The Avery Family

We had a great time this weekend! We attended a Marriage Retreat at Great Wolf Lodge . There was so much to do around that area but we mostly stayed inside and enjoyed the Retreat and the waterpark that was inside of the resort. We got there Friday and had dinner and then did part one of the seminar Laugh Your Way to A Better Marriage. I was so excited when I learned that we were going to be doing this seminar because friends of mine have done it and loved it. Mark Gungor does an amazing job and I believe he hit the nail on the head. He had many of us cracking up over the truth things he was saying about what husbands and wives say and do. The retreat at the Great Wolf Lodge lasted until Sunday afternoon. On Saturday we were finshed by noon so we headed to the water park area inside the Great Wolf Lodge. Oh it was sooooooo much fun. I am so sorry I didn’t take pictures of Sarah playing in the water. We were just having to much fun. If you look at their site you can see the slides she went on. She went on all besides the Triple Twist because she was to young. Both Allen and I went on the Triple Twist by ourselves and agree that tots should no be aloud on the slide for many reason. It is a great slide and it twist you three times hence the name Triple Twist. Sarah was a little scared at first to get on the red slide by herself but after I walked her up and let her go and daddy caught her it was over. She didn’t want to leave. It was great fun and we would love to go again.

As for the Seminar Laugh Your Way to A Better Marriage I really enjoyed it. I laughed and had a lot of Aha moments. God has given each women and man different coping tools and we must learn eachothers tools in order to keep peace in a marriage. Also I would like to thank the volunteers that watched the kiddo’s while we were in the Seminar. I was able to pay attention and not focus on Sarah. Oh yes and before I forget we had Worship this morning and my sweet princess sang along with us as we sang…..”Open the eyes of my heart Lord, I want to see you”. The most amazing things is to hear your child worship our amazing God.

Here are a couple of photo’s I took while we were there.

Below is a clip from youtube about the “Tale of the Two Brains” . Gungor discusses how women and men differ.

I decided I should write a post since it has been awhile. As most of you know since we moved here both Allen and I have been very busy. Allen is enjoying his new job as a company commander and I have recently become the FRG Leader of his company and I am looking forward to getting to know the spouse and soldiers in his company. Allen’s hours are horrible and I don’t expect them to get any better

As for my sweet princess she turned two and a half the other day. We are beginning potty training this week and it should be fun We checked out the Child Developmental Center on Monday. I will be taking her there three days a week just in the AM. I can honestly say I am looking forward to the comissary by myself Sarah really enjoys the care that is offered on post. The classes I have been taking have childcare offered while you are in the class and Sarah loves them.

Sarah’s speech has developed in so many ways. Her vocb. is endless and she says new words everyday and loves to sing along with tons of songs. Right now her favorite band is The Laurie Berkner Band. She still takes my breathe away and has been doing much better at sleeping at night.

Recently we had a visit from my in-laws and we had a great time. Sarah enjoys having people stay with her. The morning after the in-laws left Sarah was asking for them. When we told her they had to go home she asked us about her Uncle Caleb. I bet she will be surprised to see her Uncle Caleb in a couple of weeks.

I will try my hardest to keep everyone posting but just know things are very BUSY around here and it will slow down soon (praying)

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers for our family. God Bless.

We have been so busy lately and Sarah has grown so much. She has so many words now I can not even begin to tell you. Here are three videos of Sarah two of the videos are recent and one is fairly older.

This first video is of her singing our new song. We made it up one day in the car. Usually she goes through a whole list of names but you can tell the ball had her attention more than me. Sorry my singing isn’t that great and of course the mircophone is right next to the person holding the camera…Sorry but I think it is still cute.

This one is a longer video. She is telling me her letters. We just bought these letters today so she was not use to them and you can tell. They are a lot smaller and not as bold as the other ones. She does know all of her letters beside N, M, L and sometimes she knows Y but she knows the rest of the uppercase letters. I am so proud of her and she has come a long way.

This last video is pretty delayed and I apolgize to her Grandma but I just got around to uploading all of the videos. This video is from when we first moved to Kansas and we had family visiting. Sarah was being such a ham and decided she was going to walk up and down the stairs while the four us counted. At one point Grandma Pearl started talking to Me and Sarah caught her so she peeked through the rails and said “Pearl” then headed back down the stairs so we all could start over. I tell she is a turkey!!

Here is a picture of Gege, Sarah and I on Mother’s day. We had a great time with Gege and can’t wait to see her again in October.

Just wanted to put up a few pictures of our home. I have been looking for a new buffet to replace my old one that got broke but I have only found two that I liked and they were pretty pricey so the search continues. We all love our new home and Sarah and Chloe are both adjusting well. I have pretty much mastered the location of eveything local as the three near by cities are pretty simple and tiny. Sarah is doing great and started Kindermusik this past Tuesday and it seemed like she was pretty happy to be back in her zone. Her speech has really started picking up recently and so has her energy. She has been sleeping in a big girl bed and loves it. She still isn’t sleeping through the night but I am ready to try to work on that as mommy needs some sleep .

Allen started work on Monday and seems to enjoy the people he is working with. I started PWOC on Tuesday and really enjoyed it and look forward to the path that God will lead me on while in Kansas. God bless.

I figured I could take a couple of minutes to update everyone. Our move from GA to KS went rather smooth. We did most of the driving the first day and didn’t stop until we were in MO. The second days we only had about three hours to drive to Fort Riley. Once arriving here we checked into a hotel and looked around on post and checked out the housing developments. The next day we had an appointment in the afternoon and signed for our beautiful home. Our home is a historical home and it was redone June of last year. It was orginally three bedrooms but made into two bedrooms with two bath’s upstairs. We have a half bath downstairs along with a sunroom that was turned into a study. There is a full basement which is where the man cave and the washer and dryer are. We are very blessed to live in the historical area. Our neighbor has about ten duplex’s so about twenty families. I have met only four of our neighbors and look forward to meeting the rest.

Let me give you a little history about Fort Riley……

Fort Riley is located in Northeast Kansas on the Kansas river and between Junction city and Manhattan (where Kansas State University is). Riley is huge and covers 100,656 acres and has a daytime population of over 25,000 people. When Grandma Pearl came to see us she said Fort Riley was it’s own city and I have to agree with her This base is named after Major General Bennett C. Riley who led the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail. Riley was established in 1853. Allen and I believe that may be around the times our house was built. The purpose of Fort Riley was to protect the movement of people and trade over the Santa Fe and Oregon-California trails. In 1865 George Custer was stationed at the fort and his house is currently untouched and you can take a tour through it. That is just a little bit of the history of Fort Riley. In August 2006, when Allen and I were heading to Vilseck, Germany the Big Red One was relocated to Fort Riley from Leighton Barracks, Germany.

Allen and I just love the area and I believe Sarah and Chloe do as well. Sarah loves all the parks and Ms. Chloe loves that there is a huge dog park which I believe once stored buffalo. While our house has been completed redone there are many features inside the home that give it that cozy historical feel. We sure look forward to having tons of visitors (hint, hint). We may only have two bedrooms but we can always find places to keep our wonderful family and friends. Thank you all for your prayers as we began and continue our new chapter in our live. God Bless.