A Day at the Farm

Yesterday, we went to Farm Days put on by NC State. They do it once a year and it's a chance for kids to come and interact with farm animals. It was amazing! Avery and I spent almost three hours there just petting and holding animals. :) She is so my girl!

Avery was able to get in the pig pen and pet and chase piglets, pet a one month old kid goat, touch horses, cows and sheep, and hold rabbits and baby chicks. The highlight for her (and I) was definitley the baby chicks! It was so amazing to be able to hold those sweet fuzzy chicks and feel their soft downy fur and hear their little cheeps. Soooo cute! I think if Avery could have smuggled one out she would have.

A Saturday that was out of this world!

This past Saturday was the best ever! We spent the whole day outside! We worked on the lawn, played lots of games like tag and hide and seek, enjoyed time with Emma, and last but not least, shot off a really cool rocket!

Sean is big into outer space! He has wanted to be an astronaut for a long time and loves anything that has to do with space and the solar system. I found a great rocket that converts water and citric acid into hydrogen. It's a hydrogen rocket. We love it! It can launch 100 times off one tank. We put it right smack in the middle of the yard and then when it told us it was ready, we pressed the button to launch it. It was SO much fun! The rocket went at least 100 feet in the air each time. It was hard to tell who was more excited, the adults or the kids. :)

The rocket was so fast and my camera was so slow, that I could only catch the rocket on it's decent. :) But you can still see how high it was even coming down. I think we will be enjoying it for many Saturdays to come.

And then there were THREE....

Well, we have finally done it....we've adopted a dog! Our crazy two cat household has now turned into a crazy two cat and one dog house! To quote one of Sean's friends "You're house is a now an animal zoo". :)

The kids have wanted a dog forever and we promised them that when we had a house with a big backyard and a fence, they could have a dog. Well, not only does our house have all those things, it even came with a doggie door built in the screened-in porch. As soon as the kids saw that, it was all over. They were convinced it was a sign from the heavens declaring that we HAD to get a dog.

After lots of looking online and visitng shelters and the local SPCA, we finally found the right dog for us. Her name is Emma and she is WONDERFUL. :) She is just a year old and has the sweetest face and soulful brown eyes I have ever seen. When we first met her at the shelter, she came right in and put her head on my lap and looked up at me with those brown eyes and that was it. I was hooked and so was the rest of the family. She is calm and gentle and lives to make us happy. She is the perfect fit for us becasue we have never had a dog before and she has the perfect temperment for a family of novices. We are all learning together, but Emma is very patient with us.

We love her dearly and look forward to many happy years with her as part of our family.

Catching Up....Take One

It has been well over a month since the last post. Life has been busy and time has gotten away from me, yet again. Here's is the first of many posts to catch up the blog. :)

One of the things we have been busy with is helping Sean learn to ride his bike. He sees all the other kids in the neighborhood ride without training wheels and has finally decided that he is brave enough to do it too. We tried to teach him over the summer a time or two, but he wasn't really into it. He is getting better everytime and it won't be long before he can ride without any help from us at all.

Avery turns 4!!!

The Princess Cake

Wednesday Avery celebrated her 4th Birthday! It is so hard to believe that four years have passed since Avery joined our family. Where did the time go? I just can't believe it! Her main present was her princess room but she did get a few little things to open and a super cute princess cake. And I took her to get her nails done for the very first time ever. She has been wanting that forever and I told her when she was 4 she could. She held very still and did a great job. I was so proud of her! (They have a great kids salon here that does haircuts, maniucres, special hairstyles, etc... )

Eric took the day off and Sean was off school still because of the snow/ice storm so we were all able to celebrate together. And Grammy and Grandpa came over for pizza, cake and presents. It was a great day! :)

The Dangers of Hide N Seek

North Carolina doesn't often get snow, and when we do, it doesn't often stay on the ground. Last Saturday, we were hit with a snowstorm that dumped 5 inches on us and then some freezing rain/sleet came and put a thick layer of ice over the snow. Because we get snow so rarely here, the whole world shut down. They just don't have the equipment or manpower to deal with the aftermath. So, we were basically shut in from Saturday until Tuesday. The reason I tell you this is so that you'll understand that we were all suffering from cabin fever, especially the kids. :) One of our favorite things to do as a family is to play hide n seek. So, on Monday, after the kids had their jammas on and were ready for bed, we agreed to play just one more game of hide n seek. Big mistake.

Eric was counting and I had just hidden. Avery was chasing Sean because she wanted to hide with him. Sean decided he didn't want Avery following him and slammed the door which hit her right in the face. As soon as I heard her cry I knew something really bad had happened. I rushed out of my hiding place and found Avery crying with blood gushing from her nose. To make a long story short, I took her to the ER where they told us her nose was broken. My poor baby! The miserable thing is that they can't do anything for a broken nose until all the swelling and bruising goes down. And Avery's nose is really swollen and bruised. They expect it to take two weeks to a month for her nose to lose most of the swelling. At that point, we will see how it's healing. If it doesn't look 100% normal and perfect like it was before, she will have to have surgery to correct it.

So for now, all we can do is wait and watch her beautiful little face turn more colors everyday as the swelling and bruising continues. Right now, it has spread so that one of her eyes is black and her cheek is starting to discolor. It looks so bad and I know it hurts. My poor little girl! I just wish there was more I could to for her. Waiting is so hard....

A Room Fit for A Princess

For Avery's birthday this year, we gave her a princess room. She has wanted a Cinderella carriage bed for over a year and we decided to give it to her for her birthday. Since we moved into the new house and her room needed to be re-done anyway, we decided to just lump it all together and give her a princess room. She choose the color for the walls (it was called Cinderellas Glass Slipper, go figure) and I painted it last week. Then, her carriage bed came for her birthday, complete with new bedding, and I added a castle, flowers and new curtains to complete the transformation. Avery loves it and spends lots of time in there playing. And I have to admit, it is nice to have one more room in the house done. I still have many left to go.... :)