Four is Fabulous

I can't believe we have a FOUR year old boy at our house.  How can it be?  I have good friend, Melanie, who's sister, Katie, says 4 is one of her favorite ages, she is an expert as a mother of 5!  I have to say 4 is shaping up to be great! 

Here are 4 things I love to celebrate about my FAVORITE FOUR year old boy!!

#1-He NEVER meets a stranger!  I love that he is so friendly to everyone.  He makes friends with anyone and has a blast doing it.  He makes perfect strangers light up with his charming 4 year old self.  As someone who is far too shy far too much of the time, I love that my boy is confident and friendly. 

#2-He is a great big brother!  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of moments where I wonder if either one of our boys will live to their next birthdays, but when push comes to shove Avery love love loves his brother!  He will just walk over to Hank and give him a hug and  say I love you brother!  Avery was so excited to get to share his room with his brother and loves to show him and things and make him laugh. 

#3-He is talkative!  This the understatement of the century.  As in last night in the car I may have said, my ears are tired please don't talk or do it so quietly I can't hear (not my best moment, I know.)  But, in all honesty I wouldn't have it any other way.  I love hearing about the crazy games he plays on the play ground with his friends at school.  I LOVE hearing him tell his brother, his daddy, ME, and so many others how much he loves them all day every day.  I LOVE the "stream of consciousness" ramblings he treats me to hour after hour that help me know and love his personality even more. 

#4-He is himself!  I knew when we chose the name Avery it wasn't uncommon, but I don't think I realized how common it was.  When we were at the zoo Saturday there was an Avery at every turn (a boy one, too!) but I know I will never worry about our boy being his own person.  He is Avery Blake through and through.  He is funny, kind, loud, rough, sweet, gentle, inquisitive, crazy, silly and so much more in a perfect blend and balance that makes him truly irresistible to me!

Avery had a wonderful 4 year old birthday.  We started with donuts.  As I said Avery has no problem telling you exactly what he would like.  He got to choose from scones, donuts or pancakes and he chose donuts from the donut store where you get to watch them cook them (aka Krispy Kreme.)

Then we decided to have a family fun day at the zoo.  This year for the boys' birthdays we decided to do a zoo, I think it will be a great way to get out of the house for a few hours without feeling like we have to sweat it out for hours.  The weather could not have been more perfect and while it was definitely a birthday treat for Avery, it was also a great day to get in some family time before we become a family of 5.  It was a great, great zoo day!!

 We got to see giant fish!

 Pet a goat!

 FEED A GIRAFFE!

 See lions!

We wrapped up the birthday celebration with the dinner cooked at home of Avery's choosing.  He said he wanted chicken cooked on the grill by daddy and ketchup.  I tried and tried to get him to add to the list, but that was all he said he wanted, I thought that was pretty hilarious.  We did add some carrots and ranch, his favorite veggies, fruit and chips and dip.  All of which the little prince managed to choke down.

We have had a good run of Sprinkles cupcakes, but Avery is now old enough to request his own birthday dessert, so cookie cake it was.  Delicious! 

I have a Confession

because I try to be, fairly, honest on the old blog there is something i need to confess.  i am 99.9% sure the wee 3 is a he, and if i am being honest it makes me a little sad.  i know that good mothers say they don't care what they have as long as the baby is healthy.  trust me i KNOW this, more than many!  i am beyond thankful that i have 2 healthy, precious boys and i can honestly tell you i had very little hope that we would have a healthy baby boy when we were speeding to the hospital march 24, 2008.  i also work in an NICU two days a week taking care of less than healthy babies.  i have had friends lose babies and give birth to babies that weren't healthy.  so, as much as someone who has healthy kids can, i get that babies aren't always born healthy.  and of course more than ANYTHING i want a healthy baby.  

but, i would really,really love a bow head.  

i am a girly girl.  purple is my favorite color.  i don't like to play outside, unless it is by a pool, ocean or lake.  i think bugs are disgusting and have spider issues that i probably should talk to someone about.  i thought i deserved a medal of honor because i didn't throw hank on the ground last year when a june bug landed on me while i was holding him.  mary poppins is my all time favorite movie.  i think retail therapy is an important part of a woman's mental health.  i think pedicures should be considered health care so you can turn them in for flex spending and not feel guilty getting babysitter so you can get one in peace and quiet. 
 
so, if i am being honest it makes me a little sad not to have a little princess.  i also worry about who will tell me that my hair is out of style or that the outfit i thought was so cute really just isn't?  who will call me with all her questions when she is cooking a new recipe, learning to raise kids, or just bored?  who will take care of us when we are old and our boys are busy creating their own families and working hard to care for them? 

i know you aren't supposed to say these things out loud, but i thought i would because there might some other girl out there feeling the way i feel and i want her to know that i think we are okay.  we still love our boys!  i know i wouldn't trade avery blake for an avery kate and hanky pank would be a terrible henrietta.  i can think of so many things that will be better with a 3rd boy, too.  avery and hank will always have 2 equal play mates to choose from.  we won't have a spoiled baby who is a girl on top of being the spoiled baby.  i can continue to get adorable matching sweater vests and bow ties.  i can watch them play 3 on 3 basketball.  when michael and the boys play golf they will always have a foursome.  when it is time for the men and boys mini trek at church i can do anything i want all weekend long!  and more than anything if (when) we have a boy i will know that God knew i could handle it and has a plan for me that involves 3 precious boys and i can't wait to experience it! 

Spring Break

Did you have a great spring break?  I can't say ours was the most exciting, but we sure liked it!  

First Avery and Hank spent a day with Carley!  

Have I told you about Carley?  She is the BEST.  We finally realized, after much tears and gnashing of teeth, that it was time to start getting some help with the boys on the days I worked.  Our moms are busy ladies and we have asked a lot of them for almost 4 years now.  We also know that we want their time with the boys to remain special and not let it become work.  And we are about to have 3 kids, one more than either of our moms chose to raise.  So, we began looking and found Carley.  We love her!  She is so sweet and patient with the boys, I love her kind, gentle tone (very different from the one I often find myself using.)  I love that on the Monday of spring break she took them to not one but 2 parks, remembered to take bread to feed the birds and even took Avery's bike to ride at the park.  I love that when Michael got home last night she and the boys were hiding in an awesome tent having major, secret fun.  Thank goodness for Carley, she is truly an answered prayer.  

Tuesday the boys played with LouLou and of course had big time fun.  We had awesome weather and it was another day of outside fun with picnic lunch, truck driving, car and scooter riding and chase!!! 

Wednesday Avery went to the dentist.  He thinks it's a treat!  He really loved that his dentist was out on maternity leave so he saw her husband, our dentist.  I didn't love that he said Avery has a cross bite and will probably need braces, but at least we can start saving!  We also got to go to a birthday party with a bounce house, so you know we had 2 very happy boys!

Thursday I went to the OB for a regular check up.  All was well and I got to sit in the waiting room and read all by myself for 30 whole minutes in the middle of the morning!  Then Aunt Linde met us for lunch at North Park.  I love North Park and the boys love Aunt Linde!

Then we headed to Tyler for our "vacation" as Avery called it.  I got to go to book club, while the boys had a man night with Papa.  I think this sums it all up. 

I LOVE it, a friend from my Dallas book club shared it and it definitely applies to both groups!  We love our books and we love our wine!

Friday was Womble day!  We had lunch at Chick Fil-A with Pop Grandma and Grandad.  It breaks my heart that our boys won't know my Papa, but I love that Michael's grandparents are just as great as Papa was.  They get down in the floor and roll and play, the tickle and chase and do all the fun things that grandparents do even though they are rather "mature" in years.  We missed Honey this trip because she was visiting a friend, but we are glad she was having fun, too.

 Saturday was our lake day!  

We were SO excited to see that it is finally filling back up!  Avery really wanted to go swimming, but I convinced him it was a little too cold.  Sadly, Avery was having a major allergy flare up so we didn't get to take the boat out and he kept everyone but Hank up with night terrors all night Friday night.  I think it must be a rule that the boys have to get sick when we go to the lake for spring break.  (Remember last year they got the stomach bug, ugh?)  But, this was way better than the stomach bug for sure!  We also got to see MeMe for a little bit and Aunt Linde and Uncle Jeff came to visit for awhile, too!

I think Sunday was my favorite Spring Break day.  I got a surprise day off from work so we got to spend the day with Michael.  We went to church together and had a fun family day.  

Hank was a bit of a pill at dinner.  He made us laugh so hard, he got in trouble from Michael and I guess he was ashamed because he did this afterwards. 

My Favorite TWO Year Old Boy

I can't believe my baby boy is TWO years old.  I love this kid so much.  We were talking at work yesterday about how you worry if you will have enough love for a second child.  Then they are born and you wonder how you ever doubted that your heart would have more than enough room.  

We love love love this 2 year old boy!  There are so many things to love about him.  

I love that he chose scones for his birthday breakfast! I love that he chose them because he learned to love them along side his big brother, who he thinks is AMAZING.  Hearing him call for A-ree fills my heart every time!

I love that he had so much fun with his new best friend Bull's Eye.  I love that he took great care of him, gave him milkshake and french fries, and lots of hugs.  I love that this makes me think he will be a great big brother. 

I love that he loves his sweets.  He didn't even waste time with the red velvet of his cupcake, he went straight for the frosting.  It's in his genes from at least 3 generations back.

I love that he gives the stink eye better than anyone I know, trust me this is extremely modest on the stink eye scale.  I love the stink eye because it makes the precious smiles feel even better, and it is one of the many ways he communicates his big personality even if he isn't always able to use his words.

I love that he loves music and singing.  I wish you could hear him singing along with his Mickey Mouse card.  You can always get Hank in a great mood with a fun song, and if he really loves the song he will show you all his best dance moves! 

There are so many things I love about our Hank I could never list them all.  But know for sure we think he is TWO fabulous for words and are so glad our second born son had a great second year!  We can't what to see what this year holds for our little buddy!

Batman Brothers and Bouncing!

We just had a birthday party!

I'll be honest it stressed me a little to have the 2 parties together, but in the end I am so glad I did.  I felt much better about not having to ask our family and friends to come to 2 birthday parties in one month or chose just one boy to celebrate.  

Avery chose the Batman theme, I have no idea how he knows about Batman or what he really even knows about Batman, but when I saw the super cute shirts at the Gap the theme was set! 

We had a great day!  My mom and sister let me boss them around to help me decorate which was great.  It is so nice to take advantage of the people that have to love you and are super good at this stuff, I highly recommend it, especially if you are 32 weeks pregnant and have had sick kids all week. 

It was at our church gym, which is not so cute.  But I think we transformed it pretty nicely!

 

We had Batman and Robin coloring pages, a Batman Boogie Station for our dancing King Hank, the beloved bounce house and Aunt Linde painted faces!  

Avery had an absolute blast from beginning to end, he even had fun watching and "helping" the poor bounce house guy tear down!  

These pictures crack me up!  Only for Aunt Linde would our busy little bee sit that still just steps away from the bounce house.  I also love the one in the middle on the bottom, it is Avery and one of partner's sons I bet that Michael and Jeff have sat at conference table with Michael tucking a pencil behind his ear deep in conversation.  I also can't stop laughing at the pitiful face Avery is making with Blake and Courtney.  He was SO glad to see them and had so much fun, I would love to know the story behind that sass face.  

I am afraid poor Hank didn't have quite the blast that his brother enjoyed.  I was so worried it would be too much of a 4 year old party instead of a 2 year old party, but I don't think that was true at all.  Hank seemed to enjoy bouncing sliding and all the other fun.  BUT, he showed up about an hour late to his own party because of course he was sick as a dog with his asthma and allergies Friday and still pretty bad Saturday.  It seems to be his tradition to be sick at his birthday party every year.  I am hoping I can remember to do their party at the end of the month next year so that maybe the initial March bloom will have passed and our kids will be able to breathe.  

I love these pictures because they are equally descriptive of Hank.  He is wiping the icing off his fingers because he hates for his hands to be dirty.  And I am so glad we caught him with his buddy Lucy.  She is the best and loves our Hank, I have no doubt she will be keeping him in line for years to come, sweet girl even made sure to bring Hank some goldfish at snack time.  And I have to say our kids have some pretty fun family members, so many people were so great to climb in and bounce and slide with the boys!

All in all I think that we had an almost 2 year old boy and almost 4 year old boy that had a pretty great time and felt very celebrated!

And while I of course didn't document any of the grandparents, great grandparents or most of the guests thanks to Aunt Courtney we got a good family picture and several hilarious cousin pictures.  Poor Cooper, thank goodness he is such a sweet, good baby cousin!

February Photo A Day Continued

Here are days 11-20, they sure were fun!

day 11 makes you happy

this weekend we got to go see our friends the McCords.  I LOVED seeing these little buddies lined up in their jammies watching a movie as we were headed out for a double date.  the cute kids made me SO happy and the double date made me SO happy!

day 12 your closet

I love how it looks so full, but I can really only wear a few things, most are my regular winter clothes and a few are maternity.  :)  I always think I can make my regular clothes work, but that is happening less and less often.  

day 13 blue

 the navy blue stripes in the big brother room!

day 14 heart 

our night shift and nurse manager at work always do a great job of making our parents feel special at holidays.  for valentines day they got this little crafty heart and a rose from their tiny little ones!

day 15 phone

it cracks me up that our quirky old house came with a giant phone jack in the middle of the wall, so we embraced it.  it cracks me up even more that my friend sarah ALWAYS calls her husband from the bathroom when they come over.  

day 16 something new

hank graduated from the pack n play in linde's room to a pallet in papa and lou lou's room at the lake, big stuff!

day 17 time

time spent playing farkle with meme is pretty hilarious, she's fierce for a "widow lady" as she likes to call herself and her friends.

day 18 drink

diet dr pepper is my love language, thank goodness my husband knows that!

day 19 something you hate to do 

i HATE to pack up and go home.  you don't have the excitement of a trip, everything is dirty and has somehow grown while you were there, it is just no fun!

day 20 handwriting

i LOVE to make lists, to do lists, grocery lists, lists about lists they make me happy.  but they must be handwritten and preferably all in the same color ink, etc.  i have some OCD issues. 

February Photo A Day

I have had so much fun this month participating in the February Photo a Day Challenge. 

You should join in for March, here is the list.

It seems silly, but I like that it is a fun easy thing to do each day, that some days feels like the only thing I can cross of my to do list.  It also makes Instagram a very fun quick check on my phone, which I love since I am not really a facebook kind of girl.  It has also been fun to capture fun pictures of our lives, I might not otherwise take.  Here are the first 10 from February. 

day 1-your view. 
I was at work and got floated to the newborn nursery.  I figured this was a legal shot because it was far enough away you couldn't see any private info, but you could see a few of the little ones lined up waiting for their families to be ready for them!

day 2- words
The words of one of our favorite books Hank and I read before bed that night.  pretty much love the toddler toes, too!

day 3-hands
I melted when I looked down while we were waiting for our paint at the paint store and saw the buddies holding hands, I didn't even pose them but was happy to take advantage!

day 4-a stranger
This was Carley the day she came to meet us and the boys.  She was definitely not a stranger for long and is turning out to be the perfect babysitter for our family while I work one of my days each week!

day 5-10:00am
we were at church!

 day 6-dinner
Avery comes by his love of turkey and cheese honestly.  my favorite after work dinner is just a good old turkey and cheese sandwich with some baked cheetos of course!

day 7-button
The buttons that get me through my day and home at the end of the day. 

Another work day.  The top row of buttons are to our monitors at work, definitely a huge part of getting through a work day, and the bottom is the button start my car.

 day 8-sun
It was a rainy day here, so we played with sun glasses.  I love Avery's CHEESEtastic smile!

day 9-front door
I couldn't decide what I liked best, my Valentine's Day decorations (minus the welcome mat facing the wrong way,) the sassy door holder, or his Valentine's Day shirt peeking out with the Valentine decorations in back. 

day 10-self portrait
When you are pregnant you feel like you are just a giant belly (and booty in my case, but I wasn't about to share that.)