Sharing My Jennarocity

Avery had a superhero party this year! Do you know how hard it is to find girl superhero party stuff? It's hard. The lack of appropriate girl superhero toys (and I mean, girls that are superheroes, not superheroes that are purple and pink) is atrocious. Three of the girls that Avery goes to daycare with where superheroes for Halloween, I am thinking they would like to have a cool party once in a while.   Anywho, she had a fun time! This was the first year I invited her friends from church and daycare so she had a blast!!   (Sorry Brooke, I love this picture so much)     And she had fun "opening" her presents. I actually opened them and at one point she just ran away to go play.   I got the kids little party favors and we decided to take a picture. Pretty handsome if you ask me!!   Such a cute picture, especially the fact that she is wearing her new princess gown with her black sparkly boots.    She has played with each and

Happy birthday, Avery! Every day, I look at you and can't believe how much you grow and learn. I had no idea how much you'd enrich our lives and how much I would absolutely love you.   Avery, you are growing in leaps and bounds every day. You love to write and color, you love to learn new things, you love to read and you love, love, love to sing. You can sing so many songs and it's your daddy and my favorite thing to do - listen to your beautiful voice sing songs. You sing songs to God so much and I know He loves the sound of your beautiful voice too. You love to dance and watch movies and play. You got a camera for your birthday of your very own because you love to take pictures. Maybe you will be a photographer when you get older!!   Your personality is really shining through. You are truly an extrovert and love to meet new friends and be around people. You love it when we have people over and are so friendly. You love to play games with new friends and get al

I stole these pictures but thought I would post them on my site!! Avery had her Thanksgiving feast at MDO today. So cute!!!   Once again, all of the people who get 7-2 and 3 year olds to sit quietly have my mad props.     I also got a chance to have a mom's coffee time with other moms from the program and it was such a nice time! One of the other moms and I bonded because her son and my daughter are friends. I now know who Nicholas is when she talks about him which is always nice!!   I love women getting together and getting to know each other and encourage each other. It's so wonderful. We are doing this monthly and I am really looking forward to it. Thank God again for the blessing of being able to have time to participate in these events in Avery's life!!  

So, since I've already had a controversial topic once this week, why not try for another?   Of course, we've all heard about this Walmart situation , in which a Walmart held a food drive for its own employees, which has sparked an enormous debate about the clear irony that a company, which pays it's CEO multi-millions of dollars, has employees that can't "afford to buy themselves food." Weighing in on the debate was none other than Ashton Kutcher, calling Walmart out on Twitter to bring attention to the fact that they don't pay a working wage. Yep, Mr. Kutcher. Mr. $700,000 a week Kutcher. Mr. I-can-talk-a-big-talk Kutcher, who probably makes as much as that CEO does, yet doesn't pay hardly anyone with his own salary.   Look - I am not going to sit here and say that I agree that anyone in this world should ever make as much as either the CEO of Walmart or Ashton Kutcher do, no matter what you do for a living. There is no job to me that is tha

I know a lot of you won't agree with my stance on this, but I am going to put it out there because I think it's important. I was reading an article yesterday about a woman who has been a part of the pro-life movement for years and was discussing how that has changed over the years. By "that" I mean the ways they are allowed to protest abortions. Apparently, there have been laws in place to protect the women who have chosen abortions from overzealous protestors who've overstepped their boundaries when picketing abortion clinics. This particular woman who was the subject of the article said that she wishes they were still able to chain themselves to the front doors of abortion clinics because that would mean that at least one baby was saved from murder.   I have no doubt that these pro-life advocates are coming from a great place and have every good intention in them to save babies' lives. My problem is that sometimes we are so focused on the abortion proce

Saturday was the Cindy Tamplin Memorial Tea. This is the 14th year, which means I've been going since I was 19. Every year, this tea has meant the start of the holiday season for my family. I remember going all those years during my 20's, watching people come get married and have babies, not being super interested in charity, not appreciating what my mom and her friends were really doing and the work that went in to this event. This year, God has put the opportunity in my life to do more charitable work than I have in the rest of my life combined and I am so glad I got a glimpse into how much planning and work something like this takes.   I saw those lollipops at Hobby Lobby one day and was inspired to do a fun, candy or "sugarplum" table and have a plate for all of my kids and nieces and nephews. Either that, or I've seen Wreck It Ralph one too many times and was inspired by Venelope Von Schweetz. All of the kids that came couldn't wait to get their h

Today, Avery's MDO had Donuts with Daddy. What a cool idea! So Daddy got to take her to school and spend time with her for breakfast! Next Thursday, the moms get to have coffee and hang out. I am excited.     I also need to ask you all for some ideas - what do you send with your kiddos in their lunch every day? My daughter's class is peanut free but she loves PBJs. I am going to try Sun Butter and see if she will like that, but her lunches have really been hit or miss. Does anyone have any ideas?  

Avery is two weeks away from turning 3 and it's showing everyday!   Apparently, 2 years is a rough time, but 3 years is even worse. I can say that in the case of my daughter, that's been evident in some ways and not evident in others. She is just progressing in her little life in leaps and bounds. Her vocabulary is quite extensive, she can color in a very controlled way, she is not shy with other kids, she follows directions very well, she can count to 20, and she has a memory like an elephant. Talking with her and hearing what she has to say is so much fun, I just love having actual conversations with her!! So far, we are at my most favorite and least favorite times in her little life, and ironically, they are both for the same reason: she is getting older and learning more. I wasn't quite prepared for how turning 3 would affect my happy child's sweet disposition. She has thrown more temper tantrums in the last month than she has her whole life, and most of them

(source: therealmcast.com)   I just can't wait for this show to come on each week. It's really my guilty pleasure and I absolutely love it. This season, my slight obsession is still going strong and it's been such a good four episodes thus far.   So, just a little recap of where we are going in to tonight's episode (if you have anything DVR'd, this will contain spoilers!)   -Daryl, Machone, Tyrese and alcoholic-guy-who-is-willing-to-get-everyone-killed-for-a-liter-of-liquor are still in a little danger and are unsure if they will get back to the prison in time with the meds to save their friends.   -The last we saw the prison, Hershel was giving everyone herbal treatments in hopes it will help treat the infection and buy everyone a little more time.   -Not one word has been said of the Governor thus far.   -As of two episodes ago, we heard what sounded like a radio signal. We also saw hundreds of walkers that had completely blocked the roa

Today, as I was sweeping my front walk way of leaves for the hundredth time this week, I was overwhelmed with this feeling of nostalgia for my grandparents house. We used to rake leaves on their very big yard during the fall. We would go down to their house during Thanksgiving and it was in the country, so someone was usually always burning their piles of leaves and there was always this wonderful smell of fire and smoke. Not sure if it smelled good, really, or if it was just the smell of my grandparents house. We would swing on their tire swing with our coats and ride our bikes in their driveway and play and play with each other. We would walk in to their house and smell Thanksgiving lunch cooking...and it smelled wonderful, even the peas and broccoli, which only ever smell good on big-meal holidays.   I wish my grandparents could have met Avery. They would have just loved her to pieces and she would have loved them, too. I just find myself this week thinking about that, the circ