Recent Happenings

We have been busy!  We took an impromptu trip to Decatur where it's Greater to see our dear friends Charles and Cara, soon to be family of 3 when precious Ebe girl arrives!  Hosted a shower for them here in Birmingham (was supposed to be at our house, long story short, Aves was sick and Holly Beth offered to host at their place last minute) that was a lot of fun.  M has been busy with work, me with school/work/stay at home Mommying ;)

We are also getting super excited about our small group at church and the ways we see God using us here in our own community.  M and I truly feel called to serve not only through our church home but to expand upon that and reach out to those in our own neighborhoods, jobs, etc....  Our church has an incredible vision for the next 7 years, and we are so blessed to be able to be a small part of it.  We want to combat as our friend Blake termed it, "weak-sauce Christianity" and show people we are different because of Him.  Get excited people!  God's work is amazing!

We have started again on some minor house remodeling.  We are currently in the process of repainting our shutters.  Can finally get rid of whatever nasty color they were to begin with, something I thought was olive green, but M thought were brown.  Either way, needed to go!

School is going well.  I feel that I have about 90% less freak out moments than I did with my BSN.  I'm sure due to taking 1 less class a semester than I did then.... and who has time to stress about school when they have a 17 month old running around?

Avery is still the sweetest most hilarious baby girl.  She is always so happy and such a ball of personality.  We are so very blessed!

She kept wanting to walk around the yard with Charles.  

Avery is ready for her friend Elizabeth Blake to get here!

We cheered on the Tide to a victory over A&M.  When we ask Avery to say "Roll Tide" she says, "Ti!"

Sweet friends who are going to be incredible parents.  Thanks Blake for the photobomb :)

Fun Couple's Shower.  We missed M who was home with sick baby girl.

Birthday Celebrations

I officially hit my late twenties last week.... So there's that.  Thankfully I have a super sweet husband who spoiled me with breakfast in bed and a night out to one of Bham's best restaurants, Ocean.  Then this past weekend we went up to Nashville to celebrate mine and Ashley's birthdays that our 2 days apart.  My favorite thing to do for my birthday is to celebrate with my sister :)  All in all, great birthday week, wonderful company, and a little too much good food.

Peanut butter cheesecake :)  This was after the oysters, beef carpaccio, pan-seared grouper over Vermont white cheddar cheese grits, and some of the best scallops I have ever tasted.  Yum!

Thanks to Uncle Geoff and Aunt Mollie for watching our sweet girl!

Dinner at Sperry's

Such a busy girl, so many people to talk to.

Beautiful cake done by Juanita at Dulce Desserts in Nashville, the lady who did our wedding cake!

Weekend Getaway

As some may know, we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary this Friday.  Whoop whoop!  On top of that, Matthew took his boards a couple of weeks ago (thank goodness they are over!).  So, we felt that we were due a getaway for a little celebration.  Many thanks to my in-laws for driving down here to keep Avery for the weekend so we could head to the beach for a few days!  We are so appreciative!

The weather was not very cooperative, but it was just nice being able to go see a movie, eat dinner just the two of us, do a little shopping without weaving a stroller in and out of stores, and play a little putt-putt.  Great weekend with my love!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho... It's Back to School I Go

I have literally been putting this off for 3 years now, but I finally bit the bullet.  I am now enrolled in graduate school.  It has only been 4 days, and I think I might already be sick of it. :)  Coming soon to a clinic near you....

While going part-time allows me a little more flexibility to stay home with Aves and work a little, my couch currently looks like this, I already said that I was only 4 days in, right?

Who is excited about getting to do this for the next 2 years.  Not this girl :)

First Day of Mother's Day Out!

Avery started Mother's Day Out (MDO) at our church last week.  Due to the aforementioned sickness, she missed Monday and Wednesday, so her first day was actually Friday.  I ran into Jonathan dropping off the boys, and he asked me how Aves would do dropping off.  My response, "Oh she'll be great!  She does fine when we drop her off for her Sunday school, or when I go to the Y, etc..."

Well, excuse me while I remove the foot in my mouth.  As Jonathan comes back down the hall, he finds me standing outside Avery's room while my child can be heard screaming bloody murder.  So much for a smooth drop off ;)  It was actually partially funny.  Not to sound like a callous mom, because I for one am not.  But I figure, you have to see the hilarity in situations like this in order to prevent the sadness.  She actually clawed at the door frame trying to get back to me, backpacks, her teacher's shirt... whatever was available.  I called my mom as I was leaving and told her, "I almost wish I had it on video for later".  Now.. before you judge me and think that sounds awful, this is coming from the girl who cried when I had to leave her with my parents for a little more than 24 hours two weekends ago.  I have only been apart from this child for a total of 2 nights since she took her first breath.  So, while I was partially giggling at her on Friday, I did tell Matthew the night before I took her that I was very sad that our time at home was coming to an end.  I feel so incredibly blessed that I was able to stay home with her for the first 15 months of her life, and this just reminds me that she is not my little baby anymore.  But, I know that this experience is going to be great for her.  She is such a little social bug, and I know she is going to learn SO much.  We are taking it in stride!

That being said, she is only at MDO Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 to 1.  So, we are still rocking the Mommy and me routine the majority of the time :)  It is helping me work part-time, and will be essential after I start back to school next week.

After it was all said and done, one of her sweet teachers texted me within 45 minutes of drop off to tell me that she was doing great, and that she had only cried for like a minute.  Nothing beats coming back at 1 to see her sweet little face light up when I come to the door.  She immediately comes running, saying, "Mommy! Mommy!"  My sweet girl is getting so big!

Thanks Honey for my School House Smocked Outfit!

Going to school is tiring!  I was asleep within minutes of getting home!

Friday Night.  Sweet cousins.  School is all forgotten :)  Love how Aves just has to know what Sammy is doing.

15 Months!

Bringing back the bear pics... We're rocking the jammies today due to Aves being under the weather, bless her heart.

I feel like these last 3 months have FLOWN by.  We have been so busy here that I looked down at my phone at work the other day and realized that Avery was 15 months.  My baby girl isn't so much a baby anymore...  She is in such a fun stage, always talking, playing, messing up something, just always so busy.

Avery here are your stats at 15 months:

Weight: 21.11 pounds (25th Percentile)

Height: 31.25 inches (75th Percentile)

Sleep: You go to bed around 7:00 every night if we are home.  If it's a church night or we are out having dinner with friends you can make it to 8:00, if you have toys/friends to distract you :)  You sleep until about 7:00-7:30 every morning.

Likes: Story time at the Library, going to play in the nursery at the Y while Mommy gets in a quick workout (the first few times you were a little unsure, now I put you down and you are off without even looking back at me), getting into Mommy's kitchen cabinets, playing with Lexi, playing the snoring game with Daddy, watching Doc McStuffins. (M and I are not big on letting her watch too much TV, but the only one she has ever paid attention to was Doc McStuffins, so she is allowed the occasional treat... and she LOVES it), she also likes to grab my phone and say, "Noney, Noney".  She remembers that is how she sees her on Face Time.  Crazy how kids pick up on stuff.  When we went to the beach you could not get enough of the ocean.  You loved the waves coming up and splashing you.

Dislikes: You still don't like riding in your car seat, and you don't like sitting in a high chair while we are out at a restaurant for longer than about 15 min (usually you don't mind at home for some strange reason)

Favorite Toys: Your Mickey Mouse car, drum set, and anything that isn't really a toy ;)

Favorite Books: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?", "Goodnight Moon", "Peter Rabbit, Show Me Your Ears!"

Diaper Size: 4

Clothes Size: You can still wear some of your smocked 12 months, but you are mostly in 18 months in everything

Favorite Foods: Blueberries, avocado, green beans, homemade mac n cheese, cheese, and turkey

Words: Mommy, Daddy, Lexi (Dedi), Honey (Noney), Ashley (Ashdey), Mimi, Papa, Baby, Bear, Hi, Hey, Banana (Nana), Happy, Milk, No, Bye Bye, Uh Oh, Apple and just recently started saying Avery (sounds more like Abie)

Milestones:  You started walking at about 13 months.  Once you were taking steps you were basically running. You finally got teeth!  You went from barely having 1 coming in on your birthday to now having 8, with two coming in (you even have molars). You went from knowing 4 words to about 19 since you turned 1. It's amazing to see how much you are learning, even on a daily basis.1

Personality:  You are still as sweet as you can be.  Now when you rock to sleep you put your little hand behind your back so that you can hold onto Mommy's hand while you are falling asleep.  Makes Mommy's heart melt.  You LOVE your Daddy, and your face lights up when he gets home in the evenings.  You are a busy little bee, always going from one thing to the next.  You have gotten so great at playing independently most days, which helps Mommy get stuff done around the house.  You have quite a bit of sass, and have had your share of mini tantrums.  Usually you work it out on your own, but it's actually quite hilarious to see you flail your arms around and kick your legs on the carpet.

Little Nug, you are simply the biggest blessing.  You have such a beautiful gap-toothed smile and the most contagious little laugh.  We love you so very much!

Some of the last 3 months in pictures:

Giving her bear kisses

Our girl LOVES to eat

Story time at the library

Still the sweetest thing in the world, rocking my baby to sleep

These two girlies always into something!

Holding Mommy's hand while being rocked at nap-time

Learning how to use a spoon.  And yes, she is in a swim suit, this was right before swim lessons last week.

LOVES her some Mac N Cheese

Loves her Daddy!

Happy Wednesday all!

Happy 30th Birthday M!

Turning 30 never looked so fun!

I have been planning a birthday surprise for Matthew's 30th for MONTHS!  Literally months. Our good friend Adam and I have been sharing top secret texts over this particular event since May. When I got to thinking about what I wanted to do for the big 3-0, I considered a myriad of options: surprise trip, surprise party, just an awesome big gift, etc... But if you really know my husband, there is little more that he loves to do other than spending time with our little family than hanging with his life-long friends.  You see, my husband and I are a lot a like in numerous ways, but when it comes to the extrovert scale, he blows me out of the water.  M becomes energized from being around people, and he loves entertaining.

So, I decided there would be nothing better for M's birthday than to have his best friends from Nashville come down and surprise him for the weekend!  I had been telling M all week that on Friday night I wanted to host a nice dinner for his birthday and that Jonathan and Kristen, Benjamin and Morgan, and Geoff and Mollie were coming.  It gave me a good reason to keep him motivated to finish up a few house projects that I wanted to have done before we hosted 6 extra people for a night :)  Long story short, it was a CRAZY week.  I had a schedule listed out day by day of everything I needed to get done each day so I could have everything done in time.  This plan was quickly derailed by a few issues last week: painters didn't finish when they were supposed to, they left a stain on our brand new installed carpet, said carpet got flooded from water coming out of our fireplace, den had to be put back together from previous painters lateness, we lost water pressure in the kitchen, our air conditioning needed to be fixed, and we had a power surge and we lost a cable box and a TV.... My earlier prayer in the beginning of the week for patience was definitely being tested!  Long story short, I scurried around all day Friday making last minute preparations, cleaning, cooking, etc... and finished it all just about in time :)

Friday night around 7:45, Adam and Katie Beth, Steve and Jill, and Blake and Julie arrived and surprised (even though he was suspecting it) M for his birthday!  Geoff and Mollie were also here for dinner and we had a GREAT evening together celebrating Matthew.  It was seriously a blast.  I don't think I have laughed that much in a long time.  For dinner we had stuffed pork tenderloin, firecracker shrimp, rosemary rolls, gourmet mac n cheese, and a red grape salad with raspberry vinaigrette.  And M's favorite, carrot cake for dessert.  Fun night, great company, I'm so very thankful to our friends for coming down and making it happen.

Even though M might not have been entirely surprised by their visit, I at least had 1 trick up my sleeve.  I had secured a tee time at a Robert Trent Jones golf course the next morning for the guys... already paid in full (thanks to my parents and M's parents for chipping in for Matthew's present to make this happen). The girls spent the day going to brunch and a little light shopping, then followed by a late lunch with the boys, and our friends left to go back home.

It was a fantastic birthday weekend for my sweet husband.  Thank you to our awesome friends for taking time out of their busy schedules to travel to the Magic City!  Only downside to the weekend was that Aves came down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus when she got home.  We spent all day Sunday (M's actual birthday) caring for our sick baby.  We are still on the mend.  Fever this morning :(  

Anyway, Happy Birthday M!  I love you so very much!  Cannot believe this is the 7th birthday of yours we have celebrated together.  I hope that this one was the best one yet!

The only picture I took of the whole weekend was of Blake singing/screaming Happy Birthday to M :)  Whoops.  Can't believe I didn't even get a picture of the 2 of us.