Happy 2nd Birthday Avalon!

Avalon turned two years old today! Recently, when people ask us "how old is Avalon," we say "she is almost two." So it's hard to believe that we can now say "she is two." Wow!

As you can see in the picture above, Jarad and I received the best present today! :) She actually found this bow and put it on herself. Too cute!

For her birthday today, we taught her that when people ask her "How old are you?," she should say "I'm 2." And now she does, it's very cute! And, of course, we have a video to prove it.


Other things we did to celebrate her birthday today...well, basically, we let her decide what she wanted to do and since it was raining...

we watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (this her favorite chair for watching Mickey Mouse),



played the penguin game on the Wii (over and over),




ate one of her favorite meals...Mac and Cheese and Peas,


played with some of Jarad's old toys (pretty cool),


and played with her new sticker books (I don't have a picture of this so I included another cute picture I took today instead after she asked me to take her clothes off).


We also had a small birthday party in Moorhead and one in Duluth, but I'll post another blog about these parties another day.

Grandma and Grandpa visit

After Jarad's parents left, Camille's parents came to visit and help out for about two and a half weeks total. So we had additional help here until Archer was about 5 weeks old, which was wonderful! Archer became more alert during this time; however, when he was awake he was crying a lot of the time, so it was really great to have more help.

Camille's parents helped in lots of ways including cooking meals, cleaning the entire house, doing the dishes, watering the garden, getting up with Avalon in the morning, playing with her during the day, giving her baths, holding Archer and trying to help us figure out how to get him back to sleep so he would stop crying. Again, the list goes on and on. Thank you both so much for all your help!

Here are some pictures we took while they were visiting:

Holding Archer:



An afternoon at the beach. The gang taking a rest while Avalon plays at the park:





Grandpa up to his old tricks (he used to swing Avalon like this all the time to get her to stop crying):


Grandma bought Avalon a new doll with lots of accessories including diapers, a bottle, a pacifier, etc. She loves to do all the things that mommy and daddy are doing, so this doll is great!


Grandpa and Avalon:


Grandma and Avalon:


Grandma and Grandpa take Avie and Archie for a walk:



Almost everyday Grandpa and Avalon would go for a ride in the wagon. Here they stop to take a rest:


Most of the time the wagon ride would then turn into a walk as Avalon always wanted to get out and walk:


Grandma and Archer at the zoo:




Grandpa and Avalon watching the penguins swim at the zoo. This is the longest Avalon has ever stayed and watched one animal during all of our visits to the zoo. We actually had to pull her away. The penguin was making bubbles in the water, which she loved!


Grandpa watering the garden:


Grandma also brought Avalon an Elmo sticker book. She just loves sticker books!


Grandpa pushes Avalon on the big swing:


Avalon helps Grandpa with Grandma suitcase. She is quite the little helper now.