Catching Up, Part 2

Another catch up post full of pictures!:)

My sister took this awesome picture of all of Lex's church friends a few weeks ago!  I love that she has so many wonderful kids to grow up with!:)

This smiley baby loves to swing!

The girls made a little club under their climber the other day.;)

We did a little shopping one night and ended up at Payless.  Alexis loves to go there and try shoes on.  She fell in love with these blue shoes!  Daddy thought they were ugly, but ended up buying them for her anyway.  This is just the beginning!:)

Ava had an unfortunate first...she fell off the couch!  She made it 4 months longer than her sister did without falling off of something so maybe my parenting skills are improving.  Ha! 

Ave is starting to eat some table food!  She's eating a pea here and she loved it! 

One day, Bryan took Alexis to his parents' house and I stayed home with Ava.  We played in the Minnie Mouse ball hut and she was SO happy to have it all to herself!

Lily turned three and had the cutest Frozen themed party! 

She is such a sweet girl and is definitely my favorite 3 year old!:)

Ava channeled her inner princess at the party.:)

Bryan and I had nursery duty for a couple of weeks at church and I got to snuggle with Ava and Tucker!:)

Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby?!

Daddy and Lex did a little browsing in the Colts section at Target!

Ava and Peyt played with the activity table together!

The girls had so much fun playing in Lex's crib together.  I think they might have taken a nap together if I had left them along long enough!:)

At almost 9 months old, Ava sat up from laying down one time.  She hasn't done it since, but at least she knows how!:)

Me and my blue-eyed girls!

Alexis wanted a belly sticker while I was taking Ava's 9 month photo...she hadn't visited the hair salon yet.;)

We met Sarah, Forrest, and Walker at the park yesterday!  The big kids had fun running around and the babies played on the blanket together and tried to eat the grass.

Another childhood rite of passage...Alexis wrote on the wall with crayon!  I wish I would have taken a picture of her face when I came in the room.  She knew she was busted and it took everything in me not to laugh at her!:)

Ava likes to play around in her high chair while I'm making dinner!

Alexis was "helping" me put dishes away and she wanted to use this bowl as a hat.  She was so tickled when Sissy wore it!

Ava was fussing in the living room and I asked Alexis if she would read her a book.  She marched right over to the bookshelf, grabbed a book, and plopped down next to her sister.  I love how much she loves her!!!:)

Catching Up

I've gotten behind on blogging our every day photos so I'm going to do some catching up...get ready for photo overload!:)

Bry took the girls on a 4-wheeler ride and they loved it!

A childhood rite of passage...Alexis and Lillian were nowhere to be found at my parents' house the other day and we found them in the bathroom.  They had unloaded half a roll of toilet paper into the toilet!  Thankfully they hadn't tried to flush it yet.:)

When I found them in the bathroom, I scolded them and told them that they shouldn't put a bunch of toilet paper in the toilet.  Lex proceeded to throw herself down on the floor in a tantrum while Lill comforted her.  Ha!

Grammy and Grandpa got the girls Paul Bunyan and Babe shirts!

Alexis is very observant...she knows just what to do with my pump parts!:)

I woke up to Avey's babbling one morning and saw this sweet face on the monitor.  She is too cute!

One morning I was doing the dishes and realized that Alexis was doing puzzles by herself!  I felt like that was a photo-worthy moment!:)

Now that Lex has dropped her morning nap, she is usually very ready for her afternoon nap.  On this day, she got her sleep sack by herself and managed to almost get it on!

Be still my heart!  There is nothing cuter than my babies in diapers giving each other a kiss.:)

Sweet Ava can rock her shades!

Mommy and Ava playing at the park!

Ava has gotten big enough to take showers with Daddy occasionally and she is starting to love it!  Daddy says she is soooooo slippery!

My precious baby:)

Our garden has gone crazy this year!  We have had more zucchini and green beans than we know what to do with!

Alexis loves to sit on Sissy's lap.:)

All About Alexis!

This silly girl is growing and changing so much lately that I thought it was time to do a post about what she's doing and saying!  She is 28 months old...2 years and 4 months ago she entered our world and changed our lives forever.  I couldn't be more grateful for the gift that she is to our family!

• She is finally talking much more!  A lot of what she says still needs to be deciphered by us for other people, but it's getting more and more clear every day.  Her favorite phrase these days is probably, "Mommy, yook!  Daddy, yook!"  She is always wanting us to look at what she's up to.  She has also recently started praying on her own.  The other day before breakfast she said, "God...thank...oatmeal...Sissy's oatmeal...AMEN!"  She recently started telling us to "watch!" stuff, too.  Some of her other favorite words are sninning (swimming), wawa (water), fee-uh (shoes...no idea where the pronunciation comes from!), emeal (oatmeal), Geema (Grandma), Geepa (Grandpa), Pete (Peyt), Zaya, Lily (Yi-yee), Aggi (Maggi), Eya (Ella), Tabby, Reeck (Rick), and garno (garden).  She likes to say "see you to-mono" (tomorrow).  When she doesn't want to do something anymore, she says "mo-no." She says many, many more words, but most of them are pretty recognizable.:)  She also likes to say "Okay!" and "Nope!" instead of yes a lot of the time! 
• She has recently started singing a little bit!  Her favorite song is Let It Go from Frozen.  She doesn't know many of the words, but she sure sings with gumption! 
• She knows her colors, some of her shapes, and several of her letters!  She likes to do puzzles and read books.  She loves to color and is just starting to show an interest in coloring specific parts of a picture rather than just covering the whole page with crayon.  She likes to play with playdoh and paint when Mommy feels up to the mess.:)  I am having fun following her lead and exploring things that she is interested in!  She has very little interest in counting so whenever I try to count with her it goes like this...I say "1...2..." and then she says "3...go!!!" and goes on with whatever she was doing!  Ha!  Three is about the only number she cares about and I will occasionally see her counting a few things saying "3...3...3..." 
• She loves to play outside.  At our house, she plays on the slide, goes in the swing, kicks and throws balls, swims in her pool when it has water in it, "waters the flowers" for Mommy, and checks the garden with us.  She loves to go to the park and has no fear when it comes to climbing the playground equipment!  Sometimes I wish she had just a bit of hesitancy, but I love her zest for life!
• She is kind of a TV junkie and will sit and watch her shows for about as long as I will allow her to!  She is currently obsessed with a Disney Junior movie called Lucky Duck.  She also loves her favorites Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Doc McStuffins!  She loves "Anna Anna" and "Snowman" (she refuses to say Elsa or Olaf?!) on Frozen.  She also likes to watch VeggieTales and LeapFrog movies.
• She is wearing size 4 diapers, size 7 shoes, size 3T shirts, and 2T pants.
• She is showing very little interest in potty training, but will occasionally sit on her little pink potty if we bribe her with M&M's.  She's clearly not ready for that quite yet...and neither am I.:)
• She is obsessed with cows and airplanes!  There is a herd of cows on the way to church that is kind of "her cows."  We wave and say hi to them and any other cows we see any time we are out and about!  She can spot an airplane wayyyyy up in the sky and hears them almost always before I ever do.  The fact that we live by the airport makes this an easy love to foster...we see multiple airplanes flying around on a daily basis!
• She sleeps from 9pm-8am on a normal night and has been taking a 1.5-2 hour nap each afternoon.  In the past week, she has been acting a little bit scared when Bry takes her to bed and has woken up crying a few times.  We're hoping that it is just a phase!  It makes me sad.:(
• She can take it or leave it when it comes to eating most of the time...and it's usually leave it.:/  She eats oatmeal like a champ every morning and loves PB&J, popcorn shrimp, fish sticks, chicken strips, yogurt, cheese, popcorn, goldfish, raisins, grapes, blueberries, bananas, and applesauce.  We have been just giving her 3 or 4 options of things to eat at meals, with at least one thing that she likes.  She often eats practically nothing...which makes my heart break, but I want her to learn to eat well! 
• She listens fairly well most of the time, but likes to push the limits when she's tired or hungry.  It's pretty easy to tell when she's tired because she becomes quite destructive.:)  She will sit in time out when she gets in trouble and could totally care less if she gets spanked.:)
• Her hair has really started growing well and is getting thicker.  She has the most beautiful blonde curls!
• She loves her sissy!  Sometimes you wouldn't know it because she can be kind of rough with her, but she always needs to know where Sissy is and what she's doing at all times!:)

Alexis Campbell,


You are at such a fun and challenging age!  You think everything is so much fun and it is thrilling to experience things with you.  You can also be as stubborn as a mule.:)  Needless to say, life is rarely dull around here these days!  Your happy smile can brighten the darkest of rooms and you make us so proud to be your parents.  We love you, baby girl!

Ava: 9 Months Old!

Our sweet baby Ava is 9 months old! 

She is currently cutting 4 teeth on top so she's been pretty serious lately.:( 

Our super happy baby has been a little unhappy with her situation!

She's still stinkin' cute though.:)  I love to watch her suck her thumb like that!

Ava, here's what you are up to this month:

• You had your 9 month well-check on Monday and you are doing great!  You weighed 18 lbs. exactly (25-50th percentile), you were 27 1/2 inches long (50th percentile), and your head circumference was 45 cm (75th percentile).  Lex's 9 month stats for length and head circumference were exactly the same (crazy!), but she weighed 19 lbs. 8 oz....a pound and a half more than you!
• You are wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes. You have started to wear size 2 shoes and be able to keep them on your feet. You are wearing size 3 diapers.
• You are nursing every 3-4 hours during the day.  You are starting to be slightly more tolerant of waiting closer to 4 hours if I insist.:)  You take a 4 oz. bottle of breastmilk at bedtime.  You eat baby cereal mixed with baby food for breakfast and baby food for supper.  I often feed you a meal at lunch, too, but we haven't gotten super consistent with that yet.  You are starting to try more and more table food!  Tonight, you ate scrambled eggs and blueberry waffles for supper and you LOVED it!  You haven't refused any food yet.  Let's hope it stays that way!:)
• You now have 6 teeth!  You are working on cutting the front 4 teeth on top right now.:(  Poor girl!  All of them are through so I'm hoping that you will start to feel better soon.  Teething is hard on everyone when you are feeling kinda fussy.:) 
• You go to bed around 8pm and have been getting up around 7:30 for the past several weeks.  You wake up at 5:30 (almost exactly!) every morning, I feed you, and we go back to bed.  You go back to sleep for a couple of hours and Mama is lucky to get back to sleep for a little while before you wake up again.:)  You take a morning nap if we are at home for 45-90 minutes and you take an afternoon nap for a couple of hours.  Our fall schedule is about to kick into full gear and you won't be able to get morning naps as easily.  We'll see how that goes!:)
• You have made a definite shift into being more interested in moving!  You go from sitting to a crawling position all the time now.  You don't go anywhere on all fours yet, but I think it's just a matter of time!  You manage to scoot yourself around some so we definitely have to keep our eyes on you now.  You LOVE to stand so you've started to try to pull yourself up, but you haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet.
• You are a big time Mama's girl right now!  If you can see me, you want me to hold you.:)
• Daddy says that you have a double-jointed jaw.:) 
• We call you Avey, Avey Lynn, and Sissy almost all of the time!

Sweet girl,

The beginning of your 9th month has started out a little bit rough because of those silly teeth!  A few fussy days has made me realize once again how lucky we are to have such a content, happy girl.  I've sure missed your easygoing smile the last couple of days and I'm so ready to see you flashing those cute teeth at us all the time.:)  We love you more than words can say, darling child.  I hope you always make people happy with your smile!:) 

Shipshewana Trip

We finally got a chance to head to Shipshewana with Pat and Linda!  We started our day with a trip to the Rise 'n Roll Bakery for some delicious donuts and sticky buns.  

This made everyone smile!:)

Avey was a little upset because she didn't get to partake.;)

After we left the bakery, we headed over to the cheese factory!  Ava was pooped already and took a quick nap in the car on the way there.

After we got some cheese, we went to the Dutch Creek Animal Park!  Bryan and I have talked about going there several times, but we've just never made it.  We loved it!  

We started out in the walking part and got to see some awesome animals.  Grammy and Lex are talking to the ostrich!:)

Grandpa and Lex are feeding fruit loops to the monkey!

The monkey was so cute and so good at catching the fruit loops as they came down!  When a fruit loop would get stuck, he would shake the cage until it fell down.:)

There were some cute baby fawns that Alexis loved playing with!

Daddy and his girl with the deer mama and babies!  Mama was getting pretty friendly with Lex.:)

Saying "cheese!!!" with the baby deer!

After we visited with the animals in the walking area for a while, it was time to go on the feed wagon out in the pasture.  I tried my best to get a selfie of our group and this was the best I could do!  Ha!

Mama and Avey Lynn!

They gave each of us a pan full of feed and the animals quickly started following us and going after the food!  We saw so many cool animals right up close!

One of the coolest things was this humongous Brahma bull!  It was so funny while Bry was feeding it.

After we left the animal park, we went to the flea market for a couple of hours.  The girls took naps in their strollers while we checked out some of the vendors.  Then we headed into town and walked to the Davis Mercantile.  The girls wanted to go on the carousel!  Things have certainly changed since last year...Alexis screamed bloody murder on this same carousel last year and this time she loooooved it!  

This was Ava's first carousel ride and she was a big fan!  

We bought Alexis this magnetic fishing game at the flea market and I think it was the best $3 we ever spent!  She loves it!  We had such a fun day together!:)