Welcome to the New Year

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

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

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

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!