All About Avery

A few of my family members have been telling me I do not post often enough and they are missin' Avery!  This post is specifically for ya'll....  I've included some fun pictures from the past couple weeks that have made me laugh or realize how fast our little girl is growing up!

One of her favorite places to play... Mommy and Daddy's closet! (when she can sneak in there)

Avery surprisingly loves flaming hot cheetos just like mommy, and climbed up with the boys as soon as they opened the bag!!!  
This is Avery after church using the mirror to try to put a shirt on; I guess its her way of saying please get me out of my church clothes!!!  
Avery and her Ming, Ming (from the show Wonder Pets)  The last few days anytime we go anywhere she will look for her "Min, Min" before we leave! We can not go anywhere without it!
I was in the living room catching up on some reading and it was pretty quiet in her room.  I peered in there and had to grab the camera.  She is growing up so fast; she had climbed up into the chair with a book herself and was looking through it!  What a smart girl!
& My favorite.... She has developed a shoe fetish pretty early!  Watch out mom!  She also tries to put on daddy's shoes.  Any shoes not put away are as good as Avery's!!!

Confused...

When Avery was somewhere around 7 months her first babble was da-da. Then we'll fast forward a few months to when she finally got the hang of da-die, daddy, daddy. She is all about her daddy! (probably because many days I come home from school to find all the cushions off the couch and on the floor. Then, somewhere among their midst I will find Avery and "da-ddy" laughing and having a good time.) Well, about a month ago before we left for TX around Christmas, Avery started calling Daddy, "Yoey!" We definitely knew she was talking about Joey/Daddy cause she'd distinctly be wanting him when calling, "Yoey, Yoey." At first it was hilarious but I could tell Joey wanted to be called daddy, so the GA Uncles along with myself have tried to make an effort to call Joey, Daddy in front of her. I guess I wasn't trying hard enough, because today she started calling him...

"honey, honey!" Kids are so smart and pick up on the funniest things! Either that or she is very confused at this point....who is this guy my daddy, Yoey or honey?!?!
I had to include this picture too because lately before we leave to go somewhere Avery will go look in the mirror, touch her face or hair and say, "pretty, pretty." There is always something fun, new and exciting with kids and we LOVE IT!!!

NEW YEARS IN ORLANDO (it doesn't get better than this)

So last year for New Year's we went to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, and this year our Bulldogs didn't finish out the season the way most had expected but were invited to play Michigan St. in Orlando at the Capital One Bowl.  We decided to make this a tradition and were much more excited to go to Orlando.  We were fortunate to be able to go and leave Avery with such great babysitters!  She got to stay at her Aunt Jill's and play with her cousins!  It's nice to have her close; we alternate watching each other's kids so we can both rejuvenate our relationships with our spouses! :) We set off for Orlando on the morning of the 31st and made it to Orlando around 10pm after picking up one of Jason's friends from EFY in Savannah.  We were tired after a 8 hour drive, decided to get something to eat at this really great restaurant called Antonio's and spent New Years watching the ball drop with Ryan Seacrest and my fav Taylor Swift! I know we are lame...

The next morning we headed to downtown and went to cheer on the GEORGIA BULLDOGS!!!  The first half was not our finest hour but Stafford redeemed himself in the second half by completing 14 of 17 passes for 250 yards and 3 TD!  WE WON!!!  Sadly, Stafford and Moreno will be entering the NFL draft.  I think we'll still  be good next year though!

All the players came over to the student section after the awards show and Moreno was directing the band!
The next day we went to see the temple!  It is gorgeous!
The Best Part of the Trip:  Yes, this is Richard G. Scott himself!  We ran into him in the bookstore and I was so excited and asked him if he'd take a picture with us.  He replied, "yeah just make sure you just get our faces, I've gotten bigger over the years."  What are the chances.... it was AMAZING!!!
   Mini golfing at Pirate's Cove
              Game Faces on!!!  (yeah I lost)
Joey deeply concentrating on his stroke (not having a clue what was going on while I was taking the picture)... However, he made a hole in 1!
  Last of all, DISNEY                   MAGIC KINGDOM  This was so fun, acting like kids all over again.  Joey had never been before so it was fun to watch him "experience the magic"
            I liked to think that Joey and I were a prince and princess while we were here in front of our castle..... ( laugh, but you know you would too!)
The castle all lit at night!  It is breathtakingly beautiful!
Buzz has them both beat!
Buzz Lightyear was our favorite ride!  We rode it 4 times and I lost every time. The quality of this picture is bad b/c it is a picture of the screen; they charge $22 for one of these pictures.  Crazy huh?!
Donald Duck in the parade
  See I told you I wanted to be a Princess  and as for Joey...
  He'd rather be Goofy, and that's why I love him so much!!!
We had a great time but were excited to get back to our lil Avery Madison!  Our trip couldn't possibly have been better!  Football ( a win at that), Disney, and seeing an Apostle of the Lord, it doesn't get better than that!!

Christmas in TEXAS!!!

Warning:  written by an excited parent who had too much fun watching her baby experience Christmas!!!!

Joey and I have decided that this was definitely our FAVORITE CHRISTMAS!!!  Last year Avery was only 3 1/2 months old so she didn't have a clue what was going on, but this year was quite different.  She couldn't get enough chocolate, was completely amazed by all the pretty lights, loved Santa, was excited to tear into her presents and kept repeating ba-by, ba-by as we showed her the nativity.

Joey and I come from families with a few different traditions, so we have learned to compromise.  A few examples are that Joey grew up always having a real Christmas tree and we always had a fake one, but my mom would always coordinate it with a theme.  So, we got a real Christmas tree and decorated it with red, white and silver.  We would always open our gifts from each other on Christmas Eve and Santa would bring gifts on Christmas day.  Joey's family waited and opened everything on Christmas day, so we have decided to open one on Christmas Eve and save the rest for Christmas Day.

 

Avery must have been a good girl this year!

It was so fun to see the "magic of Christmas" in her eyes! She darted toward her pile as soon as she saw it...

               My little Princess in her Princess chair :)
          Grandma and Grandpa on Christmas Day!!! We sure love them!!
Ripping into more presents......
                     Yeah this dress will be pretty on me!

                                    Daddy and Avery
    She opened up her Fairy Princess ride-on and didn't even finish opening it before trying to ride on it! 
                        Renee and Avery Christmas Morning! 


                          Me and my honey and Min-Su

                   It was the day we were leaving and I realized I didn't have any pictures of us altogether and Avery was sick, dad was at work but I got one anyways :) We loved our time with family and miss them already!
                      Rose you were definitely missed!

A lil bit of December...

I just had to take this sweet picture!  All worn out but finished with finals; time for a siesta!!
We didn't have time to make ginger bread so we made graham cracker houses instead.  This graham cracker car was made by Joey's brother Jason.  I thought it looked pretty good!
We decided to have a contest, boys vs girls.  The girls graham cracker house maybe stood for a whole 2 minutes... but the guys built a pretty sturdy mansion!

We spent Christmas in TX this year so we went over to Marietta the weekend before we left and Avery was in for a treat.  The uncles like taking her with them to shop because she is what they call a "chick magnet."  I didn't think this time would be any different and agreed to let them take her with them to the mall and Joey and I would meet them there a lil later because I wanted to get her picture with Santa.  When we met up with them my lil Avery had been transformed!!!  She had her ears pierced and in a whole new outfit!!  It was adorable :)  They are too good to her and she loves them!
Uncle Karl and Avery in her new GA Bulldogs Stafford Jersey, new cap, & her cute lil ears pierced!
We stood in line for almost 2 hours to see Santa so I was trying to remain optimistic with her.  She was getting restless... but that was to be expected
Avery and Uncle Jason!  They just had too much fun!
Mommy and Daddy helping Avery on Santa's lap!  We thought she might be scared but she kept looking back at him timidly as she was sitting on his lap.  Once he smiled at her, she kept staring at him and saying, "Whoa, Whoa!"

She told him she wanted a puppy!  Maybe I'm crazy but it was worth the wait; we also got to witness a proposal while standing in line too!

It's the most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

Our decorated Christmas tree with our stockings!!!
We had mixed emotions about putting a tree up within her reach, but decided to go ahead and do it.  It was so fun; she loved helping decorate.  She would string the beads around her neck and run around the apartment.  I put all the ornaments that I didn't mind her taking off the tree at the bottom and the breakable ornaments at the top.  When we finished decorating it the first night she just stood in front of it staring and saying "Whoa, Whoa!!!"


Once Avery got a hold of the Candy Canes thats all she wanted!!

Daddy putting the lights on the tree!
Getting everything ready to decorate the Christmas tree!