What's going on...

Avery having tummy time with her doll that Alex calls Avery too. Alex carries the doll around and puts her to bed and holds her just like I do the "real" Avery:). We haven't seen too much of a change in Alex since he became a big brother except for the phrase, "Hold me!" He says that alot now! No matter what he is doing he wants us to pick him up. He's a little whiny with it and sometimes it passes and he goes on to something else. Hopefully, it will pass, but it sure is sweet sometimes-he's a good snuggler:)

Sleeping...finally! I was worried the last week or so that Avery was colicky. But I don't think so anymore...thank goodness! She doesn't sleep in her bed during the day (she wakes up after 15-30 minutes) so anywhere she'll sleep works. She does sleep in her bed pretty well at night. There were a few nights of me and her getting about 30-40 minutes of sleep between midnight and 4 but she's getting better. She had to or I was going to be a zombie! Things are more settled now that she is 6 wks old. She did sleep in her car seat a few nights ago from 9:30pm to 6am but she slept good and so did the rest of us!!:) I also have Mimi and Emily who will come over and take care of them any time I need them to which is a nice relief.

Alex feeding Avery.

Alex in his bubble bath.

Avery sleeping with Grandaddy.

Avery with Mimi.

Sweet Avery-I love this face! She has started smiling too now! I'll try to get it on camera soon.


Alex with Grammy and Papa and the jersey they bought him. He loves it! He got it Saturday night and it's already been washed twice.

He wore it to bed Saturday night and then Sunday he said he wanted to wear it again. Hilarious! It's Julio Jones's number and he's getting pretty good at saying his name. He was so proud of it.

Avery is 1 month old!

Avery turned one month old on July 17th. She is so precious! I think this picture below of her in the bouncy seat kind of looks like the one of Alex when he was in the bouncy seat at 1 month. What do you think? She is doing well-she weighed 8lbs 6oz at her 1 month check up and that put her in the 25th percentile. She is growing fast! She hasn't been taking a paci so we have been trying to find one that she likes. I bought the soothie paci today and she seems to like it. It's the only one she's kept in her mouth for any length of time. So as ugly as they are I guess that's what works for her. She had a great night of sleeping last night. She ate at 8 and went to bed at 9:30. She woke up at 4:15am and then again at 9:15am. It was so nice for her to sleep past 6:30am-which I don't think she has done since she came home:) She hates a dirty diaper-she will definitely let you know if she has one. We got her swing down a couple of days ago and she really likes it. At least I'm saying she does because she falls asleep in it:) Yes, she has a bib on in almost all of her pictures because unfortunately she is a spitter like her brother. I will try to be better at remembering to take the bib off for pictures but she has to wear one all the time because otherwise all of her clothes would be soaked.

Alex in the bouncy seat.

Checking out the bears on her swing.


Look at those feet! I love how she has her ankles together.

What we've been doing

Alex playing at the playground.

Avery didn't like the playground that much and so dad was swinging with her trying to soothe her. I don't think it worked too well:)

Alex, Avery, Paige, and Jack. Paige was born 9 days after Avery and Jack is her big brother.

Avery and Alex in his bed.

Alex said we needed to make a choo choo train. But he didn't want to use what we already had. So I remembered Mimi and Granddan had given him this alphabet train for Christmas. We got it down from his closet and he LOVED it! He kept saying, "Mama that's a good idea!" I tried to get him to say it in the video below but he wouldn't.

4th of July!

Better late than never! We went to Betty's for lunch on the 4th and then got together with Jimmy, Emily, and Parker for dinner. Alex loved being with his family and watching the fireworks with Parker and Katie. We could see them from our front yard-it was so nice not having to get into traffic at the park. Alex had to sit just like Katie was sitting. And he kept saying, "you see them, guys?" making sure they didn't miss a minute of the fireworks show.

Playing with Abbie at Betty's.

Watching fireworks with Katie and Parker in the street-our sprinklers came on so we couldn't sit in the yard:).

Mamaw and Avery.

Jimmy and Emily gave Avery (and me!) her first pearl necklace. Pearl is the birthstone for June. We have to get the chain shortened and then we can add pearls for special occasions so she'll have a full strand one day. I feel like she's already getting spoiled and she'll be 4 wks tomorrow!

My big boy is 2 1/2 years old!

My sweet boy!

Proud of his puzzle we completed.

Caden was playing the harmonica and he was dancing. When I snapped the picture he struck this pose. They went around all day saying they were "superstars!"

We made a road of pull ups for his cars the other day. Might as well put the pull ups to good use since we aren't using them for anything else:)

Showing off his cowboy boots.

Caden is reading her bible to him. Actually, she was saying, "Here is a story of 3 kittens..."

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ALEX!:)
Alex is 2 1/2 years old today! He is so precious and so much fun! He is sweet and kind and loves everybody he comes in contact with whether they are a family member or a stranger. He still loves trains and wants to "play trains" all the time. When we are out he wants to go over train tracks and always says, "it's gonna be bumpy!" He knows where all the tracks are in town and when we are about to go over them. He loves to watch Little Einsteins on tv. He also likes Super Why, Thomas, and Sesame Street. He is a good big brother to Avery. He loves when she looks at him and he'll say, "she's so beautiful!" He'll say, "mama, I'm your sweet boy." I love it! He loves to eat hot dogs-he can't get enough of them. He is very good about trying other things when they are on his plate, though. He'll eat squash, turnip greens, brussell sprouts, etc. so I hope he at least keeps that up. He loves to sing. Every night when we are getting him ready for bed we read a story, sing a song, and then pray-in that order. He likes to read to us and always says, "once upon a time....ewww what they doing mama/daddy?" Next page same thing. Then when we ask what song he wants to sing 99% of the time he says Jesus Loves Me, sometimes twinkle twinkle is thrown in but not often. Then we pray. John or I will pray and then it's his turn. When he prays his eyes are open and he just looks around his room for things to thank God for. Here is an example of his prayer "Dear God, Thank you for mama, daddy, dardar, grandaddy, grammy, papa, my friends (the animals he sleeps with), my books, my wall, etc." It's hilarious-but yet still precious! He loves to play with his daddy when he gets home from work. They always do something fun like play "roly poly" or "smush"-where they lay on each other and smush each other. He knows his ABC's and his numbers 1-10 pretty well. He can count past 10 but it gets a little shaky and when he counts things he usually counts too fast or skips an item- but we are working on it. When we are out around town he knows almost always where we are. I wrote earlier about the train tracks and how he knows where they are. He also knows where his doctor and hair cutting place is. He knows Target, Walmart, Publix, Home Depot, the bank, the cleaners-can you tell the places we frequent? ha ha! He was with John and drove by the doctor's office. He said, "Daddy, there's Dr. Phillip's house." He hasn't even been there that often. When we drove near his hair place he said, "No mama, I don't want to get my hair cut." I didn't realize what he was talking about at first because it was so random-he'd only gotten his hair cut twice. He saw the back of Cypress Inn (a restaurant here) across the river and said, "That's where Uncle Parker works." I didn't even realize he had ever made that connection. I didn't pay attention where I was going until I was 16 and could drive and I'm still not very good with directions. I'm gonna have my hands full with him. Every once in a while he'll have an opinion about what he wears. I'll put a shirt on him and he'll say, "no, not that one." So I'll give him a choice of two so he can decide and he really looks at them hard like he is trying to decide which one he really wants. He loves to go outside and take walks or play baseball with his dad. He is still a great sleeper and goes down so easily. Alot of times, when I'm feeding Avery he gets to watch tv-if not he demolishes my house and pulls out all kinds of stuff. He'll look at me and say, "what else I want to watch mama?" It cracks me up! I can't think of anything else to add to the list-if you can let me know!

June Birthdays, oh my!

Emily's birthday was June 18th-one day after Avery's. Alex got her presents together for her before we went to the hospital so we were able to give those to her on time. Unfortunately, there are no pictures from that:(. But this is a great one from when we celebrated at Mimi's a week later.

My parents' birthday was June 28th and we celebrated when Russell and Nan were here Father's Day Sunday. My mom got a camera from all of us because she doesn't have one and she and my dad are taking Alex to TX for a week-and I had to have pictures of him while he was there! Here he is giving her a birthday kiss as she opened her present. Dad just got money so don't think he was left out:)

What we've been doing with two!

These are out of order sorry!

Playdough with Dar Dar. He had her make a lion and a snake and then she had to make them all balls to play with too. It's crazy what goes through his head.

Mom and Avery at her 2am feeding. Mom was a trooper! She would get up with Avery and I would feed her and Mom would take care of the rest while I went back to bed. This was when we first came home from the hospital and they told us to wake her up every 3 hours because she needed to eat, so we couldn't let her just sleep until she woke up-it was not fun! Needless to say she is growing good now! She weighed 7lbs 7oz at 2 weeks so she was well over her birth weight.

With Great Aunt Dru.

With Great-Grandmother Mimi.

Tummy time! She lasts about 2 minutes longer than Alex ever did:).

Sweet baby Avery-in her dress her Grammy gave her.

Alex and Avery. I love this picture!

Mom and Dad with their grandbabies.

Avery watching her big brother "play trains."

"You want to play choo choo trains, Avery?"

The guys all went out to play baseball with Alex Saturday after Avery was born. It pretty much consists of Alex hitting or running around the bases or the outfield or just whatever he decides he wants to do:)

Uncle Russell feeding Avery.

Playing trains with Dar Dar.

Alex saw me get out this foam pad for Avery's first bath. When he found out what we were gonna use it for he decided to give his bear, Sam, a bath too.

Avery's first bath!