HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVERY!!!

WOW time flies!!! This was taken in 2002 when Avery started to play soccer. That lasted a few years until he discovered lacrosse but that is not where I am going with this today! 12 years ago today at 11:42am, I gave birth to Avery Ray!! Wow it seems like just yesterday that the 8lb 14oz 23 inch long baby boy came into this world. Now here he is,12 years later, 6th grade and only about 68 lbs and growing older everyday. Its so wonderful and so sad at the same time.

We have his party tonight. It was a pretty much a last minute idea, he came home telling me he wanted to have his party at my house this year. I had parties for them every year and then like 2 years ago he said he wanted one at his dads house. That sounded great to me!! I got a break from the party giving but its back to having them at home this year. We have 5 of his friends coming over to spend the night and Chris and I have decided to take them bowling tonight. Sharon was here yesterday cleaning the house and I figure if the boys stay here all night the place will be a wreck. The house looks awesome so we are heading out. The plan is to be home about 9 or so and cut some cake (cookie cake of course) when we get home and then maybe settle in and watch a movie or two.

By noon tomorrow the party will be over.... bummer for Avery. He woke up so excited this morning for his birthday and his free cookie from the lunch lady at lunch today. Its cute what the kids look forward to (its the little things).

Anyway, just wanted to minutes, before I head out to get done my to do list, to say

HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY AVERY!!

I LOVE YOU!!!

5 MONTHS OLD!!!

WOW how did I forget to add this pictures in?????

Kennedi is rolling all over the place. She is also starting to scoot around on either her back or stomach if she wants something out of reach (like the cat). Cotton is wonderful with her! Kenendi can grab her fur and cotton sits there for a little bit and then just gets up and walks away!

Here Kennedi is rolling over to Cotton...

Kennedi and her buddy, Cotton

A little decorating

Just when we think everyone in the house is healthy, Chris has to go get sick on us! Kennedi and I finally got over the cold and sickness we had and last week Conner came down with it. He was home from school on Thursday and his dad kept him home on Friday also. At practice on Saturday he seemed to be doing a lot better, or at least I assumed he was feeling better since he was out in the cold and wind in just a short sleeved shirt. Needless to say no matter how sick he is tomorrow (if at all) he is going to school for sure. Chris woke up at the end of the week with a cold and sounded horrible. I am sure it sounded a lot worse than he felt but still. He rarely gets sick. He is around this stuff at work everyday and he picks up what we have at the house. Oh well, he is back at work today and what better place to be when you are sick but at the ER??

We took advantage of him being off for 2 days this weekend and got some stuff (decorating) done around the house that we have wanted to do for a year (since we moved in). I had ordered some Southern Living at Home items awhile back and they have been in the garage forever. Well until this weekend at least. We finally got some of those items out, along with my most recent order and dedicated part of the day to getting all of that done. I am starting to really love being a consultant for SL@H and being able to decorate with the items.

This is above the mantle. The picture has been here since we moved in but we decided to redo the rest. This was my first attempt ever with trying to make a flower arrangement. It turned out OK, good enough for now at least.

Just a closer look

We needed to add something to the bare wall going up the steps but there is not a lot of useful space on it so we tried some wall tiles. Turned out pretty good!

a closeup of the table in the sitting area in our bedroom. Another attempt of a flower arrangement.

We are still trying to find slip covers for these chairs. This is NOT an easy task at all! Sofa and love seat slip covers are everywhere but not chair and ottoman!

We also have a bunch of pictures to put up and wanted to do away with all the old frames we had so that they would now match. We decided to try Kohl's and we hit that store on a great day. All the frames were 50% off!! We took advantage of that as well as the sale they had on candles (another item we needed for decorating)!

The pictures of Kennedi and the top of all of us was taken at Christmas time with our Christmas pictures. Conner and Avery's pictures are school pictures from this past fall. Dakotas picture was taken when he was in pre-school. Unfortunately, We have not been able to get an updated school picture of him.

The last room we tackled this weekend was the master bathroom. The mirrors on the wall were actually a Christmas present so they were put up right after Christmas. The other items match the mirrors and we have been looking for candles for them. We still need a candle for the pedestal but the ones on there will have to do for now...

Well I am going to go sit in the family room and relax and read for a little while until Miss Kennedi wakes up from her nap! Enjoy what is left of the weekend!