tuesday at home

It's been a pretty dreary Tuesday.  We got some rain over night, and today has just been wet and cloudy.  I decided we would just stay home and not run out anyplace today.  This morning I finally took the bumper out of Avery's crib.  She really doesn't need it anymore.  I was using a dark brown breathable bumper that matches everything, so I'm putting it away for any possible future kiddos.  Look at all those teeth marks on her crib!

Avery LOVES hanging out in her anywhere chair.  Whenever I am doing stuff in her bedroom, she is always in it. As I'm blogging, she is hanging out in her chair with some stuffed musical toys while I sit in the glider!

I'm not sure if I have posted about this or not, so I'm adding it in.  At Christmas, we decided to start her with a Precious Moments collection.  On her birthday she will get one each year until age 16.  I have always loved Precious Moments and I'm excited she will have her own collection.

Earlier today Avery decided to pull all of my t-shirts and pajama pants out of my dresser drawers.  I don't know why I fold anything anymore because she is always tossing clothes out of the dressers!

I'm looking forward to dinner tonight.  We are having Crock Pot Ravioli for dinner.  I got it going this morning and the house is smelling great!  Happy Tuesday!

blocks and Cajun food

Avery and I spent our morning playing with her awesome new block set we got from my good friend Angie (thanks again girl!).  She LOVES these blocks.  They are big and light weight.  I picked up the big red tub yesterday at Target to keep all her blocks in.  We also Skyped with my parents for about 30 minutes this morning.  They really enjoyed watching Avery run around and babble to them.

Avery ran all around the house with her blocks.  She tossed them into my garden tub.

She brought them into her room and tossed them onto the floor.

After all the playing and a morning snack, she took a nice two hour nap for me!  Once Avery woke up, we all got ready and headed out for Sunday lunch.  We decided to go to one of our favorite restaurants, Cypress Grill.  They have great Cajun food!  We split our entrees with Avery and everyone enjoyed.

Early this evening we went to the park so Avery could run around and play for awhile.  She decided she was too cool for her stroller and walked the entire way home from the park!  I wish I would have taken a picture of her walking up the sidewalk.  We've had a really nice Sunday and hope you have too!

saturday pics

Just wanted to share a couple pictures I took of Avery this morning.  How is she so big?  What happened to my little burrito?  I miss my baby, but I'm loving the sweet and fun girl she is becoming.

Enjoy your Saturday!

fun with friends

Today Avery and I drove up north to Pflugerville to my good friend Angie's house.  We had a play date with Angie and her two kids, plus Angie's friend Lisa and her two kids.  It was a full house but lots of fun.  We stopped at Super Target to pick up some Valentine's Day cookies to share with our friends and arrived a little after 11am.  As always, Angie had great food ready for everyone to eat.  All the kids had chicken nuggets and fries, while we had some delicious BLTA sandwiches and fries.

After lunch, the girls got busy playing while we tried to visit some.  It is always tough trying to visit with a bunch of little ones to look after!  Avery LOVES their play kitchen so much.  She always goes straight to it when we play at their house.  Here is Avery and Alexis playing in the kitchen together.

Kinley on her little laptop, probably blogging like her mama!  :-)

All the girls playing and making a huge mess with all the toys!

We tried to get a good picture of all of the girls together.  They are all a month apart in age.  Avery is the youngest at 16 months, Alexis is 17 months, and Kinley is 18 months.  The blonde, the brunette, and the redhead!  They are all so cute and fun to watch!

Avery in the hard hat ready to go and work!

It was really pretty outside, so Angie pulled the water table out for the kids to play in.  Everyone loved it.  Avery wasn't super interested in it.  I think she was more interested in exploring everything else around the house and yard!

Can you believe she is standing in the grass with no shoes on!?!?!?!  Avery has always been afraid of the grass, but she is starting to get brave about venturing out in it.

Thank you for having us over today Angie!  We always have such a fun time:-)  

Avery is taking a much needed nap, Eric is working in the yard, and I am relaxing.  Eric is making a sweet Hawaiian bread in the bread maker and I am going to fix tacos for dinner tonight.  Happy Friday everyone!  

panera and the galleria

Today Avery and I spent the afternoon with my friend Vanessa and her son Everett.  Everett just turned one and is SO stinking cute!  He is a little flirt and loves to laugh when he hears you laugh.  We met at Vanessa's house around 11am and let the kids play with some toys for a little while before heading out.  Avery loved checking out some of Everett's cool toys.  She also liked climbing the stairs at their house.

After the kids played for a bit, we loaded up and made the two second drive around the corner to the galleria.  We stopped at Panera first for some lunch.  Vanessa and I both got Asian Sesame Chicken salads (those are delicious!) while Avery and Everett snacked on some goodies.  They both did so well at lunch!

After lunch, we got the walking strollers out and did a few laps around the mall.  It was a beautiful day today. It felt good to be out walking around in the sunshine.  We did plenty of chatting, the kids relaxed (Everett even snoozed for awhile), and I picked up Eric a new pair of khaki shorts at Eddie Bauer.

We had a really fun day!  Can't wait to hang out again next week Vanessa!!

Eric is at school tonight, so I am enjoying my evening of bad reality TV.  Have a great night :-)

apps and shopping

Avery is taking a morning nap, so I thought I would do a fun little post with phone apps and favorite places to shop.

I spend a lot of time with my iPhone.  I love the thing!  I finally took the time to organize my apps and put them into categories.  I'm OCD and like to have all of my apps on one page so I don't have to scroll through a bunch of pages to find what I am looking for.

I recently found a great organization app called Intuition: Mom's Personal Assistant.  It is a free app and I love it so far.  You can make grocery lists and cross off items as you toss them in your shopping cart.  You can also make lists for other errands you need to run, appointments, phone calls, etc.

I'm sure you are looking at the awesome leopard print wallpaper I have and totally want it!  I have an app called Cuptakes and that is where I get all of my cute wallpapers from.

I know when I look at friends pictures and blogs, I always wonder where they shop for their kids cute gear.  I decided to share some of the places that I find Avery's goodies.

These are my favorite online boutiques I like to go to for specialty items like smocked clothing and appliqued tops and big hair bows.

Smocked Auctions (FB)

Juju Boutique (FB/Etsy)

Lions and Lily Pads (FB/Etsy)

Two Sisters Crafting (FB/Etsy)
Ruffle Butts

Polka Dot Closet (Etsy) (Haven't bought from yet, but planning on it!)

Shrimp and Grits Kids (Haven't bought from yet, but planning on it!)

My favorite deal sites I check daily and buy from often:

Zulily

Baby Steals

Mama Bargains

Totsy

My favorite stores for everyday clothing and shoes:

Stride Rite

Hide and Squeak
Wee Squeak

Carter's

Old Navy Kids

The Children's Place
Gymboree

and all the regular department stores! 

:-)

two peas in a pod

Avery has started getting into the crate with Rolo recently.  They are seriously two peas in a pod.  They are best buds.  She loves sitting in the crate with him and sometimes gets in the crate when he isn't even in there.  If we have him in his crate, she goes and unlocks the latches to let him back out!  Rolo can always count on Avery for some cheddar goldfish crackers or graham crackers for an afternoon snack.

Avery and I have already made our Target run early this morning.  We have to head back out to Costco this afternoon.  Here is what I'm planning on making this week.  I don't really have set days for my meals, but I make sure to have everything on hand for the meals and make them on whatever day is best.

Crock Pot Ravioli Casserole

Hawaiian Chicken and Brown Rice

Turkey Bean Chili and Brown Rice

Roasted Shrimp and Green Beans

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Crock Pot Cilantro Lime Chicken and Brown Rice

Homemade Vegetable Pizza

Enjoy your Monday! :-)

happy birthday Everett!

Today Avery and got out around 11am and headed over to my friend Vanessa's house for her son, Everett's first birthday party!  Here is Avery dressed up and ready to head to the party.

I'm SOOOO bummed I didn't bring my camera and take any pictures at the party. Vanessa had the house decorated so cute and Everett looked adorable.  The theme of the party was western cowboy.  Everett was all dressed up in his cowboy gear.  There was BBQ for lunch, and then cupcakes and s'mores and rice krispies on a stick for dessert.  Vanessa's husband Anthony had his home brew beer to share which Eric is super bummed he had to miss.  There were little vests, cowboy hats, and bandanas for all the kids to wear and some awesome ponies on a stick to play with hanging out in the backyard!  Everett had a big smash cake and there was a really nice video played towards the end of the party of his first year.  The coolest part about the party was that instead of bringing presents, everyone brought over donations that are going to be taken over to the Ronald McDonald house on Monday.

Avery had a ball!  She loved walking around and was just a little social butterfly.  She enjoyed eating and making a mess with her cupcake.  Hope you had a wonderful birthday Everett, and thank you Vanessa and Anthony for having us over today!  I'm hoping to get together with Vanessa next week for some lunch and shopping.

Avery is worn out and in bed.  I'm working on laundry and just taking it easy tonight.  Hope you have a great Saturday night!

avery and her pink chair

Avery had so much fun this afternoon playing on her chair.  She can get in and out of it now without face planting on the floor.

Looking forward to lunch and shopping tomorrow with my best friend Angie and her kids!  Have a great night!

two years ago today

Two years ago today I saw two pink lines after taking a pregnancy test.  That day started our journey as parents.  I count being pregnant as being a parent because I had to make sure I was taking care of myself and doing what I needed to do to care for my unborn child.  So much has changed since the day I came running out of the house to see Eric in the garage with a positive test.  I wouldn't change it for anything.  Here are some old pictures of Avery just for fun.

This picture was taken on our drive home from the hospital.

This picture is from November 2010.

Christmas time 2010.

March 2011 in Colorado.

April 2011 eating some peas.

Happy Thursday!

barbie girl

This afternoon I decided to take a quick trip with Avery over to Super Target.  I wanted to see if I could find some bubbles and sidewalk chalk that we could play with out in the front yard.  One of the employees at the store told me they wouldn't stock up on that kind of stuff for another couple of months.  Seriously?  Tomorrow we'll go and see if Walmart has anything.  So we walked out of the store with a new first Barbie doll for Avery!  Avery has one other Barbie doll, but it is the holiday 2010 doll for the year she was born and it is being kept up on her dresser.  I picked up the simplest Barbie they had with no small pieces.  It is a ballerina.  Avery thinks her new doll is pretty cool!

Ballerina Barbie!

I don't remember anything more fun then playing Barbies as a little girl.  I can't wait to play Barbies with Avery as she gets older.  :-)

happy hump day!

Brr, it is cold!  Well, at least this morning it is cold.  It is only 39 degrees out and I'm loving it.  It is January so it SHOULD be cold Texas.  I know we'll have plenty of the 70 degree weather starting in a couple months, only to turn into really hot weather that doesn't go away until Thanksgiving.  Now if only we would get some snow flurries.

Eric ordered a replacement stove knob and a replacement dryer knob the other day and we got them in yesterday.  I put both knobs on and they work great.  I also picked up some safety covers for the stove knobs.  Avery can reach up to the burners now and likes to mess with the knobs.  No, my stove isn't scrubbed clean and sparkling.  Don't judge! :-)

My sexy new dryer knob! No longer have to use a wrench to crank it to make it work!

Avery and I are just relaxing and playing this morning.  We don't have much to do today which is nice.  I'll do some light cleaning around the house and finish a load of laundry.  We might head out to the stores later this afternoon after lunch.  If it warms up, we'll go for a walk and stop at the park.

Love the look in this picture!  I took her pacifier away and put it on top of her dresser.  She is just glaring at it.  HA!  My mom sent her this cute thick long sleeve top with matching sweatpants.  It is perfect for cold days like this.

Tonight is chili and brown rice for dinner night.  Once Avery goes down for a nap I'll start browning the turkey meat and prepping veggies for the crock pot.  I'll cook it on high for a few hours this afternoon.  Eric is at school all day today, so I know he'll love coming home to a nice warm hearty meal.

Well, I'm off to finish my coffee and hang out with my little girl.  Have a great hump day!

sunday pictures

Avery and I took a walk and stopped at the park.  She loves stopping by the park.

Little fish butt.

Her other name is Pebbles.

Puppy love.

Avery can successfully open the doors now.

Happy Sunday!

pink toenails

This morning Avery and I got up, had breakfast, and got ready to head out to do a little shopping at Costco.  We got there at 10am when they opened.  I can't stand running errands on Saturday and Sunday, so if I have to go it is when the stores first open.  I, like always, forgot my shopping list on the fridge, so I was trying to remember everything we needed.  I remembered the bread, chicken nuggets, frozen mixed vegetables, frozen broccoli, and I picked up a couple cheap outfit sets for Avery.  I forgot to get vegetable oil and flour.  I guess we'll be going back to Costco either tomorrow or Monday.  I need to start using my phone to make shopping lists instead of the old fashioned pen and paper.  I just always forget it, and I always have my phone on me.

Once we got home, we had lunch and did some playing.  I painted Avery's toenails last night!  Isn't it cute!  It was hard to paint them perfectly because she moves around, but she did well.  I'm looking forward to her sporting cute pink toenails for the spring and summer wearing her sandals.

Avery is getting so tall and is reaching up for everything.  She can reach the top of her toy cubbie in the playroom.  She's reaching up for one of her favorite toys, her purse.

Avery didn't take her usual morning nap today since we went out, so she is napping now.  Once she wakes up we are going to take a walk around the neighborhood and stop by the park for a little while.  It is a pretty day out and she loves being outside.  Plus I need the exercise!

This evening I've got a little cleaning and laundry to do, and I have got to catch up on The Bachelor!  Happy Saturday!