Preschool

Since I am the world's worst blogger now, I figure it's better late than never!  Averie started PRESCHOOL this year!  Can you believe it?  My little baby is growing up so fast!  She LOVES homework.  She asks for more every time she finishes.  I am so glad that she enjoys learning.  She is getting so smart too.  She can nearly write her name all by herself.  I don't think I could do that until kindergarten!

 

Averie is Three!

Well this post is a few months old, but I guess it is better late than never!  My baby girl turned 3 on April 25th.  I can't believe she is already that old!

Averie had her wellness checkup and she was 38 inches tall and 31 pounds!  Not my little baby anymore, that is for sure.  We are just loving this little girl to pieces.  She is at such a fun stage right now.  Here are some of her big things that we just love:

• Potty Trained, night and day.  Well she has been potty trained for a while, but it is one of my favorite things so I have to mention it.
• She knows all her shapes and colors.
• She can spell her name.
• She can count to 20, working on higher numbers.
• She knows her ABCs.
• She knows her name is Averie Anderson and mommy is Kellie and daddy is Brian.
• She loves to sing and dance and be silly with Daddy.
• She still loves to snuggle and have Mommy time (which I love).
• She loves her pets.  She must sleep with Sergeant every single night, no exceptions. 
• She is a big helper.  She loves helping Mommy with cooking and anything she can get her hands on.
• She loves dinosaurs.  Really, she is obsessed.
• The tantrums have almost ceased to non existent (something else that I love).
• She loves to draw and paint.
• She has the biggest heart and is always concerned if someone is crying or sad.  She always wants to make sure everyone is ok.
• She loves Nursery and going to church to see her friends. 
• She loves her Daycare friends, especially Connor.  

On Averie's Birthday of course we had to shower her with balloons.  She was pretty excited to wake up to all of those balloons in her room.  You can tell she just barely woke up in this pic.  Silly girl.

 Bright-eyed Birthday Girl!

 Last year we took Averie to Thanksgiving Point for her birthday, so you will never guess what she wanted to do this year.  Anything for the birthday girl.  Averie loves animals so much.  She was in heaven.

 It was so hard to get Averie off the pony.  She could have sat there all day.

 She settled for the fake cow as a distraction.

 It wouldn't be a trip to Farm Country without sitting on the famous wagon wheel bench.

 After the petting zoo, it was off to the house for presents and cake.  She was just a little bit excited.

 I let Averie pick out her cake at Baskin Robins.  Totally not the one I thought she would go for, but she had to have the one with balloons.  Good thing it was delicious as well.

 The Saturday after her birthday, we threw a party for her at the Jump and Bounce in West Jordan.  Averie LOVES the blow up slides.  I'm pretty sure all the kids had a great time.  This was by far the easiest party I have ever thrown.  They supplied the food, the cake, the utensils and paper plates.  Awesome.

 Not the happiest of all looks, but totally an "Averie" face.

 Look how cute this cake turned out.  It was HUGE!  I was very happy with how it all turned out.

 After the party, it was back to our house for a little family get-together.  Averie just loved playing with all the new toys.

 Quite the golf swing.

 So the rest of these pictures are just a compilation of things we have done this summer.  Sorry I am combining posts!  A couple of months ago we took Averie to the Walk with Dinosaurs exhibit.  Total waste of money, but Ave loved it.

 For Caleb's birthday, we ended up going to Tracy Aviary.  It has changed a ton since the last time we went.  Averie loved to see all the "birdies".

 For Father's Day we ended up going to Downey, ID to see Brian's family.  Averie can't get enough of her cousins, aunt and uncle, and grandma and grandpa.  She had such a blast.

 Downey has all of Averie's favorite things.  Family, horses, pigs, cows, rabbits!  She was in heaven.

 So much time has passed since our lives were changed forever.  I can't imagine my life without this sweet, spunky little girl.  I must be the luckiest person in the world to have such a blessing in my life.  Every day that passes is hard because she is growing up, but it is so fun to see her change and mature.  She will always be my baby even if she doesn't look like one!

Las Vegas

Brian had a conference for work a couple of weeks ago in Las Vegas.  We decided to make a much needed vacation out of it and headed down as a family.  I was reluctant to take Averie, but I figured there was plenty to do with a 2 year old in Vegas.  Our hotel was great!  We stayed in Tahiti Village and it was great for families.  The rooms were condo style so we had our own kitchen and separate bedroom.  The pool was incredible.  There was also a Lazy River too.  I was really glad that we went to the pool the first day we were there because it was freezing the rest of the trip.

Here's Ave and Daddy checking for snakes.  Averie was convinced that there were snakes in the bushes.  We had to keep explaining to her that there were no snakes, and hoping there were no snakes.  It is so funny the things get worked up about.  I mean what made her think that there were snakes in the bushes?

 Here's the fabulous pool I was talking about.  I didn't take my camera so you get to see the limited pictures I took on my phone.  They definitely don't do it justice.

 Averie's ready for some sun!

The first night that we were there we decided to take Averie to Excalibur.  We ended up taking her to the King of Thrones dinner show and she loved it.  She didn't eat a thing while we were there so I was glad that she still fell into the free age.

She thought it was pretty cool to be in a "real" castle.

I have been to Vegas countless times in the past but I have never once been to the Hoover Dam.  It seemed like a family appropriate destination so we were off.  I think we picked the windiest day  ever.  It was so freaky to be up so high with the wind blowing so hard.  You will have to excuse some of the pictures.  My camera was acting up and I didn't have time to mess with the lighting on them at all.  It was super bright that day!

 Poor Averie was just blowing away.  She was totally freaked out.  I wouldn't even go near the hand rail...

 except for this picture.  I didn't even dare look behind me.  It was so scary.

Another good thing about Las Vegas is that there are lots of animal attractions.  We headed over to the Mirage and went to the dolphin/tiger habitat.  I was a little disappointed with the dolphin show, but Averie had a great time.

 We tried to get a picture of Ave next to this grass grown tiger statue and she was not having it.  She was NOT going to stand next to that thing!

 I love this picture of Brian and here.  Desktop Background here we come!

 While Brian was at a Business Dinner I decided to brave the Strip by myself and I took Averie to the Flamingo.  They have a nice little bird refuge there and it is FREE.  My favorite part!  I'll be honest, I felt really horrible going through the casinos with Ave.  It was pretty awkward.  Averie didn't mind though, she just loved the "pink birdies" when we finally got there.

 

 After seeing the flamingos standing on one leg, Averie thought she would try it out.  I must say, her balance is much better than mine!

When it was finally time to go home, Averie and I decided to fly since Brian needed to stay the entire week.  An entire week in Vegas is too much for me.  Averie was so excited to go on the airplane.  She was pretty much throwing a tantrum the entire time until we were on the plane.  I think everyone was surprised how good she was given the screaming for an hour before the flight.  What a silly girl!