A Great Start to Summer 2009!

First of all, I apologize for not having updated the blog in over a month. We have had a few things going on, but I will get you up to date with everything from the past month.

June 9, 2009 ~ Avery's Last Day of School

Today was Avery's last day of school. Of course, her class put on a little show and they got their certificates for completing a year of pre-school. Unfortunately, Avery was positioned in the back for the show and she wasn't really too into singing this time around. But, about halfway through the show she realized that a girl in the front had on the same shoes as her so she worked her way up next to her. And unbeknown to the little girl, Avery was matching her shoe up next to the girls'. Well then Avery saw Brady and worked her way over to stand next to him just in time to hold hands with him while they sang her favorite song, "Friends Forever." Now with her first year of pre-school done, she asks almost everyday why she doesn't go to school in the summertime. I wonder how long it will be before she is counting the days until summer vacation.

Avery at Center Stage

Friends Forever

Nana & Grandpa's Visit

Today was also the day that Nana and Grandpa arrived for their two week visit. We were so excited to have them here. Unfortunately, the weather was not very cooperative. I think we only saw the sun one day in two weeks, but we still had lots of fun playing with them. Avery helped Grandpa repaint her picnic table. They did a great job! One day, we all went to the nursery to get some tomato plants and flowers to plant. On the way there, Nana said to Grandpa "We should look for an S-U-N flower," spelling sun in case they didn't have one. And Avery said, "Yeah, and we should look for an A-V-E-R-Y flower too." We also took a trip down to New Jersey to visit some family and friends. We stayed in a hotel where the girls went swimming in the hotel pool with Nana and Grandpa and had a blast. We went to Alex and Stacy's where the girls both had a great time playing and Avery got to dress up like a firefighter. We also had lunch with Mommy's friend Anastasia and her son Alex. Then, we went to Aunt Marian's and played with Travis, Kennedy, and Caleigh. It was so fun to get to see all our cousins and friends!

Avery & Grandpa painting the picnic table

Avery & Nana decorating Sierra's Butterfly Cake

Avery & her friend Alex

The girls in the hotel pool with Nana & Grandpa

Avery playing dress up with Alex & Stacy

Sierra playing with Stacy

Giddy-up horsey

June 13, 2009 ~ Sierra's First Birthday Party

The Happy Birthday Girl

Today was Sierra's first birthday party. It was a beautiful day, Thank Goodness. We had Nana and Grandpa here and also lots of Sierra and Avery's friends from the neighborhood. Sierra had a lot of fun trying to keep up with all of the kids. As you can see, Sierra dug in to her birthday cake, although I'm not sure if she actually ate any. She was pretty tired at this point. All in all, it was a great day!

Sierra & Mommy

Yummy Cake (and messy, too!)

June 19, 2009 ~ Sierra's First Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday, Sierra!

Today Sierra turned one! It was a very rainy day but Nana and Grandpa were still here visiting so we all went to Playtown Express for some fun. Playtown Express is an indoor playground with inflatable slides, tunnels, a jump house and all kinds of fun stuff. Sierra had a blast cruising around trying to climb through some of the toys and riding on the pony and in the cars and playing in all the little houses. Avery was going out of her mind, she didn't know what to do first. She was all over the place. Nana could hardly keep up with her. She loved the huge inflatable slide, she must have gone down it at least 50 times. Needless to say, Avery was quite upset when it was time to leave. But we calmed her down by taking her to lunch at one of Grandpa's favorite restaurants, Cracker Barrel. A restaurant and a gift shop in one, after a morning of climbing, jumping, and sliding; it just doesn't get any better than that.

Sierra loves the pony ride...

And Avery loves the big slide!

Well that was all the great fun we had in June. Stay tuned to see all the fun we had in Pennsylvania for the Fourth of July.

On Golden Pond

Avery went on a "Pond Walk" this week with her school. Sierra and I were invited to go along as well. I was so excited to go because I have been so curious about how Avery interacts at school. Avery made it very clear that she did not want me to go to school with her, but too bad. The pond is right on the school's premises so it was just a 5 minute walk to get there. All the kids had on their boots and play clothes and had their nets in tow, hoping to catch a frog or some bugs or something. At first all the kids were really good and stood right along the shore line but by the end of the morning they gradually made it to knee deep water and the teachers were calling for them to move back. Avery's teacher, Miss Tammy was really good at catching frogs and she caught about 10 of them. She gave the kids turns at bringing the frogs to the buckets which of course Avery was one of the first in line. But, Avery was very bummed that she didn't catch a frog herself.

Avery was very social with the other kids, although I don't think she knows many of their names. At one point, I heard her yell out "Hey guys, come see what I found over here", proudly showing off a big rock she found. I also got to see a boy named Brady, who Avery has been talking about A LOT lately. At one point towards the end of the morning when Avery's boots and socks were soaked and she was getting tired and maybe a little bored, she sat down on the ground claiming she was done. As I went to sit down next to her , she saw Brady walk past and she suddenly perked right up and said, "Or, maybe I'll just go over there." Oh my God, she's only 3. Is she supposed to be noticing boys already??? And I thought it was so cute when she had a crush on Diego. We are in trouble!!

Walk This Way

Sierra has started to walk while holding onto our hands. She is doing so great and she loves that she can do it. We'll see if she follows in Avery's footsteps and is walking by her first birthday. I can't believe she will be one in less than three weeks. My, how time flies when you're having fun!

Avery is officially potty trained. She has worn big girl underwear to bed the past three nights with no accidents. Yeah, no more pull-ups!! Now maybe we can afford to buy our kids some more toys. Yeah right, just kidding!

Avery has also made some new friends this week. Yes, those are caterpillars. In case you didn't know, I HATE caterpillars. And , of course, Avery was, at first, a little nervous about holding them. So I had to put my heebie jeebies aside to help her (I've still got that itchy, creepy, crawly feeling just thinking about it). But once I helped her she had the two biggest caterpillars I have ever seen crawling all the way up her arm. Yuck!! But she loved it and now if Gracie's not around all she has to do is go out into the yard to find some playmates. We are going on a "Pond Walk" with her school on Thursday to look for bugs and frogs and such. I have a feeling we will have an especially hard time getting her to want to come home after that. I'll let you know how it goes.

Memorial Day 2009

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! It was beautiful here and we had a lot of fun hanging out with friends and playing outside. We even went on a family hike. It was Sierra's first hike, although she was just along for the ride, I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it.

Avery is finally warming up to the idea of having a sister. She always wants to help me feed Sierra. And they actually have a lot of fun playing together. Avery likes to try to get Sierra to "chase" her. Sierra loves it, she just laughs and squeals. Avery has even given Sierra a nickname, Sierra Beara. She is becoming such a great big sister. Although I am a little afraid of some of the things she will teach her little sister. For example, Avery has started scaling the sides of her swing set. Gee, I wonder where she gets that from? Meanwhile, Sierra just sits in her swing watching and you can tell she is just itching to do it herself.

One thing Sierra has recently learned from her big sister is how much fun it is to play in the dirt. She loves it (apparently she even loves the taste of it) and gets very upset when Mommy tries to steer her away from it. We never would have thought having two girls that we would have the two dirtiest kids on the block. Sierra also started waving over the weekend. Of course, she waves with her hands facing her and she does both hands at the same time so she looks like she's milking a cow, but it is so cute and she is so proud of herself. She also started giving kisses today. So far she has only given them to Mommy (her favorite person in the world) but I'm sure Daddy and Avery will be getting smothered with them in no time. We will have to work on her technique a little though, because they are wide, open mouth kisses, but it is the sweetest thing!

Speaking of the sweetest thing, this morning Avery was trying to make a heart shape with her hands and after I showed her how to do it, she did it herself and said "Mommy, you make my heart so happy". Doesn't that just make it all worth while!

It has been a rather quiet week at the Saylor's. Well, quiet as in not much going on because, Lord knows, it is never quiet with Avery around. Our big, exciting news this week was that Avery has started going poop on the potty. I know, too much information, and I apologize, but we are very excited and very proud of her. She is officially a big girl now.

Avery has also, for the last few weeks, been really into reading her children's Bible. Which is great, but the funniest part is that, as we all know she has a thing about memorizing her books, so now she runs around the house yelling, "Jesus is the King of Israel" and "Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest", she has even told me that "God will forgive me for my sins." We are so glad to see that she has gotten in touch with her spiritual side.

Sierra seems to be changing daily. In an attempt to get her to eat one day I gave her a fork, thinking she would just throw it on the floor, and she actually started using it. So now she uses one all the time. Who would've thought? Other than that, we have just had a fun week of playing and here are some pictures of the two cutest little girls.

Princess Avery

Look, I can use a fork!

Roller Derby here I come.

Sierra on the move

Hey, hey, I want to be a rock star!

We have had another great week playing outside in sunny Masssachusetts. We even had a summer-like day in the pool. The girls also each had a first this past week. Avery had her first appointment at the dentist to get her teeth cleaned. She did great! She did want to sit on mom's lap for the cleaning which didn't make Sierra very happy. So all three of us sat in the dentist's chair together. It was quite a girl's bonding experience. But now Avery loves showing off her clean pearly whites.

Sierra has become a little climber. She climbs over everything and everyone including Mommy, Daddy, and Avery. She has made it all the way to the top of the stairs (with Mommy right behind her, of course). She has also been trying to climb out of her baby bath tub, so we gave her her first bath in the big tub. Now she can reach all the bath toys herself and loves to pull as many as she can into the tub with her. She loves it!

Conversations with Avery

Cory was going to play golf one day. While he was getting ready to go, Avery stood watching him with her arms crossed. Very inquisitively, she asked, "Dad, are you going to play golf with Tiger?" Cory smiled and explained that Tiger is a really good golfer who plays on TV. Avery proceeded by asking, "Well, Dad, are you going to get a hole in one today?" Cory just laughed. Some day he will teach her the meaning of "mediocre golfer."