AVERY IS THREE!!

Our big 3 year old!

It's hard to believe that our baby girl is three years old! I remember being pregnant with Avery and being so anxious to meet her. She is my baby and always will be. I can't believe she is three years old and we are having a blast watching her grow.

Avery is the most verbal three year old I have ever met! She doesn't always use the correct grammar, but often times she does. She has recently started having true conversations when she talks to her daddy or grandparents on the phone and is always wanting people to tell her about their day. It's the sweetest. Moving to Illinois and having to meet new people has been much easier with Avery. She isn't afraid to talk to someone she doesn't know- for example, on the playground she will walk right up to a child or their parent and ask them their names and then introduce herself. I have learned a lot from my three year old regarding stepping out of my comfort zone. :) Her memory is unbelievable! She shocks us daily with the things that she remembers. She brought something up from 8 months ago and I was floored! She has the ability to remember EVERYTHING! Incredible! I love her more than words can express.

Don't get me wrong, there are days that she really tests my patience.... Three year olds are learning to really be independent and boy is that true for Avery. Sometimes I find myself just wanting to do things for her so that it will get done faster. Again, she is teaching me another lesson: this time in patience.
Her independence is also a great thing. She is a HUGE helper. She is also really stubborn. Things have to be done a certain way or she gets really upset; maybe she has a little bit of OCD?!?!

Avery is learning to write an "A" and it's the cutest! She sleeps in a big girl bed without any rails and she can dress and undress herself. Speaking of undressing herself..... the girl loves to be naked. Every night we put her to bed fully clothed and when we go in to check on her a couple of hours later she is naked. EVERY. NIGHT. It's rather comical. We have since started only putting her in a pull up at night in hopes that she will get cold and realize that pajamas are really a good thing. No such luck. She still takes off her pull up and most of the time refuses to let us put her pj's on when we go to bed. Our rule is she has to sleep in her pull up!

Oh the pull-up topic. Avery has been potty trained since Mother's Day weekend 2013. She started wearing big girl panties and hasn't looked back! It's been delighftful! Since she turned three a month ago, we have noticed that 5/7 nights her pull ups stay dry. I am so proud of her!

She is the BEST big sister and loves Kinsley so much. She takes care of her and though they have their sister fights, they are still BFF's!

We celebrated her 3rd birthday back in August while we were still living in FL so that her family and friends could be a part of the celebration also. It was supposed to be a fun, laid back beach day but instead we were having a storm. It was still a blast and she talks about it still today!

My parents came up to Illinois the day before her third birthday so we were able to celebrate with them.  Her birthday fell on a Friday this year so we waited until Friday night to celebrate when Daddy was home. We went to a pizza place called Lou Malnatis in Downtown Naperville and it was delicious. Then we came home for gifts and dessert: cupcakes and ice cream! I also started a new tradition and did a video interview with Avery. I hope to continue this with each child, starting at three and asking the same questions each year to see how they change. I will post this video soon.

waiting to eat dinner with Mimi

Avery's birthday dinner!! PIZZA!

Covering her eyes while I brought out the cupcake! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

Third birthday with Mimi and Granddaddy!

Our Chicago move

The last several months have been quite life changing for our family. On Thursday, June 20th, Chris had his monthly meeting with his boss and they were discussing different options within the company.... including the new expansion into the Chicago area. His boss offered him a position to help get things started in the Chicago suburbs and after hearing that we were expecting our third, he really didn't think we would take it. Chris texted me that day asking if I wanted to move to Chicago and I literally laughed out loud and said "doesn't he know it's cold in Chicago!?!". After I responded he texted back saying that his boss had offered him a job there to which I was shocked and simply said that we would have to talk about it when he got home. I thought about it all day and was really intruiged with the possibility of moving. Of course, first thing is first-- I had to look up the Chick-Fil-A locations and be sure that there was one in the area!! There was!!! :)

Chris and I spent that entire weekend in prayer and serious conversation- all while our house was full of family and friends for Kinsley's first birthday. We didn't tell anyone about the offer, but had a very short deadline to decide. Basically, we were offered the job on Thursday and on Tuesday we accepted! Then, the hard part of telling our parents came. While they know this is a great opportunity for us, they were still shocked and emotional. We still had to keep our move a secret due to some work logistics in Destin, so only our parents and siblings knew for a month that we were moving.

I knew there was a possibility that we would not be here for Chris' 30th or for Avery's 3rd birthday, so I threw them an early birthday party in August. I think we told my grandparents and family the week before the party why we were having to celebrate early. Their reactions were all pretty much the same. STUNNED! They all said they were excited for us, but I could hear the emotion in their voices, too.
We were finally able to start telling friends around the same time. To all of them, it seemed that this move was happening so fast, but it's just that we had to keep it a secret for so long.

Everything went so quickly during our decision process and then seemed to stop completely. We went an entire month not knowing when our move would take place and we were pretty much just in waiting. We couldn't prepare for a move at all. Then, the first week of August we finally got news of a move. From that point on we knew God's hand was in everything. We literally had everything fall into place within a weeks time. What a relief that was after a month of silence. Chris got a start date in Chicago, we rented our house within 15 minutes of posting it online, we sold our 4-Runner.... all in a week! God made it clear that this is what we were supposed to be doing. I've never felt more sure about  such a life change for our family. It's really so neat to see God's hand at work in situations.

Chris posted our house on a Friday night at 8pm on a military website and within 15 minutes we had a call from a lady who was interested. We of course thought she must be a realtor who was going to offer to help us rent the house. However, she asked if they could come look at the house the next day. We weren't available until Sunday so we set up a time on Sunday for her to come by. Saturday morning she called back and said that they had seen the additional pictures Chris had posted and wanted for us to have a lease prepared for when they came by on Sunday. We couldn't believe it! God is so good!
We packed up our "forever" house and moved in with my parents three weeks later.


Chris left on Septemper 7th for Illinois. His dad flew down to FL on Friday evening and they left at 6am on Saturday morning. They made it to Bolingbrook, IL on Sunday morning at 8:30am. Chris gave his Dad a quick tour of the area he would be working and then took him back to the airport that afternoon. It's so great that we have family willing to help us in any way and that his Dad was willing to drive up with him so he wouldn't have to do it by himself.

Chris was in IL for THREE weeks working and house hunting before he came back to FL to get his family. He found us a house in Naperville, which is the area we were hoping to live. It was a little weird for me to be moving into a house that I had never seen before. I know it was a lot of work for him and he probably felt a little pressure, but he did great! My biggest concerns were that we were in a good part of town and that it was convenient for his work travels. In case you didn't know- IL traffic is horrendous! (and I'm from the Atlanta area!!)

Anywho- Chris flew back to FL on Thursday night, September 26th. His 30th birthday!!! Poor guy had to work all day and then fly from Chicago to Atlanta to Ft. Walton all on his 30th birthday. He got in at 11pm and we were up and in the car by 8:30 am on Friday morning. It was so great to have my family back together and we were so excited to begin our new adventure together. So, we loaded up our van and tow behind u-haul and off we went. We were able to meet up with Justin, Adriane, Micah and Ansley for lunch on our way through Birmingham. It was a great stop and fun to see them one more time before we left. Our goal for Friday's drive was to make it to Nashville, TN. We ended up making excellent time and continued past Nashville into Bowling Green, KY. The girls were fantastic on the first day of driving. They were only fussy around lunch and dinner time- but then again- we all get a little fussy when we're hungry! Our van also has a DVD player in it and we only used it twice that day. I honestly thought we would have to resort to the movies a lot more than we did. The girls were troopers!

Saturday we got up and were hoping to make it to Indianapolis, Indiana. Well, we were able to make it all the way to Chicago by 5pm! The girls were a bit more fussy this day, but we can't blame them. It's hard to be in the car for 16+ hours for anyone.... especially a 15 month old and an almost 3 year old.

Chris took us by our new house that we will be renting for the next year and I was pleasantly surprised. It's smaller than we had back in FL, but it's a fantastic location. We stayed that night at Matt's apartment- where Chris had been living the past 3 weeks. Sunday we got up and started moving into our new house and have been here ever since! We are going on 2.5 weeks! That's the story of our move- more to come soon!

Kinsley- 15 months

Kinsley Rae.... our sweet, loving, and fun little 15 month old. You bring so much joy and laughter into our lives. You're quite the ham at 15 months old with all of the facial expressions you make and the interaction you have with people daily. Thank you for making each and every day so much fun!

Kinsley's 15 month stats:
Weight: 20lbs 9.6oz (90%) WHAT!?!?!
Height: 28 1/2 (75%)
Head circ.: 17 3/4 (50%)

Ok, Let's just take a look at those stats real fast..... Never has one of our girls been over 50% in anything.... EVER. Avery is usually less than 10% in all her stats and Kinsley is somewhere between 25-50%. I was shocked to see 90% on her paper! No doubt about it, the girl is just like her mommy and daddy... she loves her food!

Kinsley....
- you are a momma's girl- no question about it! But you also cuddle with your daddy a lot!
- signs please, all done, thank you, and more
- can say "bye-bye", "mama", "dada" "buh (bird)" "tata (for Aunt Tara)" and sometimes I think you're actually trying to say "good"
- nod your head yes and no in the correct context
- will take an object to the location/person I ask you to.... and will also search for the object I ask you to.
- walking everywhere! You have pretty much left crawling behind.

- you love to point to your belly button and any time I ask you to point to something on your face (eyes, nose, etc.) you hit yourself in the face instead of pointing to the part of the face I've asked you to! haha!
- you still get really loud and impatient as soon as the food hits the table.... you sure do love your food! Just like your mommy and daddy!

Kinsley Rae is 14 months!

Okay, Okay... so she is really going to be 15 months next week. At least I am trying to get a post in about what she is up to this month before I completely miss it like I did with her 13 month post!

Kinsley is my fearless second child. She rarely cries and definitely knows how to keep me on my toes. I can't believe how quickly these last 14 (almost 15 months) have gone by. Every day she makes us laugh and always brings such joy into our home!

Kinsley at 14 months:

- has some serious separation anxiety. This is probably due to the fact that the last month has been so crazy with our upcoming move (I'll post more on that later) that we have rarely gone to the gym or even church nursery. So, she has gotten out of her habit. This is NOT GOOD for mommy and daddy. I actually got paged during my small group on Wednesday night to come get her. :(

- she has 8 teeth... 6 on top and 2 on the bottom. I am beginning to wonder if she will ever get anymore bottom teeth! ha! She cut her two top molars within a day of each other and the 6 days leading up to those teeth were MISERABLE for us all. She has always been a bad teether, but these molars were even worse.

- had tubes put in her ears on Aug 1, 2013 (13 months old) and has done fantastic with them! I was a nervous wreck, but she was a champ! The first one-two hours post op were rough, but after that you would never know that she had just had surgery. And... we haven't had any ear infections since!

- Took her first steps on Aug. 15 (just a few days before turning 14 months) and literally would only take 2-3 steps for almost a month! She really started walking last week with more and more steps and now she is all over the place! It's still wobbly, but she goes farther and gets stronger each day!

- I think she may have had hand, foot, mouth two weeks ago. She had a rash on her legs (not feet!) and was showing the same signs of teething as she did the week prior when cutting her molars. I completely thought we were getting more teeth, the only difference was her diaper rash was WAY worse this time than the week before. It was almost sore-like. Well, we spent the weekend in Birmingham with Chris' family and two days later my nephew and niece were sick. My sister in law took her son to the Dr. who told her he had contracted hand, foot, mouth over the weekend. Not only did her kids get it, but she did, too! I felt terrible because it seems like Kinsley was the one who got them all sick. Hers didn't last NEARLY as long as theirs did and I never took her to the dr. because she wasn't running a fever or acting any different. It was so crazy!

- she is finally starting to sign! As of this week she can sign "more, thank you, all done, and (occasionally) please"

- she also has says "bye-bye", "mama", "dada" and tries to say Bailey and Bird.

- I've noticed she is entering the stage where she fully understands us, but still can't verbally converse with us. It's fun to watch her develop in these ways!

- she is still a FANTASTIC eater... in fact, I'm sure she'll have an overeating problem as she grows up. haha. seriously, though, she eats way more than big sister, Avery. She is only picky when it comes to veggies and blueberries. Must be the texture when the peas and blueberries mush in her mouth?

I can't wait to see how much she changes in the next 14 months! We love you Kiki!!!

Pregnancy #3

I'm 14 weeks pregnant and finally starting to feel human again! This first trimester has been pretty miserable.... definitely the worst of all three of my pregnancies. I have been so, incredibly sick and have had many days where I am just useless. I have to admit- I've had several days of throwing in a movie for Avery while I layed on the couch and tried my best to not get sick. With Avery and Kinsley, I was "sick" for 16 weeks exactly. It wasn't terrible though. During my pregnancy with Avery I would get nauseous every afternoon at 4pm and the only way to feel better was to go to bed by 8pm. That lasted 16 weeks.  With Kinsley, I actually got sick several times and had some nausea, but it wasn't too intense. That also lasted 16 weeks. Well, with baby #3...... I was getting sick every single day, absolutely nothing made me feel better- not even the nausea medicine that the Dr. had to prescribe me! This lasted 12 weeks!! These last two weeks I have been feeling much better, but am still EXHAUSTED!!! In the evenings I still get nauseous some, but it seems to be lightening up a bit. Thank goodness! I'm hoping it was just super intense for those 12 weeks and that I won't be feeling this gross until I hit 16 weeks!

This pregnancy has been a lot of fun, though, because Avery is old enough to understand a little bit more about what's going on. She is always asking to see the baby in my belly and says that she "has a boy in her belly". It's really cute. She wasn't old enough to comprehend anything during my pregnancy with Kinsley, so it's fun having her be more involved this time around.

As I'm sitting here writing this post, I have actually felt baby move for the first time!!! ... and now the second! haha! This is by far my most favorite part of being pregnant. I love, love, love feeling the baby move!

As with each child and each pregnancy, the picture taking gets worse. We have only taken ONE belly picture during this pregnancy and it was the day after we found out we were expecting. That's so terrible! Especially since I've been "showing" for a few weeks already. By the third, I guess the belly just pops right on out once you find out you're pregnant! ha!

We are thrilled about growing our family and can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl. Hopefully we will have that answer in about 2 weeks! I am convinced it's another girl!!! :)

Avery and Kinsley have an announcement!

Kinsley is ONE

Our sweet baby girl is one year old. How is that possible?? I feel like I just.had.her! Chris and I were just talking the other day about how much her personality is really starting to blossom and how quickly she is growing. Yesterday when Chris walked in the door from work Kinsley crawled over to him, sat up and lifted her arms for him to pick her up. It was so precious and of course made Daddy's day!
I've said it before, but Kinsley is by far the happiest baby ever. She rarely cries and is always flashing us her grin that scrunches up her entire face. I love it!

12 month stats:
Weight: 19lbs 12.8 oz
Height: 29 in


Kinsley at 12 months:
- has 4 teeth
- is cruising and crawling all over the place
- gets into absolutely everything! she is so curious and loves to explore
- loves to eat. The only times we really hear her cry are when she is hungry or her food is all gone and she wants more to eat! ha!
- Loves her big sister Avery and interacts with her all of the time.

- still takes two naps during the day, though her morning nap is hit or miss depending on what our busy schedule is like. Typically I like for her to nap from 10-12 (but a lot of days this nap turns into cat naps in the carseat while we are out and about.) then she naps from 2-4. I'm lucky if they are 2 hour naps.... usually they are 1.5 hrs. But last week we had 3 days of 30 min naps in her crib then she would wake up screaming and I could not get her back down.... those were not great days!

don't forget the pacifiers!!!

- Still gets 3-4 bottles a day but it's all WHOLE MILK!
- wears size 4 diapers and 12 month clothes.... some are even 12-18 month and I will still squeeze her into 6-12 months which is kind of mean on my part!
- puts everything into her mouth. Avery was never as bad as Kinsley is. I am so ready for her to walk so that she is up off of the floor and not eye level with every little thing on the floor. I can only sweep/vaccuum/mop so many times! Its not just that- but when we go outside I can't put her down because she immediately starts to eat the grass and leaves!! I have to leave her in the wagon if I'm going to give Avery any attention or I have to carry Kinsley everywhere and she is just not that light!
- she is a climber!!! In the two weeks before she turned 1 she really mastered climbing. She will climb onto their little table in the playroom, climb on the couch, climb into Avery's toddler bed, climb on the stool in the bathroom....the challenging part is teaching her how to get down without landing flat on her face or head.  I cannot leave her out of my sight for a second!

- waves hi and bye and will even say "bye-bye" some times.

I just happened to be taking some pictures of her one afternoon when Chris walked in the door from work and this was her reaction to seeing him! How sweet! 

- occassionally signs "more" and "all done"
- says "Momma, Mommy and Bye-Bye"

At her one year apointment the dr. said they wanted to draw blood to check for lead and anemia.... they did this with Avery and I swore I would not do it again with Kinsley. I told the Dr. I didn't want to go through with the lab work, but she insisted that we go through with it because it's an important part of her visit. So, we attemped and yet again- I tortured my poor child all for nothing. They weren't able to get any blood out of her left arm and asked if they could try her other one. I said I preferred no. Again- they insisted that this lab work absolutely needed to be done. I let them try and yet again- they were not successful. I should have stuck to my gut feelings and stood my ground and not let them try on Kinsley. I felt terrible. Lesson learned, for sure! Trust those mommy instincts!

Kinsley keeps us busy and on our toes, but I am filled with joy every day when she smiles that sweet scrunched up smile and her laughter fills the room. I am sad her first year has come and gone so quickly, but am loving watching her personality come out and that I get to experience life with her. Our two girls mean the world to us and I am so emotional thinking about just how much I love them. Happy First Birthday, Kinsley Rae. You are our little sunshine!!