happy happy birthday avery dear!

our sweet little avery turned ONE this week!!! can you believe it?!?  this year has seriously flown by.  we had a wonderful day filled with lots of balloons, streamers, cake, and yummy food.

my parents joined us for dinner + the festivities that night and we had a great time!  i made avery's favorite meal: roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, salad, and strawberry cake.  she devoured every last bite :)

 

after we ate our strawberry cake the birthday girl opened gifts.  we got avery a little set of 7 disney princesses.  we decided it was time that she had some girlie toys (and since we got a $200 gift card to the disney store for signing up for a disney credit card...we couldn't help ourselves!)  she was so intrigued and wanted to hold all of them at once.  (i love how she is kneeling in the photos below!)

 

my parents didn't want max to feel left out so they brought him this cool little lion that shoots a ball out of it's mouth.  he loves it!  and they got miss. avery her very own miniature piano.  it has become the new favorite toy at our house.  thanks to everyone who made avery's birthday so very special!

 

avery, we love you so much.  you are constantly on the move (just like your brother!) and you are taking more and more steps every day, which is so exciting for all of us.  you've definitely got an opinion about most everything and you are really good at making it known :)  you are so curious and love to explore and follow max around.  you have an obsession with balloons currently and have a balloon string in your hand at least fifty percent of the day!  you want to be able to go down the stairs like max and so you get very frustrated when i pick you up and try to teach you how to go down backwards.  you give the most wonderful open mouth kisses (which are so so slobbery!) and you love it when daddy comes home.  you have 8 teeth now and your drooling has finally subsided a little bit (the last few weeks you've been wearing a bib to try to contain it!) and you've got a gap between your two front teeth which makes for the most adorable smile.  you love bath time.  you love to listen to music.  and you absolutely love bedtime.  as soon as we hand you your blankie and zulie (your stuffed zebra) you give them the biggest hug (with a huge smile on your face) and lay right down on the floor.  you sleep like a champ (this morning you slept until 9!) and you are such a happy baby.  we love you little goose :)

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ps. in case any of you are interested in how the potty training is going...we survived!!!!! we followed the 3 day potty training method and really liked the techniques she uses.  however, by the end of day 5 with no success, we were ready to give up until max reached kindergarten!  i felt defeated.  we were discouraged.  we felt like horrible parents because we were getting so frustrated.  max was uninterested and acting up like never before.  it was not a happy time.  but then, we prayed about it and since heavenly father has such a wonderful sense of humor, he reminded us about the pink potty we had sitting in our garage waiting to go to the d.i.  to make a long story short, it was just what max needed.  since monday max only has accidents during nap time + at night which is leaps and bounds from where we started.  so the moral of the story?? endure to the end!!  and if you need moral support, i am here :)