5 Year Old Boy Celebrations

Avery had a pretty awesome birthday, especially since it was spread out over the weekend!
Saturday wasn't the prettiest day, but he still managed to have a lot of fun on his very last day of 4.

He climbed up in trees, with some help from daddy!

He took a shower, not a bath!  And, he wrapped his towel like a grown up instead of like a kid!

He had quality time with Aunt Linde, Uncle Jeff and Mack.  

He had a birthday dinner of sliders, black eyed peas, strawberries, chips and dip with an ice cold rootbeer to drink!  

He had a strawberry cupcake with with strawberry icing and 5 candle!

And he was an excellent sport when we all pretended not to know the happy birthday song for a good 5 minutes before we broke down and sang to him!  

Sunday was more fun for an officially 5 year old boy!
We had orange rolls for breakfast in the car on the way to church!  

He even got to open presents before church!  Isn't it sad he didn't like his present?

 Nap time was awesome courtesy of a new movie and new sleeping bags.

Avery picked Mi Cocina for lunch, thank goodness!  I was so afraid he would pick McDonald's since Chick Fil-A is closed on Sundays.  Our buddies the Reeses went with us, but I forgot to document the lunch.  And dinner and bingo at City Square was a great way to end the night, even if it was a little hard to not win at bingo.  But hey, they had oreos chips and hot dogs so it wasn't a bad deal!

And here are the thoughts of my 5 year old boy....

My favorite thing to say is Jesus is alive again now!
My favorite song is Jesus Loves Me
My favorite color is green
My favorite drink is sprite
My favorite food is chicken like at Old McDonald's and Chick Fil-A
I like to go eat at Mi Cocina
My favorite store is Super Target

The coolest person I know is Dad
The funniest person I know is Papa
The sweetest person I know is Mamma
When I am outside I love to shoot my bow and arrow
When I am inside I love to play board games
If I could go anywhere in the world I would go to Annalee and Evan's
I like to watch Hercules 
My friends are Katie and David and Brooks, Riley and Cade

My favorite thing to do with Daddy is Shoot at the target 
My favorite thing to do with Mamma is read Amelia Bedelia 
My favorite thing to do with Hanky is watch good TV shows
My favorite thing to do with Sadie Jo is make funny faces
My teachers are Ms Amy and Ms Lauren
I like when we play games
When I am 5 I hope to keep celebrating my birthday
I know that Jesus loves us
When I grow up I hope to be a dad that works at an office 

we sure do love our 5 year old boy!

My Favorite Five Year Old Boy

I can't believe my Avery boy turned 5 today!
He LOVED it!  He came into our room first thing and said "Mamma, am I five???" I answered and got a huge "YES!!!!"

Here are 5 of my favorite things about Avery Blake

1-He is a great big brother!  He can hands down make Sadie Jo laugh harder than anyone else.  He shares so sweetly with Hank when it counts most.  Tonight on the way home from church Hanky was sad he wasn't going to school tomorrow with Avery so Ave told him he could borrow his brand new birthday toy while he was at school.  I love watching Ave with Hank and Sadie Jo!

2-My boy can TALK!  I have been known to tell him he has to stop because my ears are tired.  But, it is so great to always know what he is thinking and feeling.  He tells me all kinds of great things every single day and I love it.  I know it all may end some day, so I try hard to soak it up while I can.

3-Avery never meets a stranger!  I am the biggest wimp about talking to people I don't know well, Avery says hello to every single person we see.  We have had so many people in and out of our house and more than one of them told me he made their day by thanking them for helping with our house and taking an interest in what they were doing.

4-Avery had limitless energy!  He can run for hours, play for days, party like a tiny little rock star and I love it.  He is always up for whatever we throw at him.  It's fun to be with Avery!

5-He is a great, Godly little boy.  He made it a goal this year to give good gifts.  He has learned that means giving great gifts at birthdays, but also so much more.  I love the smile on Avery's face when he knows he gave the gift of kind words that made someone happy.  That smile is one of pure joy!  I love it, even though it is so hard, that when Avery hurts someone it really does hurt him.  He is crushed to know he has disappointed his daddy or made his sister upset.  Avery loves to share God's love in any way he can and it makes me proud and motivates me to be a better person.

4 was a great year.  Several people told me 4 was their favorite age and at times I found myself wondering why.  We had a lot of boundary testing and I may be paying for the sassy mouth I was rumored to have had as a child.  But, as I think of our year and type this out I am so thankful for my sweet boy and the great year we have had.  He tests me, pushes me, makes me crazy and give the sweetest hugs and affirmations.  I am one lucky Mamma!

 

And for those of you who thought Ave looked like me....

here's a family photo that proves otherwise.  

He is his daddy through and through.  

September Completed

September ended with lots of fun.
A certain baby girl turned one month older.

A certain pair of boys celebrated their half birthdays...

Papa happened to be in town for meetings on his birthday, so we got to celebrate with him!!!

Sadie Jo enjoyed it, I promise!

Thanks for being patient with me while I catch up!

September Part 2

September also meant lots of travel fun for us!  It was great to extend the summer one more month.  We got to celebrate our FAVORITE one year old boy....

Cooper

 He had a super cute wagon themed birthday!  

And apparently Michael and I were very squinty that day.  :)

 It cracks me up to try to get cousin pictures when they are all so little.  

 How could this cutie not be our favorite one year old boy???

After the birthday party we headed to Hyatt's Wild Oak Ranch for a late summer vacay with our favorite travel buddies.  

I have to say we truly loved it!!  I know Hill Country is supposed to be the only way to go, but this was perfect for our stage in life.  It was low key, not crowded and we went to Hill Country when wanted to! 

I could go on and on but a good old instagram pic frame pretty much summed it up, we swam, we played and had a blast. 

 Sadie Jo was the baby of the world.  

The kids played and played!  

I love our no apologizing for your kids policy.  It allowed us to laugh when Hank had an epic meltdown and showed his true commitment to his cause by flatly refusing to say sorry, say I'll be nice or just stop screaming for 20 minutes while we made lunch one day.  

It was so cute to watch the 4 big kids chat it up at their own table each night for dinner.  

We discovered a new board game that I really love, Bezzerwizzer.  

These are the memories I hope our kids will cherish, I know I do.  

I Know We Disappeared

Can you say welcome back to yourself?  I am going to give it a whirl.  I totally fell off the blog bandwagon last fall, but I am hoping to get back at it.

My last blog before a few days ago was August 31st.  We have some catching up to do....

So here's the first two weeks of September in a nutshell!

We made a snap decision to put our house on the market, as in we decided Sunday afternoon and it was listed Wednesday morning.  However, in some ways it was a long time coming.  We have been discussing moving closer to Michael's work for 2 years.

I decided to potty train Hank.  He was talking about it like crazy and I felt like I would regret it if I missed my chance.

We had meet the teachers.  Hi Ms Dee!

 Hi Ms Laurie!

 Hi Ms Amy & Ms Lauren!

 We had our first day of preschool for the 2012-2013 school year.

I never want to forget these sweet brothers walking into Hank's first ever day of preschool hand in hand.

It was an INSANE two weeks.  But has lead to great things for our family.  Hank finally mastered both aspects of potty training mid-December.  We sold our house.  And we have been blessed with 4 preschool teachers that seem perfect for our two favorite boys!  I would do it all over again in a heart beat.
Sadie Jo was punkin, too.  She just let her brothers have the spotlight for back to school!

Hanky's Big Day

I think it is safe to say my favorite 3 year old boy had a great Birthday!!

 He started out his day with a request for macaroni and cheese, Spiderman mac n cheese to be exact.  

He loved it and had two huge helpings.  

Then we got to go play at open gym and do that giant swing!  

It was so fun and a great way to spend a rainy day! 

Hanky picked Chick Fil-A for lunch! 

Mr. 3 year old had a blast sitting at the boys only table with Daddy and his best buddy Cade.  

After lunch we headed to sprinkles to select our birthday dessert.  Hanky made his daddy proud and carefully selected red velvet.  

For dinner Hanky requested tortilla crusted tilapia, black beans and rice and red corn muffins.  I was more than happy to oblige the easiest birthday dinner request.  

Daddy also made Hanky's night bringing him home a BIG drink from Sonic, powered!  

We love that Aunt Linde, Uncle Jeff and Mack live in town and could come celebrate our favorite 3 year old boy with us.  They sure were sweet to give up their Friday night for us.  

I think it is safe to say our little friend had a great day!  He managed to fall fast asleep with no paci and no complaining.  Let's hope it lasts!  

We love our sweet boy so much and I loved his answers to his 3 year old questionnaire.  

Q:What is your name?

A:Hanky

Q:What animal do you like? 

A:Lions

Q:What is your favorite color?

A:Red

Q:Where do you like to go? 

A:Honey's house

Q:What do you like to play?

A: Candy Land

Q:What do you like to do outside?

A:Play armies and doggies

Q:What do you like to do inside? 

A:Play with Cade

Q:What do you like to wear?

A:Spiderman shirt

Q:What's your favorite book?

A:The lions (Daniel in the Lions Den)

Q:What is your favorite show?

A:Hercules

Q:What is your favorite song?

A:I am not crying (a Hank original)

Q:What do you like to do with Daddy?

A:Play Candy Land

Q:What do you like to do with Mamma?

A:Play Candy Land

Q:What do you want to do when you grow up?

A:Put the door locks on (can you tell we just remodeled)

Q:What do you like to do with Avery?

A:Play outside

Q:What do you like to do with Sadie Jo?

A:Play

Q:What do you know about the Bible?

A:Jesus loves me 

Q:Where do you sleep?

A:My room

Q:What do you like to drink?

A:Powerade

Q:Who are your teachers?

A:Ms Dee and Ms Waurie (Laurie)

Q:Can you count?

A:One, two 

Q:Who are your friends?

A:Wiwa (Lila) Ewwie (Ellie) Cooper

Q:Who is in your family?

A:Mamma, Daddy, Avery and Sadie Jo

special thanks to Annalee, I stole her questions, and to Hollie and Cade for spending their whole day with us

Hanky Panky

I can't believe my baby boy is THREE!!! How can it be!
In honor of his third birthday I thought I would tell you my 3 favorite things about Hank.

1-Hank ALWAYS has a song in his heart.  He will make up songs when he feels like it, he leads his daddy and brother in a rousing rendition of The Lord's Army every night on the way to the bathtub, and busts a move any time any place when he hears a song he likes.  I can't wait to see how this musicality plays out in his life!

2-Hank is PASSIONATE.  When Hank is happy he beams at you tells you thank you with such sincerity and gives you a huge hug!  When Hank is not happy he will stink eye you, yell at you and swing with all his might.  While it is much more pleasant to be on the happy side of things I love that no matter what you know where he stands and why.  I think this will help him have the courage to do great things in his life!

3-Hank is a sweet, sweet boy.  Yesterday morning Hanky climbed up in my bed gave me a huge hug and then sweetly rubbed my cheek with his lovey just like he likes it.  Hanky is so happy for his brother and sister when great things happen to them.  Hanky almost never forgets to say thank you and he always means it when he says it.  Hanky loves a good cuddle.

We sure have been blessed by 3 great years with our FAVORITE THREE YEAR OLD BOY!!!!!!!!