It's So Hard to Say Good-Bye!

Don't be fooled by this picture...Avery absolutely LOVES these two women! Miss Toni and Miss Laura have been her Wee School teachers this year and they are wonderful. Miss Toni happens to be our friend Brooke's grandmother, and Miss Laura and I have been church friends for a long time, and we also went to Honduras together (that's her daughter Mary who is in Avery's class). Avery will go to them and not even bat an eye when I leave her. Which is a big deal for Miss Drama Queen! When I picked her up today I realized it was her last day (Aidan goes twice a week so his last day is June 2nd) so I whipped out my camera phone to take a picture. But when I handed Avery BACK to the teachers for the picture AND held another baby that wasn't mine, she got a little upset. Oh well. Thank you for everything Miss Toni and Miss Laura!

Port Aransas - Long Post!!

This past weekend we joined Daniel's family at a beach house in Port Aransas. For those of you who had voted, we DID manage to squeeze our four family members in our minivan along with Uncle Cody, Aunt Amy, Cousin Sage, and all of our stuff! Surprisingly, it turned out great...the drive was easy and quick, the kids did super (thank goodness for the minivan DVD player!), and traffic was a breeze. Avery came down with pinkeye as soon as we got to Port Aransas but Amy called her dad who's an optometrist. He called in a prescription and she was doing better by that evening! We all took turns making meals so it was very relaxing. The weather was great the whole time, just one rain shower. The beach was within walking distance to our house and the kids had a blast! We hope to make it an annual trip :)

Our family at the beach:


Our beach house!


View of the beach from our balcony:



The Cousins at the beach!


Boogie boarding:


Avery walking with Aunt Lindsay. Avery loved the waves...she cried if we took her back up to play in the sand!


Building a sand castle:


Burying Uncle Cody in the sand:


Cookie's friend Jeff with the neat kite he brought:


Avery reading with Gigi:


Aidan playing Candyland with Mommy and Aunt Amy:


Aidan's first S'more:


Avery's first S'more:


Everyone relaxing and playing football after S'mores:


Cookie and Gigi in the kitchen:


The Steward family:


The only decent family picture...unfortunately it didn't have Gigi in it!


Avery and Sage...Double Trouble!


My friend Jen and her family were also vacationing nearby! I took Aidan over to their pool so he could swim with Corinne:


View of the backseat...this is how we rode most of the way (Daniel and Cody were up front):

So long, Durango!

We sold our Durango tonight! We'd listed it on Craigslist last week and Daniel has gone to meet a few prospective buyers since then. He went to see another one tonight and ended up selling it on the spot! I'm a little sad because I didn't really get to say good-bye, but happy that another family will get to enjoy it. We got it when we were engaged and brought both of our kids home from the hospital in it. We put a lot of wear & tear into it but it was a great vehicle and treated us well!

I think we can, I think we can....

We are leaving for Port Aransas tomorrow for a weekend at the beach with Daniel's family. It's about an 8-hour drive (at least!) and right now we are planning to ride with Uncle Cody, Aunt Amy, and Baby Sage. That's four adults, three carseats, along with two pack & plays, a booster seast, our luggage, toys, diapers, swim gear, and more! Can we pull this off, or are we dreaming? You tell us by voting below! You can check my facebook status tomorrow to find out if we were successful :)

Will we fit 4 adults, 3 carseats, and all our junk into the minivan?
	Yes! I believe in you guys!
	Um, no. Put down the crackpipe, idiots!
Free polls from Pollhost.com

A New 'Do!

I took Avery for her first haircut yesterday! Her hair grows like weeds so this was long overdue...I guess I was just sad about cutting off her baby hair. This was something I didn't go through with Aidan. I took him to my hairdresser when he was 3 months old and basically said "Fix this disaster, please!" Anyway, I took Avery to a place called Sweet & Sassy which does mani/pedi, make-up, and dress-up parties for little girls. It was such a fun place! I am in love with her new cut. They cut off about 3 inches and gave her a cute bob, just in time for summer! She looks like such a big girl now :)

***Also, she is scheduled to get tubes in her ears on June 1st. She may also get her adenoids taken out as well...she's always had a bit of a snoring sound, and the adenoids may be so large that they block her eustacian tube (through which fluid drains). We're confident this will help with the ear fluid, and subsequently get her to start talking. I took her to a follow-up at her pediatrician's office today where they performed a hearing test. Her left one passed, but her right one (usually the ear fluid culprit) didn't. Another sign that tubes is the way to go! I also took Aidan with us to the appointment since he's had a lingering cough for over a week, and turns out he has an ear infection! It doesn't seem to bother him, so hopefully it won't affect our trip to Port Aransas this weekend with Daddy's family!

Our busy day

Today Aidan had his first swimming lesson. He is taking a semi-private lesson (as in, himself and his friend Kaelyn) with a lady who teaches at her own pool. He goes twice this week and then twice next week. He loves the water and enjoyed himself today, but wasn't really paying attention to what the instructor was saying. I think he was just taking in the new experience and I'm hoping Wednesday will be better. I took Avery with me, but it was too hard to juggle her by the pool...so she is going to go play with a friend on Wednesday!

When the swimming lesson was over, we all went to the park with some friends before heading home.

After the kids finished dinner, we headed out front with daddy to draw on the driveway with chalk. Aidan is getting very good at writing his name! He got help with both the D's in this picture but afterwards he drew one on his own.

Here is his drawing of Daddy, Aidan, and Avery (Aidan and Avery are the two smaller "people" at the top):

And a drawing of Mommy, Uncle Cody, Aunt Amy, and Baby Sage (poor Sage is orbitting in space on the right):

I think his tractor's sexy!

I went to the Kenny Chesney concert with four of my mommy friends last night! Three of them are die-hard fans and went with two other people to the original concert on May 2nd...but there was a torrential rainstorm and Kenny had to bail out mid-concert, so my friends basically swam home. The two other people in my friends' group decided not to go to the make-up show, so my friend Tracey and I got to tag along! I like Chesney but really just knew a handful of his songs that Daniel has in our iTunes. But the concert was a blast and I'm now officially a huge fan! I'm adding to the iTunes collection!

View of Kenny from our seats:

Me with Tracey, Tammy, Julia, and Amy (AKA Kaelyn's mommy, Jake's mommy, Ryan's mommy, and Taylor's mommy):

The T-shirt...if you click on it you can see a bigger image. You can see a great photo of Kenny in the rain from the original concert:

Old Friends

This past weekend our friend George graduated from Seminary. He and Lindsay used to go to our church (he was the youth minster there). We were all part of a "baby boom" that took place when about 7 of us had babies within months of each other! The Jacobuses recently moved to College Station and we miss them so much! Brooke is 3 months younger than Aidan and they still remember each other. Here are some pics we took at George's graduation party (as well as some oldies).

Brooke, Bryce, and Aidan April 2009:



Aidan, Brooke, and Bryce November 2006:



The Jacobus kids (Brooke's brother Hudson and sister Hallie, who are twins) and Steward kids April 2009:



Same group, a year ago (look how chunky Avery was!!!):



A picture of me, Jodi (Bryce's mom) and Lindsay, taken by Brooke: