A-men

For the past month Joey and I have been diligently trying to teach Avery about prayer by including her in our family prayers. Our efforts had been unsuccessful (she tries to pull Joey's eyes open and continually screams and giggles). Today in sacrament while the sacrament prayer was being said I realized Avery was being more quiet than normal. Yes, I opened my eyes during the prayer and noticed her looking around at everyone else as she observed a familiar scene. At the end of the prayer, following the congregations Amens, she loudly says, A- men! Although she was a little loud it was a rewarding moment for Joey and I as parents. Our efforts are worth it and we had big smiles on our faces!!!

Valentines

So, this Valentine's Joey and I agreed we'd get each other low budget presents in order to save money.  This was fun because it allows me to use my more creative side that I often don't take the time to use; although, when it comes to incorporating candy into the mix I can often times make anything work.  Ask my YW, we always seem to find a way to incorporate candy into the lessons.....   I decided we'd make a poster of all the "reisens" why we love daddy(with the candy reisens), and I'd let Avery color all over it instead of herself!  We had a lot of fun making it!
Come on Mom I've been so good, just one piece!.....
Avery, don't touch those! They are for daddy.  She then looks at me just to see how far she can go..... 
Our completed poster for Daddy!
Avery and her candy gram from Grandma!

UGA played FL on Valentine's Day and some friends of ours, the Chihuahua's, called and asked if we wanted to go with them.  Just a lil insite for those non UGA basketball followers:  UGA is last in the SEC and had not won a single SEC game previous to this day!  We decided to go anyway and also decided to take the kids.  We couldn't have picked a better game.  We got free shirts and we won only by a basket!  It was an intense game!   This is Avery on her way to her first UGA basketball game!
Avery and Hairy Dog!  (Ugga only goes to the football games)
Family pic at the b-ball game all in red!
I was surprised how into the game Avery was!  I think its cause she got her own pom-pom! Little Addisyn to the left of me had fallen asleep during all the commotion!

My little cheerleader!  I felt really bad for the guy in front of us; I think Avery hit him with her pom pom at least a couple times.  He was so nice and would just smile, chuckle, and say it was fine!
Avery and daddy cheering on the Bulldogs!
Come on ref..... what?!?!

YAY!!!!  THE GEORGIA BULLDOGS GET THEIR FIRST SEC WIN THIS SEASON!!!
The final score!    After the game we took Avery over to some friends of ours who we do babysitting swaps with. We spent the rest of the evening  at dinner and then went bowling.  I forgot to take the camera but we had a great evening just the two of us!  & Yes, I BEAT JOEY in bowling (I must take after my mom) 135-123.  He decided we would play one more game after losing to me!  I let him win the next game.......   It was a fun filled Valentines Day!

THIS IS JOEY...I HAD TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO HACK INTO THIS BLOG THING AND MAKE A QUICK CORRECTION....I LET RACHEL WIN THE FIRST GAME OF BOWLING, SHE FAILED TO MENTION THAT I BEAT HER 154 TO 99 THE SECOND GAME!!!

All About Avery

A few of my family members have been telling me I do not post often enough and they are missin' Avery!  This post is specifically for ya'll....  I've included some fun pictures from the past couple weeks that have made me laugh or realize how fast our little girl is growing up!

One of her favorite places to play... Mommy and Daddy's closet! (when she can sneak in there)

Avery surprisingly loves flaming hot cheetos just like mommy, and climbed up with the boys as soon as they opened the bag!!!  
This is Avery after church using the mirror to try to put a shirt on; I guess its her way of saying please get me out of my church clothes!!!  
Avery and her Ming, Ming (from the show Wonder Pets)  The last few days anytime we go anywhere she will look for her "Min, Min" before we leave! We can not go anywhere without it!
I was in the living room catching up on some reading and it was pretty quiet in her room.  I peered in there and had to grab the camera.  She is growing up so fast; she had climbed up into the chair with a book herself and was looking through it!  What a smart girl!
& My favorite.... She has developed a shoe fetish pretty early!  Watch out mom!  She also tries to put on daddy's shoes.  Any shoes not put away are as good as Avery's!!!

Confused...

When Avery was somewhere around 7 months her first babble was da-da. Then we'll fast forward a few months to when she finally got the hang of da-die, daddy, daddy. She is all about her daddy! (probably because many days I come home from school to find all the cushions off the couch and on the floor. Then, somewhere among their midst I will find Avery and "da-ddy" laughing and having a good time.) Well, about a month ago before we left for TX around Christmas, Avery started calling Daddy, "Yoey!" We definitely knew she was talking about Joey/Daddy cause she'd distinctly be wanting him when calling, "Yoey, Yoey." At first it was hilarious but I could tell Joey wanted to be called daddy, so the GA Uncles along with myself have tried to make an effort to call Joey, Daddy in front of her. I guess I wasn't trying hard enough, because today she started calling him...

"honey, honey!" Kids are so smart and pick up on the funniest things! Either that or she is very confused at this point....who is this guy my daddy, Yoey or honey?!?!
I had to include this picture too because lately before we leave to go somewhere Avery will go look in the mirror, touch her face or hair and say, "pretty, pretty." There is always something fun, new and exciting with kids and we LOVE IT!!!

NEW YEARS IN ORLANDO (it doesn't get better than this)

So last year for New Year's we went to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, and this year our Bulldogs didn't finish out the season the way most had expected but were invited to play Michigan St. in Orlando at the Capital One Bowl.  We decided to make this a tradition and were much more excited to go to Orlando.  We were fortunate to be able to go and leave Avery with such great babysitters!  She got to stay at her Aunt Jill's and play with her cousins!  It's nice to have her close; we alternate watching each other's kids so we can both rejuvenate our relationships with our spouses! :) We set off for Orlando on the morning of the 31st and made it to Orlando around 10pm after picking up one of Jason's friends from EFY in Savannah.  We were tired after a 8 hour drive, decided to get something to eat at this really great restaurant called Antonio's and spent New Years watching the ball drop with Ryan Seacrest and my fav Taylor Swift! I know we are lame...

The next morning we headed to downtown and went to cheer on the GEORGIA BULLDOGS!!!  The first half was not our finest hour but Stafford redeemed himself in the second half by completing 14 of 17 passes for 250 yards and 3 TD!  WE WON!!!  Sadly, Stafford and Moreno will be entering the NFL draft.  I think we'll still  be good next year though!

All the players came over to the student section after the awards show and Moreno was directing the band!
The next day we went to see the temple!  It is gorgeous!
The Best Part of the Trip:  Yes, this is Richard G. Scott himself!  We ran into him in the bookstore and I was so excited and asked him if he'd take a picture with us.  He replied, "yeah just make sure you just get our faces, I've gotten bigger over the years."  What are the chances.... it was AMAZING!!!
   Mini golfing at Pirate's Cove
              Game Faces on!!!  (yeah I lost)
Joey deeply concentrating on his stroke (not having a clue what was going on while I was taking the picture)... However, he made a hole in 1!
  Last of all, DISNEY                   MAGIC KINGDOM  This was so fun, acting like kids all over again.  Joey had never been before so it was fun to watch him "experience the magic"
            I liked to think that Joey and I were a prince and princess while we were here in front of our castle..... ( laugh, but you know you would too!)
The castle all lit at night!  It is breathtakingly beautiful!
Buzz has them both beat!
Buzz Lightyear was our favorite ride!  We rode it 4 times and I lost every time. The quality of this picture is bad b/c it is a picture of the screen; they charge $22 for one of these pictures.  Crazy huh?!
Donald Duck in the parade
  See I told you I wanted to be a Princess  and as for Joey...
  He'd rather be Goofy, and that's why I love him so much!!!
We had a great time but were excited to get back to our lil Avery Madison!  Our trip couldn't possibly have been better!  Football ( a win at that), Disney, and seeing an Apostle of the Lord, it doesn't get better than that!!

Christmas in TEXAS!!!

Warning:  written by an excited parent who had too much fun watching her baby experience Christmas!!!!

Joey and I have decided that this was definitely our FAVORITE CHRISTMAS!!!  Last year Avery was only 3 1/2 months old so she didn't have a clue what was going on, but this year was quite different.  She couldn't get enough chocolate, was completely amazed by all the pretty lights, loved Santa, was excited to tear into her presents and kept repeating ba-by, ba-by as we showed her the nativity.

Joey and I come from families with a few different traditions, so we have learned to compromise.  A few examples are that Joey grew up always having a real Christmas tree and we always had a fake one, but my mom would always coordinate it with a theme.  So, we got a real Christmas tree and decorated it with red, white and silver.  We would always open our gifts from each other on Christmas Eve and Santa would bring gifts on Christmas day.  Joey's family waited and opened everything on Christmas day, so we have decided to open one on Christmas Eve and save the rest for Christmas Day.

 

Avery must have been a good girl this year!

It was so fun to see the "magic of Christmas" in her eyes! She darted toward her pile as soon as she saw it...

               My little Princess in her Princess chair :)
          Grandma and Grandpa on Christmas Day!!! We sure love them!!
Ripping into more presents......
                     Yeah this dress will be pretty on me!

                                    Daddy and Avery
    She opened up her Fairy Princess ride-on and didn't even finish opening it before trying to ride on it! 
                        Renee and Avery Christmas Morning! 


                          Me and my honey and Min-Su

                   It was the day we were leaving and I realized I didn't have any pictures of us altogether and Avery was sick, dad was at work but I got one anyways :) We loved our time with family and miss them already!
                      Rose you were definitely missed!