26

This past Monday was my 26th birthday and it was such a fun day. Jonas took me, Avery, and Stoney for a 3 milk hike in our favorite park.

Love these two 

We tortured Stoney...

Then Jonas surprised me with these...

Then he went and got us take out from Buca Di Beppo and carrot cake from the one and only J Alexanders. We are celebrating my birthday tonight {babyless that is} at City House. It's a farm-to-table restaurant so it shoud be extra good! We love finding new restaurants around this city so im pumped to see if we like it.

Here's me and Avie on our birthday hike

It's amazing how much you love your own child. I mean i knew that motherhood was suppossed to be this unimaginable and sometimes crazy life change, but i had no idea until Avery was actually born how amazing it really is. Although motherhood can be hard sometimes, and the juggle of work vs. life vs. baby vs. friends can feel impossible to get right, Avery and her little chicken haired head, her wide open mouth smile, and her chuckle make me so moony every time.

I have had so many blessings in this past year and learned a lot of hard lessons too. Praise God for another year with my friends and family! God is good!

Happy Easter!

"You are stronger, you are stronger.

Sin is broken, you have saved me.

It is written: Christ is Risen!

 Jesus, you are Lord of all!"

"On Friday a theif, on Sunday a King."

Happy Monday everyone! Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday with family and friends. We had a great morning at church and celebrated with the Fridrichsen's and Rain's after. We had an egg hunt with the Ray/Collins fam last weekend which some of the pictures are from below.

Easter has become one of my favorite weekends. I know it probably should have been ever since i became a christian, but growing up i didn't quite grasp what Easter was really all about. Let's just say we were way more concerned on what we were wearing on Easter Sunday, what the Easter bunny got us in our baskets, and if i could get my grandma to get me out of my spanking i was told i was getting if i didnt straighten up for the million pictures we took with our cousins. So all that being said, we are going to have a different approach with Avery. Dont worry, she wont be the only child without an Easter basket, but we aren't going to do it necessarily on Easter Sunday. We want Avery to grow up knowing the meaning of Easter with the importance of Resurrection Sunday and the empty grave and what that means for her in her life.

 Hope everyone has a wonderful start to their week!

The things a gal will do for food...

Yep, that's right! We have a crawler! Avery started doing this on Tuesday {April 19th}. She didnt really understand why i was celebrating so much, i guess maybe because she has been rolling and getting around to things in her own way for awhile now, but we were so excited! And the main thing you can get this gal to crawl to is food, gerber cheetos to be exact.

Hope everyone has a blessed Easter weekend celebrating new life and our salvation!

Revive me

"Great are your mercies, O Lord;revive me according to your ordinances."

Month 8

{im kind of obsessed with this outfit, and she will have it on a lot in the next few weeks because its 12 months and she is about to outgrow it. eek}

Oh month 8, how i will miss you/never hope to see some of the things you did to us again. The past month has been more fun than bad but it did have a few low points for Miss A. We started it out with 2 ear infections and brochiolitis and ended it with one stopped up {constipated} little gal. However, in between all that we got 2 teeth and started learning to crawl, so we cant say it was all bad.

We had an awesome weekend in Birmingham with Aunty Ash and Brookie. B and A played together great, and im pretty sure Avery thought she had moved to Disney World with all the new and different toys, and lets now forget the huge new version of her Stoney dog. Avery loves Stoney so of course she was infatuated with Elle, Ash and Matt's Rhodesian ridgeback.

We loved getting to relax and play with family and we also got to celebrate Em Sparks' upcoming marriage which ill post pictures of in the next post. On our way home Avery had some bounts of screaming like crazy and crying because she is SO constipated. It really was the saddest thing ever but we went strait to the doc and got you some stool softener so now you seemed to have regulated. whew.

On to the reminiscing...

Avery, in your 8th month you have done the following.

• you roll everywhere, mostly crawl backwards
• you wear size 3 diapers
• you are fitting into mostly 9 month or 12 month clothes
• you have learned how to make a lot of new noises and so you squeal non stop
• you love making new faces, which mostly have you looking like some kind of chipmunk
• you got 2 teeth, and you love the new foods that have come along with that
• you love it when daddy comes home from work
• you love the "eye winker" game
• you got two ear infections and brochiolitis and your teeth all at the same time. you were a champ.
• you spent your first week away from mom and dad.
• you love your stuffed animals
• you laugh hysterically when daddy bites your tummy
• you talk ALOT
• you started giving what seemed like kisses...slobbery ones
• you have kinda gotten out of your "weird man phase" which was when you would cry and scream around men you didnt know. Uncle Cho liked it but we are personally glad its over. :)

 Like i said, you LOVE Stoney, and you like to chase him in this...

We love you always Avie, and are excited for your next month!

Roly Poly

So here we are at just about 8 months and we are rolling all over the place.

Aves is trying SO hard to crawl. She's got the arm part down, but basically just ends up going backwards, AWAY from the toy she wants so bad to get. That puts us here...

ticked.off

This snazzy little area is Avie's new play pen/mommy's sanity corner. We got the idea from Ash and Matt who geniusly put this together for Brooklyn when she started being mobile. Ash got us these gates super cheap at a consignment sale and we just bought two more sections to complete it.

As of right now Avery loves it and explores it all day going back and forth between her toys to the different gates {backwards that is}.

Also, new in Avery's world are her two front teeth! She got the second one while we were gone at the beach, and she has loved the different foods that her teeth have introduced her to.

In other news, our house is still on the market and a lot of people have come to see it in the past week, but no offers as of yet. Most frustrating part about this whole subject is that there really isnt a house we are interested in moving into right now. So who knows what will happen with that, we are mentally prepared to stay here as long as we need to i suppose.

Me, mom, and Avery are off to Birmingham this weekend to throw a shower to celebrate Emily Sparks who is getting married in a few months! And as a plus we get to see Brookie and Ash.

Hope everyone is having a blessed Wednesday!