saturday fun with friends

This afternoon I had my friend Emily and her daughter Sophia come over for a play date and lunch.  It was nice to just lounge around the house in sweats and let the girls play.  The big brown dog was very excited to see another friend down at his level.  Sophia loves him.

I brought some of my small Coach bags out so the girls could carry them around and put things inside them.  That is one of Avery's favorite things to do!  I think I'm going to have a little material girl on my hands as she gets older.

Sharing a little girl talk.  Coach bags in hand.

Playing and checking things out.  I think every toy we own was dragged between the family room and the play room.  The girls had so much fun, even with a little bit of crankiness.

Avery holding onto a bag in each hand.  One at her feet.

Sophia loved this toy!  She was pushing and dragging it all over.  I think it is going to be added to her Christmas wish list.

Some more serious playing.

Our serious lunch of some delicious Chinese food.  I think it has been over a year since I had Chinese food and it was SO good!  We scarfed it.  We had huge Cokes to wash it all down with.  YUM!

Sophia decided she wanted to hang out in Rolo's crate this afternoon.  Rolo gave her the grand tour.

Little miss happy!

We had a great afternoon with our friends!  Tomorrow I have lots of cleaning to do.  Happy Saturday!

santa's little helper

I feel like a broken record saying we had another day around the house today.  We haven't had much going on lately.  We didn't have set plans with friends this week and I didn't want to start on my cleaning until this weekend so the house was all ready to go when our family gets in town on Tuesday morning.  We do have plans this weekend though!  Tomorrow my good friend Emily and her daughter Sophia are coming over for a play date and lunch.  On Sunday I am doing a really good cleaning of the house and all of the laundry.

Today Avery wore her Santa's Little Helper outfit that her grandma Charlene sent her.  She is obsessed with these little chubby books.  She loves carrying them around and flipping through the pages.  The pages have little flip open pictures that she likes to look at.

I promise there is only water in that cup!  HA!

Today we did lots of playing, Avery took a two hour nap, we took a family walk, I made some queso as a dinner appetizer, and then a cheese chicken broccoli casserole for dinner.

I'm really looking forward to having family here with us for a week!  I can't wait to do more Christmas shopping, tons of baking, watch Christmas movies, go out to some of our favorite restaurants, cook a big Christmas dinner, and just have a good time together.

Good night!

rainy day and new bows

Today was another lazy day around the house except for a quick morning run out.  I dressed Avery in her third Christmas top that grandma Charlene made her.  This is my favorite one!  You'll be seeing Avery wear lots of Christmas gear over the next couple of weeks because I want to get some use out of it.  I can't wait to put her in her adorable Christmas jumper I found at Dillard's.

After breakfast and coffee, we headed over to the South Park Meadows shopping center.  I feel like I live over there.  That is where our Super Target is and I do the majority of our grocery and toiletry shopping there.  I finally signed up for one of their red cards to get 5% back on all my purchases on top of sales and coupons.  We also stopped in Bath and Body Works to do an exchange and get some refills for our wallflowers.  We have lavender chamomile in them now and the house smells wonderful.  After our two stops, we came home because this is what the day looked like.  Chilly and rainy.  Perfect day to hang out at home.

After morning snack, a rather messy lunch, and long two hour nap... we needed to put on a fresh outfit.  She is wearing her rainy day frog outfit.  We did some playing this afternoon and snacked on Goldfish crackers.  Those are a staple in our house.

Avery likes to feed Rolo her snacks.  Whenever Avery has a snack, Rolo is right at her feet waiting for something to drop or to be fed.  It's pretty funny to watch.  He is always super gentle with her and doesn't get in her face to get food.  He is such a good boy.

We walked to the mailbox before dinner and the bows I ordered for Avery arrived!  I was so excited.  I ordered these three cute bows from Juju Boutique, my new favorite Etsy shop to order bows from.  I had the letter "A" put on the hot pink and navy blue bows.  And I just HAD to get her a cheetah print bow!

We are really building quite the bow collection!  Bows are so much fun and so addicting to buy.

This evening I am doing a small load of laundry, washed a few dishes, and wrapped the last two Christmas presents I had.  Everything is under the tree now.  I'm so happy that all of my Christmas shopping, mailing, and wrapping is DONE!  I'm on my own tonight and Avery is already asleep... so I'm going to see what Christmas movies I can find on TV.  Have a good night!

wednesday wednesday

I wanted to share a picture I took of Avery yesterday.  She just looks like a sassy little thing!

Today we all hung out at home for most of the day.  It was a rainy day, so it was perfect for just not doing much and hanging out in pajamas all day.  Eric and Avery spent a good portion of late morning playing in the play room while I got busy in the kitchen.  I decided to make a hearty vegetable soup for lunch.  It turned out delicious and was super easy!  I love having Eric home so I can cook and bake in peace!

Avery running around after lunch with her water cup.  She always carries that thing around.

Big smiles or the camera!  I just love this girl.

Taking a break on the big brown's bed.

Eric and Avery took long afternoon naps.  While they slept I cleaned up a bit around the house, folded some laundry, and made a tasty surprise for them to wake up to.  I made triple chocolate brownies with a vanilla butter cream frosting and sprinkles.  I added just a tad of green food coloring to make them more festive.

Avery enjoyed her brownie after her dinner.  She couldn't stop laughing while she was eating.

Inspecting her chocolate goodness.

Brownies, oh yea!

For dinner tonight, we tried a new recipe that I have been wanting to make for awhile.  We made a chicken vindaloo.  I picked up my vindaloo curry from Savory Spice shop a couple months ago.  I've always loved Indian food and wanted to try making some at home.  Eric and I couldn't believe how amazing our meal turned out tonight.  It tastes just like it does in the restaurants.

I buy all of my spices from Savory Spice Shop.  If you are local, they are right off 6th street.  If you aren't local, you can order spices from their website (listed on Facebook information page).  The recipe we used to make our vindaloo is from the Savory Spice Shop website.  We did not use yogurt and used olive oil instead of the traditional ghee.  Instead of frozen vegetables, we used fresh potatoes, onion,  green pepper, and canned drained diced tomatoes.

Hope you enjoyed your Wednesday!

jingle bell monday

Today was just a lazy Monday.  Avery and I spent the morning playing around the house.  I put Avery in another one of the Christmas tops that grandma Charlene made her.  This one says Jingle Bells on it.  I love dressing Avery in all of her cute holiday outfits. 

Avery has always been a morning napper.  Today she just would not take a nap and was extremely cranky.  Maybe she is going to start moving her nap a little later for me.  To keep her happy, I let her bang around on some baking pans with a wooden mixing spoon.  She did end up napping this afternoon from 12:30 to 2:30!  While she napped, Eric stayed at the house and I ran out to Super Target for a few things and just a little alone time.  It was so nice!

When I got back to the house, Avery was awake.  Eric took Avery and Rolo on an hour long walk while I started preparing dinner.  I made potato cheese soup.  It is one of my favorite winter meals.  Eric also made some beer bread in the bread maker to go with it.  Here are Avery and Rolo watching Eric outside bringing the trash and recycling bins up to the house. 

Avery rediscovered one of her teething toys today.  She never really got how to use this strawberry when she was younger.  It vibrates and feels good on the gums.  She loved it and kept giggling while she chewed on it.  I'll have to keep that one out for her to use!

When I was at Super Target, I picked up a refillable dish soap dispenser.  I know it looked really tacky to have my big old Ajax container hanging out on the kitchen sink!  I've been wanting to get something like this for awhile.  It looks so much better!  I like my dish soap on the sink instead of underneath because I am always using it. 

After dinner and bath, Avery and I just relaxed and played in the family room.  She was in a really playful mood.  She likes to just lay on the floor and wait to be tickled.  She had a case of the sillies tonight as I like to call it.  She was crawling all over me, laughing, sitting in my lap... I love when she is all fun and lovey.  Sometimes the evening is my favorite part of the day.  She is rocking her Girls Rock pajamas with guitars all over them.  I know my brother is probably loving these pjs!  :)

Only 8 more days until we have family visiting for Christmas and we can't wait!  Hope everyone had a great Monday! 

Happy 1st Birthday Sophia!

Today we went to my friend Emily's house for her daughter Sophia's first birthday party!  She did a birthday party brunch and had it catered by Panera Bread.  It was delicious.  She also had some amazing cupcakes and mimosa's.  It was a really cute spread.  Sophia looked adorable in her cupcake dress and was a little social butterfly.  She got tons of fun new toys from all her friends. 

We tried to get some pictures of all the girls together at the party. 

The best we could get!  Avery was more interested in a sticker that she found on the floor than looking up to smile for the camera.  The girls from left to right: Margo, Sophia, Avery, Kinley.  They are all so pretty!

Avery and Kinley LOVED this cool popper toy that Sophia had.  We might need to go to Super Target and get one! :)

Avery and Kinley just playing in the playroom.

We had such a nice morning at the party!  Happy Birthday sweet Sophia!!!

After the party, Angie and I took the girls over to Sunset Valley for a little shopping.  We went into TJ Maxx and we both found these adorable drawer organizers for the girls.  We got a leopard print and Angie got Kinley a zebra print.  They are so great to hold the girls accessories!  Great find Angie!  I LOVE anything to organize with.  I'm a little OCD about organizing and cleaning. 

After TJ Maxx, we walked over to Home Goods.  Avery let me know she was OVER being out and about so we headed home early.  I was bummed because I wanted to spend a little while out at the stores.  Avery ended up playing for about 30 minutes when we got home and then took an hour and a half nap.  I ended up napping too! :)

Have a wonderful Sunday night! 

holiday shirt and hair cut

Yesterday we got a package in the mail from grandma Charlene.  It had the three holiday shirts that we picked out to make when we were in Colorado last month.  All three of them came out really cute!  Today Avery wore her reindeer shirt.  We decided to use non-traditional Christmas colors for this top and go for pastels. 

Laughing at me trying to take her picture!

This afternoon I went and got my hair cut!  I was in major need.  I think I last got a trim in May.  Today I had 4 inches cut off.  I love the new length and it is going to be much easier to dry and style. 

Me and my baby girl.  Please excuse the no make up going on!  This was the best picture we got with Avery kind of looking at the camera. 

Tomorrow we are going to Sophia's first birthday party.  We are looking forward to a fun day tomorrow.  Have a great Saturday night!