Avalee's Birthday!

Pictures of Avalee's birthday will come soon. I am so glad she was born on the 27th and not the 26th. It seems like it has been one party after another.

Avalee and Lincoln taking a break the day after Christmas. 

Next to Lincoln's monkey pillow, the animal crackers in his stocking became a popular item. He sat away from the Christmas mess and ate them all gone. 

Unwrapping presents! 

Avalee was very happy with her new "My Little Pony". Actually she got three of them. 

Lincoln did quit know what to do with all the choices in front of him. 

I did it!

My accomplishment of the year...I successfully completed six credits of accounting classes.

It was much easier to go to school before I had a husband and two kids. Now let's hope I can get through the next 12 credits before the end of 2006.

It is absolutely impossible to get both kids to look at the camera and smile for a picture. I was holding them both down just to get this picture. 

This is Avalee watching for Santa Claus to come to the Ward Christmas party. She wouldn't go anywhere near Santa but she was sure excited that he came. 

Lincoln can often be found sitting on the closet reading books. 

Lincoln dressed up to play in the snow. If he falls down, he can't get back up. 

Nathan and the kids had so much fun playing with their "car". The kids giggled and giggled. Nathan woke up the next morning with rug burns on his knees from pushing them around so much. 

Avalee and Lincoln stories!

Lincoln
His Grandma Brady showed him how to knock on doors. He knocks on any closed door. Tonite Avalee closed all the doors in the house and hid in the closet. Lincoln went and knocked and knocked on our bedroom door and Avalee popped out of the hall closet door. Lincoln giggled and giggled.

Lincoln only likes to sleep when Avalee is in the room with him. If she is making too much noise, he covers his head with the blanket and goes to sleep.

Lincoln has a love to climb upstairs and fall down them.

Avalee
Avalee is never just hungry. Instead she looks at me with sad eyes and says, "I starvin, hungry mom." You would think that I never give her food.

During the middle of the night when Lincoln cries out, Avalee will say "Lincoln, you OK." Lincoln immediately is quite. If Lincoln wakes up too early in the morning, Avalee will say, "Lincoln, sleep." During naptime, Avalee and Lincoln will giggle and taking during yelling for hours. Sometimes naptime turns into a three or four hour ordeal, two hours worth of playing and two hours worth of sleep.

Avalee is becoming a good big sister and tries to entertain Lincoln. Tonite while we were stuck in traffic, she tried everything to make him quit crying.

!Virginia's First Snow Storm!

It is very uncommon for the state of Virginia to get snow before January. I am thrilled because it makes it feel more like Christmas.

The snow started yesterday during the kids naptime. Avalee woke up and looked out the window and said, "I need my clothes. I need three sleds. I make a snowman." So I bundle the kids up and we went outside and played for about 30 minutes. The kids had a blast.

This morning I decided to be nice and take Nathan to metro. Nathan took Lincoln out and started brushing to snow off the car. Lincoln giggled at the snow coming off the car. Avalee and I came up the stairs next and I had my hands full of lots of items that need to be put in the car and was holding Avalee's hand. When we got to the sidewalk, she let go of my hand and started to walk. Immediately she fell hard on the ice. I grabbed her hand, picked her up, and made her walk again. She was screaming about her arm and hands hurting. About 15 feet from where she fell, she stopped and yelled, "my boot". I looked down at her foot and she had one bare foot. Her boot had fallen off and I hadn't even realized it because I had so much stuff in my hands. I went back and got her boot and got it on her foot and got her in the car. She cried for a while but when we got to the Metro she told Nathan, "Watch out snow. No get hurt."

She will no longer wear her snow boots because they are "too slick!" This could be a long winter.

Voting Disappointment!

Today I took the kids to vote. After we were done, Avalee was quite dissapointed. She thought that we were going to ride on a "boat". She is still asking to ride on the boat. I guess it is just too much for an almost three year old to understand.

Almost three years, no poop!

I had been through almost three years without Avalee or Lincoln pooping in the bathtub until last night. Lincoln stood up, squatted down and pooped in the tub. Then he laughed. I immediately got Avalee out and she kept saying "Lincoln pooped in the tub." I fished the poop out, drained the water, and started over again. Avalee and Nathan thought it was hilarious.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! You will see that I have put a lot of pictures out on my blog but after a ten-year period of holidays being just average. It has been so much fun to see Avalee be so excited. Today, we took the kids to Nathan's Halloween party, walked down the streets of DC (I know a free secret parking spot but I have to walk a ways to get to Nathan's work), and then took the kids trick-or-treating. They had a blast! Avalee got the concept of "knock, knock, trick-or-treat, thank you" but she was more interested in staying in a pack with the other kids than actually getting candy. Both kids are exhausted and have colds after so much fun, I think we will have a "take-a-break party" tomorrow.

The Dupont Circle fountain. 

As we walked through Dupont Circle in DC, Avalee wanted to sit down and be like everyone else. For of those of you that have never seen Dupont Circle, people sit around and talk and play chess and look at the fountain. 

Lincoln loved to play with this helium balloon. He just couldn't figure out how to keep it on the floor!