Aw Shucks, It's The Bullocks

Miss A's First Day of School

2011-08-24T01:28:00.002-04:00

Avery had her first day of Pre-K today! She has been very very nervous about it, saying she's not sure that she wants to go, but after a full morning I went to pick her up and saw a smiley, red faced (from recess) cute girl. So I'd say it was a success!

She told us about how she finger painted a rainbow, complete with clouds, was assigned the Paper Passer for her class "job" and sits in between the only 2 boys in the class, OH MY!! :) Luckily, she has a good friend that she knows from Little Gym in her class so she already had a friend going in. Plus half of the students are biracial or multi-cultural. Hooray for diversity!

I'll post more pictures once we get our big laptop back from the "Shop", but here's one I took with my phone this morning of Avery with her uniform on. Luckily I got her to wear her black shoes instead of her white and pink sneakers. She also made Colbie dress in her school colors, I guess it's official, Colbie's the GCA mascot.

Happy Father's Day Daddy

2011-06-19T00:50:00.005-04:00

Happy Father's Day, Love your Girls

Dear Daddy,

We love you, you are the best daddy ever. I like it when I get to ride the lawnmower with you and go to Lowes too. You are the best block builder and make great zoos for my animals. Thank you for loving me, being silly with me, and helping me to be brave.

I love you,

Avery

Dear Dada,

You are so silly! Thank you for feeding me snacks. I love to lay my head on your shoulder and give you kisses. I like waving bye-bye and blowing kisses to you when you go to work. You are my favorite daddy.

I love you,

Colbie

A Dollie for Me

2010-11-05T23:54:00.003-04:00

The girls received these oh-so-cute dolls from Nana for their dedication on September 29, 2010. They're made by my friend Kiley here at: Hidden in My Heart's Etsy site and the girls fell in love with them.

And the Dollies are making friends all around the Bullock house.

Avery's How To's - How to Rock a Mohawk

2010-11-04T23:33:00.000-04:00

As you all know Miss A has a number of different hairstyles, this new one was a request:

Step 1: Pull all the hair back while strumming your air guitar

Step 2. Turn to the side and shake it all around!

Step 3. And rock on like a rock star!

**This has been a message from Avery's How-Tos and is sponsored by Avery**

November Pics

2010-11-03T22:55:00.002-04:00

Just thought I'd post some of our favorite pictures from November, check out our beautiful girls.

Avery got to wear her Halloween Costume to Little Gym class!

Loving the milk dribble!

Silly girls!

Return to NOVA

2010-11-01T22:34:00.000-04:00

Joel's new job asked him to go to McLean, Virginia to do some training, so we felt like it would be a great opportunity to go back and visit Northern VA (NOVA), especially since we hadn't been back since we last moved down, right after Avery was born. So that was over 3 years ago, that's a long time!!

While we were there we stayed at Windsor where I used to work and got to see all of the changes at Shirlington. It was surreal for me because I remembered visiting all of the shops and restaurants when I was pregnant with Avery and here I was visiting now with 2 children, those are pretty big changes.

We also got to see some amazing people, a few of my previous residents who I adored and our favorite Grillo girls, some of my old coworkers at HCMW and Windsor, and one of Joel's groomsmen, Mike.

Aside from rushing to leave shortly after Trick-or-Treating, the trip was amazing!! It made me miss living there, but only for a minute, then we were stuck in the usual traffic and I remembered there's no way I would have been able to be a stay-at-home mom if we were still up there.

But here are a few of our favorite pics from the trip! Enjoy!!!

Trick-or-Treat

2010-10-31T22:17:00.000-04:00

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!

Roly Poly Girl

2010-10-24T22:13:00.000-04:00

Check out this adorable baby, she's on a roll!!

Doesn't she look cute in blue???

Pumpkins Times Four

2010-10-23T02:45:00.000-04:00

We went to our favorite pumpkin patch this year: Carrigan Farms It has been our family tradition for the past 3 years and we were not disappointed. This was our first year bringing Colbie (outside the womb!!) and although it was a tad chilly we had a blast, check out our pictures from the hayride, pumpkin picking and our favorites, the petting zoo!

Pumpkins picked!!

A great time had by all!

I Love My Hair

2010-10-22T02:41:00.002-04:00

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!

What do you think of the video?? What's your favorite hair style?

Just Like Mommy

2010-10-20T02:26:00.002-04:00

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:

A little more progress, luckily Avery is great at holding still for me to do her hair.

A little sass from behind :)

And the finished product, a happy little girl that looks just like momma and perfect for Halloween, but we still love her curly hair!

Video Update

2010-10-19T02:13:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to post a few videos of the girls, this first one is Avery playing on the iPod, she loves it and there are so many Apps (applications/games) that I have downloaded to help her spell, learn new words, and even mathematics!

Here Colbie is, laughing at Avery's dollie, she loved how the eyes opened and closed, can you tell how much she liked it??

Yummy Apple

2010-10-17T02:04:00.000-04:00

Check out this delicious apple that I picked up, it's the sweetest apple I've even seen, and pretty plump too :)

My gorgeous little apple!

Look at those beautiful eyes!

The paci says it all

The end

Bottle...Psych!!

2010-10-16T01:59:00.000-04:00

We have been having the hardest time with Colbie taking a bottle. She doesn't want to have anything at all to do with bottles. This means it's 24/7 mommy time, which I love but at the same time it'd be nice to get a little more freedom and allow Daddy to have some quality time feeding her as well.

I decided to give her the top of the bottle, nipple and all and got excited because she started sucking on it. Hooray!!

Psych!!!!!!

Just kidding mommy, I still don't like bottles!

Oh well, we'll keep working on it...

A House Hunting Weekend

2010-10-15T01:49:00.003-04:00

Grandmom and Papa Bullock came down to North Carolina to check out some houses in the area. In case you didn't know they've been thinking of moving so they can be closer to the grandchildren and we're pretty excited about the prospect of having family close by. While they were in town we had a little bit of time to spend with them, it's never enough.

Grandmom and Avery had so much fun putting puzzles together, they did such a great job with this dinosaur one!

Daddy looks happy and Colbie looks shocked, but they were having a blast playing on the floor.

Our two entertainers! Two peas in a pod!!

Until their next visit, maybe that time they'll fall in love with a house close by!

Silly Sisters

2010-10-14T01:31:00.000-04:00

As Colbie gets older her love for her big sister grows, and they are hilarious to watch together. It just melts my heart that Colbie's eyes light up and she squeals whenever Avery enters the room and Avery loves being the big sister (although sometimes a little too much of a mommy), and really cares about her sissy.

Avery loves to entertain Colbie and making her laugh is one of her favorite things to do. Avery says, "Ga, Ga" to Colbie a lot and I'm pretty sure one day Colbie is going to call Avery, "Ga, Ga."

Here are a few pictures of my silly girls together:

I'm tired!

The musical duet by The Bullock Sisters

I hope you two beautiful girls get along this well when you're older. I can't wait for you to play together more and start talking with each other, in English that is.

Dedication

2010-10-03T02:20:00.000-04:00

Now that Joel and I have found a "home church" and are members of Christ Community Church, we decided that we wanted both of the girls to be dedicated. A few people we've come across aren't exactly sure what being "dedicated" means.

Our church says this about dedication and the difference from baptism:

"At Christ Community, we wait until children are old enough to believe and understand the true meaning of salvation and baptism before we baptize them.

Some churches practice a "baptism of confirmation" for children. This ceremony is intended to be a covenant between the parents and God on behalf of the child. The parents promise to raise their child in the faith until the child is old enough to make his own personal confession of Christ. This custom began about 300 years after the Bible was completed and is not found in the Bible.

This custom is different from baptism as mentioned in the Bible because scriptural baptism is only for those old enough to believe. The purpose is to publicly confess your personal commitment to Christ.

At Christ Community, we have a dedication service for infants and children that emphasize the parent's role in raising a child to follow Christ."

Basically, we decided we would like the world to know (and help us) that we want to raise our daughters in a Christian home and try to be the best Christian examples that we can be to them. We are giving them to God and pray that they will in their own time decide they want to follow Jesus, but we believe that that will be their choice to make and should they choose Christianity then we would love for them to be baptized.

Unfortunately the service was during the week and at night so many of our family and friends were unable to make it being out of state but we had two amazing families, that we're very close to and we hold dear in our hearts who showed up to support our decision and be there for us and the girls. Thanks so much McKinley's and Woerner's!! (That's your shout out ;) )

Here are some pictures of us and our Pastor Jack, we love him!! And some of us and our children.

Enjoy some photos of this amazing event! 9-29-2010

(Coincidentally all of our children are very close in age, Avery is the oldest, Abigail is the middle, Abbey and Bryce are the youngest of the "Big Kids," then Colbie is the oldest of the babies, Noele's son (who was at home) William is the middle baby and Chayse is the youngest baby and yes we were all pregnant at the same time, with all of our children!)

Thankful

2010-10-03T01:57:00.003-04:00

Everyone knows it doesn't have to be the month of November or even Thanksgiving Day to be Thankful in their lives, I am truly blessed that God has chosen me to be the mommy to these two beautiful, amazing, delightful little girls.

There are some things in life that just can't be captured with a camera or words and for those memories God gave us minds. Unforuntately even those, with time I'm afraid will not preserve my exact memories. And no matter how hard I try to grasp those memories I know they too will slip away.

So, I'm enjoying every moment. From the smell of Colbie's hair after bath, to going into their rooms each night to make sure they're safe and sound, watching them laugh and smile at each other because they love their sister, the feel of Avery's crazy wonderful hair and deciding each day what new fun thing to do with it, the delight in Avery's eyes when I ask her to help me in the kitchen, and the giggles from baby Colbie as I tickle her tummy.

Nothing can compare, I'm so thankful for those moments, so thankful that I am able to stay at home with my little ones, I get those moments, to hold onto, to cherish, to smile and cry about, at least for a little while. So here's to my girls, my beautiful little girls, they're so different and unique and I love you both with all of my heart!

Teeth, Sitting, and Just Plain Pretty

2010-10-01T01:21:00.001-04:00

Colbie turned 6 months on the 26th of this month. 6 MONTHS!!! Personally, I am going crazy, I can't believe my little baby is already half a year old, someone please make time freeze. It's hard imagining that this is our last baby, our last of the firsts. So I really want her to slow down with growing up, but she just won't.

Colbie has been begrudgingly trying solid foods, but she really doesn't like them. She'd rather just babble and play, see:

Last month two pearly white foreign objects appeared in her mouth and I tried to deny that they were teeth. At 5 months, she's not supposed to get them earlier than Avery for goodness sakes! I tried to get a shot of them so many times and was finally successful:

Two teeth, front and center!

And now my pretty, little baby...is.....sitting up?? What's next? College?? Marriage?? Children?? Please can someone tell her it's okay to slow down?

Even though I don't want her to grow up, here's to my beautiful 6 month old baby! I love you sweet Colbie and am delighted at all of the things you've done already in these past 6 months, including stealing my heart.

Story Time

2010-09-30T01:02:00.000-04:00

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!!!

Bullocks in Asheville

2010-09-29T00:12:00.001-04:00

If you read my MommyB Knows Best blog (and you should if you're not!!), you'll know that this past weekend we visited Asheville, NC for a blog conference. Joel was an amazing husband and brought the girls and me so that I could attend the conference (since Colbie's still not taking the bottle.)

The conference was on Friday, so we decided that Saturday we'd enjoy Asheville as we ventured home. We got to see a lot of great places including a very Biltmore-esque Grove Park Inn. We got a peek inside the resort and it was beautiful. Maybe someday we'll save enough to actually stay there!! While we were there we also visited some of the cool museums and art studios, it was so eclectic and fun, I kind of wished we lived there, but I know the nutty-crunchy inhabitants would probably scoff at my disposable diapers and mini-van *LOL*

Here are some pictures of fun, art, and cars in Grove Park:

Grove Park Inn and Resort, it's much nicer in person I swear!

Avery and the Model-T Ford

Joel loved this place

Random Bathtub in the Antique Car Museum....eerie!

Miss A and the beautiful Butterfly Bench, doesn't she look like a butterfly?

Cool metal flower sculpture

A nice gentleman working at the car museum found some bubbles for Avery to play with. Daddy was "helping" too :)

We loved the amazing art work, wish we had enough money to buy it, but at least we got to enjoy it. The piece above is from a really nice man, Carl Powell, he had a huge black standard poodle named Jasper that thought Colbie was a toy and he does amazing things with glass and concrete. Check him out here: http://carlpowellglass.com/ By the way this was Joel's favorite piece, so feel free to set up a fund for him to purchase it, I think it was only $10,000 or so.

It is rare that I'm seen in front of the camera, especially with the girls, but we were living it up in Asheville, the weather was perfect and I was with my three favorite people. Good memories!

After our adventures in the Grove Park area we drove around and found some local joints for lunch and dessert :) We enjoyed the New York Deli Style feel of Circle in the Square where we ate some yummy sandwiches and Avery enjoyed a Boar's Head hot dog. Then, we HAD to try out this fun ice cream shop, I'd heard all about it on Twitter so we went a couple of doors down to The Hop. The Hop is a very hip ice cream shop, they make their own ice cream, serve non-dairy ice cream and other tasty treats including organic ginger ale! Such a super friendly place and great stop for kiddos if you're visiting or passing by. Check out Joel's homemade Banana Pudding:

Here's Avery enjoying my Nutella ice cream.

All in all we really enjoyed ourselves in Asheville and can totally see ourselves going for a mini-vacation. Wanna come next time???

Smiley and the Hair Monster

2010-09-21T00:45:00.000-04:00

I love my girls and they love each other. They are both each other's favorite people in the world and my heart melts because of that! I couldn't have asked for anything more. Avery calls Colbie aka Sissy her best friend and is constantly giving her kisses and telling her that she loves her and Colbie lights up, wiggles and laughs at her big sister.

Here are a few pictures of our two gorgeous girls, Smiley and the Hair Monster, we'll leave it up to you to figure out who's who ;)

The Whos????

2010-09-21T00:26:00.000-04:00

Yeah yeah yeah, I know it's been forever since I've written on the blog. I have to say it's much harder to get family bloggy time with the two girls now, and the fact that my mom blog http://www.mommybknowsbest.com has blown up, (in a good way.)

So needless to say the blog here has suffered for a few months, but we're going to start from current day and work our way back to where we left off. (Don't ask why I'm saying we since, well everyone knows I blog on here 99.9% of the time.) Guess that's because I have so much to say. Anyway we hope you enjoy lots of fun posts and we promise to be at least a little better!!

Love,
Jenn, Joel, Avery, and Colbie

3 and 3

2010-05-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

This is the first and only time the girls will both be 3, Avery 3 years and Colbie 3 months. How fun! It is also the only time they'll be in the same number since by the time Avery's 4 Colbie's 4th month will be long gone, actually she'll be a year old! Whoa, slow down!! Seriously though I'm so proud of my big girls.

We'll start with the oldest girl, Avery had her doctor's appointment and was a little shaken up because there was an intern with the nurse and it was a male so she was a little upset especially since she was already apprehensive about going to the doctor anyway. She was in the 95th percentile for both weight at 38.5 lbs and height at 40 inches. My big girl!! The pediatrician was amazed at her verbal skills, as usual. Which I'd love to take credit for but she's just smart on her own :) PS Everyone has told me about three being worse than the 2's and they were right....be scared, be very scared!!

She's been taking dance classes and gymnastics and is totally loving it, and it gives her an opportunity to listen to someone other than mom and have more structure in groups, I love our play dates and meetup.com events but Little Gym just gives her a nice format for getting ready for school in a couple of years.

We weighed Colbie a couple of different times on a friend's scale throughout the month and she was about 14.5 ish pounds, my growing girl! She's becoming quite the socialite, talking so much, and is still sleeping pretty good, we're between 2 and 3 hours feeding times except at night when on most nights she sleeps from 7:30pm to 3:00am and then wakes up at 7:00am (because Avery's so loud that she doesn't have a choice.) Still taking usually 3 solid naps and some days a couple extra sprinkled in, depending on if she's growing.

I've been noticing that the drool spout has been turned on so I think teething is coming very very soon. Not one of my favorite parts of babyhood. She's been practicing tummy time and getting great with her neck control too, just look:

Here are a few more pictures of our 3 year old and our 3 month old, enjoy!!

A Churchin' Family

2010-05-21T15:21:00.000-04:00

We'd really been missing going to church, but we were more concerned with Colbie not getting sick, especially with the large number of people who go to our church, and knowing that everyone would want to see her. We wanted to wait until her immune system was a little stronger so we finally went when Colbie was 5 weeks old.

Since then Avery has been excited to be back at church with her favorite Sunday School teachers Miss Shelia and Miss Ally, although teachers change each week.

Our church has a great connecting-point/cry room for all the moms of small babies or crying children to go hang out it. It's a great room with lots of couches, dimly lit, and a place where we can still watch and hear the service, unfortunately there is no children's church pager if Avery needs us, but we try to let the teachers know we'll be in that room each week.

Both Joel and I have become members at our church and are getting the girls dedicated in September.

Avery loves to wear dresses so church day is especially fun for her. Here's a pictures of our church girls.