Changing it up

Tom was released Sunday from being a ward missionary and is now the YM second councilor/scoutmaster/teacher! This is all one calling!

What a big task ahead of him but I think he will do a great job, and will be a wonderful role model for those boys.

Plus he loves the outdoors and camping so what could be better!

Winter Wonder Land?

It has been nearly four years since Houston has had any snow. Last night the spell was broken.

Yes, mark it on your calendar, December 10th 2008, Houston got snow! Not only was it falling but it was sticking as well! We must have brought it with us from Utah!

Cole was too young last year to enjoy the snow back home so Tom took him out to see what his reaction would be. Cole thought that was the neatest thing. He watched it fall and even scooped some up and ate it. But that was really no surprise because everything still goes in his mouth.

Papa and his boy out in the snow.

Cole sharing his snow with Papa.
What a nice boy!

A cold winter day and look no shoes!
That is all we need, a sick boy for Christmas.

Today the snow is melting away and is pretty much gone but it was fun while it lasted.

6 Weeks Old

Avery has been a wonderful new addition to our family!

She is a great sleeper. She never cries when we put her down for the night and I only have to get up once to feed her. So wonderful because I like sleep so the more I can get the better. My family benefits from me getting sleep as well! :)

She has started smiling and cooing and is always telling mom stories, and her little dimple puts a smile on my face.

She also has become quite the little roley poley, and has those big, squeezable cheeks just like Cole.

Her hair is starting to go light. Right now it has a hint of red in it. We are hoping her eyes stay blue like her papa and brother so we have a little blond haired blue eyed girl. So pretty!

As I look at her I can't get over what a beautiful baby she is. I must say, "I have two of the cutest kids in the world!"

18 Months

Tuesday the 9th Cole had his 18 month well check up.

He weighs 22lbs. and is 32 inches tall.

He is progressing very well except when it comes to talking he's still a little behind but the doctor isn't too worried about that. All in good time. He communicates in his own special way.

He is getting three new molars.

He has started climbing even higher which makes mom and dad even more nervous.

He is a GREAT big brother. He loves giving Avery hugs and kisses and when I ask he will give her her binky. Every now and then it does end up in his mouth. He is our binky boy!

I love to watch as he learns and grows and look forward to all of his new development.

Every day is a blessing with him in our lives!

Not so little

Last Sunday was Cole's first Sunday in the nursery at Church. Our baby is growing up too fast!

Tom and I dropped him off and he didn't even shed a tear as we left. What a sad but joyous moment. Sad because he wasn't going to miss us and joyous because now we can enjoy our lessons without chasing after a toddler.

After church when I went to pick him up, the nursery leader told me how much of a joy he was. He didn't cry at all just played nicely with the toys and other kids. He didn't give them any trouble. Now hopefully it will stay that way!

As a parent you always worry about that transition so it makes you feel good to hear how well your child does.

What a great new adventure for Cole(and his parent's)!

We sure Love our boy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was our first Thanksgiving in Houston away from family so it was a little sad, but we made the best of it.

We had a big turkey dinner just for the two of us (can't really count Cole because he barely made a dent in all of the food we had.)

Tom made a delicious deep fried turkey (it is kinda hard to see in this picture because it blends in with our dark table)! If you are thinking the turkey looks burnt it's not it's just all that deep fried, yummy, goodness! If you have never had deep fried turkey I HIGHLY recommend it! Besides being delicious it also cooks very quickly. That is a plus!

I was quite pleased with all of the cooking we did and only forgot the vegi's and dip and eating only 45 minutes later than we had planned. We had to give ourselves a pat on the back for job well done!

Even though we missed our family in Utah it turned out to be a wonderful, relaxing Thanksgiving day with our own little family!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! LOVE THE BOOTHS!

Graphics & Myspace layouts

Yeah, Grandma!

Two weeks after Avery's birth my mom came out to meet her and to spend some time with us. She was our very first visitor since moving to Houston!

She helped me out a lot with both kids and loved every minute of it. Cole had a great time with his grandma and grandma had a great time with him. Lot's of hugs and play time! She loves being grandma!

~~~

We took her to Galveston to see some of the damage caused by Ike since most of it is cleaned up around here. Then we stopped at the beach only long enough to take pictures because unfortunately it was cold and windy day.

~~~

We met Mana, Annette and their boys at Space Center Houston where we took a tour of the mission control center, astronaut training center and rocket park where the huge Saturn V rocket is. It was fun for my mom to get to meet some of our friends here in Houston and to show her what Houston is a lot about.

~~~

While she was here we wanted to have a Thanksgiving dinner together so Saturday night, Nov. 15th we had our Thanksgiving. Tom deep fried a turkey and with it were all of the fix ens. So yummy! And like always we all got completely stuffed, no pun intended!

~~~

Sunday afternoon we took her back to the Hobby airport where we gave hugs and said our good byes, for now.

We had a fun time while she was here, even though it wasn't long enough.

We Love You Mom!

At the beach


Space Center Houston


We couldn't get Cole to look up to save our lives


This is the best we could get.
Doesn't everyone look so happy!


Grandma and Cole


Grandma and Avery

Grandma and two of the cutest grand kids!

New Addition

Cole has loved having his new baby sister around, for the most part. There are always the attention issues where he feels like he wants mom to pay more attention to him while she is feeding Avery. So fun! He is getting better.

When we first brought Avery home every time Cole saw her he would just smile and laugh. He wanted to hold her and touch her, he also wanted to play so we had to teach him to be soft with her, although his soft is still a little rough. He is going to be a great big brother!

My Cute Little Family!

Cole holding his baby sister

So Precious!

Sharing some gum

How Sweet It Is!

Back in Time

I got a little behind on my posts and I have no idea why! (wink! wink)

Lets back up a few weeks to Saturday, October 25th.

We had our ward Trunk-or-Treat that night so we ventured out to buy decorations for our car and candy for the kiddo's.

You'd think we would have been more prepared but we had other things on the mind.

By the time we got home, got ready, and got to the church we were two hours late. As you could guess everyone was leaving. We missed the WHOLE thing! So now we were stuck with three, HUGE, Sam's Club bags of candy. That was all we needed, the two of us and all that candy! Can you say BIG Butt!

We did get to have the fun of dressing up so the night wasn't a total waste.

Cole got woken up to get into his costume.
As you can see he wasn't very happy.

Once he got a look at himself in the mirror he was happy.



Cutest Monkey I Ever Did See.



Mama pumpkin and her Monkey.



One last shot of my pregnant belly.
This is probably the cutest this costume has ever looked
Tom would agree.
~~~

Halloween night we used the decorations we bought for the Trunk-or-Treat to liven up our front courtyard which turned out good. I just didn't get pictures. Sorry! And it was our last hope for all that candy. Unfortunately we only had five kids come to the house. Looks like it's up to me and Tom to eat it ALL!

Sorry Jen, our teeth are going to be rotten by the time we get in to see you! :) We'll be good and brush.

Pink Squishy Thing?

I know I told some of you I would post some more images yesterday, but for some reason (and I can't put my finger on it) I ran out of time.....don't really know what occupied my time.....

Anyways, some friends of ours, Mana and Annette Vautier (don't ask how to pronounce their last name....you'll get it wrong anyways...haha) were watching Cole for us while we were in the hospital. (Thanks again guys!) On Monday night they brought Cole in to see his new baby sister!
I'm not sure what he was thinking but I'm sure he didn't know what to do about this quiet little pink squishy thing that papa was holding. I don't think he really wanted to get too close to it.
I tried to take his hand and show him how to touch his new little sister "soft", but he was trying pretty hard not to touch her at all. Even after I made him touch her face he still wasn't sure if he was allowed to be this close with her.

First time with his new baby sister.

REALLY didn't want to touch her.



Looking around to see if it's OK to be this close

Since I think Avery is so cute here are some more pictures......don't really have a story to go along with them, but I'm guessing most of you don't really read the posts.....you just like looking at the pretty pictures (and I don't blame you!)

I think Avery heard me call her a pink squish thing.



Now she's whispering to Mama what she thinks of me.



My beautiful girls!



Obligatory picture with Mana "unpronouncable name" Vautier

Baby Avery!

I am letting Dayna take a break from blogging, so that means everyone reading this will get the privilege of reading my first official post! (yeah I'm a little behind the times!)

We are excited to bring you pictures of our new little girl.
She was born earlier today (October 27, 2008) at 1:03 pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz's and she was 20" long. (and the cutest baby girl in the world....sorry everyone else your kids will have to take a back seat in this contest)
Both Dayna and Avery are doing very well. (knock on wood)

Momma holding the new baby!

Quick Summary:

Sunday (Oct 26)

8:30 pm
We arrived at the hospital and got checked in and settled in our room, so they could start the whole process. Once they checked Dayna they realized that they didn't need to strip her membrane since she was having too many contractions already. This means that we didn't really need to come in Sunday night, but since we were there we stayed the night.

Monday (Oct 27)

3:00 am
Dayna was given a regular drip of the petocin to start the induction process.

~6:30 am
Dayna's doctor came in and broke her water. (I'm a little curious how you can break water?!...unless it's frozen.)

~8:00 am
Dayna got her epidural! Yeah! here's a picture of her smiling face right after she got it!

Dayna on cloud 9!
(actually she's on some good drugs)

11:30 am
Dayna starts pushing.

1:03 pm
Avery finally pops out!

Holding onto Papa's finger

Trying to grab Papa's finger with both hands.

~1:15 pm
Papa finally gets to hold his baby girl.

Papa and Daddy's little girl!

~1:40 pm
Mama gets to hold her again.

Mama and Daddy's little girl.

~5:30 pm
We got her back from the Nursery!

Sleepy baby. Sleepy Mama.

Sweet little girl.

5:45 pm
I finished this post!

It's my Turn!

I had another ultra sound today to make sure Avery's head is down and sure enough it is. While I was having that done the tech. decided to check the baby's measurements one last time. She is now measuring at 8lbs. 7oz. Big baby!

The doctor checked my progress again and I was still only dilated to a 1 until she said she could make it a 2 with a little help. So I am now a 2. So nice of her. Then she proceeded to tell me that because the baby is already so big we have two options:

1-let my body go into labor naturally, which could still be awhile, and that most likely it would end up in a c-section because the longer we wait the bigger Avery gets

-or-

2-get induced where it could possibly still end up in c-section but I would have a much better chance of a vaginal delivery.

I chose option 2 since I would like to avoid a c-section as much as possible. Tom and I had already discussed this and I knew how he felt and knew he would be ok with me making that decision without him. So, I am happy to say, at the very latest, as long as I don't miraculously go into labor before then, we will have our baby girl Monday the 27th. We are both very excited!

October 21, 2008

My little sister had her sweet baby boy, Jayden, yesterday @ 6:13pm. He weighed 7lbs. 1oz. and is 20in. long.

My wonderful brother, Travis, took a picture with his cell phone and sent it to me. Jayden is so adorable! Lots of dark hair. Once I figure out how to transfer pictures from my cell phone to the computer I will post his picture.

It was funny because the first thing I thought when I saw the picture was, that looks like Travis. So he must have a lot of Greenhalgh in him.

I am so very happy for my sis, and her hubby but being so far away and not being able to be there with them made me very sad and emotional. I knew it would be hard but not that hard. Thank goodness for the technology we have now that we can share those special moments.

Congratulation on your new little addition
Eric and Dee Dee! We love you!

Just like Christmas!

For all of her grand kids my mom crochets a receiving blanket, fleece blanket, a couple of bibs and couple of burp cloths and I got Avery's in the mail yesterday. They all turned out so cute! I was able to pick out the material our last trip to Utah. I am so excited to be able to use them here soon.

Thanks mom I love them and I know Avery will too.

Yesterday we also got Avery's dresser. This one looks much better, no imprints. USA Baby was very good at getting it to us as quickly as possible and they were very good with costumer service. They took care of everything with no hassle. I would definitely buy from them again.

Now that we have the blankets and dresser, we are now all ready for our baby girl.

Entertaining!

After putting a load of laundry in the washer I went into the bathroom to put on a little bit of make-up. A minute went by and I was trying to listen for Cole thinking it was awful quite. I couldn't hear anything so I went to find him to see what he could possibly be getting into.

It was so funny! When I did find him he was just standing there watching the laundry go round and round in the washer. He loved it!

It amazes me what entertains kids sometimes!

Luv You Bu Bye!

Ever since Ike hit Tom has been working from home because the building he works in had water damage on the 5th floor, the floor he works on, and the 6th floor.

It has been so nice having him home even though he had to be working most of the time. Just having him here was wonderful.

He said he actually got more done being at home than he did being at work only because I knew he needed not to be disturbed, where at work he has a hard time telling the guys, that love to stop by and talk, to GO AWAY!

I think it should become a permanent thing but I really don't see that happening. Oh well, One can wish.

So today he has gone back to his building. No more working from home. So sad! We were hoping it wouldn't be at least until after the baby was born so he didn't have had to take the time off but unfortunately it didn't work out that way. Dang, and so close!

Cole and I will sure miss him around here!

Sad Face!!
(not very pretty)