Cherries and First Steps!

My Mom came out for a visit on Monday night and stayed until today for some Avery time. We had to work yesterday and Mom did some work around the house for us (thank you!). Today was my day off so we all got to spend some time together.

Avery had some cherries for breakfast today and I had to get some pics because she was just covered in cherry juice! Love this pose:

Didn't mean for this to happen, but it ended up the perfect picture-cherry juice covered hands and mouth and a silly new face she makes!

We played after breakfast then Avery took a morning nap. After she woke up, we all hit Pizza Hut for lunch. After that, we went on a quick walk before my Mom left. Avery is napping now so I thought I'd post these while I had a free minute.

She's also been brave lately in standing up and trying to take some steps. I caught her on video this morning taking some steps to my Mom....she'll be walking any day now I know it!

Enjoyable Weekend

We had a very nice weekend this weekend. The weather was beautiful as well so that helped!

Yesterday, we all went to Buffalo for the day for a visit. We started out meeting my Dad at Alton's for a late breakfast/early lunch. After that, we went to my Mom's house. Gabe and I decided to go to the Horizon's Home Show. The Taste of Buffalo was also this weekend and I kind of wanted to do both, but we had to choose one! We always go to the home shows when we can-we love walking through the new houses and getting ideas for down the road. This year it was out in Lancaster and the houses were cheaper than they were a few years ago when we went. We had a few favorites that we walked through a second time for a better look. And I have to say that for the opening day, it was pretty dead! Usually you have to wait in line to get into the houses and there are a lot of people all in one house. But not this year. You walked right in, walked through without a crowd-it was really nice. After the home show, we went back to my Mom's (she babysat Avery while we were at the home show) for dinner, then headed home.

Today was another gorgeous day! Another great day for another festival! Between Avery's naps, we hit the Corn Hill Art Festival. We've gone to it a few times in the past and figured it would be something to do outside. Gabe's friend Cordell is an artist and he sets up a booth every year so we make a point of visiting him. In fact this year, he was chosen to do the festival poster! That was exciting! (Here's his website if you want to take a look at his work) It was pretty crowded there but not to the point of pushing and shoving through people. We hardly ever buy anything at the festivals...we just like walking around and people watching (and eating!). It was a good time! When we got home, I went grocery shopping then we made pizzas on the grill for dinner. Now we're just relaxing getting ready to start another work week!

Here's a new trick Avery showed us today....

One Year Appointment

Today, Avery had her one year check up at the doctors.

If you remember her nine month appointment, it didn't go so well. So needless to say, I was dreading today's visit. I enlisted Gabe to come with us this time though for backup!

Thank God he was there!

I swear she knew where we were as soon as we got in the exam room. She all of a sudden got clingy and whiny when we got in the room.

The easy part where they weigh and measure her...yeah, she screamed her head off. I knew after that, that we were in trouble. The doctor came in and talked to us for awhile and Avery was calm during that. Of course once he started examining her, she got all riled up again. Then when he left, a nurse came in to do a lead test-the good ol' finger prick. I'm sure you can imagine how that went. Then she left and another nurse came in with 3 shots....it was a rough 40minutes!

The good news? She's healthy as can be....that's all we can ask for. She's currently 30" tall (80th percentile) and 18lbs 9oz (15th percentile).

Her left tear duct is still plugged so we have to take her to a pediatric ophthalmologist in August to get it taken care of. I'm not looking forward to that either, but at least that annoyance will be gone since she's had it since birth.

So, we're good for another 3 months, then she gets tortured again!

Fourth of July Weekend

Our Fourth of July weekend was very nice. Gabe had both Friday and Monday off. I worked a few hours Friday morning, but also had off Monday so it was a nice long family weekend!

Friday we took Avery to get her 1 year photos done at Penney's (which turned out great by the way!) then just came home and relaxed.

Saturday Gabe went running, then I went to the gym. While Avery napped, I did some baking. After she woke up, we went to a playground for a little over an hour-she had a blast climbing the slide and going down it! They had a pool nearby so we took her over so she could watch the kids swimming. Then we decided to try a new ice cream place that Gabe's coworker told us about. It's a pretty far ride for us to go, but she raves about it so we had to try it out! They have food as well so we ate dinner there and had some ice cream. It was good-almost like Lugia's but a lot longer of a ride. I don't think we'll be going back there too often!

Sunday we had a family reunion for Gabe's Mother's side of the family. They have it every year around the 4th in Auburn. It's very nice-they have it at one of the cousins' lake home so it's very scenic and relaxing. There's always a lot of people and a lot of good food! We had a very nice time. We didn't get to go last year because Avery was only a week old so we made sure to go this year so everyone could see her! She had fun watching all of the kids and practicing walking all around the place!

Monday was a relaxing day for us. I just did the weekly grocery shopping trip and we did a few things around the house. Gabe's parents invited us over for a cookout, but they don't have air conditioning. It was well over 90 out that day so we asked them if they wanted to come to our house instead. So they did-and they nicely brought everything for dinner! We just did a cookout-burgers and hot dogs, corn, mac salad. It was a nice relaxing end of the weekend that's for sure!

I finally got some footage of Avery with her new toy we got her for her birthday! She's getting to be a pro at it already!

Nutty Chocolate Pretzel Bars

For my dessert choice for the family reunion, I decided on this recipe I've had forever! I have no idea where the recipe came from. I know my Mom had it in her recipe book and a copy of it got passed to me, but we never made them! I've been wanting to try them so I figured this was a good time! Again I forgot to take a photo of them!

Nutty Chocolate Pretzel Bars
1 can (10oz) mixed nuts-coarsely chop Brazil nuts
1 roll of refrigerated Pillsbury sugar cookie dough
1 cup toffee pieces (I used the Heath toffee bits)
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips
1/3 cup butterscotch chips
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup coarsely chopped pretzels
1 oz white chocolate

1. Spray a 9x13" pan with nonstick spray. Spread out nuts evenly on bottom of pan.
2. Cut dough into 1/2" thick slices and arrange on top of nuts. With floured fingers, press into pan.
3. Top with toffee pieces and lightly press into dough.
4. Bake at 375 for 20-25 min. (until golden brown...I did mine 20min and it may have been a bit too long). Cool on wire rack for 30min.
5. In large microwave safe bowl, heat chocolate chips and butterscotch chips until smooth (roughly 2min or so-stop and stir every 30sec). Stir in peanut butter until smooth and then add in pretzel pieces and mix until coated.
6. Pour chocolate mixture on top of cooled bars.
7. Microwave white chocolate until smooth. Drizzle over bars. Refrigerate until chocolate is set, then cut into bars. (makes roughly 36 bars)

**I omitted the white chocolate drizzle because I didn't have any in the house and couldn't find a small amount to buy. I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate anyways.

These turned out very good-a nice combination of salty and sweet. The only bad thing was that a lot of nuts fell off the bottom when the bars were cut. Either I have to press the dough down more, or maybe chop up all of the nuts a little bit. They were very good though and I'll be making them again I'm sure!

Corn Bread Muffins

We have a family reunion to attend tomorrow for Gabe's family and we're asked to bring both a side dish and a dessert. So I'm trying two new recipes that I'll share for them. Stupid me forgot to take pictures though so I apologize!

My side dish I'm making are corn bread muffins. My Mother-in-Law made it as corn bread, but I thought I'd try doing muffins just so we didn't have to go through the hassle of cutting up bread with all of those people. They turned out very good and are super duper easy!

Corn Bread Muffins
2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix (8.5oz each)
1 (8.5oz) can creamed corn
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used a full 6oz container)
2 oz shredded cheese (I used a mexican blend)
1/4 cup milk


Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into muffin pans (either lightly greased or use cupcake liners) and fill about 2/3 full (I used about 1/4 cup of batter for each) and bake at 400 for 17mins. For me, this made about 18 muffins.

*This can also be made in a lightly greased 9x13" pan and baked for 17-20mins. if you prefer bread instead of muffins.

Buffalo Play Date

Yesterday, Avery and I made a trip to Buffalo for the day. My main reason to go was to see my Grandfather one last time before he heads back to Vegas on the 7th. I knew the holiday weekend was going to be busy and we wouldn't make it to Buffalo then so yesterday was my last chance to get there and see him.

Before Grandpa arrived, Avery had to check out a new toy Grandma picked up for her! She had a lot of fun with it!

She liked putting her rings in the front part of the car:

Grandpa came by for a few hours for lunch-it was a nice visit. I think he's a little sad about going home.

Avery had fun climbing on my Mom and grabbing her nose!

I lucked out that a few of my friends are teachers and are now off for the summer. They happened to not have any plans yesterday, so we had a little playdate! Jessica and Connor, and Megan and Noah came by and the kids got to play for a few hours....it was a lot of fun!
Avery and Connor checking out the cat:

Avery and Connor were funny with the toys-whatever one of them had, the other one wanted it. Yet if they were both toyless, they could have cared less about what was around! They were really "fighting" over this stick for awhile:

On the move:

Noah laughing at the xylophone:

Avery and Noah:

We kept trying to get all 3 of them in one picture-which was a joke! This was the closest we got...Jessica brought along some animal crackers and you would have thought it was feeding time at the zoo!