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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Grandma Charlene's Last Day

I know I mentioned in my last post that today would be Grandma Charlene's last day in Texas.  And I am really bummed.  Eric's mom came to stay with us the entire month of April.  She had a total hip replacement done the beginning of March and is off work until the beginning of June.  She is moving around and feeling great!  I feel like she was down here helping us more than we where helping her!  It was so great having her here.  She helped SO much with Avery, cooked some awesome meals, sewed some really pretty goodies for Avery and I (bibs, burp cloths, shopping cart/high chair cover, Avery's bedroom wall hanging, my super cute diaper bag, and helped me make Avery a crib quilt), ran errands with me and helped clean up around the house.  Thank you so much for spending April with us Grandma Charlene!  

This morning, Avery was very interested in the sewing machine!  Here she is helping make the last of the bibs!
 We didn't really do anything today since we had to go to the airport around 2pm.  We played on the guest room bed and relaxed.

The two rooms in these pictures (the study and guest room) are on my huge to do list!  I haven't done much with either of those rooms since we moved in, so I'm planning on starting on it.  We finally sold our treadmill and it is being picked up tomorrow!  Once that is out of the study I'm going to make that room half study (desk and book shelf) and half play room for Avery.  We need a place for all of her large toys.  I'm planning on buying an espresso colored cubbie dresser with primary colored baskets to hold her toys and books.  I'd also like to get some nice pictures printed to hang on the wall as well.  In the guest room, we already have a white and navy blue curtain so I'm on the hunt for a bedding set to match it.  Not sure if I want to paint that room or not, but it definitely needs some touch up paint done of the original color.  

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Happy 7 Months Avery!

Our little baby girl turned 7 months old today!  I can't believe it!  She is such a fun, sweet easy baby.  We really got lucky with her!  I am thankful everyday that I get to spend at home with her. Avery sleeps through the night, sits up very well on her own, loves to sit on the floor and play with her dozens of toys, she has fun sitting in her jumper and exersaucer, she loves to eat and enjoys 3 meals a day plus bottles, loves going for walks in her stroller, likes to reach out and pet Rolo, laughs and babbles all the time.  Avery is already in 12 month clothes and wears a size 3 Pampers diaper.  She is growing up so fast!  On Monday she will be staying at the Lifetime Fitness daycare for an hour a few times a week while I go to dance class!  I hope she loves meeting the other little kids in the baby room!  We love you little bear!
 This morning we had to take Avery in for her flu vaccine booster.  She had all of her 6 month vaccines done last month, but there are a couple parts to the flu vaccine.  She only cried for a second!  After we left the pediatrician's office, we decided to stop at Walmart in Buda.  I really love that store.  It is new, clean and quiet.  I'm going to start driving the extra 10 minutes to that store to do our grocery shopping.  We picked up a few random grocery items, an SD card for the smaller camera so I have it to carry in the diaper bag, and an 11x14 frame for the new picture we ordered of the family that will be hung over the entertainment center.

Once we got home, Avery started to get cranky.  The last time she had vaccines done she was sore and cranky for a couple days.  I know how sore my arm feels after a flu shot, so I know the poor thing has a sore leg.  I gave her some Tylenol and put her down for a nap.  It didn't last long.  Instead, we decided to go play in the sea of blankets and pillows in our room for awhile.  Avery loves playing in our bed!
Grandma Charlene started the project of cleaning the windows, inside and out!  I was able to help some by doing the inside cleaning part while she did the outside!  Grandma C did most of it and the windows look great!  I'm planning on making a list tonight of the cleaning and organizing projects I want to get done in the near future.  I'm such a planner and a neat freak!

Tonight is Grandma Charlene's last night with us.  It has been so great having her here the entire month of April.  We are all really going to miss her.  She has helped us so much and it is going to feel so lonely in the house when it is just me on my own again.  Tonight we are just relaxing and catching up on the royal wedding from this morning.  Hope everyone is having a terrific day!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

New Additions to Avery's Room!

Avery has a few new wall hangings in her bedroom!  This first one her grandma Charlene made for her.  I love it!  It is brown and pink and the fabric has tiny white polka dots on it.  We hung it above her dresser.  
 The small wall by her bedroom door now has two cross stitch pictures, the top was made by grandma Charlene and the bottom was made by grandma Jan.  They are both adorable and look so pretty!
 I painted these wooden letters to hang above her changing table.  That wall was so empty, so I'm happy I finally got her name finished and hung up!
Today I painted over a few spots in Avery's room that needed touch ups.  I'm planning to buy a wooden flower coat hook to hang in her room.  I'm going to paint it with pinks and greens so she has a place to hang her little hoodies on!

Relaxing Thursday

Today was a pretty laid back day.  I was up at the crack of dawn (couldn't sleep for some reason), so I had my coffee and chatted with my mom on the phone for a little while before Avery woke up for the day at 7am. Grandma Charlene got up shortly after Avery and we all had breakfast.  We went for a nice long walk through the neighborhood this morning.  The weather felt amazing!  It was nice and cool out, so it was an enjoyable walk.  We did a bunch of playing and watching the Disney channel afterwards.  
 After an early lunch and a failed attempt at getting Avery to nap, we decided to go shopping for a little while. We loaded up and headed over to Old Navy (I really needed a pair of shorts that fit!), wandered around Barnes and Noble (stopped for a cupcake at the cafe) then went over to Super Target.  We picked up some groceries and looked at baby clothes.  The newly renovated Super Target off south Mopac has a GREAT selection of baby girl clothes!  We actually live closer to the store at South Park Meadows, but we where closer to this location after shopping on Brodie.  I was good and left the store without buying Avery more clothes!  Her entire 12 month wardrobe was bought and she really doesn't need anything else!  It is so tempting though!
After our afternoon of browsing the stores, we came home and had another failed attempt at a nap.  Avery just does not want a nap today I guess!  So she is happily jumping away while Grandma Charlene and I relax!  We're ordering pizza from Cafe 1626 tonight for dinner and really looking forward to it!  They have the best pizza!  Hope you have a great night!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Dinner at Trudy's

Tonight we decided to go to Trudy's for dinner.  That place is always a win win for us... great food and a great beer selection for Eric.  We got to try out Avery's new high chair and shopping cart cover while out to dinner tonight!  It worked out great and she looked like such a big girl sitting up at the table!  She caught many eyes, and got lots of compliments on her pretty red hair.  Grandma Charlene made the cover and I'm so excited to be using it now.  Avery did really well sitting at the table, looking around, playing with daddy and her toys.
 Here is my delicious plate of food.  This is why I have issues loosing weight!  I love to eat, especially Mexican and Italian food!
 Daddy and Avery having fun at dinner!
 I'm glad we all enjoyed dinner out.  We went a little earlier so that Avery would be in a good mood.  We timed it right.  About 20 minutes after getting home and having some play time she was ready for bath, bottle and bed.

America's Next Top Model?

Eric and I decided it would be fun to enter Avery into a cover photo contest for Parents Magazine.  You can submit up to 6 photos of your child to win the cover of the October issue.  How exciting would that be!?  There will be 10 finalists that will be flown to NYC sometime in August for a photo shot, and one child out of the 10 will win.  Who wouldn't want to see this sweet red headed blue eyed baby girl on the cover of Parents Magazine!?  Here are the 6 photos that I submitted.





If you haven't already "Liked" her photos on the Parents website, check out this link and vote!
http://www.parents.com/photos/photo-contests-1/2011-parents-cover-contest/3922000011
The last time I looked, the picture of her in the pink dress has 20 votes!

Spring 6 Month Pictures!

Earlier in the month we had Avery's 6 month pictures taken.  We have been seeing Tiffany with Tiffany Cross Photography for all of Avery's professional pictures.  Tiffany does such an awesome job every time we see her.  We just got our disc of pictures to be able to share the photos.  I had Avery all dressed in her Easter dress.  It was really overcast and windy the morning of the pictures.  Avery was also pretty cranky, but Tiffany still got some really cute shots!  


I'm going to have a hard time deciding which picture I want to have blown up to hang on the wall.  I can't wait to see Tiffany again for Avery's 9 month shoot!

Happy Easter!

I was very excited to celebrate Avery's first Easter!  She had a cute little top and pants set that says My First Easter on it (sent from grandpa Tom and grandma Jan).  We also had her spring/Easter pictures taken earlier this month (will post some of those later).  The day before Easter, grandma Charlene and I went to the grocery store to pick up everything we needed for Sunday dinner.  We made ham, homemade dinner roll, green bean casserole, scalloped cheese potatoes, scalloped corn, strawberry shortcake and some delicious Easter cupcakes!  I was so happy about how the cupcakes turned out!  Don't they look yummy!  
 After Avery went to bed Saturday night, I set out her Easter basket with all of her goodies inside.  She got some cute outfits, bibs and pajamas from Carter's (my absolute favorite store for her!), some new MAMs pacifiers, some books and toys, and a towel and wash cloth set.  It looked so cute and I was so excited for her to see it in the morning!
 Avery sat like a big girl (Rolo sitting right next to her!) and looked at her new goodies one by one.  Normally, she wants her oatmeal and fruit as soon as she wakes up but today she was preoccupied with all her new stuff!  She had fun going through her basket and I had fun snapping pictures!
 Got this silly shot of her while playing on the floor!
We had a really nice Easter.  It was a bummer that Eric had to go to work that night, but we still got to celebrate and had a great dinner and dessert.  Hope everyone else enjoyed their day with family!