Avery's 3 Year old Class

Pretty in Pink! This is Avery's 3 year old class picture...April 2008

Avery and Stuart

Avery and Mommy

Avery and I took some pictures Sat afternoon before we went over to John and Rachel and Stuart's for a playdate and dinner!

soap in her eyes....

Avery watches and imitates everything I do.

We had a fiasco earlier when she got into my facial soap and washed her eyeballs. Literally, she scrubbed her eye area with the soap like I do to remove my make-up. She said I didn't tell her that she had to close her eyes when she washed her face. She cried and wailed and her poor little eyes were red.

I knew it would be my fault! I explained to her that I only wash near my eye area because I wear eye makeup...that the face washing I give her in the bathtub will suffice for her.

The whining continued...she accused me of 'being mean' because MY soap burned HER eyes after 5 times of me telling her not to use my face soap. She finally snuck into my closet with the face soap because I kept catching her trying to use it and taking it away from her.

I'm such a mean mother!

Lessons Learned for Avery:
1. Close eyes when washing face.
2. Mommy's facial soap feels similar to floor stripper when applied to the open eye.
3. Whining gets no sympathy with mom, only bemused grinning.

Lessons I Learned:
1. Experience is sometimes a better teacher than me.
2. Never underestimate the tenacity of an almost 4 year old.

Our Song...

Avery and I were driving to school one day last week. She loves Taylor Swift and asked me to play "Our Song" for her. Then she said "Mommy, sing it with me, REAL loud, okay!"

And we did...We were belting out the lyrics at the top of our voices. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful morning.

I looked in the rear view and her little face and her singing and I just had a moment.

A moment that reminded me about how blessed I am. Avery is so happy. She's healthy and smart as a whip. She's growing up faster than I want her to, but watching her grow up is such an amazing thing.

It was a moment to remind me that no matter what stress life brings, Avery and I will always have "Our Song"



"Our song is the way you laugh, the first day, man, I didn't kiss her and I should have..and when I got home, before I said Amen, asking God if He could play it again...."



**It should also be noted that while Avery loves Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus songs, if you ask her what her ultimate favorite song is she will begin singing the "Free Credit Report.com" jingle.

I have no memory...

It is somewhat of a defining moment in your life when your 3 year old beats you at the board game Memory...especially when you weren't letting her win. Twice.

..then she crashed...

After hours of shamless posing and stealing the limelight, Avery got tired and laid down on a pedestal in the bridal shop. Of course she held on tight to that tiara!

Shopping for the wedding

October 18, 2008 is Shay and Shawn's wedding! We are so excited! We all drove to New Orleans this past Saturday to go wedding dress/bridesmaid/flowergirl dress shopping....Shay bought the most beautiful gown I've ever seen..I won't post pics of it here because my brother-in-law looks at this blog!

I will however post pics of my little diva in the dresses that she tried on! Kudos to the salespeople at Linda Lee Bridal...They were so helpful and friendly and they had a ball dressing Avery up, they even found her a veil and some jewelry to wear just like Aunt Shay. Avery ate up every minute! She had us cracking up!

Bike-A-Thon for St Jude's

Avery's school raised almost $6000 in the Bike-A-Thon for St. Jude's (my favorite charity!) The kids had a great time and Avery made 2 laps before she pooped out. Here are some pics

Honesty at the Grocery Store

Avery and I were grocery shopping this afternoon when we noticed a scraggly looking dirty man, possibly an electrician or a plumber who had just gotten off of work. He had a very heavy tool belt around his waist and he was in front of us in the deli section....and then he bent over to pick up something...exposing about 4 inches of hairy butt crack..

This cause my almost 4 year old to look at me, eyes wide open and very surprised..I braced myself for what was coming next.

"HEY MAN! YOU BETTER PULL UP YOUR PANTS...WE CAN SEE YOUR BOOTY AND THAT’S NOT NICE!!!" Avery exclaims, so loudly that the lady behind the counter at the deli cracked up...

The dirty, scruffy man turns around and looked at both Avery and I with an embarassed look... and he hiked up his pants..I whisper a quick "I’m sorry!" He took his cold cuts and made a quick exit....

I went between shushing Avery and wondering if I could dig a hole in the tile flooring of the store and crawl into it and hide. After explaining to Avery that we shouldn’t talk about other people’s "booties", she informed me that "you shouldn’t show your booty at the grocery store, Mom! That’s not nice.."

Who can argue with that?

Not even 4 years old and she’s already out-arguing me...

Silly Soup

Avery had some soup last night. I think it may have been SILLY soup because she started making the silliest faces afterwards...Luckily my camera was nearby(isn't it always!)

Avery's new bike

Avery has graduated from her tricycle to a 'big girl bike.'

Enjoying the Country...

Since we are soon moving away from the country, Avery, Shae and I decided to take in some sights around our house. We have some friends of ours that have some new baby horses and a baby Shetland pony..so we decided to go see the babies yesterday afternoon.

The latest..

The offer on our house was accepted last week and we are in the process of closing! We are so excited. The new house is brand new construction, 4 bedroom, 3 full baths over 3000 Square Feet in a beautiful subdivision with a lake in the middle of it. The Home inspection and appraisal will be completed this week and we can hopefully start moving in the next 25-30 days. Keep fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly!

Avery is having a bike-a-thon at her school next week to raise money for St Jude's. The kids get to bring their bikes to school and ride them in a parade. Avery is very excited...I bet I get some very cute pictures to post up!

Avery has a new favorite TV show: The Crocodile Hunter. Avery's not a big TV watcher, she may watch 20 minutes or so of a Disney movie and then she's off the couch to go play. But if you put the Crocodile Hunter on, she's mesmerized for at least 30 minutes. She loves animals (reminds me of how I loved 'Wild Kingdom' as a kid) and loves shows where she can learn about them. She told me yesterday that some snakes are poisonous and some snakes aren't...and some snakes bite with venom(she actually said 'venom') and some snakes squeeze to kill their dinner. I thought that was pretty cool that she's learning so much about animals. I thought that was pretty advanced for 3 and a half!

..Then they shot him...

Avery goes to a private Christian pre-school and she loves to tell me her Bible stories, with her own embellishments added in.

I had to share this one:

"Mom, did Maw-Maw die?" She asks me on the way home from school.

"Yes baby."

"Did they nail her to the cross" she asks

"No, baby, they only did that to Jesus" I explain

"Yeah, they nailed Jesus to the cross....and then they shot him..." she says confidently, nodding her head in agreement with herself.

After laughing so hard that I was swerving on the road, I collected myself enough to explain to her that there were no guns around when Jesus was crucified. But now she says it to make us laugh.

She walked into our office the other day and told my father-in-law all about Jesus’ shooting.

I wonder if it was a drive by? Or gang related? The Apostles versus the Philistines rather than the Crips or the Bloods?