A trip down memory lane...

I wanted to post pictures from Jeremy's phone that he's taken over the past few years.  He cleaned off his phone last week as he is expecting to get a new one soon and he didn't want to lose these memories.

Here's a trip down memory lane from daddy's view....

I tried to post chronologically...did the best I could.

Getting ready for Kensley's first trip to Florida.  She was about 7.5 months here.

She loved sitting in the suitcase!

Watching TV with daddy.  I think she was just over 9 months here.  And obviously mommy took this picture with daddy's camera.

Happy girl!

Vacation with the Roberts' family...10 months.

Testing out the chairs in Pottery Barn Kids.  10.5 months old.

Sitting in her new chair on her birthday.  I think I am going to have to do a comparison post soon...Avery makes this face often.

Sweet girl with her buddy.  Remember how much she loved that thing?!

Watching Mickey in the car.

Heading to the children's museum with daddy when mommy was out of town. (15 months old)

Pretty blurry, but a sweet pic of Kens wearing daddy's shoes.

Sweet Aves on her birth day

Avery heading home!

Kens driving Grampy's boat...this was also Avery's first boat ride at 4 days old!

Can you see the huge smile on Kensley's face?  She was loving playing with the football...as her and daddy packed up the garage in our old house.

Sweet girl...19 months old.

Not the best picture, but wanted to remember this time.  Mommy and Aves snoozing on the couch before bed.  Also this was when we were living with Nana and Papa. (Avery 2 months old).

Kensley's first day of school...almost 22 months old.

Preparing for her Minnie Mouse party...23 months old.

Not real sure on this one...days after her 2nd birthday.

Playing outside...Thanksgiving weekend.

Helping daddy take down Christmas lights...26 months old.

Daddy's girls (Aves 7.5 months, Kens 26.5 months)

 Next up, a comparison post of our girls...



Avery's Dedication...

We had our picture taken at church the morning of Avery's dedication.  They just sent it to us, so I wanted to post for the blog book.  Plus this is really the only picture we got of Aves on her dedication day.  Good thing it was a cute one of her!

Valentine's Day 2012...

Valentine's Day this year was pretty low key for us, but we enjoyed celebrating together as a family.  We started out the week with making Valentine's cookie bars on Sunday.  Kens loved helping out and even more so loved sampling the M&M's as we worked.  I kept hearing the rustling of the bag as she swiped M&M's...saying "just one more, mom."

On Monday, Grammy helped Kens make me a special lunch for Valentine's Day.  We ate together at her little table in her playroom.  She was so proud of the decorating she did.

My lunch date

Kensley had a Valentine's party in her class at school on Tuesday. Something about 2 year olds exchanging valentines seems a little ridiculous to me. She loved it though and couldn't wait to dig through her bag of goodies, showing me all her treats.

Here are some more pictures of our little Valentines.

Sweet girls decked out in pink.

Being silly

Sweet Avery with a wild head of hair.

Daddy brought home a rose for each of his girls (and 2 for me!).  Kens was thrilled about her flower and even asked to sleep with it.

Aves enjoying one of her Valentine's cards

We opened presents after baths. 
Thanks to our parents and grandparents who spoiled our little girls with gifts.

Showing daddy her new baby carrier.

 

Beboppin'

Avery has started doing this funny little head bob whenever we start to sing.  It's so funny to see her boppin along.  Here is a cute video of her doing it to daddy's "Old McDonald". 
Please disregard the whining in the background.  Kens was pouting in the other room.

Snuggle Snuggle...

Every night after bath time (and usually as we are trying to throw something together for dinner for Jeremy and I), Kensley says in her sweet little voice "I wanna snuggle snuggle with you."  This means she wants to snuggle on the couch and watch Mickey/Little Einsteins/Wonder Pets/etc. with us.  It's really sweet and of course I usually jump at the opportunity as I know the days of her wanting to snuggle with me are limited.

Here is a cute video of her saying it.



Avery: 8 Months Old...

Sweet Avery girl is 8 months old and growing up more by the day.  She is getting so funny with her facial expressions, noises and "talking".  She loves to hear her own voice as she happily screams, followed by a big smile as if she knows how funny she is.

Avery is still a great eater.  She is eating three meals a day of solid food and still nursing (or getting an occasional bottle when I am gone) 4 - 5 times a day.  We've introduced the sippy cup, but she really has no interest in it other than playing with it.  We've also tried puffs a few different times and she's not overly interested yet.  She has made vast improvements with spitting up.  She'll spit up a small amount a few times a day, but it is SO much better than it used to be.

Sleep wise, Avery is doing much better.  She is still going down between 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. and usually wakes anytime between 4:30 - 6:00 a.m. to eat.  Every day we put her paci back in to try to get her to go back to sleep without eating, but it never really works.  I always end up feeding her and she is typically fed and back down within 10 - 15 minutes.  We have a feeling this is the "norm" and will be this way until I am no longer nursing.  Aves is still taking 2 naps a day...morning around 9 am and afternoon around 1ish.  Every once in a while, she will squeeze in a catnap in late afternoon/early evening before dinner.

Size wise, Avery is about the same.  Wearing size 2 diapers during the day and size 3 at night.  She is in size 6 - 12 month and 9 month clothes, along with 9 month sleepers.

Aves is not on the move just yet, but she is trying awful hard.  She pivots all around with her hands when she is on her tummy.  She is scooting backyards by pushing with her hands.  When sitting up, she often looks like she is going to launch forward into a crawl.

Avery is getting into about anything we'll let her have.  She grabs for anything in her reach and often tries to dive off of our laps for things she can't reach.  Everything seems to make it's way to her mouth.  Kensley is getting more protective of her toys as Avery tries to grab for whatever Kens is playing with or eating.

Avery still loves bath time, reading/grabbing books, sitting and playing with her toys in her toy basket and most of all she loves attention...especially from her sister.  Avery flaps her arms, bounces up and down and makes little humming noises whenever she is excited.  It's pretty cute.  She's still our smiley, little girl .  And at this point, she will smile and go to about anyone that will hold her or give her attention.  We haven't seen too much stranger anxiety in her yet as we did with Kens at this age.

Avery also loves to be held.  She is our little snuggler.  One of my favorite times of the day with her is right before she goes to bed.  I feed her in her room and then put her on my shoulder to burp her.  She is usually so exhausted and just burries her little face in my neck as I rock and burp her.

And here is our monthly photo shoot.  Lots of pictures as I couldn't narrow it down.  This was by far the most difficult shoot as Avery was squirmy and kept rolling over in her chair.

And she's done!

Our little peanut is growing up so fast and we can't believe that we will have two on the move before long!  Happy 8 month birthday, Avery!

Lots of Randomness...

So I feel like we are pretty behind and have lots of catching up to do on the blog.  So here is what all has been happening over the past few weeks.  Warning, this is long and random.

Starting first with Elli's 2nd birthday party...

Elli's birthday party was a few weekends ago at my parent's house.  It was a Snow White themed party and fortunately Elli had an extra outfit for Kens to wear.

Not a great picture, but the best I could get.

Hugs for the birthday girl!

 After the party, we attempted to get both girls down for naps.  Kensley goes through phases (usually at least once a week) where she won't nap.  She'll just lay in her bed, talk and roll around.  This was one of those days.  Instead of laying down though she was playing in her room and jumping on the air mattress.  So with no nap for Kens and a short nap for Elli, we sent both girls out to play in the snow with Papa and the dads.  The rest of the evening was a little chaotic with two hyper, but tired girls.

The game Papa invented, run around the kitchen island and hit the party balloons...thanks, Papa.

Both girls ended up in old shirts that belonged to Ashley and I.  They look a little disheveled, but they're happy or wired.

This sweet girl just hung out and played among the chaos.

And this little guy wasn't short on smiles.

Two tired, clean girls watching Mickey before bed.

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Sickness was next up for us.  Fortunately there are no pictures for this (you can thank me later).  On Sunday morning (the weekend of Elli's party), Kensley threw up in her bed at Nana and Papa's house.  We thought it was spit up from coughing so much, but sure enough as soon as we got home she threw up again.  A few days later, Avery threw up and started running a fever.  The past few weeks we've been passing around the flu, fevers, head colds, etc.  We think we are on the upswing and hope to stay healthy for a while!

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Last weekend, we participated in the Parent/Baby Dedication at our church for Avery.  We stood on stage as Avery was introduced to the church and we made this promise:

"I promise to nurture my child in the Christian faith.  I will pray for my child, I will teach my child Biblical principles, I will talk to my child about Jesus, and I will be humble and ask for help when needed.  I have dedicated myself and my child to Jesus Christ."

Avery did great and we enjoyed a nice day celebrating with our families.  After the dedication at church, everyone came over to our house for lunch (Nana and Papa, Grammy and Grampy and Aunt Kym).  Unfortunately the only pictures we have from the day are the ones dad took during church (and one the church took of us before the service...we'll post it once we get it).  After church we were in a rush to get everyone changed, fed and down for naps that we didn't pause for pictures.  Sorry, Aves!

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Our latest bit of big news is that I have started a new job.  I will be working from home 3 days a week contracting for a planning company.  I actually started a few hours this past week and will jump right in with 5 days of training next week.  It will be a definite transition for us as the girls get used to me being at home, but not available on work days (Grammy will still watch the girls at our house).  This new job is a result of being laid off about a week ago by the company I was with for over 5 years.  They are laying off about 50% of the company due to change in business.  It was a shock and a rough couple of days, but we are looking forward to this new opportunity.

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And lastly, we are gearing up for the Super Bowl in Indianapolis!  Ok, really we're just taking advantage of all the fun things downtown Indy.  Grammy and Grampy watched the girls this past Tuesday afternoon/evening and we went downtown to check everything out.  The weather was great (50's)...so hard to believe it was the end of January!

Look up high...that's the zip line.

Angela Buchman from Channel 8 news.

And that is the past few weeks in a nutshell.  This week we have been enjoying the warmer weather with trips to the park, walks and playing outside.