it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We did it! We finally put up our Christmas tree. We retired the "teddy bear" tree this year and opted for a more "grown-up" theme.. blue and white.. we love it!

Woah, watch out where you swing that!

This tree stuff is fun!

Must explore the empty tree box

That's it, Avery... stick the lights right there!

Aww, so cute!

Here is the final result:

where to begin?

I have NO idea where to begin to recap the past 2 months. Last time I posted we were moving out of our condo. Now we're living in our house! We moved in this past weekend. Thanks to everyone who came out to help Brent move the furniture :) I did jack squat... well, I had the job of keeping Avery entertained.. not sure which job is more challenging ;) hehe. Avery is loving the extra room to roam around. She's still getting used to the fact we have more than 1 room in the downstairs.. I can't really turn a corner and be out of sight before she's calling out "momma!" to see where I've gone.

We did Christmas early with my side of the family while my sis and her fam were in town from North Dakota. We just did a few gifts for the kiddos... sooo fun! Avery LOVED my mom's Christmas tree and all the pretty ball ornaments. She quickly did some redecorating of the ornaments.

Avery loves to wear Brent's Patriot's ski cap:

Oh yeah, and did I mention this? :

June 18th, 2010... one day after Avery's birthday!

what a big help

** drive those legs! **

** watch where you're going! **

I don't know if we'd ever get moved out without Avery's help ;)

these are cool

learning how to use headphones.. next step: plugging them into music so they work!

staying busy

We're alive! Staying super busy packing and getting ready to move out... phew! But Avery always manages to make time to play:


And just for funsies here's a picture from a year ago today.. crazy how much she's grown up already!

beautiful day out

Avery enjoyed herself outside today.. it was so nice out!

an apple a day

We went in today for Avery's 15 month well-baby appointment. Not a whole lot to report... Avery got a clean bill of health. She's only gained 1 single pound in 3 months! I suppose all the running around Avery does now is paying off! Her height is up 1.5" to 31 inches. They say she's on the tall side for her age. Then came the shots! All 3 of them. Avery did cry... a lot! But she managed to blurt out "STICKER!" when I pointed down to her shiny new sparkly bandaids on her legs. Here's a picture of them.



Avery's vocabulary is just growing like crazy. Last weekend we went up to williamsburg to visit my family and we got inside the house and saw all of her cousin Henry's matchbox cars. She points to them and says "Car!" I had no idea she knew it. I love it when she blurts out with a new word. I haven't written ANYTHING down for memories... I'm horrible at documenting things like that. I'll try and make a list now since one of the main reasons I write on this blog is for our own personal use to document Avery's life.

these are words she says and knows what they mean:
1st word: ball
2nd word: puppy
mama... morphed into mommy now
dada
cracker
cookie
help
yeah
no
baby
choo choo (for train)
quacker (for duck)
shoe
sticker
car

words that are on the cusp:
octopus (it's ahh-pus right now)
balloon
Tee (for TV)
please (it's peasssss right now)

sounds she makes:
meow
ruff ruff/ arf arf (for dog)
oo oo aah aah (for monkey)
oooooo (moo for cow)

i even think she's learning the words to twinkle, twinkle.. if i'm too slow starting the next phrase, she'll either say "up a" or "how" for up above... and how i wonder...

and she's quite the finiky girl when she plays! for example, when we start singing she'll go get a few animals and bring them to me to make them dance around while we sing... it ALWAYS happens. I can't start singing "twinkle, twinkle" without her going to get the nursery rhyme book she has with the words and pictures in it. it's so funny how quickly she learns and grows accustommed to a certain way things "need" to be for her when she plays!

it's really fun right now because she is understanding so much lately. she's able to answer yes and no to questions and it really seems like she understands what we're asking. she definitely learned "No" before yes :)

so that's the update for now... I needed to jot some things down before I forgot them... my memory is even shorter now than it used to be!

coupon catastrophy

All I could do was just watch :)


Avery LOVES being outside. Can you tell?

animal crackers are not cookies, mom

I made the mistake of asking Avery after lunch yesterday if she wanted a cookie. Avery is just now understanding what I mean when I ask that... and guess what? I actually had NO cookies! Oops! I figured an animal cracker would do... NOPE =) I suppose the girl knows what the good stuff is now. Animal crackers are "crackers" and a "cookie" must be round and have chocolate chips.

Avery does say a few more words now. "Puppy" is definitely her most frequent word! She says it clear as day now. Her newest one, as of yesterday, is "sticker." And her word for duck is "quacker." She knows "nope" or "no" and she can say "help".. it's more like "elp!" And her word for done is "none." I'll ask her if she's done with eating and she says "NONE!"

a tour of our place

We were pretty busy last week through Labor Day weekend... laboring hard! We've been getting our place ready to list on the market again! I figured now that it looks fairly decent, I'd post pictures of our humble abode. I'll post the pictures of Avery's bedroom and bathroom later... she's napping right now :) So here it is:

** downstairs **
** kitchen table looking into kitchen **

** patio **

** kitchen **

** downstairs bathroom **

** master bedroom **

** master bathroom **

Cowboy Oatmeal Cookies

This is one of my favorite recipes from the All Recipes Tried & True Cookies cookbook.

Cowboy Oatmeal Cookies
makes: 3 dozen
preparation: 15 minutes
cooking: 10 minutes
total: 40 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1 cup butterscotch chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream margarine, oil, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients until well blended. Mix in oats and butterscotch chips. Drop from a teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Let set up on the cookie sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.


My little tweaks:

1. chocolate chips instead of butterscotch chips
2. I add in a handful of old-fashioned oats (gives cookies a little more texture)
   

a birthday party and other happenings

August 21st was Avery's cousin Addison's 2nd birthday! So Saturday we headed over to her house for a little birthday celebration. It was so much fun! Avery always enjoys playing with Addy's toys. Here Avery is watching over the gift-unwrapping.

Addison received a Mrs. Potato Head from her dad, Travis. He shipped it from overseas since he's still on deployment.


Here's the birthday girl!! Isn't she cute? I love that smile! She's playing with a pink cell phone =)

BEEP, BEEP!
This girl knows how to do it! Talking on the phone while driving... she's already a good multi-tasker! I wonder what the cell phone laws will be in 15 years once she's actually driving?

What a sweet cousin! Addison stopped to give Avery a peck on the back of the head while she was pushing her around the house. I had no idea Avery was going to love this car so much. Addison was so nice to let Avery play with it for so long!



Sunday I came down with a cold and just felt like a truck had hit me. Brent totally came to my rescue and offered to take Avery to church with him while I stayed home to sleep. It was SO nice. I slept for 4 extra hours.. definitely would NOT have happened with a 1 year old around. On his way home he brought Chinese food and Avery enjoyed playing with the chopsticks.

Later, I asked Avery for a tissue, and this is what she did:

I love this next picture because Avery actually kept on the bow in her hair... She's definitely not an "accessory" girl YET. I have a feeling she will be eventually given how much she loves my Mom's jewelry when she comes to visit. She wants nothing to do with hats, bows, socks, or shoes. (I have recently overcome the shoes issue, though. Hooray!) Anyway, I grabbed the camera when she came at me like this. I have wished the past year that she would wear hair bows, especially in public, because I get the BOY comments so often-- even now! This, surely, would make her look like a girl, right? Since the pink outfits do not.

Avery is into "headstands" lately. She even does them with no hands. Occasionally I'll help her flip over and do a somersault. She likes that.

Avery and her tub of wipes. Two dollars well spent =) ... hours of entertainment.