Twenty-One Months!

Over the weekend, Avery turned twenty-one months old! It's hard to believe that in just 3 short months, she'll be 2 years old! Crazy!!

She's still a pretty decent eater. Some days are better than others. She has some meals where she just eats and eats and then is hungry an hour later. And she has meals where she barely eats a thing. It seems to be all over the place lately!

Her sleeping is a little better these days-typically around 11 hours overnight and a decent nap in the afternoon. She still has some nights where it's hard to get her to fall asleep-she'll play in her crib for an hour or so and then finally pass out. I don't know what makes her get like that some nights, but it's frustrating!

She's still in size 3 diapers for day and 4's for overnight. She's in 12/18 month clothes still!

Avery's newest thing is going to her new daycare!! She started on Feb 28th, so just after she turned 20 months old. So far it's going really well for her. We had a rough two weeks at drop off in the morning-she had some melt downs and didn't want Daddy to leave her. But this week she did great-no tears and ran away from him as soon as her jacket came off! I know when I go to pick her up, she doesn't want to come home! So I know she's having fun and she "talks" about all of her friends there constantly! I think she's learning a lot there too and we get a lot of great artwork sent home!

She is getting really well at counting now! She has counted up to 13 all by herself now! She has also spelled her name all by herself too!

She also has started singing a lot! If we sing a song and stop while singing it, she'll fill in the blanks! It's really cute! And she LOVES "The Wheels on the Bus"! She sings it all by herself and even her new daycare commented that she was singing it there the other day! She has also acted out the movements to "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"!

I haven't been keeping up with her new words-she just says so many now that it's hard to remember which ones are new and which ones aren't! She does say "I love you" now (although it comes out more like "Yaoh!" but it's so cute! She has said it maybe once without me asking her to first. And she has given both Gabe and I hugs and kisses without us asking which is so adorable!

Here are her new pics!

Hugs:

I told her to make a silly face:

My favorites... Giving kisses:

Reaching for the stars:

And a smile!

Another smile!

Busy Day in Buffalo!

Yesterday we took a trip to Buffalo to celebrate my Mom and Aunt's birthdays! It was a very busy day as usual! First, we stopped at my Dad's house. Gabe was building them a new computer and he had it finished so we had to drop it off to them. Avery had fun playing on my Dad's keyboard:

And she was loving my Dad! She normally is very timid around him, but today she went right to him with no problems! Yay!

They also made us a yummy breakfast, which was very nice!

Then it was off to my Mom's house. Avery took a quick nap in the car so she was all ready for some action! And action she got! It was quite the busy household! She had some time with my Mom and Aunt before people started showing up.

Our first visitors are friends of mine whom I haven't seen in probably 20 years! Our parents grew up together so we played a lot as kids. We somehow drifted apart when we were probably around 10 years old. Our Moms kept in touch on and off over the years, but got closer as time passed. I found out the oldest daughter, Joelle, was expecting her first baby (a girl) a week after I was expecting Avery! Needless to say, we never found the time to get the girls together before this weekend. So, here they are almost 2 years old now and we finally got to have them meet and we finally got reacquainted with each other as well!

This is Joelle's daugther, Samantha: (she was born a week after Avery)

Avery and Samantha giving each other hugs:

The two girls sitting together:

I think they had a lot of fun together. I've been hearing about "meanda" (Avery's way of saying Samantha) since the weekend! We'll have to get them together again soon!!

While they were there, my friend Renee and her Mom also stopped over. I haven't seen Renee since Christmas so it was nice catching up with them as well!

Just as they were all leaving, Megan and Noah pulled up for a visit. The kids haven't seen each other in awhile. Meg and I have gotten together without them, but it was time for the kids to play together again! And let me tell you, Noah looks like a grown up boy now! It's amazing how fast they change!

Here is Avery and Noah playing:

Noah:

Avery and Noah playing with cars:

Shortly after Megan and Noah left, we headed home. It was a very nice visit today-we really enjoyed seeing everyone!!

And Happy early Birthday to Mom and Aunt Pat!!

Went to The Diva!

I did a "first" for me today.... I had my eyebrows done! I'll start by saying that I've had a unibrow since I was born (yeah I'm a lucky one-and so is Avery!). I took matters into my own hands and have been plucking them on my own since probably high school. I don't think I did too bad (see my pic at the top of my blog).... So I've always wondered how they would look if a "pro" did them. Sometimes I felt like the shape wasn't quite right or maybe I tweezed one too many hairs. And so the torture began. I had to let them grow for 5 weeks. Yes, 5 WEEKS! For someone who plucks their own brows, and has done so almost daily (yes they grow that much!) for the past 20 years, this was the ultimate test! But I did it!! I tried to get some good photos-and I took some, but they're not SUPER. It's the best I could do! So, here is my before shot: The unibrow area:

My right eye:

And left:

Another before shot:

I knew right away where I wanted to go. Most likely the most well known place in this area, The Brow Diva.

I made my appt with Ryan and he did a great job. First, they waxed my brows...I've never had wax done anywhere on my body, so I was a little nervous...but it wasn't too bad. Then, they plucked some stray hairs and trimmed some hairs as well. My brows are (luckily) pretty full, so they didn't need to do much else with them. He did put some brow powder on them to show me how they would look filled in with it.

So, here's my after shots!

No more unibrow!

Right eye:

Left eye:

I think they turned out great! Ryan told me I was doing a great job with the shape of my brows, which was nice to hear. Most people go back every 3-6 weeks to keep their brows maintained. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep the shape of them on my own, but if they get too unruly again, I'd definitely go back there for a clean up!

Yummy Salad!

I made this salad last week for myself for dinner and boy was it good! Thought I'd pass along the ideas in case anyone needs a salad makeover!
Ingredients:
Romaine lettuce
1 apple, sliced
mozzarella cheese (I used a string cheese cut into slices)
dried cranberries
Chow noodles
Raspberry vinaigrette dressing

I made this on a Friday during Lent (no meat for me), otherwised I probably would have added bacon bits to this as well. With or without, it was still very good!

Happy Birthday Amelia!

Yesterday was another busy day for us!

We went to my in-laws' for breakfast with a bunch of the aunts and cousins, which was very nice! It was great catching up with everyone!

From there, we had a birthday party to go to at The Little Gym for Avery's friend Amelia!

Here are the pretty cupcakes they had: The kids had about an hour in the gym area. They gave them free time, then would do an activity, then more free time, etc. for the full hour. Avery had.a.blast!

She loved carrying the balls around:

Her friend Josie:

Avery walked up to this thing and threw her leg around it, stripper style! It was so funny!

Avery wanted to do what Josie was doing:

One of the activities was blowing up this huge air mattress type of thing and letting the kids run/bounce from one end to the other. Avery was afraid of it at first, so both of us went bouncing down it together. Then she was hooked and couldn't get enough of it!

Avery and I bouncing on the mattress thing:

Avery going down it:

Chasing another ball:

Avery and Josie giving hugs!

After the hour in the gym, we went to the eating area and it was time for cupcakes and juice! Here's the birthday girl waiting for her cupcake!

Singing "Happy Birthday":

Blowing out the candle:
We let Avery go to town on the cupcake...and of course she loved it!

Happy 2nd Birthday Amelia! We had so much fun at your party!!

This Land is Your Land....

This land is my (our) land....

Today we really had nothing planned, besides my usual workout at the gym on Saturday morning. After Avery's nap, we decided to go look at our land!

It's hard to believe if all goes well, our house will be sitting on this piece of land in a few short months!

The builder actually has the house staked out on the property. It's very hard to see in the photos though-they're little wooden stakes that outline the house (not the big white things you can see really well). Looking towards our neighbor's house:

Looking towards the main road (we have a corner lot):

The sign they have up!

We were hoping to walk around the area a little bit to get some roof and siding color ideas. We put Avery in the stroller, but after a few houses, it was just too cold out to be walking around. So we got back in the car and drove around a little bit to take a look at some houses.

Then we decided to head to the mall to walk around and grab some dinner.

Avery is obsessed with the fountains there so we had to pay them a visit.

A nice pic of Avery and Gabe:

Avery walking around the fountain:

Avery and Gabe at the fountain:

At dinner, Avery was imitating how I was sitting....it was so funny!

After dinner, we headed home and put the little one to bed! I followed shortly after....