new things. Especially how to push mommy and daddy's buttons by asserting your independence! Our lives became more rich once you entered our family and we are looking forward to watching you grow up into a beautiful young lady. We love you so much and hope you had a terrific birthday!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Avery Grace!
Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Some of you may recall that my friend Joy made my baby shower cake. Well, we loved it so much that I asked her to make Avery's 3rd birthday cake. As you can imagine, we were absolutely amazed by how it turned out! It's absolutely perfect and we are so lucky to have such a talented friend.

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Mommy, Daddy and our first little girl.

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You'll have to bear with me because it seems that I took more pictures of the cake than anything else at the party!! I was so excited about it!

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Princess Avery

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Avery and some of her friends playing outside. There was so much going on that that's the only picture I snapped of the kiddos! I tried!

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That's Avery's 3rd Birthday celebration! We had a blast, but unfortunately Avery started getting sick yesterday and ended up going to bed while everyone was still here. Those of you that know her know that she definitely had to be sick because she would have never gone to bed while there were still kids to play with!! Poor thing. Not much better today either so we're just staying home, opening presents, ordering her favorite food, pizza, for dinner, and eating left over birthday cake. A very relaxed day!

First Day of Preschool

Where does the time go? It seems that just the other day we were planning her first birthday party. Our little girl is growing up too quickly. I guess I need to say our first little girl now, don't I? Well today I took her to her first official day of preschool! She's such a well adjusted kid so I tried to prepare myself for the drop off scene. I guess I didn't prepare myself enough because I had to say goodbye to her several times just to get acknowledgement that I was even there! Ha Ha She just walked right in like she owned the place. Typical Avery. Her teacher is actually in our bible study group, so that puts my mind at ease since I am not there to watch her. She is going on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and next Tuesday can't come soon enough for her. We've been talking about school ever since she got home. I'm so happy she enjoys it and it's really something she needs right now. Time away from home to do something just for herself. But....I am torn between emotions of sadness and joy. Sad because my little munchkin is growing up so fast and joy to watch her enjoy and explore life. I'm sure I'll be posting much more about Avery's adventures in preschool. Somehow I foresee many, many, many stories to tell! For now, enjoy the pictures!

Getting ready to go!

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Avery and her teacher, Miss Melinda.

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One month old already!

Happy one month birthday, Emmersen! I can't believe a month has passed since our second little angel entered the world. Bringing her home from the hospital brought back so many memories for us of when Avery was born. The two of them are identical so we are anxious to see what Emmy will look like in a few more months.


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P.S. Sam, I stole the stuffed animal idea from you. It's such a neat idea to see how they progress over the upcoming months. I hope you don't mind!!

Sleepless in California

I thought I'd get a post in a little sooner, but being the mom of two little girls is definitely taking some getting used to! As I'm sure you can all imagine, we've been very busy here with our little girls. Emmersen is doing very well. She is such a mellow baby compared to Avery Grace! I hate to say it but is a welcome change. Avery loves her little sister very much but is giving mommy and daddy a run for their money. It's been a tough adjustment for her so temper tantrums have become a regular occurance at our house. I'm not sure if that's because of the baby or just because she's a typical 2 (almost 3) year old! We've already had family come out to visit and are currently visiting with Matt's mom.

We hope everyone is doing well. Right now I'm going to share some pictures of Emmy right after she was born. We've been trying to take snapshots regularly but it seems the days go by even quicker now with two! Enjoy!


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Introducing...

Emmersen Reese! She was born August 6th at 11:29am and weighed in at 7 lbs. 12 1/2 oz. She is 20 1/4 inches long and is absolutely perfect. We couldn't have asked for an easier labor...after a wopping 2 1/2 hours she made her way in to this world. We are so happy to finally have her here in our home to make our family a family of 4. Avery is doing pretty well in her new role as big sister, but as expected, we are experiencing a few issues. Everyone is doing very well and we are so glad to be back in our own home. I have many pictures to post of our beautiful little girls, but for now here are just a few. Enjoy!!

The whole family!

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Emmersen Reese all dressed and ready for the car ride home. :)

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As I said more pictures are to come! I'll try to get them posted soon, but it may take a little while. Adjusting to our new family is going to take some time!

Date Night

Ok, this is officially the last post before the Squirt is born! Our friends Jennifer and William took Avery for us last Monday so we could go to dinner and a movie before the baby is born. We had a wonderful meal and went to see The Dark Knight. Great movie! It was so nice to have someone offer to watch Avery instead of trying to find a babysitter! Thank you so much guys!!


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Bowling with Daddy

A couple of weeks ago we went to the bowling alley on base for lunch. Matt and Avery had a blast bowling together, AND the manager only had to come down a couple of times to help Avery's ball go down the lane. Ha Ha


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Random Pictures

These are just some random, silly pictures of Avery Grace.

I'm sure all of you, or at least most of you, remember the movie The Little Mermaid. Well, Avery loves the movie and we watch it on a regular basis. This picture is of her using a "dinglehopper" for her hair (a.k.a. a fork!). At first this was pretty funny, and it still is most of the time, but when she started doing this in restaurants, we had to draw the line! Ha Ha

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Pretty Princess

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Showing off her pretty earrings and pretty ribbon. What a ham!

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A Tribute to the Shunee Song!

I thought this would be fun to post! It's always fun to go back and watch some videos of Avery when she was younger so I decided to do just that! I recently recorded her singing the "Shunee" song and thought it would be neat to compare this one to the one we recorded just over a year ago. It's pretty hilarious to look back at the old one, but amazing to see how much difference a year makes in a little child's life!! Enjoy!

And this time you don't have to listen to my singing!! Ha Ha

Then...

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And now...

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