9 1/2 Months 1st Christmas at Clark Griswolds

Merry Belated Christmas to everyone... just now getting all of our great Christmas memories shared. We had a fabulous Christmas with the Grandpa and Oma Clark, and Uncle Casey. Avery's favorite part was chasing around all three of the families dogs- Lady, Stella, and Jordan. She has definitely grown to love dogs from her experience. During the entire 5 hour flight both directions Avery was a champ and slept, played, and ate without a hitch. She even played along and posed for the camera a bit! She also enjoyed playing with G-pa and his glasses. Although there were many highlights attending the Gonzaga girls game and McCarthy Center for the first time was at the top of the list- she was not sure what she thought of the bulldog though as you can see. She was pretty excited about opening presents though and showed excitement with each gift! During this time Avery has decided... she did not want any more baby food and only wanted big girl table food, become quite the speedy crawler and can move faster than you can believe, and she is just starting to stand up on occasion.

8 1/2 Months- Thanksgiving with the Herrons & 1st Christmas Preparations

It has been an exciting last couple weeks for us. Avery has become an expert crawler in large thanks to Lulu (Grandpa and Grandma's dog). She spent the entire long weekend chasing Lulu around. We had a blast cutting down our Christmas tree for the third year here in Chicago. Avery loves to jump now... as you can see as she practiced her jumping with Daddy at the Christmas tree farm. She especially was a huge fan of the Christmas lights, but as in all her toys all she wanted to do was shake it and put them in her mouth. The good news is that she doesn't want to mess with the Christmas tree! Avery's new favorite thing is dancing now as seen with Mommy!

Avery's on the Move...

7 Months and Enjoying a Midwestern Fall!

We've had a great time with Avery now that she is so much more alert and active. Although, we've also learned a few powerful lessons already and she still isn't crawling. The biggest lesson was that we must have eyes on her at all times as she "sky dived", as Uncle Dave called it, off the kitchen counter into a belly flop onto the hardwood kitchen floor three feet below. Somehow she survived without a scrape from jumping out of the Bumbo. She has become quite a sitter and loves her car. We had a great trip to Battle Creek with the Herron Grandparents and family. The highlight... Avery is expecting her first cousin! Uncle Gregg and Aunt Nicole are due on May 23, 2010. She was absolutely enamored with the pumkin they brought to share the exciting news, so much so that none of us could get her to look at the camera! Congrats you guys! Then we all went to an Apple Orchard and toured the corn maze together and checked out all the happenings there. We even had a little competition at the corn maze, girls versus guys, but us girls got out smarted by the boys. Don't worry there will be a next time! Before it gets too cold we've been taking many trips to the neighborhood park with the swing. Avery likes to play with her neighbor buddy Abby. Lastly, we made our first trip to the Brookfield Zoo where we got to check out the goats and all the animals that were there with some of our friends from our play group.

6 Months- Holy Cow, she is getting to be soooo big!

Now that Avery is six months she has been a busy girl and as you can see is so much more exciting to photograph! She loves swinging at the park, so we try to fit that in several times every week between her Swim Lessons, Bounce and Tickle Me class at the Library, and her play group. We were able to get a picture of 12 of the 17 kids this last week with all the kids between 5-12 Months. She is also eating solids really well and loves all of her fruits, we're still working on the veggies and meats. Her favorite foods are bananas and applesauce though.

She had some fun visits from her Aunt Nicole and Uncle Gregg as well as Grandma and Grandpa Herron. As you can see she loves to smile now, which has earned her the nickname "Smiling Girl" from Dad. She is finally able to sit up on her own and loves to play naked. Somehow she now loves to play on her tummy, which is a shocking improvement from earlier. Avery is also learning her voice and has said her first word- "dadada" (I think Steve must have brainwashed her because after he babysat her one night she woke up doing it in the morning ;-) She also had her first tooth break through the surface this week. Unfortunately though she has her first ear infection and hasn't been feeling the greatest. She's a trooper though and she is still doing great and sleeping her normal 12-13 hours each night. She even goes to sleep on her own for her naps and night time, which is a huge step up.

1st Plane Trip to Spokane Washington

Avery's first basketball! She was so into playing with it at the Gonzaga Bookstore that "Oma" had to get it for her. As you can see it is now one of her favorite toys and she is already working on her ballhandling skills! What can we say she is going to be a natural "Baller"- it's in the genes!

Avery and Daddy swimming. She has already become a major Daddy's Girl and sure knows how to butter up Daddy with smiles and giggles.

Steve and I at our four year wedding anniversary dinner celebration. Wow... I can't believe it has been that long!

Avery's first boat ride and lifejacket experience. She wasn't a huge fan of the lifejacket, but she sure took some good naps in the boat!

Family Photo at Dave, Kerry, Blake, and Megan's lake cabin.

Avery and Grandpa hanging out at Elkins at Priest Lake! You can see she is loving every minute of being at the lake.

Avery playing peek a boo with Uncle Casey!

Avery was soooo interested in everyone else's drinks that she tried her first big kid cup and drank some water.

Four generations of family, G-pa, Grandma "Oma" Clark, Me, and Avery

Avery loves to swim already at five months. She really enjoyed her fancy floaty with shade at her grandparents.

Avery made her first trip up to visit her Grandparents up in Spokane Washington. She went swimming in her floaty, enjoyed Priest Lake, and met many relatives. Plus Steve and I enjoyed celebrating our four year anniversary while her grandparents babysat.