Daddy, take a hint...

Here are a few of the brutally honest comments Avery has made lately to Brandon... it has taken everything in my power not to repeat them to him and not to die in laughter when they come so sweetly out of her mouth!

"Daddy, your breath is SCARY"  OR  "Daddy, your voice is stinky" OR the other night when she started singing every so sweetly, "Daddy has fungest, daddy has fungust, daddy has fungust..." (fungus) for about 3 minutes before I couldn't hold back my laughter and the tears rolling down my cheeks as Brandon is telling her " No, Avery. No, I don't! Don't be telling people that!" Then silently cursing me as I am dying in laughter behind her!!

She is always keeping smiles on our faces... at least mine anyway!

College Fund

Avery:  Grandma Grandma, come see my piggy bank!

Vicki: Ok, is it a new piggy bank?

Avery: No, it is so full of money!

Vicki: What are you going to do with all of your money Avery?

Avery: Grandma, I'm going to go to college you know!

Vicki: Oh, well that's a great idea! What are you going to be when you grow up?

Avery: An adult!



This was the most adorable conversation between the two of them! And where Avery came up saving her money to go to college is beyond me! But I wont say a peep and hopefully she keeps on saving her quarters for college!

One Dog Canoe

For Christmas this year, we gave Dad and Vicki tickets to the play One Dog Canoe at Stages Theatre in Hopkins! This past week we have been reading the book over and over again and Avery is VERY VERY excited to go see the show! In fact, she was so excited she couldn't fall asleep for a nap that afternoon and we thought we might be sending a tired monster to the play... but as it turns out, she was happy as can be! The excitement kept her awake and in good spirits!

When it was time to get up and get ready to go, Avery was all about getting FANCY!!! She asked, "Mommy, can I pppllllleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaasssssssssseeee wear some sparkly eye shadow to the play? Mommy, how about my special necklace? Mommy, these shoes are SO fancy... I think these shoes would be perfect to go with my dress!" She is a little fashionista in the making... and I know it doesn't come from me! Maybe she will be able to teach me a thing or two down the road!!

Anyway, she got all dolled up, and wanted to take some pictures of her fancy outfit! We read the book one more time before Grandma and Grandpa came to pick her up for dinner and her show! Once they pulled in the driveway, she waved good bye and ran outside to meet them! She had all of her things in her backpack and was ready to roll! I was able to get one quick (and very sunny) photo of the three of them and they were off! Brandon and I went out for dinner and when we got home, she was tucked in bed! It sounds like they all had a great time and Avery has been talking about the play for a few days now! Her favorite part was when they all fell out of the canoe and her favorite animal was the frog!

What is that word...

Avery is really using some descriptive words lately. She is getting so good at describing the world around her. Here are a few funny things she was describing the other day...

"You know, that man who lives at the barn and helps take are of the animals... You know, that guy?!?"  -- The Farmer

"You know mom, that little animal, he can hop a little bit, the acorn catcher, who he lives in trees" -- The Squirrel 

Solar System

"The planets of the sun, the planets of the sun, here are 9 planets  8 planets in the family of the sun..."

I taught the girls this song today, but kept forgetting that Pluto no longer counts-- WOW I feel OLD!!

We had a really fun week learning all about the solar system, planets, and stars.

Picnic with Ryann!

Ryann came for a sleepover and the only picture I managed to take was of the girls eating dinner! It was a beautiful night and we had fun playing outside all evening!!

Meeting Piper Lou

Jodie had her baby last week, but because I was down with the flu we weren't able to meet her until yesterday! She is SO cute! And Avery just adores her! We were also able to see Katie-- she left work early to come visit too!

After visiting Piper, we met Vicki for lunch! Avery had a blast running around Grandma's office, making copies, playing with the stamps, stapling papers and using the hold punch! She was BUSY!!! We had a great time visiting at lunch! Now that I am not working full-time, it is nice that I can use these days to go spend time with the people we love most!

Gymnastics & Ice Cream!

Tonight we drove all the way to Chanhassen for gymnastics class. It sure was convenient when we worked at The Murray's... but it's been really tough getting to class from home! We are 2 classes behind due to illness and now, with this crazy schedule, who knows when we will fit them in! She loves going, so we made the drive tonight and stopped for a sprinkle cone on the way home!

No Cavities!

Avery had her 3rd dentist appointment today and she was a Rock Star! We were able to clean, polish and floss all of her teeth as well as a fluoride treatment! She was SO brave!

Choosing another star sticker to be add to her picture on the "No Cavities Club" wall!

Moving... across the street at Harding Lane

I have decided to take the nanny job across the street at Harding Lane with Patrick and Josette, watching Charlie. He is the cutest little guy and Avery just adores him! We have a temporary contract through the summer, while Josette tries to find a job with a more regular schedule and we try to move and get settled in a new place. We were supposed to start last Tuesday, but since I had the flu we were able to start on Friday instead! I think this will be a great fit for us and a good transition for Avery still being across the street from The Murray's. It is a real change of pace watching a 3 month old baby versus keeping up with Emma and Kinsley, but it's just what we need right now in all of the other craziness of our lives trying to move and all! Our first day, Avery and I spent a lot of time getting our things organized and figuring out how to set up her cot, where to put her toys etc. We have all of next week off, so then we will have to get back and start a more structured routine the following week hopefully!

Here are some pictures from our first few days:

Cough, Giggle, Scream!!

Last night Avery had the hardest time falling asleep! She was coughing and coughing, the poor kiddo could hardly catch her breath. Finally around 2:15 am I went in and woke her up enough to give her some cough medicine and another drink of water. This didn't help at all! I was wide awake... listening to Avery coughing, Brandon snoring and Holley licking her paws... I was WIDE AWAKE! At 3:00, Avery was still tossing and turning, coughing and miserable. I went in and asked her if she wanted to snuggle in our bed. She did, and I carried her over, hoping that I would be able to sleep better having her here and she would sleep better propped up a little more.

Well this was a great idea, until Avery couldn't sleep because of Brandon's snoring and got the giggles listening to him!  ... zzz...ZZZ...zzz...ZZZ... She turned into a giggle machine, and had me laughing too... ALL giggling came to an abrupt halt when Daddy Bear woke up to our shenanigans! Avery wanted to cuddle with Brandon and I rolled over and fell fast asleep (finally)! I was sleeping until I heard a lough SCREAM coming from the bathroom, followed by a "What in the (long pause)! Avery are you doing?!?" Brandon turned all of the lights on and yelled for me to grab towels. I flew up out of bed, grabbed every towel from the linen closet and threw them into the bathroom... the floor was soaked, Avery was wide-eyed in the very corner of the bathroom quiet as a mouse and we worked as fast as we could to turn the water off on the toilet and sop up the gallons of water spilling onto the floor! My first thought was, "this better not be going down the vent and ruining the basement, our inspection is tomorrow!" Thankfully, only a small amount of water went down the vent, and Avery woke us up before any major disaster took place!

After it was all cleaned up, we asked her what had happened....

"Well, I had to go potty, but no one listened to me, so I went poop all by myself and wiped all by myself because I am a big girl, and I used so much toilet paper, but sometimes when I flushed the potty the toilet paper wasn't working so I flushed it so many times. Then the water kept following me and following me on the floor and my feet were all wet and I screamed because that water kept following me"

So at 5:00 am, we had a little chat about going potty in the middle of the night and wiping yourself and how 2 year olds still need help with those jobs etc. We all went back to bed for a short time, when Brandon had to go to work and then Avery and I had to leave early for the inspection on the house. We are a tired family today!!!

Stomach Bugs

On Monday, Avery and I woke up and went over to see baby Charlie and Josette. We packed up and brought some of our things over from The Murray's in the morning to start getting settled across the street and begin our transition. We had lunch and spent our afternoon with The Murray's as normal and planned to spend the rest of the week soaking it all in, as this was supposed to be my last week working with The Murray Family. I was really looking forward to getting in some good quality time with the kiddos and make the most of my last few days. The previous week, we weren't able to go at all, because Avery had the flu, so we missed out on spending Spring Break with all of the kiddos! Shanon and I had tons of fun things planned for Cullen's Spring Break and I was SO bummed out that we were stuck at home because of a stomach bug!

Avery was back to good health by Thursday, and on Friday we spent our day watching Charlie and we were healthy as can be for Easter weekend! We all enjoyed Easter together and then on Monday evening, just as we were signing our names for the last time on our purchase agreement for the sale of our house, I knew I was going to lose it -- I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom and threw up! Avery of course, came in to visit and was very concerned, running out telling Daddy that I was sick. Tom and Sue entertained Avery for a few minutes while I pulled myself together. Brandon thought it was just nerves, I thought if could have been too. Until about 10 minutes later, when I was running back to the bathroom. The sickness had struck and I knew I was doomed! I felt terrible! I was up until about 3 am running back and forth from bed to the bathroom, had the chills and sweats and knew there was no way I was going to work the next day! So, I let Shanon and Josette know that I was down for the count and had to figure out how to get enough sleep to take care of Avery on Tuesday.

Mid-morning on Tuesday,  I called Becky to see if she would take Avery for a few hours that afternoon, since I had been laying on the couch all day trying to survive and not playing with her like normal. Becky replied "Oh, you too?!? I don't think you want Avery coming to our house to play... Kristen, Dawn and Bob are all sick too... and I think I am next!" Yikes!!! We were all sicker than dogs except for Brandon and the girls! Thank goodness Ryann and Avery never got sick. Brandon managed to escape the bug too -- thank goodness -- as he had a car that had to be done for GSTA and worked about 60 hours this week!

We all survived! Thank God Spring is right around the corner and flu season is almost done!

Sold!

We listed our house on Friday evening, and before going to bed that night already had 4 showings scheduled for the next day! We were excited and hoping it would sell fast! And it did! The very first offer that came in was the one we ended up accepting on Monday! They had their offer in on Saturday night right away! We had multiple offers, but this one was by far the best! We are very happy to have sold our home quickly and to have gotten a little over our asking price. The family, sent a very nice letter along with their offer and I feel good about having them move in!

I am feeling more and more attached to our house as the process of selling moves along. I know our next house will be great too -- but there are a lot of things that I know I will miss! Finding another house with all of my favorite things will be hard. I love my pantry, completely open living room and kitchen, his and hers closets in our bedroom, the park in the back yard, our giant entry way, and the storage attic above the garage!

We are looking for some more land, a space for Brandon to have a shop and a house that will fit a larger family if and when that time comes. I am also hoping to open a daycare in our new home at some point and want to make sure the location and layout of our home will be accommodating to those needs as well. I feel like we are looking for a needle in a haystack -- and we are! I know something is out there that we will be able to make work, but it probably wont be as new or as nice as our house now... we are trading in the "new house" factor for some land and a shop. Our budget isn't huge, so a fixer-upper is probably in our near future! Wish us luck as we begin searching for the next place we call HOME!

Happy Easter!

Easter Weekend was BEAUTIFUL this year! We spend Saturday afternoon visiting the Easter Bunny at The Woods, in Maple Grove. I had never been there before but I saw a big sign a few weeks ago while I was driving past saying they had a bunny coming! It was really busy, but super well organized and a ton of fun! When we got there, the wait to see the bunny was over an hour, but we got a number and went to visit the animals at the petting zoo, pet little rabbits, got a balloon, and read some books while we waited for our number to be called! The time flew by and Avery got some really cute pictures with the Easter Bunny!

After that, we went and had lunch and then went to get Avery some new tennis shoes at the outlet mall. Avery has been telling me for a week that her current shoes were tight on her foot, and they were! We got some new shoes and then headed over to Mom and Larry's for an egg hunt and dinner! Avery found a zillion eggs and we all had a great time watching her run around and gasp every time she saw a new egg! 

                               

 

 

   

We spent Easter morning with The Thompson's! We went to church and then over to Bob & Becky's for brunch and an Easter egg hunt! Avery and Ryann had a blast running around finding all of the eggs and chasing the cat too, of course. After our Easter celebration we ALL came home and took a much needed nap!

 

Avery received a total of 5 Easter baskets this year... yes, 5! We are so thankful that we are surrounded by so many loving people in our lives! Thanks to everyone who was so generous to Avery this year! She will have enough bubbles to last ALL summer! ;)

For Sale!

Our house went up for sale today! It is such a bittersweet feeling knowing that our first house wont be ours any more. We have so many memories in this house and have put in to much time, work and love to making it just how we want it. This has been a great house for us! I can't even really believe we are selling it-- but I guess it's time we move on and open a new chapter in our lives. We really want to be able to have Brandon be self-employed and working from a shop at home and I would love nothing more than to be a Stay-at-Home-Mom and maybe watch a few kids at our home doing day-care. I am really hoping that this next step can help us focus on whats really important in life, we need to slow down, focus on spending time with the people who matter most to us, spending time with God and spending time making memories that really count! With a leap of faith, during this crazy transition, I know that when the right thing comes along, we will know.