Avery Growing Up

Avery is just getting so big lately.  She talks a lot and is in to all sorts of mischief.  Here are a few things I've captured her doing.

 Besides mama and dada, eh-ya (Elliott) is the first name she spoke.

 She can feed herself (and not that messy I might add)

 She LOVES walking around with purse and baby.

 "Hi" she likes to talk on the phone, but only the play phone.  When we let her talk on the real phone she just stares.

 She loves books (and loves to rip them) and loves to crash on her brothers.  I love her laughing as she does this.  I think she can hold her own with these boys!

 Or she'll just sit on you!  What a patient brother!

 She loves to give the lip. Most recently this is her giving you a kiss face.

 She loved it when I gave her "pretty toes"

I copied some old pictures of me.  I think they remind me a little bit of Avery.

 age 1

 age 10 months (although a little blurry)

age 1 1/2

Helping Hands/ Red Flannel Festival

Dan was scheduled to run the Red Flannel Festival 5K in his hometown of Cedar Springs, but our Church had the opportunity to do a community-wide service project for the elderly.  We were able to have the bright yellow Helping Hands t-shirts that our Church uses while giving service after natural disasters and other service projects.  We split up into groups and took on several tasks that were needed in our community.  Dan and my group got to help at the St. John's Senior Center.  The place was overgrown with brush and weeds and other eyesores, so we cleaned it up with our tools.  The neighbor to the center saw us working and asked if we could help pull one of his bushes that was giving him problems, as it was also leaking through the gate of the senior center.  We thought it was a great way to serve, so Dan and others got to work.  I took pictures of a lot that we did, but they sadly got lost in memory card breakage-land.  :(   It was noticed as the guys were working on the bush that there were bees flying close by.  We forced Dan out of there because we forgot to bring his epi-pen along (he still tried to work though.)  Turns out there was a beehive right next to the bush.  One of the guys that took over for Dan ended up getting stung.  He was ok, but we were so grateful that Dan left when he did.  It was a great feeling to have helped.

Once we finished, we headed up to Cedar Springs to get Dan's race shirt (since he had paid for it) and to have fun at the rest of the festivities.

The boys got to sit in a fire truck.

 They also got to wear a fireman's helmet and see how heavy it is.

To end the day we went to the Lumberjack Supper.  In this picture, Dan saw his old kindergarten teacher Mrs. Clark.  He took Elliott to meet his teacher since Elliott is in kindergarten.  We're glad we had such a fulfilling day.

2011 Earl Family Pictures

We got family pictures taken and these are the ones we ordered.

 Dan & Crystal

 Donovan

 Elliott

 Roswell

 Avery

 All my little chickies

The whole family

Potty Pooper

For the record, Roswell has been the most stubborn child yet!  With the older boys, potty training was a learning experience but pretty easy now that I recall it.  Not so this time around.  We tried using the potty right after Ross turned 3 (the age I start with my boys).  He had no interest.  So we stopped and started trying again once the big boys started school to give us less distractions.  This was much better!  Roswell seemed to know what to do and enjoyed being a big boy on the potty.  He filled up his chart:

 And earned his prize:

 We worked on another potty chart, focusing on #2, since that was a bit tougher.  He again succeeded, and I felt hopeful that we were on our way to being a big boy.

The big boy in his superman undies!  He was so excited.  But after he earned them he stopped self initiating going potty.  Thus entered: pooperman!  It was awful!  After cleaning a few new undies, we had to go back to pull-ups till we could get it back under control.
I try to be patient (maybe I'm not doing so well at that) but he refuses to use the potty at all now.  It is so frustrating!  I'm not sure what to do.  I think I'll just wait and let him grow up a bit more.  I know he can do it, he showed us that, but he needs to be able to tell us when he needs to go.  If there is any wisdom that anyone else has to share, I'm all ears!

A Brand New Day

Today, we encountered a few new firsts.

 Donovan started a new year as a 2nd grader.

 Elliott started a student career as a kindergartener.

 They both had a fabulous first day, met new friends, lost a belt (The teacher found it - I guess we don't wear many belts around here!  My child thought you had to take it completely off to go to the bathroom, then left it in the bathroom.), and had no tears!

 Except for Roswell.  He realized for the first time that he would miss his brothers.  :(

Those were the only tears shed today!

 As soon as we got home, this is the face you see because Ross realized that HE was going to get to make all the decisions in what we got to do, instead of his brothers.

This silly girl learned how to take her shirt off.  My boys never had this desire so I never thought I'd see the day.  Well she figured it out and has taken her shirt of almost 3 times today!  At least it has always been at home.  I think the long sleeves were awkward for her so she experimented.  (It got into the 40's at night so I thought it good to wear long sleeves.)

Dan got to teach early morning seminary for 2 different wards in our stake, and will be teaching a morning Institute class as well.

Mommy got to have quiet time during nap time (no kids awake!), which means I got needed housework done, a movie watched, and some ME time!  I'm loving this school year already!

Millions of Peaches

Not millions, but that song is in my head.  Our first peaches are ripe on our trees!  We didn't think they would produce anything yet, we just planted them last year.  We have about 16 peaches on our dwarf trees for this season.

Our first peach, and boy it was delicious and juicy!

Some more fruits of our gardens this year.  We've had a lot more than this, but these were on the counter today.  :)  I love not having to buy delicious fruits and veggies!