Just keeping you up to date:)

Here are some pictures form life...

Swimming in the Hibbs' pool is the best...this time we went and got my parents' puppy (Jac, short for Jacqueline) to bring her over but she ended up going swimming, Myla loved floating around with her.

Our sweet Stella girl, she continues to be a really good puppy (most of the time of course)

Myla loves eating by herself more and more every day, the amount of food she gets down is truly remarkable.

The Hiroto's are back from Malawi!  Avery and Yamikani have become quick friends and they're so cute together.

Just a quick shower for Mommy while the girls watch a TV show:)

We had the church picnic a while back where Avery made a rocket because they had a rocket launcher there, hers definitely went the farthest (I may be slightly biased) and she was one proud rocket maker!

We can't get enough of that sweet smile and those gorgeous blue eyes.

Aves loving being a big girls with her pigtails and high top converse shoes.

They now both have laptops, it's pretty funny.

My last PM shift we had a taco bar, it was amazing, I definitely miss my PM people but I'm loving being on day shift (for those that don't know about 2 weeks ago I switched to day shift, 0700-1530 so I can be home every night and it's amazing, we love having dinner together as a family and I've been able to start taking ballet classes!)

Love love love this child, Yami is so great.

We try to hang out with the Hiroto's as much as possible, we made homemade pizzas one night and Yami couldn't get enough, so funny!

We stopped the "dreamfeed" a couple of weeks ago so Myla no longer gets woken up to get a bottle, it's something that will definitely be missed because we loved that cuddle time but she no longer needs it...it means we're facing the harsh reality that she's growing up:(

We continue to have fun with friends!  Here is Myla and sweet baby Evan (Dawson's little brother) playing together on the front lawn.

Oh man, I have a picture of me looking exactly like this.  Avery continues to take a ballet/tap class every Wednesday, unfortunately I no longer get to go because I work every Wednesday now BUT our great friend Katie Johnson takes care of the girls on Wednesdays and brings both to dance class.

Another great thing about Avery being in preschool is that we get some alone time with Myla and boys does she love it!  

One of her favorite toys is the mirror....

Going on a walk while sissy is in school, a stuffed animal replaces Aves in the double stroller:)

We got to babysit Yami one night when all of our friends from small group came over, he was amazing and we love him! (this picture is especially great because he's doing such a manly pose:)

Myla has started doing lots of hand/arm movements...this is the "I surrender" motion, she also waves bye bye and can say "all done" in sign language.

Myla and Stella girl hanging out...

This is Myla's 10 month birthday!  We really enjoy only having one mobile child so we haven't been totally encouraging her to crawl but we realize now that we must cause she's getting old, hopefully we'll have crawling videos soon!

Post breakfast bottle sister loving...

and big sister kisses

along with more big sister kisses (notice Myla pushing away...)

and now they're friends again. 

Hope you all are doing well, still working on the "16% post" it's going to be a good one!

1st day of Preschool

With Avery being as social as she is, we've known for a while it was time for school so we finally enrolled her:)  We enrolled her 2 days a week for 4 hours a day and she absolutely loves it.  It started the last week in August and is every Tuesday and Thursday.  It's pretty legit...we had a back to school night, she had school pictures, there are fieldtrips, etc.  She learns spanish, bible, music, and sign language (in addition to english stuff too:) and she seems to really thrive there.  Unfortunately when we pick her up from school and ask her how preschool was her response is, "let's talk about this later..." and then she refuses to talk about it later.  We love age 3!  

We had this really great sign that my friend Kaitlyn Campbell made for me that we got to use and it was perfect (except that Aves didn't want to show her face)

She is pretty much the cutest little preschooler I've ever seen (bruised legs and all)

We realized the night before that we needed to get her a lunchbox for lunch (we know, parents of the year award) so we all packed into the car and headed to target, unfortunately all the lunchboxes except this one had been cleared out, good thing she loves hippos!

A's 3rd Birthday!

We cannot believe that Avery is 3 already...my oh my how the time flies!  It's so crazy.  We had a fun filled week of birthday fun and surprises (with the last one happening on Sunday, stay tuned:)

I got Avery's actual birthday off last minute (a friend covered for me:) so I got to be with my girl all day long and I am so grateful because it was a perfect day.  In the morning we all got up together (a rarity in this house with our opposite schedules) and I made everyone blueberry, banana chocolate chip pancakes and boy were they good!  Aves of course had a candle in hers...

Then Daddy helped us girls get ready and we were off to the nail salon.  I know what you're thinking, who takes their 3 year old to the nail salon?  I always judged people for bringing their super young girls in BUT we decided to do it and it was totally worth it.  Aves felt like a princess.  She left her feet in the spa chair the whole time and even let them do the leg massage, she had a smile on her face the whole time.  

Then I headed to the movie theatre where we saw the movie "Brave".  Aves loved that as well (Myla not so much:).  At the end of the movie the Mom and daughter in the movie were crying because they thought they might never see each other again and I looked over at my sweet little 3 year old who had crocodile tears falling down her face.  I asked her what was wrong and she responded, "she's never going to see her mommy again."  Then I cried too, it was too dear.

Here's Aves a couple days later in her dance outfit (and cowboy boots) from Dawson:)

Then we headed home...and to our surprise Daddy came home early from work!  We enjoyed lunch as a family and then put Aves down (no...she did not sleep, she was way too excited).  I was slaving away on her favorite dinner, homemade "Vermont" mac-n-cheese, ribs, and corn, one of the most high maintenance meals I've ever made.  After a couple of hours of room time, Aves was allowed to come out because her bestie Dawson came over to bring her a present (which was the cutest little dance outfit ever:)  They played for a while and then he had to go...Aves was very sad until Nana and Pop-pop (my parents) came over for dinner.  We all enjoyed Avery's favorite dinner and gave her all the attention for the whole meal.  Then we let her open presents, we sang and gave her brownies and ice cream.  Overall, it was a glorious day and she felt very special and loved, you could definitely tell.

Then Saturday we had her birthday party!  It was a pool party at Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dave's house and it was soooooo much fun. Us big kids may have had a little more fun than the little ones but overall Avery felt very special and loved.  It was "yo gabba gabba" themed with everything from the invites to the candle toppers on the cupcakes (Kathy you would have been proud:)  We swam, ate all of Avery's favorite foods (chips and dips, fruit, and hot dogs with some cheeseburgers thrown in for the rest of us) and the kids ran around a lot.  It was a good time had for all.  

Yummy food

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dave have a gorgeous backyard!

sporting my gabba whistle and necklace:)

the birthday girl!

yummy!

we even had gabba confetti!

so glad auntie erica and uncle bryan made it back on time!

the fam:)

dawson swimming all by himself!

me and my birthday girl!

closing her eyes waiting for the cupcakes...

getting everybody to close their eyes...

so excited she can't wait

she didn't even need my help to blow out candles...made me a little sad.

picking hers out quick

sharing with cousin michael!

this just shows how happy she was:)

happiness continues

and continues

and continues:)

As for Myla, you'll get an update on her later but overall she's great.  she just keeps growing and jumping (she loves her johny jump up:)  here's my twin children that aren't actually twins, we unfortunately couldn't get the same angle but you get the idea...apparently andy and i have strong genes!

Adios until next time:)