Happy 4th of July

Here are some pictures of Avery from the past two days. She is a total ham for the camera and loves being in her red, white and blue garb for the holiday. The holiday weekend is much needed and we are all resting up with our time off.

We are all enjoying being home together and it is great to see what Avery can do. She can sit up all by herself and she rarely falls over, she is also rolling all over the place and scooting to wherever she wants to go. It has resulted in a few rug burns on the face but she is loving being able to move around as she pleases. Avery will be 7 months old next week, I can hardly believe that time has gone by this fast. What a wonderful time! Of course we will be taking her monthly picture in her Winnie the Pooh chair so you can see how much she has grown.

Our good friends Lee & Amy Edmondson had their little girl Kendall Marie last Sunday and she is so cute! We are so happy that both Mom and baby are healthy and we can not wait for the little ones to meet. Congratulations guys, we know how excited you both were to finally have her here.

Visitors From Another Planet - Or Tennessee

This past weekend was wonderful and awful all in one.

The Bad Part

Heath and I both had inventory at work which means long hours on Thursday and Friday and potentially working on Saturday. We have to do it two times a year like clockwork and I dread it every time it comes up. The last time we did inventory was the end of January; the exact week I went back to work from being on maternity leave. I was a hormonal mess and was so sad about being away from my baby for so long. Luckily my Mom and Dad were in town and were able to keep her while we both worked. It helped me so much knowing that she was in good hands. This inventory didn't last nearly as long as we expected. We were out of work by 6:30pm on Thursday and by 10:30pm on Friday. Heath had to go in on Saturday for a couple of hours but I was spared.

The Great Part

We were lucky this inventory as well because Aunt LeeJayne came into town to watch Avery for us. She came in late Wednesday evening and was there through Sunday morning. It was great for all of us to spend some time together and I know Avery loved having some alone time with her Aunt LJ. Avery also got to meet Bauer, LJ's big golden retriever, and she loved it. Every time he got close enough she would reach out and try to touch him. You can see here how excited she is that he is close to her

Avery also had her first swim in her own blow up pool, got to ride on Bauer and overall had a great time. Thank you Aunt LJ for watching the little one!

I will leave you with this cute picture of our little one. The darling top is one of many great presents that Aunt LJ brought for Avery while she was here.

Patty Cake Patty Cake

I remember the first time Avery was doing patty cake. LeeJayne has it documented in pictures on her blog here. She looked so confused and really didn't understand what was going on.

As you can see in the video she now instantly knows what we are doing and gets a huge smile on her face. Most of the time she starts to giggle before we even finish and is in a full laugh after we "pitch 'em in the pan." This is a common game when we are on Skype with Aunt LeeJayne, Rubs & B, and Nonnie & Pop (my parent's nicknames).

It is so surprising and exciting what Avery has for us every day. It seems as if her personality grows and she is learning something new constantly. We are truly blessed to have such a happy little girl!

On another note, we are so excited for our great friends Lee & Amy Edmondson in Baytown, TX. They are eagerly anticipating the arrival of their little girl Kendall Marie. We can't wait for the girls to meet and we know that they will be great friends. Good luck to you both and make sure to keep us posted!

Missing in Action

I have been really slacking on Blogging for the past week. I had my 26th birthday, Avery's 6 month doctor appointment, a busy weekend and the two adults in our family with a summer cold so I guess one or some of those may be used as an excuse. But, we have also been doing some really fun and exciting things with Avery, so as bad as I am feeling I still want to share it all.

She has started peas, her second veggie, and she loves them. I never imagined that it would be this easy to switch over to solids. Avery has liked everything we have given her so far and it has been pretty easy getting them to go down. I know we will eventually run across something that she will not like, but for now she is eating everything.

"Feeding of the green slime has commenced"

Avery has officially moved to a high chair. She loved being in her Bumbo to eat but it was getting hard to get up and down off the floor several times a feeding to get a towel, clean something up, get more to eat...you get my drift.

She loves to sit in the high chair while I am working on dinner or cleaning bottles. I usually roll her into the kitchen and she plays with her toys or watches what I am doing. This gives me a chance to interact with her a little more and get some things done at the same time; I am slowly learning the fine art of multitasking!

I had to include this cute picture of her in her high chair; she looks so small in it.

Avery is also learning how to drink from a sippy cup. You may remember when I got her the cute personalized sippy cup and she proceeded to smack herself in the face with it. I learned my lesson with that and bought her a starter cup with a very soft spout. As you can see in the pictures she has the right idea and is getting more out every time she tries.

Other Avery events to let you know about. Avery took her first swim in the pool. Heath and I were a little hesitant about putting her in but she loved it. The turtle float was a hit and she kicked around and played in the water like she had done it a million times before. I am sure we will be going to our community pool a lot this summer to cool down.

I promise to post a video of Avery tomorrow so you can see how big she is getting!

6 Months Old!

It is hard to believe that our baby girl is 1/2 a year old. Six months ago seems both like an eternity and just a second ago. Avery showed us last night how much has changed since those first few weeks home; she is scooting all around and playing with her toys. I am sure that before the end of the June she will be getting up on her hands and knees and crawling. A mobile baby, how exciting and scary at the same time!

This is what I got yesterday morning after getting the big girl out of her crib and taking her downstairs to get ready. I put her in the pack-n-play for just a minute and when I came back to her this is what I saw...I guess she was having LOTS of fun with her toys!

Of course I have to post the "official" 6 month pictures. She is getting so big and is now able to sit up in the chair all by herself. We definitely have a heart breaker on our hands, or at least we think so.

This one is too cute, I love that she crosses her little feet.

My Sweet Potato Queen

This weekend was a blast. Avery was feeling much better by Friday afternoon so we decided that she might be up to a few new things. On Saturday we tried out her first official solid food, sweet potatoes, and she loved them.

She really seems like she is enjoying eating something different and she liked the sweet potatoes much more than the rice cereal. I am sure if we had the same thing for 6 months straight we would be happy to eat something new too.

She leans into the spoon and opens her mouth every time it gets near her mouth and she is laughing and giggling the whole time. We haven't moved her into her highchair yet but it will be soon. She really likes to arch her back and laugh once she takes a bite. I will have to post a video of it soon because it is hilarious!

Today is Avery's 6 month birthday. I can't believe how big she is getting and what a great little person she is becoming. I looked through some of her newborn clothes this weekend and I can't believe she was ever that small. Actually, some of her newborn clothes were too big for her when we first came home from the hospital!!! What a road it has been. Some good and some bad but I feel that we have definitely survived and made it. There are still days that I can't believe that we have a 6 month old. I will definitely post her official 6 month pictures tomorrow.

Sick Girl

This week I had big plans to write all about our fun trip to Atlanta and post ridiculously cute pictures of Avery. Unfortunatley she has been sick with some stomach bug (don't ask about the details) so there has less sleep than normal and no time to take cute pictures. This morning she was feeling much better so it looks like we will have a great weekend playing around; maybe even going to the pool! Since I know you all don't want to see pictures of sick girl and that I am trying to keep up with posting videos on Friday I have posted a video of Avery talking. This was from a few weeks ago and it is pretty cute. Hope you all have a great weekend.