Family hike...

We had a beautiful weekend here, and today we made it out to the beach for a hike. It was still a little chilly when we started out, but by the time we hiked to the beach, it was actually pretty warm in the sun. We even went in the water (feet only). Pretty nice for January! Avery did great, and hiked in herself for about the first 20 minutes. Here are some pictures from the trails and from the deserted beach that the trail led to....

1, 2, Buckle My Shoe....

Thank you Grandma Kathy for sending this book! Avery loves it! And thanks Grandma Connie for reading it to her when you were here. The first time we read it with Avery after her Grandma left, we were amazed at how much she remembered. This is the video of the 2nd time we read it with her....

Avery's funny clips...

Here are some video clips of the cute things Avery has been saying and doing over the past couple of weeks. I don't know what we're going to do now that Frosty and Santa have "gone back to the north pole". All we've heard about for the past few weeks has been "frosty snowmen santa snowman reindeer santa frosty.....". We tried to get Avery into New Years, and now we're working on a transition to a Valentines Day obsession...

Happy New Year!!

Avery's Grandma Connie and Grampa Bob came out to visit us the day after Christmas for our 4th annual "2nd Christmas in Portland". It was so great to see them, and Avery had so much fun tiring them out! It's only been about 6 weeks since we were back visiting my mom in Michigan, but she said Avery had already changed so much. She is talking a lot, and can actually have little conversations (mostly about the animals at the zoo, santa/frosty, or the potty).

Avery played Santa for us. She picked up each gift and handed it to someone. Sometimes she even got it right! Maybe she can read already too!?! :)



She also really figured out how to help unwrap gifts by this point...

This Abby doll was a big hit!

Avery even got to wear her fairy wings and magic wand, just like Abby!

Avery also loves to play with her doll house and put all the little people on the Potty!

When Avery is tired of playing with all those childish kids toys, she loves to sit down and make some spreadsheets on her new laptop....

Ok, she still likes to play with pots and pans and kitchen towels too...

And she always loves to read a good book....

It was a really relaxing visit, but we did manage to make it out a few times this week. Here's Avery in the tunnel at Gymboree...

We picked a dry (but cold) night to go see the lights at the zoo...

We also spent a day at the Children's Museum playing music, digging, and splashing around....

Grandma Connie bought Avery a pretty Christmas dress, and a matching one for her teddy bear. Too cute....

We hope you all have a happy new year!

Christmas night...

We are so lucky to have such great friends here in Portland who have become like family to us. Tonight we were able to make it to Christmas Dinner with the Conways.


Sarah and Beau gave Avery this adorable shirt. She loved it so much she had to put it on as soon as she unwrapped it, and she would not take it off to go to bed tonight!



After dinner Jon and Beau played a little Wii. Avery thought she was playing too, but was really holding the baby monitor...

Here are a bunch of cute pictures of Avery with little Rory who turned 6 months old today. We asked Avery to give Rory a kiss, and she didn't choose his cheek or his mouth for a kiss, but instead kissed his back - too cute...

One quick family picture by the Conway's tree...

Avery never passes up a chance to ride a dog. Here she is with Dempsey The Dog (and Dempsey The Reindeer)...

Christmas morning...

Merry Christmas!!! We had a great morning together! Jon made a great breakfast, and Avery had so much fun with the presents that Santa (and our friends and family) brought for her!

Here we all are in our Christmas PJs!


Here's Avery playing with some of her new things...

She would not take this shirt off!!!

This is actually a present for Chloe The Cat...

Once the presents were all gone from under the tree, Avery finally figured out where Chloe has been hiding for the past week or two...

I think we took this one last week, but I didn't want to leave Trot out of our Christmas post...