Working from home

One of the benefits of sending Avery to a home daycare is that sometimes our sitter takes a personal day which means I get to stay home with Avery and Cash!!  Just a few reasons why I love working from home:


I get to be with Avery all day
I get to sleep in almost an hour later than normal
My commute is 10 steps instead of 25 miles
I get to be with Avery all day
My coffee is SO much better than the crap at the office
If I don't want to shower in the morning, I don't have to!!
Sweats and tennis shoes are so much more comfy than heels!
I get to be with Avery all day
If I'm lucky enough, the weather is nice and I can sit on the back porch and work


I could go on and on but instead, here are a few cute pictures of Avery and Cash playing in the backyard.

Bunny

Yes, I am sitting at home blogging on a Saturday night.  I know, I know, what an exciting life I lead!! Actually, we did have really fun plans tonight but someone (Avery) was a bit of a party-pooper.  My friend Melissa had us over for a pumpkin party and we all got our kiddos dressed up in their Halloween costumes.  Fun, right?? Apparently not.  Avery did NOT appreciate the two wardrobe changes in less than an hour.  Oh well, we had a good time anyway and it was so fun to see all of these adorable babies dressed in their Halloween costumes!

Here are all of the kids before we got their outfits on.  Whew, it is hard work trying to get five babies and one toddler to sit still and look at the camera!! 

We got five of the six dressed and I have to say, these are some of the cutest little babies ever!! Brenley in her hula girl outfit, Tatum is mini mouse, Gage (the only boy!) is a tiger, Avery the bunny and Kennedy the cowgirl!! Love these sweet babies!

 We lost Kennedy...

Notice the puffy, red eyes.  She was not a happy bunny :(

Sweet little Brenley looked ADORABLE!   This picture cracks me up because Bren looks like it's the middle of summer and Avery looks like she's ready for a blizzard.  Luckily it the temperature was in the low 70's.

Here are a few pictures of my sweet little bunny before the party.  She hardly napped at all today so I dressed her up before we left... I had a feeling we may not get a good picture at Melissa's. 

JOY

There is nothing better than coming home to this sweet little face.

The last couple weeks have been really hectic and busy.  I've been pretty frustrated at work and some days it just seems like nothing is going my way. 

But then I come home and get to play with this sweet little girl.   She just lights up my life and I love, love, love being a mom.  I never imagined there could be something so rewarding and joyous as seeing happiness and excitement on your child's face. 

Tonight I didn't do laundry, I didn't clean the kitchen, I didn't put away Avery's clothes, I didn't even eat dinner.  But I did play with Avery.  For two hours, we just played, I feel like I accomplished more tonight than I normally do even though I didn't really "accomplish" anything. 

I just love this little girl to the moon and back. 

Avery talking

Avery drooling

 Avery laughing

 Avery playing

Avery and Cash

Weekend Fun

Wow, we had a busy great weekend!! Friday night, Matt and I had a date night. We went to dinner at Outback and forced ourselves to talk about something other than Avery for an hour! It was great to have time to just be adults and husband/wife.  We came home that evening, packed our bags and picked up Avery from the sitter and headed to Temple to see family and friends.

Avery and I spent Saturday morning hanging out with Grandmother.  It was such a beautiful day, we had a great time sitting outside, enjoying the weather.

Pretty girl all ready for the birthday party!

That afternoon, we headed over to the Russells' to spend some time with a special little one-year old.  Benjamin is such a cutie and had a great time eating his cake!

Before: 

 After!:

Avery was  oblivious  and slept most of the afternoon.  She was so content snuggling with Nana Kay. 

Granddaddy teaching Avery to walk :)

Avery woke up in a great mood this morning, she is such a happy baby after a good night's sleep.  She was having a great time playing with her toys.  Actually, she really just loves being naked!!!

We ended the weekend with dinner at the Erwin's house.  Avery and Gage are just adorable together! They were so cute holding hands and playing.  

I love this picture, Kristy and I are oblivious to the fact that our little kiddos are talking to each other instead of smiling for the camera! ha!!!

Ok, I'm off to bed... these two are already fast asleep, it's time to join them!

Sweet Surprise

One year ago today....

Matt and I had the most amazing surprise of our lives.

A precious little one on the way.

It blows me away how much our lives have changed in just one short year.  We had just moved into our first home, just gotten our first puppy and then found out our first sweet child was due in 8 months.  God is so good.

Five Months

Wow, these months are just flying by!! Little girl, please stop growing up so fast.  While I love watching you learn new things (almost everyday!) I feel like it's all just happening so fast!! You finally started rolling over this past month but you don't do it very often.  You scream and scream when I set you on your tummy and instead of rolling over, you usually just give up and lay your head down. Silly girl.  On the other hand, you absolutely love standing up!! You will stand there as long as we'll let you!! It is so cute!! You are also mastering the skill of sitting.  If you use your hands for balance you can sit up for a couple minutes!! The first time you did it you were so proud of yourself!!

You are working on becoming a world-class traveler!! Two trips to Colorado within one month and you were a perfect little angel on the plane each time!!  You don't realize it yet, but girl, you have your grandparents wrapped around your little finger!!! Oh the joys of being the first grandchild, you can do no wrong!!!

A couple days after we got back from Colorado you found your voice.  You've been making sweet little cooing noises since you were about two months old but now you squeal, and yell, and shriek!! I love waking up on Saturday mornings and listening to you talking to yourself on the baby monitor.  I only get to hear this on the weekend because I usually have to wake you up at 7:00 on weekdays.  If we let you, you will sleep almost 12 hours at night!! Thank you for letting us sleep in till 8:00 on the weekends, I appreciate it more than you'll ever know!! :)

We are experimenting with different baby foods, you've currently had: avocados (dislike), bananas (love), applesauce (like), pears (like), and carrots (major dislike).  You also have 5-6 six oz. bottles a day. 

Sweet pea, you make mommy and daddy smile every single day.  I can't get enough of your smiles, little giggles, silly faces and cute squeaks!!  You have brought more joy to our lives than I ever imagined possible.

Love you little monkey!!!

mommy

First Weekend of Fall

Fall is my favorite time of year.  I just love everything about it... the cooler weather, the changing leaves, the beginning of football season, the start of the holidays... what's not to love!?!?  We had a great weekend, just hanging out at the house, playing with Avery.  We were finally able to open all the windows and turn off the AC.  I think Avery loved it even more than we did.  She was so content standing there watching Cash play in the backyard, so precious!!

This little girl had a busy weekend!  When she was done gazing out the window, she spent some time playing airplane with Daddy.  I just love watching them play together.  It might be the sweetest thing I've ever seen

Next, it was time to help mom make baby food!! I bought a few organic honey crisp apples and made applesauce.  I just love my baby food maker, it makes me feel so good to know exactly what my little girl is eating. 

Finally, we ended the day with a nice relaxing bath and a little cuddle time with mama.  Seriously, does life get any better than this???

Estes Park

We went to Estes Park while we were in Colorado last week.  Fall is my favorite time of year in Colorado, the cool, crisp air is such a welcome change from the summer heat.  I love going up to the mountains and looking at the fall colors, the aspen turn such a brilliant gold, it is beautiful next to the deep green of the pine trees.  Matt suggested going to Rocky Mountain National Park to see the Elk, I hadn't been in years!! 

We saw quite a few elk, they are in rut right now so they come down from the higher elevations to the meadows.  Unfortunately he wasn't the only one with this idea.  I've never seen so many people at the park, the cars were backed up almost a mile so we were unable to get as close as we would have liked but we still had a great time.  I think Avery enjoyed her first trip to Estes as well.  She got a little (ok a lot) fussy as we were getting ready to leave but overall she's a great little traveler!