Birthday Countdown: One Week

In one week from today my little baby girl will be one year old!!  At her nine-month check up our doctor kindly (sarcasm) informed me that she will no longer be a baby, that next time she sees Avery she will be a toddler.  A toddler.  How can this be possible??  While I'm not as emotionally unstable as I thought I'd be (although Matt may tell you otherwise) I'm still having a hard time accepting this.  Thankfully I have lots of party planning to keep me busy. 

We are waiting a few weeks to have her party so that my family can be here and I have to admit, this worked out nicely.  Gives me more time to get everything organized... I might be a bit of a procastinator.  Just ask anyone that routinely recieves birthday cards and gifts 2-3 okay, 4 days late. As I was getting into full-time party planning mode I was looking back through the 10,000 + (haha) pictures I've taken over the past year which of course led to me getting more than a bit sentimental and a little teary-eyed.  So, I thought I'd share them (not the 10,000 plus, just a bunch of my favs)... Wow, I really did take a ton of pictures this past year.

Easter Weekend

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 1 Peter 1:3

We had wonderful, relaxing Easter this year.  It's funny to think that this time last year I was on bed rest and we were under strict orders not to venture more than one hour from the hospital where I planned to deliver.  Easter looked a lot different last year.  I think the only thing we did was go to our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch. Seriously, who eats Mexican food for Easter lunch??? 

Well this year we got to enjoy Easter from a child's eyes.  It was so fun watching Avery take it all in.  We kicked off the weekend early with an Easter egg hunt Thursday evening with our friends.  Sadly I seem to have touched the lens or something on my camera (way to go me) so the pictures aren't that great but the kids had a blast and I just love getting together with these girls.  

Avery, Gage and Kennedy fighting over eggs and baskets

Mommas and our kiddos

This is actually a pretty good picture, I cannot believe we have seven kiddos all looking at the camera.  Minus Gage, he's shoving puffs in his mouth :)

 Friends :)

Avery checking out her Easter basket.  She was fascinated with the fake grass :)

WARNING: Picture overload.

So I may have taken 100+ pictures of Avery playing in the front yard with her basket and eggs and I may have initially uploaded like 15 of them.  So, I think it's a great accomplishment that I have narrowed it down to less than 10 :)

Here she is, eying her eggs... this girl doesn't mess around.

Got 'em!!  Life is good again :)

I'm surprised the wind didn't blow her over.  She toppled over a few times but I'm pretty sure that was just a balance thing.

Again, this egg hunting is serious business.

This girl loves to carry things. Anything.  Even daddy's size 14 tennis shoes. 

Love her

She loves it when Matt throws her up in the air

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Swingin'

Have I mentioned that I'm soooo in love with this sweet little 11-month old, walking around the house, chattering all the time, blue-eyed girl???

 

Babies, Concerts and Milestones

Yes, I know... very random title but this will be a pretty random post so it fits!

I was able to spend Friday afternoon at home with Avery because daycare was closed.  This turned out to be perfect timing because Avery decided to start walking! She took three steps last weekend but then stopped.  Friday afternoon she walked over and over again! She got up to eight steps without falling or holding on to my hand. I'm so excited for this milestone! She looks so cute toddling around :)  She is doing better each day and I am so proud of her new accomplishment!  This evening I was in the kitchen and saw her walking all by herself in the living room.  She is already getting the hang of it.  (after re-reading this paragraph I think I deleted six exclamation marks...I'm one proud mama)

Next, the baby part... no, I'm not pregnant :)  but my friend Ashley gave birth to her sweet baby girl, Emmalee on Friday!! We got together with our friends Friday after work for pizza and then headed over to the hospital.  Ash delivered at the same hospital where I had Avery, it was neat to be back in the L&D wing but I have to say I was very thankful to be there as a guest, not a patient! ha!!

Here are a few of the kiddos before we left... it is near impossible to get these little busy bodies to sit still. 

Little Emmalee Caroline and her momma!  Isn't she just beautiful???

Holding her brought back so many memories and emotions.  I feel like I would have major baby fever and be ready to start trying again if I didn't have to go through the pregnancy part... I jokingly asked Matt if we could look into getting a surrogate!  I know that each pregnancy is different and that next time we may not have any complications but still... scary stuff.

I do know there are things I will do different with the next one though.. I will hold him/her more, I will try to nurse longer, I will give cloth diapers a try (yes, you read that correctly)... among other things.  The newborn phase passes so quickly and I felt so overwhelmed with Avery, which looking back was silly because she was such a good baby!  I just want to enjoy every minute possible because they grow out of the snuggly, tiny, sleepy phase so quickly.

Here's proof... I cannot believe how big Avery looks in this picture!! How can they change so much in just a year??

Saturday we had a much needed "adults only" day.  We met a bunch of friends at Pappasito's for lunch and then headed over to Cowboy's Stadium to tailgate for the Kenny Chesney / Zac Brown Band concert.  I was a little reluctant to be away from Avery most of the day on Saturday because our weekends are so special and go by so fast but Matt convinced me it would be good for us to have a day like this and he was right.  Yes, I said it... he was right.  What an amazing concert!!

Quick family photo before heading out.

Avery and her favorite babysitter :)

The girls (most of us)



Perfect weather for tailgating!

Love him :)



Cowboys Stadium

Zac Brown Band!!

 Kenny!!!

Oh, I am dreading work tomorrow.  Is it okay to be ready for the weekend if it's only Sunday night... because I definitely am!