Merry Christmas!!!

We have had such a fun time starting Christmas traditions with Avery, and wanted to share a few of the fun memories with all of you. Of course the best gift that Jon and I could have have asked for this year is our precious daughter. But Avery on the other hand loves gifts! And wrapping paper! And bows!

Daddy taught Avery to dribble a basketball on Christmas Eve...



Avery and her mini tree...




Taking ornaments off the tree...

who, me?

Trying to get into presents early...

Avery and mommy in front of the stockings...

Getting ready to go to church on Christmas Eve...

Daddy's little angel...

Trot waited patiently to open his stocking on Christmas morning...

Trot loves Santa...

Chloe was not so sure about her stocking...

Avery got a sweet cell phone in her stocking (maybe now she can stop grabbing her mom's cell phone and chewing on it all the time!)...

She's a little young for candy though...

More Nike's for Avery...

And while opening our stockings...we had a White Christmas for about 10 minutes!!! Hard to tell in the picture, but I swear, it's not rain!!

After stockings, we took a break and Avery had her first meal of solid foods!

It smelled and looked disgusting, but after an unsure first and second bite...she devoured the rest of the bowl of rice cereal! YUM!

Grandma Kathy would be so proud...

Yes, Pat the Bunny is more her speed...

This is about where she started getting overwhelmed by presents...

And we all needed a nap... Merry Christmas and we hope you all have as great a day as we're having! We miss you all!

Graduation

Avery had her first graduation today...she graduated from the New Mom's Group, which is a free weekly meeting set up through our hospital for moms of babies up to 6 months old. It has been a real lifesaver for me the past few months, especially when dealing with Avery's tummy issues early on and with all the emotions and worries of becoming a new mom. While it is sad to have to move on, I have made some good friends and Avery will have lots of little buddies to grow up with as several of us have started a weekly play group.

And no, Avery's head is not super big...the hat is just super small!!! Check out how well she sits on her own though!

Christmas Party

We had a little Christmas party last night with a few friends. Avery was dressed as Santa!

Avery has her 2 bottom teeth now...and teething is not as fun as you would think! She tries to put everything in her mouth - as seen in the next 2 pictures. Here she is trying to swipe a carrot from Bethany....
This one is for Uncle Al...
We also celebrated Sarah's birthday. Here she is holding Delaney - good practice as she is expecting a baby right around Avery's 1st birthday.

Seattle

We just got back from a last minute trip to Seattle for a day. Jon had some meetings in Seattle on Friday, so Avery and I tagged along for the trip. We went out on Avery's first boat ride - a cruise around lake Washington.

Avery on a boat...


The highlight of the tour - Bill Gates' house...



After our mommy/daughter cruise, we walked around downtown to look at Christmas lights...


While we were waiting for daddy in the hotel, we had another photo opp. Avery is not quite crawling, but within less than a minute, the pictures below were taken. She's definitely getting mobile...

We had to stop in at our favorite Indian Restaurant before leaving town today (this is really the reason that Avery and I decided to tag along to Seattle in the first place!). As we were leaving Avery got to see her first snow flakes!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great weekend! We spent Thanksgiving with some other Orphan friends (those of us without family in town), and had a great time and an excellent meal. It helped that an organic chef was one of the guests. Plus there were lots of kids running around, so it really felt like a family gathering. Then on Friday, Avery and I started our annual shopping tradition! We didn't make it out at 5am as planned...but we still got some good bargains! On Saturday, we went to Multnomah Falls again, with our friends Beau and Sarah (who are expecting their first baby in June 08!!!). And then today Jon got the Christmas lights up - we're really excited for Avery's first Christmas season!

And the biggest news of the weekend.....drumroll please.....Avery got her first tooth! Our little girl is growing up!!! Here are some pictures from the weekend:


We hope Avery doesn't model all her behavior on what Trot does....
Here is Avery all dressed up to go to Thanksgiving dinner at Sean and Mindy's. She's getting really heavy (about 16 lbs) which is why my shoulder looks like it's going to give out...
The Horne's at Multnomah Falls. We were all set to hike up to the top again, but the trails were closed down because the mist had iced over the bridge. It was so cold this weekend!
Avery's eyes...
After about 100 attempts at getting a shot of the new tooth, I had to give up...but believe me, it's in there! And it's SHARP!

Avery on film...

This one is for Grandma Kathy...

Yes, Avery is going to hate us one day for posting this, but we had to share this video of our future Olympic breastroker! She's got the kick down at least...

Avery though Trot was funny for about 10 seconds...

Grandpa Bob's visit

I can't believe it took me this long to post these (I've been fighting a cold for about 3 weeks now and haven't had much time on the computer). But I wanted to get these out here to show how happy Avery was to meet Grandpa Bob a couple weeks ago! It was a great visit. And the weather held up so we were able to spend some time outside before the rain set in for the winter - of course I forgot my camera on our outside adventures though...

Happy Halloween!!!!

Avery had a great first Halloween. Over the past week or so, she picked out her first pumpkin, made a jack-o-lantern, went to a costume party, and then did some trick or treating...

A pumpkin for Daddy, Mommy, Avery, Trot, and Chloe...

Avery was very interested in helping daddy carve the pumpkin...

Our little monkey...
Avery the Monkey and her little buddy Nathan the Banana...