I love family cookouts

Sunday evening we cooked out at my parents’ house. Jamie was in town from school so her & her boyfriend Brett where there too. These lazy days with family are my absolute favorite.

Averly had her first sucker. Riley got one, so of course she thought she had to have one as well. Little Miss Drama threw an absolute fit until she got one, too. She was a sticky, green mess by the time she was done!



My mom got Riley some foam swords because she knows how much he loves pretending to be a pirate. He would always go get his plastic spoons out of the kitchen drawer & use them as swords. I think these are a good upgrade for him!



Averly loves her Bubba! She is so attached to him & wants to be right where he is all the time. I think it is so sweet & I love seeing my dad hanging out with my daughter.

  

Finally, some good news!

I am so behind on blogging & have so many pictures to post that I don’t even know where to begin. We have been crazy-busy, as always, just trying to keep up with the kids. We spend our days outside playing til dark. Then it’s bath & bed time. I love this time of year & being outside all the time!

We got some good news yesterday! Finally, after so many setbacks, TAG got a new job! I am thrilled to pieces for him & what this means for us as a family. He starts Monday & they are flying someone down from the corporate office to train him for a few weeks. He is very excited to get started & I can’t wait to see the opportunities that will come from this! Now I'm just praying everything turns out to be as great as it sounds!

Other than that we don’t have much out of the ordinary going on. Averly has been saying “bye” when she waves. It is so funny to hear how country-talking my kids are.

Riley loves to blow bubbles. I think we’ve gone through 3 big bottles in the last week.



Averly tries to blow some bubbles too! ; 0)



Both of the kids have been big into apples lately too. I’m definitely not complaining about this one! Averly looks so cute holding that big ole apple!

 

But Doritos still remain Riley’s favorite snack. As you can see from his orange fingers & mouth.



I recently got Riley these red sunglasses on the dollar aisle at Target & he loves them! He wore them to church the other day. He looked like such a big boy!



Speaking of church, we have been visiting a few churches in our area because our pastor recently moved to Australia to help in starting up some churches there. Which is awesome, but he was our main reason for choosing that church back when we first got married. Anyway since he was leaving, and our church is so tiny that they don’t have any programs for the kids, we decided that it is time to find another church home where the kids can be more involved. I think we found one we really like & feel comfortable at. We are excited to go back again!

The only thing is Riley & Averly are in separate classes & he hasn’t done very well with that. He has never been away from her except for one time when he stayed with my parents while Averly was with me & TAG. Initially he does ok & is excited to “meet new fwens” but if he remembers that Averly isn’t around, he kinda freaks out. At one church, they said that he was fine until all the classes went outside {where he played with Averly} & then went back in {where they were separated again}. He kept saying he “wants Avwee”. What a sweet big brother! He knows he’s supposed to look out for his little sister. Hopefully this will pass soon.

    

Mini Me’s

I constantly have people tell me how much Averly looks like TAG, but these people obviously didn’t know me as a baby! It really even amazes me how much Averly looks like me as a child. Of course she’s got her Daddy’s pretty blue eyes, but other than that, she is Jessica Jr.

    

And Riley is definitely TAG Jr. One night we showed Riley some of TAG’s baby pictures & he kept saying it was him. They could definitely pass as twins!

 

And lastly, my favorite. :0)



What do y'all think?

Training & Weaning

Potty training & breastfeeding weaning, that is. I decided on the last day of March that I was going to attempt both. One is going great & the other…not so much. Which one may surprise you.



Riley is doing great with potty training. GREAT. I’ve attempted to start potty training a couple times before, but I (and Riley) quickly got intimidated. I just felt too overwhelmed at taking on the task, especially with Averly running around as well. And Riley just didn’t seem quite ready either. He wouldn’t want to go in the potty & would rather just wear a diaper.

Well, on that Thursday morning I decided that I was ready to tackle it if Riley was. I told him that the store doesn’t make diapers for him anymore; only for babies like Averly. I put him in big boy underwear & asked him almost constantly if he needed to pee pee (just to remind him so he wouldn’t go in his pants). The first couple of days, despite my constant reminders, he did have 2-3 accidents. But we stuck with it, giving rewards of M&Ms, cookies, or chocolate covered raisins. Those are great incentive for him! I am happy to report that for the last 5 days, he has had ZERO accidents! Even during naps & at nighttime. I had thought for a split second about getting Pull Ups for bed time, but I feel like they would be a set-back because they are basically just diapers in themselves. So, underwear only & he has done great!

I am SO proud of my big boy but can’t believe he is no longer in diapers!!



Now Averly & weaning haven’t gone quite as well. I nursed her to 12 months, which was my goal. But since she turned a year old, I have tried to back off & put her on whole milk only. She does ok until she gets sleepy & wants me to hold her before I put her down for a nap or bedtime. If I am holding her, she wants to nurse. So I can’t really rock her to sleep anymore without a tantrum or her ending up nursing. Luckily though, she does great when I just lay her in her crib. She puts her self to sleep. So I guess rocking her is more for me. I love holding & rocking my babies more than anything so I miss that part when I just lay her in her crib.

Other times she will decide that she needs a quick drink & refuses her sippy cup. The girl just wants her Mama. I usually end up just giving in to satisfy her & avoid a meltdown but I can’t keep doing this forever. I wanted to have her weaned at a year but this is technically my first time to have to wean a baby. Riley just up & decided one day (around 8.5 months old) that he was done breastfeeding & that was that.



So we are working on that gradual weaning process. But for now I’m pleased. I know it will get easier the more I stick to my guns.

And…I have a potty trained child!!!!! Yayyyy!!!!

Botanic Gardens

Last weekend we went with some friends to the Botanic Gardens. This was our first time to go & we had a blast! It’s always a good time when these kids get together! They are the best of friends!



She wanted that stuff to come off of the wall so bad!



Peek-a-boo, Riley!!



The kids loved making music!



Averly tried so hard to keep up with the “big kids” but as soon as she got in on the action at one area, they had already moved on to the next!

  

Baby Girl was TIRED by the end!



Actually, they all were & all 4 kids piled on the stroller! Jana got her workout in for the day pushing that load!

 

I think Riley’s favorite part was seeing all the Coy fish. He loved pointing out their different colors.



Fun times with fun friends!