6 Months Old!

Who would believe that she is already 6 months old today!? These are her 6 month old photos and there were so many cute ones I am posting them all! One of these days I really will post Christmas pictures...

Oh, and Avery has something to add...

r QWAw,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,m,n jk ,bnn nqwas1221`

She loves to press buttons on the keyboard, so for her 6 month birthday I thought I would let her add her own message to the blog.

Love to you all!

Bonus Post

Just for fun! Enjoy...

We are back!

We are really not ignoring you all on purpose, we have just had a busy month. When 3 days before Christmas is the first chance we have had to update our blog, you know we have been busy!

We will start with just before Thanksgiving...

Avery is now eating cereal and baby food. So far, just vegetables. Peas, sweet potato, and squash. She seems to enjoy it ok but I think she would rather feed herself.

Of course, there are moments, when too much is too much and Dad gets the overflow. You may want to ask Kevin about that experince. Ewwwww

For Thanksgiving, we drove down to Austin to visit with Kevin's family. It is the first time that all the cousins have been together.

They seem to enjoy each other

Avery also got to meet Tonya's Uncle Mike and Aunt Debbie. We got to tour their beautiful new house too.

On the way to and from Austin we stayed in Oklahoma City at the home of Kevin's friends Chris and Andrea Moyer. They were away from home celebrating the holiday with their own family. Their tradition is to photograph their daughter each month with this moose. You can see some of those photos on their blog, which is linked on the right. So, this is for you Chris and Andrea, since we have not been able to get together, this will help you get perspective on Avery's size.

This is also her 5 month old photo.

We also had another chance to spend some time with Kevin's family up here in Kansas. We captured this shot of the two newest members of the Dodd family (#35 and #36). Believe it or not, Avery is older than Tate by 1 week.

Early in December we had our first snow. Not much , less than an inch, I think. But enough to get Avery's first snow pictures. I think the only impression it made on her was she didn't like her socks being wet.

The next weekend we turned around and made another trip to Texas. Tonya's sister, Sandra graduated from ACU and the whole family was there.

It was a neat time for us all to be together.

But... some things never change...

While in Abilene, Avery got to meet Cal (I think he is technically a 2nd cousin)

Then we flew back home. Avery is getting to be a seasoned pro at this airplane stuff. She does a great job.

She is also getting very strong and, we think, close to crawling. We will keep you updated about that.

So, after all that activity... we are tired.

Now we are looking forward to celebrating Christmas here at home and starting our own family traditions.

Merry Christmas all!

Kevin, Tonya, Avery

Additional note:

In the midst of this busy time, we experienced an unexpected sadness as well.

Kevin's Grandpa Dodd passed away on December 2nd. This was very sudden and we are still adjusting to the loss. Grandpa and Grandma lived here in Kansas just 30 minutes away from us. It has been a great blessing to have been so close for the past 3 years and we have greatly enjoyed the relationship that developed because of the nearness. We miss Grandpa a lot and are so glad that this is not the end of our relationship with him. We look forward to meeting up with him again one day.

Part 2

Ok, so it did take me as long as I was afraid it might to get this second half up! Enjoy it anyway, better late than never...

In short, our October was the month of company. We had visits from my (Tonya) folks, Kevin's folks, Kevin's sister and brother in law and family, and Tonya's sister. Whew! Here are some photos of the fun.

Tonya's Mom with Avery

Ian & Mackenzie helping Grandma make a cake

For Brad's birthday, he got a visit from (one of) Amy's alter egos

Kevin cooked another fantastic meal from the grill

Avery with all of her grandparents!

Cousins

On Halloween we carved the pumpkin you saw with Avery in the last post

I got to scoop out the guts

Amber and I also made caramel apples

Last, earlier this month, Kevin and I met up with a friend from my Tucson days. She is now a student at Texas Tech and plays for the volleyball team. They were here in Lawrence playing the KU team (we won't talk about how it went... sorry Karlyn). It was great to see her for just a brief moment!

So I believe that catches me up for now. But, not for long. Avery is now into solid foods and I have some great photos to share of that, and of course Thanksgiving is next week, and then Christmas... Wow! Does it ever slow down??

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Avery Milestones

This is update 1 of 2. So much has happened since the last post, I have to split it up or else I might never finish it! This is the update about Avery and her recent growth. It really does go by so fast now!

One of the most fun things is that Avery laughs now! This video was taken the day after her first laugh, which was on October 5, so she has gotten even better since then (sorry it's sideways!).

Later in the month Avery enjoyed her first taste of cereal. Since we feed it to her from a bottle, I don't have photos of that, but we are glad we made that introduction. After sleeping regularly for 6-8 hours, she went down to 1-3 hours at night. After about a week of that, I had enough and started giving her a bit of cereal before bed. It took about 3-4 nights to really take effect, but she is now back to about 6 hours a night. Hooray!

On October 30, Avery turned 4 months old. These are her adorable 4 month old photos. What a beauty! I think her smile is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!

Of course, this Halloween was Avery's first. This year, she opted out of the door to door trick or treating, so we went for a simple "costume".

I thought you might enjoy this shot of us trying to get Avery to smile while in the pumpkin (which she never did). I am awaiting a call from Anne Geddes any day.

On November 1st, Avery turned over from her back to her front for the first time! This is actual footage of her first successful roll in that direction. She now thinks it is a great trick and likes to do it all the time. This is ok with me, except she does not like to spend to much time on her stomach, so instead of rolling back over, she ends up screaming and needing rescuing. The other part about this is that I suddenly have a mobile baby! She doesn't move very quickly or far, but just knowing she can start in one place and I can come back and she is somewhere else just strengthens the importance of putting her in safe places!

Last, is that Avery is now a Vegas bound card-shark. I am warning you now not to play against her for anything valuable unless you plan to lose...

So, that is all for Avery's Milestones! It's been a busy month for her and I still have all of our Activities and Events to post in the next update! Hopefully that is coming soon.

Later!

3 months old

Ok, so the "time-flying" portion of our lives have now begun. For the first 2 months of Avery's life, time seemed to crawl. No more! This past month has flown by. She is already 3 months old! These photos were taken on her 3-month-birthday. Adorable!


We are definitely starting to enjoy each other. Smiles come more and more frequently (except on the day of these photos, of course). We are starting to develop a routine. She is starting to sleep longer through the night usually. Which consequently puts all of us in a better mood.


She still does not like tummy time or the car seat, but we still engage in both of them. She has even rolled from her tummy to her back 3 times and her neck control is amazing. We spend our days talking, going for walks, getting out of the house, and learning new things (her and I both). She is doing pretty well at grabbing things, especially her elephant which she seems to love talking to also. The swing is still a life saver. But despite all these things, I am afraid I may be developing a couch potato, she loves watching the images on the TV. Hopefully, this will not be an activity she gets too much time doing.



As Avery grabs for things and sucks on her hands a lot, Kevin is suspecting she could be a lefty! I'm not sure where she would have picked up that trait, but we will have to wait and see.


There is your 3 month update. Talk to you later! Tonya

Lots of News

Warning: This entry contains lots of news, lots of photos, and lots of cuteness!

So, September has been a busy month for us! The first weekend of the month, Kevin went on a 3 day men's retreat and Avery and I spent our first 3 days alone together. Thank goodness we have people to call on in such times, we were able to make it through. However, we were both really glad when he returned.

The following Thursday was a big day for all 3 of us. September 11 marks Kevin and I's 4th anniversary. Who would have guessed that we would spend our 4th anniversary taking our daughter to get her first round of immunizations??? Because of that, Avery had a big day too.

She received 3 shots in her legs and had to drink another. But she is such a trooper! She cried for just a few minutes and then slept much of the next 10 hours and that was all! The smiley baby we are used to was back! So, that night Kevin arranged for a babysitter, brought me flowers, and whisked me off to Zio's for dinner (which is the restaurant he proposed to me at). A big thanks to Helen for taking a newly immunized baby for the evening (although I am not sure she knew that when she agreed!).

To continue celebrating our anniversary, my sister Amber had been planning to babysit Avery since before she was born. On Saturday morning she flew in to Kansas. After a fantastic burger from the Grille ala Kevin, he and I went off to the Worlds of Fun theme park.

We rode roller coaster after roller coaster and had a wonderful time! Kevin even visited the psychiatrist while we were there :).

He also shot a few baskets in attempt to win an I-Phone, but no luck.

On Sunday, when Amber was to return to Dallas, Avery and I joined her to meet up with some family who hadn't had a chance to meet Avery yet. So she took her first airplane ride to the great state of Texas!

Again she did amazingly well. She slept most of the trip and just relaxed for the rest of it. Take off and landing was no problem which was especially surprising since she was (and still is) experiencing her first stuffy nose.

The trip to Texas was great. We saw Avery's grandparents and great-grandparents and great-aunt.

We spent time in Fort Worth, Bridgeport, and Decatur. What a special time to introduce family to each other.

Also, thank you to Cindy, Julie's friend in Fort Worth, for all she did to keep us at her house for a night.

Just before returning to Kansas, Avery and I visited Amber's office where she got to show off the niece :).

The flight back was almost just as easy. This time it was just Avery and I so there were a few challenges, but really it went great! Thank you Amber for helping us pull off this trip!

Now, you might think that that is enough for one month, but no, this past weekend was my birthday, so there was more celebration going on! After a breakfast in bed of strawberry covered waffles, we went to a parade downtown. Each year the KU Marching Band leads off a parade of bands and this year it happened to be on my birthday. Kevin took the truck downtown early in the morning, so we had prime viewing area. Our friend Martha, a huge KU fan, came with us.

This year's parade was way different than last year's parade in that last year we didn't have a almost-3 month old who wasn't a big fan of the percussion. But again, she slept right through most of it which teaches me not to worry about being quiet in the house during nap time!

That night Kevin grilled fajitas and shrimp for me and baked a birthday cake which we took to some friends house and shared with them while visiting and watching the KU football game (which I think they won).

Later that evening, Kevin thought it would be fun to finish of the cake, so we did... Ewww!!

Ok, now I think we are up to date! Please excuse our lack of updates, as you can see we have been very busy! I believe we slow down a bit from here, but Avery will have lots to share as she is becoming very smiley and vocal which is lots of fun!

Tonya