And the Celebrations Continue . . .

We continued celebrating Emma-Caroline's Birthday last week with a visit from Nana, cupcakes for friends at preschool, dinner to EC's favorite restaurant Wasabi, a trip to see the circus, and loads of gifts. Emma-Caroline has truly celebrated turning 5! Enjoy the pics from all the festivities.

Birthday Girl!

Emma-Caroline helped make and decorate her class cupcakes.

She was so proud of her baking skills!

Birthday morning, Emma-Caroline picked out the fabric combo for her special "5" shirt.

She loves pink!

Opening birthday gifts from Mommy, Daddy, and Sophie!

A special surprise! Rebecca, her first historical American Girl Doll.

Emma-Caroline picked Rebecca out because she looks the most like her.

At school they made a special 5th Birthday crown for EC to wear.

Having Nana to help celebrate made the day even more special!

For dinner we went to Wasabi, Emma-Caroline's favorite restaurant.

The birthday girl, Sophie and their daddy

Singing happy birthday!

The circus! Emma-Caroline received this adorable tee shirt as a gift from her friend Mary Caroline. It was perfect for our night at the circus!

Nana and girls

EC in her wizard circus hat. It came with the cotton candy.

The National Anthem

The elephants were so cool!

A late night snack. We had forgotten the five candle so we had to light it and sing happy birthday before going to bed. It was a great day of celebrating our sweet Emma-Caroline!

Happy 5th Birthday Emma-Caroline!

Today is our sweet girl Emma-Caroline's 5th birthday. It's really hard for me to believe that 5 years ago at 10:45 pm my precious baby girl arrived and forever changed my life for the better
From the moment I heard Emma-Caroline's first cry, I knew she was going to be a head strong little girl, but I also knew that she was going to bring much joy to our lives.

Emma-Caroline is an amazing, curious, caring, fun-loving, and strong-willed little person. She loves all animals and cares deeply for her family and friends.

She is a budding little artist, enjoys helping me cook and watching me sew, and loves to play outside.

We are so blessed to have this precious beautiful child to call our own. I am amazed and honored daily that God chose us to give her to.

Happy 5th birthday Emma-Caroline! We love you "to the moon and back!"

Thanks to our good friend Sarah Harper for the AMAZING pics she took at Emma-Caroline's 5th birthday party. Check out her new site at http://www.picsbysarahjane.blogspot.com/

Celebrating Emma-Caroline!

Emma-Caroline's 5th birthday will be one week from yesterday on March 3rd. We had an early celebration with Mimi and G-Daddy at American Girl Doll Place in Atlanta yesterday. Mimi and G-Daddy are in Atlanta for a conference and since it is such a short drive from Knoxville, we drove down to see them and have some early birthday fun. The food was awesome and we all had a wonderful time!

Waiting to eat at the Bistro
Getting Ready to Order

Mimi, G-Daddy and the girls

So excited to open presents!

Giving her dolly a drink.

Singing Happy Birthday!

Making a wish!

Birthday delight!

MMMMMMMM!

Have you Seen My . . . Cell Phone?

Missing Cell Phone

Color: Black, LG Flip phone, Nothing Fancy

Last Seen: Friday, February 19 at 4:00pm

Last Heard: See Above

Last time this happened to me: When my now almost 5 year old was a 2 year old.

Coincidence: I have a two year old in the house again!

Reward: Not so much, but I sure would love to find it!

Advice: Don't ask your darling hubby or sweet children to help you find it!

Putting On the Dog!

Today is our special hound Lucy's birthday. She is 14 years old! I have had her since my college days and use to carry her in my backpack to classes. She is quite the dignified pooch and is very special to all of us. Happy Birthday Miss Lucy! We love you very much!

Happy Early Valentine's Day!

We'd like to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day! May it be filled with many "I love you's", hugs and kisses!

Love is in the Air!

I love February! I love Valentine's Day with it's sweet little cupids, candy conversation hearts and cards made from lace doilies. I love just finding special ways to say "I love you!" I realize that celebrating love should occur each and every day, and it does. But I really do just love that we actually have a holiday that celebrates love too. It's only February 2ND, but "LOVE" is definitely in the air!

" I love you!" PBJ with goldfish and strawberries. The girls love when I write on their sandwiches with cake icing!

Sweet heart topiary and the girls' finished Valentine's Day Mailboxes. We are all ready to celebrate!

Snow Day, Take 2!

Today was a wonderful day for sledding and making snow angels as a well as an awesome way for saying good-bye 2 January!

Dolled up Snow Girl!
Ready for sledding!

EC's ready 2!

Sledding with Daddy

Now for The big Hill!

Gotta Love Target!

Today, after the disappointing realization that the much anticipated snow actually turned out to be a very wet slushy mix, I pulled out plan B, making Valentine's Day Mailboxes. We found these cute little boxes at Target for $4.99 each including all the decorations! It was a great way to spend an hour of our morning and now we are all ready for Valentine's Day cards. Make sure you see our video too, below the pictures.

Ready to craft.
Carefully placing decorations

Glitter makes everything prettier!

Becoming a "Kid"

It is hard to believe that our little Emma-Caroline is about to turn 5 years old on March 3rd of this year. Where has the past 5 years gone??? While I want to cling to the infant and toddler years of Emma-Caroline's life, I can't help but be delighted at the sweet and wonderful little "kid" she has become. It seems that in the past several months her little personality has really started to blossom and she keeps Howie and I rolling with laughter with her new phrases and expressions that make us realize, she really is stepping into her own. Here are a few of her most recent new phrases that have left us laughing and enjoying our little girl.

One of Emma-Caroline's newest phrase is, "Now that's what I'm talking about, that's . . . (insert anything) fast running!" At the dinner table, our dog Barkley was panting heavily wanting a scrap of food when Emma-Caroline blurts out rather seriously, "Now that's what I'm talking about, that's breathing!" Howie and I could not stop laughing.

Today when we were going into the store, Emma-Caroline looked at me and said, "Mommy, you are freaking me out!" To which I replied, "Freaking you out, what do you mean?" Emma-Caroline calmly said, "Um Mommy, you're freaking me out because you didn't look both ways before you crossed the road!" Yep! That would "freak me out" too if she didn't look both ways before she crossed the road.

Before Christmas, Emma-Caroline told me very frankly, "Mommy, I just don't know how you expect me to take these babies (dolls) anywhere with this little stroller! It's not like I have 8 arms and can do it all!" Hmmm, I think I know where she got that one. This was her way of telling me that she wanted a double stroller for her baby dolls as well as more "fashionable" clothes for them to wear. Thankfully Mimi and G-Daddy took care of that little problem with a new stroller and clothes.

I just love my sweet daughter and the little girl she is becoming! It's definitely an adventure!

Silly Faces!

Emma-Caroline and her Daddy have the best time being silly with each other. Enjoy these silly faces.

Please Help Haiti

It is heart wrenching to see the devastation of our neighbors to the South in Haiti. As I watched some coverage from the recent earthquake there, I saw in one scene a pile of bodies with a baby the age of Sophie placed on top. It broke my heart and I realized how urgent it is to help our fellow neighbors in Haiti. If you have helped in some way, awesome! If you have not had the chance to help, like I had not, I urge you to give whatever is comfortable. Every little bit helps these poor people in such great need. May God bless you and Haiti! http://www.redcross.org/

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful . . .

But inside it's so delightful . . . Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow!

What do you do on a cold winter's day when it's too cold to play outside and there are snow flurries about? You have a play date with your friends inside. Emma-Caroline and Sophie had their friends Karley and Abby over for a few hours of indoor fun playing with dolls, coloring, making necklaces, and just being silly. It was a great way to spend some time when the winter weather is a little bit frightful

Karley and Emma-Caroline

Silly girls Abby and Sophie

Sophie and Abby with their Bitty Babies. We have a similar picture of Emma-Caroline and Karley holding their real "Bitty" sisters when they were first born.

All the girls!

Speed Racer

Howie finally received his present from Santa, a professional racer radio control car. It is the car of his boyhood dreams and he has had a blast playing with it since it came out of the box. It can go as fast as 60 miles per hour and is able to drive on any type of surface. Howie has returned to being a kid again, and although the car somewhat scares Sophie, we are all enjoying watching that car go.

Getting Ready to Race!
Moving at high speeds!

Being a kid again!

Getting ready to burn rubber!

"Ring" ing in the New Year!

For the New Year, Howie gave me a new ring. I simply LOVE it! The picture here does not reveal it's true sparkle. It really does shine brightly, which I take as a good luck symbol for the new year and new decade.

Happy 2010!

The Avery Family 2010 by Emma-Caroline age 4

Wow! It's hard to believe that we have started yet another decade. I remember being anxious about the millennium back in 1999, only to have it pass on to the year 2000 without a hitch, at least to me it seemed that way. I am sure to all the people behind the scenes at that time, it was not without much effort for us to move into not only a new decade, but also a new millennium without any major catastrophes. The first decade of the new millennium was quite spectacular in so many ways for us, most notably with each birth of our two daughters. We look forward to the new year and new decade. Happy New Year!