My Avery....

I have so much to catch up on, but I have to write this down before I forget it. As you can tell, I've been having blogging issues and haven't been able to fix it or haven't had a minute so I've left the crazy picture of Avery & 1/2 of Brittany on our blog. One of these days, I'll add the rest of the family. I posted a big catch-up post last Sunday and I went to publish post and there was an error message and it erased everything!! I gave up and you can see how well I'm doing at catching up again. :)

Avery is such a fun girl to be around and is always saying the cutest things. Her new thing is "My bad..." If she does anything and it's wrong or she does something she shouldn't, she says, "My bad". That cracks me up. You can definitely tell she has older siblings.

So, we're at Stater Bros. on Saturday and we're in the produce section and there's a huge flag on the back wall. She's standing in the cart and she turns to look at the flag and says..."I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America...." and repeats the whole Pledge of Allegiance. She has said it before but never right in front of the flag and I just stood next to her and let her finish because I love the words that she throws in there and mispronounces. :) After she finishes, I ask her, "What do you do when you see a flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance?" She immediately put her hand over her heart....I was so impressed. I'm so thankful for wonderful people in our kids' lives that teach them important things like this. I asked her where she learned that and she said, "Teacher Robyn." Thanks Robyn! This is the same Teacher Robyn that she prays for in her prayers, as well as Baby Millie, Robyn's little baby girl. Robyn is amazing with our kids and Avery is loving pre-school and now will love nursery even more because Robyn is now the nursery leader. Thanks, Robyn, for that cute moment in the grocery store.

Update

Ha, I found the post that I thought my blog had deleted....had to do some rearranging, but here it is. Yeah!! I guess I won't give up after all.... :)

Well, I guess it's time to catch up.....at some point in time, I'd really like to print this off and make a fun family journal and if I don't want large gaps of time that aren't documented, I'd better kick it in. :) Here's an update on our family, with more on the way.....

We had Bailey's 10th Birthday in September. It's hard to believe she's now almost 11. :) We had a fun day and all she requested was Grandma Debbie's chocolate cake. She called and got the recipe and she was thrilled! We love that she's that easy to please....most of the time. She's had such a fun year and 10 has definitely been a great age for her. She loves school, is completely responsible with her homework and takes really good care of Avery and Carson. Her and Brittany have these great sister moments that I love and I can see them becoming the best of friends as they get older. She requested a "Mommy & Me" date just like Brittany and we had a great time. We went out and got pedicures which was fun. We had the massage chairs and I just sat and laughed as they moved her from side to side and up and down. We went to the mall and hung out there and then went to the movie and had a late dinner. It was so much fun to just spend time with her....she has such a fun personality and she's such a "girl" and it was fun to talk about everything that's going on with her and know that she's making good choices and is such a good girl. I sure love her and hope that we can go out and catch up every so often so we can stay as close as we are now. She is such a fun, outgoing, feisty girl and I love that! Happy Birthday Bai! You really were a special gift to us and we can't imagine life without you!

Halloween was so much fun! We were invited to a fun party for all of the little kids who aren't in school yet. Ann Mabeus planned a cute, fun party for the kids and Avery had such a great time. They all felt so big to have their own party and had a great time! Thanks Ann! We had a fun visit from our family from Utah. They were down at Disneyland and wanted to come visit while they were here. We told them to come and stay with us and so they did and made our Halloween even more fun. Joe & Jessica have 4 kids and we all got dressed up and went to the ward's Trunk or Treat and then came home and walked around the neighborhood a little bit before we just hunt out at home. It was so fun to have them. We love having visitors and it was such a treat to have them here. The kids loved it and we almost didn't let them leave. :) It was a fun year and especially because everyone is old enough to enjoy it! I love Halloween!!

Bailey's school has a yearly trip for the 5th graders called Pathfinders. It's a science & adventure camp up in Idyllwild and Bailey asked me to go with her this year. It was so much fun! I loved that she really wanted me there and even though I turned out to be the mean mom because I told everyone in our cabin to be quiet after an exhausting day, she still wanted to hang out with me. We were in a cabin with 20 other girls and a few moms and I've never heard so much noise in all of my life. It was fun and I was assigned to a really cute, fun group and the kids were great. Dayna & Rachelle also went up with their kids so that's always fun to have a buddy. :) They kept the kids going the entire time and they got to do such fun activities. They rock climbed, they caught fish & other gross things out of the ponds, they went canoeing (sp), went on scavenger hunts, played night games, had a science night and even held snakes, lizards, and other creepy crawly things. I even went completely out of my comfort zone, seeing as I can't stand the sight of snakes, and held a rosy boa snake & ball python snake. I figured if Bailey could do it, I could do it. AAHH!! It makes me squirm a little even thinking about it, but it was a fun thing to do together, right? It was such a fun week and it was really nice to get out of town for a few days and just concentrate on my daughter! I think we all need that at one time or another and I really enjoyed watching her interact with her friends and get to know them a little better. She has such a great group of friends and a wonderful teacher and I'm so glad I was able to spend that time with her. Thanks for letting me tag along, Bailey!

Bailey played flag football again this year! So fun to watch....I love that as small as they are, they are quick on their feet and have a ball playing with the boys. I have flashbacks to how I was in grade school and I can see a lot of me in Bailey (I know what my family is thinking and it scares me too) :) Her and Danielle are like two peas in a pod and I'm so glad they have each other. They do everything together and I couldn't ask for a better friend for Bailey. This was it for flag football because they don't play it in middle school so it was fun that they could play one more year together. What a great group of kids and even though they didn't win a game, they had a great time and were always good sports. That says a lot about them and I'm so happy that Bailey could be a part of the team again this year. We really are so proud of her!