peanut butter

the big news of the day is avery had peanut butter! you have to wait to give your kids nuts until they are a year old because of all of the allergies. she was fine so i don't think she is allergic!

yesterday, amanda and i went to the mall and i picked up a copy of "what to expect the toddler years" and glanced at what she should be doing. she's also doing everything and has been so i never worry. but then they throw in things at the end that your child "may even be able to do". well, one of them was use utensils so i bought her some at target today. pretty sure she's not advanced in that department! :) she has been talking a lot lately, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense but it sounds really funny!

this is what she did when i first gave her the spoon

atleast she figured out which side was correct ;)

she likes peanut butter and jelly!

waking up from her nap

june is almost over and i can't believe it! it's been a busy month and so fun! this past weekend we went to our family reunion. i kept saying "my" family reunion and i would correct myself because it's "our" family reunion! avery LOVED all of the attention and didn't even want me to hold her because she loved being held my everyone else. i'm so glad you had such a great time! i stole the group picture off of facebook and our cousin's took one of the 3 of us. i'm so thankful for those family pictures we have together!

i think we gathered just about everyone from "our side" of the family!

i still haven't done avery's 1 year pictures because i can't get her to sit still and smile at me all at the same time so before lunch i had an idea! we only stayed out for about 5 minutes because it was noon so it was hot and humid and there were mosquitoes but i thought i got a couple of cute shots! if i would have tried this 2 months ago she would have launched herself off but as a big 1 year old she now knows you can't just fall off of chairs!

do you like the black & white or color better?

her little hands and feet are still so cute!

she was thinking about how to get down. love those long eyelashes too!

avery was a drama queen today! i'd like to think that is just because she got her shots yesterday and mark has been working late so she hasn't really seen him in 2 days. thankfully he came home early today and she fussed at first but then got better. we had a such a fun night playing on the ground. avery just walked back and forth from mark and i about a thousand times. she was so sweaty by the end of it! i got a video using my camera but it isn't the best quality and it was pretty hard to hold it and get her to walk to me but i tried!

can we say drama?

she was playing so nicely and she looks so innocent

she's a walking fool!

today was shots day. the drama queen did just fine, besides the fact that she starts screaming before she even gets the shot! she hasn't had a fever or anything so lets hope it stays that way. i tried to get a couple of pictures today after we got home and the only way i could get her to look at the camera was to say "avery, can you give mommy the trash."

according to the doctor she's all brains! well, maybe i made that up, but going by her stats her head is in the highest percentile bracket! she actually weighed more than i thought! here are the numbers:

weight: 17 lbs 8.5 oz - 4%

height: 28 in. - 20%

head: 45 cm - 51%

she peed through her diaper all over my leg in the waiting room so she probably would have weight atleast a couple ounces more! :) but, she's doing great and continuing to grow!

see what i mean and even then she might not look up

i almost forgot to share that avery has some new friends. we met them at the library and the other day we took them all swimming at a friend's house. they are all so cute together!

they just played while holding hands :)

ONE YEAR OLD!

today started like most days around here. avery woke up and leaped out of bed to get her! ha, just kidding! i did get her with a little more excitement than usual because today i was getting my ONE YEAR OLD out of bed! of course, before going to get her i grabbed my camera and snapped a couple of pictures! :) i can't believe my sweet avery was born a year ago today. this truly might have been one of the fastest and best years of my life! avery is a true blessing and i'm looking forward to the many years we have ahead! we go to the dr tomorrow for shots so it won't be such a happy day! :( hope you enjoy her sweet face in these pictures as much as i do. i wish i could look this good when i get up out of bed!

as first she was confused why i came in with the camera

but then she thought, oh, this is cool

ok, i'll act sweet for you

and finally it's a good day to be a one year old!

i tried to let her wear her birthday girl hat at breakfast but she didn't want to :)

avery's first birthday party was a success! we were surrounded by family and great friends and avery was great! she didn't touch the cake or really open a present by herself but she had a great time and LOVES all her new toys! she thought the balloons were pretty awesome too! here is a little preview of how the party went! a big THANK YOU to everyone who came and made her first birthday party so special!

birthday girl at breakfast enjoying her balloon

family pic :)

we had fruit, chick-fil-a, veggies and margaritas (pink of course)! :)

the cupcake

the cake was so good. and we have A LOT left over!

by friend andrea made cakeballs that were so good (and pretty)!

the guests' :)

aunt allison is holding her!

for party favors we had bags and different bowls of candy. not many people made bags so i will have lots of candy for our family reunion next weekend! :)

my friends from high school, trevre and victoria drove down from dallas!

saying goodbye to mimi

so i've been thinking about the first 2 months of avery's life and i remember not getting a lot of sleep and taking a lot of walks around the neighborhood. however, there is one day i do remember very well. avery was about 6 weeks old and i remember i couldn't believe how quickly the time had passed. we had daycare all lined up and i only had another 4 weeks or so to be at home with her. i was so worried about sending her to daycare. mark and i would get in bed and i just remember all of the things that would run through my head...what if she doesn't drink all her milk? what if she's crying and no one picks her up? what happens when she crawls for the first time? walks? can i send a video camera with her? the list went on and on in my head. of course i would only share one of these questions with mark at night and i remember his response so well. he said, "well, we will see her crawl for the first time and it will be the first time for us." but, it just wasn't the same in my mind. although, my response was something in agreement because i couldn't admit i was heart broken thinking about all the things i was going to miss. mark went to boston for work for the week. we talked every night, usually just about random stuff, except for one night when he said he didn't want avery to go daycare. i couldn't believe my ears. my response of course was "i don't want to go either." i made sure he was serious and let him know this was not a joking a matter. this was one of the happiest days of my life! i'll admit since then i've had moments, or days i should say, when i've thought how much i wouldn't mind just sitting in front of my computer and zoning out for a bit. but at the end of the day, no matter how crappy my day has been, i know i'm doing exactly what i was meant to do.

so after scanning through pictures it's so funny to see avery's facial expressions and her personality develop. the quality of the picture might not be as good but some of these are priceless!

this was the day i quit my job. i remember those pants were SO tight! aunt toby watched avery. she was frowning because she didn't want me to go!

she was about 6 weeks.

i used to put the phone up to avery's ear and my mom would talk to her! LOL!

i would put her in these dresses that i thought were so cute. then i would sit her up long enough to get one picture and then she would fall over! this series made me laugh! she was 7 weeks old here!

i'm tipping AHHH

oh well...

and now these are recent

i went to change the laundry and i thought she was right behind me...awesome!

we went swimming today. not sure how i feel about the light but thought i would overexpose and see what happened.

day 2 of birth :)

to say avery's life has been documented well so far would be an understatement. i'll spare you all the day by day videos but here is the morning i quit my job! :)

reliving the past 12 months

so avery's birthday is quickly approaching and i can't believe it! i'm been thinking about her birthday party for the past 6 months and i feel like i blinked and now it's here and i have so much to do! in trying to think of things to do and decorate i had the idea to print pictures month by month. it is fun going through them and remembering all the different milestones and things that have happened over the past 12 months. so, i'm going to try and remember and share a story from each month. so, today i'm starting with her arrival.

avery's due date was june 14th. the doctor called the wednesday before and said if she doesn't come by then we are scheduling your induction for june 16th. i remember getting the call while in a co-workers office. that is when it hit me. holy crap, i'm really going to have a baby. i was so excited thinking in less than a week i was going to meet avery. i imagined the day for 9 months now and couldn't wait. but, then i started wondering why they were going to induce me only 2 days after my due date. after talking to the doctor they told me that i was "small" and that a 5.5 or 6 pound baby would be perfect and maybe all i could handle if i wanted to have her naturally (with drugs of course). we went back to the dr. the day before the scheduled induction and really talked about it. they gave us the decision to move forward or cancel and reschedule for the following monday. we were so torn. we went to a chinese restaurant that night and i ordered the spiciest dish on the menu. i ate a million of those little red hot peppers and almost burned my mouth off hoping to induce labor. i was in tears at dinner because i didn't know what to do. i wanted to meet avery so bad and was so over being pregnant but i didn't want to force her out before she was ready. i finally decided to cancel the induction. this was the first major decision we made for avery's life. she came out at 3:24am the following monday. she came on her own and was beautiful and healthy. as she gets older i hope i am able to put her first and she always does things when she is ready and not because someone is telling her otherwise (that's not to say i didn't walk for hours everyday and eat pineapple and spicy foods to try and force her out). those 8 days felt like months and the anticipation grew. i'm still proud of our decision and standing up for avery.

haha! 16 weeks and i thought i had a belly!

let's not forget when my friends painted my belly!

ah! 5 days overdue hiking an hour away from denver trying to see if she would come out!

the most beautiful baby i have ever seen!