Belle

Haley isn't a huge fan of dressing up, but Avery is determined that she be Belle. So I put it on her tonight to see if she would keep it on for a little while. She did! We'll see how she does tomorrow!

Pumpkin Patch

We took the girls to the Pumpkin Patch and they had a blast! Yes, I know there's a lot of pictures, but do you expect anything less from me?
Avery was so proud of herself that she got us out of the corn maze. (We didn't tell her that she found the beginning.) She kept saying, "I can't believe I got us out of the corn maze!" What a cute girl! The corn maze was in the shape of Nebraska and the path says, "Go Huskers." I told you~everything is Huskers around here!

Pig Races

At the Pumpkin Patch, they had pig races. It was really funny! The girls enjoyed it a lot! Avery especially liked sitting on the hay bale!

Halloween Gymnastics

Avery's gymnastics class had a Halloween party! She fit right in with her Olympic gymnast costume! (Oh, yeah! That's my gold medal! I was the Women's Shuffle Board Champion on our cruise! Oh yeah! I beat my whole family!!!) And she got a ribbon for passing off 10 skills at her skills checks last week, so that will also be a part of her costume!
Avery is really excited about Halloween tomorrow and today we are going to the pumpkin patch, so I'll have more pictures later!


What a cute class! Everyone dressed up and they had the entire gym full of Halloween decor. They even had a jack'o lantern that they had to touch as they held onto the bar in pike position! Avery loved all the Halloween stuff!

Welcome Center

Some more pictures from the wonderful invention, the camera phone. It has actually come in handy in the week that I have had it!

I think Avery taught Haley how to dive into the balls. She had such a blast! I like that Haley still has time to look at me and say cheese. Avery hasn't had time for that for a LONG time!

Avery's favorite thing at the Welcome Center is to roll down the "mountain."

Butterfly House

We have finally entered the future! We now have a cell phone with a camera in it! (It also has a bunch of other stuff: a walkman, a video camera, internet, tv and a bunch of other crap that we will never in a million years use because we are too cheap to pay for any extra stuff. We have never even sent a text message!) It came in handy the other day. We went to the butterfly house at the zoo. Avery was so excited and kept trying to get as close as she could to the butterflies. Haley was so excited to get to run around and kept running in circles. They both have been neglected all week long as we tried to get the house ready to sell, so they were a little wild, but isn't that what a beautiful day at the zoo is for?

Helpful Girls

Monday morning Kev called from work and told me we were moving to Colorado and had to be there Feb 1st. So, of course, I kept making list after list in my head (which immediately starting hurting) of all the things I needed to do before we could put our house up for sale. Kev had half a day off today and thought we could finish up everything this weekend to have a sign in our yard the beginning of next week. So, I was trying to get the house cleaned, organized and de-cluttered for our realtor coming last night. This is how my girls decided to help me in that endeavor.

Avery had dragged a bunch of her toys downstairs to the living room and they played there all day. Although it was a huge mess, it was really helpful in keeping them occupied all day so I could clean. And it was really easy to clean up since they just get shoved into buckets and slid under her bed!

So, our realtor came and we were very surprised that he thought we could put it up for sale today. Kev worked a little this morning and came home to clean out the garage and fix up little things around the house. And we had our first showing tonight, so hopefully we can sell it soon. Not a very good time to sell a house, but what do you do?

HELP!

GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!

This is Haley when she wakes up. Sometimes she will shake the bars of the crib until I get her. She really is in a cage!

Popcorn Girls

We were watching our friend Laurel and it was time to calm down to get ready for bed, so we popped some popcorn and put on Shrek the Third. The three girls were so cute, sitting really close and all three shoving handfuls of popcorn in their mouths!

Sticky Sticky

Haley thought she was hilarious putting this tag on her face! Then she got really mad because it lost its sticky!

Caterpillar down.

We're sticking to dogs.

New Pet!

Well, we have a new pet. And no, it's not a fish! Kev and Avery found a caterpillar on the deck last night, so of course, Avery wanted to keep it. She named him Caterpillar Butterfly Byrd. I guess he needed a first, middle and last name! Today Avery wanted to take a picture of it and we went upstairs and could not find it anywhere! We looked and looked and still neither of us could spot it. Then, if you can see in the picture, I spotted an odd shaped green thing on the fake plant. (Yes, the same one that all the fish died with. Kev did wash it after each death, however.) So, if I am not mistaken, a caterpillar has made a cocoon in our fish tank. And the only thing I can think is:

THANK GOODNESS IT LASTED LONGER THAN THE FISH!!!!!!

Muscle Girl

This is Haley showing off her muscles. She gets shaking so hard that it cracks me up!

Gymnastics

This week was parent participation week at gymnastics. Kev got to go in with her the first half and then he sat out with Haley while I went in with Avery. She was so proud of herself and extremely happy to show off for Daddy. She gets better every week and her teachers told us how well she was doing and said she was "very advanced." See, I knew it wasn't just me being a proud mom!!

FIRE!!

We got a cold spell and Kev brought stuff for s'mores! We started a fire and roasted away!! Avery and Haley thought the fire was pretty cool!

National Anthem

This is for you, mom. My mother has been bugging me forever to post a video of Avery singing The Star Spangled Banner. So, here goes.

The National Anthem, as sung by Avery Faith Byrd

The Pledge

Avery loves patriotic songs. This is the Pledge of Allegiance by Lee Greenwood.

The Pledge, as sung by Avery Faith Byrd

Avery Singing

This is Avery's favorite song at church right now.

Called to Serve, as sung by Avery Faith Byrd

Swimming Lessons

Avery started swimming lessons a couple of weeks ago. She gets so excited! She loves to swim! Now, she is not a fish, like I mistakenly call her. She is a WHALE. She really likes whales right now, so she always corrects anyone who calls her a fish. Nothing has really changed in this swimming lessons. I think she made her teachers nervous by never keeping her head above water!
Kev put Haley in the chair next to him and you would have thought he just gave her the world! In her quest to be big, this was HUGE! It didn't last as long as you'd think, because also in her quest to be big, she thought she could go jump in the pool.

Silly Goggles

Since Avery loves to be under water, we got her some goggles yesterday. Her and Haley had a blast trying them on and laughing at each other. This morning, Avery had to try them out in the bath. Yes, she even puts her head under water in the bathtub. I always have to have a talk with her about staying above water when Mommy isn't in there with her.