Loving this Weather

We have been having a great time getting outside and enjoying this wonderful spring weather. We have done tons of things around Columbia, most of which have been outside. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Running around and playing at the MU Campus with some friends
Happy St. Patrick's Day

Coolest Girl in Town. Avery Lynn is ready for the baseball game

Watching a MU Baseball gameGoing for walksSwinging at the Neighborhood parkAvery Lynn swinging at the parkPictures at Stephens Lake Park

Avery Lynn's Baptism

We got Avery Lynn baptised last weekend at La Croix United Methodist Church, the church that Ricky and I were married in and where we had Caden baptised. It is also were both sets of our parents attend. Don't let the smiles in the pictures fool you. She screamed when the pastor took her out of my arms to baptise her. But I did expect this response, since she doesn't take too kindly to anyone taking her out of my arms. But thankfully she recovered quickly when he handed her back, especially when she saw him putting his hands in a bowl full of water. Either way it was a nice experience and we are glad that we finally made the time to get her baptised.

All smiles before the service

During the service (after he handed her back so I could hold her)

New Shutterfly Books - Yearbooks

Shutterfly is now doing Yearbooks for schools, or anyone who is interested. This is interesting to me, so I went to check out the product on their webpage. They have yearbook themes and ideas to build your page templates and then you upload the photos you would like. It makes sense to me and seems a lot like the photo books that they are so famous for. It seems to make sense for them to branch out to the yearbook field. They advertise that you can get yearbooks for as low as $5 per book, which seems like a very reasonable price. One thing that stood out to me is they say that you can reorder your book at any time. This would have been a nice option for my school yearbooks since our dog ate mine one day when she was a puppy. I did not work on our school yearbooks when I was in school but I can't image that you would find an easier way to put one together than by using a service such as Shutterfly. I haven't made a yearbook with them, but making photobooks with them is a snap, so I would anticipate yearbooks to be similar. So check them out and see what you think. Or follow them on facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/shutterfly· Twitter:https://twitter.com/#!/Shutterfly·
Pinterest:http://pinterest.com/shutterfly/

This is a post sponsored by Shutterfly, however, all opinions are my own. Check out their yearbooks and see what you think.

Sesame Street Live - Elmo Makes Music

We bought tickets for one of us to take Caden to see Sesame Street Live that was coming to Columbia. We decided it would be best if one of us stayed at home with Avery Lynn since her attention span wasn't going to last the hour and a half show. Ricky was nice enough to let me take Caden. Caden was very excited when we told him about the show and even more excited when we got there. We bought tickets with some friends of ours so Caden and their two boys all got to sit together. It was a good performance and was perfect for a three year old. Caden stood the whole time and loved it every minute.

Here he is in his seat before the show started....Very Excited.

All smiles, watching the show

Happy 1st Birthday

Avery Lynn had her first birthday on January 11th. I can't believe our baby girl is a year old. Crazy how times flies. We went for her 1 yr check-up today and she weighed in at 17lb 4oz (11th percentile). Length was 29.5 inches (50th percentile). Her head is still coming in at the 95th percentile (47.5 inches). All in all she is growing well and a happy little girl, except when they gave her shots and drew her blood. That wasn't fun. Anyway here is what Avery Lynn is up to these days...

• Speech: In addition to her saying Mama, Dada, Hi, & Bye-Bye that I reported at 9 months she also says Daddy, Uh-oh, More, Poo for poop, Na-Na for No, & Baba for Baby and book. Sometimes I think she says Bubba for Caden but I'm not certain on that one.
• Sleep: She sleeps about 11.5 hrs at night and naps morning and afternoon for about 1.5 hrs.
• Food: She will eat almost anything we eat (broken down into small enough pieces.) I've still been giving her some baby food, just to get some extra fruit & veggies in her. On her tray I have to give her veggies, then fruit, then a few minutes later give her the grains and meat or she won't eat any of the veggies & fruit. She loves her breads and meats. She drinks whole milk out of a cup with a straw. She has eight teeth now.
• Movement: She is crawling everywhere (finally on all fours and not just army crawling). She loves to stand and walk with help. She can walk around the couch and ottoman by herself while holding on. She doesn't like being confined, like in the exersaucer. Or when Caden blocks her path when she is trying to crawl somewhere (he does this on purpose most of the time.)
• Other Fun Facts: She is getting better at being away from Mommy, she even likes her time in the nursery at church now. She isn't very good at sharing with her brother. She screams when he comes over if she is playing with a toy. But in her defense he does take over the toy she is playing with quite frequently. She likes giving hugs and kisses to her baby dolls. Even though he picks on her now, she still adores Caden.

Here are some pictures of our cute little girl, mostly from her birthday party and her birthday.

Yummy birthday cake.

Eventually she had it all over her face (notice her eyebrow is pink)

Every good party has balloons

We survived the first year as a family of 4!

Avery Lynn crawling around on the morning of her birthday

Compare

1/11/2011 1:16pm

1/11/2012 1:16pm

It is crazy how much they change in one short year

A cupcake on her actual 1st birthdayShe was a pro this time and dug right inShe loved it!

My Christmas Crew

I attempted to make my kids sit down in front of the tree and take at least a few pictures each day that they had some Christmas clothes on. I figured if I did it enough times surely I would get at least a couple of pictures that were good. Here are a few that I think turned out pretty well. Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

You can tell from this picture that I was making silly faces to try to get them to smile. Caden tends to mimic what you are doing and it kinda defeats the purpose.

The Magic Tree & Santa

We visited the Magic Tree, which is a tree here in Columbia that is completely covered in Christmas lights. It is a fun holiday thing to visit and get a few pictures. Ricky brought our new camera and captured some cool shots. We also visited Santa at Bass Pro one night last week. We figured that Avery Lynn would cry when she was placed on Santa's lap (which she did) but I thought I had Caden convinced to sit on Santa's lap this year but at the last moment he decided he only wanted to stand next to him (which is what he also did last year). Nevertheless, we have a picture even if one kid is screaming and the other standing next to Santa. I'll take what I can get.

The Magic Tree

Avery Lynn, Santa, & Caden

Avery Lynn Laughing

This is from several weeks ago, but it will still make you smile.

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Halloween 2011

We had a good time celebrating Halloween. We had Halloween parties with playgroup and Caden's Little Ones Day Out and we also went trick-or-treating with friends on Halloween night. Caden dressed up as a cowboy, we called him Cowboy Caden. Avery Lynn was a horse. If you asked Caden what he was going to be for Halloween he would say "I'm going to be a cowboy and Avery Lynn is going to be my horse."

Getting in the spirit of the season.