Christmas with family and friends

We had a great time visiting home for Christmas! It was a special time with Avery celebrating her first Christmas- so many fun moments and laughs. Of course we dressed her up as much as possible (I'm sure she'll appreciate the moments we've captured when she's older!). We were so blessed to be able to see both sides of Christie's family, as well as Guy's parents and sister's family. There were also special visits with friends. There's never enough time, but we were grateful for the time we had. Avery continues to grow and thrive each day- it's hard to believe she'll be 8 months on January 3rd! We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy new Year!

Videos from Christmas visit

We just returned from a wonderful week-long visit down to southern california to see family and friends for Christmas. We are fortunate to have so much extended family living so close together- we were able to visit both sides of Christie's family, as well as Guy's sister's family and his parents. Avery had a great time meeting some family for the first time and seeing others again so soon after Thanksgiving. We took tons of pictures and a few video clips so I'll post the video first and make another entry with some pictures. This first video is on our drive back home this past Sunday. We do a ton of driving on these trips and Avery is a champ! I was sitting in the back with her and discovered a new noise she loves. it completely cracks her up! She was belly laughing and then making me laugh- too cute!

Nana Judy's December visit

This past weekend my mom came to visit and help me with Avery while Guy was out of town at Young Life camp. It was a great weekend- we had a fantastic time and mom was a huge help in so many ways. She helped me finish decorating our Christmas tree and our house- she has that interior decorator's eye. We filled our days with little projects around the house and just had fun catching up. The best was mom watching Avery while I got a little more sleep- such a luxury! Mom and Avery had a lot of laughs together- they found a new corner of the living room to set up as a play area and avery giggled every morning. She helped mom fold laundry- see how helpful she was in picture attached. We even walked our neighborhood at night to see the neighbor's hard work with decorating. The weakness of our weekend was the giant tub of Nestle Tollhouse cookie batter that Guy and I had gotten at Costco. with the rainy, wintery weather it seemed perfect to make a dozen cookies each day and eat almost all of them! Holy cow- oh well, I kept telling mom she was on vacation. Overall a great weekend. here are some fun shots!

Avery's First visit with Santa!

It's been a fun first Christmas season with Avery. We've had a great time sharing all of our traditions with her from putting the lights on the house to putting up a tree and decorating the house. I always thought it would be fun to find our first Christmas tree as a family and a friend recently told me about a tree farm up in Petaluma. Last weekend Guy and I headed up there with Avery, stopping for lunch at our friend Chris cheney's restaurant along the way. It was a great, cold wintery day and we all bundled up for our outing. I had been told that this Christmas tree farm "Little Hills" was great because there's a Christmas shop, you can visit with Santa, see farm animals and cut down your own tree- how fun! I had high hopes to get a great family Christmas picture so we dressed Avery in a red, velvet outfit and took the camera. We did have a great time at Little Hills Tree Farm, but we underestimated how long Avery could stay excited about this outing. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get our normally-very-smiley darling daughter to smile for a family shot. We started with her first visit to Santa. Mommy was definitely more excited about this than Avery. I put her on not-very-jolly Santa's lap and she took a long look at this strange looking man and then proceeded to stick her hand straight into his fake beard. Her hand got tangled up so I crawled on the stage and tried to get her hand out while trying to get the best picture of her I could. Check out her reaction to Santa here. We did love Little Hills- the property is gorgeous and it's fun to saw down your own tree. after numerous attempts to get nice strangers to take our picture and help make Avery laugh we headed for the animal farm and the rest of the property. It was definitely a fun afternoon and we'll be going back next year, but we'll time it right and hopefully get a great family photo.

Thanksgiving with the Valenzonas

We had a great time at the Valenzonas for Thanksgiving this year. It was lots of crazy fun with 15 family staying at the house, 7 kids under the age of 8 and incredible food for days! Avery had such a good time getting to know her cousins and being held by everyone who had a free hand. Thanks to Patsy and Gilbert for hosting and cooking and cleaning for so many. We had a great time!

Family time with Avery

Avery's dedication day was very special for us. We had the opportunity to dedicate her to the Lord as well as share her with most of our extended family. Avery loved meeting so many of her cousins, aunts, uncles and great cousins/aunts/uncles! She was a trooper with smiles and giggles for all. Here are some fun pictures with family

Avery's Orange County Dedication

It's been awhile since we've updated and alot has happened! We had a great week away for Thanksgiving, visiting Orange County for Avery's dedication with family and then back to Lompoc with Guy's family. Avery was a champ with all the driving and meeting so many new people! We had a great time seeing so many special people and celebrating Avery's life together. There are lots of great pictures from her dedication and I wish we could post them all, but there is only room for a few. I'll do a few posts to get in more pictures. Avery's dedication was on Sunday, November 22nd at the chapel at St. Andrew's. Our dear friend from Young Life, Twiggs Reed, led the dedication and we shared the time with 25 dear family and friends. It was a wonderful celebration with our sisters reading scripture picked out for Avery, our parents reading blessings they had written for her and a time of group prayer over her life. The dedication was followed by a gathering at Christie's parent's house where we enjoyed food, drinks and laughter with Avery. One of the highlights from the day is that Avery wore two family christening outfits- one from each side of Christie's parent's families- handed down over generations. Here are a few pictures from that special day.

Yum, Yum Squash!

We've had a great week feeding rice cereal to Avery every morning. She loves eating it, especially since mommy's making it thicker now and it has some substance. Avery's learning how to take the spoon in her mouth and swallow- different from nursing or a bottle! It's fun to see her develop all of these important milestones. We've been advised to introduce one new food each week, to watch for allergies, so today we added squash (veggies before fruit!) after the rice cereal. I was waiting for Avery to have a weird face or reaction, but our little eater just loved it! She kept leaning toward the bowl and opening her mouth wide. yeah! check out this video I took of daddy feeding avery her first veggies...

Adventures with Rice Cereal!

With Avery turning 6 months old, the doctor has encouraged us to start trying solid food with her. The first stage is the rice cereal for 5 days and then introducing green veggies (yum, right?) and then fruits. It's an exciting time, but also a whole new learning curve for Guy and I. Trying to figure out the best foods for her is my next adventure and I'm even looking into making some baby food for her (in all my spare time :-)) They say it's pretty simple so I'm up for the challenge. Thanks to my sister for giving me a great baby cookbook to get me started! I'm sure I'll be blogging soon about how that turns out. So we started with rice cereal this past weekend and Avery seems to like it alot- yeah! It's pretty milky to start so we'll make it thicker as we go. Our girl seems up for any new adventure, which is great! Check out this video guy took as I fed her this morning. She's also sitting in her new BeBe Pod chair which helps her learn to sit up. Let the messes begin...

I'm Six Months Old!!

We simply can't believe Avery has turned 6 months old! The time is flying by with her. Last Tuesday, November 3rd, we got to celebrate Avery's half year mark by heading to the pediatrician for the 6 month check-up. Avery does well at her appointments- she's growing like a weed (26 inches) and doubled her birth weight (14.3 lbs). She seems amazingly strong (loves standing with some help) and her legs NEVER stop moving- it's quite incredible! We got some cute shots this week- she's smiling and laughing more regularly now. She's got a fun personality!

Belly Laughs with Nana Patsy

When Guy's parents visited us last weekend, one of the highlights was how Nana Patsy made Avery laugh. She would play games with her, make great faces and say all kinds of fun things. Avery loved it and got to practice her newest development- the belly laugh. It makes us crack up just to hear her do it. We got a short video clip of Nana telling Avery "We're going to call Auntie Melanie!" She got Avery going pretty good. At the same time, we think Avery's started teething so she's always holding onto a cold gummy toy from the fridge. Have fun watching this clip...

Young Life pre-Halloween party

Last night we had a pre-halloween party with our Young Life kids and Avery got to dress up in her very first Halloween costume! We love our little pumpkin! We were going to wait until tonight to take pics of her but she was just too cute and the YL kids couldn't get enough of her. This outfit was a hand-me-down from someone and we're so grateful to be able to use it. We actually put it on her 3 weeks ago when my mom was visiting (so she wouldn't miss a thing!) and it fit fine. Today the bottom snaps don't close :-) Our girl is definitely growing!

My daddy went shopping and all I got was....

This AWESOME hat!! How cute am I? It turns out that daddy has really good taste in baby clothes. He always picks the cutest outfits for Avery and recently he saw this hat (with matching gloves) and brought it home. We both cracked up when we put it on her, so adorable. Now every day Guy says to me- "is it cold enough outside for the hat??" Too bad it's been in the mid-70's still here :-) I swear he'd have her wearing it with shorts if he could! It will be cold soon enough and you'll be seeing more pictures of the hat...

Avery's first visit to the Pumpkin Patch!

We've had Guy's parents in town this weekend and it's been a lot of fun. Avery loves bonding with her Nana and Papa Valenzona- she's been all smiles and coos. Saturday was a big adventure as we headed out to a pumpkin patch near our house. I think we all were more excited for the outing- Avery was probably wondering what all the fuss was about as we busted out our camera and videos. Nana and Papa found some great pumpkins to add to our front doorstep and Christie and Nana had fun acting like kids in the pumpkin patch! Check out our Pumpkin fun...

Avery's first dedication

Last Sunday we had an opportunity to have Avery dedicated in front of our community of friends at the church in San Francisco where Guy and I met and had attended for many years. It was a special time with friends coming together who have been part of our lives for the many years we were both in the City- friends from church, work, triathlon, and even some SF and Marin Young Life kids. Making the time even more special was that dear friends, Tom and Jen Kindle, happened to be in town and were able to be at the dedication. Jen, Tom and I were in Bible study together for 4 years and Tom introduced both Jen and I to Young life. Jen blessed us by reading from Psalm 139- words we hope will become an encouragement to Avery as she grows. We are also excited to be heading home in the days before Thanksgiving to have another special dedication for Avery before all of our extended family. Our baby girl is so special to us- double dedication!

Hurley baby...

As Avery continues to grow like a weed, we're trying to keep up with getting her in all the cute outfits we've been given. The other day we put on the adorable Hurley Baby outfit she got from my cousin Melissa. Avery seemed to get into character a bit- check out that face!! Kind of a "what's up with you?" look. Ha! Then she just put her head down and gave me that sweet look. Too cute! The other outfit we put on is a darling long-sleeve with matching hat, covered in roses. She loves that too! As you can see, Avery still loves her tummy time, but seems to get bored easily on her tummy and now wants to crawl. She is starting to scoot her tummy and bottom around, trying to figure out how to get moving. Guy and I are cherishing every moment we have before she's really mobile :-) It won't be long now...

I'm Five Months Old!!

It's hard for us to believe that Avery is 5 months old already! Actually, by the time mommy got around to posting on the blog, she's now 5.5 months. Where has the time gone? Avery has her month birthdays on the 3rd of every month so my mom was in town for the October 3rd 5 month milestone and we had fun dressing her up for the photo shoot. Many people know I'm not a huge bow person but my mom encouraged me to put it on her with a matching outfit and I do think it's pretty adorable. Avery was a good sport letting us take her pic in all kinds of places. She's FULL of personality, growing more alert and excited each day. We love her laughs and giggles and can't wait to see what will happen next. Happy 5 month birthday, Avery Grace!

Nana's Recent Visit

My mom came to town last Thursday for her monthly visit to help with Avery and left today. It was another great week spending time with her and having her amazing help with Avery. She is a proud Nana and did a great job watching Avery while I had work meetings, Young life club and put on our fall fundraiser. Nana definitely has the hang of things around the house- she knows all of Avery's favorite toys and what now makes her laugh. It's funny how we'll do all sorts of weird things to make Avery giggle. My mom and I were making funny faces all week long. The weather has gotten cooler here at night and our house stays cold in the mornings so my mom found some great hats for Avery to wear to keep her warm. We couldn't resist taking some pictures. Here are some pictures from Nana and Avery's week together!