Tuesday, February 28, 2012

she wore an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny.

I saw an idea from another preemie mommy blog where she does flashback Fridays.  So I am going to borrow her idea, change it up a bit, and do taking it back Tuesdays. So here is our first taking it back moment. Remember this:

Well we decided to try it on again today to see if Avery will need to buy a new swimsuit for the summer season. I think it is safe to say she's out grown her hula outfit:


I think the only thing that hasn't changed is her big ol' belly and head :) Let's look at a side by side comparison.



Monday, February 27, 2012

road trip

This past weekend we took what I'm sure will be the first of many road trips to Montana to see my family.  Six weeks ago my sister had another baby-my niece Drew-who I was dying to meet. And my sisters were dying to get their hands on Avery finally.
We decided to break the trip up and leave Thursday night after Bill got off work. We drove half way to Missoula through a white out snow storm but made it safe and sound. Avery had her first stay in a hotel. I'm pretty sure she maybe touched one of the surfaces for mere seconds at most. She loved her first hotel stay so much that she partied until she passed out at 2 am.  Thank goodness grammy was more than happy to watch her while Bill and I got a nap in the next day.


The trip was wonderful. I haven't been home in almost 8 months. That is the longest I have ever gone without going back.  It was nice to spend time with my family, meet my niece, introduce Avery to her aunts, uncles and cousins and my grandma whom Avery gets her middle name from, and spend some time with my hubby. Our one year anniversary is this coming weekend so we celebrated early (since we had baby sitters) and went to a nice dinner and met up with friends for a drink.




Avery did great the whole trip.  She was so overwhelmed with everything that she spent all day Friday awake and then spent all day Saturday sleeping. She fit in great with the family and was all smiles and giggles at the dinner table.  



We also got a chance to stop by our friends' house on the way home for a feeding pit stop and Avery got to meet my dear friend Meagan, her hubby Sam and Avery's new, super adorable friend Ellie.  It was so fun.



Our trip home proved to be longer than we expected as we got stuck for 2.5 hours when we were about an hour out of Spokane due to an accident/poor roads. Avery was a trooper!


   We're glad to be home but sad we don't get to go over there every weekend. It is always so nice in the chaos of all the kids and my family, but I wouldn't have it any other way and I can't wait for the day that Avery is right up in the mix with the other kiddos.






Thursday, February 23, 2012

please confirm

Earlier this week I finally got around to ordering Avery's birth announcements/thank you cards. I'm not exactly known for being on time with my thank yous. Our 1 year wedding anniversary is a week away and I'm still not 100% sure that I finished sending out all the thank yous. I had good intentions to have them all sent out by the 6 month personal deadline, but then life happened. So if you are reading this and didn't get a thank you, THANK YOU! :)
So back to A's announcements. I ordered them online and today I get an email from the company saying something along the lines of digital proofs not normally being sent out for this type of order and they are 99.9% sure that I have all the information correct but they would like me to please double check her birth weight for accuracy.  I could see where their confusion would come in. The announcements have a picture of Avery now and her birth weight of 1lb 2 oz.  I appreciate them asking me before printing them just assuming that I didn't make some sort of mistake.
So hopefully soon we'll get our adorable, error proof cards and hopefully I will immediately address them and send them out. Otherwise as my luck would have it, we may just write her 1 year birthday party information on the back.

Monday, February 20, 2012

blue eyes

So I think Avery got my eye color. I know they say all babies' eyes are blue to start, but her's just keep getting bluer and bluer. What do you think?
Are they wide enough mom?

It also looks like I have red hair in this picture. Hmm. 

Friday, February 17, 2012

say cheese!

Last Monday Avery and I had the privilege of spending the morning with Andi from Andi Mae Photography as she was kind enough to come to our house and snap some photos of Avery. I wanted to have pictures of Avery taken for some time. Nothing fancy, just some photos better than what I can take, because let's face it the quantity of pictures I take is not the issue. And it was pretty clear she was already a pro. She loved the sound of the shutter and would just stare at the camera.
I tried to throw myself together, but lack of sleep and an early morning wake up...well its a good thing Avery is so cute.
So without further ado...
And if you like what you see be sure to check out andi mae photography: :andimaephotography.blogspot.com

(All photos by andi mae photography:: andimaephotography.blogspot.com)




















Wednesday, February 15, 2012

all hands on deck.

My daughter NEVER ceases to amaze me. Never. I'm sure this will seem silly, but today I put her on her boppy bed so I could finally get a restroom break and gave her a toy monkey to distract her that I wasn't actually in the room.  By giving it to her I mean I laid it next to her to look at. Well when I came back downstairs she was holding it in her hand! This is a huge accomplishment. It means she reached out and grabbed it herself and was holding on to it. A developmental milestone in the books.
You see while Avery is a healthy and happy baby it is still possible that because of her prematurity and severe IUGR (interuterine growth retardation) we could start to see signs of developmental delays at any point. So seeing her do things like reaching out and grabbing her toys is awesome. Proof of how awesome it is? I took like 20 pictures. I'll only share a few because I know not everyone would be as excited to look at 20 pictures of her holding her toy. :)






Tuesday, February 14, 2012

happy valentine's day.

I put together a little photo shoot so Avery and I could make her daddy a Valentine's Day card.  We just want to wish everyone a very loved filled Valentine's Day.



Angus thought i was setting up for his pictorial debut. I don't want to disappoint him so here are a few of his pics.
Camera shy
That's more like it.