Happy Valentine's Day

Avery will be nine months on February 1st. She is standing by herself playing with toys in both hands. She is still learning how to balance well. She has taken two steps and fallen. It is exciting and also a bit scary...she will be on the loose. Here are a few recent pics. We are hoping and praying the helmet will come off in the next month or so. We go this coming week for a follow-up.

Walking with Daddy

 

  

So my windows look really dirty...Avery loves to bang on them.  

 

The dog crate is one of her favorite places to hang out.

Here it is...

Ok, it is official...we can finally share.  Thank you to all of you and your wonderful prayers because Josh was offered a job at Marathon Oil here in Houston!!!  We are so excited.  He will be a Land Analyst and all of his education and skills over the last two years on the road will definitely pay off.  It is all worth it.  It is crazy to think that next week he will have been on the road for two years.  It has definitely had it ups and downs.  He has worked for fantastic people and learned so very much, but the downside was definitely being away from me and Avery.  We sure missed him, and I know he hated leaving Avery each week and missing all of the fun.  He will begin the job on February 15th.  God has been so faithful to hear our prayers, and we thank each of you for keeping us in your daily prayers. 

On a completely different note, Josh and I have decided to get in shape together!!!  We started this week the Couch to 5K program.  My dear friend, Bonnie, has encouraged me to run so here it goes.  Over the next nine weeks, we will run/walk three days a week.  I am actually very excited about it.  I have completed one day and Josh has completed two.  We promise to keep you updated with our progress because we need you all to hold us accountable.  At the end of the nine weeks, we should be running consistently a 5K (3 miles).  We pray for nothing to get in our way of our goal! 

Happy Days

It is just another great day at our home. We have been enjoying the nice weather, and I am about to take Avery on a walk outside. We haven't been able to do that in many months (or it feels like). All is going great here. My brother-in-law is getting married in a few weeks so we are having lots of parties and showers leading up to the big day. More pics later. Avery had a helmet check-up, and she is looking very good. We haven't heard an official timeline of when she might have it off, but I am hoping we are getting close. Next week she will have been in the helmet for four months. It is so hard to believe time has flown by this fast. I almost don't recognize her without it on. She is a very busy, mischievous girl. She is definitely on the brink of walking. She has taken a few steps, but it is more at fault and on the way to the fall. She loves any toy that she can push around.

We have some exciting news to share soon....No, it is not a baby! Keep checking back here!!

Avery's new favorite thing to do is pull up on the subwoofer and play with the Wii balance board. She has learned to pull off the board's feet.

Master Clapper

I forgot to mention how Avery began clapping yesterday! I guess she knew she would have some exciting things to clap about. I haven't video-ed it yet, but here is a sequence of pictures. Enjoy!

Oh Happy Day!!

What an AWESOME day!!!   Yesterday, we received an email saying the Insurance is going to APPROVE Avery's helmet.  It took a 150 page appeal letter that took me months to pull together.  I can't tell you how many times I re-read the email to see if I was reading it right.  God has been so faithful, and we thank each of you for the many prayers.  Avery is still wearing the helmet, and it has definitely made a huge impact on her head and face. I will post before and after pictures someday soon.  I have learned several very valuable things from this experience 1) Never back down when your insurance company tells you NO.  It took two appeals and finally my company had to approve it.  2) It never hurts to send a copy to your senators and state reps.  (Reminder to myself to send them a letter of the outcome).  3) Have faith that God will provide for all of our needs. 

Here's to the New Year!

Happy New Year!  I hope this finds each of you well and that you all had a wonderful Christmas.   We had a great holiday season.  Avery's first Christmas was so much fun.  Despite the fact that Avery didn't notice the tree too much, she loved banging on all of the packages.  It has been quite a while since I have posted so we have a lot of pictures to share.  We pray that 2010 brings you all many more blessings this year.

 

We had a snow day on December 4, 2009.  Though we did not get that much at home, we took Avery outside to feel the snow.  It was precious.

Avery holding her first Christmas ball one Sunday after church.  It was a cold day so she was bundled in this precious outfit from one of my friend's at work.

"Do you want my ball?"

The week before Christmas we celebrated with my family in Galveston.  We had a ball.  Carson and Avery are starting to play more and more with each other.  It is so cute to watch.

Avery was getting a little excited and Carson has this look on his face like "What is wrong with her?"

We bundled the kids up and took them to the Festival of Lights.  It was really cool and will be fun to take the kiddos back when they get older.  This MomZ and Pops (my parents) with their grandchildren.

Avery was all bundled up, and then I put my scarf around her too.  It was really cold.

My sister, Kristin and her husband, Andrew with Carson.  Carson kept making animal noises every time we saw an animal that he knew the sound it made.  

The next morning we took Avery for some shelling.  We had her all bundled up because of the wind.

Look at our little sheller!  She loves her sunglasses. 

This is a bad picture, but Josh had Avery a special present that I didn't know about.  He wanted her to open them on Christmas Eve morning.  He got her John Deere pink boots for the Rodeo.  They were precious and such a sweet gift from her Daddy.

My sweet husband got me a new Nikon DSLR camera for Christmas.  This was my first photo that I took of our dog, Hagen.  She is a good subject.

We celebrated with Josh's family on Christmas Eve.  We went to the Candlelight service at our church, Sugar Creek Baptist.  After the service, we went into the atrium to take a few pics by the pretty tree.  Avery with her grandparents, Grandma and Papa.

 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Avery loves to crawl under everything now.   She found her tongue on Christmas Eve and most every picture her tongue is hanging out of her mouth.

 

Daddy helping Avery open a gift from Grandma and Papa.  She loves that toy.

Jason, Josh's brother, and his fiance, Chrissy.  They are getting married in less than a month.  We are so excited!

"I got new Ugg(like) boots for Christmas."

 

Having a serious conversation with Aunt Chrissy.

"Uncle Jason and Aunt Chrissy gave me morocco's.  I love them so much!" (Helmet is back on...we took it off so all her pictures were not in a helmet)

Christmas morning at home.  She was so blessed from her grandparents and aunts and uncles, we didn't need to get her anything.  But, we got her a chair and a few goodies.  She loves her new chair and crawls all over it.

"See my tongue."

Happy Girl!

Avery's best friend.  Thank goodness we have a dog that doesn't mind a little one crawling all over her and taking her toys.

"Sitting in my new chair."

Of all the new toys Avery got for Christmas, she still would rather have Hagen's toys.

Uncle Jason stopped by, and we were talking in the living room.  We looked up and Avery had crawled into our bedroom and was in the dog crate.  She is definitely a mischievous little girl.  

Christmas Day our whole family minus the cat.

My sister loaned me this jumper that was Carson's.  Avery LOVES it!

 

New Year's Eve...Avery was helping us wash dishes.

Well, Josh and the animals didn't make it midnight.

Happy 2010!  All of our little children together.  This rarely happens.

Finally our first project of 2010.  We transformed our front bedroom into a playroom.  We rarely have overnight visitors since fortunately our families live here.  If only I can talk Josh into removing his deer horns, then it would be perfect. :)

Hagen thinks we made the room for her.