Happy 3rd Birthday Averi

I can’t believe that my baby is 3! {Her birthday was Dec. 4, I’m just behind}. Here is a sweet picture of her when she was so little and new. Time really does fly!

I love this picture of my 4 kids, It makes me realize how little Kaylee & Matthew still were when Averi was born! I really don’t know how I survived.

We let Averi open her presents from us in the morning before Jim and Thomas left for the day.

I love how happy she was with everything she got. She had fun all day playing with her new toys.

Averi is such a fun, spunky girl. She knows exactly what she wants and gets upset when she doesn’t get it. Even though she is difficult at times, I can’t imagine our life with out her.

I can’t believe how long her hair has gotten, last year she still didn’t have much!

She requested Wendy’s for dinner so Jim brought it home and we ate it before going  to the parade.

We had her party on Saturday, here’s the invitation I made for it.

She said she wanted a purple banner, so I threw one together with my stash of supplies.

She picked out princess cupcakes this year. She was so excited for them and couldn’t wait to go and pick them up.

We invited some of her church buddies, they were all busy, so it was family. She loves having all of her cousins around.

She was very serious while we were singing to her.

 

She had fun opening her presents from her cousins and grandparents.

It was a fun birthday party for our spunky girl!

We love you so much Averi Elizabeth! Happy 3rd birthday!!

Averi…Potty Trained

This post is long overdue. I had been planning on potty training Averi once the kids were out of school. One day in May she decided she wanted to wear panties and go potty. So I said, why not! From then on out she has done a wonderful job wearing panties! My mom always said I potty trained myself and I never really understood it until Averi. It helped that her best friend Tessa was potty trained. {Thanks Andrea!} I think Averi finally decided she was done with diapers. It has been so nice. I have had at least 1, sometimes 2 or 3 kids in diapers for over 7 1/2 years! I love not having to change diapers anymore, it is heaven!

We still have the occasional accident but for the most part it has been amazing. I was due an easy kid after potty training Thomas & the twins!

I wish I had secrets to share on how to quickly potty train your kids, I don’t. I really did nothing, it was all Averi!

Way to go Averi!!

Friends

We have been blessed with lots of good friends here in Arkansas. Some of our favorite friends are moving away soon. We just have a few weeks left with them so we are trying to take advantage and do lots of fun things together before they are gone.

Matthew and Isaac are best buddies. Isaac is moving in a month and we don’t know what we are going to do without our friends, the Swenson’s here. Just about everyday Matthew if Isaac can come over in play, it is always an exciting day when he gets to come play with Matthew.

 

They were doing their superhero poses, I can’t remember which ones they were though.

Averi and Tessa are finally enjoying each other. Averi used to scare Tessa, she has a tendency to seek weakness in others and exploits it. Tessa has learned to not let Averi push her around and now they love to play together. They get a little crazy together sometimes and it is so cute to me to see them enjoying each others company.

They love to play dress up together

They get a little wild in nursery together.

Andrea has been a  great friend to me. We just clicked, you know you just hit it off with some people, that was us. We both have 4 kids and most of them are the same age. We love photography, she has taught me a lot and taken wonderful pictures of my family. We like to read the same books and love the same music. We love blogging and crafting and going to concerts together... I am sad that my friend won’t be with me in Arkansas anymore. It won’t be the same without them here.

at Kenny Chesney April 2011

at Breaking Dawn in November (with Leslie who is also moving!)

Before Hunger Games in the shirts I made.

Happy 2nd Birthday Averi!

We celebrated Averi’s birthday last week. I can’t believe that she is 2 years old! We decided to just do a little family party this year. Her birthday always sneaks up on me right after thanksgiving so I made a quick invite in PSE and emailed it out. She loves pink, especially hot pink so that was my theme.

The food is always important to my family so I made a few yummy appetizers and we ordered some pizza from papa John’s to supplement since it was around dinner time.

I found a recipe for a Pink Lemonade cake on pinterest so I wanted to try that out. The inside of it was a beautiful hot pink, but the outside got too brown. The glaze was runny and didn’t look like I wanted but it all tasted yummy. I added some pink and silver sprinkles to dress it up a bit. I made the bunting and plate with my lovely silhouette.

I got the jug for drinks for $5 and slapped a cute chalkboard vinyl label on it. The kids LOVED being able to get their own pink lemonade.

These were jalapeno bacon pinwheels and were so yummy. I'll have to share the recipe.

Since I’m not big on lots of decorations I made this little banner for her. She loved it and would point to it and say mine. It is hanging in her room and makes her happy when she sees it. I also made her shirt with my silhouette and some iron on vinyl.

We lucked out with a nice day so the kids played outside a bit

 

The girls had to all put princess dresses on

Averi had a lot of fun opening her presents and she was so excited about each gift. It was fun to watch her open them.

We got her this little grocery cart and she LOVES it!

Poor Livy really wanted to push the grocery cart. She cried till cake time, then when Averi was blowing out her candles she got to push the grocery cart., after that she was happy.

All the kids helped her blow out her candles. We had to move it away from her because when I first put it down she blew out the candles before we sang to her; so we had to relight them and sing to her. Grandma DeVaux gave her the backpack filled with goodies and she loved it and wouldn’t take it off. It is just her size.

I love how Kaylee is kissing her after she blew out the candles, they are sweet sisters and becoming good friends.

Here she is with most of her presents, everyone knows her well and picked out things she loves!

Grandma & Grandpa Anderson got her this big wheel, now she has her own to ride when all the other kids are riding theirs.

Happy Birthday Averi! We can’t imagine our family without you!! We LOVE you!!