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!

i need a vacation from our vacation! our house is out of order and we have a ton to do and now it's raining which is not helping me get motivated. ok, if you don't want to hear about weaning just scroll to the pictures! :)

avery will be 1 year in 2 weeks. my goal was to nurse for her first year. i'd like to give myself a huge pat on the back for making it this far. it wasn't always easy, especially at the beginning. i remember feeling like a cow and all i did was feed her for the first month or two. it would be painful at times but i would just offer her milk and she would usually eat. it was a little painful but nothing like weaning. everybody told me it would be hard in the beginning and to stick with it. so, i think i was prepared and i had it built up to be this horrible thing and it wasn't. sort of like labor and delivery when everyone tells you their war stories, so i found it to be much easier than i was expecting. anyways, weaning is WAY more painful than i thought. i have decided to give avery the chance to nurse and if she doesn't take it well then that's it. we cut out a feeding last week in denver and it was very smooth. well, last night she decided not to drink very much before bed. i knew i should have pumped but thought that wasn't really weaning now was it? fast forward to 5:30 in the morning and i can't sleep because my boobs are going to explode. i can't lay on my side because it hurts. i think about going to pump but i know avery will be up in an hour so two. so, i give in and get avery up and she eats like a champ. she must have been hungry, right? i don't want to stop now or i need to figure out something else because this sucks! why didn't anyone tell me it was going to hurt like this? but just in case you are reading this and it's making you not want to nurse please don't take that away from this message. i think it's great for your baby and for the mother and it's such a special time and bonding even if it is in the middle of the night. i have a few of my favorite nursing moments that i will cherish forever. avery actually smiled for real for the first time in the middle of the night when i was feeding and had i not been the only bar in town it would have been a different experience.

here are a couple more pictures from last week!

girl power

avery loves dogs

gabi and avery had matching outfits. aren't they cute!

parents can still act like kids! :)

date night!

the lone star state

we made it back safe and sound! we spent week before last in corpus christi for a friend's wedding that i mentioned before. well, in that week avery decided to take her first steps. however, her daddy let her walk with a coffee can and she did a face plant on the hard wood so we haven't seen a lot of walking since! :) last week we went to colorado to meet our newest favorite little niece, gabi (she was a month old already)! she is such a good baby!!! she just eats and sleeps and is SO cute! toby and casey deserve an easy baby this time around! :) avery loved gabi too but was a little upset when she wasn't allowed to "touch" the baby...maybe next trip. avery did get to play with paul who learned you can't hit your cousin when she takes her toys! i'm pretty sure she learned to blow kisses and "give" kisses (she kisses the air) from paul as well! all around it was a great trip that went by too fast!

by the way, flying with a 3 month old is much easier than flying with an 11 month old. would you think it was cute to have a baby sticking her head in between the seats yelling "dada" at 6 am? i know i wouldn't! :) it was basically the same on the way back except the people behind us thought she was cute and it was 6pm which made it a little more funny! :) half way through both flights mark got up to rock her to sleep and then he brought her back to sleep on my chest. she really is a great little traveler! but, i sure miss those days of sleeping on the plane!

mark started his new job today so he is in dc. when avery woke up i think she was expecting people to be at our house and to her disappointment and mine it was only us. but, we have an action packed week ahead with the start of baby gymnastics and getting ready to head to dallas for the weekend. i am feeling a little overwhelmed so naturally i get on the computer to organize some pictures, got to have your priorities straight! :) and, as you can imagine i took a million pictures so here are just a couple, much more to come once i get our lives in order!