This year Avery went Trick-or-Treating with Daddy since Colbie's bedtime was much earlier than Trick-or-Treating. She had a blast with Daddy and Colbie got her rest. Check out our cute Snow White and her stash too!

What a beautiful Snow White we have!

While watching Sesame Street with Avery we saw this video about a girl with very curly hair who has many different styles, just like Avery. It's called, "I Love My Hair." And we hope and encourage Miss A to love her hair because it's beautiful and so is she!

I love Avery's curls, in fact I'd always dreamed about having daughters with curly hair and as you know, I definitely got my wish! For Avery's Halloween costume we wanted to make her hair temporarily straight, so I french braided her hair the night before, then took it out and combed it, which helped and made it a lot less curly for our straightening process.

Here's the hair we started with:

Here are a few pictures of my silly girls together:

Avery (not unlike her mother) is a very silly, animated girl who loves to tell us stories. Here she's telling me about the sculpture garden she checked out with daddy. Enjoy!!!

I know every mom says time flies when it comes to their kids growing up, and it's painful but also exciting. Avery's birthday fell on a Tuesday this year and since we like to have her parties on the weekend I decided that we'd still celebrate on the actual day of her birthday.

And what's a birthday without a cute shirt and even cuter pose.

We started the day off by heading over to Dunkin Donuts to grab some munchkins to eat on our way to our friend's house Noele, Abigail, and William, they were messy but delicious and something we rarely do, but this was a very special day for a beautiful three-year-old.

Once we got to the M family's house we enjoyed some play time and Avery got a fun present....she's faster than the average pre-schooler, stronger than a baby, it's.....Super Aves!!!

For lunch we decided that since we were on the road we'd just grab McDonalds, but it was so not a great choice, first they forgot the happy meal, thank goodness I didn't drive off, after driving around they gave us the Happy Meal and I proceeded to drive home, I don't know why I decided to check close to home, but right before we got to our exit I opened the Happy Meal and saw that there were no nuggets in the box....oh Lord!! Long story short Avery ended up with 2 extra nuggets and a couple bags of cookies for our trouble, at least!

Avery is mostly a girlie girl, like her mommy, and I love every minute of it, so another birthday treat was nail painting. Avery received 2 Hello Kitty cards for her day and they included nail stickers...here's the finished product with our favorite Piggy Paint, you would think that they would make the stickers smaller for kid fingers....just a thought.

I wanted to go somewhere kid fun for Avery to have dinner so we figured what better place than Red Robin...as soon as we walked in the big Red Robin scared Avery so much that she tried to run out of the restaurant and almost got trapped by the huge closing door, we calmed her down and asked if she wanted to stay and she said yes, but I think she's really more brave than anything and we knew she would not have a good time if we stayed so we went to her favorite....Chick-Fil-A, she got a cute cow and balloon from the staff and enjoyed her food.



Avery had an awesome birth day, also got two sessions of Little Gym, dance clothes, tap and ballet shoes, a Barbie carrier, some fun puzzles, an outfit and lots more on the day of her birthday, we hope the day of her party is as much fun for her.

Happy birthday beautiful girl, we can't believe you're so big already. You're so smart, you light up our lives, and make us laugh. You're crazy and have an amazing heart, I want to be like you when I grow up!! Mommy, Daddy, and Sissy love you with all of our hearts!

Avery is absolutely in love with Colbie and it melts my heart. She is so gentle with her little sister and is always wanting to touch, kiss, and hold her. Avery says Colbie is very delicate and even says (to Colbie,) "it's okay sweetheart." Sooooo sweet, I can't even stand it! Here are a few pictures of the sisters:

Wow where has the time gone? In August we were announcing that we were going to be parents again, and now we have 4 more days until baby Colbie makes her entrance into the world. We've been trying to make sure the house is clean and as organized as possible to make bringing home baby less stressful.

We've also been trying to have fun and enjoy being a family of three. We had out last dinner out the other night, and Avery has been tearing off paper chain links since 15 days before Colbie's birth day. Can you believe we're already down to 4???

Wow has time really flown, we only have 2 more weeks until Colbie joins the Bullock family. It's insane this time around how fast things have gone and before we know it we'll be a family of four.

We've been preparing for Colbie's arrival setting up friends and family to come help us with Avery and recovery in general and my mom's group has amazingly offered to make some meals for our family as well. Again, super blessed.

Well, what have we been up to??

Recently I became a member of our church, Christ Community Church because I know it will be much harder to attend the 3.5 hour session once little girl comes. I've also been trying to make sure all closets, pantry, storage areas, and rooms are as organized as possible. I can be particular in the way I want things but it really does help save me time and energy if I know where everything is or can at least describe it to others.

All the baby clothes are washed and it really is crazy holding them up and being reminded of baby Avery. It seems like so long ago!!

Not only are we trying to get ready for Colbie, but I'm trying to do a few things to prepare for Easter and Avery's 3rd birthday because again, I know it will be much harder once the baby is here. We will definitely not be holding one of our huge kid birthday parties this year, but I think Avery will have a blast regardless. I still can't believe she'll be 3 although at times she acts much older.

Avery has been a computer wiz these days, she loves Sprout Online and Hooked on Phonics and is able to use the mousepad and type all by herself. We're very impressed, then again look at her web daddy and blogging parents :)

I know every parent thinks their child is the smartest kid on the block. Well, Joel and I are no exception. Since the moment our little Avery was born we noticed how observant she was for a newborn. She'd check everyone out in the hospital, looking around, seemingly studying their every word and movement.

Since her arrival we've noticed she has an extremely good memory and picks up on things, colors, letters, whatever we teach her relatively fast. She walked at 10 months, which is not extremely early but in the earlier than the average child, started talking a bunch around 15 months, not like one of the "Your Baby Can Read" kids but to us she's pretty smart.

Here are some signs of giftedness:

Birth – 2 years

Early expressions (e.g. smiling)
Unusual alertness
Interest in books (turning pages of books before 1 year of age and paying attention when read to within 6 months)
Interest in computers
Unusually active and high levels of energy (but not hyperactive)
Playing with shape sorters by about 11 months.
Ability to form two word phrases by 14 months
Ability to understand instructions by 18 months
Ability to say and understand many words before 18 months
Could stay still and enjoy a TV programs (e.g., Sesame Street) by the age of 1
Has favorite TV shows/VCD/DVDs by age 1
Appears to require less sleep (yet not sleepy or irritable due to lack of sleep)
Recognition of letters/alphabets by age 2
Recognition and rote counting of numbers 1 – 10 or higher by age 2
Recognition of colors by age 2
Recognition of first word by age 2
Interest in puzzles by age 2
Has long attention span in interest areas by age 2
Ability to form at least 3 word sentence by age 2
Interest in time by age 2
2 – 4 years

The following includes all/most skills in the checklist above.
Early and extensive language development and vocabulary, forms grammatically correct sentences as compared to peers
Interest in computers (not video games)
Ability to solve a 20-piece puzzle by age 3
Has a vivid imagination (includes having imaginary friends)
Extraordinary feats of memory
Extreme curiosity and asks many questions
Specific talent (if any), such as artistic ability or an unusual facility for numbers - becomes more apparent by age 4
Ability to memorize and recall facts easily
Early development of a sense of humor
Ability to do one-to-one counting for small quantities by age 3
Recognition of simple signs and own written name by age 3
Ability to write letters, numbers, words, and their names between 3 and 4 years
Ability to read easy readers by age 4
Rather independent on the computer by age 4
Demonstration of musical aptitude just after 2
Ability to do simple addition and subtraction by age 4
High degrees of mathematical understanding by age 4
The above checklist is at best regarded as a rough guide and bear in mind that not all of the skills and age guide mentioned is absolute. Some children may demonstrate these abilities at a younger age and some may be older and yet classified as advanced learners. However, this can be a good guide to look out for signs of early advanced development in children and provide the necessary platform for them to flourish.

As for Avery, she's certainly an active kid, but can focus and concentrate on certain things. She loves art and draws faces, with eyes, ears, cheeks, hair and the rest all the time. She has always loved books and pretends to read them to us sometimes. She has been a pretty chatty baby, toddler and now preschooler and even amazed our Pediatrician with her vocabulary, which to me, says a lot.

The doctor also called her percotious, which I thought was mischevious, but it actually means being exceptionally early in development or occurrence or exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age. We found that although difficult for us to deal with, Avery would always say words to ask questions and if we did not answer them she would persist and need that affirmation before she talked about anything else.



She's a very very inquisitive girl, asking what people's names are that she sees in the stores, asking why certain things are the way they are, or what small things are.

Avery loves watching television and I don't think it's because she's a couch potato, I really believe she understands what is happening in the shows, and even at an early age would discuss the show with me.

She definitely has never been a sleeper, and that is a listed in the signs of early giftedness. I'm assuming because they want to be up learning/playing. I guess I should be happy for my lack of sleep because of this.

We were amazed that Avery knew all of her colors, some shapes, and how to sing her ABCs before age 2.

A few strange things that put us in awe of Avery is that even before she was 2 she knew the difference between boys and girls and would tell us that Mickey was a boy and Strawberry Shortcake were girls and even label strangers on the street and be correct all the time. Avery also remembers things from when she was 1 that I would have a hard time remembering.  She even noticed as we were in line picking up our Santa photo that the Santa on the products was not the Santa we'd seen. (I think we may be in trouble)

Avery is such a ham and always loves to trick us, steal our seats, she loves being silly so definitely has a sense of humor.

Avery knows all of her letters (occasionally forgetting a G or a K here and there) she also likes to write O's, T's, H's and X's. Loves drawing smiley faces with hair, cheeks, ears, eyes, nose, smile, sometimes a beard. Her favorite thing is to make up characters on the computer (paint.net) with daddy. We play with the library computers too and they're a lot of fun. Avery has started to become very good with the mouse these days.

Avery has memorized her age, what state she lives in, what state her grandparents live in, both of our names, how to spell her name, what my, Joel's and her birthdays are, (Month and Date), her numbers through 14.

Knows her numbers on her hand, and also will add her fingers (ie 1 and 1 = 2)

Avery loves music, any instrument, she's drawn to piano, played the harmonica and was VERY into it. Will chew, hum, clap to the beat of a song. Anything for a little rhythm with this girlie!

She's a little bit of a perfectionist, lining her shoes up, having certain things in certain spots, getting upset if something is not done in her order. Maybe I would say she's particular instead. :) That's okay mommy has a little bit of that in her too :)

I was a gifted child and in the gifted program at school starting at grade 3 and hubby was smart, after all he married me.

So what will we do with this talent? Well, we'll nurture it and help her grow as much as we can. At this time we don't have the money for pre-school but at the same time I feel right now I'm giving her everything and more than what she would/could be learning plus more hands on time. She's getting the socialization from our friends and many play dates so I'm not worried about that either.

We're surrounded by some very smart kids and awesome parents too so that's a blessing for us. We're so glad that God has put this beautiful, bright little girl into our lives and made us her parents.

We just got about 3 to 4 inches of snow with a bit of ice mixed in. Unfortunately, all of the stores were sold out of sleds so Jenn and I had to improvise. I figured a large storage bin lid would work. And then Jenn came up with the idea of using a jump rope as a way to drag it. The hill in our backyard was a bit to steep to sled down safely with Avery, but she loved getting rides around the yard and neighborhood.

I was excited to show Avery the wonders of snow building. Snowballs, snow forts, snowmen, etc. But, the icy, crunchy snow wasn't good for building anything. Or so we thought. We made snow towers by stacking the plates of snow. We made one for each member of the family. It was fun to get outside and play in the snow.

Last weekend we planned on taking Avery to Build-A-Bear to say goodbye to Paci, however she got sick and we didn't feel like it was good timing to take her Paci away from her when she was ill. So, today we are having our Hello Kitty, Bye Bye Paci "party" at Build-A-Bear.

We invited a few friends to make the event even more special, and perhaps encourage others to get rid of theirs too. I got the idea from a mom website, and boy let me tell you there are about a million ways to get rid of Paci from snipping the end to the Binky Fairy.


Since Avery got a Hello Kitty DVD from her Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Stacy she has loved Hello Kitty. She has a few dollar store jewelry items that are Hello Kitty, and some Hello Kitty stickers that she gets to put on her Bed Chart if she stays in bed at night. So when I saw Hello Kitty at Build-A-Bear I knew this would be the way to go.

We've been prepping Avery for a while now telling her that we are going to get Hello Kitty and put her Paci inside and she will not be able to get it out, but she will be able to keep Hello Kitty with her whenever she wants. She has said a few times that she's excited and is a big girl and wants to get rid of Paci and even though she only uses it at nap and night time (and even then typically it falls out,) we're still a little nervous as to how well she'll do without it, but we feel it's time and she certainly understands it's time to say, "goodbye."

This Hello Kitty is very special, it is the 35th Anniversary Hello Kitty and even comes with a necklace for Kitty or Avery to wear. Avery was very adamant about getting Hello Kitty from the time we suggested giving up Paci.

The Big Party


I had invited a few friends from my mom's groups to join us in celebrating Avery's big day. Unfortunately some of them couldn't make it, but we still had a great turn out of Avery's friends, some who built their own animal and others who bought accessories for the pets they already had. You're welcomed Build-A-Bear!

Fortunately, and even though it was a weekend, BAB wasn't too busy, we did have a small party ahead of us but that gave us more time to remind Avery why we were getting Hello Kitty in the first place. Once it was her turn she gave the man Kitty, told him her name and got to step on the pedal to "fill Hello Kitty's Belly." I think at this point Avery was enjoying herself but being a little shy since she didn't know the man who worked there.

She listened to his instructions about warming up Kitty's heart and making a wish very intently. Of course you don't want to make a mistake when you're creating a new life! After she placed the heart inside Kitty she then took her Paci put it inside Hello Kitty without a second thought and said, "Bye, bye." We tried to make it a huge deal and were very excited and proud of her.

Afterwards we did the routine BAB things, like washing her Kitty off, picking out clothes (can't have a naked Kitty!), and printing out her birth certificate. Avery even gave her Kitty a big kiss, although I think she was a little confused as to why Kitty doesn't have a mouth.

We got a chance to play in the mall play area with our friends and even had a fun lunch at the food court, one of Avery's favorites, Chick-Fil-A.

All in all Avery did a great job of saying goodbye to her Paci and was excited to become such a big girl.

Check out some of the video we got of Avery washing her Kitty and taking good care of her.

The Many Styles of Avery B. Well not so much her styles but the styles of her hair. I used to pray that her short somewhat wavy hair would be long enough for me to do something with it and now that it's not a mini-fro anymore, actually it's an entity of it's own sometimes, I can do more with it.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, are the Many Styles of Avery B.....

We hope you've enjoyed the viewing of the Avery's styles and plan on having more to come with Avery and probably once little Colbie has long enough hair her too!