Party Girl!

This weekend was Nicole and Ray's wedding, and we had a great time! Avery was so excited to be around all the other little kids, so it was really hard to get her to hold still long enough for a picture.  That always seems to be the case whenever she is dressed up and looking really cute.  Here are a few of the pictures we did manage to get...nothing super great.

She loved having everyone smell my bouquet of flowers...so cute!!

Annoying...

Avery loves her swing set in the back yard, and it's so convenient to just go to the backyard for her to have so much fun.  However, as you'll see in the video clip, there is a slight annoyance every time we go out to play...

EVERY TIME we go out to play on the swings, TJ wants to come, and Avery wants him to come (they're best friends).  That wasn't a problem until this started happening when Avery swings, which, of course, is her favorite thing to do!

Pool Time!

There are several aspects of summer that we really enjoy, and one of them is the water.  There is a special pool just for little kids here in Columbia that we have visited before.  We decided to go back today because it was closing for the season after today.  The pool is so nice because it's really shallow in the entire thing and still big and interesting for Avery.  She loves to just walk around in the water and go down the water slides. 

Here she is coming down one of the slides.  She could do this all day long if we would let her.  We had a great day and were glad that Nicole, Ray, Dylan, Mackenna, and Ethan were able to come and play with us.  We also had a visit from Jackie and Jason and were thrilled to see them too. 

Cats and Dogs!!

Avery is not really one of those kids that will sit down in front of the television.  Sometimes Jeremy and I wish that it would entertain her for a little while, like when we're in the car.  However, the majority of the time, we are grateful that we have an active little girl who likes to do all kinds of activities.  With that in mind, there is one thing that gets her attention on TV...a preview for the movie Cats and Dogs.  (She is going through a phase where she is completely enamored with animals, constantly wanting to touch ours and making animal sounds.)  Avery's grandpa decided to take advantage of this point in her life and take her to her first movie...

We didn't really have high hopes for her to last through the movie, but we still wanted her to have the experience and document it.

We came prepared with blankie and plenty of snacks...here goes nothing!

The movie was actually in 3D, a perk if you are older than 16 months old and will leave the glasses on, but a slight annoyance for Avery.  She only left her glasses on long enough for me to take a couple of pictures, but the movies was still pretty good without the glasses.

This was also Avery's first experience with movie theater popcorn...I think this is the part Jeremy was most excited about.  She absolutely loved the popcorn and ate so much that she didn't eat dinner at all that night, which is definitely not a common occurrence.  She actually sat there for the entire movie until the last 10 minutes.  She probably would have made it through the entire thing, but I knew that she still had a 2 hour car ride home, so I let her walk around in the halls for the last little bit.  We had such a great time, and she really liked the movie! 

Baby Showers

Avery and I went to a couple of baby showers for her Aunt Brooke over the last couple of weeks.  We're getting excited to meet Jack.  One of the showers was in Clinton, where Avery was the star of the show!  She had so much fun around all of the people, showing off how much she's grown.  I know that the shower was for Brooke and Jack, but somehow I only managed to get pictures of Avery (that seems to be pretty common for me...I'm not sure why-it's not like she's cute or anything!). 

Avery had so much fun crossing the little bridge.  It always amazes me how much fun she can have with the simplest things.  I could just watch her forever playing on these things...so cute!

A special thank you to Aunt Brooke for giving Avery a big treat from one of the showers...a giant marshmallow lollipop.  Avery was so funny trying to figure out how to eat it.

Quite the Little Reader

Avery has turned out to be a real book-lover.  She will read the same books over and over all day long.  It's so great to see her get excited about books.  Jeremy and I really wanted her to like to read, so we've been reading to her from day one.  I guess it's working.  We have read ever book that she owns many times over.  Right now her favorite ones are the ones with animal pictures in them, especially realistic animals.  She can imitate many of the sounds they make too, which is so cute.  I would love to get it on video to post...I'll see what I can do.

More reading...this time with Grandpa.  Thanks for giving me a break from those animal books Grandpa.  We loved having you visit...come again soon!

A quick break for a kiss, then back to the books.