so today i was late putting avery down for her nap so i had to wake her up because i had an eye appointment. i went to wake her up and she just looked so peaceful. so naturally i went to grab my camera to get a couple of sleeping shots because that never happens anymore. of course she woke up before i even snapped one photo. this is the look you get when you wake a sleeping baby. can you blame her?

do you ever wonder what i do all day? well, here are a couple of videos from this evening to settle your curious mind! :)

my green thumb

i should start out with saying i am 10 days into growing a garden and i haven't killed anything yet! i'm not hopeful at all that anything will grow but i'm giving it a good try! we planted one bed weekend before last and yesterday my friend amanda gave me tomato and hot pepper plants that i planted right away! naturally, i've decided to photograph them every week to see the progress. don't worry i will spare you the week by week updates of my plants but hopefully can share the end result in 45-60 days (according to the tags on the plants).

cherry tomato plant

zuchini squash

italian parsley

3 tomato plants

hot peppers

one bed

is that a bud???

sweet basil

rosemary

so i didn't plant it but i didn't kill it. lemon tree

we went to corpus for the weekend to meet avery's new cousin! baby maiya was born 3 weeks ago! she is such a good baby and you could tell has a lot of people who love on her. she was on the picnic table long enough for me to get a couple of pictures but it wasn't more than a minute until someone said they were going to pick her up! we also got some qt with mimi and aunt allison! :)

the sunset was gorgeous!

10 months old

so as i went to type the title "10 months old" the saved text popped up and said "10 days old". that seems like so long ago, yet just yesterday. i was telling my friend that when people used to ask me how old avery was i would always say 4.5 months or almost 5 months. i couldn't tell you why but i always would respond to make sure they knew she was on the "older" end. and now, i find myself, when asked how old she is answering 9 months, because technically she was 9 months, until today. because, while i want her to grow up, the selfish part of me wants her to stay just the way she is. but, when people say "it gets better as they get older", it's not a lie. so that alone, makes it okay that avery gets older. just this week she clapped for the first time. i clap for her all the time and praise her, even when she's not doing anything special. now, when i clap she claps with me. it doesn't matter what i'm feeling at that moment because it brings instant happiness and i'm so proud of her. i know it's a milestone and thats what babies do, but i feel like in some way i taught her to do that, because i did right? she also waves "hi" and "bye". again, another milestone but when people see her waving they always make a comment like "aw, she waves. she's so advanced". the truth is she's probably not advanced but it makes me feel good. it makes me feel like i'm doing something right. last night mark and i were lying in bed and semi-jokingly i said, "avery loves me so much, she's my best friend". mark is always quick to respond that i'm not her best friend, i'm her mother. but, i am still going to hold on to that hope that we will be friends some day. we probably won't be friends when she's 13, 14, or even 15. heck, we probably won't be friends when she's 18, but someday i hope she will consider me her friend. to me you have to earn the title of a friend. you don't just call someone your friend and you certainly don't throw around the word "good" or "best" with the word. but, i'd also like to think you earn being called a mother as well. i gave birth to avery and i'm her "mother" by definition. and in case you were wondering, is defined as "a female parent". with that, i guess i've earned my title. so, i'm going to work on becoming her friend. despite all the odds that are against me that's going to be my goal. although, i might take a break during the teenage years and start again when she's in college! :) i think the only way to achieve my goal is to keep loving on my our beautiful little girl and my wonderful husband.

if you are still reading this, bless you! for this months documentation of turning 10 months i decided to get some action photos of the things she is doing! this is pretty hard since she is into everything. at the library this week she was already out the door in the hallway before i could even get up. then she was crawling around waving at people. when they would say something to her like "oh she's waving" she would then sit up and clap. i can't wait to see how her personality grows! :) she also thinks all electrical outlets are for touching, she thinks because she can stand that she can stand anywhere, including but not limited to her highchair, carseat, the grocery cart, etc. and last but certainly not least she's just cuter than ever!

here's to avery being 10 months old!

she's just gets cuter and cuter!

melts my heart

she still likes to be carried

well, she just looks sweet :)

she can walk holding onto something

she can clap

she can go sideways holding onto the bars

she was scared to go down alone

she still crosses her little feet

more clapping and sweetness

one of the many faces she makes

she knows what's coming when i turn the water on

she has a tooth that she likes to show off!

tooth

so avery got her first tooth at 9 months and i'm finally getting a picture of it. they aren't the best pictures because it's really hard to get close to avery with a camera without her trying to put her dirty hands on the lens. so here is what i got. maybe i'll try for a better one this afternoon. trying to take her 10 month pictures this week should be fun!

maybe not the best picture but how cute is that tooth? it's the cutest little tooth i've ever seen. and maybe the best part is that she actually tries to use it!

full term

our good friends are having a baby boy any day now! she's full term, which if you don't know, means she's 37 weeks and it's officially safe for baby C to make his debut into the world! i had the honor of taking some photos of them on friday afternoon and loved it! after i uploaded the pictures i realized how much i love capturing those genuine moments. when i look at their pictures, i was reminded of how much you can love a baby you haven't even met yet. those last couple of weeks are filled with nerves, excitement, and anticipation. but amongst all of the feelings, these two seem so relaxed and ready! they are such a beautiful couple and i am so excited to meet their sweet baby boy, but probably not as anxious as them! maybe he will be avery's first boyfriend! :)

if you're happy and you know it

so avery has been clapping a little but i never knew if it was intentional or not. well, today i got confirmation she can CLAP! we were singing the "clap hands" song at the library today and she started clapping over and over, she was on a roll! she was so happy and i was so proud! i'll try to get a video of it soon!

happy sunday

try to guess what this facial expression means...

it's the "mommy told me to stop eating leaves and i don't want to!"

hope everyone has a great weekend!

so usually i think it's the kids who say the funny things but around here it's sometimes the adults, or adult i should say. mark comes home last night and our conversation went something like this:

me: what do you want for dinner?

mark: i don't know but i'm starving and i need something with meat, i haven't had meat all day.

me: what did you have for lunch?

mark: i had a salad and some other snacks

me: you didn't have chicken or anything on your salad?

mark: no, well, i had potatoe salad

only a boy would consider this a "salad"...

if this doesn't make you smile

check your pulse! she was cracking up last night when i put the pacifier in my mouth. mark ran downstairs to get the camera and couldn't find it. when he did find it and brought it upstairs the batteries were dead. so then i ran down and grabbed the point and shoot that takes video too and this is what we got. 5 minutes later she still thought it was funny! getting her to laugh this hard is the equivalent to winning a gold medal at the olympics!

avery's dedication weekend

we had a wonderful packed weekend! we went to a surprise party on friday and she was actually surprised! saturday mimi, aunt allison, and nana linda came into town. we had a family cookout at our house saturday night and then sunday we had avery's baby dedication. i realized this weekend avery is so loved she doesn't even know it! we are so thankful and grateful for all of our family and friends who support mark, myself, and avery! we feel the love and we know avery does too!

we dedicate avery

praying for avery

we could see her face so we were looking at "avery's people" to see their faces

haha

family

we did it!

the complete outfit

uncle tom, aunt deb, avery, and mimi

nana linda

aunt allison

oh how she loves aunt allison!

sweet sarah! she's getting married in may!

sarah was so sweet to come, especially after she was working all night!

the lunch crew! :)

grandma gaye made this sweet bonnet for avery

and one last pic of the family with the tripod when we got home

so usually i go through all of the pictures and select the ones where avery is looking or smiling at the camera. but just for fun i'm going to share the pictures that typically wouldn't make it. she has such a funny personality and i think you can really see that through these pictures.