First Snow

While spending our Christmas time in Clinton, there was a significant snow.  We had some snow a couple of days earlier, but there was so little that we didn't take Avery out to play in it.  We did take her out in this snow, however.  We bundled her up in her little snowsuit and took her outside.  She only lasted in the snow for about 5 seconds before she started to cry.  I think she got the snow into her mittens and on her hands.  Either way, she didn't love it as I had hoped.  This picture was right before she started to cry.

When I picked Avery up out of the snow, I got some of it on our camera.  The cold made it fog up for the next pictures.  I thought that the pictures were kind of cool looking though.  This one I especially liked.

Christmas at Nana and Papa's

We celebrated Christmas at Nana and Papa's house on the 26th.  There was quite a crew there.  Notice the matching pajamas.  All the girls were wearing the same ones, and the guys had ones that matched each other as well.  Aren't we so cute?  (We all also got matching robes as seen on Nana courtesy of Uncle Nic!!)

Avery gave Nana the cutest, most fun gift ever.  If you don't look very closely, it seems like just a pair of pajama pants.  However, upon closer examination, you may be able to tell...yes, those are pictures of Avery ALL OVER those pants!  They are SO CUTE!

When we were in Clinton, we visited my granparents as well.  It took a while, but Avery finally warmed up to my grandmother.  We had a great time with them as well.

Christmas

This was Avery's fist Christmas, as you can see by the bib.  The bib was a gift from Terry and Teresa (mostly Teresa).  It's so cute that we had to take her picture in it on Christmas morning before she messed it all up with breakfast.

Avery had a great time getting all of her gifts from Santa, and us too.  She couldn't rip the wrapping paper very well, so I wrapped her presents in green and red tissue paper--it worked really well.  She liked all of her presents, but of course, Santa brought the best ones.

First Christmas Celebration!

This was Avery's first Christmas celebration.  It was the weekend before Christmas, and we celebrated with Grandpa and Grandma Cover.  There were times when the chaos of the weekend became a little overwhelming for the kids, as evidenced below.  When Avery and Skyler were first put together, this is what happened.  We all joked that Avery was beating up on her cousin that is twice her age, but in reality, Skyler had just woken up from his nap. 

This is what happened later.  The two kids were playing well. 

Avery got a new doll from her grandparents, and it was one of her very favorite gifts.  She and Uncle Nic had a lot of fun playing with it.

After all of the presents were opened, Grandpa spent some time winning Avery over with the best thing possible--food!

Carousel Ride

We spent the weekend in KC with Travis, Melissa, and Ashton and then topped off the weekend with Avery's first Christmas celebration.  She had so much fun doing all of it.  When we were in KC, we went to Oak Park Mall (not a super great idea considering it was the weekend before Christmas).  There was this huge carousel in the middle of the mall, so we just HAD to take Avery for her first ride.  She had so much fun.  She screamed the whole time!

There was also a little play area for kids in the mall.  All of the little toys were made of foam so it was easy for the kids to climb on an fairly safe too.  Avery really liked the little slide.

Santa!

This was Avery's first visit with Santa, and as expected, she didn't really like it.  She didn't even give Santa a chance.  As soon as I sat her on his lap, she started crying and didn't stop until I picked her back up.  We still think that the pictures are cute though.

After seeing Santa, I wanted to get a picture of Avery and Jeremy, but that didn't go so well either.  As soon as I handed her to Jeremy, she started crying again.

Ingenuity!

Avery is so clever! She has had some trouble getting around on the tile floor because her pants slide on the floor. She quickly came up with a clever solution to this problem--she tweaked her crawl for the tile...

The bottoms of her socks have little grippers on them making it easier to move if she uses the bottom of her foot. She gets really upset if all of the gripper socks are dirty and she has to wear regular ones. Thank you Grandpa and G.G. for getting her those socks!

Early Morning

Early morning around our house is a fun time.  We spend a little time cuddling with Avery while we all wake up.  Here is a cute picture of her cuddling with her dad.  They are so cute with their sleepy faces!

Getting Ready for the Holidays

We have been preparing for the holidays around here.  We were feeling festive so we dressed Avery in her holiday sweater.  She was so adorable in it that we decided to snap a few pictures.  The fact that she can now crawl makes it a little harder to do that though.  She is always crawling toward the camera, trying to take it. 

Injuries

Now that Avery is mobile, she thinks that she is invincible.  She can get around fairly easily (just since last night) so she can get to the large pieces of furniture in the house.  Once she gets there, she pulls up on the furniture and starts to cruise around it--crazy, huh?  Well, earlier today, she did that exact thing to the coffee table in our living room.  I was right there and had put my arm on the edge of the table to protect her in case she fell.  However, she did pull up and then did proceed to fall on the one little place that my arm couldn't reach.  She hit her head right above her left eye.  It was so horrible, more so for me I think!  Here is a picture of her first ever goose egg.  It actually looks a lot better now.  I took the picture right after it happened, and you can hardly tell it is there now.

Here is the culprit table!!

The edge is so hard.  I told Jeremy that we are going to have to take the table out of the living room.  So far, the baby-proofing is harder than I thought.  There are so many things that you wouldn't think would be a problem but really are.  Then, what do you do with all of your things once they are removed from living spaces?  So far, we have just been putting most of them in our bedroom, which is gated off from baby access.  I'm not sure we will ever have this place totally baby-proofed!

On the Go...

I was putting Avery's pajamas on her last night (another pair that looks so big), when all of the sudden she just took off crawling across her bedroom to get a book on the floor. Jeremy and I had been saying that we thought that it would just click one day and she would take off across the floor, and that's pretty much how it happened. Of course, like almost all of her other milestones, Jeremy missed it the first time. So, we went into the living room to see if she would do it again, and she did. Here is a little video of her second round of crawling. She seems to need some sort of motivation (something that she really wants) in order for her to put forth the effort--in this case it was my cell phone.

Push play to see the video.

So Huge!!

I went to put Avery's pajamas on her last night and was just amazed at the fact that they fit her.  She is getting to be so big.  Jeremy's grandparents gave Avery lots of great clothes and pajamas when we were at their house last weekend, but they just looked so big.  I held the pajamas up to me and then to Avery, still in disbelief that they would fit her, but put them on her anyway.  Much to my surprise, they fit her well.  I know that they were the absolute minimum size that we told them to get her (18-24 months), but they still looked so big.  For her, we just have to know that the clothes are going to fit her despite the fact that they look so big.  It's amazing how fast she has grown!

Fun in KC

On Saturday morning, we left Clinton and headed to KC.  We spent the day with Jeremy's grandparents (Grandpa and GG).  We had such a good time just hanging out and visiting with them.  We hadn't seen them since Labor Day, so, as you can imagine, Avery had changed quite a bit.  At the end of the day, we had a holiday party to attend, another first for Avery.  We got all dressed up and took some pictures.  It was pretty close to Avery's bed time though, so we had a hard time getting any good shots of all three of us, but here is what we did get.

We left the party that night and headed back to Columbia.  Avery slept the entire way home since it was so late.  In the car, we have a mirror on the head rest of the seat that Avery's carseat is in.  We can use it to see her while we're driving (since her carseat faces backward).  While we were driving home, she was just so cute sleeping in the car, that I had to take a picture.  In order to get the picture in the mirror without drowning her face out with the flash, I put my finger over the flash.  It made the picture have a pink hue to it, but you can still get the idea.

Fun Times

We had a great time in Clinton for Thanksgiving.  We stayed for a few days to get a good fix of the good 'ol hometown.  Friday was Sandy's birthday, and we celebrated with some cute decorations and cake.  Avery was not so fond of the glasses that we put on her, but the hat really sent her over the edge.

We then went to the Clinton square for the massive lighting ceremony (ok, it wasn't so massive).  It was, however, Avery's first time at a parade.  She seemed to have a good time, especially with all of the noisy entries--motorcycles, tiny Shriner cars, etc.

We are thankful for...

...so many things. We are most thankful for our beautiful baby girl who is happy and healthy. Avery had a great kick-off to the holiday season with several Thanksgiving dinners to attend. We started off in Columbia with my family dinner on Wednesday night. We had a small group, but a great time. On Thursday we went to Clinton to be with Avery's grandparents. We had a great time making the rounds. It was such a great start to the holidays, and we are excited to get into the season more!

Birthday Party at Bonkers

Today was Dylan and Mackenna's joint birthday party at Bonkers. If you don't know what that is exactly, it's kind of like a giant McDonald's play place that is big enough for adults to make it through (not exactly comfortably, but they can make it). There was this little toddler area that Avery really liked--the kids were a little smaller and less rowdy. She had a really good time at the party, and we are excited to take her back to Bonkers once she is a little more mobile.

Fall Fun!

Today we were in Clinton celebrating Jim's (Papa's) birthday. It was such a nice day that Avery got the chance to play outside. Nana and Papa had put a swing up in one of their trees for Avery to use, and she just loved it! I can't wait to get a swing set in our back yard for her. After swinging, Avery was so interested in the leaves and the noises they made when we stepped on them, that we put her in the leaves to play. She only tried to eat them a few times--I think we were able to successfully prevent that from happening.

Halloween!

For Halloween, Avery was the cutest pumpkin ever! We went over to my sister, Nicole's, house at the beginning of the night. Dylan and Mackenna were getting all dressed up too. Dylan was a cowboy, and Mackenna was a lamb. The three of them were so cute together.

After starting our night at Nicole's house, we made our way to Terry and Teresa's for a little snack and to show off our pumpkin. We eventually ended up at Jackie and Jason's to end our night. We only made it to the three places, but we were busy all night long!

Nap Time...I Don't Think So!

Today, Avery was supposed to be taking a nap. I thought that she was close to being asleep when she suddenly let out the biggest squeal. I went into her room, hoping to find her near sleep, but I actually found what you see below. Avery had rolled over from her back to her stomach and pivoted 90 degrees in her crib. Not only is this the first time that she rolled from her back to her stomach, but she had done it and turned around in her crib. She seemed so proud of herself for doing it too! Even though she was supposed to be sleeping, I just had to turn the lights on and take some pictures.

Stevie Wonder Baby

This weekend was Mizzou's homecoming game. Avery had a good time getting ready for the tailgate (the game didn't start until 7pm--just before Avery's bedtime--so she didn't get to go). Grandpa and Grandma Cover came by the house before the game, along with Cassi. Avery had such a good time playing with Grandma's scarf and sunglasses. When she put the glasses on, she would shake her head around like Stevie Wonder. I don't think she could see at all!

So Vocal!

Avery has been experimenting with her new found voice. She gets really excited when playing with her toys and really likes to tell us about it. She has the cutest little screams. She's also really starting to talk with intonations in her voice. I have a little clip of her talking and screaming about her toys--it's so cute!

Push the play button to watch the video.

TEETH!

Avery has been having some trouble sleeping at night, and she's been drooling like crazy. We've been able to see a couple of her teeth for quite some time now, but they have finally popped through. Last night was a terrible night as far as sleep goes, and now we officially know why! She seems to have a harder time with them at night, so we are hoping that getting these two in will help to ease some of the pain so she can get better sleep. The picture shows the teeth as good as we could get a picture of them. You can kind of see them just poking through her gums. I don't think you can tell from the picture, but apparently her teeth is just one more trait of hers that seems to take after her father--sadly, even her baby teeth are crooked. I have just reassured her that we will find a really good orthodontist to straighten the permanent ones.