Sisters

Avery loves being a big sister.  Most of the time. 
She doesn't like it when Annalise....
....won't give her a hug on demand.
....has a poopy diaper.
....tells her to "top it" or "bap-up".
But seriously....just about the rest of the time she adores her little sister.  How long can this possibly last????  It's so much fun seeing how much they love each other.  And Annalise is finally old enough to actually PLAY with Avery! 

She'll follow Avery everywhere, repeat anything (well....almost) Avery asks her to say, has to have the same hair-do, wants to do her own "homework" when Avery does hers and simply just wants to be with her big sister!!!!

Sisters are awesome.

Time to Get Your COOKIES!!!

"Hi, my name is Avery and I'm a Daisy Girl Scout.  I was wondering if you'd like to buy some Daisy Girl Scout Cookies?"

She's been practicing and is close to having sold 100 boxes since Saturday.  This girl is a natural!
Give her a call if you're interested! :)

Christmas Part Two

After a great few days with the Schneiders, we headed north to the Cotas!
We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with everyone!

Then Avery was busy working on a note to Santa!
She decided the reindeer would probably like some tomatoes and carrots again this year!

We were pleasantly surprised when Avery woke up at 7:30! :)  Not too bad for being sooooo excited!
And THANK YOU Santa!!!  He knew exactly what Avery wanted!  She couldn't believe she got just about everything (she only asked for 3 things....) that she wanted!!!  Way to go Santa!

And Annalise loved the toothbrush. :)  It's the little things!

Then it was on the Santa presents!!!
Love the look of TOTAL shock on Avery's face!!!!  Like...."how did he know????"  I just love the innocence and joy on Christmas morning. 

 

Thanks to Grams and Gramps for all of the great presents, too!

Annalise LOVES Big Blue!!!

 

After a break for a while....the Dietzs came up and we opened some more presents.  Seriously....the girls were SPOILED by EVERYONE this year!!!!  We had a great Christmas day!

After the Christmas wrapping dust had settled, we went to Deer Park bowl and did some bowling! 
Avery was THRILLED that she out-scored her Auntie Lori by one point!  Way to go Avery!!!  (Maybe it was the practice she had with Grandma and Grandpa earlier in the week that gave her the edge!?!)

It was an exciting week in Spokane!!!  We LOVED spending time with all of our family.

But it IS nice to be back HOME.

Here's to a healthy and happy 2010!!!!!

Christmas Part One

We started our Christmas celebrating with the Schneiders this year!
We made it over for Mark's birthday--he was happy to spend the day with his family!

Happy Birthday Uncle Mark!



The following day was our Christmas celebration with the Schneiders. The girls were EXCITED!!!!! Stockings were filled and there were LOTS of presents to open!

This was Elsa's first Christmas and she hung right in there!!


Annalise, too!

It was a crazy present-opening morning followed by an entire day of playing with all of the cool stuff everyone got!We had a great Christmas celebration with the Schneiders!

Winter Program

So there WAS a Winter Program before Christmas at Central! :) I've just not gotten around to post the pictures. The Kindergartners were once again the HIT of the show!! And it was even better this year with my OWN Kindergartner singing!! Avery had a blast!!! (Thanks for the fancy dress Auntie Lori! )
She even got to stand next to Kaelee! :) Think they knew ALL the words and motions. So cute!

Our Little Daisy Girl Scout

Avery is an official Girl Scout.

Her Investiture Ceremony was on Monday.
The girls were very excited!!

(Yes....they are ALL Kindergartners. And YES...Avery is ALWAYS the tallest!)

Their troop leader, Mrs. Bergman, talked about the program and the girls sang a couple of songs.



Each part of the Girl Scout Law represents a petal on their daisy. Once they've talked about/done a lesson on each, they earn that petal.

The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be:
Honest and fair,
Friendly and helpful,
Considerate and caring,
Courageous and strong, and
Responsible for what I say and do,
And to
Respect myself and others,
Respect authority,
Use resources wisely,
Make the world a better place, and
Be a sister to every Girl Scout.

I wish EVERY child could learn these things! You can imagine how proud we are of Avery.

Imagination Movers

Avery loves the show Imagination Movers on the Disney Channel. It's a show about 4 guys who help people solve problems....they're the Imagination Movers. It's really fun and has a lot of music in it. They were advertising their LIVE tour one Saturday morning. Avery thought that sounded AWESOME!!!!!!!!! After some research, we found the closest they'd be to Bellingham was Seattle.

Auntie Robin and I took Avery. It was actually a lot of fun! I'd never been to the Moore Theater before....what a cool place. The look on Avery's face when they actually came out was priceless. It was like "WOW....it's REALLY them!!!!!" So cute.


A highlight was when "Mover Rich" came up to the balcony and high-fived all the kids. (Yes, the balcony...I WASN'T paying $100/ticket to be on the main floor!) Avery claims it wasn't even CLOSE to a real high-five, but I'm not sure what else to call it!
It was a lot of fun!!! We had a good time decorating cookies and playing with the Wii when we got back to Geoff and Robin's! Avery had a captive audience!!! :) It was good to see everyone!! Clark and Cathy were there, and Avery was glad there were other kids! Scott and Erika were there with their kids. Bryson is 3 and Lila is 1 1/2.

Thanks for playing Auntie Robin and Uncle Geoff!!! :) We had a great time!!!