Wonderscope

These past couple weeks I have been without a vehicle cause Matt has been taking it to work. (Yes, we still only have one car but right now we decided since I am home all the time, we don't need to worry about buying another vehicle...for the time being.) If I do need the car and Matt is in town, I bring him and pick him up at work. This week Matt is gone so Avree and I have taken full advantage of having my car back.

Every week some moms around my age and their kids around Avree's age, get together for a play date. Since we haven't been able to make it the past couple weeks, we made sure we went this week. We all went to Wonderscope (a kids museum) that has tons of hands-on exhibits for kids. Avree loved running around the "small wonders" room and loved the "H 2 OH" room,(imagine that) and "The Market". She was on the go the whole time and took a great nap that day! :-)

Playing in the "small wonders" room







Playing in "The Market" room

4th of July Weekend

The whole crew (Matt, me, Avree, Bentley & Brasco!!) headed to Iowa Thursday evening for a busy, busy weekend. We stayed in Pella Thursday night and Friday night and caught up with our families and some of our high school friends.
Friday while the boys (Matt, Papa Dave, Papa Jerry and Brandyn- Matt's high school friend) played a round of golf, Avree and I, along with Emily (my high school friend- who married Brandyn) and Bray-Lynne went to the Pella Pool. This was the first time I had been there since they built it a few years ago. Friday was a nice day but pretty cloudy so when you got out of the water it was chilly. Avree didn't seem to mind though.. she was shaking and her feet were purple when I took her out of the water! The girls seemed to enjoy themselves and it was great catching up with Emily.

Playing at the Pella Pool


Emily and Bray (6 months)

She LOVES the water


Saturday morning we headed to Cedar Rapids to see my mom, who was up there for a horse show. She was SO excited to see Avree and to get her on a horse! We hung out at the fairgrounds Saturday afternoon, Avree rode the horse with my mom for a while and saw tons of dogs.. Everything is dog to Avree. She was pointing at the horse, saying dog. :) We went back to the hotel, went swimming, grabbed supper and back out to the horse show. We saw the fireworks show, which was awesome, then we called it a night. Got up the next morning (thank goodness Avree let us sleep in till 9) headed back out to the fair grounds one last time to say our good byes. My mom was so sad to see her go, but got a kick out of the fact that Avree didn't want to leave with me. She wanted to stay with grandma and the horses :)

Daddy and Avree at the hotel

The three of us hanging out in the hotel







Sunday we then headed from Cedar Rapids to Williamsburg for the Healey Family Reunion. Pretty much everyone wanted to golf, while some of the adults and the little kids stayed back and went swimming. Avree was watered out (from swimming ALL weekend) and didn't really feel like swimming very long. So She ran around the country club for a while, ate a great lunch and was ready for a nap! Finally after Matt got done golfing, we hit the road. We still had to stop in Pella to get the boys and then head home!! Ugghhh..




"Where's your tongue?"


It was a super, non-stop, busy weekend (which is like this everytime we head to Iowa) but it was great seeing family and friends again!
Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Avree Update

So I realized I have only been posting pictures of Avree, and not really talking about her and what all she is up too.
She is 15 months already and is all girl. :) She is SO fun to be around, always in a happy mood, and keeps pretty busy. She has always been ahead of the game when it came to development- crawled at 5 months, took steps at 7, walked at 9, etc) and now we are trying to work on talking. She says "mama, dadda, dog, what's that, drink & ball". She can imitate a monkey, a cow, an elephant and a fan ( and knows where a fan is). Knows where her head, ear, belly, toes, foot, tongue, and teeth are. She knows nose, and eyes but she will only point them out on other people. :) She will stomp her feet, clap her hands, do "so big", "sing", dance, blink her eyes, blow kisses and wave hi or bye-bye, shakes her head yes and no. She will even open a page in her book when you ask her where the cat, horse, duck, banana, train, shoes, or car is. She even knows the picture of her cousin Jack, cousin Kaiya, Uncle TJ and her grandma and grandpa McCulla. (Sorry those are the only pictures we have in our kitchen. If you want her to be able to pick you out, give me a picture and I will hang it up.) I have even taught her some sign language. She does drink/cup, more, all done and thank you. She is a smart little cookie, but let me tell you when she doesn't feel like pointing or doing the imitations, SHE WON'T!! She just walks away or acts like she can't hear you. She is very stubborn but determined!
She loves playing outside, especially in water! She is our little fish. She will put her face in the water, and "blow bubbles", kick, and puts her ear in the water. We have a hard time getting her inside if we are out on the deck playing.
Avree absolutely loves the dogs! She can never leave them alone. She is always giving them her food (she actually likes to share!!), giving them a (hard) pat, cuddling them and of course riding them.
She is a small little peanut but she isn't afraid to do anything. Like figuring out how to climb on the couch or mom and dad's TALL bed or even the high chair! She likes doing stuff by herself and will get a little upset if you try and help her :)

Avree is the biggest blessing to me and Matt and I am so lucky to be able to spend my days with her and teach her new things. We love you Avree Grace!!

Sitting on Brasco

Blowing Kisses

Sharing her popsicle with Brasco

Family Weekend and Father's Day

Last weekend we had my family come stay with us (Jay, Shelly, Jack and my dad and Barb). My dad and Barb watched Avree and Jack Saturday night while the four of us went to a wedding. We had a great time and it was nice having a night out! (I haven't really left Avree since she was born, so this was a well needed, and deserved, night out)
Here are some of my favorite pictures from the wedding:




They can never take a serious picture:



Father's Day we were able to spend it with my dad, and my brother in law, Jay (his first father's day.) We planned to go to church Sunday morning, but no one was up in time. Avree didn't even get out of bed till 9:15 that morning. Grandma and Grandpa must have wore her out Saturday night. So we decided to just do brunch... at McDonalds! We wanted to go to this Corner Cafe, right up from our house but it was an hour and half wait!!! So we figured every place would be a long wait and everyone wanted to hit the road to get home. So McDonalds it was :-)




The dad's and their kids:



Here is one of my favorite pictures of Avree that I took last week. She is so fun, entergetic, and learning SO much. We are having tons of fun teaching her new things.

She is reading a magazine and talking on the phone (You could say we will have our hands full when we hit the teenage years :-)

"We're not in Kansas (City) anymore..."

Last weekend Avree and I went with my dad and Barb to Michigan. Barb grew up in Michigan and most of her family still lives there.
We left early Friday morning from Pella and got into Grand Rapids early evening in time for Barb's niece's graduation party. Saturday we headed to Muskegon to see the lake and Barb's otherside of the family (Kniff's). We went to the beach to take some pictures and let Avree put her feet in the COLD water. She loved the sand and did not want to get out of the water. She was trying to sit down in the water and wanted to go further and further in. Then when I picked her up to leave, she was pretty upset with me. She wanted to stay and play in the freezing cold water.










Sunday night Avree and I had our first motor home ride :-) Barb's dad wanted to bring his motor home on one last ride (he was selling it Monday morning) and we had fun! We drove all over Grand Rapids and then met family for supper. I think Avree liked not having to be trapped in her car seat while being in a moving vehicle.






We were on the move pretty much the entire visit to MI- spending time with Barb's dad, getting together with Barb's sister (and her family), Barb's aunts/uncles and seeing the Kniff side.




Avree was a trooper in the car ride to and from MI. We hardly heard a peep out of her. We took a couple breaks to stretch our legs (on the way back we stopped in Chicago to see Katie), grab a bite to eat and back in the car again. While in MI Avree and I became a HUGE fan of Slurpee's. (Mostly Avree) So glad to see everyone in MI. We had a great trip and miss it already.






Before Avree and I headed home to KC (from Pella), we stopped and played at Kaiya's house. The girls had so much fun running around outside together. They played on the swing set, went for a Jeep ride, played with chalk and ate lunch together. They were pretty wore out and took great naps! (Avree slept the whole way home- 3hrs)




We sure missed 'the boys' while we were gone and they were pretty excited to see us when we got home Tuesday night.



Hope everyone is having a good summer. I can't believe it is almost the end of June!