The Hooper's: Marc, Maggie, & Avery Rose

Hey everyone!! I decided to start our very own blog for several reasons: tired of bombarding my friends with pics of my baby girl all the time, want to keep everyone posted on how Marc is doing in school, and just keep you up-to-date on our family especially when we move to Austin and we don't get to see and talk to everyone as much. Well, Marc is officially done with Summer Semester I after his final this Friday (pray for him b/c this class is really kicking his butt!!). He is the only student in this "Fast Track" program that is working so he is already at a disadvantage but we did know this going into this whole back-to-school thing! He is doing so good though and I am super proud of him! He studies non-stop and we don't get our family time very much at all but once again, we knew this going in. He is truly making sacrifices for our little family and we couldn't be more proud of him. Also, Avery is growing so fast and she has 4 new teeth coming in!!!! That is 10 total now!! Also, the morning breathe has kicked in to high gear so we have to make sure she brushes every morning!! I don't know what happen to that sweet little baby's breath but it ain't so sweet anymore!! She is walking more and more every day and just turning into such a little girl. BUT...she is also entering the "terrible 2's" a year early! What do you call it at 1 year's old??? I don't know but they should come up with some kind of term and put her picture next to it. She has started throwing herself on the floor in fits and does the whole "fake whining". She will wait until we look at her and she will start it but if we ignore her, she will wait until we look at her again before she starts it all over again. She is so sweet though and I love her so much. I really think (although Marc claims that he is) that I am her bestest friend ever!!! She REALLY is going through a serious "Mama" stage right now. But she still has never met a stranger she didn't love (well, except the scary lady that came over to oggle over her at the hospital - can't really blame her since the "sweet" lady had a ton of missing teeth!!!). And her hair is officially REALLY long and curly!! I put little piggy-tails in her hair this morning that are so cute that pretty much only a mother could love!! I am a work in progress too and hopefully will get better as time goes on! Also, it's my b-day today and Avery said "Ma-Ma" yesterday as we were all heading into a restaurant for lunch and I got choked up! It was seriously the best gift ever!! Well, except for when she started to actually hug me and pat me on the back as she was doing it. That was pretty cool too! Of course, she hasn't said it since but whatever...I will take what I can get. Every once in a while she says a word, but everything is still "Da Da" at this point. The dog is "dada", the car is "dada", her Nana is "dada", so you can understand why I was overwhelmed with happiness!! Everyone pretty much knows that I wear my heart on my sleeve, and Avery is my heart so I get pretty emotional over just about anything she does. And I LOVE to brag about her. And as you can see, she loves to go swimming so this summer is going to be a ton of fun!! It just sucks b/c she wants me to let her go and I can't since she got tubes in her ears at 11 months old. Poor thing just won't be able to go under water like the other kids but it was a small price to pay for all the months of horrible ear infections! That is probably the reason she isn't saying anything more than "dada" right now b/c she didn't hear very well for most of her life. But she is good now and talks NON-STOP! I absolutely love to talk back to her as if she is making total sense. We literally have a conversation about what she did at day-care, how did she sleep, did you have good baby dreams, or what does she think about the dogs or anything I can think of. She thinks it is pretty fun too!! Well, check out our web-site whenever you get bored and need something to look at! I will probably update it a lot since I take major amounts of pictures on a daily basis!! Love you all!