Chattannooga Bound

We are about to head out to Chattanooga, TN for the weekend. We have our first soccer tournament of the season up there. As of right now they are forecasting 100% chance of rain tomorrow and then possible snow on Sunday...NOT COOL AT ALL! It should make for an interesting weekend of soccer.

Mia's all excited about going with us and staying in the hotel (that's her favorite part). She's got her rain boots and rain coat packed so she's ready to go:) We are hoping to take her to the aquarium while we are there so it'll be fun to have some time with just her. Averi is staying with my mother in law one night and my parents one night so she'll get plenty spoiled while we are gone. Please pray that we have a safe trip there and back with all this bad weather...

Wordless Wednesday

I bought these hats for them at Old Navy for $1. We are heading to Florida next week so I thought they would be perfect little beach hats...

Popcorn & Candy Land

Mia is definitely a child of routine. So we got her Candy Land for Christmas and our routine since then has been that after Averi goes to bed at 7, then we make popcorn and play Candy Land. It's sort of a fun little time for her, Jon and I. She's even gotten to where when I go to read and put Averi in the bed, she gets the popcorn out and opens it and then gets a bowl out and sets it on the counter. Then she runs over and starts setting up the Candy Land game. What is it with Candy Land? I used to love that game when I was little too.

Mia & Daddy having popcorn together (Jon had a sore throat and was feeling pretty rough yesterday, so Mia climbed up on the couch and shared some popcorn with him).

Setting up Candy Land...

Why I Hate Car Shopping

We are in the beginning stages of shopping for an SUV and I am already exhausted from it. Why?!

1. We found a GREAT deal on one and told the guy we were coming to look at it the next day and were probably going to buy, and then he sold it that night. So I got all excited, and then he sold it from under us. SO frustrating!

2. I hate being pressured! We have a very specific price range because we are buying it right out as we do not want to take on a loan. But what I hate is when you walk into a dealership and they say "oh it's only X amount" which happens to be like 2 or 3 times more than what we can afford. I wanna say "oh really, is that all?!" to which their next sentence is always, "well we can get you a loan"...NO THANK YOU! Not that I'm saying it's wrong to take on a loan, we just don't feel like it's right for us to take on one right now. If anything, we are trying to cut costs, not take on more.

3. I get sold emotionally on every one we find:) I've already gotten disappointed on several that either weren't what they appeared to be, or were sold before we got there.

I'm sure if we had a bigger price range and were willing to take on a large loan then we would have millions of options. But we are trusting that God is in control and has the perfect car for us. Definitely another trust issue for me. It's like Jon says, it's not like we have to have it today and there will be plenty more cars that go on sale before we have to have one.

Organization is a Wonderful Thing

Jon was off this past Monday for President's Day. We decided to take on a major project and organize Mia's room. We have needed a bookshelf in there for a LONG time, but the one I wanted was out of our price range. So I finally gave in and just decided to get this one at Target. I figured it was fine, at least for now. So Jon put it together while I went through and organized all their toys and put them in small storage containers.

The girls have spent the last 3 days sitting and reading books because now they can actually see what there is to choose from:) Before they were in a storage unit in Mia's closet and they couldn't even tell what was in there. And the nice thing about the small storage containers is that they are out of reach and all the pieces are together so when they want to play with something, I can pull it off the top of the bookcase and give it to them, but they have to clean that up before getting something else out.



Now all their dress up clothes and puzzles are in this storage unit (this is where there books used to be).

Why didn't I think of this brilliant idea before?!:) I don't know about ya'll but before there were all sorts of random toys mixed up together and thrown into 1 toy box. We still have the toy box, but it only has a few of the bigger toys in there now.

Wordless Wednesday

Potty Success

I cannot believe it! Averi has totally started potty training. I didn't think we would even attempt this for a few more months. But we had gotten the potty chair down from the attic a few months ago just to get her used to the idea (we thought it may be a long process). So anyways, she would always sit on it right before she got in the bath, but never would go. Well the other day I was getting her ready for church and told her to run try to go potty before I got her dressed. I really didn't think she would do anything but run in there, sit for 5 seconds and run back. Well after a minute or two she was still in there. And I went and started to pick her up to go get dressed and she started saying "I potty, I potty". Sure enough I look down and she was pooping in the potty. I could NOT believe it. So of course we made a huge deal about it and gave her some mini m&m's. Well later in the day I told her again to go potty and she peed this time. Again I was SHOCKED. She's what I call my A.D.D pottier. She will run in there, do her business and run back out to play (Mia would sit on it for a LONG time and read books before she did anything, but she was content to do that:)). Averi just wants to get it done so she can get back to playing. So we have had 4 successes now.

I am not ready to fully potty train yet because we are heading to Florida to visit my brother and his wife in a couple of weeks and I'm afraid that will mess things up, but I will probably continue to let her try a few times per day and then all out potty train her when we get back from our trip. I have to say that Mia has been a huge encourager and support in this effort:) She is always saying, "Averi I have to go potty, do you want to go too?", and since Averi is her shadow she will run after her and sit on her potty just because Mia is doing that. So once again Av proves me wrong! If you read my "No More Paci" post, you'll know what I mean:)

Valentine's Day

I took Mia to a Fancy Nancy Valentine's party yesterday at the library. Her favorite part about it was that she got to get dressed up (of course).

Posing with Fancy Nancy

Enjoying some snacks

Decorating her heart box


Putting her Posh Puppy necklace on

Mia & her friend Ella


Jon and I went out to dinner and a movie on Friday night to celebrate. We're not big fans of waiting for 3 hours at a restaurant on Valentine's night. We went to a little italian restaurant and then saw the movie "Taken"...great movie! It was SO much fun.

Link for Mia's Bank

I have had several of you ask me about the bank we bought for Mia. Jon got ours on E-bay, but they also sell it on Amazon or other online stores. It is called a Learning Cents bank. It runs around $20, but we got it on E-bay for $17, so you may just want to price around. Hope that helps...

Little Kazakh Girl

This week is Missions Conference at our church. So Mia had to dress up in a costume from another country for Cubbies. My mom had brought home a Kazakh outfit for them to play dress up in and it was perfect. And in case you can't tell, she was so proud dressed up in it:)


Here are Benjamin and Abby admiring her costume. Benjamin said to her "I think you look pretty good Mia"..it was SO cute.

Mia and her little friend Jessica...

Valentine's Party

My friend Rachel hosted a Valentine's party at her home today. It was so much fun and the girls had a blast. All the kids made valentine cards, played with toys, and ate lunch together. And us moms enjoyed chatting and catching up with each other. It really made me miss the mom's group days:) We definitely need to think about starting that up again someday.

I was impressed that even Averi really got into making cards.


Here's Mia proudly showing off her cards that she made.



Averi and her friend Ali (whose house the party was at) catching up...

Wordless Wednesday

p.s. Please go to 5 Minutes for Moms and vote for Mia's photo (#11). She's in the finals for the "Horsing Around" photo contest...thank you so much!

Please Vote for Mia

Mia is in the finals for the photo contest at 5 Minutes for Moms. I would love to win the art easel for her if possible. Please go to this link 5 Minutes for Moms and vote for her photo (#11). Thank you so much!

Sweet Girls

Here's a picture of the girls hanging out on the couch. They were reading some books together. They are becoming closer and better friends by the day. Mia is always telling Jon and I "Averi is my very best friend":) Not that they don't have their little moments every now and then, but about 80-90% of the time they get along really well:)

Also Averi is talking TONS these days. She repeats every thing Mia says which is hilarious. But yesterday I put on my dress and boots for church and when I walked out of my room she looked at me and said "Mommy cute"! It was adorable...

Alabama Gymnastics

Jon & I took our 2 moms to a gymnastics meet lastnight at University of Alabama. It was SO much fun! And what was even cooler is that we know one of the gymnasts (her family goes to our church and her sister plays on our soccer team) who competed, Rachel Terry. She did an great job and it was so cool watching her compete. Oh yeah...and Alabama won...ROLL TIDE!

Photo Contest

I am entering this picture in a photo contest at 5 Minutes for Moms. Please check out the contest if you get a chance...

Wordless Wednesday

Spending, Saving, Giving

I blogged a couple weeks ago about Mia's new chore chart. She has been doing really well with it. Jon ordered Mia a new bank online and it came in the mail yesterday. So lastnight after dinner he gave her the bank along with some allowance for doing her chores. The bank has 3 different sections: 1 for spending, 1 for saving, and 1 for giving to missionaries. So each week when she gets her allowance she will split it between the 3 categories. That way she will learn to save some and give some to missions, as well as having some of her own spending money.

Here's Jon explaining to her how it works.

Putting her money in...


Averi got to help put in a few coins too so she didn't feel left out.

No More Paci

So, I just randomly decided this afternoon on the way home that I was going to take Averi's paci away for good. She has only been allowed to have it for naptime and bedtime since about 7 or 8 mos. old. But she loved that she got to have it in her bed. I have known this was coming and been dreading taking it away, mostly just because I knew how much she loved it. Anyways, she is doing GREAT so far. She actually didn't even cry when I laid her down without it which I can't believe. I thought she was going to cry for like at least 30 minutes or an hour, but guess what?! Instead she was in there laughing and playing. I guess maybe she thinks it's play time instead...lol. Oh well, I'll take laughing over crying any day. After about 20 minutes of that, she fell right to sleep.

The next 2 big things are potty training and moving her into a big girl bed. Can't think about those things today though...one step at a time:) Jon and I have both been so worried about all these things, mostly just because Mia always handled transition so well (because of her compliant personality) and we didn't know what to expect with Averi. But right now she is doing better than we thought she would, so maybe the other 2 things won't be as hard as we thought. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Shannon's Pictures

A friend of mine from church is starting a photography business and asked if she could shoot some pictures of my girls to try out a new lens. I gladly said "yes" and she did a great job. She does weddings, children, portraits etc. and I would highly recommend her. Her name is Shannon Ludlum and if you want to check out her website, here is the link: http://www.shanleephotography.com/

If you want to view the rest of the pictures she took of the girls, then go to the link above then click on clients then children then Mia & Averi (or you can type this address and go straight to their page http://www.shanlee.smugmug.com/gallery/7243917_9oWUL#465466008_BviXm). She also took some of Parker that says "Baby Parker" if you want to see those as well.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures: