My Baby is 3!

Happy Birthday Sweet Avery. Sweet Princess Avery.

We've had such a busy week with our Disney vacation and your party and I have tons and tons of posts to catch up on, but I couldn't miss leaving you a little letter.

Dear Avery-
As you turn 3, a few things to remember about you....

-You are about 40in tall and weigh around 34 lbs
-You wear mostly 4T clothes
-You are such a silly and funny girl. You have your little silly language that you love to talk into make us laugh.
-You still love your Bubba more than just about anyone
-Although you still LOVE for me to hold you.  "Pick my(sic) up".
-You love to sing and carry around a pretend microphone to sing into all the time
-You copy just about anything that Will does
-You LOVE your doll, Sunshine. She goes just about everywhere with us and you just squeal with delight whenever you see her after an absence
-You mis-pronounce a lot of words and it is so cute. Free=Three.  Bungo=Dumbo. Finny=Phineas (of Phineas & Ferb).
-You are still very opinionated about your clothes. I hate it.
-You detest buttons. I have to cut them off your clothes or trick you. Or just not buy clothes with buttons!
-You love for your hair to be down and swooped over your right shoulder. I do not.  :-)
-You love to play with your dolls, read books, and watch TV with Bubba.

I love you, Avery. More than you will ever know.

Tooth Fairy visits again!

Well, for the 2nd time, Will had a tooth knocked out! Ugh!!! He needs to get this out of his system before the permanent teeth come in! This time he was accidentally hit in the mouth at school. The tooth didn't come out immediately but it was really, no let me make that REALLY, loose and he complained about bad pain for a couple of days. So off to the dentist we go for x-rays. Luckily no permanent damage but the tooth was as good as knocked out. The dentist just said to wait for it to come out on it's own. Or in this case, wait for your dad to pull it out one night right before bed!!

Avery has been very disturbed by this. I guess she was too young last year this time to realize what was going on. She is very traumatized by the thought of losing teeth.

Ironically, both of Will's teeth were lost the night before one of his "sister's" birthdays!

Aunt Greta's Birthday!

Aunt Greta celebrated her birthday earlier this month (April is a big birthday month for us!!) and we celebrated with her last weekend at Mimi's house.  Aunt Greta had lots of helpers with her cake and presents. Hope she didn't mind!!

Will and Aunt Greta battle with the garden accessories!

Uncle Gray and Will get gross!

Avery knows just what to do with Aunt Greta's new scarf.

Not sure what sort of event they are getting ready for.....

Ready, Break!

Matt and Mimi

Happy Birthday, Aunt Greta!!

Happy Birthday, Stella!!

My cutie pie Stella Rambling Rosalita turned 7 today. I so vividly remember picking her out and bringing her home. Hard to believe all that happened almost 7 years ago.  My little Jack Russell trapped in a pug's body, Stella is always full of life and ready for fun.

We had a little party for her tonight. Mimi came over for dinner and brought Stella this huge frog. Stella loves it!!! 

Will picked out NC State megaphone doggie cookies for the girls to enjoy at the party.

Happy Birthday, my Stella Bella!

Helpers!

A few weeks ago, even though it was a rainy day, Matt tackled a big “honey do” list!  He had lots of “help” and encouragement!

“Helping” with the mulch……

Observing the power washing, full of loudly yelled “tips” on places he had missed on the deck…..

“Helping” change the oil…..I don’t have a picture of Will somehow managing to get a wrench stuck up in the under carriage of my car.  It evidently “jumped” out of his hand…..

Matt sure is lucky to have such good helpers!

Vet School Fun

On a rainy Saturday right smack in the middle of Dad’s ordeal we found ourselves with some free time. Mom and Dad had gone back home for a few hours to get a few things taken care of. Soccer was canceled.  So we decided to head to the Open House at the NC State Vet School. This is something we’ve wanted to do for a few years and haven’t been able to for various reasons so we were excited to go and for the distraction.

We climbed on statues, petted Cowboy the police horse, went on a tour of the buildings, saw cows and horses, pointed at skeletons and even milked a cow!!!!!  Will was not a huge fan of that experience but Avery was, which was all very surprising.

Another neat thing the Open House had was a “Teddy Bear Clinic” where vet school students stitched up injured stuffed animals.  Will picked out a monkey, which he named Monkey and Avery picked out a pug that she named Buggy the Puggy.  The timing of all this proved to be impeccable as these bandaged up stuffed animals really helped us explain what was going on with Dad at the hospital and his incisions and bandages.  Just one more example of how God provided for us these last few weeks.

Egg Hunt at School

Every year the children’s school has an egg hunt. We have missed it a lot in the past because it is often on the afternoon of Good Friday and we are usually at the beach for that. Given our circumstances this year, we were able to attend.  

Will is the master egg hunter!

Someone broke away from the class after the hunt and was licking the melted chocolate out of his eggs.

Then he got a helper.

Avery was too funny……she wanted to open each egg as she got it and that really slowed her down from a quantity perspective.

Easter Blessings

While I have a lot to be thankful for this Easter, it felt a little bit like a “Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma’am” sort of event unfortunately when I look back on it.  A colleague at work asked today about my father and I started off the story something like “3 or 4 weeks ago….” . And then I thought about that statement. It wasn’t 3 or4 weeks ago when my family’s lives were turned upside down. Essentially it was 2 weeks and 1 day ago. Two weeks and 1 day ago when we first heard “brain tumor.”  Two weeks and 1 day ago when life went from normal, to completely abnormal and now back to somewhat normal again.

It is hard to begin to believe all that has transpired in 2 weeks and 1 day. All the traveling, phone calls, FORMS (man have there been forms), tests, meetings, etc…. Oh, and don’t forget that little thing my dad went through called BRAIN SURGERY.  And now he is back home, going to work, leading a fairly normal life for the time being.

The “back to normal” part is simply a miracle. And so is Easter. So the fact that all this coincided timing wise just proves to me that the big guy upstairs has been with me and my family these past 2 weeks and 1 day.

Dad was at my house to dye eggs with the children.  He and Mom actually made it to church with us on Easter Sunday. Note to self: arrive AT LEAST 30 minutes early next year as we didn’t even all get to sit together and were sitting in a random assortment of chairs in various parts of the Sanctuary.  So the craziness of the Easter service didn’t help with the whirlwind of events. I wanted to feel connected to the service but between our random seats, the packed house and trying to keep Will quiet and entertained since he didn’t have Children’s Chapel that day, I felt like I got cheated out of my special time with God during church that day. I wanted to thank him appropriately, whatever that means.  But then, I had been pretty close to him all week so maybe it was okay.

Anyway enough deep rambling; everyone loves pictures so here are some pics of egg decorating and Easter morning.