Avery's Baptism Weekend

Avery was baptized on Sunday, January 18th and we were so blessed to have so many of our family and friends with us to witness it and celebrate. Will and Megan flew in from California, Poppy, Car Car, Mandy, Chris, Owen, Karen and Shelby came from Florida, Nana and Papa from Alabama, and Jeff, Caitlin, Caroline, Ken, Cameron, Kathleen and Lindsey from here in town.

The Florida crew stayed at the house with us, and we had a great visit. It was so wonderful to see Will and Megan, we miss them so much!



Will and Baby OW-en.



Baby OW-en is very popular. Harrison wanted to hold him!



Helping Mommy make a breakfast casserole.



Drinking his breakfast yogurt!

We had belated Christmas with Will and Megan, and Harrison got a choo choo raincoat! How did they know he liked Thomas??

The three kiddos hanging out in the kitchen.

Baptism day! Avery fell asleep with Papa after the actual event and stayed that way through the whole service. See how wet her little head is!

Mommy's side of the family.

Daddy's side of the family.

Our sweet precious girl!! She was so great during the whole ceremony, we thought she would surely cry when a stranger took her from mommy's arms, but she didn't which was amazing. She was so happy and wonderful all day!

Avery had so much fun at her little party! She is the happiest girl ever! She also chose this past weekend to really take off with the crawling. She is EVERYWHERE now, pulling up on everything and starting to cruise the furniture! It's all happening so fast!

Later that night the Sagers and Almstedts came over, and we played with the Wii American Idol a little bit. Here are Harrison and Anna checking it out together.

Harrison is a natural! Watch out David Cook!

Such a Big Boy!

When I was cleaning Harrison's room the other day, I found a list he made with some New Years resolutions. Here they are -

1. Sit on the big potty more and actually go
2. Switch to a big boy bed

He can consider both resolutions already made! He has been so good lately with wanting to sit on the potty, and he has gone both #1 and #2 many times. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that he gets chocolate as a reward, but we hear bribery is the way to go so we're sticking with it.

This past weekend, we converted his crib (finally) to a big boy toddler bed! He loves his crib and has never tried to climb out, but we figured it was time to make the switch to make the transition to "big boy" complete. He napped well yesterday in the new bed, and also slept well last night, he didn't fall out once! Here is the proud, big boy sitting on his bed.



I realize I do a lot of updates on Avery these days, so Harrison is due for one. He turned 2 1/2 in December, and is growing up to be such a bright, funny, outgoing little man. He is extremely energetic and loves to run, wrestle, and play outside. His first love, as most people know, are choo choos. Thomas the Train in particular. He is obsessed. He knows all of their names and "occupations". He also loves transportation vehicles of any kind, especially cars, trucks, planes, boats, police cars, firetrucks, school buses, and construction equipment like diggers and bulldozers.

He also loves to sing and dance. He can sing all the songs to his favorite TV shows (especially Thomas, Little Einsteins, and Caillou), and knows dozens of nursery rhymes. He loves to play "Ring around the Rosie", at school and with his sister and friends. His speech has really taken off these past few months, he communicates very well in complete sentences. He also loves to read. We read several books each night before bed time, and he always gets to pick which ones. His favorites right now include a variety of subjects.......bible stories, Elmo, trains, boats, sports, ocean creatures, and nursery rhymes.

Harrison is such a special, wonderful little boy and I wanted to take some time to say how much we love him and can't imagine our lives without him!

Christmas and New Years with the Carters

The Carters came to spend New Years Eve with us, and we celebrated our family Christmas on New Years Day. We had a great time with Nana, Papa, Jeff and Caitlin! We ate a lot of course, and played a lot of Wii American Idol. Caitlin was crowned champion twice, and I won once. Then we went to Alabama on New Years weekend to spend time with the extended Carter family and do the Dirty Santa gift exchange. I think we all walked away with a gift that we wanted, which is rare!

Harrison and Avery had some gifts from Santa on New Years Day!



New toys galore.....

These two Carter girls are so precious and sweet! Avery LOVES her "kay kay".

Taking a nap with Papa.

Getting kisses from Nana!

Harrison opening gifts from his great aunts and uncles.

Avery enjoying one of her Christmas gifts from Nana and Papa! This will help a lot as she is getting increasingly more mobile.

Harrison LOVES his choo choo ball pit from Jeff and Caitlin!

Eating snacks at Nana and Papa's house, in the old highchair that everyone has used, including Jeff, her daddy and Harrison.

Playing with Kenley, Jeremy and Susan's sweet little girl. Who is turning 1 next week! She is already walking and running!

Caitlin, Hadley, Harrison, Ford and Colbi in the back of the pickup, ready to go see some cows.



Harrison and me checking out the cotton fields. Lee picked us up some cotton so Harrison enjoyed holding that and playing with it while we were riding around.

Happy New Year to all!

Eight Months Old!

Avery turned eight months old on New Years Day! We don't have any new stats for her until she turns 9 months old, but she can do lots of new tricks now. She did some crawling for the first time during New Years weekend, but now seems to be preoccupied with pulling up all by herself, so not much crawling lately. Or when she does, she goes backwards! She is still such a happy little girl, laughs and smiles constantly. She is getting a head full of blond hair that she loves to play with when she's sleepy or eating. Avery can feed herself very well, she loves Gerber puffs, Cheerios, cheese, and bananas. She and Harrison have a lot of fun playing together and making each other laugh. He is such a good brother to her, he never gets jealous and he shares his toys with her often without us having to ask ("Here Avery, here!"). She can say "mama" and says something pretty close to "dada" we think.

This picture is hilarious, it looks like she's pointing to the antlers and saying, "Mom, come on now....".