Avery's First Christmas

Avery had a wonderful first Christmas! She was surrounded by family and got LOTS of love and presents. Since she already got her two front teeth, Santa decided she had been a good girl and spoiled her. (by Santa I mean Grandparents and Aunties - they were very generous!) Thank you to everyone who helped make Avery's first Christmas one to remember. Here is Avery's Christmas summed up in pictures - warning: I trimmed out a ton of pictures but there are still a lot I had to share. Enjoy! We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well.

We took Avery to her first official SnowFlake Lane at BelSquare. (Since we live down the street she's been through quite a few of them in the car and shopping). Thank you for my very cute coat Aunty Kristen! Mommy dressed Avery up in these reindeer antlers far too many times. Surprisingly she didn't mind wearing them.

Daddy showed Avery the Christmas tree. For those who know me best, you're thinking "Don't touch the tree Avery, Mommy will lose it!" I was standing close by with a watchful eye. :)

We had lunch with the whole Greene family on Christmas Eve - that included 2 Aunts, 1 Uncle, 1 Grandma, 4 Greene boys (my cousins) and their 3 wives, and 7 kids under age 5! Add the Hunts to that mix and you have a crazy good time! Happy birthday Brett! I love you guys!

I got a little snuggle time with Greene baby # 6 - Tate. He's the same age distance from Avery that his Daddy and I are - 4 months. What a cutie! (Grandma & J.R. - I didn't get any other pictures, can you share yours?)

Then we headed to Nana & Opa's to spend the majority of Christmas weekend with them. Opa even finished off the guest room in the garage for us so we had a very warm & cozy place to sleep.

Here's the stinker elf again with the antlers.

Since "cousin" Dre has a reindeer outfit too, we tried to get a picture. The big bad chi-chi was scared of Avery and did not want to sit next to her. Avery's saying "sit down puppy!"

She thought the dog was very silly.

Avery got some cuddle time in with her Grote Oma (Great Grandma). Oma calls her "Albertineje" which means little Albertine in Dutch since she's named after her.

The Hermans kids with their babies on Christmas morning.

Avery opening her first present from Santa. She did a great job, and thought the wrapping paper was delicious!

Dre loved his new Starbucks shirt.

Avery thought Mommy's new necklace from Nana was tasty.

Cuddle time with Daddy. She was a little cranky with all the chaos and we think she's working on some more teeth.

Nana and Dre.

More antler pictures. How could I resist?! I bought this onsie for her last year - before she was born - it was a big short.

Opa let her check out Nana's tree. Shhh... don't tell Nana, she pulled a Santa off the tree!

The next morning we had breakfast and headed up North for the Hunt Christmas get-together which was at the Van Valey House in Everett. It's a historic house built in 1914. Very cool house. We had a great time and even Great Grandma got to spend some time with the babies.

Here's Grandpa playing with the kids.

Great Grandma and Nolan really liked Avery's shiny shoes. Nolan was trying to teach Avery the basics on crawling but she didn't want to learn.

Then we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's for a TON more presents. Thank you Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jess & Uncle Mike! We got burried by presents!

Avery got some cuddle time in with Grandma before we hit the road back home Sunday night.

Phew, that was a busy weekend but we are very fortunate to have such a wonderful family on both sides who we love spending time with.

5th Annual Christmas Cocktail Party

Andy and I started a tradition 5 years ago hosting a Christmas Cocktail Party at our place as a reason to get-together with friends (some who we only get to see 1-2 times a year) and as an excuse for us girls to buy a new dress! As the years go by, it gets harder and harder to round everyone up on a weekend in December that works, and as our friends get hitched and have babies it's even harder. So thank you to our very loyal core group of friends for always coming and showing us a great time! To my KM girls: I love you all, and though we drive each other crazy sometimes, we have the best times together and I wouldn't want to live without any of you! And though we've lost our Kristen to the fabulous city of San Diego, we're very lucky she doesn't have a fear of flying and we get to see her every couple of months!

We had a great time, and us old parents stayed up until 3AM. Even the little Stinker stayed up and partied most the night. (Not a good sign for her high school days!) Here are some of the pictures from our fun night.

The Hunt family.
My little party animal. She loves being social, can you tell?

Avery was a popular girl that night! All of her "Aunties" and "Uncles" gave her lots of attention!

The KM gang, my favorite girls! (Technically my sis is a KW girl, but she's family so we inducted her in).

Avery with Auntie Nan.

Avery has an obsession with phones. She thinks they're very interesting and very tasty!

My little sis. Love ya Krissy! The gang, boys included. Not a bad looking bunch, eh? :)

7 Months Old

Little Avery is 7 months old as of yesterday - she's now closer to 1 year old than a newborn. :(

She's so much fun, she really does have quite the personality, and is certainly living up to her Taurus sign! She's been very vocal, rotating between "Dadadada" and "Mum, Mamamama." Mum and Mama tend to come out when she's frustrated or in need of something. She's also discovered her scream, which she's not afraid of using if she's not getting the attention her heiness demands. The scream sometimes comes out in the form of a very high-pitched squeal. I feel sorry for our neighbor's dogs! She's gotten very good at the game of peek-a-boo, we can no longer trick her as to where we'll be peeking out from next, she catches on quick! Nana has taught her patty cake and she tries to mimick it with Nana, pretty cute! We've done some work with her on signing, but she's come up with a couple of her own: the "I'm mad pick me up this instant/feed me" stance and the "Please pick me up I can't take it" pose, illustrated below. Very funny.

Avery is growing right on track, but that means I've had to pack up all of her 3-6 month clothes. It's always very sad when I have to pack clothes that are too small. We moved her into size 3 diapers and she's slowly growing into them. In the last 2 weeks she has cut 2 teeth! "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth..." The second one finally appeared last night, so by Christmas she should have 2 full teeth on the bottom. She's gotten much better about sitting and playing in her gym by herself (thanks to training parents and grandparents that it's ok for her to not always be held). She loves to grab her toys and wail them around until they go flying. We've discovered the magic that is Sophie the Giraffe. Sophie was parted from us for 3 weeks (we accidentally left her the photographer's studio) and since we've gotten her back Avery grabs her constantly and gives her a good chew. Sophie is a must-have for teething babies!

This little girl brings us so much joy and makes us laugh constantly. She has shown us what true love is really all about. We love you Little Stink!

As usual, her are the pictures from her monthly photoshoot with Mommy.

Playing patty cake with Nana. It was the only way we could keep her hands down! This is a slightly moderate version of her "I'm mad" stance. When she's really mad she loses her neck and is stiff as a board. This is pretty much the "please pick me up" pose. In action, she does jazz hands with it.

She's also been playing "catch" with Daddy. Sometimes she even throws it back!

This one cracks me up, this is Crazy Baby. Crazy Baby generally appears right before melt-down or when the "I'm Mad" pose hasn't worked. She growls like a dinosaur and makes this funny face. Makes me laugh every time!

Apple Cup & Braden's Birthday

Last weekend was Apple Cup (a major event in the Hunt household) and since it was over in Pullman this year we had to watch it on TV instead of attending. We got to watch the game with the whole Hunt/Ruhl/Groth clan at Grandpa's fancy office in Carillon Point in his board room. After a very close game the Huskies pulled out a win - GO DAWGS!!!

Here's our little Husky. She loves watching football with Daddy.

We also celebrated cousin Braden's 5th birthday. I can't believe this little guy is 5 already. Happy Birthday Braden!

Nolan toasting to his brother's birthday.

We also got a Hunt family picture in at the Woodmark during halftime. We almost got everyone looking at the camera - not sure what the babies see over there?

After the game we went back to the Westin in downtown Bellevue where the whole gang was staying - just down the road from us. We went swimming - though the pool was pretty cold so Avery wasn't that excited about it. She did love splashing her feet in the hot tub though.