Birthday week...

We had a great week celebrating our big 1 year old!  It just doesn't seem possible that our baby is a year old.  I think it's so strange that we can now say we have a 2 year old and a 1 year old.

Tuesday we celebrated Avery's birthday together as a family.  I finished working a little early and took the girls to the park in the late afternoon.  Jeremy came home a little early as well so we were able to have dinner and cupcakes together.  Kens helped me bake and decorate cupcakes for Avery's birthday and she was so excited to eat them.  We let Avery dig into her own cupcake, but she wasn't as interested as I thought she'd be (for how much she loves food).  After bath time, we opened presents and just played together until bedtime.

The sweet birthday girl!

She desperately wanted to touch the candle.

Testing out her cake

Presents!

Checking out her new pool toy

We just had a family party for Avery's birthday this past weekend.  It was a fun day and we're so grateful to those that made the trip to be here.  The Lindvall family came down on Friday with my mom and we had a fun and eventful couple of days with the four kiddos.

Avery was feeding Connor Cheerios...it was so sweet!  She got a little ornery though when she wouldn't share her snack with him!

The girls took a bike ride with Uncle Scott before the party.

Birthday party time!

Not thrilled about getting her picture taken.

How cute is she?!

Unfortunately the best picture of the girls together.  I was hoping for more pics as their outfits were darling and coordinated!

She was so excited to push her new stroller!

Checking out the goodies in her new purse.

Checking out her picture from Great Grandma and Grandpa Zurcher.  Avery and Great Grandma Zurcher share a birthday.  Avery turned 1 and Grandma turned 88!

Avery's smash cake.  It matched the birthday cake.

Again, loving the candle.

Such a sweet picture...she was a little shy when everyone was singing to her.

I guess she approved of the cake.

 

Do we look exhausted?!  I think we were all partied out!

Avery walking...

Avery has had quite the big week!  In addition to turning 1, she is also learning to walk!  It seems crazy to me that she just took her first independent step last Sunday afternoon and now she is taking multiple steps in a row and is attempting to walk all over the house.  Here's a quick video of her walking.

Avery's Slideshow...

As we did with Kensley, we did a slideshow of Avery's first year.  We showed the video at her party this past weekend and wanted to post on here as well.  Just a warning that it's a little long.

Happy 1st Birthday, Avery Leigh!

Avery: 12 Months Old...

Happy 1st Birthday, Avery Leigh!

It just doesn't seem possible that you are a year old!  I remember the night/early morning you were born like it was yesterday.  You were such a little peanut, but feisty from the get go. 

You are so funny and have so much personality already.  You know how to tease us and know when you're being funny.  You are a spunky little thing and know exactly what you want.  I'm nervous for the day when you actually talk as you already tell us exactly how you feel.  You do the funniest thing when you are frustrated, you clench your fist and teeth (or in your case gums), squint your eyes and make quite the noise as you throw your little fit.  You are "talking" like crazy and seem to have so much to say.  You are trying to repeat things and every once in a while we decipher a similar sound.  You do say "dada" and "mama" and try to say sissy, but it comes out more like "sisss".

You are stubborn and very determined.  You constantly go after "no no's" and no matter how many times we pick you up or redirect you, you always head back for whatever you were going after.  You LOVE to stand!  You do this all day long and are getting really good at standing independently for longer periods of time.   You are also walking behind your push toy or holding our hands and walking.  You took your first independent step on Sunday afternoon during your 1 year pictures and spent all day on your birthday trying to take steps.  You are so determined and we know it won't be long before you are walking!

You still love your big sister and love to be where ever she is.  You especially love to play with whatever she is playing with (which she doesn't necessarily love).  You are starting to "fight" back and tend to pitch a little fit whenever Kensley takes something that you wanted.  You also seem to have an opinion when you want left alone as you will push Kensley away when she tries to hug you or start fussing when she gets too close.
 

You still LOVE to eat!  Seriously, we say this all the time but you love to eat.  You out eat your sister at every meal.  You constantly want to eat whatever we're having, regardless of the fact you just ate (a rather large meal).  You seem to be filling out more and more, but everyone constantly comments on how they can't believe how much you eat for how small you are.  You are still nursing about 3 times a day.  I have no idea how much longer we'll go, but we're already starting to implement whole milk into your diet (you aren't a huge fan of it yet!).

Size wise you are kind of all over the board.  You are still wearing 6 - 12 month clothes, 12 month pj's and you've worn the occasional 12 - 18 month outfit.  You are still in size 3 diapers and I have a feeling you will be for a while.

You are still a mama's girl for the most part, but you tend to want daddy in the evenings when he gets home.  It's funny to see the girls on the weekend as they are often both attached to daddy with him home.  You've started to show a few signs of stranger anxiety and nervousness in new situations.  It typically just takes you a bit to warm up to people, but then you are full of smiles.

You give the best hugs.  It's so sweet as you'll often wrap your arms around our neck when we pick you up and cling on tight as you bounce up and down in our arms....usually while saying "mm-mm-mmm-mmm".  When we ask for a hug, you sweetly lay your head down on our shoulders or chest.  It's so cute!

Right now, you have 1 lone tooth sticking up (bottom left).  You bottom right tooth just popped through.  I can see your top right tooth coming in, so you seem to be getting them all at the same time!

You have a few nicknames and seem to respond to them all: Aves, Peanut, Nutty and Peanutty.  It's so cute to hear big sis refer to you as "the Peanut".  You seem to have changed so much in the past few weeks.  You are really starting to get independent.  You seem to catch onto new things every day and it's so fun to watch you discover and figure out new toys or how things work.

 Happy 1st Birthday, Avery Leigh!  You are growing up way too quickly!  We love you, sweet girl!

Lately...

I have lots of pictures to post from the past few weeks.  Here's a run down of what all we've been up to (sorry, it's a long one!).

A couple of weeks ago, Nana and Papa came down during the week to head to the zoo with us.  We had a good time and I was so thankful for the extra hands.  The girls are in somewhat of a "needy" stage right now so it's always nice to have some extra help on fun outings.

Waiting for the train

Train ride!

Checking out the animals!

Playing with Nana

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The girls and I made a somewhat impromptu trip to Spencer Farms to pick strawberries.  Overall it was a success and a fun memory, but we might wait until next year to do something like this again.  It was a really hot morning and I quickly lost my "help" as Kensley got bored and starting eating the strawberries as I picked.  I looked over at one point and saw all these strawberries with one bite out of them.  Avery was antsy and was into everything.  Let's just say, we were all exhausted by the time we left.

Cleaning sissy's hands

Ha!  This was right before we left and such a great picture of every one's current state.

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Avery got an early birthday present from Grammy and Grampy.  A new bike trailer!  We've been trying it out the past few weeks and the girls seem to enjoy their new ride!

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We had a nice Memorial Day weekend together as a family.  Our neighborhood pool opened that weekend and we spent a lot of time there, along with a visit from Nana and Papa, a boat ride, and a trip to the Carnival.

So excited about the pool!

This little one did not sit still for long.  She was everywhere!

She loved swimming with daddy!

Waiting patiently for sissy to ride the carousel.

Picking out her horsey.

She had so much fun!  I wish we had a picture of her face when it was over....pretty much disbelief.

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This past weekend, we had a wedding up in my hometown.  A family friend of ours was getting married so my whole family was able to attend (kids and all!).  It was definitely an event with the four kiddos, but the older girls had a blast.  We were out way past the girls bedtime, but everyone did surprisingly well.

Nana got the girls adorable matching dresses.

Nana trying to keep this one occupied.

These two are so funny.  They look like they're sharing a sweet moment...really Kensley wanted a hug and Elli was pushing her away.

She was having the time of her life!

I'm pretty sure bribery was involved in getting this picture.

And this little guy, just hung out quietly at the table.

Resting on Papa

Dancing with the "Princess".  The girls hijacked the bride during the dollar dance.

The girls were obsessed with Brooke.  She was so sweet with them...dancing with them several times and indulging them in hugs.  Kens told us on the way home that she had fun "dancing with her favorite friend, the Princess."

Dancing with her daddy.

Pouting because she wanted to dance with Papa.

Such a sweet picture...she was thrilled.  This girl was all over the dance floor.  We practically had to tear her away to go home.

A rare picture of the two of us...actually dancing.

My little dancing queen

This sweet girl finally had enough...she cashed out on Nana.

 It was such a fun night!  Congrats Brooke and Josh!