so much activity

Avery is constantly on the go. Here's what she was up to yesterday afternoon:







(yes, she got in the basket herself)

Looking at my old scrapbooks:

Playing with my phone:

Unloading her drawers:

Unrolling toilet paper!


tuckered out from a long day of exploring...

just because I wanted to

With football season fast approaching, I thought it would be appropriate to post this picture:


And here's the second to last "monthly" picture of Avery:

11 months old!

weekend in williamsburg

We spent the weekend in Williamsburg at my parent's house. They will be gone when Avery actually turns one next month, so we decided to celebrate it a bit early! Plus, it was a great excuse to eat cake :-)

I had a blast decorating Avery's birthday cake.


Birthday dress:



The presents!








Uh oh... somebody LOVES clothes!

I was quite surprised Avery sat still and opened all the gifts! I figured we'd be opening them for her while she was crawling off somewhere. It was so fun! She loved playing with the tissue paper, taking the clothes out of the bags, and then playing with them and putting them on top of her head and smiling.

And we topped the weekend off with some laundry! Avery helped get the clothes out for me to fold ... she loved mushing her face up to the see-through door.

helper

Here's my little helper in the kitchen... it'll be nice one day when she can actually help!! Now she's just opening cabinets and emptying them. =)

A few deals...

I don't usually post about the deals I find while shopping. I can't help it today! I love Target and I especially love finding good deals there. I picked out a few especially great bargains from a long list of many found here. I printed, cut, and organized all the necessary coupons from online and headed out. This is what I ended up with:

Total spent: $3.14
Total saved: $10.66!

I think I did pretty well... these are things we RARELY buy. I'm excited to have a few different crackers around the house other than the cheez-its we always have around from Sam's. :-)

My Dollar Store coupon folder is looking pretty sad these days. Avery has managed to tear a few of the sections so I have to be super careful it doesn't all spill out. I REALLY need a new way to store/organize my coupon stash... any ideas??

Videos

We finally caught a little snippet of Avery helping me fold the laundry. She was sidetracked and went for the camera after a short time, but it gives you the idea! She will pull out each piece of clothing until the load is finished. She usually pauses after taking a piece out to watch me fold it before going in for another. She's such a big help... I do have to make sure to put the folded piles of clothing up high when she's done emptying the dryer before she can come get them and un-do all the folding!



Here she is crawling from one end of our upstairs to the other.



Avery also loves to open her dresser drawers and take out all the clothes. Some days I feel like all I'm doing is putting clothes back where they belong!

Car Seat

Avery helped me adjust her carseat straps up a notch. She curiously watched the whole process, crawling on the carseat to make sure it wasn't going anywhere.

Avery loves rice ... most of it ended up on the floor. Why again is there carpet in our "dining room?" :-)

Sometimes you just gotta shout out!


Looks like somebody didn't read the warning label!

Who me?

Our mornings...

are busy! and fast-paced!

I followed Avery around with the camera for a little while this morning and she was everywhere. Just thought I'd put together a little collage to show it.

baking with bananas

I made some very yummy banana bread this morning. Found the recipe on allrecipes.com.

Avery is now climbing the stairs. FAST. She got the hang of it right away. I thought I'd innocently place her on the steps last weekend to see if she'd try and move... and today she went up to them again and was climbing up really fast. She must have been practicing in her sleep. It's amazing to me how babies learn to do things! Here she is conquering the staircase. She's super proud of herself, as you can see.





Another fun activity of Avery's: undoing things Brent & I have put away!

rainy day

Today's weather is baffling. Is it going to rain or not?! Avery and I had lots of fun playing inside today in her newly clean room :) There is so much more space for her to crawl around now that we moved out some old furniture. Avery loves going behind the recliner and peeking back out when we say "Boo!" She gets the biggest grin on her face! I love it.