First half of October

At the beginning of October we had an unofficial Family Fun Day. We went to a local park and walked the trails and played on the slide and swings. These are the pictures we will look back to fondly when there is snow on the ground.

Other than swinging with Daddy...

Avery's favorite part was finding a tennis ball to chase.

In October we also took a trip to Austin to celebrate my cousin Cal's wedding! On the way down we stopped at Cabellas to stretch our legs and try on sunglasses!

What a special occasion to see us all together and in our "Sunday finest".

Sisters...


Avery with her grandparents...

Cal is the second of the '5 Cousins' to get married. We have so many memories together, we almost grew up together.

This is the first time the cousins have all been in the same place at the same time in years. We had to take a cousins picture as it seems to be tradition. Here is a picture of us several years ago,

and then us today...

As you can see, everyone enjoyed the party. Even Papa. I don't think he knows I have proof of this revelry, but now everyone knows. However, if his knee replacement doctor is seeing this, don't look. And Papa, I have video too if you try to deny this photo... ;)

And that is it for the first half of October. Congrats Cal and welcome to the family Kassi.

My Birthday!

As I mentioned before, this year on my birthday (September 20) I met Amber and Sandra at DisneyWorld for 2 days! It was incredible! Instead of typing a moment by moment account here and losing you all, I am going to reprint here a very special page from my scrapbook of this trip. Interspersed in this list will be some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

What Made This Birthday So Special...

It was a trip to DisneyWorld with Amber and Sandra!

Sandra got us into three parks for free on the 19th!

Amber provided the flights at no cost.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel courtesy of Amber, Sandra, Mom and Dad.

I received birthday cards, calls, and gifts from lots of family and Jenise.

Thanks to Sandra I got to shop at the Cast Member store where I bought a fabulous watch.

I got to see where Sandra lives and works.

Sandra Dodd spent the weekend with Kevin and Avery.

I did not change a diaper for the whole weekend!

I had a gourmet cupcake with a Mickey Mouse candle on my birthday.

We came away with lots of pictures and special memories.

Did I mention that I spent my birthday at DisneyWorld?!

And for all this I paid about $30 out of pocket!

I received a birthday button at the beginning of the trip which provided these fun birthday surprises...

Nearly every cast member I passed for 2 days wished me a Happy Birthday.

We rode the Safari ride on a private birthday tour.

At lunch in the Studios, I got a turkey leg for the price of a 'gobble-gobble'.

I received free chocolate dipping sauce for my pretzel, Yum.

The day of my birthday I got FREE admission to the Magic Kingdom.

At dinner on Sunday I received a mini chocolate cake.

I was given access to 'special' pin trading books

A Disney executive gave me the last pin I needed to complete my set, even though I ran out of pins to trade with her.

And when I returned to Kansas...

Kevin took me to PF Chang's for dinner and the Cheesecake Factory for dessert

But at home, he had spent the weekend building me a pantry in the kitchen. Awesome!

As you can see, my 29th birthday was extra extra special! I am still basking in the joy of the event! But now it is finally time to move into more current events, and I have some great videos of Avery coming up.

September

Ok, I am going to try to put the entire month of September into one post, but I am not sure I can do it...

September happened to be the month we celebrated our 5th anniversary and my 29th birthday.

For our 5th anniversary we went low key this year. After days and days of stressing and planning, we went the responsible route and did not splurge on something more expensive than we could afford (we felt very grown up about that). Instead, we left Avery with Kevin's Aunt Lisa in Topeka. This was my first night away from Avery ever! It was tough, but not overly so. Then we went out to the Outback with a gift card we received, splurged on ice cream from Baskin Robbins, stayed out past a certain 1 year old's bedtime, came home and played a board game with small pieces in the living room on the floor. As you can see, we lived it up with our temporary freedom. We were so giddy with the freedom, that we forgot to take any pictures. So you will have to imagine the smiles and celebration. Instead you can look at our wedding picture at the beginning of this post and remember that day 5 years ago with fondness...we sure do.

Early in September, my friend Jenise (who works for Southwest Airlines) and her parents flew to Kansas City for some BBQ. Being so close, they drove over on Sunday to attend church with us and have lunch. It was great to see them all and introduce Avery to her parents. Here we are after enjoying some yummy Sheridans ice cream.

Here are a couple shots of Avery from September. Here she is helping me get ready to go to the grocery store. She gets very excited at the prospect of going "Bye-Bye" and does whatever she can to help speed up the process.

If you look closely at this picture you can see that Avery is singing along in her own "microphone" as Andrea Bocelli sings on the TV. She also claps with Vanna White, so she is a lady of many talents.

This is Avery's 15 month photo. Yes, that is a scratch on her chin, but apparently it was not terribly traumatic, because I can't even remember how she got it.

Last but not least... my birthday celebration. For those of you who don't know, Disney is giving away a free admission ticket this year on your birthday. Well, guess what, I just happen to have a birthday this year! I also happen to have a sister who works at DisneyWorld and a sister who works for Southwest Airlines. As I learned it in grade school, 1+1+1 = DisneyWorld! And that is where my sisters and I spent my birthday this year! But you will have to wait for another post for that because Avery just awoke from her nap and is demanding some attention.

Later...

August

In August we celebrated Kevin's big 3-0!

Many of you already know this because you were a part of it! For his birthday I contacted several people from Kevin's present and past and invited them all to send birthday cards to him. We were so impressed by the turnout! Kevin received almost 50 cards from all over the country from very special family and friends. (Moyers-I owe you a special thank you for your help in spreading the news of this request!) Kevin was so touched by the show of caring and love he received. Thank you all who participated!

We also threw a birthday party which Kevin grilled for. Apparently the word has gotten out about his grilling because our house was filled to overflowing! We exceeded all previous records of how many people could be in our house at the same time. Of course contributing to that was the rain, requiring everyone to stay in our living room! What fun chaos!

And of course as time marches on, Avery just keeps growing and growing... She was really into blocks for awhile. Setting them up was great, but knocking them down was even better! Her patience and carefulness to set them up surprised even us.

These are her not-so-staged 14 month old photos. As you can see I dressed her for the photos, but then forgot to take them until the end of the day as she is watching us play the Wii and trying to figure out how to get involved.

Last is a photo of a common sight in our house, Daddy causing Avery to be at the very height of joy. She always looks forward to him coming home because it often means chases and tickles and a playmate in ways Mommy just can't match. It is a very special relationship to witness.



That is all for now, Tonya