Big Sister

Avery is now the proud owner of two little brothers, and boy does she own them! She and Adam play so well together, but I frequently hear her tell Adam, "No, bud, you need to obey me". We've had several conversations letting her know that she is not his mother.

These two are inseparable. Adam is forever repeating Avery's phrases, whether or not he understands what he's saying. And he'll often join her in mischievous undertakings, like the time they decided to wash their books. Did I mention some of them were library books?

I'm convinced Adam had no idea what he was doing here, but as long as Avery was involved, he was game:

Of course, when you have a big sister, the inevitable dress up pictures and videos appear:

Let's not forget Avery's newest sibling. She had the privilege of feeding Elliott his first bottle and she was overjoyed.

Elliott is cooing and smiling these days, and whenever Avery is around, he is always obliging with a smile and a few baby noises. He's in love with her already. The feeling, of course, is mutual.

Four Days Earlier

We celebrated Easter just a few days before Elliott was born. It was a crazy week - our fifth anniversary, Easter, and the upcoming birth of our third. Add Paul's workload for school (which was coming to a close for the semester), and both of our heads were spinning. Fortunately, we have dear friends who invited us to their home for Easter, so I didn't have to cook. We had a little hunt after a yummy lunch, and both kids had a great time. You might be able to tell from the pictures that Avery cleaned up in the egg department.

One Month Later

I can't believe a month has already flown by since our little guy was born. We have loved welcoming him into our family life, and he has obliged by fitting right in. Here's a few pictures of him at one month.

Elliott Wesley

Our little guy showed up at 8:06am on April 27th. We're pretty smitten by our youngest son, though we're still in shock that he doesn't have a huge amount of hair. Here's a few pictures of the newest member of the Judd family. I also added a few pics of Elliott meeting Nana and his siblings.

Ready to go!

Off to School

Okay, so Avery isn't actually ready to go to school yet. She's only three, after all. But Paul is back in school taking two online courses a semester (including the summer) for the next three years. He plans to have a masters in library science with a archive specialty by the end of it, which means he'll be qualified to be an archivist. Google it if it confuses you; that's what I had to do. Anyway, as his courses are online, he's been spending several hours a week at Starbucks taking advantage of the free wi-fi and the relative quiet (compared to a household with two toddlers who desperately want Daddy to play with them as soon as he walks in the door).

The other day Avery mentioned how much she'd love to study with Daddy. She's been intrigued by the concept of school for a while, especially riding the bus, so she said, "Maybe when I'm bigger I can go to school too." We decided to indulge her on this particular request, so one Saturday morning I told her she could study with Daddy for a little bit. We packed her backpack with two Dr. Seuss books, a favorite book about flowers, and her notebook and pen (a la Sid the Science Kid). I don't have any pictures of her at Starbucks, although Paul said that she sat right down in her chair and started "writing" in her notebook as soon as she got there. I do have a few of her beaming face before we got into the car on the way to study with Daddy. Poor kid is going to be sorely disappointed when she goes to kindergarten and the classroom is not stocked with a personal barista and all the pastries you could want. We'll cross that bridge...

Our Pitcher

Anyone who knows Paul knows he loves baseball. I think he would have bought Adam a bat, ball and glove the day he was born if he thought it would do any good. Adam seems to have caught the bug of baseball from his dad and loves to throw....all day long. He also loves to imitate pitchers and their windup. I think he's going to love this baseball season. If only he could learn to catch...

Christmas 2010

I thought I'd post my small amount of Christmas pictures before February. Looks like I'll just make it. We had a great time for the entire month of December. I thought about what we could do to create a sense of expectation for Christmas this year, and though I don't have a lot of pictures of every event, I felt like both kids, especially Avery were excited about Christmas as well as the true meaning of Christmas. She seemed to have a great time sharing about the Nativity with her friends and decorating gingerbread houses and cookies throughout the month. It made Christmas morning that more special, because we had all made a point to get excited about the day for weeks.

I inherited some pretty amazing friends when I married Paul. While at Regent, Paul met a group of people who are still close to this day. We invited them and their kids to decorate Christmas cookies with us.

The finished products. They did not last very long!

My parents came up for Christmas, so we waited to put our big gingerbread house together until Christmas Eve. Avery had so much fun with Nana. I wish I had the complete house picture, but it looks like I never took one. Oops!

My brother and I played carols on Christmas Eve. The kids loved listening to the songs

Avery in her tutu and slippers, both Christmas presents

a "new' tricycle

Adam loves sitting in Avery's chair and reading or jumping around in it. Nana Judd gave him his own this year, and he loves it!