Covino's with Our Buds

I LOVE a good night out with good food, friends and wine and that's just what we did with our friends at Covino's - a fav Italian restaurant of ours.

Heather and I


The boys side - Cason, Nathan and Daniel


Daniel and Toni - we were so glad to hang out with them...it's been too long!


Gotta love these boys!

Pooltime with Keaton & Tessa

A couple of weekend's ago, we went over to the Cason's with the Hale's for dinner and swimming. Just watching the 3 girls play together, I know we are in TROUBLE! Tessa and Keaton were born on the same day and will be 1 in September and with Avery at 2, the 6 of us should resign ourselves to be on patrol for the next 18+ years, oh who am I kidding...the rest of our lives :)

The Daddy's and their Daughter's...it's amazing to me that these 3 boys all had girls!! Hopefully, they will grow up to be as good friends as their Daddy's are!

Sweet Tessa & Brandon

What a cutie Keaton is...she is our resident party girl right behind Avery :)

Good thing Tim was there to catch her...she just loves to "flop" in!

All bathed and ready to play - no bedtime!!

Leaving the House

When Avery leaves the house it takes her a minute, quite possibly a few minutes to gather her things before we head out the door. Here is a pic of her with the typical belongings she takes with her when she leaves the house:

Here she is telling me "NO!"

Partial smile

Ready to get out of here

I'm hoping this is yet another faze and that one day she will outgrow it. Luckily, most of the time everything besides her purse stays in the car. I mean, how can I tell her she can't bring her purse in when Mommy is sporting one of her own?

Movie Star at the Grocery

I bet you all didn't know that there have been movie star sightings at our local grocery stores lately. Here is a couple pics I captured of one:

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Tim and I celebrated our 7th-Year Anniversary on July 27, 2009. I can't believe it's been 7 years since we walked down the aisle and said our "I Do's!". I wish we could go back to that day and do it all over again because I had such a fun time at our wedding and you never have enough time to enjoy it will it's happening. Here are some pics of us on our special day...

So much has changed since then, and yet so much has remained the same. I'm still madly in love with the boy who stole my heart when I was 16 and the man who married me 7 years ago. We've enjoyed so many things together in our relationship, but I most love the fact that Tim is such an amazing person inside and out. He always knows how to make me smile, set me in my place, he never has an unkind thing to say about anyone, he has a great attitude, he loves his family and friends, and to me most of all he loves Avery & I!! You'd think after almost 16 years together some people's love for each other might start to fade, but not for me and Tim. We have continually grown closer and stronger over the years and I look forward to continually growing in our relationship together...that is as long as one of us doesn't get the 7-year itch :)

Naptime

For the past week or so, Avery has been "playing" in her crib for about 30 minutes to an hour sometimes before she finally falls asleep. At first I thought she might be trying to get rid of the nap (oh, the horror) but no, she just has a lot of stuff going on in her little mind and it's taking her a bit longer to fall asleep. We've tried pushing her nap to later, even earlier but nothing seems to work right now. So, for the moment, we are enjoying watching her on the video monitor before she falls asleep. Enjoy!

Avery's New Pool

We have finally gotten Avery's pool out she got for her birthday from Nana and Papa and blew it up for her last night. I'd like to say that it's because it's been so hot that we didn't want to sit in the blistering heat as she "swam", but I think we are just a little lazy too and we needed the air compressor from my dad (i just kept forgetting to ask him) :) Anyways, since we've had this "cold front" come in, we were ready to sit and watch her play!

She was so excited, she couldn't stand it talking to Tim the whole time as he blew it up.

She even held the hose trying to get it to fill up faster:

Someone is Happy!!

It came with a slide too...a little rickety for her, but she didn't mind. Then, the geniuses that we are - we put her other slide in the pool and she can climb up it on her own and slide in. She loved it!

Tonight, since she was already in a "bath", Tim washed her off in the pool. Does that count as a real bath??? It does for her tonight!!

Random Photos

Here's some random photos from the past couple months that I haven't had a chance to post yet...

Tennis Anyone? I think the hat is a little too small, but she wouldn't take it off!


Ready for the pool and the beach in Galveston!


You can't tell because I used my flash, but Avery was coloring in the dark in her playroom because she didn't want to go upstairs for bath and bedtime!

Popcorn anyone? Avery insisted that I dump the whole bag on her tray. She didn't eat it all, but she got pretty close!

Checking out the tires while waiting for our car to get an oil change.

Rock star...the hair, the sunglasses, no shirt!!

I'll never get my ipod back!

Listening to music with her new headphones.

Where's Avery?

Perfect Fit!

My sweet girl!

Self Portrait by a 2-Year Old

Recently, Avery has started to take pictures of herself with my camera. She takes the camera, puts it right up to her eye and shoots. I've tried over and over again to get her to turn the camera around and take a picture of me, Tim, anything mainly so she doesn't hurt her eye, but she has yet to listen to me...odd, huh? :) So, here's some of her work:

One day she'll get it...I hope!

Jack Carter Pool

Yesterday, Avery and I had no plans so we packed up a lunch and headed over to Jack Carter Pool. They have a great kids area with all sorts of slides and sprays for the kids. Plus, since it's not that big, Mommy can sit in the water and watch - well at least some of the time :) Avery had a blast and it totally made me reminisce when we walked into Jack Carter.

I grew up coming to Jack Carter Pool and it is so different now. Kind of sad actually if you ask me. Like the fact that there are no more diving boards -what's up with that? How fun it used to be to climb up the high dive and jump off!! And, the park right outside is now cork board flooring and all plastic - it used to be gravel ground cover and wooden and metal play things. We turned out just fine. Is this what happens to every generation?? Do you think our grand kids will even have parks to go to when they grow up?? How much "safer" can we make our world for our kids? Sorry to go on my little rampage, but sometimes it's all just a little bit disconcerting.

Regardless, we had a great time and it was tough to get Avery out of the pool - I kept telling her we'd come back. She thought come back meant stay in the water :)

"Crawling around" - perfect for little ones!

Splish, splash! Splish, splash!

Hershey Pie

There's nothing better than licking the spoon after making a batch of brownies or for Avery this time after making Hershey Pie. She wouldn't give me the spatula back until it was "clean"!

Pirates

These are the pirates I had dinner with last night:

This one especially loves using the salt and pepper shakers. Make sure you are done eating when she hits your plate or your food could be a little overseasoned!

Riding Our Bike

After the rain or really just a drizzle here last night, it cooled down a bit and instead of playing out back we coerced Avery onto her bike for a walk around the neighborhood pond. She loved it and especially going "fast" with Tim pushing her.

Her first pop-a-wheelie!

123456789 Day

Thought this was an interesting daily tidbit: at exactly 12:34:56 today , the time and date was 12:34:56 on 7/08/09. Apparently this happens only once every 100 years.

I can just see myself telling Avery's kids that I was part of this historic moment in my life :)