Happy New Year's (Eve)!

LOL.... I just asked Randall if he remembered what we did last NYE, and he was way off. I had totally forgotten we were up so late watching Baggage. Ha! I do remember being very upset that there wasn't a good Central time zone NYE celebration. That shouldn't matter tonight because I don't know if I'm going to make it to 11pm let alone midnight! Randall has offered that we could celebrate at 12pm tomorrow vs 12am. Who knows... what I do know is that this is one of my fave pics from last year:

Today.... Avery had a bit of a rough night. We woke up twice to her crying in her sleep, first around midnight and then around 4am. From there she slept until 7:15, getting close to the 12 hour mark. She was a snotty mess when I went in to get her. Thank God Randall hadn't made an attempt to because he would have lost it. She doesn't have a fever, she's just a little snot factory.... as many kids are, just not usually ours :) / :(

We spent some time reading her Busy Bug book when she first woke up....

We did a 2 nap day today to get her some extra zzzzzs. I managed to workout while she napped this morning, then we loaded up for a long trip to Walmart. She made it through with the help of some snacks and was really great for the duration. I had to keep wiping her nose, but she got lots of compliments on how cute and happy she was. It really was a good day overall. The only times she fussed was when I was trying to give her saline drops for her snot or trying to suction it out of her nose. And really I'm not sure if she fussed more about it or Randall ;)

Randall shut down work around 11, went out to the land to meet someone about hay stuff, and then this afternoon was all about family play time. Well, we tried to play, but Avery was occupied with her electronic devices ;)

Nevermind, by all the toys scattered around in that pic it's obvious there was A LOT of other types of play being done!

We are having quite the New Year's Eve.... we made tortilla pizzas for dinner, and Avery was down for bed by 7:40pm (it was that late due to her throwing up after her bath and bottle :( I think I got her too worked up in our last round of snot removal). We are watching football (as we've been doing all day!), and I'm not sure I'll make it to 11pm let alone midnight!

12/30/15 Recap

1 year ago today we were having Christmas with my family, and Avery was wearing her final Christmas outfit...

Very opposite of this year where we had done Christmas with everyone before December 25th!

Today was a l-a-z-y day for me.... I won't say "around here" because Randall worked hard all day (and is currently STILL working.... yes, he's supposed to be off with me this week). I slept in until 9:15 and zombied around. I did some work, did some blogs, folded a lot of laundry, watched some football, and basically tried to get over this stupid cold I've had for a few days now. I've had horrible chest congestion for a few days, and it all moved into my head today. Boo.... and apparently Miss Avery has something going on herself. She's kind of a miserable little thing this week. She has her worst diaper rash to-date, the runniest nose she's ever had, and I think 2 new teeth getting ready to come in.

Even with all that she was a sleep champ for her Aunt Jeni & crew - sleeping almost 12 hours last night and taking a 70 minute nap today. These were the updates I got this morning:

Good morning baby selfie :)

"Helping" make breakfast?

Waiting for her oatmeal to cool

Morning kisses for Dolly

 Still totally smitten with her Uncle Jason

 I definitely recognize this look!

 Won't let him out of her sight (maybe because he was grilling lunch?)

 These 2 were actually from yesterday but got skipped....

Someone requested banana with her dinner last night!

 Trying to be so tall

Back to today... once she got home, she resumed her normal busy day activities 

Apparently she felt she needed to help with the party clean-up ;)

 Happy happy happy

 She now so loves the sock monkey jack-in-the-box!

 In the latest thing she did to surprise me, she first took the tea cup from her kitchen set over to the refrigerator asking for water. Once I'd filled it for her (and she spilled 90% of it as she drank it), she got her bigger cup and repeated the exercise. Kid apparently knows where water comes from!

 She's also working on pushing her boundaries. She kept putting her hands in the dog water bowl, making me come over to tell her "NO" and move her away, she would lay down on the ground and cry about it.... then go do it all again.

12/29/15 Recap

Last year on 12/29, Randall and I had our first overnight trip away from Avery when we went to the Texas Bowl. I am really hoping to see an Aggie bowl win today, just from the comfort of my own home :)

Yesterday was all about getting the clutter from the house put away, cooking, and getting ready for the PDF Reunion. Every year when Paige is in town we talk about how we should have a reunion. This year, it actually came together via a small mention on facebook that everyone just kind of jumped on.

Avery had woken up before 7am (again), so we had some morning snuggles and baby selfies. She actually took this one:

 Randall was working but took an Avery break before she headed out. She was CRACKING UP as he flipped the dog toy in the air:

I went through my dance drawer and tried on some old outfits :)

 Paige came over early, not too long after Jeni took off with Avery (and not too long after I texted Jeni to remind her to send me pics ;)

 Avery was apparently hollering and waving to everyone on their trip to Kroger :)

 She always gets excited to be put in charge of the purchases

 Being silly at snack time

Randall and I both noticed different canine teeth spots that were bright red, so I think we might be seeing more teeth soon....

 Playing with trucks...

...all over the place...

 ...those floors like so nice :)

 Apparently Avery was super-excited to get to spend some time with her Uncle Jason

 Love this happy face :)

 Meanwhile, I had so much fun catching up with these girls...

Paige and I were talking pre-party about my concern that this was a bad idea. What were we going to talk about after not having seen these guys in almost 20 years?! I need not have worried. I think the last group left after 12:30! It was a lot of fun, and I think we'll make this a new end of year tradition. 

12/28/15 Recap

Apparently December 28ths are days I just don't have much to say about! I didn't post about it last year, so who knows what we were doing then ;)

Monday, I spent most of the day at a hair appointment. Jeni came over in the morning to help us get ready to host a party Tuesday night for my old Plano Dance Force crew. She got this selfie with Avery before I took Avery to my parents' house....

Avery was apparently very busy at my parents' house. When I got there to pick her up, she had all of her little projects laid around the family room....

Piling up all the shoes

 Dragging around the pillow pet

And this is why I need to be better at blogging on the day of the events - I totally don't remember Monday night!

12/27/15 Recap

Oh how I miss these happy wake-ups!

Today..... she woke up too early, so we decided to make it a 2-nap day to kind of reset things.

Church was great. She wailed when we first dropped her off, but by the time we picked her up she was super happy. There was another baby in there who was crying, and apparently Avery was not a fan of that. She knows that church is fun! The nursery worker told us she thought Avery was on a growth spurt because she really gobbled up breakfast.

She had second breakfast when we got home and went down fairly easily for her first nap. She slept over an hour! She drank twice her normal amount of milk when she woke up and then asked for even more.

Playing with her hair at 2nd breakfast ;)

She woke up super-happy and ready to play....

Where is Olaf's nose?

And the big smile when she finds it :)

 She spent a LONG time this afternoon taking her new silverware out of it's bucket and placing it in various spots around the kitchen, then putting it all back in the bucket. 

 I really enjoyed this game :)

 We were trying to take a selfie for Aunt Jeni but got frustrated and just FaceTimed instead :)

Early afternoon, I had given her a slice of cheese. Not long after I found her standing at the refrigerator with her hands on the handles. I asked her if she needed more. She immediately started banging her fists together to single "more." I got out another piece for her. She finished it, went back to stand in front of the fridge, looked up at me and started signing for more. I was pretty shocked and impressed :)

We eventually moved on from cheese and tried banana again. I cut her off a slice, and after she held on to it for awhile I ate it. This led to her feeding me slices of banana. Randall started videoing it because she was so funny with her wide open mouth. Then... things took a turn....

She fought her second nap for awhile, but she finally conked out and slept another 45 minutes. I'm so glad because Paige, J, Nolan and Peyton came over for dinner. It was a late night for her, but she had a GREAT time playing with them.... and we all had a great time catching up.... just exactly like we did 1 year ago!

12/26/15 Recap

I just can't get over how tiny she was 1 year ago :)

I am so tired.... I might need a vacation from my vacation! Every night I think about going to bed early and then... don't. Avery woke up around 7 this morning, and I was -once again- NOT ready to be waking up. We basically just hung around the house today. Randall got his top 2 to-do items checked off, and that was about all that was accomplished (other than football-watching, of course!). The weather was pretty crazy, and all my hard work raking leaves yesterday was undone by the tornado winds that tore through today!

Her 1 nap of the day was only 30 minutes. This afternoon was kind of difficult :( We put the comforter out hoping she'd snuggle in, but Dolly took a nap instead.

She ate like she had a hollow leg today! She was seriously snacking ALL day long. When she started begging Randall for cheese puffs, she had just finished an apple, cheese, veggie straws, and her own cheese puffs!

No one felt much like cooking (or eating pork tenderloin), so it was a pizza night. Avery had a chicken finger, veggies, about 2.5 slices worth of cheese/toppings, and then started munching on Randall's slice!

Dinner (and the end of the Duke game) was interrupted by a trip to the laundry room to wait out the first round of tornadoes. We just took Avery in there in her high chair, and she continued her feast. 

 After a few Dolly hugs....

 ...and smiles...

 ...and her bath, it was time to head back to the laundry room for the second round of tornadoes :( This one was pretty bad and not too far from us (4 dead in Garland, Rowlett hit pretty hard). Avery distributed water for everyone...

With all the excitement of hanging out with the dogs in the laundry room, bedtime was kind of challenging :( Here's hoping she gets a good night of sleep!