Happy New Year!

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!

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

Oh, and Avery has something to add...

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

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

Love to you all!

Bonus Post

Just for fun! Enjoy...

We are back!

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

We will start with just before Thanksgiving...

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

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

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

They seem to enjoy each other

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

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

This is also her 5 month old photo.

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

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

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

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

But... some things never change...

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

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

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

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

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

Merry Christmas all!

Kevin, Tonya, Avery

Additional note:

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

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