Happy 3rd Birthday, Kensley!

This past weekend we celebrated Kensley's 3rd birthday with family at our house.  It's been really fun as Kensley was really looking forward to her birthday and having a party.  We had such a fun weekend celebrating our big girl.

 

We celebrated with a "blue" themed party, Kensley's favorite color these days.  She specifically requested a chocolate cake with blue frosting.  We went through the invite list several times over the past few weeks and she named off all of the family members that she wanted there.  Here are some pictures of the party and our birthday girl.

Her special "3" birthday cake.  My sister spent HOURS decorating it!  Thanks, Ash!

Best friends

Best friend Elli (and of course the Lindvall family), arrived at our house late Friday night and stayed through Sunday evening.  The girls had a ball playing together!  Kensley and Elli are two peas in a pod and were constantly running and playing.  We of course had some sharing problems, but overall they had so much fun together.  At one point during the weekend, we heard Kensley ask Elli "Do you wanna be my best friend?"  How sweet is that?!

 We spent Kensley's actual birthday (Sunday) doing all things she loves: donuts for breakfast (with sprinkles!), McDonald's for lunch and some play time, to the mall to play and out to dinner. It was a full day and she was still wired at 8 pm at night!

These girls played so hard and were constantly giggling.

"Sprinkle donuts" for breakfast

Thrilled about her birthday dessert

Thanks to all the family members that traveled to get here, helped make/bring food to the party and make Kensley's birthday extra special!

Avery: 17 months old...

Just a short update this month on our 17 month old.  Avery is changing everyday and adding new words/sounds to her vocabulary.  It's so fun to see her catch on to new things.  A few new words include: pop, daddy (except really drawn out like daaa-deee), cheese and goggy (doggy).  She loves to sing and seems to either be singing or jabbering all day long.

 

Avery is developing quite the personality and seems to be full of drama.  She is feisty and screams if she doesn't like something, but in the next moment can be laughing and goofy.  She is so funny and still loves to be tickled and chased.

The girls are still playing pretty well together and Kensley usually requests that Avery play with her.  Aves usually wants to do everything big sis is doing.  She doesn't, however, always follow big sister's instructions (as much as Kensley would like).

Just a few pics of our little peanut.
 

She loves cake!

Getting tickled by Papa.

One of our morning donut picnics, she has to have one in each hand.

Here are two cute videos of Avery.

 

 

Happy 17 month birthday, Avery Leigh!

Cousins...

A while back, we had a super short, impromptu visit with the cousins.  They were only together for a few hours but they all had a blast.  Kensley and Elli were inseparable and LOVED playing together!  They were so giggly and it's been so sweet to watch their friendship grow.  Avery was usually close on their heels, trying to keep up with "the big girls".  She did enjoy some sweet snuggle time with Connor though.

 

 

Halloween 2012

Several weeks ago, we carved a pumpkin with the girls.  It was more so Jeremy carving while the girls watched.  They were excited to see it lit up and on our front porch though.  Here are a few pictures of the girls with their pumpkins.

 

Aves with her pumpkin...she loves to carry it around.

 Trick or Treating was pretty chilly this year, but the girls had a great time.  Kensley loved running to each house, knocking on the door and saying "Trick or Treat".  It took Avery a few houses to catch on, but shortly after she was running after her sister and didn't want to be left behind.  She ended up carrying a piece of candy in each hand as we went from house to house.

 

Kens was Angelina Ballerina and Aves was a mouse.

 

 

 

 

Cute Videos

Here are two videos of our cute girls.

 

First, Kensley singing "Pat the Bible" (a song that they sing at church).

 

Second, Aves "telling" us about the neighbors dog and laughing.  She goes crazy...laughing, pointing and talking whenever she sees him.

 

 

Avery: 16 Months Old...

Sweet Aves is now 16 months old and I can't believe how quickly she is changing.  She is such a little spitfire and full of drama!

 

She is babbling like crazy and tries to say so much.  It's funny as she'll carry on conversations with us in her own little language as we ask her questions.  She seems to know exactly what she is saying and what she wants.  She also answers everything with "uh-huh".  We having a feeling that she'll be putting together lots of words before too long.  Among others, she has added dink (drink), eee (eat) and cheese (when ever we take her picture) to her vocabulary.

Avery has definitely reached the tantrum stage and she's not afraid to let us know how she feels.  She easily melts down whenever she doesn't get what she wants.  She seems to get frustrated some as well as we can't always understand what she wants or is trying to say.  Whenever she doesn't want to do something, she shakes her head back and forth really hard while whining.

We see this "face" multiple times throughout the day...drama queen!

Aves is getting really good on her feet and even starting to run now.  She also does the funniest little gallop and jumps when she's being silly.  She still tries to do everything like big sister and often doesn't want our help.  She likes to go down the stairs by herself as well.

She is constantly running away from us.  She loves to be chased!

The girls really seem to be playing much better together these days (and with that of course comes many fights).  Avery gets so excited to see her big sis in the mornings and after naps.  She usually runs right to her and gives her a big hug.

 

 

Size wise Avery is wearing 12 - 18 month pj's, 12 month and 12 - 18 month clothes (some of her 6-12 month things still fit, but are a little short).  She wears size 3 and 4 shoes and size 3 diapers.

She also can apparently wear sissy's "big girl panties".  She insisted on putting these on and got so mad when we tried to take them off.  She ended up sleeping in them that night!

We've had no luck with the milk this month and she isn't thrilled with orange juice either (for extra calcium).  She is still a pretty good eater though and one of her favorite things is yogurt.  Most of the time she refuses to let us feed her, in fact she usually throws a fit if we try (shocker,huh?).  She has been using utensils for several months now and is getting pretty good with them.  She also LOVES soda and is always begging for drinks from us.  She is a huge fan of condiments as well (ketchup, syrup, etc.) and is always dipping her food.

Avery is SO funny these days.  She loves to be silly and knows exactly when she's doing something funny.  She has a fake laugh as well and will do this funny little laugh whenever we ask her to.  She also has an ornery side and loves to "pick" on her sister...taking her blankey, snack, chair, drink, etc. and usually RUNNING away with it.

 

We just can't believe how fast this little girl is growing up!  Happy 16 month birthday (a little late), sweet Avery Leigh!

 

 

Pumpkin Patch...

A few weekends ago, we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.  We picked a good weekend for it as the weather was perfect. It was the first weekend the patch was open and there were tons of pumpkins to choose from!

 

We took a hayride and Kens even took her first (real) pony ride.  She was a little apprehensive at first, but ended up being so excited about going.

 

Here are some pictures from our morning at the pumpkin patch.



 

Getting really excited for the pony ride!

Waiting patiently to ride Hank