A fun day with my Little Avery Anne

If there is one thing Avery is not lacking, it's personality! I love watching her and seeing the things she thinks up to do and say. Today we went to the mall and on the playground, all the children were climbing up the little slide and nicely sliding down, sometimes in a little train. But, my Little Avery Anne was the only child (boy or girl) who went down the slide each and every time, 1) on her back 2) headfirst. Crazy nut!

We had a delightful day together - it was a milestone in our relationship! I hope this doesn't sound mean, but if you've ever been a mother, you know that each time you take your kids to the mall you promise yourself that it's not worth it and you'll never do it again! (not that it's always the child's fault - it's just not always feasible, especially if you have shopping you truly need to get done for yourself) When we got to the mall today, Avery was a completely different child than the one who usually accompanies me on shopping excursions. I mean, usually she is excited to be at the mall for about 20 minutes, but then the new wears off and the meltdowns start occurring soon after. Today, when we went in the Gap and Gymboree, she wanted to try on several of the dresses and found matching hats, sunglasses and shoes for each of them. It was neat to see her taste and which dresses she thought were pretty. The pink one in the photo is one she liked and it was adorable on her. We stayed at the mall for over 4 hours and even then, she was not ready to leave! I truly enjoyed our day together - what fun, having a daughter!

What Will I Be when I Grow Up?

Bet you can't guess what Avery is going to be when she grows up? She just informed me this morning, out of the blue.

"Mom, when I grow up, I'm going to be a Spaceship driver!"

You go girl!

What a Wonderful March!

What a great month March has been! Mom and Dad came the first weekend for a visit, to see Grandmother, and to go to the ZOE Conference. It was a fabulous weekend, but due to all the planned activities I don't feel like I got to spend enough time with them. That's just me being ungrateful though! ZOE was a huge encouragement to me - just getting to worship with good singing, which is something I desperately miss. We saw lots of old friends, from LCU, Grants, and Broadway. And...hearing Jeff Walling speak, someone who I can honestly say had a huge part in the formation of my faith through the teenage years. In Grants, we used to watch a video series he made, called C-TV. It was such a nice break from our regular Sunday morning teacher - not that they weren't good - but Jeff Walling just knew how to relate to teens. He always seemed to connect with me, and still does (does that mean I'm still at a teenage maturity level??) Then he was a speaker at Encounter for several years. I loved getting to hear him speak again - he makes you belly laugh and then drives a serious point home in the next sentence. The theme of the conference was "Closer". His lesson basically was that GOD is the one who has moved closer to us. We have an idea that we are going to "get closer to God". He said, "Closer is not YOUR verb". First God moved closer to man by living in the tabernacle and moving around with the people. But that wasn't close enough. So, he moved to be one of us, living with us on Earth as Jesus. But that wasn't close enough either. Now, he lives IN us - now that's about as close as he could get. Awesome thought to know that God does the work of being close to us. I'm trying to be more aware of his "closeness" to me each day.

On Monday, we went to Friona to see my Grandmother. She is not doing very well, so it was hard to see her that way. She is 93, but it is still difficult to see someone you love in that condition. She did light up to see Avery, as she always has. I think we will go back to see her next week.

On Tuesday Morning Mimi got to go see Avery's school, which was VERY fun. Here are some picts.

In Avery's Frog Class

It was a super weekend! Thanks for coming, Mom & Dad!

Now onto this past weekend. For any of you who have cousins, you know what fun they can be, especially as a child. Avery has just had two of her cousins, Caleb and Carter, and Aunt "Sessie" here for 4 days on Spring Break, and I think we ALL had plenty of fun.

The kids customizing tractors with Gabe. Caleb even put one of his on ebay - see it at this link

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-64-1-72-Fendt-Vario-926-custom-model-farm-tractor_W0QQitemZ120097540326QQcategoryZ741QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

At the park - on the ONE day it wasn't raining!

At Uncle Gabe's Office with all the cool tractors! The kids took a ride around the lot.

Cousin love

Saturday, Uncle Gabe bravely took all 3 kids to Granpappy's farm to see the animals, and to ride the Gator. I wish I had video, but we are told they all got to drive and had a blast. Then they went to lunch at McDonalds (yum!) and then back to the country in Abernathy to ride the 4-wheeler. What a dream day for 5 and 8 year old boys.

Meanwhile, "Sessie" and I were having OUR dream day. We laugh at the fact that we got to Lubbock at 9:30, and by 4:30 we had only been to Target and Kohls, with a short lunch in there too! Oh the joy of leisurely strolling the aisles of Target without being pulled on and whined at! And getting to go to each section we wanted to in Kohls? Unbelievable! Shopping with my sister is one of my favorite things to do. And of course...we only spent money on bargains. My envelopes for the month are mostly empty, so it's beans and rice for us the rest of the month! But, I sure do have some cute new capris and shoes for the Spring!

Gabe met us at Chuck E Cheese with the kids for supper. He even had them all showered up and squeaky clean! Avery had picked out her own outfit, which matched pretty well, and her hair looked great! Gabe admitted that he left the rubber band in while she showered because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to put it back in! Anyway, we adults agreed that Chuck E Cheese has got to be on America's Top Ten List of Worst Places to Work. And from the service we received, it seems that only those at the bottom of the barrel have accepted the job! But the kids had fun and it felt good just to sit down, no matter where we were!

Too bad it rained most of the week, we were looking forward to spending lots of time at the park. But, we did end up getting to go out on Tuesday evening. When it was finally time for them to leave on Wednesday morning, Avery was pretty upset. But thankfully, she discovered an Earthworm, which is decided to make her pet, so that was a wonderful distraction. The worm now lives in a Cool Whip tub, and when we added dirt, we even found a baby, so she now has 2 pet worms. Leslie couldn't believe that 3 year old girl would hold a worm without flinching, but Avery loved it!

Thank you Caleb, Carter and Aunt Sessie for coming! And thank you Iz and Snoopy for letting them come! Now we are expecting Uncle Mike and Aunt Julie at the end of the month. We can't wait!

Do Lord, Oh Do Lord

Just some randon thoughts and stories:

Being on a budget is good practice at discipline for our whole family! Today we bought groceries at Wal-mart and when we got home and were unloading them, Avery yelped, "Mom, we got to get grapes? You mean, they weren't too expensive??" Even she has figured out that we don't get to put everything that we want into our basket anymore! She was also annoyed when one of our coupons wouldn't scan and we had to wait on the manager to come and make it work - after all, it was for $1 off of toilet bowl cleaner! Hey - a dollar is a coke at Sonic, so I was willing to wait!

The other day I heard Avery in her room singing, "Do Lord, Oh Do Lord, oh do ya remember me...look away, behind, the Clue." I thought it was pretty hilarious. She's been watching too much Blue's Clues, I guess.

And...I told my mother-in-law last night that I am TIRED of being bossed around. Avery and I do a lot of playing with babies, Little People, kitchen, Groovy Girls, etc... It's pretty funny to see how she runs the show - she will tell you exactly what to do, and how to...or how NOT to do whatever it is she wants you to do...or not to do. Jill told me we should set the timer and take turns being the boss. Think I'll try that.....not sure how it will go over...but I'll try.....

Update: We tried the timer thing, and it worked! But as soon as the timer beeped, she said "Yeah, now it's MY turn to be the boss again!" And boss she did, but it was in a sweet way. Avery is such a fun girl - I am so glad I have her to play with!

Happy Valentines Day!

Lubbock Christian University

We had a great weekend at LCU's 50th year Celebration and our 11 year college reunion. Although there weren't as many friends of ours there as we had hoped for, we did get to see many of them and catch up with old acquaintances. It's neat to hear what everyone is doing now, and to see people all grown up and "middle aged with 3 kids". It's amazing how things have changed and improved at LCU in the 11 years since we've been there. Dr. Ken Jones has done an fabulous job of improving the image of LCU, which we always thought was one of it's weak points. The campus is really pretty with nice landscaping and the fairly new Bronze Chaparral statue, which we think is really cool, and some other people in our family think is hideous! There is a new building on campus between the CDC and the Education Building, and the Moody has been recently renovated. It's a pretty campus to walk around now!

We are very thankful for LCU and what we learned there. We learned academics, which prepared us for our careers, but it was also a great place to learn how to be an adult after leaving home. I still have so much love and admiration for many of my professors, many of who we still are in contact with. One professor and her husband faithfully supported us financially each month when we went to Africa. I am very thankful to my parents who paid for my education - only in recent years have I realized what a HUGE blessing that was to me. Thank you Mom & Dad for your sacrifices to send me to LCU. We hope that one day, we will be able to give gifts to the University to help keep it going. We hear that my grandparents, James & Taleta Mabry were at one of the first meetings to discuss the possibility of a Christian Univeristy in a cotton field in Lubbock. We are so glad for what God did with that dream - if not for it, things would have turned out very differently. (I don't think Gabe or I would exists, as both sets of our parents met there!) Go Chaps!

Life with Spike

Well, I can honestly say I never thought we'd be the proud owners of a Chia Pet, but thanks to Vernon's sweet mother Millie, "Spike" was delivered from Alabama to Avery via Alvin & Jill last week. The directions said to soak his head in water for a while, then just fill the glass body with water and use the container he came in as a greenhouse over him until sprouting occured! Well, when I lifted the greenhouse a few days ago, I discovered that Spike IS growing hair - the only problem is that it's all on one side! Maybe this is the Cindy Lauper version, or maybe in the coming days his hair will even out. It is growing on his right side, and my hair stylist says that our hair naturally grows faster on the right, so maybe this is true of Chia pets as well! The idea is that you are supposed to be able to cut his hair when it gets long enough, and watch it grow again! We'll keep you posted, I know you will all be waiting to hear......

Today was Jammies Day at Sonshine School, and Avery was very excited about it. Whoever coined the phrase "Terrible Twos" must have had a child that was behaviorally advanced, because all the moms I talk to agree that it's more like the "Terrible Threes". I haven't had to clean my floors thanks to Avery being a human mop as she collapses to the floor with whining and crying each time she hears the word "no", or doesn't get her way. Oh brother.....hope this phase passes quickly!! This is the first time in 3+ years that I've run to the bookshelf looking for the James Dobson books! Any advice out there?