Planes, Games and Automobiles

So, the last couple weeks we've been traveling quite a bit. After making some "pinkalicious" cupcakes, I flew to Chicago for work and Mike took the girls over to Moscow, ID for the weekend.

While in Chicago, I got in some sightseeing with work colleagues including the "cloud sculpture" and the Art Institute.

I flew in from Chicago to Moscow, just in time to cheer Mike (and various family members and friend, Brad) on for the Bloomsday race in Spokane, WA.

The weekend included a visit to the Moscow Rennaisance fair, complete with paper dragon, a bungee jumping thing that Avery LOVED and a great craft booth section.

We got back from Moscow just in time to fly to California and see my side of the family!

SUN, SAM, and SHOWERS

What a respite California was . . .beautiful, sunny days surrounded by family. Wonderful. The trip would have been perfect if Mike had joined us, but he was busy remodeling the house, organizing the garage and waxing my car (so, yes, basically I'm the luckiest girl ever). Anyway . . .one of the first things we did was hit the beach, which the girls loved. Elliot's favorite thing was to eat handfuls of sand and then smile a big, sandy grin. Avery stayed firmly planted at waters edge and played with the waves and sand.

The NEXT day we went swimming, and the girls both had their own floaty toys. Although, you may have guessed, Elliot's dolphin quickly became Avery's property as well. Oddly, both of the girls got sunburned at the pool and not at all at the beach.

The main attraction of the trip was to see little Sam, the newest addition to the Cusworth clan. Sam was just the cutest little smush of a baby and made Elliot look all grown up. He was so much fun.
Our "Sam-I-Am" Dr. Suess baby shower for Leah and Hank.


Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Leah had her baby ONE MONTH ago. Who would have guessed :)

LIONS!
AND TIGERS!
AND BEARS!

OH MY!!

The girls and I ventured out to the zoo last Friday because the day was amazing and beautiful. We spent about four hours exploring all the nooks and crannies we'd missed on other trips due to yucky weather. Avery's favorite was the "spooky" house with bats, spiders, alligators and turtles. We ended the day by relaxing on a large lawn in the farm animal section and Avery did some of her "kicks and punches." I had to take a picture of Elliot next to the gorillas because she has a signature gorilla move she'll do by hitting her tummy and laughing. (I think she's a little cuter than a gorilla, although I suppose the gorilla wouldn't think so)!

The "Daffodil" Festival

The Hammonds and our family went to the tulip festival a couple Saturdays ago - and were in time to see fields upon fields of daffodils blooming. But the tulips weren't quite "out" yet. It was still a fun day, and we found a trick for avoiding the crowds that we can use on subsequent years. And, no, I'm not going to tell :)

Elliot is pretty close to crawling! This is her new "push up" move.

Easter Fun

Last Saturday, I took the girls to the Mill Creek "Eggstravaganza" because it has a reputation for being the best around. I felt a little guilty since our taxes don't support Mill Creek AND because I forgot to bring the voluntary canned food donation. But then I shopped at the local Central Market afterwards and felt a little better. Our friends the Kilmers told us about it and we met them there.

Phoebe and Avery with their stash.

There was crazy face painting at the Eggstravaganza as well AND a princess bouncy house. Good times.

Easter best.


Mike had the assignment of hurridly taking some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses ten minutes prior to church, while I was dashing around madly putting on make up and clothes upstairs. I think he did a good job, considering. He got the Easter baskets in there and everything!

Later that day, the Hammonds came over for Easter dinner. The Williams were going to come as well, but got hit with the stomach flu. More eggs for these three . . .

Pretty Pictures!

Just wanted to post a couple new pictures of the girls taken by our friend, Holly, last week.

Spring has sprung! Or is trying to drag itself slowly out of a deep, dank hole. Either one :)

Sunday was a beautiful day and allowed us the opportunity to take our first hike of 2009! We chose a hike in Robe Canyon that wends its way through some very furry trees and then down by the river. Avery had a little cell phone in her pocket that would occasionally "ring" (only she could hear it), and so she'd pick it up and say "Oh hi Hanna. No . . .no . . no, I SAID I DON'T want to go . . .okay . . .bye." "That was just Hannah, mom." Oh good, Avery, now can we get back to the hiking? :)

And we're off!

Sitting in a backpack can sure wear you out! Elliot was a real trooper since the backpack was pretty bumpy.

Avery had great fun climbing on all the rocks.

Slugs and Pigs

Last Saturday (or was it the one before?), the girls and I met up with some friends at Seattle's Green Festival. The picture below is of Avery listening to a song about slugs. Unfortunately, the presenters didn't sing about how to kill them. THAT would have been useful information. !

Elliot and Mike had the same attention span when it came to listening to conference.

Avery, Mike and I had a fun evening playing with play-doh the other day. Both Mike and I constructed pigs (mine pink, his yellow) and we both felt that our pig was superior to the other's pig. Good values for our child to witness, I know.

HA!

DYING

First, I want to announce that my sister Leah had her baby this morning!! Little Sam. It's very exciting and everyone is doing great.

So, apart from the wonderful news of Sam's birth, yesterday and today have been a little trying because Mike's been gone quite a bit lately for various work and church things. And I've been trying to get caught up with work and house stuff and so I've been a little on edge. Of course, I TRY to be patient and understanding as a mother, as much as possible, but sometimes your rope just breaks, right?! So, this afternoon, I asked Avery to go put some socks on so we could get out and run some errands before offices starting closing, etc. I'm running around getting stuff together and walk by Avery's room and notice that she's half naked and has thrown all of her socks and underwear all over her room. So I just look at her, groan and cover my eyes, and Avery says "Mom . . . are you dying?" !

Girls

Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks. Avery and Elliot in matching dresses from Mama Nell. Avery wanted to wear her dress to her school and then wanted Elliot to match.

Just nine months + six months in the making. I finally got frustrated enough with myself to finish the blanket I started for Elliot before she was born. The fuzzy stuff was the main deterrent to finishing . . .the stuff sheds like crazy and everytime I'd take all the quilting stuff out, our house would look like a chicken coop. The blanket ended up about half the size I originally intended, but I'm just happy it's done! And I think it turned out pretty cute too :)

Avery reading to Mike in her fort.

Avery's quotes of the day:

Mom: "Avery! You can pretend you're a caterpillar and sleep in your cocoon the WHOLE night and wake up as a butterfly"

Avery: : "Oh! I can sleep in my cocoon for . . .TWO MINUTES! And then fly around like this!" (as she jumps on her bed)

Mom: "Isn't dad so handsome Avery?"

Avery: "Um . . .I just think dad's a little funny."

More Avery-isms

Avery is pretty much constantly saying funny, weird things. So I have to make sure I consciously save and re-tell some of them so we can remember this comedic phase.

Lately Avery has really enjoyed taking showers. And, as I was starting up a shower for her the other day she excitedly asked "Can I take a shower mom?!" "Yes, Avery, you can." "Oh mom! I can take a shower because I'm stinky . . like you!":

Avery is also queen of the bedtime delay tactics. I had some friends over to watch movies, so I was kind of hurridly getting her into bed. She wanted to stay up and was desperately trying to think of all sorts of things she needed or had to do before going to bed. So, we said a prayer, and I got her some water in the specific cup she needed, but she didn't want to water from the tap because that was "to brush teeth, " she wanted water from the fridge. "Avery, the water from the sink is just fine. It's time to go to bed. " "Okay mom, just . . .just . . . just . . . mom? What does water look like?"

It's also cute to play hide and go seek with Avery because she almost invariably hides under the covers of her or our bed, and then when you come into the room she starts laughing uncontrollably and says "I'm in here!"

A few weeks ago, Mike took Avery with him to our friend Kyle's coffee/snack stand and got Avery a "creamcicle" drink and himself a hot chocolate. So, yesterday, he takes Avery to lunch with Kyle and they stop by the stand and Mike orders a "creamcicle " drink again. Kyle asks if he wants anything else and Mike says, no, he'll just share with Avery. At this, Avery looks a little concerned and then says, half laughingly, "Dad, heh heh, you're supposed to get hot chocolate . . .like last time."

By the way, something screwy is going on with the comments. It says there are zero, but they are showing up in another file somewhere. So, sorry if that's confusing. But I do see them and they're fun to read :)

Most content baby ever award

Walker Visit

I tried to embed a slideshow because I have about 30 pictures from the Walker's visit last weekend, but after I pasted it in, it was taking forever to download the blog. So, I opted for picking out the highlights instead :) Oh my goodness, how lucky did we get with the weather? I was so glad because on all of Heather's previous visits to Seattle it was rainy and bleh. Friday was glorious, and it was wonderful to have everyone visiting to give me the excuse to go outside and fully enjoy it! As you can see in the pictures below, we went to the sculpture park and the Seattle Center. A butterfly actually landed on Avery's finger in the science museum and I snapped the picture just in time! On Saturday, Sandy and I took the girls to a tot symphony performance and we then met up with everyone for lunch in Bellevue before they all headed back to Idaho.

Moscow

On Feb 20th we drove out to Moscow to spend the weekend with Mike's parents and brother and his family (Chris, Heather and Olivia!). It was a quick trip, but we were able to squeeze in a trip to the padded playground at the mall and some crafting at a pottery shop. Avery was SO excited because she got to stay with her Grandma and Grandpa when Mike, Elliot and I went back to Lake Stevens on Sunday. To be honest, we were a little concerned at how nonchalant Avery was about us driving 300 miles away. "You can go now mom!" Everyone else came out to Lake Stevens the following Wednesday because Monte and Chris had meetings in Seattle. Avery did give us hugs when she saw us again, so, whew!

Real Food

Here is Elliot's first taste of rice cereal. I'm sure there are some other moms (and maybe some dads out there) that get as emotional over the first bite as I do. For some reason, it feels like the first time my baby is exposed to the impurities of the outside world; nevermind that she's been sucking on everything in site (thumb, not so clean pacifiers, ancient toys) since birth. She took right to it, though, and maybe when I reflect more on it, I dread the first bite because it's the beginning of MUCH more complicated eating routines compared to nursing :)