Averi's Birthday Continued.

Averi woke up on her birthday to lots of fun gifts.

She was most excited for her new CD player &

it's pretty much been going non-stop since then.

G & G J* took her out to breakfast for her birthday

& she loved every minute of it, they even took her to

school. She picked Chuck-A-Rama for her birthday dinner

(weird, but she loves it) & loved being with her cousins.

I think her favorite part is when the waiters/waitresses

sang Happy Birthday to her.

We did a small friends party a few days later.

She wanted to go see "The Princess & the Frog"

We took her friends McKenna, Savana & her cousin

Sierra w/us & they loved it.

***

It's CRAZY to think that we have a 7 year old.

She already seems TOO grown up.

We Love You Averi & are so proud of

everything you are. Hope you had a

Happy Birthday!!!

Reindeer Food.

My Mom makes up a little

ziploc full of "Reindeer food"

every Christmas Eve for all

the grandkids. I hope I'm as fun

when I'm a grandma!

Anyway, Averi came home from school

last week with a cute little recipe/poem that goes

with the "Reindeer food".

The kids absolutely LOVE putting it

on the lawn & sidewalk before going to bed.

They want to make sure Santa knows

just where to stop!

Recipe for Reindeer Food

*1/2 cup oatmeal

*1/4 cup sugar

*1/4 cup sugar sprinkles

Be sure to take this magic food &

sprinkle on the lawn. On Christmas Eve,

Santa's reindeer travel miles before the dawn.

The smell of oats & a glitter path will

guide them on their way & you'll be sure

to wake up to Santa's gifts next morn

on Christmas day!

Santa.

3 words.

Cutest. Santa. Ever!

***

Every year the PVTH managers bring

"Santa" in to meet all of the kids. This

one is AMAZING! He is SO sweet & truly

acts interested in each child. I wish the

pictures of him leaning to hear my kids

"wish list" turned out. They were blurry. :(

Averi asked for a jeep. Yeah, probably not

gonna happen. Lucas asked for a toy.

Do-able. He wasn't even specific. The kids

LOVED him & there was NO hesitation on

their part. Hope he comes again next year!

Happy 7th Averi.

This cute gal is 7!!!

I'm still in a bit of shock.

Where did the past seven years go?

***

We are SO lucky to have Averi in our

family. She has grown up so much over the

past year, I wish it would slow down just

a bit. I want to write a few things down

about Averi that I always want to remember.

Here goes:

~She has lost 6 teeth.

~She seems to keep growing in length

but not anywhere else. It sure makes hard to

find clothes that fit just right!

~Is reading pretty good & has gotten 100% on

a few spelling tests :)

~Went rock-climbing for the 1st time

& is completely hooked. She begs to go all the time.

~CRAZY sleeper. Still.

~LOVES babies. I think that might

even be an understatement!

~Has stayed a lefty after switching

back & forth last year.

~Played on a city soccer team for the 1st time.

~Loves her Grandma's & Grandpa's.

~Loves her cousins. Especially Sierra.

~Loves to wrestle w/ her Dad & Lucas.

~Great helper. Especially w/the kitchen towels.

~Loves her friends.

~Has a MAJOR sweet tooth. The dentist could tell.

~Is a pretty good artist. (it's a Papa thing)

~Will let me take her picture ANY time.

~Changes the rules to "slug bug" EVERY time!

~Wants a "real" ipod. Not a shuffle.

~Hates wearing her glasses. But looks SO cute in them.

~Is quite the chatter box @ school.

~Sensitive. Has a tender heart. I call her

"little mother".

~Loves to dance.

~Loves music.

There are SO many more.

We love you Averi & hope that

you have a

FABULOUS 7th BIRTHDAY!!!

Christmas Happenings.

I think it's pretty amazing that our close

knit group of friends from high school

have managed to stay in touch. Most

of us were able to get together on

monday night & we had a

BLAST!!!

***

Thanks to Brad & Genis for hosting

the Christmas party this year. We

ate yummy pork tacos, had plenty of snacks

& topped it off w/ice cream sundaes!

We exchanged white elephant gifts

which was HILARIOUS!

I took lots of pictures, but none of

them are appropriate enough to post :)

My cheeks hurt SO bad from all the laughing.

Never a dull moment w/these friends!

We ended w/a few games of

"Almost Famous".

We missed those of you who couldn't come.

(Next year 4 sure!)

Finally, we got our tree up. I felt like I was dragging my

feet a little bit to get all of our decorations up. Averi kept

asking for days when we were going to put up the tree.

We got it up & she has been a happy camper ever since. I

absolutely love the lights of a Christmas tree!

(Notice the upper right pic of Lucas. He hung about 10

ornaments on 1 branch. I have yet to fix them. Funny boy :)

A pirates life for me.

After a long hiatus from the ER

we made a trip there last night.

Dan & I picked up the kids yesterday

& found that Averi had a pretty bad scratch

on her cornea. I love that Dan has

some ER connections & we were able to

get her right in. They numbed her eye

up & put a dye in her eye & used a

special light to look & see what the damage

was. Instead of only 1 scratch there were 2. :(

It is one of the coolest things I've seen done.

And believe me, we've seen many interesting

things. We have to take her back in 2 days

& put ointment in her eye 4x a day. But

it's already looking really good & we

feel SO lucky that it wasn't worse.

***

Lucas got Averi his pirate patch last

night because the light was hurting her eyes.

Too funny!

***

I sometimes forget that my kids

actually care for each other.

We dropped Lucas off @ my dad's

& before he got out of the car he leaned

over & gave her a sweet little kiss &

told her it would be all right & that she

needed to be tough. And the best thing

of all, since we decided to keep her

home today, they have played SO well today!!!