Baby Hunt Shower

I am so blessed to have such great best friends who are not only fun to be around, supportive and loyal, they also truly care about me and my little family. Since we are having baby girl #2 I didn't think a baby shower was totally necessary, but these 3 ladies not only insisted I have one, but put together a beautiful, fun shower for our baby girl. Thank you KK, Di, and Margie, you are the best Aunties ever!



The decor - all in lavender & sage - nursery colors.

Mom's Diaper cake. So beautiful!

KK joined us via Skype.

Thank you to all the ladies who came and celebrated baby girl #2 with us!  We love you.

Cara, Jen & Baby Grey

Auntie Boni & Mom

Jess, Sue, Cindy & Sarah

Avery & Baby Cole

Auntie Nan, Avery, Nana & Mom's friend Sarahjane

The 2 preggos: Di & Jenn

My girls: Tammy, Erin, Margie, Di, (& KK)

The Hermans ladies: Mom, Kristin, Avery & I and Oma

Grandma (& KK peaking in the corner) ;)

My Mommy & KK's Mommy - Stephanie

Thank you all for the beautiful shower & thoughtful gifts.  Now let's get this baby girl out!

Daddy

There is nothing I adore more than the sweet bond between Avery and her Daddy. Avery is still very much a Mommy's girl, but there's something special between the bond she and Andy have and it makes my heart melt. Sundays and Mondays Andy works later and doesn't get home until Avery's long asleep. But she always asks to wait for Daddy so she can give him kisses. As promised Daddy always kisses her goodnight upon arrival. Last night, out of instinct she reached up in her sleep and gave him a hug. This morning as I was heading to the gym, Avery woke up, asking to "night-night Daddy" and cuddled up right next to him in bed. Seeing the love they have for each other makes me fall for my husband all over again.

There's something very special about the Father-Daughter bond.  I hope both my girls are close to their Dad throughout their lives.  I still value the bond with my Dad.  Here's to great Dads and their Daughters.

"Trick-A-Treat!"



We had such a fun Halloween this year!  We started off the weekend before at Nannie's & Opie's house to show them our little peacock.  Avery wasn't a fan of the hat, but I got one picture of her with it after Opie modeled it first.  She practiced her "Trick-A-Treat" pose. 

We carved a pumpkin a few weeks before.  Mickey Mouse is one of Avery's favorites.  She wasn't into carving the pumpkin at all this year, she thought the pumpkin guts were "ew, yucky!"

On Halloween Nana picked Avery up from daycare and brought her to Starbucks so she could participate in the fun kids activities and trick-or-treating they do there.

And then we came home to get Daddy and hit one of the hot neighborhoods in downtown Bellevue for some real trick-or-treating.  We weren't sure how she'd do since it had been raining all day and she wasn't excited to put on her costume again.  (I had to let her paint my face to re-paint hers).  But she put on her costume and rain boots, the skies opened up for us, and we had a BLAST going house to house.  In fact, I didn't want to stop!  She had so much fun, it was so fun to see her go house to house, saying "trick-a-treat", hold out her bag, and then "thank you."  This was definitely my favorite Halloween.  This is what it's all about.

That night as I was getting Avery ready for bed, she gave me a huge hug and said "I had fun trick-a-treat Mommy."  So sweet.  Best Halloween ever!

Babies, Babies

This past week Maria and baby Joey (almost 1) came to visit!  It was our first time meeting Joey so we were very excited.  Avery was a HUGE fan of Joey and couldn't get enough of him.

We had a mini photo-shoot with them.

Joey is going to get a little sister the same day Avery is!  Although, from our belly pictures it looks like Avery might be getting 2 sisters...

Saturday night we went with Papa and Grandma to the Husky game. 

Sunday Nana and I got to go to Diana's beautiful baby shower at the Woodmark Hotel that her very sweet Mommy threw her.  And, Auntie Nan watched Avery so I didn't have a wild munchkin to chase after!

Check out Mom's latest diaper cake.  Beautiful!  She's getting good at these!

Averyisms- Age 2 going on 12

Avery cracks me up on a daily basis.  Because not everyone gets to see her daily antics and because she tends to hide the good stuff from "strangers" I thought I'd capture some of her recent behaviors that keep me laughing.  She is a crazy, dramatic, spirited, loving kid that I just can't get enough of!

Favorite quotes and antics:

"Rock Your Booty!" Her favorite song is Backstreet Boys "Everybody" (don't ask) and she asks to hear it all the time.  Now, when dancing, she always says "Rock Your Booty" and includes a sassy booty slap throughout.

"O-tay" Avery has trouble with her K's, so just like the Little Rascals she says o-tay.  I love it!

"Hurt Bad" so dramatic, every tiny cut, scratch, bump hurts bad!

"Mommy, I tooted!"  Nope, not just for boys, girls get a kick out of them too!

"Happy Birthday!" she grabs a pair of Mommy's heels and comes out shouting "Happy Birthday."  Who's birthday is it Avery?  "Mine!"

"Love you, this much?"  We ask her how much we love her.  Starts out arms stretched out wide, then she teases and scrunches her fingers together "this much?  NO!"

"Canny purse?"  I hate this one.  She's obsessed with candy and as such I keep a stash of tic-tacs in my purse, so when she spots the purse... "canny?  canny purse?"

"I helpa you" she loves to help Mommy out.

"Make-a up"  she likes to sit on the bathroom counter and dig through Mommy's make-up as I'm getting ready.  Puts some on her face then looks in the mirror and says "I pretty now!"

"I sisser!"  I hope she retains this excitement when baby sister arrives!

Grabs her purse, keys, Mommy's shoes and heads for the door.  "Bye Mommy!"  Where are you going Avery.  "Opie's house."  Never fails, always going to see Opie.

"Dad-dy" I love the cute way Avery says Daddy.  She has so much love for her Dad.  She also can't wait for Daddy to get home at night, saying "Daddy home soon?"  "Daddy work, make money."

Avery has an endless variety of faces.  Her classics are Chucky (which she now uses frequently when she's being defiant - "I don't wan to!"), Pirate Face "I Pirate", Clown...

"Juicy" she is still a HORRIBLE eater so we keep Pediasure on hand at all times.  She calls it juicy and asks for it throughout the day.

I could go on and on.  I need to be better about the video camera to capture her personality.  What she lacks in weight, she makes up for in personality!  (And hair!)  She is still very attached to Mommy but loves her Fridays alone with Daddy, they have a special bond and I love to see the 2 of them together.

Girls Weekend

This last weekend was Daddy's annual hunting trip with Papa.  Mommy doesn't like being alone, so we filled our days with family.  Thursday Nana picked Avery up from daycare and stayed the night with us.

 Meanwhile, Daddy and Papa were in Saskatchewan wreaking havoc on ducks and Canadian Geese.

Friday, I wrapped up work early and we headed to Grandma's house.  Aunt Jess, Braden & Nolan were there for the weekend too, so we got lots of play time in!  Avery loves playing with her cousins, and especially loved chasing Braden around and tackling him.

Saturday we hit the pumpkin patch in Arlington by Grandma's.  Of course we got the first rain in 80 days.  Avery didn't like the "dirty" pumpkins, she thought they were "yucky."  So she was happy when she got her "baby" pumpkin that she was rocking to sleep.

They had a kid-sized hay maze perfect for Avery & Nolan.  Braden got to do the big corn maze.

We hit the outlets with Grandma on the way home Sunday, dodging rain drops all the way.

Thanks for the fun weekend Sue & Jess!  We had a blast!

Here are a couple pictures from the weekend before.  The Graziers came over to celebrate Margie's birthday and Avery got to play with baby Cole.  We went to Nanie's & Opie's house and Avery got to eat icing off the cake and hang out with Oma. 

Out and About

Here's what we've been up to during the past month or so.

Avery being a wild child.  She LOVES going to the parks by us and has turned into quite the little monkey climbing and swinging on everything.

We got to go to Husky home game #2.  Aunt Jess & Uncle Mike were celebrating their anniversary in town so we got to see the game with them AND got to go play with them in downtown Bellevue while Auntie Di & Uncle Tony watched Avery.

Avery and I got to see my friend Jen's new baby, Grey.  Vail showed Avery how to be a good big sister, and the 2 girls tried to share and play together... 2 year olds still struggle with that.

 Avery had bonding time with Opie.

Avery made Mommy push around this ridiculously large shopping cart.  If you have to do a 3-point-turn in an aisle, your cart is too big!

We got to go to Husky home game #3.  Avery was relaxing in the special lounge area we found.

We've tried to spend some quality time with Oma.  Just like everyone who's ever met her, Avery thinks Oma is pretty special.