Milestone at the Park

Today was such a beautiful day that when Avery got home this morning, we took her up to our neighborhood park. It's been so long it seems that the weather was remotely nice enough to go so she was so excited to be there. Her favorite has always been the swing, but today she was totally into the slides. I got there a little after Tim and Avery and when I did she went up to the slide and then proceeded to go down on her own. It was amazing to me because I thought it would be awhile for her to do this on her own and it wasn't one of the tiny slides, no it was a tall, curvy one. It was great!

You Tube Friday

Today, I just thought I would send out a compilation of some funny videos we took this week. The first clip is of Avery blowing bubbles in her drink (the 1st time to do this), the next 2 are her playing with her jack-in-the-box (her faces are priceless) and the final one is her saying "Oh, No!".

Have a great weekend!

Bed Bug

Someone loves playing in our bed before and after bedtime, pretty much anytime!! Why not, it's super comfy and a great place to read books and watch our cartoons. I think I might join her!



Pretending to sleep...if only it was this easy :)

Where is she?? I can't find her!!

Waiting for Our Ride

Tonight we were waiting for Darmi and Poppy to come pick us up so we spent some time playing with the camera.

Check out our new outfit and shoes


Showing off with her sippy cup


There's a smile :)

and another...

and another...

Preschool...

Avery and I went this morning to sign her up for preschool in the fall. Yes, that's right, the fall - 9 months from now. Kind of early I know, but we don't want to miss out on a spot. I find it hard to believe that my daughter will be old enough to start preschool this year. As much as I thought the first few months of her life kind of dawdled by, time is moving so fast now and it's hard for me to imagine that in 9 months she will be taking her first steps into school. Little does she know that those will be the first steps leading to the next 20+ years of her life in school :) Enjoy the freedom now girlfriend!

Fun at Lunch

Avery was giving me some great smiles and giggles today at lunch. I have to share:

Necklaces for Sale...

Anybody looking to buy a necklace...we've got a lot of them here at the Penrod house. Avery likes for us and herself to wear ALL of them at the same time. It can get pretty heavy but she doesn't mind and obviously we don't either!

She may fall over though!

Can You See the Horse??

The other night, we were hanging out in the living room and all of a sudden, Avery is looking at Mike's paintings on the wall and she keeps saying "Horse". Now, horse is one of her favorite animals (at the moment) so we said, "Yes, Horse. Horse says Neigh". And she kept saying "Horse" and pointing at this one picture.

So, Tim and I, who have walked past this painting every day for the last 7 years finally "look" at it with her. We're both just staring at it, thinking where's the horse?? I felt like I was looking at one of those fuzzy pictures that if you look hard enough you can see the word or in this case the horse hidden in the picture. Our poor daughter can't seem to understand why we don't see the "Horse" and then we start to see the horse. Can you see it??

I wonder if Mike meant to create it that way?? I keep thinking Avery will start finding other things in Mike's work. We'll keep you informed!

You Tube Friday

What a crazy week...I am SO HAPPY the weekend is finally here. I'm definitely ready to turn it up loud and "get down"! This one goes out to my girls...yeah, you know who you are :)

Happy Friday!!

Talking, Talking, Talking

All of a sudden our little girl is a chatterbox. Every morning when she wakes up, she starts talking and rarely stops. She has yet to make full sentences, but there are so many new words every day. I was speaking to a friend of mine who has a daughter 6 months ahead of Avery and she was telling me how I'll understand what she's saying, but others won't. So true!

What she's saying:
"I Luv Yew" - I Love You - My Favorite, I've been waiting a long time for this one. And, not only does she say it, most of the time she kind of shouts it...even better!

"Nigh, Nigh" - Night, Night - Every night I say this to her and she now says it back, followed by "I Love You"...got to love it!

"Moothie" - also known as Smoothie. This is by far her favorite thing to eat right now. She will get her smoothie in her hands and that straw in her mouth and not stop until there is anything left. Sometimes I watch her just to make sure she is breathing :)

Waving "Hello" and "Bye-Bye" - I swear this girl never meets a stranger!

Morning Cartoons - Yes, Avery watches TV in the morning (gasp)! It is so funny to watch her because she will literally laugh at the joke in the show and get it. She especially laughs alot at Goofy on Mickey Mouse - at lease she's laughing at the right character.

Baf (Bath), Shower (Shower), Poo (self-explanatory), Bea (Bear), Aw Done (All Done), Peease (Please), Wa Wa (Water), Ban (Band), Up, Cheese, Ogur (Yogurt), Poon (Spoon), Bubbles, Awside (Outside), Shues (Shoes), MeMe (Makeup), Teeth (Toothbrush), Damit (yep, you guessed right...Tim and I are working on our language!)

She's also very opinionated in the car as to what music is playing. I love my daughter, but sometimes I just have to turn HER CD off, and listen to some adult music. Now, Avery doesn't like this very much unless I am full on dancing and singing the song (do you have the visual?). Only then and not always mind you, will she accept the fact that we are not listening to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for the 1,000th time. Demo of what happens:
Me: 106.1
Avery: No
Me: 107.5
Avery: No
Me: 102.9
Avery: No
Me: 100.3
Avery: No
Me. 99.5 - yes, even country (just something besides a kids song ;)
Avery: No
Do you see a pattern developing??
Most of the time it is back to HER CD. But sometimes I win.

We have entered a new world and I am loving it because now I am truly starting to understand what she "wants" and "needs". I wonder what her first full sentence will be...

Thank You Tim

You know how there are times in your life that you are just plugging along as you normally do, and then a burst of "color" jumps out at you. That happened to us the other night. Tim and I are pretty good at sparring, but sometimes that certain person can really say something that seems to hit home. Whether you like it or not, it makes you look at yourself in a new light and all you can try and do with it is make it right. I love my husband for the quiet, kind, gentle soul that he is because when he really "talks" he means business and it's not very often. Thank you for being my rock Tim and showing me a new path.

You Tube Friday

So, I've decided that I'm not only going to post songs for You Tube Friday, but also post video too. You see, sometimes I will just sit here trying to think of a song to post and it takes me forever to find that "perfect" one. And, since it's "You Tube Friday", I decided why not videos too?? I am also open to any suggestions you may have of a favorite video, clip, song, etc. that you would like posted here.

Quick preface on the video. Avery loves Choo Choo Soul on Disney and the other day they played a dancing/freeze game. She just loved it and was actually doing it along with the TV so we had to catch it on tape. Please excuse my singing :)

Happy Friday!

Feeding the Ducks

When the weather was nice a couple of weekends ago, we picked up Avery from my parents house and took her up to Chisholm trail to play on the playground and feed the ducks. There were so many of them here that day.

Poor Mom forgot to bring bread, but it seems that ducks don't really care what they eat, so we were throwing nothing but yummy cheese popcorn to them.

Then, the biggest duck there seemed to follow Avery everywhere she went, but I'll tell you, this chick is brave because he was getting pretty close:

As we were leaving I was taking a few last pics and all of a sudden the ducks dispersed in groups and in the middle of the group was this nasty creature, a Nutria, which come to find out later is a large rodent that looks like a beaver...eewwww! All Tim and I could keep thinking about while looking at this thing

was this thing:

You may remember the Rodent of Unusual Size from The Princess Bride (what a classic movie!).

Needless to say, we scooped up Ms. Avery and were out of there!

Hanging Out

Dinnertime is a fav part of the day here at the Penrod house. We like to hang out together and chat with Ms. Avery. She enjoys playing musical chairs too!

We also Love to read in Mommy and Daddy's bed before bedtime. It's so hard to read just 1 book!

Christmas Eve at Nana and Papa's

Okay everyone, this is the last of my 2008 posts. Sorry for all my slacking, but I've finally sifted through all our photos and after this I'm ready to move into 2009. Only 1 week behind :)

Christmas Eve is always at Nana and Papa's and we have a wonderful time together there. We eat delicious food, drink great drinks, and enjoy one another's company and of course watch the little ones open, I mean tear apart, their presents!

One good holiday family shot:
Turn of events, the men in the kitchen :)
Dinner at the table with the boys:

Sweet Catherine in her pretty X-Mas dress:

Before the present opening madness:

Catherine came over and helped Avery open her presents this year. She had a pile of her own presents, but decided that they should open them together. It was so cute watching them. I know they are going to grow up to be great friends...we're getting there :)

Caiden checking out the magic tricks:

Riley and Uncle Kev practicing roller skating:

Connor waiting for his roller skates to be put on. Someone is excited! Check out the mess behind him.
Molly showing off our monogrammed slippers made by Kitty and Rich. Thanks so much!

Everyone hanging out at the dinner table. The food was delicious. The drinks; wine, port, shots, yep you heard me right, Buttery Nipple shots (Nana's fav) for everyone!

Avery couldn't stop looking at the lights on the house across the street. We thought she might have seen Santa, but seeing as the lights were her favorite thing of the season, she was taken outside to check them out as well as the others on the street. Lucky girl!

The 2 princesses with Nana and Papa:

Look how much they've changed from last year:

The Fabulous Women of the Night:

A great time was had by all...it always happens that way when we hang out with our Family. We are so blessed and I hope you and your family enjoy your blessings as well!