We went on down to the Audubon Zoo!

That was our gang at the zoo this past weekend. Meredith and the kids are in from Germany, so we got the WHOLE family together for a day at the zoo. It was a great day. We couldn't have asked for better weather, its was a little cool and overcast. The zoo wasn't too crowded and all of the animals were out to play. Including all of our little animals. We had 7 kids under the age of 4! They went nonstop!

Caiden loved all the animals, and he definitely knew the difference between dinosaurs and lizards!

Summer, striking a pose with a snake!

Drake loved the Ratatouille Rat!

And Avery loved the petting zoo! She didn't do any actually petting but loved all the BIG "puppies" (Her face is priceless in this picture)

Caiden's favorite part was this Tortoise. I think he walked with him around most of the zoo.

Avery got to go down her first slide!

Weee! Get me off of this thing!

She even climbed the monkey bars!

Kayla's little girl, Jamie, had a great time at the playground too.

We were so glad the Dichiara family met us out there.

Caiden loved all of the animals, he even knew all of their names.

All of the kids were so happy all day.

My love :)

We ended the day at the sea lion exhibit. There wasn't anyone there, so I let Avery crawl around a little bit.

It was so nice to have most of the LeBlanc family together for the day. We definitely missed Drew, but it was nice to spend time with his wife and kids. I love how close our families are.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I LOVE the Christmas season. It takes everything I have to wait until after Thanksgiving to get into the spirit of the season, but I like to enjoy each holiday as it comes. So the weekend after Thanksgiving we starting getting our house ready for Christmas! Avery was helping Josh set up the tree.

I packed up all of our fall decorations.
and got out all of the Christmas stuff

Our little angel even helped put the little angel up on the tree. I am so excited to start all of these little traditions with her. I want her to grow up with them and love them as much as I do.

so beautiful!

Here she is playing with the ornaments. funny story: I thought these ornaments were plastic, UNTIL, she started banging them together and shattered two of them! I guess they were just thicker glass. Thankfully she didn't cut herself or anything!

"Here momma"

All done!

I have more decorations around the house, and our outside lights are up now too. I need to get some more pictures of those to put on here to. I am so excited for Avery's first Christmas, and I like I said, I am looking forward to starting our own family traditions for her to do for years to come.

Thanksgiving 2010

We were lucky enough to have 2 Thanksgiving celebrations this year. The first one was on the 14th of November. It was while Josh, Jonnilin and Julian were still in town. We went to my mom's house for the feast. Here is Avery all dressed up and ready to go with daddy. I, unfortunately, had a 24 hour bug that day, so I didn't get to enjoy the food :( But we had our traditional Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and rolls. Angela brought dirt cake and pecan pie. It was a great time to spend together with the Danford crew.

Our next celebrations was Thanksgiving day with the LeBlanc's. Josh's grandma had everyone over and cooked up a storm. I contributed cake balls to the array of food.

Avery was NOT a happy camper before we left. (I figure I post so many pictures of her cute and smiling, its good to see some of her being fussy every now and then)

We were able to get a few good pictures before we left.

Ms. Aleta had a little photo shoot with Avery. Here are a few of her MANY expressions...

Thanksgiving dinner was great. The guys fried up a turkey.

And we had all the casseroles and fixings to go with it.

We were very lucky to be able to spend time with our families for both Thanksgivings. I have so much to be thankful for this year, and I hope God continues to bless us and our families.

Birthday, Camping, and Walking for a Cure

Whew, we have had a busy November, and it has already almost flown by! The month started off with Ms. Aleta's birthday. The morning before her party, Avery signed her card. Thinking about what to write...Ms. Aleta and her baby girl

Me and my baby girl

Yummy Chantilly Cake!

Avery loves her Mimi

We had a nice little celebration. We grilled steaks, had twice baked potatoes and mushroom.

The next week we got to visit with Josh, Jonnilin and Julian. They stayed at our house two nights and we all had a great time. Julian found our Easter Eggs.

Avery enjoyed playing with them too!

He also had fun with my sunglasses :) He is such a sweet boy!

We also went camping while they were in.

Grandma got to spend some quality time with her boy

It was a beautiful campground in Madisonville.

And it was also a great place to spend quality time together without a lot of distractions. Avery got to hang out with her Aunt Jo and Uncle Josh

Josh also built us great campfires every night.

I had both of my babies contained :)

Uncle Josh is funny and he sounds like Donald Duck!

I got to love on my Juju too!

Josh was able to stop by after work and was dying for a smore. Unfortunately we didn't have any sticks or hangers to roast the marshmallows on, so my ingenious husband improvised another way.

They came out perfect!

Saturday November 13 was the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for a Cure. Our family has been severely impacted by the disease, it has affected my cousin Jason and nephews Joey and Julian. We wanted to support the cause and our family. Here is our team. (wow, I JUST realized there is an orb floating in the front of the picture...I guess my daddy was there with us too!)

Me and my baby girl before the walk.

The kiddos ready to go.

Here is Julian's team sign. We love you Juju!

Josh and his mini me after the race.

Avery after the race. She was so cute, I tied the balloon to her stroller, but she still held onto it like it was going to float away.

We have had a great November! There was definitely a lot of family time and it means so much to me that Josh and I have such amazing family on both sides. Although we don't get to see all of them as often as we would like, it is very important for us for Avery to grow up in a large, close, supportive family. I will try to do a Thanksgiving post soon!