Christmas 2007

We had such a great Christmas this year. I thought it might be sad since we didn't have the whole family here. Joel and Cristy were in NY with her family and Josh, Jenny & their kids just moved to TX so they weren't here either. It was definitely different, but it ended up still being a lot of fun celebrating with the family that was here. It was definitely more low-key and calm but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Moira, a sweet Kazakh girl was here to celebrate with us too so that was wonderful.

Averi had a fantastic first Christmas and continues to add so much to our family each and every day. She is so happy all the time and is always smiling and clapping. She is in to everything so she keeps me on my toes and keeps Mia stressed out:) She is pulling up and I'm sure will be walking (or should I say running) within the next 2-3 months. She loves to terrorize her big sister to get a reaction:) She is quite the mischevious one....

Mia had a great Christmas as well. She really got into the lights and decorations this year and was ecstatic when Santa drove by on a fire truck on Christmas Eve. She was literally squealing; it was so cute. It has been such a joy to teach her and see her learn/talk about the true meaning of Christmas. We have a nativity scene that she plays with nonstop. And she now says "let's pray to baby Jesus" before we eat:) Anyways, here is a slide show of our wonderful Christmas of 2007!

Mia's Sweet Quote of the Day

Mia was sitting on her bed playing this morning and I was cleaning up in her room and this was our conversation:

Mia: "Jesus Loves Me"
Me: "Yes, He does"
Mia: "I love Jesus too"
Me: That's so sweet honey"
Mia: " That's MY Jesus" :)

I thought that was SO precious. And she had to add a 2 year olds favorite word "my" in there.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving and all of my family was able to be here. It was our last holiday with the whole family for a while as Jenny and her family are moving to Texas this week. She will be going to massage therapy school out there. Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving Day...

Averi's Baby Dedication

Yesterday was a very special day as we dedicated Averi to the Lord in the morning service at our church, Shades Mountain Independent. We prayed and prayed for her all last week as she had a horrible, croupy cough which then turned in to an ear infection. Her fever got up to almost 104 degrees and was high all week. We took her back to the doctor on Friday and he put her on an antibiotic which immediately started working and caused her fever to break. I was stressed because I knew that if we waited until next time they had it then a lot of my family would not be able to be here, but my prayers were answered and she did SO well and everything went just fine. Here is a slide show of her dedication...

Mia & Daddy Go to Missouri

Mia got to go on her first trip with daddy this past weekend to visit his Grandmother for her 89th birthday. They rode out to Fredericktown, Missouri with Poppi & Nana and were gone for 3 days. It was a nice break for mommy and I got to have some alone time with Averi which was nice. It was SO quiet though that I was definitely ready to have them back by Sunday night. Here are a few pictures of their trip.

October/November Update

Well we are finally done with soccer for a few months. We're definitely ready for things to slow down for a while and just have some family time and start getting ready for the holidays. Both of our teams did great. They both finished first in their division for regular season play which we were so excited about. They worked hard for it.

Averi is now just over seven months. In the last month she has accomplished sitting up and crawling so she is trying to keep up with Mia as much as possible (which Mia is pretty slow so she does a good job of it:)). Mia starts saying "uh oh baby, uh oh..." because Averi is getting into all her stuff. She continues to be incredibly active and keep me on my toes. I am having to baby proof a lot more now. It's funny that I have a 2 1/2 year old and never really had to baby proof until Averi came along because Mia is just so layed back and if you tell her not to touch something, then she doesn't. And then there's Averi...

Mia was a princess for a Halloween which she absolutely loved. She really enjoyed the soccer season and has gotten really attached to some of the people on our teams and they got attached to her as well. This past weekend we were in Decatur at our State Cup and as we were walking to the field some teenage boy walked by and said "hey Mia" and I looked at her all puzzled and she said "that boy is my friend". She thought she was so cool! Apparently he had played ball with her on the sidelines or something:) It was pretty funny! She is definitely quite the socialite. I dressed her in a white Briarwood Soccer t-shirt and some jeans for the game and a few minutes later Mia says "let's go mom" and I turned around and she had about 5 strings of beads around her neck and her purse on her wrist (to go to a soccer game mind you). I about died! The plain t-shirt look just wasn't doing it for her so she had to dress it up a bit. Everybody just cracked up when they saw her. And she carried that purse to EVERY game over the weekend.

Well that's about it for now...I will attach some pictures of Halloween etc. that we have taken over the past few weeks.
Averi & I swinging at the park


Me, Averi, and 3 of our soccer girls waiting for our Awards Ceremony

Landon, Bree, Averi and Mia at Trunk or Treat


A not-so-great family picture:)

Our precious little pumpkin

Princess Mia

Pumpkin Patches

We had the chance to visit 2 different Pumpkin Patches this week. Notice the captions that I put on the pictures and how totally opposite our girls are. I couldn't keep Averi from licking, kissing, eating and crawling on the pumpkins & vines but Mia would barely walk in the patch and she said everything was either "gross, yucky, messy, or dirty". It cracked me up! We had so much fun though and Mia had a blast once I got her over all that and told her she could take a bath when we got home. Where did this "girly girl" mentality come from?! Certainly not me!!!

Georgia

We had a great time at the tournament and visiting friends in Georgia this past weekend. Here are a few pictures of the kids. The little boy in the picture is my friend Jenny's little boy. He and Mia are only 3 weeks apart and they had a great time playing together. Jen & I grew up in PNG together.

Our Crazy Lives

So, it's been a while since I posted anything. I'll try to catch ya'll up on our lives over the last few weeks. We went to Memphis for a soccer tournament the weekend before last. When we came back last Sunday, I came down with the CRUD (headache, fever, coughing, sore throat etc.) which is just now finally going away. Jon came down with the same thing over the weekend so he is now feeling awful as well. Thankfully the girls have stayed pretty well. Mia is fine. Averi has a stopped up little tiny nose which is so sad. She also had her 6 month checkup last Monday which meant she got 4 shots...awful! She is really starting to show her personality now. She is definitely the complete opposite of Mia (who was a very cautious and calm baby). She is SO active and has already had 3 falls. Yesterday she climbed out of her carseat in the car and fell onto the seat in between her and Mia's chairs face first! I had just set her down in there for a minute to get her bottle ready before we left. Thankfully she was fine. I'm SO not used to that. So I am learning that she has to be strapped down in anything or she will try to climb out and therefore fall:) Her stats at her checkup were: 15 lbs. 1 oz. (40th perc.) and 27 1/2 in. (95th perc.)

Mia is talking more and more and more every day. The things that come out of her mouth crack me up. I am definitely in full fledged training mode with her and a couple weeks ago she disobeyed me so we had to have a little conversation to which I told her that when she disobeys me it makes me sad and it makes Jesus sad to which she started bawling and with big huge crocodile tears said "Mia no make Jesus sad; Jesus don't cry". She was devastated (That Jesus was sad, not that I was sad):) It was so sweet though! She has such a sensitive spirit. So of course I had to explain to her the whole forgiveness factor that plays in to that:) But she talked about that for days.

Anyways, please be praying for Jon and I to fully recover. We've got 1 more month of soccer which we will be out of town for 4 out of the next 5 weekends. I think that's part of the reason we got sick because we are just worn out. Also, pray for our car situation. Jon's car died a couple weeks ago and he has not had the time to fix it so we are sharing a car right now. We are praying for the money to buy a new one soon but pray that his other one will hold out until then. We are heading to Georgia for a tournament this weekend with both teams (8 soccer games in 2 days-WOW). Should be fun though! I'll attach a couple pics of the last few weeks...

Mia Going to Work with Daddy

Little Munchkin

Soccer Tournament in Memphis

Painting Pumpkins in the Park

Averi Climbing All Over Mia

A Few New Pictures

Okay, so you can tell we have been really busy because I haven't even posted anything on here for 2 weeks:) LOTS of soccer, soccer, and more soccer...We are having lots of fun though, just very busy. So my parents made it back from Kazakhstan which is awesome. We are loving having them here and are so happy they will be home for a year. Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.

Happy Averi (5 1/2 Months)


Mia Dressed Up (Mimi bought her this stuff and she loves it)



Mimi & Averi


Mia & Levi Sliding (holding hands) at Recreation Station


Cute Little Bundle of Laundry

Back from North Carolina

We are back from our trip and we had such a great time. It's always good to be back home though. The girls did great! Averi was definitely done with her carseat by the end of the trip though:) We got to hike around and see 4 different waterfalls which were all absolutely amazing. And the weather was so perfect there. We spent 2 days in the Hendersonville area before heading up to Asheville for our soccer tournament on Friday. Both our teams played very well. Our younger team, the U-15 girls, just missed going to the finals by a point so that was a little disappointing but we still had fun and got to play some new teams which was good. I am going to post some pictures of our trip on a slide show. Hope you enjoy! Jaci

Headed to the Mountains

We are headed to the mountains of Asheville, NC today...Can't wait to have a break for a few days from this horrific heat. We will be out there for about 4 days. Our soccer tournament starts on Friday but we are going a couple days early to see some waterfalls around the Hendersonville area. Please pray for our safety while traveling and that the girls will do good:) They usually do but I always worry about getting off schedules, not getting good naps etc. while traveling. Oh well I need to learn to be more flexible:) Anyways, check back on Monday because I will have lots of pictures to post when we get back I'm sure.....

Sisters Hanging Out

Here are a few pictures of the girls rolling around on the floor playing together. They sure do love each other a lot.

Kisses for my baby sister


This is Averi's way of trying to love on Mia:) Since she can't kiss yet, she just opens her mouth and attacks you.


Talking to each other

Random Pictures

Trying to Stay Cool in the Shade


Shaving with Daddy



Recreation Station




Averi Loves Her Exercauser



Poppi came to visit from Atlanta on Sunday




Me & The Girls