HOLIDAY SEASON RECAP!!!!

A few weeks ago...



We visited the lights at our local library! It is a walking path with lights and figures. It is cute and just perfect for kids! And only 2 miles away!

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CHRISTMAS WITH GRANDMA JUDY, GRANDPA BILL, UNCLE TODD, AUNT MANDY, MADDIE & MAX



Looking at the cute calendar of Averie and Baylor for Grandma and Grandpa.



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VISIT TO SANTA

We saw Santa at the mall...they were perfectly content sitting his lap. Last year must have been a fluke (I took my own pics), this year they said I could only if I bought some of theirs. And I kinda regret not buying them...but they were $15 for a 3 1/5 x 5 and I just wasn't that impressed with the pics (the kids looked bored and weren't smiling). So we took our own without Santa! The kids looked very cute and all dressed up!

Santa is in the background (you can only see a little of the "wonderland!")

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MAKING COOKIES

sprinkle-ist extraordinar!


YUM!


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CHRISTMAS WITH DELANEY, JAYDE & JETT!

Girls smiling by the tree!


The whole happy clan!

Averie opening her sticker book from Aunt Shannon and Delaney!


Baylor being the king of the presents!


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CHRISTMAS EVE DAY
Averie and her pin curls!


Yogurt boy!


Fancy nails too!


A yogurt face mask!


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CHRISTMAS WITH GRANDMA, GRANDPA, UNCLE BRAD & JEN!
Family Photo-before church on Christmas Eve



After church getting pj's on!



Presents!!


Shredded paper hat!


Averie loves presents!


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CHRISTMAS MORNING!
The overloaded tree!


Opening stocking stuff.


Averie loves her umbrella from Baylor!


Baylor checking out his baby from Averie!


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CHRISTMAS WITH GG & the extended family on Christmas Day!


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CHRISTMAS WITH RECE AND CARMINE!
Averie and Rece opening!


Carmine excited and Baylor...not too excited!


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LIGHTS AT THE ZOO!!
Eating dinner while watching the dancing lights!


Us with the dancing lights in the background!


Lights, lights and more lights!


That was our Christmas Holiday in a nutshell! We have had an amazing time and are still organizing and walking through the Christmas clutter! Today is New Year's Eve and Daddy has to work today and tomorrow so I am going to try to de-clutter and organize and get ready for 08! Daddy and I have a plan to organize the basement and start working out TOGETHER (yea! I am very excited to do this!) and eat breakfast together and make healthy breakfasts together for us and the kids. We plan to workout together and eat together for us time and do this before the kids get up three days a week. So, I have the rest of this week to do this!

Anyways, Christmas was very magical and wonderful and we loved everything! I think it was a tad crazy, especially the lack of sleep everyone received, but we are slowly recovering. Averie was so happy to open presents and loved every minute of it. Baylor, not so much. I don't think he unwrapped one gift. He just could have walked around and checked things out and that's it. But he loved the stuff! He loves his own kitchen and bath toys and Averie loves her ducks and camper toy and I love my water dispenser and red crockpot and flannel sheets. They are SO soft. We are going to have dinner in tonight (New Year's Eve) here with my family -minus daddy :o( and we are expecting 4-8 inches of the white stuff...that will bring some pictures for the next blog post. Which will not be so long and will be sooner rather than later!!

14 MONTHS & TWO & THREE QUARTERS!

He loves coloring! He is even pretty good about not eating the crayons. Here he is making Jett's Birthday card!


Little Miss 2 and 3 quarters. That means she is close to 3. CRAZY!!

Well, you probably won't hear my from us til Christmas. We have been so busy with things, parties, showers, wrapping gifts, making cards! And now that Baylor is pretty much on one nap, it is also crazy b/c we have to keep things busy during the old morning nap time. But now they both go down at 1...I still have my "me" (aka-clean the house, take a shower, fold laundry, dust, clean bathrooms, organize, computer, etc., etc.) time! So, until Christmas...

HO! HO! HO!

Our tree! We decided to try and start a new family tradition. We put our tree up on Thanksgiving. I liked it. I is a tad earlier than we usually do it; however, we are all home and will most likely be home on Thanksgiving during the morning watching the parade, etc. So, we took advantage of the free time!


The kids tonight watching the snow fall! The first of the season! :o) Too bad I doubt it'll be here in the am when Averie gets up to look for it!


Decorating our little trees in the front window.


And sporting our new Skidpants. They are so cute! I had to have the tie dye especially! They are also longer than the babylegs that we usually sport...and Averie's legs are longer than the babylegs. So, we'll see how these go!


Still decorating!


It has been so hard to keep up with this blog! At least all of the details going on around here. Everything has been great. We are loving the excitement of Christmas time. Especially with Averie being so aware of everything. She wants to experience everything! I know Baylor will just go with the flow! Averie is into a lot these days. She is into "shopping" with her cart. She makes sure Baylor has a push toy so he can follow her around. She is also into asking why for everything. And after everything you say. And she knows she is being silly about it too! It is funny. She also has to have us watch her do everything! It's always "Mama! Watch, watch me!" For everything! It is neat to see her be such a little lady! I don't even want to think of her turning three. Averie is also very independent about dressing herself and picking out her daily "play" clothes. I am still in charge of the going out in "public" clothes! She is also obsessed with choo choo trains and the pony at Target. We have been visiting it for a while now. At least she doesn't or hasn't figured out that you can buy it yet!!! I'm not looking forward to those days! ;o) As for Baylor. He is amazing. He is pretty much talking. How can I describe it...I can communicate with him no problem. Between his signing and few words...he can tell me what he wants. He also has an amazing capacity to understand. Just today I asked him (after his diaper change) what he wanted to do before his nap. He looked at me and signed milk. He also says so many words. He tries to copy everything. He knows what off and on mean. And is figuring out how to say up when he wants up. He is walking all over the place and loves to walk. He almost always is carrying a tool from his tool bench or a food item from Averie's kitchen (which makes me so excited for him to get his own kitchen...only a few weeks to go). He still mostly takes two naps, although some days when he has a 2 hour am nap, he just talks in his bed for 1 1/5 hours in the afternoon. So, I know the days of two naps are limited. That will make us have to re arrange our entire day, naps, lunch and all. Not too excited about that. But the first of the year will be a great time to do that because Averie will be starting preschool then (home school). After the hustle and bustle and schedule re arranging, I will be homeschooling her for preschool. I am super excited about that. I haven't decided how many days, hours or what time of day or anything yet...but am going to start planning all that at the end of this month. She is going to be amazing, I just know it! As for us this holiday season...we'll be traveling to grandma and grandpa's 2 1/2 hours away in a couple of weeks and after that, we'll be having little gatherings around here! We also plan to go see Santa soon too! I will have posts of that, I am not so sure how Baylor will do. I think he'll be afraid! More posts to come!

CHRISTMAS PICS

We had our Christmas pics done today. They are okay! We only purchased one of the poses...see above. Baylor had his usual issues with picture taking...but that's okay! I got what I went there for! We are busy decorating and getting ready for the holidays these days. I will update more soon, when I have a few minutes! :o) Here is the link to the rest of the pics. The password is averiebaylor.

HIDE -N- SWEEP

WALKIN'

Averie and Baylor walkin'!

UPDATE TIME

We've been busy...playing in the leaves (or crying, take your pick) :o)


More time enjoying the outside


Making silly faces!


Having indoor picnics! While we had new windows installed!


Baylor is walking! Everywhere! Still not 100% sturdy, but he pretty much chooses walking over crawling. BIG milestone! Still only 2 teeth and no signs of any more for now. But that is okay! Averie is just busier than ever. She has been really into crafts and glue and markers when I let her. She also plays with play foam a lot too! We've gone outside a few times lately when we can...but rain is in the forecast for a few days. Tomorrow we are going up north to visit a friend! We'll try to post more this week. I have some good walking pics still in my camera! And Baylor is finally over the issues with sleeping. Back to two solid naps and no night waking. And great eating again. Thank goodness!

INTERESTING

This was on the Pampers website for 13 months. Which if you read the entire story it is EXACTLY Baylor to a T. Unsettled Sleep Your child's drive to master standing and walking has probably upset his daily routine — including his sleep schedule. His once-predictable morning and afternoon naps have become less dependable, and he's probably waking up more frequently at night. Once the novelty of walking wears off, he'll eventually return to a more settled state. Until then, keep putting him in his crib at nap time, but don't worry if he doesn't sleep...