The BIG 3-0

Happy 30th Birthday Steve!

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday Dear Daddy...

Happy Birthday to YOU :)

Happy Birthday to the "Bestest"(as our Cader likes to say) Dad and Husband

we know! We hope you had a memorable evening

with us tonight at Frank's on the Lake. Praying

that the good Lord will bless you with many

more years to come!

Love you,

Becky, Cade and Gracyn Avery

EIGHT is really GREAT

Our precious baby girl turned 8 months old yesterday! It seems unbelievable...

I can hardly remember a time when she wasn't a part of our family! Just when I thought your smile couldn't get any bigger....I went in to pick you up this morning and you were grinning from ear to ear and squealing with glee! I can't seem to kiss those big cheeks or squeeze those sweet legs (which actually look like a can of biscuits) enough these days.

You have had an eventful month this July, filled with many changes. These are some of the things I will remember most about you, my girl.

- You moved from army crawling to actual crawling EVERYWHERE. You are so fast that I can hardly keep up with you. Even on the tile floors you are sure of yourself and are determined to keep up with Mommy and Cade.

- Your gummy grin has expanded into a "one toothed" wonder!

- Somehow you have already taught yourself to pull to standing. We began finding you standing in your crib 2 weeks ago! Your favorite place to be is standing/holding onto our leather ottoman in the living room, playing with your toys! You smile and "talk" to me when I ask you if I can play too. I will remember these moments always.

- You LOVE to eat applesauce! I can't re-fill the spoon fast enough once you taste it.

- I love the way you tenderly lay your head on my shoulder when people talk to you.

- When your giggle turns into a chuckle.

- You also LOVE to bang your rattle on your highchair tray...very LOUDLY and then smile with pleasure at yourself.

- Oh my heavens, you melt my heart when you stick those 2 middle fingers in your mouth when you get sleepy!

- You survived a 4 1/2 hour road trip to Corpus Christi for our family vacation to see the Allens!

Since the day of your birth our lives have been changed forever, for the better. I will store up these moments and memories in my heart. I know they will bring a smile to my face once again when I am old and gray!

We love you Gracyn Avery and thank God for placing you into our lives and into our hearts.

ABC's

A. Attached or Single? ATTACHED!
B. Best Friend? Steve
C. Cake or Pie? Texas sheet cake , but I do LOVE chocolate pecan pie too :)
D. Day of choice? Friday, hubby is off a half day!
E. Essential item? my laptop
F. Favorite color? yellow....sunlight or lemonade
G. Gummy bears or worms? bears, bears, bears...
H. Home town? Irving, Texas
I. Favorite indulgence? coffee ice cream & pedicures
J. January or July? July...bbq's, parties, fireworks, swimming, friends & fellowship
K. Kids? 2
L. Life isn’t complete without? Jesus
M. Marriage date? June 9, 2001
N. Number of brothers and sisters? One sister, Amanda
O. Oranges or Apples? golden delicious apples.
P. Phobias? being in the backseat of a car with little a/c...recipe for carsickness!!
Q. Quotes?
"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." the apostle Paul in Galatians 6:14
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." I John 3:16a
"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged,sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and wrong...because sometime in your life you will have been all of these."

R. Reasons to smile? my Jesus, Cade singing, Gracyn's HUGE smile when I come in to pick her up in the mornings, Steve's voice impersonations, good friends, and family suppers
S. Season of choice? Fall please...and candy corn :)
T. Tag 4 people:
Ashley,
Ginny,
Kristi,
and Amanda
U. Unknown fact about me? hmmm...I'm sorta a neat freak...
V. Vegetable? roasted carrots....yummm!
W. Worst habit? blog surfing
X. Xray or ultrasound? Ultrasound...some of the most exciting moments of my life were seeing my children living inside of me!
Y. Your favorite food? chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits and green beans. Breakfast for dinner. Sweet and salty things.
Z. Zodiac sign? Virgo...but I think they hold no value

Fun Friday...My Favorite Things

Brothers, Sisters, and Silly Faces

Love you Good Night, Sleep Tight

Bedtime is one of our favorite times with the kids! The day is winding down, it's dark outside, the dishes are clean, playroom is picked up, everybody is bathed, and even our rambunctious Cade is ready for a little snuggle.

Our bedtime routine consists of: jammies, brushing teeth/kids mouthwash, going to the potty once more, 2 stories, then we say a prayer from our prayer chart from church (basically covering one of the fruits of the spirit), Cade says his prayers and then we all sing a "Jesus"song together! It seems kinda long, but I really love these last few moments of awake time with our kiddos. It's like the calm at the end of a storm sometimes and other days it's like riding a train all day long and then arriving at your destination...I think all the Mommies out there will understand what I mean.

A typical prayer for Cader:

"dear God,

thank your for my mommy and daddy

and thank you for my sister gracie,

thank you for my doggies, bentley and sammy,

thank you for my letters: C-A-D-E....Cade (wooden letters hanging on his wall)

thank you for my aggie football man,

thank you for my basketball hoop and ball,

thank you for my 'fwriends'

and thanks for my 'twain' bed.

in Jesus name,

Amen"

He always reminds us not to take the little things in life for granted...thanks Little Man!!!

I snapped this shot the other night of story time with Dad.

So tell me, what do your bedtime routines consist of?

Sea, Sand, & Sun in Corpus

Okay, let's sing a little vacation song to get you in the mood for this post:

Holiday Roo...oooooo...oooooo...oooad,

Holiday Roo...ooooo...ooooooo...oooad!!!

If your familiar (or can quote most of the lines in the entire movie like me) with the Chevy Chase classic National Lampoons European Vacation you'll recognize the song! I love that song!

Our family preparing for a vacation more resembles the Beverly Hillbillies though. Yes, that's right folks...when you've got 2 kids and 2 adults the sheer volume of vacation "stuff" is astronomically HUGE. Our little minivan was stuffed to the roof! We literally had everything, but the kitchen sink, even Granny in her rocker. (okay, so it was Gracyn in her car seat, but pretty close)So on Thursday of last week, Steve held his official honorable discharge papers in his hands, Sonic drinks were keeping our cup holders cool and we hit the road headed to Corpus to visit our longtime friends Chad & Amy along with their sweet girls AnnMarie and Allie! The trip down wasn't a bad drive at all we made it there in about 4 hours and 15 minutes with the help of our nifty GPS system once again. Upon arriving we spent a little time catching up with The Allens and then enjoyed one of Amy's delicious pot roasts!!! She's a supermom I tell ya...because she's got a 2 1/2 year old, a 7 week old and she's cooking up supper for all of us INCLUDING dessert! Amy...your the best!

After heading toward our hotel and checking in we all settled in for the night...or so we thought! Now, we have 4 people on THREE different sleeping schedules all cramming into ONE 15X15 hotel room for a 3 day stay....hmmm....now that we look back it was a recipe for disaster. Gracyn usually goes down for the night around 6:30, Cade at 8:45 and Mom & Dad at 11:30. So we ALL hit the hay around 8:30...Cade was not the least bit interested in sleeping and sang "Jesus songs" and talked to himself about the trip for about another half an hour while Gracyn listened to him in her pack-n-play and chimed in every few minutes. I think everyone finally went to sleep around 9:30! So the next morning rolls around and we're up and at 'em at 7 A.M. on the button. Headed to the beach with the Allens, which was really a lot of fun for AnnMarie and Cade. They built sandcastles, played in the ocean, dug holes and examined the seaweed. Amy and I had the little ones on shore and tried to stay in the shade to keep cool, while talking it up about mamahood! It was great to see the kids enjoying themselves with their dad's though :)

That night we enjoyed a delicious meal at Niko's Steakhouse with only the babies in tow! Chad's parents were angels and volunteered to babysit the preschoolers for us! Chad and Amy also picked up on the trouble we were having all sharing one room and graciously asked his parents if we could spend the rest of the trip at their home! What a treat! In typical grandparent form, they had one room already set up with a crib, one with a bed for Cade and a large bedroom for Steve and I to share! Oh the heaven!!! Everyone got to bed at the right times, in their own spaces for the remainder of the trip! THANK YOU DR. & MRS. ALLEN.

The next day the dads hit the aquarium with Cade and AnnMarie in tow! I think they were most impressed with the dolphin show! You could even see the S.S. Lexington in the background.

Following a round of awesome naps, parents included, we had another delicious meal at Waterstreet Restaurant! If your headed to Corpus anytime soon, mark this place in your meal guide because it's definitely worth a stop! I tried the Mexican caldo soup & the seafood quesadillas which were both delicious and Steve said the Caesar salad was the best he's ever eaten...this coming from a man who ALWAYS orders the Caesar salad. His grilled mahi mahi with crawfish cream sauce looked amazing as well. As if this feast wasn't enough we followed up with ice cream at Marble Slab for the young'ins!

It is another family trip for the record books and worth the drive to see such wonderful friends! Chad and Amy thank you for all your wonderful hospitality and warm hearts! We enjoyed every second with the Allen family of 4! We are already looking forward to YOUR visit to the heart of Texas hill country!

Summer Storm

We had a TERRIBLE storm hit yesterday! We had very high winds, driving rain and a major lightening display. Of course all this blew in right on the cusp of laying the kids down for naps, luckily they're fairly sound sleepers and slept through it all...THANKFULLY!!!

Check out the aftermath in our backyard

YES...the winds pushed half of our 40 lb. stainless steel grill off the patio & completely toppled Cade's swing set.

Steve, Cade and I spent the rest of the evening dismantling the swing set! It's been through a cross country move, a wind funnel cloud (which happened right after we moved in), and now a summer storm! Poor thing, we put him out of his misery...may all his pieces rest in peace....in Lake Belton.