Christmas 2011

We had a very BUSY and very fun Christmas! As I mentioned my little brother and mom were both here and we did a lot of eating, shopping and hanging out. Christmas Eve we had a big dinner. I did a turkey and I had heard about brining it before and wanted to try it. I got a kit from Safeway and holy cow! It was SO good- not dry at all with lots of flavor. I don't think I'll make a turkey again without brining it first. Anyway, my mom brought us a ton of chocolates and candy and Avery had a chocolate spoon- she was in heaven! After dinner we opened new pajamas from Grandma, went home and put Avery to bed and then got stockings and Santa presents organized while Bud, Michael and Chad went to the movies. Christmas morning was an early morning and really busy. We got up about 730 and headed over to Kaytes to do stockings after Avery checked out her Santa presents. She got lots of bath toys and some yummy food and 'quiet' toys for church. That Santa is so smart! After stockings we went home and got ready for church, I was singing in the program so we had to be there on time and Avery wore her new Christmas dress that Grandma made- its very cute! After church we ate some breakfast, opened presents and laid around for a bit before heading back to Kayte's for joint presents and appetizers. We were all ready for bed early that night! Avery got some really cute gifts from everyone. The next few days were spent shopping like crazy with my mom and getting manicures and pedicures to celebrate her birthday. We had so much fun and can't wait to see everyone again- once we catch back up on our sleep! :)

Meeting Uncle Bud

My little brother Bud was able to get leave and come home for Christmas! Bud is in the Navy and while we're so proud of him we also miss him a lot. It had been two years since we saw him last and so he had never met Avery besides on Skype. He and my mom came over and visited for about a week and we had so much fun! He stayed at our house so him and Michael had lots of bonding time over video games. When he first came over the dogs were all barking except for Petree who was SO excited to see Bud- I think Petree remembered him from the last visit, it was really cute. Avery loved meeting her Uncle and I'm so glad he was able to come home. Love you, Bud!

Merry Christmas!

We are having a fabulous day and hope you are too! My younger brother and mom were able to come over and we have been having lots of fun. Santa was very good to us, Avery got lots of fun stuff, as did mom and dad. Of course the best present of the year came in May, we are having a great first Christmas as a family of 3 (10 counting all the animals) :).

She makes my heart sing.

Christmas card photo shoot

I wanted a picture of Avery with all the dogs for our Christmas card this year so we got everyone dressed up and started snapping away. We didn't have much luck since no one would hold still but oh well. Here are a few cute ones! The dogs hate being dressed up...

After

Here is Michaels back now-

7 Months

Another month gone by way too fast! I think things have really sped up due to the holidays. I am excited that Avery will finally get to meet her Uncle Bud! Here are the things I want to remember about Avery right now:
-Wearing 6 month pants and 3 and 6 month shirts
-Hates getting her nose wiped
-Loves to eat bananas, applesauce, carrots and squash. Hates peas. We can't eat much anymore without her wanting to try a bite!
-Size 2 diapers
-She is starting to move around, a lot! She kind of army crawls/inch worms all over but gets up on all fours and rocks, too. We're pretty sure she'll be crawling by the end of the year.
-Still no teeth!
-She bit me the other day when she was eating so I said NO kinda loud (it hurt!) and she stuck out her bottom lip so far and cried like I had really hurt her feelings. It was sad.
-She is still sleeping 12 hours a night.
-She knows what 'cute' means. Anytime someone calls her cute she gets the biggest smile.
We are very excited for Christmas next week and for Avery to see all her toys! Here are some pictures- it's getting harder to get good pictures, she's always moving!

Love this shirt...

And LOVE this girl!

Wordless Wednesday- Booger face

Before...

Michael has had back problems off and on since we met. About two weeks ago he hurt it again but it didn't eventually get better like it did in the past. He went in for an MRI and it showed a pretty bad herniated disc. He was referred to a neurosurgeon who recommended surgery. That was a week ago- and today here we are getting surgery. So here is the 'before' picture of his back, we'll take an 'after' picture later today!

Why I bought shatterproof ornaments

Because who can resist sparkles?

Food!

We've started feeding Avery baby food on a more regular basis. Usually in the evening I'll set her on the counter in her bumbo and feed her. It worked pretty well but the last week or so she has been more interested in trying to twist around and grab whatever is on the counter (knives, the blender, toaster, other kid-friendly stuff) instead of eating. So tonight we pulled out the high chair and she did great! Here she is with her apple-blueberry mustache.

Christmas Parade

Today was the Bend Christmas Parade in downtown. Avery and I went down and met up with Chad, Kayte, Paige and Rory. It was a beautiful day! A little chilly but sunny and clear skies. The parade was really long, I think at one point they said the longest Christmas parade in Oregon but it was fun.
Avery didn't seem too impressed- but probably because it was her nap time. We saw the polar express, old cars, lots of horses and of course Santa! The funniest (or saddest, however you look at it) was probably the Bend high school alumni float- I'll include a picture of it so you can see what I mean.
Overall it was a fun day- we got home and took a nap since we're both a little sick and then our new freezer got delivered. So excited to have a bigger freezer in the garage! Our old one just decided to quit working about a week and a half ago- I lost all of the breast milk I had been pumping and freezing for the last SIX MONTHS. So sad, it made me sick to have to throw all of that away. Anyways, we got a good deal on a new one so I guess it's time to start filling it up! I see a trip to Costco in the near future.

Getting in the spirit!

Our tree is up and decorated and it's only December 1st! I'm pretty sure that's a record for me. I actually put it up and decorated it last night but I thought it could use more so I went to Target today and bought more ornaments. I think it looks awesome! II think it would still be cool to put even more on but I'll give it a few days.

We are going to buy Avery a new ornament every year- this year we found one at the holiday show we went to a couple weeks ago. It has 3 bears on it, a mom, a dad and a baby and we had them write her name and the year on it. We thought it was perfect because our name for her is 'tiny bear'.

We are getting really excited for Christmas this year. Even though Avery won't really know what's going on its going to be fun!

Blessing Avery

Since most everyone was in town for Thanksgiving we decided it would be a good time to give Avery her baby blessing. My mom made her dress and it was absolutely beautiful. Bishop Wilcox gave her a very sweet blessing and then Michael got to hold her up so everyone could see how cute she was. Colleen was awesome and took some pictures afterwards so hopefully we got a good one that we can use for Christmas cards! After the pictures I changed her out of the dress so it wouldn't get dirty/ruined and it's a good thing I did because about ten minutes later one of the kids said 'uh Avery pooped her pants and holy poop did she- it was EVERYWHERE, I had to give her a bath at Kaytes house. Then everyone went home :( and Avery and I came home and took a nice long nap! We had a very fun weekend with everyone and can't wait to see them again!