KT's Family Stories

Touring Tourist Tucson

2011-09-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

Now onto the second half of our Tucson trip. As I mentioned before, we did a lot of Tourist Tucson once Kevin showed up.

Monday was Labor Day. We went out to the Old Tucson Studios. I can't even remember the last time I was out there. This was a perfect day to be at the studios, it was one of the least hot days, and there were very few people to wait in line with. To be authentic, we all tried on Cowboy hats. We all look pretty good, I think!

We took a tour of the facilities and they told us all about the many movies that had been filmed there. Lots of old westerns and a more modern one that Kevin likes, The Three Amigos, with Chevy Chase. The most fun of the day though, was experiencing the rides with the girls. This was their first "amusement park" and they had tons of fun! Makes a trip to Disneyland even more appealing (if that is even possible).

We rode the antique motor cars several times. We all got a kick out of that, but especially Avery.

We also rode the carousel and the small train that went around the park. Such fun!

Tuesday we drove to the top of Mt. Lemmon. The 74 degree weather was an extremely welcome change and the view was incredible! The picture at the start of this blog post is of the view. Avery's only complaint about the trip, was that she didn't see any Lemons. :) As you can see, Claire mostly enjoyed just getting out of the car.

More of the gorgeous view. I may be a little biased about these next 2 pictures though.

On our way down the mountain, we stopped in the little community on the mountain, Summerhaven, and enjoyed a fantastic pizza! We also got rained on while enjoying our lunch. It was the first rain storm we can remember Claire experiencing.

On Wednesday we visited with Grandmom and Granddad again at their new apartments and took a tour of the entire facility. Avery was especially excited to see an orange tree. I think it almost made up for not having lemons on Mt. Lemmon.

One other touristy activity we got to do while in Tucson, is one of my favorite things. Gaslight!! I don't have any pictures of that evening, but it was a hilarious show called Wizard of the Rings. Kevin, myself, Mom and Dad all got to go and laugh and eat hot fudge sundaes! So much fun.

Thursday we began the long trip back to Austin. We decided we had experienced enough of Claire's screaming in the rear facing car seat and fixed that problem before we left Tucson. So this is the view we had on the way home. We took it in 2 days and were very glad to be done traveling when we got back.

That's all for now. After a bit I will post the 1 year birthday celebration pictures. Thank you all for a wonderful trip to Tucson!

Tucson Week 1

2011-09-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

The last week of August and the first week of September, we took a trip to Tucson. A multi-purpose trip, but much of it was to introduce Claire to family she had never met out there. The first week, just the girls and I were there and Kevin joined us during the second week. Because I have sooooo many great pictures of the trip, I will have to post this in 3 parts... Week 1 (mainly visits with family) Week 2 (Touring Tourist Tucson) Claire's Birthday (lasted the whole 2 weeks!).

After traveling with Grams and Bob-Bob from Austin to Tucson in a trip that lasted 3 days, we were very glad to get to out of the car. Avery and Claire spent plenty of time amusing themselves and looking like the picture above (yes, Claire is tearing up a Kleenex).

One of the first things we did in Tucson was introduce the family to the newest member. Monday night we all met at Julie and Carl's for dinner. Here we are with Grandmom and Granddad. I think they might both be a little bit excited to see us.

It is always fun to visit with Julie and Carl. We were especially glad for the timing of this visit since they were off to Hawaii the following week!

During the week while we were not out and about visiting people and places (or shopping), we found all sorts of new things to amuse ourselves with at Nana and Papa's house. Here Claire and Avery are discovering the joys of a rolling/spinning office chair (thanks Grams).

Of course there is always cooking and baking going on. You can see that Avery has really taken a hands on approach to learning Nana's icing-making technique.

Another favorite activity there is SWIMMING! We all came back from Tucson 3 shades darker because our frequent dips in the pool. Great Fun!!

And for Avery, a must with this side of the family is bubbles! She loved this machine and before the end of the trip figured out how to get to the back porch and turn on the machine all by herself.

As I said before, the purpose of this trip was to visit family. We took a lovely trip to the other side of town to visit with Great-Aunt-Carolyn, and Great-Cousin (?) Carol. The girls were showered with gifts and love and in accordance to Carol's request, no pictures of her will be seen here.

What a gorgeous group this is. Claire also got to visit again with Samantha and Courtney (sisters in all but blood) on this trip.

We spent several mealtimes enjoying Grandmom and Granddad's "home cooking". In their new apartment complex they have a wonderful dining room. Each meal came with 2 courses and a dessert. They even served grilled cheese sandwiches, so it was ok in Avery's book too.

One night, the subject came up of Papa's "broken" ear. Avery, ever the concerned granddaughter, was determined to figure out what was wrong. Of course the concern might have something to do with not hearing her request for more chocolate ice cream.

And last, as I said we spent several afternoon's shopping. While we once again traveled home with at least double what we packed, the shopping was never quite as fun as the playgrounds in the mall. All in all, these girls had a absolute blast in Tucson.

Part 2 Later...

Schlitterbahn!

2011-08-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Just after Kevin's birthday Grandpa and Grandma took the whole family to Schlitterbahn. It was Avery and my (Tonya's) first visit. If you notice someone missing in these photos, Claire stayed with the other Grandparents all day, which was fantastic for everyone!

The first 30 minutes or so were a bit uncertian for Avery. Between the water splashing in her face (which she hates) to the many, many people, and the huge water slides, she was pretty sure this was not the place for her. However, Daddy's presence and the slides below changed her mind completely!

After that initial newness, she could not get enough of the place. She eventually rode these slides by herself over and over and over.

Here we all are enjoying lunch together. Somehow Aunt Amy missed out on the picture taking. Hmmmm.

We also found a kiddie section where Avery really had some fun.

I think this last picture pretty well sums up how Avery felt about Schlitterbahn. She did a great job. We were there from 10:30 -5:30 nonstop and she was the last one out of the water at the end of the day. We all had a great time!

When we got home, Claire was sooooo happy to see all of us, but mostly she was glad to see Avery. She voluntarily hugged her about 5 times. It was extremely sweet.

The Many Faces of Claire

2011-07-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

How time flies! Our little Claire turned 11 months old on July 30. Just for fun I took some pictures of her in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard and thought I would share. She is such a character, usually she is full of cheer and smiles, but she has also taken to making some silly faces. She is so much fun and we are enjoying her blossoming personality every day. Enjoy!

She is definitely enjoying the newfound freedom in being able to get around all on her own. She is not walking yet, but has taken a step or two by herself. Meanwhile the crawling gets her absolutely anywhere she wants to be and climbing is a favorite activity.

I guess we better start preparing for her 1st birthday! Hard to believe!

Happy Birthday Avery!!

2011-07-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Avery turned 3 on June 30. These are the pictures of the multi-day extravaganza! We began on the 30th with special pancakes from Daddy, blueberry pancakes that Claire very much enjoyed.

Followed by cupcakes made specially by Mackenzie.

At Avery's request we headed to Uncle Mike and Aunt Debbie's house to swim and apparently to wear "birthday glasses"!

For lunch we met Kevin at Avery's favorite restaurant, Chick-Fil-A, where she loves to play on the playscapes. Being brave enough to go down the big slide is new for her.

That night the whole family took a field trip to Baskin Robins where Claire enjoyed more of Avery's ice cream than Avery did.

Avery had a great day, the only problem with the day, according to her, was that we did not have a party. However, the following Saturday we remedied that problem.

We invited over some friends, decked out the back yard, passed out party hats, provided all Avery's favorite foods (burgers, chicken nuggets, "ma-cheetos", etc), made a cake and had a proper birthday party.

This year from Daddy and Mommy, Avery received a scoot bike. Basically a tiny bicycle with no pedals or training wheels.

We also had a water balloon fight that the kids (of all ages) got a huge kick out of. Here Avery has just thrown a balloon at Daddy.

Claire was a good sport through the whole crazy day. Although she was not a fan of the party hat.

On another note, our precious and quickly growing Claire turned 10 months old on the 30th as well. She is such a happy and friendly girl. She currently has 3 teeth, crawls, pulls up, has an amazing smile, and is quickly on her way to walking. She also loves eating "grown up" food. It is amazing how fast she is growing.

Today

2011-01-14T18:53:00.000-08:00

Yes we celebrated Christmas and it was wonderful. Yes we celebrated New Years and it was great. Yes we have big news to share about Kevin's new job and moving to Texas, but I am just posting pictures of what we did today. A last goodbye to Kansas snow.

Everyone got in on the action. Claire made an appearance in the snow and even Grams took a turn on the sled. Brrr, but FUN!

Mmmm Thanksgiving.

2010-11-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

Mmmm...It's that special time of year again when we get to eat pumpkin pie and cheesecake after a ridiculously huge and tasty meal with those we love. This Thanksgiving was wonderful and special, and I have much to be thankful for.

This year we spent Thanksgiving with Kevin's family. This meant a drive down to Austin. If you have ever wondered what a toddler might think of getting out of a car after driving for an entire day, let me describe it in one word... rapture.

On the way down to Austin, we stopped in Dallas and saw Amber for a few hours. Good times.

Once in Austin, we spent lots of time with grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and Granny. Avery spent most of the week wearing this Cinderella dress. Hooray for Grandma and her dress up clothes.

Everyone spent some time with the newest member of the family. Here is Claire with Grandpa and Uncle Eric and Nathan.

Then it was time to cook the meal, here Kevin is making his yummy cheesecake and later I got in on the act by making mashed potatoes and deviled eggs. YUM!

Amber came down from Dallas to join us for the meal.

Here she is participating in a required family tradition, the Thanksgiving jigsaw puzzle.

Another family tradition at the Dodd house is Chicken foot. Congrats to Kevin on pulling off a win (although I am a little afraid that this might mean we have also "won" the privilege of hosting the meal next year!) !!

Avery was a very caring sister and made sure Claire did not feel left out of the fun and games as here Avery shares some toys with Claire. I think Claire will be a bit more excited about that when she develops a little something called hand control.

But this year, the most popular place to play was on Grandpa's new trampoline. Everyone got in on the fun, even the adults. Avery loved every minute of it.

During our time in Austin, we also got to spend some great time with the Benaglio side of the family. That alone is memorable and special, but when it comes with wood-fired homemade pizza and prime rib, there is just not a better way to end a meal-centered holiday.

As I said, I have much to be thankful for this year. I am so very blessed by all my incredible family, my amazing husband and my precious children. May your holidays be merry...Bring on Christmas...

Halloween and More

2010-11-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

There it is! The smile I promised you a few weeks ago. She is such a people person and loves to smile and talk. So my next challenge is to catch the talking on video. Precious!

And as seems to be typical in our house. Our little girl LOVES her Daddy. Mommy may have gotten the first smile, but Daddy got her first giggle.

Avery is still doing incredibly well with the transition of a sister. I even find her 'sharing' her toys with Claire and making her dolls talk to Claire.

Our Halloween was fun this year. Avery chose to be Snow White and loved dressing up as a princess.

We participated in the Trunk-or-Treat at church. Avery really got into it and came away with plenty of treats. Every day now we have requests for a treat from the 'purple pumpkin'.

Our friend Mandy dressed up as the princess from Mario Brothers and Avery was thrilled to see another princess at the event.

Here is the whole family at the Trunk-or-Treat. Claire enjoyed it without a costume and snuggled soundly in her carseat.

Just after Halloween, I (Tonya) had a minor procedure on my wrist, so Grandma came to visit for a week to help us out. The girls loved having Grandma here and I got more sleep than I have had in months! Thank you Grandma!

New dresses from Grandma.

Here is Claire after her first set of immunizations. I wanted this picture because it reminded me of the one in this post of Avery. Claire handled it so well! She cried for about a minute and was done. This was not the case however just a couple of days later when her sister collided into her, that merited a fuss much bigger. A sign of things to come maybe??

In other news. Kevin has been very busy around the house.

The other night he painted both mine and Avery's toenails. This was Avery's first pedicure and she loved it! I think what she loves most though is being able to say "My Daddy paint my toes".

Kevin also took on the daunting task of reroofing our shed. He did a great job!

And finally, here is a shot of our more improved kitchen! Every time Grandma Sandra stays at our house, something in the kitchen is improved. The new cabinets are installed, filled, and organized. Now they just await paint. Hooray Kevin and Grandma! Thank you!

So, that is all for now. See you all after the race through the holidays. We might pop in from time to time. Might ;)

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had tons of fun going to the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful (even if it was windy) fall day. We started off with a hayride.

Picked pumpkins.

Crawled in the hay tunnel.

And posed as Halloween characters.

Kevin and Avery even tried "pumpkin chucking".

Here we all are, even if some of us are little less enthused than others.

So, after purchasing about 45 pounds of pumpkin, I suppose we are ready for fall. Enjoy!

PS) On another note, Claire has just started smiling (and mostly at Mommy)! I am trying to capture it on camera and will post it as soon as I do.

No, Alyssa, I am not still pregnant.

2010-10-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

This post is for my mom and my friend Alyssa who have ever so "gently" been reminding me that anyone who is looking at this blog would still think I am pregnant. I am not, in fact, pregnant any longer. We now have a fantastic 1 month old and are adjusting to life as a family of 4.

The last belly picture...

And then we met...

Claire Marie

August 30, 2010

7 lbs 7.7 oz

1:44 pm

She is a sweet, precious girl who has stolen our hearts. Even her big sister is a fan of her. Below are some of her 1 month old pictures. Time is flying by!

Finally, here is a special picture of 4 generations of ladies in our family. L-R: Avery, Patty (my mom), Etta (my grandmother), me, Doris (Kevin's grandma), Claire, Sandra (Kevin's mom). My mom is holding Avery because they share a middle name and Sandra is holding Claire because they share a middle name. What special people make up our families!

Baby bump

2010-05-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

I suppose that Mother's Day is as good as any to take the first official baby bump photo. This time around it has been less fun to see myself in pictures because it means I really look like that! Yikes! When did that happen?
The photo was taken on Mother's Day at 23 weeks and 1 day. I can't believe that we are already halfway through. Wow!

Here are some other pictures of our Mother's Day events. On Saturday, Kevin grilled burgers for us (with a portabella mushroom for me) and we ate on the back porch. Avery loved them and almost ate an entire hamburger patty all by herself!

On Sunday, Kevin grilled again and this time made ribs (my favorite) and pork tenderloin. We were joined by some great friends and had a feast! Avery decided she wanted to sit in a big seat without a highchair since the other kids were eating that way. This is really the only picture of that meal, but we will remember it anyway.

Last, here is a sweet picture that I don't think I have posted yet from a few weeks ago. Avery's friend Mackenzie introduced Avery to fine fun of dress up. So they both picked out their own outfits and then danced around the living room. I think I see this coming up again in the future with Avery and her sister. :)

I hope all you Mothers out there were wonderfully celebrated. Our jobs are priceless!

Girl!

2010-04-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

It is official! We are having a girl! Fun! A sister for Avery and another princess for Daddy. Here are our sonograms. They are a bit hard to see, but this is all we have until we see her in person.

We saw some great shot of her during the sonograms, but the photos aren't quite as good.

The nurse called her "laid back" because she was pretty calm the whole time, so maybe that will translate to her personality when she is here.

Enjoy!

Profile #1

Profile #2

L:Full frontal face

R:Face looking down

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T13:27:00.000-07:00

An Easter post on Easter day??? What is this family coming to?

Easter weekend was a time of great adventure for us. Avery got to do all sorts of fun things and thankfully the weather cooperated. Saturday morning Kevin borrowed a bicycle trailer and took Avery out for her first ride. I was so proud of her when she climbed in as soon as it was ready to go. She rode around the block with Kevin once and really enjoyed it. Later that morning she rode to the park and back with Daddy. They had a great time, but as you will see in the following pictures, there was a slight incident with a slide meeting a cheek. Chalk it up to Avery demanding to be independent while going down the big slide.

So, Easter is becoming one of my favorite holidays for photo opportunities. This year did not disappoint! We had a wonderful Easter get together with the family in Topeka on Saturday,

complete with 4 types of dessert and an Easter egg hunt! So fun. Avery is at the perfect age this year to enjoy the hunt and she was loving it!! We had a blast following her round the yard watching her face light up every time she found an egg and placed it in her basket.

After the egg hunt Avery got to swim in the spa with cousin Brooke, Lexi, and Aunt Lisa. We had a hard time getting her out of the water!

Easter Sunday came and Avery got to wear her brand new Easter dress made with love by Nana. It was so sweet and Avery was very excited to wear the "hop-hop" dress.

After church we had some friends over for dinner and had another Easter egg hunt. The girls were so excited and had a fabulous time searching the back yard.

I suppose there is no minimum age for stealing someone else's find. Luckily, they both ended up with overflowing baskets of eggs.

Then the best part, finding the chocolate inside each one.

So another successful Easter celebrated by the Dodd family! What wonderful memories were made! Thank you all who were involved!

Weekend Fun

2010-03-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we were hoping to take Avery on her first visit to the zoo. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and whatever we did had to be indoors. Luckily, Kevin came up with the idea of going to Cabellas. If we can't see live animals, I suppose that is the next best thing. So off we went. Avery had a fabulous time! She loved the fish, moose, zebras, and elephants. It will be especially fun when we do make it to the zoo.

Later that same weekend, we went to Walmart just to get out of the house. When we do that, Avery's favorite thing to do is ride the "circle-bikes" (as she calls them). This is very much an Avery and Daddy activity. However, he always makes her wear a helmet (safety first)! This is the first time she could really hold up her head for any length of time with it on since it is still pretty heavy for her. She is quite content to wear it though if it means Daddy will push her around the aisle for a little bit. As you might guess, Kevin can hardly wait until she is old enough for her own...

On Monday, we were very excited to welcome the first day of the grilling season!! Kevin pulled out all the stops with steak, grilled vegetables and bread, along with fresh green beans and baked potatoes. I didn't realize how much I had missed Kevin grilling until the feast was before me! Fun summer days here we come!

First Day of Spring

2010-03-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

As you all know, calendars everywhere marked March 20 as the first day of Spring. Unfortunately for us in the Kansas City area, no one told the weatherman here. As a result, we ended up with at least 6 inches of snow here in Lawrence. Avery didn't seem to mind though, this was really the first time we have let her romp and play in the snow. She loved it! She especially loved having "mittens" on her hands. Here are a few photos and videos of the occasion.

"Hello from a Lawrence, KS Spring day"

Helping Daddy scrape snow off the cars.

"The Fall"

Obviously the fall in the video did not leave any permanent damage. Here she is afterwards covered in snow and looking mighty proud of herself. :)

In the midst of this cold and snowy weekend, Kevin's parents visited from Austin. It was great to see them. They were very brave to be here for the "beginning of Spring"...

As we have come to expect in Kansas, 2 days after the snow it was 70 degrees and now it is back to overcast and 40's. Needless to say, we don't change out our closets with seasonal clothes very often, they pretty much all stay out all year!
Later!

Welcome to the New Year

2010-03-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

Wow! Soooo far behind! For now I am just skimming over the last 3 months. Here are some recent photos and videos of Avery. Most of it will probably only be of interest to grandmas and great-grandmas, but here it is...

For awhile after Christmas, Avery's favorite game with Daddy was to jump out and surprise the other and then chase down the hallway. The best part to watch though was that Avery was just as happy to hide and surprise and she was to run and be surprised. Sweet.

In January, Aunt Amber came to visit us for the weekend. It was great fun and Avery learned to say Amber's name which was fun!

While Amber was here we also played some card games, which you can see is much more complicated than it used to be!

Here is Avery with her 2 favorite buddies. The puppies are Jellybean and Ruff-Ruff and she cannot sleep for any amount of time without them.

Last Sunday, Avery wore this cute dress to church. I realized how infrequently I pull out the camera lately, so I just snapped a few cute ones while the barrette was still in her hair.

And now the videos....

This one is of Avery naming the pictures in one of her books. She can name about 97% of the items in this book, but this is about the 5th time I had tried to capture it and she didn't last long.

This is just an everyday video. Avery is playing with the kitchen Grams and Bob-Bob bought her for Christmas. She is so fun to watch making noises and repeating actions she sees us doing in the kitchen. Unfortunately, it is difficult to catch on camera. She gets camera shy if she knows it is around.

One more video playing in the kitchen. I think at the end of this one you see her reaction to the camera. Cute, but not what this director was looking for...

Ok, with that consider us back in the blogging business. Of course I mean back with no guarantees as to future postings. With a new baby on the way though, I suppose a few more postings are inevitable. Sometime before the due date of Sept 4th I hope we have sonogram pictures to share. Stay tuned!

Our Christmas

2010-01-07T14:16:00.000-08:00

This year we spent Christmas in Austin with Kevin's side of the family. It was so great to spend time there and be with all the family (except for Eric who is serving our country overseas).

On the way down we were able to stop in Dallas and visit with my friend Jenise who has just moved into a new home. She had her Christmas tree decorated so beautifully, but here we are covering the pretty tree with our "traveling all day, frumpy" selves. It was fun to see her and her new place though. (and Avery was more than happy to get out of the car for awhile)

When we arrived in Austin we were greeted with this beautiful sight. Doesn't Sandra and Brad's house look like it belongs in a magazine?!?!

Christmas Eve we took some time to visit with Mike and Debbie. We also happen to stop by while Cal and Kassi and Debbie's parents were there. What a sweet time to visit with everybody. While we were there Mike cooked up some dessert and let Avery assist. She was very good to be careful and follow Mike's lead.

Christmas Day brought the fabulous traditional gift chaos. All five cousins were present and ready to tear into the massive pile of gifts. Such fun!

We all were lucky enough to have a personal visit with Santa Claus himself! Unfortunately this year Avery was not quite sure what to do with the hairy faced man on the couch. Maybe next year Santa...

After presents we enjoyed the traditional Christmas dinner which Sandra and I enjoyed putting together the day before. As you can see, front and center, is the much debated deviled eggs. I made a platter and sister-in-law Amy made a platter. In order to keep the peace, I shall simply relay the verdict on taste as described by Brad... "Yum, as good as two flavors of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream ...I like them both differently" Hmmm...

Here is Sandra with her very first (and very successful) pumpkin roll. Don't mistake her for Better Crocker, although you could!

Kevin even got in the action by making a yummy pumpkin cheesecake. Nice!

Here is Avery after presents and after dinner. Can you say overwhelmed and overtired?

Finally, here are all the cousins together. Sandra did a great job making sure we took the time for this photo. And trust me when I say there are more "outtake" shots of this photo than usable shots. :)

Enjoy this video of Avery enjoying Ian's Christmas gift. She is definitely not in the suggested age range for this toy, but it was mighty popular, nonetheless. Thanks for sharing, Ian! (Please enjoy this video over and over and over, it took me 13 uploads to get it turned the right direction...Grrr).

Later I will post the photos of our second Christmas celebration once we returned home to Lawrence.

Happy New Year!

Fun to Watch

2009-12-09T12:58:00.000-08:00

We took this video at the beginning of November. She has a host of other noises she has added to her repertoire since then. As you can guess, a favorite at our house is "Old McDonald's Farm". What a fun age!

November

2009-12-06T18:34:00.000-08:00

Ahh... November. This year November was a beautiful fall month here in Kansas.

While we did enjoy much of it, we also spent much of it sick. Blech, and we passed it around and around and around. Poor Avery had it twice.

We still found time though to stay very busy. At the beginning of the month we visited the new Christian Camp outside of Topeka where we rode a paddle boat and Avery cheerfully wore her first life jacket.

We also made a trip to Tucson to say goodbye to a very dear friend. While there we got to spend time with both family and friends.

While in Tucson, Avery got her very first haircut, given by her very own Grams! She did very well, and yes, we saved a curl or two for the baby book.

When we returned to Kansas we enjoyed Thanksgiving with Kevin's family in Topeka.

Here we are at the traditional Scrabble game. Once again I took the martyr position that someone has to take (in other words, I lost). However, Kevin managed to win his round!

Avery's talented great grandma Nana has been busy lately. She made Avery a new bunch of outfits and jackets as well as a quiet time church book which Avery very much enjoys. Thank you Nana!

Finally, Avery has decided that she is ready to move straight into being a grown up. Here you can see she is into working construction projects with Daddy. Climbing this step ladder is a very popular activity. As you might guess, it now spends most of it's time folded up and out of site.

Well, that's November! Happy December!

Part 2 October

2009-11-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

In honor of Thanksgiving...let's blog about Halloween! It's so nice to be reminded of how far behind I really am... Grr...

After returning to Kansas from the wedding, we enjoyed some fall weather outside and took these pictures on Avery's 16 month birthday.

She also discovered the fun of dress up. For now it is just the apron, but I can see this fascination growing. She has recently discovered Daddy's baseball caps and Mommy's bracelets.

Then it was time for Halloween! In honor of Avery's first animal noise, she was a duck!

We celebrated by joining Kevin at a chili fund raiser at his work. We also attended a fall festival put on by a local church. "Avery" enjoyed all the trick or treat candy she collected ;)

Here is Avery showing off her duck skills. However, once again we are back to the sideways videos. Sorry...

That's all for now. Hope you are all full on turkey and cranberry sauce. Mmmm.

First half of October

2009-11-10T12:33:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of October we had an unofficial Family Fun Day. We went to a local park and walked the trails and played on the slide and swings. These are the pictures we will look back to fondly when there is snow on the ground.

Other than swinging with Daddy...

Avery's favorite part was finding a tennis ball to chase.

In October we also took a trip to Austin to celebrate my cousin Cal's wedding! On the way down we stopped at Cabellas to stretch our legs and try on sunglasses!

What a special occasion to see us all together and in our "Sunday finest".

Sisters...

Avery with her grandparents...

Cal is the second of the '5 Cousins' to get married. We have so many memories together, we almost grew up together.

This is the first time the cousins have all been in the same place at the same time in years. We had to take a cousins picture as it seems to be tradition. Here is a picture of us several years ago,

and then us today...

As you can see, everyone enjoyed the party. Even Papa. I don't think he knows I have proof of this revelry, but now everyone knows. However, if his knee replacement doctor is seeing this, don't look. And Papa, I have video too if you try to deny this photo... ;)

And that is it for the first half of October. Congrats Cal and welcome to the family Kassi.

My Birthday!

2009-11-05T19:28:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before, this year on my birthday (September 20) I met Amber and Sandra at DisneyWorld for 2 days! It was incredible! Instead of typing a moment by moment account here and losing you all, I am going to reprint here a very special page from my scrapbook of this trip. Interspersed in this list will be some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

What Made This Birthday So Special...

It was a trip to DisneyWorld with Amber and Sandra!

Sandra got us into three parks for free on the 19th!

Amber provided the flights at no cost.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel courtesy of Amber, Sandra, Mom and Dad.

I received birthday cards, calls, and gifts from lots of family and Jenise.

Thanks to Sandra I got to shop at the Cast Member store where I bought a fabulous watch.

I got to see where Sandra lives and works.

Sandra Dodd spent the weekend with Kevin and Avery.

I did not change a diaper for the whole weekend!

I had a gourmet cupcake with a Mickey Mouse candle on my birthday.

We came away with lots of pictures and special memories.

Did I mention that I spent my birthday at DisneyWorld?!

And for all this I paid about $30 out of pocket!

I received a birthday button at the beginning of the trip which provided these fun birthday surprises...

Nearly every cast member I passed for 2 days wished me a Happy Birthday.

We rode the Safari ride on a private birthday tour.

At lunch in the Studios, I got a turkey leg for the price of a 'gobble-gobble'.

I received free chocolate dipping sauce for my pretzel, Yum.

The day of my birthday I got FREE admission to the Magic Kingdom.

At dinner on Sunday I received a mini chocolate cake.

I was given access to 'special' pin trading books

A Disney executive gave me the last pin I needed to complete my set, even though I ran out of pins to trade with her.

And when I returned to Kansas...

Kevin took me to PF Chang's for dinner and the Cheesecake Factory for dessert

But at home, he had spent the weekend building me a pantry in the kitchen. Awesome!

As you can see, my 29th birthday was extra extra special! I am still basking in the joy of the event! But now it is finally time to move into more current events, and I have some great videos of Avery coming up.

September

2009-10-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am going to try to put the entire month of September into one post, but I am not sure I can do it...

September happened to be the month we celebrated our 5th anniversary and my 29th birthday.

For our 5th anniversary we went low key this year. After days and days of stressing and planning, we went the responsible route and did not splurge on something more expensive than we could afford (we felt very grown up about that). Instead, we left Avery with Kevin's Aunt Lisa in Topeka. This was my first night away from Avery ever! It was tough, but not overly so. Then we went out to the Outback with a gift card we received, splurged on ice cream from Baskin Robbins, stayed out past a certain 1 year old's bedtime, came home and played a board game with small pieces in the living room on the floor. As you can see, we lived it up with our temporary freedom. We were so giddy with the freedom, that we forgot to take any pictures. So you will have to imagine the smiles and celebration. Instead you can look at our wedding picture at the beginning of this post and remember that day 5 years ago with fondness...we sure do.

Early in September, my friend Jenise (who works for Southwest Airlines) and her parents flew to Kansas City for some BBQ. Being so close, they drove over on Sunday to attend church with us and have lunch. It was great to see them all and introduce Avery to her parents. Here we are after enjoying some yummy Sheridans ice cream.

Here are a couple shots of Avery from September. Here she is helping me get ready to go to the grocery store. She gets very excited at the prospect of going "Bye-Bye" and does whatever she can to help speed up the process.

If you look closely at this picture you can see that Avery is singing along in her own "microphone" as Andrea Bocelli sings on the TV. She also claps with Vanna White, so she is a lady of many talents.

This is Avery's 15 month photo. Yes, that is a scratch on her chin, but apparently it was not terribly traumatic, because I can't even remember how she got it.

Last but not least... my birthday celebration. For those of you who don't know, Disney is giving away a free admission ticket this year on your birthday. Well, guess what, I just happen to have a birthday this year! I also happen to have a sister who works at DisneyWorld and a sister who works for Southwest Airlines. As I learned it in grade school, 1+1+1 = DisneyWorld! And that is where my sisters and I spent my birthday this year! But you will have to wait for another post for that because Avery just awoke from her nap and is demanding some attention.

Later...

August

2009-10-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

In August we celebrated Kevin's big 3-0!

Many of you already know this because you were a part of it! For his birthday I contacted several people from Kevin's present and past and invited them all to send birthday cards to him. We were so impressed by the turnout! Kevin received almost 50 cards from all over the country from very special family and friends. (Moyers-I owe you a special thank you for your help in spreading the news of this request!) Kevin was so touched by the show of caring and love he received. Thank you all who participated!

We also threw a birthday party which Kevin grilled for. Apparently the word has gotten out about his grilling because our house was filled to overflowing! We exceeded all previous records of how many people could be in our house at the same time. Of course contributing to that was the rain, requiring everyone to stay in our living room! What fun chaos!

And of course as time marches on, Avery just keeps growing and growing... She was really into blocks for awhile. Setting them up was great, but knocking them down was even better! Her patience and carefulness to set them up surprised even us.

These are her not-so-staged 14 month old photos. As you can see I dressed her for the photos, but then forgot to take them until the end of the day as she is watching us play the Wii and trying to figure out how to get involved.

Last is a photo of a common sight in our house, Daddy causing Avery to be at the very height of joy. She always looks forward to him coming home because it often means chases and tickles and a playmate in ways Mommy just can't match. It is a very special relationship to witness.

That is all for now, Tonya

Still Catching Up

2009-10-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am still catching up from the summer! Yikes! September was a very busy month for us, so let's go back to July...

The photo above is a of a dress from Avery's Aunt Amber. She bought it in Costa Rica long before Avery was even born and she just now fits into it.

Here we are at the end of July just back from our reunion. Avery had just picked up on walking full time and here she is enjoying the space and freedom of being home.

With her newfound mobility, one of Avery's favorite things to do is climb in and out of her carseat when it is in the house. On this day though, she found this pillow and softened her seat first. :) This picture is also her 13 month old photo.

In early August we had our first official "Family Fun Day". The three of us went to the wading pool on the last Saturday it was open. Kevin hadn't been to the wading pool before and we all had a fabulous time. Especially Avery.

After the wading pool, we had a picnic in the park. Avery liked the strawberries best.

That's all for today! Next time we will cover Kevin's birthday and the busy month of September.

Family Reunion

2009-09-15T09:51:00.001-07:00

Ok, so it is finally time to finish posting about this trip so we can move on to current events!

After leaving Lubbock, we made the final journey on to Ruidoso, NM. Once there, we stayed in a vacation lodge with Kevin's parents and sister and neice and nephew. The rest of the clan stayed at a campground with cabins. So most of the activities of the week took place at that campground. Here is Avery checking out her new surroundings.

This reunion was for Kevin's dad's side of the family. Here are some family shots.

These are the first generation of the family. There were 12 brothers and sisters total, here are the 5 that were present at the reunion. Kevin's grandma, Doris, is the first on the left, then Ted, Freida, Jack, and Joyce.

Kevin's great aunt Joyce, Kevin, and Avery

Avery and her Grandpa sporting the same fashion sense. Diapers outside of the pants and socks with the sandals. Priceless. Reunion memories at their best.

The oldest and youngest at the reunion. Great-Aunt Frieda 89 1/2 years old, Avery, 1 year old.

Those of the Dodd clan represented at the reunion.

One evening we went to a great chuckwagon buffet/singing performance. It was a great show and good food, but unfortunately my camera batteries were dead. The only photo I got while we were there was this one on my phone. I wanted a photo of this though, because it closely represented all the places I have spent time in my life. Topeka, KS (near Lawrence) 765 miles, Austin 588 miles, Tombstone, AZ (near Tucson) 373 miles, Disneyland 812 miles, DisneyWorld 1661 miles.

One evening, the clan put on a talent show. Here are Amy and Brad dressed and in character for their stellar performance as a hillbilly couple crashing the wrong family reunion. They were hilarious and very popular!

Avery did very well with all the new people and places. Here she is trying and loving watermelon for the first time.

This is a bear that we saw in a tree near the campground. It was a mama bear and 3 cubs all in the one tree. You can see the mama's head in the center of this photo. Amazing, and a little bit scary.

Finally, after much visiting and laughing (there was a lot of laughing at this reunion). We headed home. This was much of what Avery did. We drove home over the course of 2 days with Grandma Doris in the car (brave woman). But it went well and survived the trip home.

It was a fabulous trip and wonderful to see all the family and friends that we saw, but it was also great to get home. Now it is time for more current blog posts!

More travel updates

2009-08-27T11:18:00.000-07:00

The next part of our journey was spent in Bridgeport, TX with my (Tonya's) family. Avery and I stayed with them during the week while Kevin returned to Lawrence to work. Then on Friday he drove back down to Texas and we stayed until Wednesday.

We stayed with my parents in their RV at a campground, so we spent a lot of time in the pool. Avery loved it.

We also had makeshift bath time for her. :)

My grandparents joined us here and we celebrated Avery's birthday again.

As you can see, Avery had a fabulous time with all the grandparent and great-grandparent attention.

While Kevin was around, he, my dad, mom, sister, and Papa poured cement on my parents land. This is a photo from my Mom's blog.

My Mom has a great post with lots of pictures of the cement pouring. You can visit that post here. My camera spent it's time with Avery and Nana and I who stayed in the air conditioned RV and did not see much cement action.

After the visit with the family we continued on our journey to Lubbock, TX where we spent the night with Kevin's aunt and uncle. Before we left town we ate at Rosa's (a local family favorite!) and visited with my college roommate, Beth. Here we are in her new house!

And that is all for today. The next post will be all about the family reunion. Check back soon!

Finally catching up

2009-08-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

So I know you have all just been in breathless suspense wondering what happened after the birthday party I last blogged about. Well, wait no more your update on June 30 - July 5 is here!

On Avery's actual birthday, Grams, BobBob and I took Avery to the wading pool downtown. This was her first visit and she had a blast!! She also looked adorable in the little pink swimsuit. People kept asking us if she was the first child/grandchild. Hmmm, could it be that all 3 of us had either a camera or video camera on her the whole time?

Then just 3 days later, we left Lawrence and embarked on the longest road trip Avery has been on. From Lawrence, KS, to Texarkana, TX, to Bridgeport, TX, to Lubbock, TX, to Ruidoso, NM, and back.

Today I will just post photos from Texarkana. Here we visited with Kevin's brother and his family as well as Kevin's parents.
We were there on Eric's birthday and he requested that Kevin smoke a brisket. Here is Kevin with the 'smoke'. The brisket turned out wonderfully!

Here is Avery with her Uncle Eric. Just about the sweetest picture ever!

We were also there over the 4th of July which our family celebrated with matching T-shirts. We also tried watching some fireworks, but Avery drew the line on what she could handle in a weekend by protesting the noise.

We celebrated Uncle Eric, Cousin Tate, and Avery's birthday in one big party. Tate and Avery both turned 1 within a week of each other. Here they are enjoying their new toys. I must say I was very impressed with how well the kids played together all weekend.

Here is a shot of the whole clan. We had a great weekend and enjoyed seeing everyone.

Ok, that is all for now. I will try to be more timely with the rest of the update...

Birthday Party

2009-07-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

Chalk it up to being new parents, but yes, we did throw a birthday party for Avery. She won't remember it, but here are the pictures to prove it. And she did seem to have a good time. The cake above is supposed to be a large cupcake surrounded by regular cupcakes. Not bad for an amateur attempt at cake decorating.

Prepping for the party was a whole family affair. Here you see Bob-Bob and Aunt Amber manipulating the fondant for the birthday cake. I had given up on it. The only reason they are both working on it is because it really was this difficult.

Here I am decorating the top of the huge cupcake. (Nana - see the apron I have on? Perfect!)

At the party, Kevin made yummy hamburgers and we all visited and played the Wii. This was Avery's favorite thing to do. After digging in the ice for awhile she would pull out her fingers and show them to me. Explaining the freezing properties of ice is lost on a 1 year old.

Of course Avery ate cake, but this is about as much as she got into it. She was still a bit overwhelmed that the whole room was standing around staring at her.

She received lots of great gifts that she is still enjoying today.

After opening gifts she visited with some of the guests. Here she is reading one of her new books.

So after all the planning and prep, it was in the end, a 1 year old birthday party. The guest of honor did a great job for the most part and we definitely appreciate all who joined us.

Here is a video of Avery enjoying the slide that Grams and Bob-Bob bought her. At some point she will figure out that she is supposed to be sliding down and not just the toys, but for now this is sweet. She and Bob-Bob laughed at this game for quite a long time.

Enjoy!

Avery at 1

2009-07-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

This post was written right after her 1st birthday, I just haven't posted it until now. I am glad I wrote it when I did though, because already, only 3 weeks later she has changed so much! These photos were taken on her actual 1 year birthday (June 30).

Awhile back, some friends of ours had a daughter turn one. At that time they wrote a blog entry about all she could do and who she was at one. I really enjoyed that entry and have wanted to do that for Avery. So, as of 1 year, here is a snapshot of who Avery is and what she can do.

~She walks! And really prefers to walk, she still has a ways to go mastering the balance of it all, but she loves the freedom and ability to hold things in her hands while walking.

~She loves people! She is the unofficial greeter at our church on Sunday morning and more than once we have had to take her to the nursery just because she is completely distracting the people in the rows behind us with her flirting.

~She enjoys kids, to a point. We often have kids at our house or go to children's events in the community and she loves interacting with them or watching them.

~She is very very observant. Always has been. She notices every noise and looks to you to explain to her what it is. If something is out of place, she notices it, or points it out to you.

~She is quite independent. She loves books, but more often than not, she wants to look at them and turn the pages by herself.

~She is an on and off eater. The days she doesn't want to eat, nothing will convince her otherwise. The days she wants to eat, she can nearly eat her weight in blueberries, kiwi, green beans, spaghetti, or goldfish crackers. But her favorite thing to eat is whatever is on mommy or daddy's plate.

~She knows how to initiate 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and can do recognizeable hand motions throughout the song.

~She uses the signs for 'all done', 'more', and 'eat' regularly.

~Her first word was 'dada' and she can now say 'mama', 'bye-bye', and several more that only mommy can understand. She also is imitating a lot of sounds including animal noises.

~She says 'takoo' (thank-you) often and at the proper time.

~She has just learned to stand up without using something to pull up on.

~She loves climbing stairs and has also just learned to go down a step feet first.

~She understands an incredible amount of what is said to her. A scary amount, actually. I can tell her, "Find your puppy so we can go bye-bye" and she will search the house for her favorite stuffed dog and bring him to me. I can also say to her, "Get a diaper and we will change you" and she will get it and bring it to me. I don't even want to guess what all she is absorbing.

~She is an extremely pleasant person. She is very easy going and generally goes along with whatever very well.

~She loves loves her Daddy. When he comes home from work she drops whatever she is doing and makes a beeline for the front door.

So, I realize this list could go on and on, but this is a good picture of who Avery is at 1 year. At this point it is going by very fast and I can see the growth and development happening right before my eyes. I am so blessed to have been given this sweet and precious child to 'learn parenting' on. Happy 1 year old my darling girl.

More June

2009-07-08T10:58:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned, we had a lot go on in June. Luckily, my parents joined us for the entire month and helped out a lot with parties and Avery watching.

One of the most exciting and greatest accomplishments of the month is that Kevin COMPLETED HIS THESIS! His defense was on the 10th and a few days later the last and final touches and edits were done and it was complete! Here is Kevin at his defense. I was able to attend and was very impressed with all he did and how calm he was. Hooray, Kevin!

Here he is a couple of days later showing Avery his work. She was impressed too, I'm sure. :)

That weekend he rode his bike in a triathalon where his cousin, David ran, and his uncle, Kurt swam. Here is the team. They did well.

There were a lot of riders. Kevin is in the center of the photo in the orange and white jersey.

Of course, Kevin's biggest fan had to pose for a picture with him after the race.

That evening, we had a Congratulations/Graduation Party for Kevin. He grilled (of course) some yummy ribs and a brisket. He is becoming quite the skilled party chef.

The next day was Sunday and Fathers Day. Our special guys opened their cards and gifts together in the RV.

Here is Avery's very first real swimming pool experience. As you can see, she warmed up to it pretty well.

We are starting to transition Avery into wearing shoes. It did not start out very promising. She considered the process just a challenge to her to see how fast she could get them off. She is doing better now though, and since Grams bought her some cute ones and Aunt Amber gave her some cute sandals for her birthday, she is actually asking to wear them upon occasion.

So, that is all for now. This updating stuff takes a long time when Avery is not napping! I still have lots to share about the birthday party and I even found some pictures from May that I need to post. Plus, some extremely cute videos. But that is all for now!

So Much to Share!

2009-07-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

June was such a crazy month, I will have to post it in several pieces... Between Kevin finishing his thesis, defending his thesis, celebrating the completion of his thesis, him riding in a bike race, Father's Day, Avery turning 1, having a birthday party, and my parents being in town, we have had a full, full month. However, July looks to be just as busy, so I make no promises as to when this blog will be up to date. But, in no particular order, here is a start...

My friend Sarah is a photographer. You can visit her website here. For Avery's official one year old photos we met her at a local park and she took these photos. We love love them! If I get nothing else posted, you need to see these.

11 months!

2009-05-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is it!! The last monthly "photo shoot" before the big 1 year! I truly cannot believe that we are here. She is so quickly becoming a toddler and moving out of that baby stage. And she is such a sweetheart! So, here are the photos of her on her 11th month birthday. Be warned, she was more in the mood to chew on the camera...

than to pose for pictures. She is always busy!

Now that the weather has warmed up, we are making good use of our great backyard with huge trees. We sit and play out there often.

She also spends lots of time looking at books. She loves turning the pages.

Here she is standing on our porch swing. She loves going for rides on this.

So that is all! Happy 11th month baby girl. Look here soon for 1 year old photos! Yikes!

Another month (long post)

2009-05-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go?? It's been a month since our last post and so much has happened! Part of the delay was waiting to figure out how to turn these videos right side up, and I am proud to say they are now correct! Hooray! Watching Avery stand makes a bigger impact when she is shown moving vertically rather than horizontally. :)

These first photos are from the days after Easter. We took Avery to the park and she got to ride down the slide with Daddy. The video is rough and short, but it is hard to be photographer and baby receiver all at once.

We also broke down and bought a baby gate. Avery enjoyed the kitchen (and the contents of the floor) a bit too much, so she is now banned. But, that doesn't stop her from testing the gate every once in awhile to see if we have left it unlocked. If we have, she is in there as fast as her little crawl will take her.

These photos are just everyday life shots. For awhile, Avery's favorite thing to do was empty her toybox. She is now getting the hang of putting things back which is what she is doing with her arm stuck up the elephant's trunk.

We are trying to introduce Avery to table food. She likes the independence of it, but eating itself is a hit or miss event. She is just not interested in it for very long. But the other day Kevin grilled/smoked a whole turkey breast and here Avery is having her first taste of Dad's cooking. She seemed to enjoy it, but then, who doesn't enjoy Kevin's cooking.

Then we have Avery's 10th month birthday. Instead of doing many photos, I did more videos. So enjoy the collection of Avery in action. As you will see, she is standing on her own. Since these videos were taken, she has decided that standing is the greatest thing. We expect a first step sometime soon.

She also loves to knock over block towers, so that is a popular activity during our day.

On to Mother's Day. My first! Here is my precious girl on my special day. The sweater was knitted (crocheted?) by my great-grandmother. I thought it was a special way to honor the ladies of my family on Mothers Day as well.

These are the flowers that Kevin had sent to the house with a note reading, "Every working mom should have flowers sent to her office." I thought that was a great note!

Kevin's parents were in town that weekend, so we spent time with them.

This picture is special and unique because it is 4 generations of Dodd women.

We joined the family in Topeka for church that morning where Kevin's aunt Lisa teaches cradle roll. Avery loves Sunday morning class.

So, we are now all caught up. Kevin thinks that Avery has said her first word this weekend, "Dada". I was there at the time and it was said when Kevin walked in, but we will see if it was the real thing or not... Time will tell.

That's all for now! One year is coming up much too quickly, I'll have to do better at keeping this blog updated or there will be too much to get behind on!

Love to you all!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

We had a fun and memorable Easter. The holidays seem so different with a child. More fun than I have had since I was a child. And I hear it just gets better from here.

Avery's Easter dress is made by her Nana in Tucson. It was a huge hit at church this morning. It was also the only place her shoes stayed on.

After church we went to Kevin's Aunt Lori's in Topeka and had Easter dinner with the whole family. Yum! Avery even enjoyed the rolls.

A rare family shot.

Daddy and Avery singing Itsy Bitsy Spider during the 'photo shoot'.

And then the kids all hunted Easter Eggs. Tyson and Lexi donated some of their findings to Avery which was enough for her.

This weekend Avery suddenly figured out clapping. She has been trying for a week or two, but the hands never really came apart during the clap. Now she has got the hang of it and this video (yes, sideways again) is proof of that.

Happy Easter all! Hope it was a great day for you as well.

Playing catch up

2009-04-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

This is the post that I have not gotten around to doing. But here it is, our trip to Tucson. While putting together the photos for this post, I realized that I did not take a lot of pictures for some reason. If you are interested, my mom has some additional photos on her blog, here.

This trip took place on March 11-17. Avery had not seen her grandparents and great grandparents since before Christmas, so we decided it was time. She had cut teeth and started crawling since we had seen them last.

While on this trip, she learned to sit up without propping over on her hand, she learned to climb up and down one step, she started dancing to music (more like bopping), and she started a little bit of separation anxiety. Being in a different place really highlighted how much change goes on in 1 week!

Here are the photos I have...

This video is of her climbing the step. I tried getting the down too, which took her longer to master, but she was too distracted by the audience for me to get that on film.

We visited several times with Grandmom and Granddad and Julie. This was also the first time Julie's husband Carl met Avery.

At Grandmom and Granddad's house, this was as brave as Avery got to playing with their dog.

One afternoon we hung out with Samantha and Courtney. We grew up with them and their parents. These two were in my wedding. I can't believe how they have changed!

We also took some time to take the 'Ladies of the Generations' shot. Although this is not the best one of the photo shoot.

This is just a for fun picture of me with my Papa. Notice he shaved!

On the way home there was enough room on the plane for Avery to have her own seat. She loved it! And it made the trip home much easier then the trip out there where she sat on my lap most of the trip.

Now, to really play catch up. These last 2 pictures are from the weekend before our trip to Tucson. My sister, Amber, came up for a visit and she took these for us.

Avery's first swing ride.

And Avery at church in her nursery class (which she loves).

And that is all! I am now caught up. With my record, you can probably expect to not see another update until she is starting Kindergarten. But hopefully not!

9 months old

2009-03-31T08:34:00.000-07:00

I realize that I still have more to post to catch up on, but I wanted to make sure and get Avery's 9 month old photos up before too late. This time I actually was purposeful about getting pictures. So, what follows is a chronicle of Avery's day yesterday.

In the morning we watched Taylor and Kenzie who are the kids of a friend of mine. It is a whole different thing now that Avery can almost keep up with them.

In the afternoon, the sun came out (after being iced in this weekend, that's Kansas for you). We went outside and took "official" 9 month photos. The dress is an adorable gift from Nana.

This was Avery's first real experience with grass. After getting used to it some, she did fine. And I am happy to report, it did not even end up in her mouth.

Then it was off to normal activities. Her new thing is to pull up on the side of her her toy box, dig through it, and pull out all the toys. This shot was too adorable to pass up, although I have since realized that the "plumber-pant" problem probably reflects more on the abilities of the person who picked out her clothes and not on Avery's ability to keep them up. Oh well...

For dinner it was peas, carrots, cheerios, and a mess. The mess part is actually with us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

So, Happy 9 Month Old Birthday to my precious girl. I can't believe we are already here!

Waaay Behind...

2009-03-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

If you ask me, "Where have you been?!?" I'm afraid I don't have a good answer for you. Can I just say I have been out of it temporarily? At this point, I am so far behind, I am going to post updates in pieces, otherwise it would never get done.

The most interesting tidbit, is that Avery has been crawling since Feb 13th! Pretty much 7.5 months old. This video was taken early on (2/21). She is quite quick and professional looking now. At this point, she is pulling up on everything.

The scariest part of the crawling is that she gets into everything now. To be fair though, she did drop her toy into the purse before I caught her digging in the purse to retrieve the toy. I loved the "Caught with the hand in the cookie jar" moment.

On Valentines Day, Avery discovered her favorite Valentine, herself! If only we all felt this way about the reflection in the mirror.

Also on Valentines, Kevin bought Avery her first Valentine's card. This year she was more interested in the envelope, but it's the thought that counts...

When I say she is getting everywhere, I do mean everywhere. This was great fun for awhile, crawling under the exersaucer, getting stuck and hollering for mom.

She also realizes now that she can follow us around the house. This is her realizing she is alone in her room and coming to find us.

This was the best photo I got for her 8 month old shot. As I said earlier, I have been out of it.

Last, this is a set of letters that my Aunt and Uncle in Austin sent to Avery for Christmas. When we opened the gift, it was 5 white letters with paint and paintbrushes. I finally got around to decorating them, and I think they turned out wonderfully. The next challenge is to get them up on the wall. Thanks Mike and Debbie!

That's all for now. We also took a trip to Tucson which will be another post, but my mom posted some great shots of that trip here on her blog.

Later!

Too cute to miss.

2009-02-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

Have we mentioned Avery is a happy baby?

One of these days I will figure out how to turn these videos right side up...

Just life

2009-02-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

No big news this time around, just life (and lots of pictures of it).

Avery's Nana has been busy. She is a very talented seamstress and has made Avery these adorable 2 outfits lately. They are so sweet. I think the hats are especially cute.

The purple outfit even came with a handmade bunny rabbit doll.

The green outfit came with amazing little shoes!

What childhood is complete without animated dancing penguins singing Christmas carols? Apparently not Avery's, and she loves them!

She also loves her diapers...

I tried again to get photos of her little teeth. These are the best I have, at least this time you can see something. However, the flash on the camera blinds her, so you get teeth, but no eyes. I promise she does have both teeth and eyes at the same time...

Avery's newest trick is to roll across the room to get her bottle and then feed herself. As you can see, she is getting most of it in her mouth, but some lands on the floor and all over her face...

7 month + some

2009-02-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, she is already 7 months! Who would believe. These are some great pictures we have taken recently.

These are her "official" 7 month photos. I thought PJ's would change it up a little (and we got to bedtime before I remembered to take photos...). I also captured her upside down finger sucking, so cute!

This lovely outfit is a gift from Grams and Avery's name-changing grandfather (Gramps, G-pa, GigaBob, they can't decide on a name). But it is her first Disneyland outfit and deserved a photo.

Every night we read stories before we go to bed. It is a sweet and beautiful moment worth catching on camera.

Happy Superbowl Sunday! Enjoy the game...

Where did the time go?

2009-01-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

Where has the time gone? In just a blink of an eye I have a "grown up" baby. This week we have discovered that she has a tooth coming in! Bye bye babyhood...

We barely could tell that she was teething and then all of a sudden there was something sharp in that bite. I have tried to get a picture but there is barely enough to see and she does not like me messing with her mouth. This is the best photo taken during the tooth capturing photo shoot, but there is no tooth to see in this picture.

Speaking of teething... she is chewing on everything. Including her feet which I find completely adorable.

At the same time, she is also getting ready to crawl! We are not just leaving babyhood, we are sprinting out of it. She now regularly gets up on her hands and knees. She is able to push herself backwards (which she finds entirely frustrating), but there is no forward motion yet. She is getting very adept at rolling from place to place though.

She still loves her squash and after a short period a couple of weeks ago of refusing to eat from a spoon, she is an eating machine.

She is still favoring her left hand, but we will wait to see the final outcome on that. She is also sucking her first two fingers on her left hand, upside down, which is funny to see. Unfortunately, you will have to wait to see it because apparently I don't have a picture of that (She is too much of a camera ham to be seen with fingers in her mouth when the camera comes out). The neat thing about this is Kevin's Grandma is one of the few lefties in the family and she sucked her fingers the same way when she was small! Funny the things that pass through the generations!

She definitely has her own opinions on things. She prefers sleeping on her tummy, she does not like roasted acorn squash, she likes to be held, she gets very excited when Daddy comes home from work, she loves dancing and quick movements, she likes mimicking the sounds that Mommy makes, and she does not like to be left alone for very long.

She does well with bath time as long as she has a washcloth to suck on and you don't take too long drying her off after she is out of the tub.

And on a side note, we celebrated Christmas again last week. The black and white dress Avery is wearing at the beginning of this post was one gift of many that she received. In fact, we all received quite the cache. Thank you family for the fantastic gifts and thank you Brad and Sandra for transporting them up here from Texas.

Look for another post soon, as Avery's 7 month birthday is on Friday!

Avery's Favorite Food

2009-01-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

Avery has decided that her favorite food is squash. She likes it as a facial moisturizer, an eye shadow, a lipstick, mascara (which I had to remove before the photo), hand lotion, and all around fashion accessory. This is in addition to enjoying it as an afternoon snack.

I'm not sure what got into her today, but apparently the food was more interesting all over her face than in her mouth. This is the messiest meal we have had so far. (Yes, so far) The best part was as soon as I pulled out the camera she started with these huge smiles like she knew how funny she was!

Just a sweet moment for those of you who don't get to see Avery on a regular basis...

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T08:39:00.000-08:00

On this first day of the new year, I am posting our photos of... Christmas! It is a New Years gift to myself, because if I get this done, I will be all caught up with the blog. But don't expect another update so soon. With the marathon of 4 posts in a week and a half, I am blogged out.

This year we spent our first Christmas at home, which was appropriate since this was Avery's first Christmas. We have started some traditions of our own and look forward to 'tweaking' them as Avery gets older.

A couple days before Christmas we got a pretty good snow storm. About 3 inches. It was fun to have a 'White Christmas', but what was even more fun for this Arizona girl is that it was about 60 degrees the day after Christmas!

The morning of Christmas we made a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls. This is the before photo, they were gobbled up so quickly after they were out of the oven that I did not get a photo. Suffice it to say, they were very tasty!

Then it was on to stockings and presents. Avery most liked the paper, but we all had fun.

This video is more for tradition sake then anything, my Dad always filmed the entire Christmas morning experience, we have opted for a bit less. But, this is for you Dad, Christmas morning video...

This is the aftermath photo of Christmas morning. I always liked these shots because it is a reminder of all the fun that was had.

This being Avery's first Christmas, we found a great 1st Christmas ornament for her. It is a bit hard to see here, but it is so sweet.

I love Christmas cards! I love sending them, and I love receiving them. Each one that we send and receive is a reminder of the special people in our lives. This year we had a great place to display them, so here is a shot of some of this year's cards. Thank you all who sent them.

After opening gifts on Christmas morning, we headed over to Topeka to enjoy the Christmas meal with Kevin's family. We had a really good time around the busy dinner table and I participated in the traditional family Scrabble game. How did I do? Well, someone always has to come in with the lowest score, so this year I humbled myself to take that lowly spot. But as always it was fun.

The weekend after Christmas, Kevin, Avery and I went to the Plaza in Kansas City to see the famed Christmas lights. We have tried to do this every Christmas we have been here, but this was our first successful attempt. It was fun, but because of the cold and the nearness to Avery's bedtime, we enjoyed the lights from the car.

So, that's it! I'm all caught up. For the New Year celebration we went to some friends house and watched the KU football team win and played the Wii. We were home in time to see the ball drop and Avery slept through the whole experience. I'm sure the significance of a new year will effect her later.

We wish you a very happy and blessed New Year!

Tonya, Kevin, and Avery

6 Months Old!

2008-12-30T14:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

Just for fun! Enjoy...

We are back!

2008-12-22T12:14:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-20T11:18:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

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

Two months old

2008-09-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

These are Avery's two month old birthday pictures. As I have mentioned before, she is now starting to fit into her "cute" clothes. So we celebrated by dressing her up and taking pictures in our back yard. Doesn't she look great?! I especially like the hat. :)

I was shopping at Walmart today and saw a couple newborns wandering the store with their moms and I realized that I have a full-fledged baby now! No more newborn! It's true what they say that the stages pass by while you aren't even looking. She still gets noticed though, just for being so cute. But I'm sure that will never go away... (not that I am biased or anything)

Avery's new favorite place to be is faced out while being held. She used to favor being curled up on a shoulder, but now she wants to see and look around. So Kevin has come up with this new way to carry her and she seems pretty happy with it.

We are still having a hard time with her in the carseat, and actually it seems to be getting worse. It is hard to even drive across the small town of Lawrence without her going in to full-fledged screaming mode. I think we have come up with the idea that she doesn't like not being able to see people. We have put up a mirror, dangled toys, turned on music, talked to her, put her in the seat drowsy right before a nap, and none of those seem to work to calm her. However, the second she is pulled out of the carseat, all is well. So, we will just not plan long car rides for awhile. I have heard that some kids don't like the carseats until they are old enough to face forward. I suppose patience is in order...

To celebrate Labor Day, Kevin, Avery and I joined his family in Topeka for a BBQ and swim. Kevin even tried to take Avery in the water, but it was too cold and she quickly let him know that. Instead, she took a sunbathing nap on Aunt Lori's lap.

As you can see, she was working on a "line-less" tan. Thank goodness Aunt Lori didn't mind the little showers that Avery sent down her leg!

Next week Avery will get her first immunization shots, so I'm sure we will have news then!

Love, Tonya, Kevin, and Avery

In Other News...

2008-08-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

Although maybe not as exciting as setting a new personal best, like yesterday, we do have other news to share with you all.

Last week was Kevin's "almost milestone" birthday. To celebrate, Kevin took the day off work and we spent the day together as a family in Kansas City. After breakfast in bed and lunch at a steakhouse, we visited his workplace to introduce his co-workers to Avery. While in Kansas City, we found a grill shop that sells all things grill, smoking, and accessory related. Kevin got a few new grill items. Then on Saturday, he bought a huge prime rib roast and a pork tenderloin and invited a bunch of friends over to enjoy his new talent on the grill. It was a big hit! He did a great job.

As for the rest of us, Avery is doing great. She is growing a lot. The best part is that she is starting to fit into her "cute" clothes. I plan on photographing each new cute outfit that she wears and posting them here (okay, yes, make the comments about the first baby getting over photoed). She is becoming coordinated enough to suck on her hands quite a bit. She hasn't chosen one finger or thumb over the other yet, but I think she will soon.

She is still a big eater and always seems to surprise us with how hungry she is. But really I guess we don't have any point of reference on that. For the most part she is sleeping 4-5 hours at night which is wonderful. There are the off nights (like last night) when she doesn't sleep more than 1-3 hours, but those are not too often.

The next challenge is to move her from sleeping in our room in her car seat, to sleeping in her own room in her crib. That may be more of my resistance than hers, but we will see.

Ok, 2 posts in 2 days, I am out of words! Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Tonya

Personal Best!

2008-08-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

In honor of the recently ended Olympics, Avery would like to share with you her new personal best record... Granted, this may not be a gold, silver, or even bronze on the world stage, but for her, it is still impressive.

This morning after waking up in just a diaper and a blanket, she just wouldn't be calm until she had on a onesie. Being her coach and sponsor in this event, I supported her by fitting her with an adorable one piece in teal. Within the first 10 minutes of sporting the teal number, we were in full training mode. The burp that emerged from within brought with it the entire contents of the recently ingested bottle. This was an impressive feat, requiring the first change of the morning. It also required a change of clothes for Coach Mom who really should have changed PJ's earlier in the day, but was waiting for the right incentive.

The second number of the day was a soothing white onesie, adorned with powder pink hearts. Within 10 minutes of sporting this epitome of Gerber design, we were in the races again. This time Avery was inspired to make her mark on this outfit from below. Unfortunately, the diaper that we all relied on to support us in this endeavor, failed in it's debut performance. This prompted yet another change of attire.

Finally, after a long 30 minutes of costume changes, Coach Mom finally found the right match. The striped number in purple and green was just the right thing. After this exhausting personal best of 3 outfits in 30 minutes, Olympian Avery Ann Dodd needed a well deserved break. She is currently sleeping off the effects of this tremendous effort. We would like to thank our fans and supporters during this time of exciting growth.

Until next time... Avery and Coach Mom

More visitors

2008-08-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my sister, Amber, and my friend, Jenise, came up to visit (one of the perks of working for Southwest Airlines). We had a lot of fun passing Avery around and eating stuffed hamburgers. It was great to visit and catch up with them.

Avery is doing well. She is becoming more and more interactive, but I am still looking forward to those smiles and especially giggles to become more frequent. She is starting to search out eyes and look at people for longer amounts of time. Especially if they are making crazy faces or singing silly songs.

We are trying to figure out the balance of how much sleep to get during the day and still sleep well at night. She seems to fight bedtime, but once she gets there she can sleep almost 6 hours sometimes!

She is still (and probably always will be) a fantastically precious baby and is winning her mom and dad's hearts over more and more each day.

As far as Kevin and I, we are adjusting to this new role a bit better everyday. There are hard days and there are easier days, but we are at least not as new as we were 7 weeks ago!

Enjoy the pictures (especially Gamma and Nana)!

Tonya

Keep on Growing!

2008-08-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

Can you believe we have already hit the 6 week mark! It is amazing how time can go so fast and so slow all at once.

Avery and I are now on our own during the days. My parents left in early August to return to Texas. The weekend after they left, Kevin's parents came to visit, this next weekend, my sister and my friend come up to visit. So we are not exactly in a normal pattern yet, but we are getting there quickly. We had a good visit with Kevin's parents and really enjoyed introducing them to their newest grandaughter. They brought with them Avery's cousin Mackenzie. They had a great time getting to know one another.

Today we had our 6 week check up. Avery is 22.5 inches long and 9 lbs 11 oz! No one can say she is not growing well. She ought to be growing like a weed though, she is a big eater. We are still nursing and bottle feeding both. It has become less stressful for me, especially being able to share the feeding duties with other people, like her dad and grandparents. Besides, it is what is best for her and I am glad that we have this option for her.

Last week we got to see her first responsive smile. Kevin was the proud recipient of that first one. Luckily, I got to see it as well. What a beauty! I am looking forward to seeing more of that. This picture is not the first smile, but I was impressed to catch one on camera just a couple days ago.

That is all for now, Love to all,

Tonya, Kevin, and Avery

A few pictures...

2008-07-29T20:14:00.000-07:00

Just thought we would share a few pictures with everyone. Avery is still tiny, but she has made huge waves in our life! We are still adjusting, but getting better all the time.

Mom (yikes, that's me!) and Avery at a baby shower put on by some friends. This is the only one of her baby showers that she was actually in attendance for!

The baby shower was a brunch. These are the goodies we got to enjoy.

Daddy playing "Ride Little Pony"

Avery, awake and not crying!

We have discovered she loves her room (or diaper changes).

She is most content on her changing table.

Dad and Avery, after a hard day's work.

Three Weeks Old

2008-07-21T15:36:00.001-07:00

Hi all! I am finally coming out of my delivery stupor a bit and wanted to share some of our story with you. It has been a rough few weeks just adjusting and getting used to this new little one, but things seem to be improving each day.

The Delivery Story...

After waiting for what seemed to be an endless amount of time (and an endless number of "You are still pregnant?!" questions), my doctor scheduled me to be induced 1 week after my due date. On June 30, Kevin and I drove to Overland Park Regional Medical Center to meet our baby. What a strange sensation to drive to a hospital feeling A-OK and ask them to admit me and put me through a day of pain! When we arrived at the hospital, we rode the elevator to the maternity section with a woman who was actually ready to be delivering her baby (you know, the whole heavy breathing and groaning in pain). Next to her I looked like I was pretending to be pregnant!

We were immediately shown to our room and I was told to change into the stylish hospital attire that I would be wearing for the next several days. Around 8:15 the nurses had me all hooked up to the monitors and IV's and my doctor arrived to check on me. Before he left he broke my water and told me he would be back in 4-5 hours. I should mention that when I arrived at the hospital I was already dilated to a 4 and by all accounts, we were expecting a relatively quick day.

Throughout the morning the nurses checked on me and upped my pitocin to increase the contractions. Until about 12:00, I was not having too hard of a time. My parents and grandparents were in the room just chatting and watching the monitors to tell me when I was contracting ( I was not feeling all of them). About this time, Kevin and I started playing cards. I won the first 2 hands and lost the last 3. Just that quickly, the pains became much more uncomfortable.

By 2:00, I was only dilated to a 6 and was in a lot of discomfort. At that point I asked for the epidural. Before we could catch our breath and realize what was going on, the anesthesiologist was there pumping me full of medicine. I did not respond to it very well and I gave the nurses a moment of a scare with my blood pressure dropping and heart rate increasing. It was a scary moment for Kevin and I too. Once things evened out and the medicine took effect, they left me to labor more.

After 3 hours of laboring under the epidural, my doctor checked on me again and found I was still only dilated to a 6. At this point he recommended a cesarean. I had walked into the hospital that morning really hoping not to end up that route, but after the day I had been through, I was ready to be done.

Around 5:10 the doctor recommended the C-Section and again things happened very fast. They suited Kevin up for the operating room and wheeled me away. Once there, they did their job quickly and our baby girl was born at 5:39 pm. Before entering the hospital, we had already decided on 3 names for the baby, we really thought we had a favorite too. But when Kevin saw the baby, he knew that she would be Avery Ann (which was one of the choices). He tried to ask me what I thought, but I was so drugged that I didn't have much response. I remember him asking, and I am very pleased with his choice, but I don't think I had much ability to disagree at that point.

Because of the cesarean, we were in the hospital for 4 days and I am glad for each day we were there. Recovering from major surgery is hard work! Kevin did an amazing job taking care of me and the baby all while sleeping on a tiny fold out chair.

On July 3, we were released and returned home to all the craziness that comes with figuring out a newborn.

So, here we are today. Avery is 3 weeks old and we are adjusting to being new parents. We have struggled with my crazy hormones, feeding Avery, and getting enough sleep, but even with all that she is a fantastic baby. She is so easy (so far), which we are terribly grateful for. I am starting to get out of the house and am crying less. Kevin has gone back to work and my mom still cooks us dinner and does our laundry. So, things are settling down a little bit and we are in a holding pattern until my parents leave at the end of the month and I get to figure out how to do this on my own while Kevin is at work each day.

I am so grateful to Kevin, my parents, and my grandparents who have made surviving this craziness possible. Thank you also to all of you who have sent up prayers on our behalf. Keep them coming! We are not seasoned veterans yet!

And just a warning, I am terribly slow about responding to e-mails at this point, but I would love to hear from you all.

Love, Tonya, Kevin and Avery :)

Deep Breath

2008-07-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

Wow!

I think this is the first time I have posted something to our family's page. As I type I take deep breaths, trying to let my body catch up to joy of my heart. This truely is a great time in my life and what joy to share it with Tonya. She did a great job, one she will share with you at a later time (right now she is snoozing, so please read this blog quietly). Well I suppose that I can't keep your attention with my words to long as you would like to be introduced to (Drum roll)....

Avery Ann Dodd

Born June 30, 2008

7 lbs, 7 oz

19 in long

This was taken 24 hours before she arrived.

As she was getting her first cleaning, Daddy reached out to touch her to calm her down. It worked too! She likes her Daddy.

First Family Picture. She even opened her eyes for the photo. Dad is smiling through tear filled eyes and Mom mustered up enough energy for a smile. This was a very happy moment.

Just 2 days later... and forever... a family.

No News

2008-06-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to let you all know that... nothing has happened. Yesterday was our due date and we definitely have passed it by at this point. The doctor tells me I have dilated to a 3 as of Friday, but I have had no contractions or anything else that might give me a clue that it is close. I can tell that she is dropping, but that is not a timeline...

The good news is though, that if the baby decides not to come before Monday the 30th, than the doctor will induce me. I would much prefer to have the baby without induction, but I am glad to have a date now.

Mom and Nana are getting all my last minute "to-do" projects done, which I really appreciate, but I don't think my nesting instinct has kicked in too much, because I am more than happy to sit back and let them work!

So, just a bit of information for you all to know what is going on. I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore!

We will update again after we have baby pictures! Tonya

Happy Fathers Day!

2008-06-15T19:26:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Happy Father's Day to all you special men out there who get to be Dads. This is Kevin's first Fathers Day. A special time for us all. Now don't worry, you haven't missed any news, we are still pregnant. We expect the big day to be any moment, but in reality I could have up to 3 more weeks. After the last visit to the doctor, he tells me I have not progressed very far into being ready to deliver, but I am ready to prove him wrong any day! I am feeling very well, but I am definitely uncomfortable and not sleeping well. I am ready to move to the next stage of this whole process, the baby part of it.

We have finished all of our prenatal classes, so we are as educated as we are going to be before this happens. My parents are in town for several weeks, my grandparents are coming next week, and the nursery is nearly ready.

My last day of work was last week and I have been finishing odds and ends while waiting for the baby. Thanks to Mom, we are actually getting some things done around here. It is a wonderful thing to start seeing the house become a home. It was pretty hard to leave my job for good, but I still know it will be the right decision. I was telling a friend of mine that I keep waiting for that "This is a good decision" feeling, she was very insightful to tell me that I may not feel that way until the baby is born. Which is good to know, because I have been out of work for all of 4 days and I am already getting nervous about it.

As far as the nursery goes, we need to hang curtains, and maybe add some wall decor, and then we are done! All this for a room she probably won't even sleep in for several months, but I think it helps us to prepare.

Thank you all who have thought of us as we are preparing for this baby. We have been showered with gifts and well wishes as the day gets closer. All these things have been very helpful.

That's all the news for now, hopefully we are close to sharing a birth story and pictures of the little one soon, but unfortunately, we can't predict when.

Love to all, Tonya & Kevin

More Big Events

2008-05-11T17:23:00.001-07:00

Why is it that every time we post on this blog, I feel as though we have run a marathon since the last one?!

Since the last post, here is what has happened in a nutshell... we finished the floors (hooray!!!), we had our first and second overnight house guests, Kevin's parents visited, Tonya's parents and sister visited, the baby's room is painted, the crib and furniture are in the room, we had professional maternity pictures taken, we had a baby shower, and we own a stroller! Sheesh, with all that and being 33 weeks pregnant, I am exhausted and exhilarated! Here are some pictures and details...

Now that the weather is pleasant, Kevin finished the wood floors and we stayed at some friends house while the house aired out. The floors are fantastic! It is amazing what a difference it makes to the look of the house and how I feel about the house. Mainly it is now a home and not just a place to store stuff. Very exciting!

A couple of weekends ago, Kevin's parents came to visit us from Austin. Kevin's dad called it "Baby Quality Control". While they were here, amidst the family meals with those in Topeka and a near miss by a tornado, they painted the baby's room, brought the handmade crib and dresser and painted those as well. Overnight the room became baby friendly. It looks amazing! What a big leap that made in preparing our house for this new little one.

This weekend, my parents and sister came from Dallas to attend the baby shower held by the church members. Another crazy busy weekend that helped to make leaps and bounds towards being baby ready. We now have a changing table, rocking chair, and a stroller. And that was after the baby shower!

The shower was an abundance of the cutest baby clothes I have ever seen. This little girl will be the best dressed (and most frequently changed) little one you have ever seen. We received fantastic items and had a great time. One of the most meaningful parts of the shower was the parenting advice that each person wrote to Kevin and I. Then, unknowingly to me, one of the hostesses put all those written advice cards in a beautiful scrapbook that she presented to me. It is amazing and will be treasured always!

A couple weeks before the company, we had professional maternity photos taken. Our friend Sarah does these and she did a fantastic job. Here are a couple of our favorite shots. These are amazing keepsakes for us to remember this special and unique time.

On the baby front, the little one is very busy growing and moving. I am still feeling very well, but I know that I am about ready to not be pregnant anymore. This is fun, but not feeling like there is a full grown watermelon in my stomach will be a welcome change. My doctor tells me that after Monday the 12th, if I go it to labor, she is developed enough to be born and healthy! Not that I want that to happen next week, but it is comforting to know we are at that point. Especially now that things are starting to come together with the house.

Hopefully I will have more news and pictures before the baby is born, but regardless, please keep us in your prayers as we make such a huge transition in our lives.

Love you all (and Happy Mother's Day!), Tonya and Kevin

Go Jayhawks!

2008-04-14T18:13:00.001-07:00

Lots of news since the last update. The most widespread news is that our local college basketball team won the national championship. Go Jayhawks! We watched the exciting tournament over the course of a couple weeks and each time they won a game, the city of Lawrence went nuts! When they won the championship we joined in the madness.

On Sunday, the city held a parade on Massachusetts street. They say over 80,000 people attended! The population of Lawrence is only 80,000! I believe the numbers though, there were a ton of people! It was like Main Street, Disneyland during the fireworks! Madness. But fun, fun. Here are some pictures of the craziness.

In other news, I am now very pregnant. Very pregnant. I can hardly believe this picture is me. But, I only have about 10 weeks left so, it's only bigger from here!

We have been busy, busy. Now that the weather is starting to warm up (sort of), we are working on our floors again. We should be done with the entire house in the next couple of weeks. That is dependent of course on us not having anymore snow flurries like we did this past Saturday.

We have also started our pre-natal classes. Let me say... ack! Lots of information, almost more than we can process in one evening. But, it is really good too. We have a couple more weeks of class. I guess they expect us to be experts after that... In a couple weeks we will tour the hospital that I will deliver in over in Overland Park, Kansas.

We have a baby shower scheduled for early May, which will be fun. Several ladies from church are hosting it and we will probably be well prepared after that.

Some tiny sad news, I have informed my job that I will not be returning to work after this summer. We are starting to choose candidates to interview and it is a bit hard to give up this job I love to anyone else. But, when I think of the alternative, I know this is right. But it is pretty nerve-wracking.

So, that catches you all up for now. The baby is moving a lot these days. On Sunday I think she learned to turn somersaults because she was flipping over all day! It is a pretty neat time.

Love to you all!

4 Weeks Later

2008-03-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

We have been busy actually seeing people in person and other activities. Here is our update. The weekend of March 7-9 we made a quick trip to Tucson to visit family and show off the growing baby bump. We had a nice time seeing everyone and enjoying the warm weather! As always we managed to cram a ton into a short time. Kevin got to enjoy his first meal at the Organ Stop restaurant in Phoenix, we watched Samantha Johnson play basketball, enjoyed a family meal at Julie and Carl's house, saw a show at the Gaslight Theater, visited with Carolyn, watched Dad's LTC puppet team perform, ate, ate, and ate some more.

This past week for Tonya has been Spring Break. I have had some time to finish some more things around the house. Those were great, but the best thing I did this week was register for baby stuff! A big thanks to my friend Sarah who took me out and showed me all the best stuff to register for. We had lots of fun and just enjoyed having a girls day out. If you would like to see the lists you can view them online at Baby's R Us, Burlington Coat Factory, and Target. Just look it up under Kevin or Tonya's name.

Hard to believe, but the baby should be here in about 3 months! Where has all the time gone?! We are getting nervcited (it's a new word, means excited and nervous). I am definitely feeling pregnant these days. As you can see from the pictures, my belly is growing! After avoiding it as long as possible I really am wearing maternity clothes pretty much all the time now. The baby is pretty active and I am starting to notice her schedule. Basically she is active anytime I am not. I love it though, I feel her pretty often now.

So, we are off to watch the Jayhawks in March Madness. Love to you all!

Tonya and Kevin

She's Kicking!

2008-02-25T10:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was 22 weeks and 6 days. The exciting news for the day is that Kevin felt the baby move for the first time! It was so cool! There was no mistaking what was going on. She had been very active all evening and when Kevin put his hand on my stomach he got several nice solid kicks. Then this morning before he went to work he put his hand on my stomach again and even though she hadn't been moving too much, she kicked him again! What a fantastic time!

-------------------------

In other news, we have been very busy around our house. Some of the projects will have to wait until the weather warms, but here is what we have been up to.

I attempted, for the first time, to make curtains. I am pretty impressed with the final results. These hang in our kitchen.

Kevin has recently discovered that he can make a fabulous cheesecake. Heath Bar Crunch Cheesecake. Yummm.

Last weekend Amber and Jenise visited us for the day (a perk of working for Southwest Airlines!). We spent the day in Kansas City, visiting the Steamboat Arabia museum, bowling, and visiting. Thanks for coming guys! It was good to see you!

And last, another exciting thing we have recently accomplished... We have finally moved into our actual bedroom. Since we bought the house in June, we have been planning and working on the room that is actually our bedroom. This weekend we finally moved in! Notice the finished wood floors, the painted walls, the curtains, the new furniture, and the crown moulding. I still need to put up wall decor and we have other plans for adding to the room, but we are proud of what has been accomplished.

Love to you all! Keep in touch!

It's A...

2008-02-10T18:45:00.000-08:00

Girl!

Kevin and Tonya are having a girl! We are so excited! Today we are 20 weeks and 5 days into the pregnancy. Tonya is feeling very well! She is starting to feel some of the physical effects of carrying a baby around all day, and Kevin is getting lots of practice rubbing her back. Enjoy the pictures!

Kevin is proud to show that he is no longer winning the belly size war.

Monday we had 69 degree weather, Tuesday it started cooling and Wednesday Tonya had a snow day and Kevin shoveled 5 inches of snow from our driveway!

We love you. Hope you all are warm and well wherever you are,

Tonya and Kevin

Update!

2008-01-15T19:12:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile and so much has happened!

First, we did attend the KC Cheifs football game (which they lost). After we broke the ice off of the chairs and got our heat packs warmed up, it was very enjoyable!

Over Christmas we went to DisneyWorld! It was fantastic. We managed to visit 4 parks in 4 days as well as have Christmas dinner in the hotel and have a traditional Christmas brunch, gift opening, and a gift exchange. It was a lot of fun, but it was over much too quickly.

We returned from the sunny Florida heat to find 4 inches of fresh snow on our car. A nice "welcome home" from the state of Kansas.

So now we are into the New Year and back to the regular routine. Kevin and I are back to work. We had another doctor appointment on January 4 where we heard the baby's heart beat. Everything was going well.

We are now at 17 weeks and I am starting to show! On February 8 we will be finding out if we are having a boy or a girl. We are super excited and are very much enjoying the process. I have not been sick at all, just tired (and maybe a bit lazy). But all is well. We would love to hear from you all about your holidays.

Love to all! Tonya & Kevin

Marching towards Christmas

2007-12-15T19:25:00.001-08:00

Just a note to update on what's going on in the Dodd household. Today we received what felt like a ton of snow, but ended up being only 2 inches! Brr. Tomorrow we are going to brave the cold and go watch the Kansas City Chiefs play the Tennesse Titans in freezing weather. Fun (for someone). We have decorated our Christmas tree and have actually started the process of finishing our floors on our own. This was a pretty intimidating task, but it turns out to not be as bad as we thought it might be. Other than the smell, it is really not bad at all. The end results will really be worth it too!

On the baby front, not much new news. Tonya is still not showing at 12.5 weeks, but she is having dreams about the baby which is pretty cool!

Next week we are spending Christmas in Florida with Tonya's family at DisneyWorld. I am sure we will have lots to share after that!

Happy Holidays all! (We are still trying to get that elusive Christmas letter and picture out to you all.)

Baby Pictures!

2007-12-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

Ok folks! To all you restless, breathless family and friends... On Friday, November 30 we had our first sonogram! Wow! Incredible. The technician told us that the baby measures 2.6 centimeters, but already we could see fingers and toes and see and hear the heartbeat. It was an incredible experience. Seeing the baby and watching the movements totally changed my perspective on this whole event. We are going to have a baby! Cool! So, now we really begin the planning and being excited. Thanks to you all for riding on this journey with us.

Love,

Tonya and Kevin