Our Birthday Girl!

I bet you were thinking I was going to do a Halloween post, because that is what everyone is doing today, but nope, I'm doing a special Avery post because it was her birthday (uh hum last week)! I know, I am crappy lately. Seriously though, being pregnant is hard. All I want to do is sleep, so when I can, I sleep. Anyways, I'm not here to whine, I'm here to show everyone how awesome her birthday was and that she gets awesomer with age!

My Mom and Dad made a goal to visit every grand kid on their birthday, so they came to celebrate as well (what will they do when they have 12?).

Avery was so excited, because I kept telling her that she was going to have an Elmo party. I don't think she fully understood until the day of.

It was a pretty hopping party...



This was the venue...



No, we didn't rent out Caesar's palace, this is our place.

We decided to cancel the live DJ and fire the clown because what beats Sesame Street music in a room full of balloons and slides. Nothin!

I have to give Sid the credit for decorating, that was his job, and he took it seriously. It was pretty cool, thanks Dad!

Here are the people...

Its weird, the pictures of the Jonas Brothers didn't turn out. Oh well.

We also had an Elmo pinata...

And no, we didn't beat the crap out of cute little Elmo, they make "toddler pinatas" these days, all you have to do is pull the string, and if you pull the right one, all the candy will come out. Good invention, cause seriously, who wants a party with a bunch of two year olds running around with bats? Not me.

Here is the cake...

Travis did the whole thing by himself. He is a man with many talents!

And of course, here is the Birthday girl!

She was so ready to blow out her birthday candles, we had been practicing for awhile, it took three times and a little moisture on the cake, but she blew them out!

The next day was Avery's real birthday! Since we are having another girl, we decided to move Avery out of the nursery and into the next room over. My parents and I had been working on Avery's big girl room for the week, and it was time to show her.

These are the before pics...

And here are the after pics...

I'd like to thank Pottery Barn Kids for the great idea. I can't afford you, but I can copy you!

My parents bought Avery the easel and colorful pillows for her birthday. Our plan was to show her her room in the morning, go to church, open her cute present from her Charles grandparents and then give her our gift. We bought her a kitchen. But the more presents we gave her, the more guilty I was feeling. With all the presents from the day before, relative gifts and grandparent gifts, our girl was getting spoiled. Travis and I made the decision to hide the kitchen in our storage until Christmas. We can't have a spoiled girl. Plus, we spent enough on her room! I don't think she even noticed. We did give her the kitchen's box to play with (since we set it up already). She didn't suspect a thing!

Now I have to do the mushy mom thing:

Avery, you are the sweetest thing in the world.

You have a heart of gold!

It has been so fun watching you learn new things. You are so curious, you ask lots of questions and you pick up on things very fast.

You are a born leader.

You are bossy.

You tell us to be quiet and to not copy you.

You are constantly chatting.

You love to sing. You know the "ABC song (all except the letter "X", for some reason that one hasn't made it into your version). You sing "Twinkle, Twinkle little star" and "Rock-a-bye baby."

You don't use your little potty anymore, you prefer to climb on the big toilet, and you don't want any help. You are so independent.

We can't open the doors anymore because you say, "my do it." You also won't let us take your diapers off, you have to do it when we change you.

Amazingly, you remember your cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents names, even though you don't see them very often.

You put your babies in timeout, and when you go and get them you say, "listen baby" and then you give them a kiss (you have had lots of self experiences).

You love your milk baba's, and if they aren't the perfect temperature, you make us go and warm them.

I can't go grocery shopping with you, you only last 15 minutes and you can't stand still anymore.

You are a climber. You climb everywhere. From couch to couch, to the top of the spider monkey bars, to all the tables and chairs.

You call your blankies "didi's" and you have to sleep with "pink" and "green" every night, along with Baby Rita and Baby Blue.

You are starting to use your imagination a lot. You make me "oatmeal" and "milk" all of the time. You also like to steal my nose from me.

When you smile, your big almond eyes squint all the way shut. You have the biggest smile!

You have been sleeping in your big girl bed, and when you wake up, you stay in your bed and say, "Avery wake."

You have the highest pitched scream, and it takes everything in my to ignore it sometimes.

You are obsessed with shoes, and often switch with other kids.

You like to tease Dada, when he is home you say, "dada at work" and he says, "No, Dada home." And you say, "No, Dada at work." And you laugh SO hard!

We love you so so so much, Happy Birthday, ya little stink!