Another Nona Original

My mom did it again. She made us another quilt! This is our "picnic quilt." Actually it's an "I SPY" picnic quilt!! All the little circles are different fabrics so we can play "I Spy" with the pictures on them or even "find two that match". It is backed with denim which I love so it's durable and will last us forever! We have already had one picnic outside with it but we have played with it a lot just in the living room! THANK YOU AGAIN NONA! WE LOVE YOU!

First Biter Biscuit

Bailey had her first biter biscuit yesterday and OH MY, was it messy! I forgot just how messy these things were! Wow. I made the mistake of giving this to her clothed and after lunch instead of after dinner when she is going straight to the tub anyway. So needless to say she had an extra bath that day! But the important thing was she enjoyed it and it kept her busy while I ate my lunch! Yay for biter biscuits, mess or not!

Here is the progression:

What?

Oh yes, I'm messy. :)

Hmm, what happens if I touch my hair?

Oh yes, then I look like this. :)

OK, bathtime! I do love bathtime. Anything to get myself into this tub!

Pumpkin Patch

Recently we went to Carmichael's pumpkin patch. We have to go every year--it's a tradition to get pictures on all the pumpkins now! Well of course we chose a very windy and cold day, so for a lot of the pictures the girls had their jackets on! Also since we have Bailey this year, but she cannot stand up on her own yet, Avery was trying to hold on to her most of the time. It was hilarious! I don't think we had any pictures where both girls were looking at the camera at the same time and smiling. Oh well. They're cute anyway. There were so many funny ones I did a separate slideshow of the "outtakes" so enjoy!

OK watch this first one and think, "Oh, what cute girls! They had such a fun time at the pumpkin patch!"

Now watch this one and get a better idea of what kind of day we REALLY had! :)

Fall Festival

Avery playing a game where you try to shoot the target with suction cup darts.

I'm not really sure what this was but kind of like a go cart that you pedal. I think Craig liked it more than Avery!

First time to have her face painted. It was a cute rainbow but she had it gone even before bathtime!

Jumping--her favorite!

Last weekend, our church had their Fall Festival. The inflatables are always Avery's favorites but I did manage to get her to play some games as well. She had a lot of fun and enjoyed racking up some yummy candy, too!

A Visit to Aunt Staci's

(slideshow still not working. Just click on this link to see the slideshow from Picasa's site)

On October 8th, my mom, the girls, and I took a trip to visit my sister Staci. She lives in Centreville, Virginia which is just outside of Washington DC. It was a quick plane trip to DFW, then a 3 hour flight to Virginia. The girls were SO good! I couldn't have asked for better travelers! We had lots of fun with Aunt Staci and took two trips to DC. The second time we took the metro which was kind of fun and way less stressful than trying to drive to DC and find a parking garage which is what we did the first time. All of the sights were great and we did A LOT of walking! Once again though the girls were troopers and took naps in the car/strollers/on Mommy...whatever it took. They whined less than I did! (I had blisters on my feet after walking at least 5 miles that first trip...seriously...we calculated it and we walked at least 5 miles!) Thanks for letting us bunk with you Aunt Staci and sharing all of your wonderful organic food! Avery had a blast and learned how to play on Aunt Staci's iphone. Nona was a huge help with the girls as always and I could not have traveled there without her! A couple of times, we were RUNNING to our gate so we didn't miss the plane and once when my mom was holding Avery so she could run faster, Avery yelled, "RUN NONA RUN!" It was so hilarious! See captions on the pictures for more descriptions. And sorry, there are a TON!

Ephesians 4:32

When I was little and my sisters and I would argue, my mom would bust out in this song! I thought it was corny then, but I'm glad I learned it and I recently taught it to Avery. She is such a fast learner and we sing this all the time now! What a great way to learn bible verses--through song! This morning I started teaching her John 3:16 (unfortunately I don't have a song for that) but by tonight she was already saying the whole verse with a tiny bit of prompting from me! I am so proud of her and I can't wait to see what God has in store for her life!

Sandbox

Yippee for our handy Daddy! He got a new circular saw for his birthday and was very excited to try it out on his latest project. Avery LOVES sandboxes and we decided she needed one of her own. Craig added boards to the sides underneath the tower on her swingset and filled it with sand. (He is still going to add a few more bags.) He even gave her a seat in the corner! He is getting to be quite the handy husband and always does things himself! If he doesn't know how, he figures it out and learns and I am so proud of him for that. Avery loves her sandbox and I know she will have a lot of fun in it!!

Raise Your Arms! and a Mess

do not ask me what this is, but she did this fist in the air thing right when I snapped the picture and we were cracking up! It's like she was saying, "Yes to mess!"

she will even do it for Avery!

Craig taught Bailey to raise her arms to be tickled a few days ago. It's really cute and I love that I have evidence now that she understands what we are saying to her! She will even do it if we are not raising our arms so I know she's not just copying us. She signs "more" and "all done" for me when I ask her, too! Also in this post (because it was all on the same night) are some really messy pictures of Bailey. It's hard to make it out in the pictures, but she had peas all in her hair and all over her and the highchair! This was the messiest I think she has ever been! She was rubbing it all in her hair and we just let her. It was so funny!

Mommy's Helper

Bailey is already learning how to help with chores around the house!! I love her happiness these days and her smiles and giggles. I love how she "pats" everything and is a lot more snuggly with me than Avery was as a baby. She is a MESS and gets into everything she's not supposed to, but we are diligently trying to train her the way we did with Avery and I know she is going to be just as sweet and just as much of a joy! It might take a little longer to get there, but we will!!

Tent Fun

Bailey has been able to play a little more with Avery lately. Avery CAN'T WAIT for Bailey to be a little older so she can play more with her instead of around her. Bailey does like to crawl into the tent and they have played in here a lot lately. Avery will go get a bunch of toys that are safe for Bailey and they will stay in there for quite a while together! It makes me so happy to see the way they love each other so much!

Tulsa Fair '09

(for some reason I am having problems embedding the slideshow that I normally do. Just click on the picture above--it's a link to the Picasa site where I make the slideshows. You can click on the word "slideshow" there and see it bigger anyway. Hopefully I can get it fixed soon.)

The fair is so much fun to go to with Avery! She loves everything and it's really not that fun to go without her! Last year was her first year and I promise you she has talked about it off and on since last year. This girl does not forget a thing. So it finally came back around and Grandma graciously watched Bailey while we went for a fun evening together. The only bummer was they weren't selling wristbands for the kiddie rides like last year so we had to use tickets for each ride which made it way more expensive and we didn't get to ride very many things. Mommy got to ride everything with Avery this year because last year I was pregnant and missed out on the rides. (Don't worry, we don't ride anything more scary than the ferris wheel!)
Avery LOVED the Just for Kids building and we did, too. They had a huge sandbox, areas with legos and blocks, areas with ride on toys and tricycles, craft areas for make-and-takes, and even more things that we didn't get around to. We stuffed ourselves with lots of bad for you food, but all in all had a great night together!