Sugar Happens

Not quite sure what she had just eaten for dinner, but it must have been gooooood....

A "Tree-mendous" Birthday weekend!

Collin turned 29 on August 20th! We've been wanting a tree to replace the big Ash tree that we cut down about a year ago, so my family's gift to Collin was a TREE! Sounds GREAT, right??

....Well... it WAS great, but it was also a great deal of work. Special thanks to Collin's brothers: Jordan, Jonathan and Erroll, and to my Dad for contributing their time, muscles and gallons of sweat to get this beast into the ground. Our yard looks happy again!

Happy Birthday, Honey! Now we can watch you "grow" with the tree. :)

I'm 11 Months Old!

You're the one that I want!

This post is SO-ooo-ooo LATE! But I thought it was worth posting...

A couple of weeks ago we got to go to Victory Plaza for Movie night! It was so much fun! They were showing "Grease," which is a personal favorite of mine. Collin and Avery hadn't ever seen it before so it was fun to watch it with them. The whole experience was fantastic! And best of all- it was absolutely free! Victory Park is very, very new and everything just sparkles. It was like a drive-in movie, Dallas style. If it's possible to be "posh" and "low-key" at the same time... that's what this was.

Avery loved it. She sat and ate cheerios like popcorn as she watched "Danny & Sandi" sing about Summer Nights... Later she got out of her stroller and danced holding onto Collin's hands. She stayed awake the whole movie and then CRASHED on the ride home.

Fun times. Good memories.

Look at me go!!

Avery LOVES to walk! Crawling is still her preferred method of travel, but she's working on walking skills every time she gets a chance. Collin and I made these videos last Friday while we were waiting for Gram and Grandpoppy (my parents) to arrive from Austin. It was a fun weekend celebrating Collin's Birthday! I'll post more about that next... We're so happy to see her trying to walk, but at the same time we KNOW that life will never be the same once she does! :/ Taking it a day at a time... :)

(My personal favorite part of this video is when Avery says "Hi... Hi..." towards the end. She's such a ham infront of the camera already!) OH! And another tip- if you click the curly-arrow button to the right, the videos will play right-side-up!

4 NEW posts! ...What else do you do when your AC goes out?...

So, apparently the heat got up to a "feels like" 107 degrees today and we felt every bit of that at the Poage household. What a splendid time to have the Air Conditioner go out, huh? ...thaaaaat's right... our AC went out.

We started noticing some funny-business last night when we had Collin's family over to hang out. The house just wasn't cooling off and the air coming out of the vents felt warmish. No good. If you went back to May of '06 on this blog, you'd read all about the AC going out a year ago and getting "fixed" so we've been down this road before. FORTUNATELY God is good and we were able to get the unit serviced today and the repair man, Daniel, (who I may seriously consider naming a son after someday as a debt of gratitude for what he did for us) was able to identify the problem, fix it and have us back to cool & comfy in no time! Hallelujah! :)

BUT, in the hot hours before Daniel brought us back to our climate-controlled way of life, Avery was ready for her nap and was miserably hot in her crib. I had her stripped to her diaper, but she was still really hot and fussy. So I got creative and tried AC the old school way and propped a package of frozen broccoli up in front of a fan that was aimed into her crib. Cool air was all it took for the crying to stop! She took a good nap and woke up to an air-conditioned house. What a life! :)

Anyway, the pictures were classic! (Broccoli by the crib?!) Poor sweet baby... SO glad it looks like the AC issues are behind us for now.

I'm 10 Months Old!!

Better late than never! ......again.......

Avery is TEN months old! Her favorite foods right now are Gerber Graduates turkey/chicken sticks, vegetable crackers, just about anything we'll feed her off of our own plates and of course the "staple" favorite: Cheerios. Her new tricks include crawling EVERYWHERE including the fireplace hearth, (I have no idea how she gets up there so fast) pulling up to her feet holding onto the couch, and walking around the house holding onto our hands for support... although she needs our hands less and less each day! "DaDa" is still her favorite word (sigh...) but "MaMa" and "BaBa" come out when she wants something. (Go figure...) She makes a variety of noises that keep us laughing including "the growl" and "singing." She loves to play "roll the ball" with me and Collin in the floor (she actually tries to roll it back to us! ...it's not usually aimed very well, but it's the cutest!) and she also likes going down to the neighborhood park to swing in the big swings, but isn't so much for the heat and sweating. Bathtime is still her favorite time of day and "Bullfrogs & Butterflies" is her favorite CD to fall asleep to.

She's a blessing! On one hand I can't believe she's already 10 months old, and at the same time I feel like we've had her forever.

Love to YOU, baby girl! We love you more than words can say!

A night out!

We got to dress up! Collin was a groomsman in a wedding on August 5th, and so Janice was our hero for the weekend babysitting TWO nights in a row. What a blessing it is to have an in-town "Nana" to babysit Avery. They have such fun together, but it really was sweet of her to choose to spend her weekend taking care of Aves while we were on wedding duty.

Collin looked so handsome in his tux! It was a fun weekend... Congratulations, Mark & Lauren Satterlee!

I wanna be like DAD!

Some of life's everyday moments call for camera flashes... This was one of those moments. Collin had just come home from work and was finishing up some business via cell phone. Avery helped. :) It was so much fun to watch her as she mimicked Collin in "business mode." We never know what she's picked up on until she starts doing things WE do! It's very convicting... She didn't know what she was playing with, but she was enjoying the time with Dad and having a lot of fun.

My newest videos!

Check this out! I learned this cool new trick that gets me where I want to go! Mom and Dad call it "crawling" but I just know that it helps me chase Howie and gets me closer to all kinds of things that I probably shouldn't play with. I think Mom and Dad are happy that I learned this new trick, but it seems like everytime I get someplace fun where I'm surrounded by electric cords or peering over a step they come pick me up and put me back where I started! It's so frustrating! I worked hard to get across the room, and they just put me back where I was! I guess I'll have to keep exploring until I find some good hiding places.


I also have periodic dance parties in my Exersaucer. It's tons of fun! You're all invited to my next dance party tomorrow morning. Here's a video of last time so you'll know what to expect when you come. I've already got three pretty good back-up dancers who follow my lead, as you'll see in my video. Dancing is easy! All you have to do is swing your hips! I'm really good at it. I can teach you.

Splish, Splash, SPRAY PARK!

Isn't Summer FUN?! :)

Yesterday, we got to go down the road to our neighborhood spray park for an afternoon of fun! The Arnolds came with us! Lea was my college roommate and her baby, Tate, was born on Christmas Day and is just a few months younger than Avery. Tate's Aunt Jillian (Donny's sister) came too!

We had such a fun day and it will be even more fun next year when the girls can run around and splash in the water on their own... although I don't think I'll be sitting on the sidelines taking pictures the WHOLE time because it's way too much fun to actually be in the water. Even adults can't resist running through sprinklers from time to time! :) Here are some pictures of our day... Enjoy!

Backyard Birthday BBQ!

Saturday night we got to go to a Birthday BBQ at Lindsay & Randy Key's house! There were 2 other babies in the mix, so Avery was in good company. She had fun eating watermelon, watching "Happy" and "Dakota" (the two precious puppies that were there) and playing with her new friends Hannah Walk & Hayden Molnoskey. But her most favorite time was when she got to swing with "Da Da" in the big swing. She felt like such a big girl, and it showed!

Happy Birthday, Randy!! Thanks for inviting us!

...A little late, but worth posting!...

Happy Fourth of July!!

We had such a fun time celebrating Avery's first Independence Day! Our festivities were spread out over a few days, so it gave us more time to enjoy this time of year. The weekend before July 4th, we got to go to a party at Kendra & Erroll's new house that they've done so much work on... and it looks PERFECT! What a fun time! Avery LOVED seeing the sparklers and playing with the bigger kids. (Also- shameless plug for some of our friends you see in the pictures here, Josh & Cara Havens. Josh is the lead singer for a super cool band called The Afters. You've heard their song "Beautiful Love" on the radio and as the theme song for the MTV show "8th and Ocean." We're big fans of their music, and you should be too.) :)

Then, on the actual 4th, we walked down the road to the Lake Highlands parade! It was SO cool! We really enjoy living where we do, and loved seeing our community on parade. Avery especially liked sitting inside one of the Lake Highlands fire trucks and also watching some bigger kids play at the spray park once the parade was over. It was a day filled with fun! Couldn't have asked for a better First Fourth for Avery! :)

BIG NEWS for the Bossens!!

YIPPEEE!! I've officially been given the green light to spill the beans on the blog...

Jennifer & Andrew are having a baby!!!

My sister and her husband found out they're expecting "Baby Bear" Bossen on their recent trip to Hawaii (pictured above) and called with the news shortly after they arrived back home. Jen called and said, "We brought back a little something extra from our trip!" I'll never forget how she told us... How exciting. The MIRACLE is that I've been able to keep this a secret from lots of people until now! I had to flat-out lie to some people! (You know who you are-- please forgive me!)

If you're wondering how Jen's going to endure pregnancy after her recent health history, I think she may surprise us all! Not only is she well enough to sustain a growing baby, but she's doing it all in a way that makes MY pregnancy seem like child's play! Over Father's Day weekend they went to Colorado where Jennifer (and baby) did all kinds of outdoorsy things like kayking, mountain biking 30 miles, hiking across native terrain, horseback riding... Who IS this girl and what happened to my "princess" sister?! My guess is that she's having a boy, based on the level of outdoor activity she's doing! Keep in mind she did all of this in her prime "morning sickness" weeks while giving herself Heparin shots twice a day! Baby Bear has one strong Mama!

Everything looked wonderful at their first sonogram and the baby's little heart was beating along beautifully!

CONGRATULATIONS, you guys!! We love you VERY much and cannot wait for February 10th when we get to meet Baby Bear Bossen! We pray for our new baby niece/nephew all the time, and I couldn't be more thrilled to get to sit back and watch my big sister go through all of these exciting "firsts!" :)

Parents-to-be on their Colorado trip with the Bossen family over Father's Day weekend...

I'm 9 Months Old!

We know we say this every month, but it's amazing how quickly it's going. We'll BLINK and it'll be Birthday time!!... Happy 9 Months, Baby Girl! We love you very much!

"Tutu" cute! :)

Avery had her 9 month photo shoot today! It was tons of fun... I think I could waste years just sitting and staring at her. (I'm sure every new parent can identify.) I had seen a couple of pictures of little girls sitting in tutus and thought it would be cute to experiment with that. Who knew that ballet tutus were pricey?! I ended up taking it on as an "at home" crafts project. Stephanie Poage- Mom by day/Tutu maker by night! :) Turned out cute, though, so it was worth all the trouble.

Thought I'd share some of our favorite pictures from the day. Enjoy!

We love Summer Visitors!

Last night, Avery got to have another late-night play date with Drew! Lydia and I are in a girls bible study that meets close to our house, so on Tuesday nights Glen & Drew come over for "Daddy Day Care." We snapped a couple of pictures on our way out the door. Glen had BOTH of them to himself for a while as Collin was caught up in the traffic from the rain. (Can you believe this rain??)

Avery was sound asleep when we got home, and Drew was thoroughly enjoying giving his Dad a rough time. He sure was happy to see Lydia get home. They did a great job with the kiddos!... They must be their Dads, or something! :)



And on Sunday of this past weekend, our friends Meagan & Cameron Cushman came for a visit! They live in Virginia, so it was a real treat to get to have them visit us in Texas! Cameron was one of the groomsmen in our wedding, and he and Meagan were our "link" to meeting President Bush when we visited DC in 2003! (Meagan was in the Secret Service at the time. Would you have ever guessed someone so little and pretty would be a Secret Service Agent?!) We loved getting to introduce Avery to them too.




And finally... THESE pictures are way overdue for being posted on the blog... HOWIE had a visitor this Summer too! His REAL Dad, Connor, came to stay with us a few weeks ago- just before Father's Day! (How appropriate.) Howie and Connor are too cute together. Connor is a lot more laid back and relaxed than Howie, but he was sweet to tolerate Howie's energy level. If they would have let us, we could have kept Connor forever. He is SO loveable. We had a wonderful time having him here.