Six Months Old!!

Today is Avery's half-birthday...she's 6 months old!! Again, I can't believe how fast it's going by-her real birthday will be here before we know it!

Avery is now rolling all over the place-front to back and back to front. She loves playing and chewing on her feet. Everything goes into her mouth these days-she loves to chew on things! She hasn't mastered sitting up yet-she folds in half when you sit her up.

We started her on cereal about 10days ago. She wasn't too fond of it the first time, but now she loves it! She gets so excited that she attacks the spoon when it comes toward her! She goes to the doctor in a few days so we'll see what he says about trying other new foods.

Avery is still obsessed with Jerri the cat-she laughs and gets excited whenever Jerri enters the room. She doesn't take her eyes off of her and likes to pet (and grab) her. Jerri is very tolerant of her...so far! We'll see how that changes when Avery is more mobile.

Avery started napping in her crib about 10 days ago and is doing very well with it. I couldn't get her to nap for me at all before so this is a huge step for us! Now she's napping twice a day in her crib which is great. She still wakes up twice overnight to eat-I'm hoping she'll eliminate one of those feedings soon. Other than that, all is going great!!

Here are her new pics-as soon as I put the giraffe next to her, she had to attack it!







I had to get some with the Santa hat since it was so close to the holidays!

Baby's First Christmas!

Christmas was very special for us this year since it was Avery's first Christmas. To be honest, I haven't looked forward to Christmas this much in a very long time. I know she's too young to understand what's going on and to really enjoy everything, but I still looked forward to it a lot this year. It gives you a different perspective to see a holiday through the eyes of a 6 month old.

Of course today was another bustling day. My cousins came over to my Mom's house at 10am for brunch. My one cousin was in from Tennessee and we haven't seen them in a few years. He came over along with his 2 daughters, Jessica and Jodi-they brought their significant others and their kids as well. It was quite a house full once again!
Madyson and Cayden opening gifts:

Madyson:

Grandma and Avery:

Avery opening a gift-she got a kick out of the wrapping paper. She would hang onto it real tight and we would pull the gift to unwrap it. Of course she wanted to eat the paper!

A new teether!

Let's try it out!

My Uncle Joe and Aunt Marion also stopped over to bring Avery a gift:


A new jacket and hat!

Avery really enjoyed my cousin Paul (in from TN):


After everyone left, we did gifts with my Mom....

A new doll:

We got a lot of nice things! Avery got a lot of practical things (cups, spoons, plates, clothes, etc) which was nice-I was expecting toy overload, but it wasn't too bad. Mom got us some nice things-clothes, slippers, entertainment book, a digital picture frame.

We left Buffalo around 4:45 and on the way home we stopped at Gabe's parents' house to say hello. We stayed about an hour and by that time it was past Avery's bedtime already so we came home and put her to sleep.

Once Avery was in bed, Gabe and I exchanged gifts. He got me a Starbucks gift card, a mascara sampler from Sephora and a beautiful piece of "Mommy jewelry". I'll have to take a picture of it to post-I love it!

We still have to celebrate Christmas with Gabe's side of the family-that will take place on New Years Day so we still have a celebration to look forward to.
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a wonderful one!

Christmas Eve

Let the chaos that is Christmas begin!!

We started today by leaving our house pretty early-by 11am. For us, that's pretty good! We headed to Buffalo to start the whirlwind that is normal for this time of year.

Our first stop, the Polino's house! My friend Katie currently lives in MD and only makes it back to Buffalo twice a year. The last time she was here was when Avery was born and I saw her for maybe an hour when she came to the hospital to visit us. She was staying at her parents' house so we stopped over there to visit. It was great seeing all of them and of course her parents put out a spread of food for us (gotta love those Italians!). We also got to see Katie's son, Roman, for awhile. The last time we saw him was at our wedding a year and a half ago-and he was only 3months old at the time! So it was a visit that just had to be done while they were in town!
Here is Katie with Roman and Avery:


Both of us with the kids:

Roman opening his gifts:


Avery checking out the horsie:

After our visit there, we were off to my Mom's for a few hours. Megan, Todd and Noah stopped over for a visit so we could exchange gifts.

Then is was off to my cousin Rachel's house for our annual Christmas Eve get together. My Mom's cousins from Florida came in and we haven't seen them in about 5 years so that was a treat! They had quite a house full as always and it was a lot of fun. Avery did really well with all of the new faces and everything-she was such a good girl!!
Here she is showing off her Christmas dress:

Cousin Taylor opening her gift:

Cousin Eddie opening his gift:

Family photo:

Opening some of Avery's gifts:

My little Christmas angel:


After Rachel's, we went back to my Mom's, got Avery to sleep (which took awhile), then just relaxed and went to bed. Had to gear up for another full day to follow!

No Bake Cookies

I frequent a chatboard and someone posted this recipe so I decided to try it for the holidays. I know I've had these before, but can't remember where. They are super easy (no baking!) and very good!

No Bake Cookies
1 stick butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk (I used skim)
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup peanut butter (I used creamy)
1 tbsp vanilla
3 cups quick oats

Put first 4 ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil about 1min then remove from heat. Add vanilla and peanut butter and stir until smooth. Gradually add oats and stir until combined. Drop by tablespoon full onto waxed paper (I didn't have any so I used foil) and let cool one hour. Enjoy!

Brownie Candy Cups

This Christmas I decided to do some baking. I wanted to make my usual cut out cookies since they are my favorite, and I also wanted to try a few new recipes as well.

I found this recipe over at Heather Drive and I had to try it! Why I didn't ever think of this myself is beyond me!

Brownie Candy Cups
- 1 box brownie mix
- eggs, water, and vegetable oil (in the amounts listed on your brownie package)
- 25-30 mini Reeses cups, frozen, then unwrapped
- 1 Box Reynolds 2-inch aluminum foil mini cups for muffins (I used the paper liners)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place approximately 30 foil liners on baking sheet.

2. Combine brownie mix, eggs, water and oil. Stir with spoon until well blended. (about 50 strokes)

3. Fill each liner with 1-2 tablespoons of batter. You want them to be about 3/4 of the way full.

4. Push a peanut butter cup into the center of each "brownie cupcake."

5. Bake for 15 minutes and remove from oven.

6. Cool 5-10 minutes in pan and then move to cooling rack to cool completely.

Ok a few things-I totally missed the fact that it said to use the mini liners so I used full sized ones-and only got 15 cookies instead of the 30 or so it says it makes. So I put 2 peanut butter cups in each one! I used paper liners instead of the foil ones and they did just fine, although a few of them didn't hold their shape very well so next time I might just put them in a cupcake pan instead of on a cookie sheet. I did freeze the peanut butter cups but found them to be way harder to unwrap. The foil came off easily, but the paper liners were all stuck to them. So next time I might not freeze them. My baking time was longer since I made monster sized ones-I think I baked them about 22 min and they came out just fine.

These are very good! I'll be making them again for sure!

Since it's Christmas time, I made them a little festive with some red frosting on them:

Christmas with Grandpa!

Yesterday, my Dad and Colleen came out to do our Christmas celebration. We aren't sure if we'll see them Christmas Eve or Day, since it's usually very hectic while we're in Buffalo those 24 hours or so. Since they both had the day off, I suggested doing our Christmas a little early so it wouldn't be so rushed and if the weather didn't cooperate, we wouldn't have that in our way either.

It was very nice-they came during the afternoon and Gabe and I made a nice dinner-steak, potatoes, salad and bread-very tasty!

Avery was very fond of Grandpa's face...first the glasses:

then the mustache:

Grandpa and Avery:

After our nice dinner, we opened presents. They got Avery a Fisher Price dog that sings, talks, etc. My Dad took it out of the bag and had it start talking to her:

Then we brought it over to us for closer inspection



She likes the dog so far-it's a cute toy that'll grow with her the first few years. It teaches body parts, colors, and lots of songs. She'll enjoy it I think! Overall we had a very nice visit-they normally don't get to stay over very long when they come so it was nice to have an extended visit with them yesterday! Avery had some good quality time with Grandpa!

Starting Solids!

Last night we gave Avery her first taste of food....well, if you want to call rice cereal food! To be honest, it smelles pretty gross-kind of like bread dough.

I fully expected her to be all over it. She has been very, very interested in food for weeks now-watching your every move if you eat or drink anything. So I thought when the opportunity came, she'd be wide-mouthed and ready to go.

In actuality....not so much! She wasn't a fan at all-she didn't open her mouth, she spit most of it out, gagged most of the time, etc. She wasn't all that into it. But of course I had to take a zillion pics of it all! These are just a few of them....
Sitting in her high chair for the first time:


First bite (She's thinking "I don't know about this-are you sure?):

Down the chin it goes:

What do you think you're doing?! (Love this one!)

Another taste:

Love this one too-caught it just at the right time!

I don't think I like this guys!

Rice face:

This was her mid gag:

So our first time wasn't a true success, but hopefully she'll get more used to it as the days go on!
Later we practiced sitting....or I should say Avery's current version of sitting: