Happy Easter!

It's been a while, so why not have the newest post be about Easter? Not much going on here with us Vanderpools. Easter was great and we spent the beginning of the Easter weekend at the Houston temple on good Friday. The girls of course weren't aloud to go in yet because they are not of age, but we enjoyed walking the grounds and the girls loved the fountains that were there. The sweetest part was when Avery was SO upset that she couldn't go into the temple. I'm sure right now it's just her curiosity, but I hope that she always has such a strong desire to enter into the temple worthily. Today was a good Easter day. Avery was so excited that the Easter bunny brought her a baby doll and candy, bubbles and a book! She loved the egg hunt the most though :) It was Abby's first Easter and she of course was thrilled with the Easter grass in her basket but she also got bubbles a book and a stuffed animal. Happy Easter!

Christmas: better late than never

It's kind of hard getting back into a regular schedule after the holidays, so because we are still working on it my update for Christmas will be in pictures. Enjoy!

She definitely looks like she's up to something in this one! Hahaha!

Thanksgiving

We are so lucky Adam and I live so close to each of our families. It makes holidays easier and fun. We had a great time with both of our families and we love them all so much! It was a pretty normal Thanksgiving though, except Avery was old enough to understand the concept of bowling which I was super excited about. The Vanderpools go bowling every Thanksgiving so I was anticipating how Avery would react this year. She LOVED it! I got so many cute photos.

Avery was so excited each time she bowled! It was pretty much this much enthusiasm every time. She didn't care if she knocked pins down or didn't! There is so much to learn from children :)

This is her watching the ball haha

Yes, that's her giving the #1 sign with both fingers!

My Girls

I love my girls! Lately it's been awesome because they have actually started interacting with each other within the past couple of weeks. It's been a lot of fun to watch too! Avery has been wanting to include Abigail in play time and will specifically ask for me to bring her into their room. She can't do much but Avery has been enjoying her company which is just so sweet. She doesn't like it when Abby cries and will stop whatever she's doing and say "awww bebe!" And will immediately rush to her side. And she absolutely can't wait till Abigail wakes up in the morning. I have to say I noticed a big change when Abby and Avery were bouncing together. There was some real interaction between the two and I think it was just what Avery needed. Before she would just kind of ignore her, but still be super protective.

 

I'll be doing an update on Abigail soon. She just looks so darn cute in her little doorway jumper! Avery however is growing so fast! Everyday she surprises me with a new word or expression. And she knows exactly what she wants! It's a good thing and a bad thing. She surely doesn't like when I tell her no. It usually results in something like this.

Hahaha I LOVE that second face! Oh man and she loves to give it to me when she doesn't get her way. But she is a sweetie pie. She's a shy girl and I love that she loves to cuddle. She is a good big sister that is getting better at sharing too :) I love my girls!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We had so much fun this evening! We started off the festivities by going into Chipotle dressed in our Halloween costumes to score a tasty meal at a discounted price :) We were definitely not the only ones who took of advantage of this deal. We saw some super cute costumes while we were there. After dinner we immediately went trick-or-treating, because Avery could not wait any longer! She was so excited to go trick-or-treating and it was so fun seeing her get excited. We had some of our friends join us tonight too and we loved taking our children door to door. When we got back to our house, it was fun to pass out the candy and watch our little ones try to get in the bowl and get more candy for their baskets! I love these moments. Our theme for costumes this year was pirates. Adam and I were the pirates. Avery was our mermaid and Abigail our parrot.  

This was from a few nights ago, but I love their Halloween pajamas, so I had to include it :)

 So cute!!

The best picture we could manage to get of the four of us.

This was taken at the trunk or treat in Fort Worth.

Trick-or-treating

Happy Halloween!

Fall crafts

If any of you have been to Hobby Lobby lately you have probably seen their beyond cute fall decor. I love it! And it gets me so excited for the Fall season, though it definitely doesn't feel like fall here in Houston. Any way I saw some of these adorable pumpkins there and Adam and I were like wait, we can totally make these for a fraction of the price... so we did! And I kind of love mine better than the ones at the store. I definitely see Adam making more in the very near future. Not only were they fun to make, but they were SUPER easy too. On Adam's part he needed wood and a jigsaw. Boom. Done. and I just needed paint. I also added some super cute sparkly stickers to complete the look of my pumpkins.

At Hobby Lobby there are also some way cute table center pieces. I didn't opt to buy the pre-made ones simply because I didn't want to pay the price. They are kind of pricey even with 40% off. So I made mine :) It was also super simple. Just pick out a basket and pick out some flowers. And you NEVER need to buy anything at full price ever at Hobby Lobby. I also liked the feeling of accomplishment when I make my own things too. Definitely worth it.

Another super easy and inexpensive way to decorate is to add ribbon to different things. And depending on the garland, that is also a great way to bring fall into the home.

Happy Fall!

My 2yr old

I wouldn't call them the terrible two's, although trust me we have our days. I would say they are more like the mischivous two's.  There have been plenty of times though, when Adam will come home and I will do some retail therapy at Target soon after so I can breathe a little. Especially lately. Last week for instance she got into my lipstick... She got it all over the carpet, my bedroom mirror, she pulled the white pillows down and made sure to got the lipstick on them and not to mention all over herself as well. I'm pretty sure this was in response to me putting her in time out. Considering she closed my door and couldn't stop smiling when she called me in. The closed door should have been a dead give away. Also she finds it amusing to get into my "feminine products" which she thinks are boo boo's or band- aids and put them in different spots in the house.

In this instance the TV cabinet.

Along with lipstick and clear lip gloss over my bedroom mirror lotion seems to be her medium of choice in the following picture. All of these items have since found new homes out of her grasp.

Avery likes to paint and color a lot. We have since switched from normal paints and markers to color wonders that don't show up on anything else except the paper used with the color wonder products.

It's not unusual for her to get two or three baths a day... but she likes baths... so I'm thinking these messes might be on purpose. She definitely keeps me busy and on my toes, but I love her so much! It's awesome to see her grow. She has her sweet side too and that makes it all worth it!