They should get an award for patience

I have to take a moment to brag. My children are soooooo patient. I had no idea they would be so good this last week. We had to fly down to Georgia to find a home on Wednesday. For two days we looked at well over 25 homes. Now normally with a 2 year old and a 8 week old, this would be a huge feat but Avery and Alia were amazing. Avery enjoyed seeing each home and Alia either slept through most of it or sat quietly. If that isn't enough, they were even patient at the airport when we spent well over five hours looking for a flight. We fly stand-by and all flights home on Sunday were full. We couldn't get on any flight on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday because they were all booked. Since we had to be home on Monday that left one option- drive 17+ hours with them. I really thought we were pushing our luck, but once again they both surprised us and did amazing! We left the airport yesterday at 3 pm and drove through the night and made it home by 9:00 am today. Ahh, the joys of flying stand-by. Avery is great at entertaining himself and I'm always impressed with the creative games he comes up with. It's great not needing toys. This is what he played with for an hour....

it's a wet wipe. He twisted it to look like a dog. When I took the picture he said, "I can't smile because I have a crazy dog with a tail." As for the house, we made an offer on one. I'll keep you posted.

They were flushed.....

This weekend we spent a fun day in Eau Claire at the Children's Museum with the Wangs.


There was a really cool exhibit showing how your body works from the time you eat the food until it ends up in the toilet. Here the kids were flushed out and are laying in the toilet water.


This was the beginning of the exhibit. Avery is climbing up the mouth toward Isaac.


Dining in the diner with Joe, Layna, Sarah and Isaac.

Snapshots of our monkeys

I guess she didn't like the bear.


The dragon and the princess


This is what Avery was doing when I was feeding Alia. He said he was spinning a web. He managed to unravel an entire roll of yarn.


Alia at 6 weeks

A house full of visitors....

We've had lots of visitors over the past 6 weeks, welcoming Alia to our family. Our home has been full of laughter, shared meals, rowdy boys, and lots of ooohs and aahhs. It's been a great 6 weeks. I can't believe the time has gone by so quickly. Thank you to everyone who has called, sent cards and gifts, brought over meals, and welcomed Alia in various other ways.


This is a picture of me holding the spoon Mom and I have passed back and forth since October 2006. Scott and I were at a friends wedding when Avery was 3 months old. I handed him a spoon to hold at the reception and we ended up taking the spoon home because it got lost under his blankets in his car seat. Since we were staying at Mom's I left it there, under her pillow. Since then, we have hidden it on one another over the years. This time Mom gave it to me with new spoons for Alia.


We enjoyed a few hours at the Mall of America. The boys loved meeting Diego.


Bama and her grandkids


Amanda's family and my family together


Grandpa and Grandma Davis with Avery and Alia

Aunt Laura

Alia and Banana 1 month

Alia


Avery

Things we love

We have lived in a northern climate for all of our lives. Now sometimes we have complained (think May in Duluth) but as a whole we have embraced it. We thoroughly enjoy winter and have outfitted ourselves to make the most of it. We have enjoyed snowshoeing, cross country skiing, ice skating, winter geocaching, and exploring the winter wonderland in general. I use the past tense because we are moving to Georgia. I'm pretty sure we will have winter withdrawal in another 6 months and Christmas without snow will be too wierd. But we are hoping to make the most of it and see what another part of the country has to offer. We will be moving in about 2 months, so unfortunately we won't get to enjoy one last mild midwest summer. Wish us luck, it should be an adventure. We will keep you posted on our status.

One scary, big foot

I meant to post this at Valentine's Day but had other things to post so I thought I would share it now. Before Valentine's Day Avery and I made Valentine bees. I painted his foot and traced his hands to make the different parts of the bee. Then he wanted me to make one for myself. Both bees looked good- Avery's much cuter than mine. When Scott got home he felt left out and wanted to make one too. His version turned out scary. It doesn't help when your foot is a size 13.

Avery's bee


My bee


Scott's bee

Can we send her back?

We recently took black and white pictures of Alia for her wall like when did for Avery when he was a week old. The first one is my favorite shot of our family and the second one makes me laugh because of Avery's expression. It's as if he's saying, "what happened?"

Random Pictures and Videos

Not much has been going on so here are some random pictures and videos. One funny development is that Avery has named his pink flamingo "Penguin".

Avery snuck downstairs and by the time we made it down to check on him this is what we found.


A two week photo of Alia with her eyes open.


First walk at 1 week


Girl faces

Avery's photo shoot

After we took Alia's black and white photos Avery wanted to take a few of his own.

Alia and Banana at 1 week

and for a fun comparison, here is Avery and Banana at 1 week

A Brother's Love

Avery has been a GREAT big brother. He's always wanting to hold her and says, "I love her." He calls her Lia.

Piece of Cake

Well I'm sure the spike in hits to our blog has nothing to do with anything besides the expectation that we will be having a baby soon. Yes that's a weird sentence and yes I'm very tired. So here's the condensed version. I brought Brandee to the hospital at around 5:00 am. They got her admitted by 5:30 and at 6:00 am the nurse came in and checked on her. Brandee was calm and cool like always so the nurses were pretty relaxed. At 6:30 Brandee told the nurse that she was ready to push and the nurse was a little shocked but checked and agreed. We waited for the Dr. as they got everything ready. Brandee pushed once and I passed out. (ok get your laughing in now) She pushed a second time and I woke up, By the time I got to my feet she pushed a third time and the baby was out. Quick and easy.

Alia Sydney Davis
7 lbs 3 oz
19.5 long
born 7:02 am 2/7/09

For all you belly fans...

I've had a few requests for one last belly picture. Thankfully, the belly will be gone soon because I don't think I can get much bigger without falling over and needing to be rolled places.

When it's too cold out to play in the snow....

make your own edible snowballs! Every once in awhile I check out this blog looking for a story and an activity. Today Avery and I read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and made our own snowballs. I followed the same recipe from Just for Fun but we added melted peanut butter and chocolate to the mix. Here is the recipe:

2/3 cup butter or margarine-softened
1/2 cup sugar
1T. water
3T. cocoa
1/2 t. vanilla
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mix the butter and sugar together. Add the water, cocoa, and vanilla. mix well. Add rolled oats, mix well. If you want to add the melted peanut butter and chocolate chips, so that here. Roll about 1 tsp. of the mix in your hands to form a ball. Roll in powdered sugar.

The flattened pile was Avery's attempt at making a ball.

To our 44th president....

I was watching Obama's inauguration speech and Avery decided to join me. After about ten minutes I asked him if he wanted to go play. He said, "No I want to watch a little more of Obama." Later on, he had gotten into some tape and had it stuck to various places. I asked him where he got the tape. His response, "Obama gave it to me." It seems the new President is already making an impression and a little boy is already finding someone new to blame for his mischief.

Trouble?

Is this a sign of trouble to come when we welcome our newest addition in a few short weeks? I was getting out all of the baby things last week to prepare for the arrival and Avery found the pacifier amongst the things. He immediately wanted to have it and proceeded to suck on it for quite awhile. We had a long conversation, 2 year old style, about why a baby needs one and a toddler does not. He wasn't convinced until I told him that babies have pacifiers and 2 year-olds have suckers. The last time he had the pacifier was when he was 3 months old so I can understand its novelty.

Already quite the charmer

I caught one!

This year we made Avery a fishing pole and fish for one of his Christmas gifts. Grandma Davis joined us for our sewing project. Here is the final product after several attempts at a good fish. I wish I had taken pictures of the first few we tried to make, they looked like bow-ties.

Avery showing us his mad fishing skills.


My favorite fish was this one- Dragon fish.


Caught one!

Christmas in Platteville

For Christmas, Amanda and Joel gave Avery a cozy coupe car. I call it a Flinstone car. We couldn't put it together until we got home, but the boys had a blast with it anyway. They played with the plastic parts for hours. Here they are being pushed by Gaven on one of the side doors.


The boys: Jaycent almost 3, Avery 2.5, Gaven 10, and Austin 5.


No explanation needed here, right?


Here are just a few of the cousin's from my dad's side.