Christmas in Colorado

We've been in Colorado since last Thursday and have been having a wonderful time. We left Grand Prairie at 3:30 Wednesday afternoon and drove and drove and drove.... Avery did really well in the car. She slept on and off in the afternoon. We stopped for dinner at a great little Mexican restaurant in middle of nowhere Texas. After that, she was out for the night (mostly). We arrived in Trinidad, CO at about 2:30 am and had to stop for gas which of course woke her up. She then decided it was time to get up and play for awhile and then refused to go back to sleep. She finally crashed again around the time we got to Pueblo. We finally arrived at my parents' house at 6:30 am. Matt was so great and drove most of the night.


Thursday was very quiet and low key. We were exhausted from the drive so we relaxed at home and finished up some last minute Christmas shopping.

Stefanie and Brian came down around noon on Christmas eve, it was so great to have everyone together!!

All ready for church!

We always spend Christmas eve at my Dad's parents' house, this year everyone was home so we had 35 people together. I just love having a big family, we always have so much fun!

Christmas morning Avery was the first one up, we (as usual :)) waited for Stefanie to wake up and then opened our presents.  It is always so fun to see the wonderful gifts everyone gets. 

This year it was the year of the rocking chair.  My dad bought my mom two beautiful log wood rocking chairs for the cabin.  It just so happened that Stef, Brian, Matt and I also bought my parents two white rocking chairs for the deck at the cabin.  Great minds think alike I guess!!!

Avery loved the log rocking chair!

Here are the lovebirds celebrating their first Christmas together, aren't they cute??

Here is our little family of three.  Avery had so much fun playing with all the wrapping paper and boxes. 

Avery trying her first bite of cheesecake.  YUM!

All of the Christmas cheer wore this little girl out, Grandma was more than happy to cuddle with her.

Stinker.

I laid Avery down for her afternoon nap and she immediately started crying.  I stood there and patted her back for a while (she likes to sleep on her tummy now).  She quieted down so I turned the monitor on and left.  About five minutes later I hear her jabbering away.  I go in there to see what she's doing.  This is what I found...

She learned how to sit-up from being on her belly about a week ago but I didn't even think about the effect that would have on nap time!! I clapped my hands a few times and told her wow, good job!! Then tried to put her back on her belly.  Big mistake!! She immediately sat back up and decided we were playing a game!!! Little stinker.  She was having so much fun there was no way I was going to make her take a nap!!! She would try to pull herself up on the side of the crib (yes, we're going to have to lower the mattress soon I'm afraid) and then plop  back down and crack up.  She did this over and over again, each time laughing harder than before. 

  

 

Obviously the crib is now for playing not for napping.  This could be a problem.  How do you get a baby to sleep when she refuses to lay down?? Not sure what we're going to do...

Her other favorite game is feeding Cash her puffs.  She has a little cup in her exersaucer, if I put a few puffs in there she's content to play with them for 10-15 minutes.  She won't actually eat them (unless I feed them to her) but she loves to play with them!! Today she discovered it is fun to give them to Cash!! He of course loves this game!!

They both look guilty

Caught red handed!

 
Watching...

Cash is anxiously waiting for then next puff to hit the floor.  

I am so blessed!! My sweet little girl definitely keeps me on my toes but I love her more than I ever imagined possible.

Little Water Bug

I think it's time to put the baby tub in storage!!

This little fish needs a bigger pool to swim in!

Christmas Countdown

This weekend went by way too fast!!I'm feeling a little overwhelmed that Christmas and our trip to Colorado are approaching so quickly.  I'm beyond excited but, wow, I still have so much to do!! So many Christmas presents to buy, so much packing to do, I just feel very unorganized and a bit stressed.  I was hoping/planning to finish up our Christmas shopping but guess how many presents I bought... that's right... zero.  

The funny thing is, we really didn't do anything this weekend yet I feel like I was so busy!  It's tough chasing around a seven month old.  I want to spend every second possible with her after being away at work all week but hey, a mom has to get some stuff done too! 

Ok, I'm off to make dinner, here are a few pictures in yet another of my favorite Christmas outfits! I really need to have another girl around the same time of year Avery was born so that I can get more use out of her clothes!!

Yes, the tights are a bit too small, I'll admit they didn't actually have this outfit in Avery's size but I loved it so much I bought it anyway! HA!

This girl loves to stand up!! I literally have to bend her knees sometimes to get her to sit down!

Still trying to crawl.  Still going backward.  Still getting frustrated. 

 Love this little girl!!!

1st Christmas Party

Avery and her little friends had a Christmas party on Sunday evening.  We have a great group of friends with kids 5 months - 2 years old.  It is always mayhem when we all get together but I love it!! It's so crazy to think that this time last year five of us were pregnant and now our babies are growing up so quickly.  I love that we all have babies so close in age, it makes getting together so much easier because everyone understands if one is crying or spits up or any of the other fun things babies do!!

Unfortunately my camera battery died early in the evening but I was still able to get a couple cute pictures.

This is one of my favorite Christmas outfits... I just love the little tutu-crawler.

Ok, I think I need to explain this picture a bit.  Our friends Ashley and Brant are expecting a baby girl, Emmalee, in May.  So of course we had to include little Emmalee in the Christmas party fun!! She also had to be in the picture so we had Ashley hold sweet little Tatum on her cute baby bump so her little one could be part of the picture!! So cute!!

Whittaker, Brenley, Kennedy, Tatum, Emmalee, Avery, Gage and Cade!

Here is a glimpse of the mayhem... 

I just love this time of year!!

Christmas Outfits

So, I may have gone a little overboard buying Christmas outfits for little miss.  Yes, I know, this is shocking.  Well anyway, I'm hoping she can wear each of them at least once so... a few random posts with no real purpose will be up soon!! This one makes me laugh because it says Always Jolly.  Okay, seriously, what 6 month old is always jolly?  I tried SO hard to get a picture of her smiling to show her "jollyness" (pretty sure I just made up a word).  Anyway, this girl is way too busy and curious to smile for the camera!!

Sitting still for half a second

Distracted by Cash running in the room with two balls in his mouth and growling at us

She has discovered her hands!! They are oh so interesting!!  So cute!

This is her "I really want to crawl and grab whatever is in front of me but I'm not quite brave enough" face

Seven Months

Sweet little Avery, you are at such a fun age right now!  You are trying so hard to crawl!! You get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth but when you try to move your arms you fall back to your belly.  You seem to realize how close you are to being mobile.  You can scoot around in a circle and can manage to go backward, just not forward!  You are reaching for everything, and you are so fast!  You don't miss a thing!   You still love to stand and are starting to try to pull yourself up.  You reach your hands up try to pull and look at me like, "a little help here would be nice".  Once you're up you can stand supported for a few minutes.

Your hair is finally starting to grow!! I cannot believe how much hair you had when you were born and then about 75% of it fell out!  It's coming in a little lighter than it was before and your bald spot is finally filling in :)

You are such a good baby.  You still go to bed around 7:30 and sleep 11-12 hours at night.  You are having four 7 oz bottles a day and baby food twice a day.  You seem to like just about everything I give you now, including gerber puffs!  You make a funny face at first but seem to enjoy them.  Speaking of eating, you got your first tooth (bottom left) about 2 weeks ago!!  You didn't seem phased by it at all!!

I absolutely love your sweet little laugh, it is so contagious!!!  Sometimes it is a challenge to get you to laugh.  I do something that you think is funny and you just laugh and laugh... but then I do the same thing the next day and you're already over it!!  It is so fun to watch you explore, you are a very quiet, observant baby.   I love your mild, easy-going temperament. 

You are such a blessing little girl, I fall more in love with you each and every day.

It won't be long...

Until this little girl is crawling!!!

She's up!

 

 Look at me go!

Sweet little pumpkin

Phew, this is a lot of work

And we're done...