Easter

 Getting ready for my Easter Egg Hunt in Decatur

 Dad help me with opening this egg!

We had a great Easter.  We usually go out of town to visit my parents for Easter, but this year we stayed in town just incase the baby came early.  We went to an Easter Egg hunt in Decatur the weekend before Easter and Avery had a great time picking up the eggs and candy.  The dum-dums were her favorite and she just ran around collecting as many as she could.  On Easter, we went to church and then a nice lunch, just the 3 of us.  It was a great day!

No Excuses

Wearing Mommy's boots

Taking my baby for a stroll, practicing to be a big sister

Riding a turtle at the Ft. Worth Zoo

Ok, so I have no excuse for not posting in so long. I have so much to catch up on, I was going to go back and add pictures and posts from everything I have missed (fall, Christmas, ,etc) , then I got overwhelmed, so I am maybe going to get back to that stuff, but am going to start from here. Above are some random pictures from the past few months. Ignore Avery's hair in the first shot, she has crazy hair nowadays, kinda fits her personality too!

Avery is definitely starting to show more personality everyday. She is fearless, climbing on anything and everything. She still loves music and loves to dance. She is entering the "terrible two"phase and is trying to assert her independence all the time. She is obsessed with her baby right now, we have to put her to bed at night and that is the first thing she asks for in the morning, hopefully she will still like babies when her sister comes! (for those of you who don't know, because I am awful at keeping up the blog, we are expecting another baby girl in about 6 weeks). She is saying many more words and can now put 2 or 3 words together. She continues to surprise us everyday and we love being her parents! More to come....

Out West!

Last month we got the opportunity to travel to Colorado and Wyoming for a family trip. We started in Colorado for our dear friends, Michael and Heather's wedding. It was such a beautiful place to get married, the views were incredible. Then we traveled up to Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Cody, Wy, and then back down to Denver. Yellowstone was such an amazing place and had so many beautiful things to see. These pictures are a brief sampling of our trip. Avery had a great time and really perfected her walking and climbing skills on the trip!

View from the wedding site

Old faithful geyser

Rock climbing in Grand Teton National Park

View of the lower falls in the Grand Caynon of Yellowstone

Hanging out in a field on the northern part of Yellowstone

First Steps!

Avery took her first 2 steps on Sunday the 24th and we caught them on camera! We were taking pictures of her in the hallway after church and all the sudden she just started walking! The most steps she has taken since is 7 steps yesterday. So we are on our way to having to move faster to keep up with her!

Hilton Head Visit

Playing with Grandpa and Grandma

Having fun at the baseball game

With Mom and Dad at the game

Trying to chase the waves in the ocean.

We just returned from a visit to Hilton Head for my Dad's 60th birthday. My Mom had an eventful weekend planned in honor of my Dad. We went out on a Schooner for a sunset cruise and Avery had a great time watching them raise the sails and feeling the wind on the water. The next evening we went to the Savannah Sand Gnats minor league baseball game. Avery enjoyed watching the game, but had more fun watching all the people and kids. She hated the Sand Gnat though, we tried to get a picture of her with him, and she just started screaming, hopefully she will get used to people in costume! The next day was spent at the beach and Avery loved splashing in the water and playing in the sand. Her favorite thing to do was crawl into the water and "chase" the waves! We had a great trip! Happy 60th birthday Grandpa!

July 4th!

Watching fireworks with Mom and Dad.

Playing with PawPaw's train!

Eating crab for the first time!

Hanging with Uncle Brett and cousin Matt

In our red, white, and blue!

We went to Waveland, Ms. to celebrate July 4th with family. We were lucky enough to stay for a whole week and had plenty of time to visit family, play on the tractor and go to the beach. Avery's favorite was getting to play with her cousin Matt. They have a great time together. She also loved playing at the beach and eating seafood for the first time!

Avery's First Birthday!

Avery had a birthday luau to celebrate her first year! She had so much fun playing the fishing game in the pond, watching the kids hit the pinata and eating cake for the first time! Thanks to everyone who came out for the celebration, Avery loved it!

So hard to believe that our little munchkin is one! This year has flown by so fast and had its ups and downs. We can't imagine our life now without our sweet Avery Elizabeth. We had Avery's one year check yesterday and she is still about in the same brackets she has been in all along. She weighs 20lbs 14 oz and is 30 1/2 inches tall. That puts her at 40% for weight and 90% for height, if you keep up with that kind of thing.

Here are her latest stats:

Favorite toys: Anything with music, balls, wheels, baby dolls, anything that she can poke and she loves taking things out of things ( bags, buckets, containers) but of course she doesn't like putting things back in!

Nicknames: Stinkerbutt, Hot bacon bit, Monkey, Munchkin, and Lovey.

Favorite foods: Strawberries or any fruit for that matter, chicken/ turkey, cheese, sweet potato puffs and yogurt.

Least favorite foods: broccolli, tomatoes, hamburger meat

Favorite things: Being outside, cuddling and being read to, men (yes, she loves any man and will flirt with them constantly, we are in trouble!), eating, playing with other kids

Things she can do: Wave hi and bye, blow kisses, give hugs and kisses, patty cake/ clap, point to her belly button and nose, stand without support, cruise along furniture/people, walk with a walker or toy to hold onto, dance to music, can say Dada, Mama, Hi, Hey, Dog (but it sounds like da)