Mmm...cookie dough

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Avery really likes to bake.  She helps pour in the ingredients, switch on the mixer, and whatever else I'll let her do.  A few weeks ago, a friend came over to make cookies and Avery got to help.  Then Marshall got home and was disappointed we only made one batch, so we made some more cookies with Avery.  The following pictures are most definitely Avery's favorite part of baking.

This was after we were done making peanut butter kiss cookies with my friend.   Not too messy. 

 

This was after making chocolate covered cherry cookies with Mommy & Daddy.  I think it's sufficient to say that she enjoyed herself.

 

Here's some pics of her black eye as well.  It's now in the yellow/green stage, so hopefully it will be gone soon!

A Little Peanut and Avery Gets in a Fight with Her Dresser

Little Abby is really that-little!  She had her 9 month check up a few weeks ago and is in the 25th% for both height and weight.  I knew she was smaller than Avery at that age, but she's A LOT smaller-only 17.5 lbs and 26.75".  So now she's our Little Peanut officially!  She continues to happier (thank you Jesus!) and has a thing with her tongue as you can see in the pic below.  She stands on her own for a few seconds and loves to pull herself up and cruise on the furniture.  She's figured out what, "No no!" means and actually listens-let's hope it continues.  :)

Avery has a beautiful black eye right now-I need to take a pic before it goes away.  I'll post it so you can see her pretty owie.  I'm not even sure how she got it, but I think she ran into the corner of her dresser.  She was supposed to be in bed and I heard her get up and open the door.  I yelled up to get back in bed, I heard a thunk and then crying.  Poor girl!!!  Her upper eye lid was already turning a lovely shade of blue when I got up there.  The next morning her eye was almost swollen shut and had turned purple as well as blue.  It actually looks like she got into some eye-shadow.  She's fascinated by it and frequently wants to look in the mirror at her owie.

 

Here's the latest pic of Gracie-not looking so much like a puppy now.  She's 7 months old and we're guessing at least 60 lbs.  Her paws are still way to big for her body, so we think she's going to grow quite a bit more.  Yikes!  She's mellowed out a lot and loves going on morning runs with Marshall.

Pretty Meyer Girls

Here are some of the latest pics of my cuties.

Good news-she's smiling (instead of crying) more & more!!!  Her pig tails remind me of Abby Cadabby on Seasame Street.

Got frosting?  I went to worship team practice and came home to freshly baked sugar cookies that Daddy & Avery had made together.  She's big into baking these days. 

Happy Halloween!

Yay for fun, candy, and dressing up!!!  We attended our church's Fall Fun Festival and had, you guessed it, FUN!  It was the first one our church has done and they did a great job.  I helped with the Pumpkin Toss game and made some chili for the chili cook off.  Nope, I didn't win.   Avery really enjoyed the games, but was a little confused about all the people in costumes and why "her" church (everything is hers these days) looked so different.  Abby was content to be held (no surprise there!) and look adorable.  We were going to go Trick Or Treating afterwards, but the girls were a bit tired and cranky.  So, Abby went to bed and Avery had fun giving out handfuls of candy to the kids that came to the door.  Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Megan came down too. 

It's Tigger, Blue (from Blue's Clues), and the Tulip Fairy!

Auntie Megan was a Starbucks Barista, Mommy was a kitty cat, and Daddy was himself.  :)

Twick O Fweeting at Daddy's Office

We made the long trek up to Daddy's main office for some twick o fweeting ( Avery's approximation) fun.  We scored a big load of candy, had some yummy snacks, and received a goody bag.  Avery didn't want to dress up as Tigger at first-she wanted to be a kitty cat.  But, with a little Mommy magic, she was soon on board.  She hopped around and said, "Hello buddy boy!"  Abby was a Tulip Fairy and oh so precious!

A Trip to the Seaside

Our family took a much needed weekend away a few weekends ago.  We found a darling little cottage by the sea that we rented for the weekend.  It was great!!!  Everyone had their own room, it was stocked with toys, snacks, movies, On-Demand, a pool table, the beach was 100 feet away, and it was only an hour away from home.  We had such a fun and relaxing time as a family.  I'm hoping we can make it an annual event.

Avery playing with the toys on the beach.

Avery & Daddy on the paddle boat!  Fun!!!

Avery's shell collection.  Thankfully she only took four home!

Abby liked the beach too!

The Third Annual Meyer Family Pumpkin Patch Extravaganza

 

This year we had to find a new pumpkin patch to visit, because the one we used to go to is now 2 hours away.  We had fun, but our old patch was so much better!  This one didn't have any animals or a pumpkin cannon and everyone and their cousin was at this one.  Next year we'll find a super fantastic one.

So, taking a family picture these days is an interesting feat.  I don't think we have a single picture of all four of us smiling.  We'll see what our Christmas card turns out like!  Here's the saga of trying to get a perfect family pic.  As you can see, we have one main culprit.

 

Every pumpkin turned into a seat for Avery!

Daddy and his "little darlin'."

Photo Shoot at Grandpa & Grandma's

So, once again I'm apologizing for not
posting for so long. Here's the latest on our family. Abby is now fully mobile (read crawling like a speedster) and a total Mama's girl. This makes it really hard to get much done during the day, but also so sweet to have someone love you so much. :) She loves playing with all toys (much to her big sister's dismay). Avery's sentences continue to get longer and more complex. She loves telling you all about the world around her and makes observations that astound me. She also is quite the little parrot, so we've quit saying things like, "Shoot!" and "Dang it!" because they sound awful coming out of a 2-year-old's mouth. My two favorite sayings she's picked up recently are, "Sure do!" and "Whoa, that close!" We're working A LOT on sharing, especially with her sister. This is a really fun time with both my girls and I'm loving being a mommy of two.
My dad's quite the photographer and while we were at my parent's house in September, he took A LOT of pictures of us. These are just a few.
What a sweet little Abby Doodle! She sure does love her Mommy.

I'm a happy girl as long as my Mommy is holding me.
Oh, look-a rock!!!

She's such a big girl!

This is the face you get when you tell her to say, "Cheese!"

Prunes & the Puyallup Fair

Our poor little Abby has had some trouble going potty since starting solid foods, so daddy picked up some prunes the other night. Surprisingly, our picky eater (yes-she hates avocados now and apples and merely tolerates rice cereal and bananas) liked the prunes and eurika! they worked. These next two pictures demonstrate just how quickly Abby can go from happy to very unhappy. They were taken one right after the other, maybe 5 seconds apart.

Happy!!!
Unhappy!!!
Yesterday we went to the opening day of the Puyallup Fair with some of Avery's best buddies. Despite what it looks like in the pictures, Avery REALLY loved the rides. She also went on the carosel, a tiger roller coaster, visited the petting farm, had her first elephant ear, and saw her first parade. It was a good day and she gets to do it all again today because Grandma & Auntie Megan wanted to take her as well. Lucky girl!

Latest Pics

Marshall built our puppy, Gracie, a dog house. Avery loves playing in it too! She helped Marshall paint it and ended up painting Gracie as well!



We recently became members of the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. Here's Avery feeding the goats in the petting zoo. Her favorite animals at the zoo include the walrus, beluga whales, & sea horses. She's always sad when it's time to go home.
Little Miss Abby (or Abby Doodle as she is so fondly called) is starting to crawl, says "dadadadadada,"and is as difficult to read as ever. She's like a Lamborghini-goes from 0 to 60 in seconds. She has super happy moments and super unhappy moments. A dear friend told me that she thinks Abby will be a world leader because she knows what she wants and will accept nothing less! At her 6 months check up she was 15 lbs 6 oz and 25.5 inches long-just slightly above the 50% percentile on both height and weight.
Believe it or not they both REALLY like each other! Avery likes to hold Abby's hand, give her kisses, and play with her on the floor. No one can make Abby smile like Avery does. Abby thinks Avery's the best! Wouldn't it be great if they always love each other this much?!

We love Veggie Tales (from a distance only though)

Avery has had a Veggie Tale obsession for quite a while now. I think Larry the Cucumber qualifies as her first crush! We heard the characters were going to be at a book store not too far away, so we had to visit. Apparently, Avery was not at all impressed. In fact, she was really scared of them! She would wave from a distance, but would start to cry when we got closer. After about 45 minutes, she warmed up enough so we could take a picture, but I had to hold her and she still was scared. And after all that, the person who took the picture didn't wait until we were in focus. Oh well! I still had fun at least! We're going to Veggie Tales live next month-hopefully we'll be far enough away that she'll enjoy it. :)

Abby's first meal & other random pics

Well, I swore up & down that Abby would not be eating solids until she was 6 months old. True to Abby's nature, she had other ideas. Daddy thought she looked mighty interested in his avocado, so he gave her some. She was mighty upset when she only got one bite. She ended up eating 1/3 of an avocado. My little baby's growing up! (BTW, I only have 2 more weeks to go until she's 6 months, so not too bad.)



Hey! I'm talking to you!!!






What a smile. :)






Avery, with our chocolate lab puppy, Gracie. (Who, by the way, is sooo much bigger than that now!)






Stylin'!






Yummy avocados!

Hello Again

Hi everyone! Sorry it has been so long since the last post. We've had a lot going on in the last few months. Most of you probably already know, but Marshall's mom unexpectedly passed away on July 1st. We are so glad we were able to see her and for the girls to meet her just a month before her death. We are confident that she is with Jesus now and is completely whole. We love you Mom/Grand-T!