Avery's 1 Year Photos

For those of you not on Facebook, here are some pictures that I took on Saturday of Miss Aves. Allyson and I took her to Fairview park about 30 min away and set up a little picnic scene on the water. She did so good playing in the clovers for almost an hour. By the time we were ready to switch outfits and scenery she had had enough! They also had the white picket fence covered up in orange tape with "warning: lead hazard" all over it! I was SO mad! The fence was one of the main reasons I wanted to take her there! I am going to have to find out when they will be done repainting and go back.
Allyson also took some AMAZING photos. She is a wonderful photographer!! I am so glad she went; I can't wait to see the rest of her shots.
It is exhausting trying to chase a 1-year old around and get good photos! She never stays where you want her to or looks at the camera. Despite the difficulty, we had a blast and ended up with some great shots. Here are just a few; I have so many more that it was hard to pick my favorites:

Gyro Bowl

Jeff and I saw this infomercial the other day... Why can't we think of something like this?!

For $14.99 each (but if you buy now you can get a second one for free!), it's a pretty expensive bowl and I am sure there are plenty of ways a kid could find to spill it. Still, it's pretty cool if you ask me!

Buy one here!

Plain White T's

I love their new CD "Wonders of the Younger." Especially the song "Rhythm of Love"

Party Videos and Pictures

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday to one of Avery's little buddies, Nathan! He turned 1 on Friday and we celebrated at a family fun center on Saturday. It was a lot of fun and Avery had a blast! she was in awe most of the time watching all of the kids run around and all of the cool, new, big toys around. All of the loud noises kept her pretty entertained, too. I am so thankful that Avery has friends her age to play with regularly!!!

I was trying to upload some more pics and videos but blogger is being dumb.... maybe later!

Videos

I forgot to add the videos from the party on the last post....
PS. does anyone know how to keep YouTube videos from cutting off on here? (besides changing the layout of my blog to the wide screen... I dont like that look)

Avery 12 Months

... and 10 days. I sure hope that Avery doesnt take it personally that I am 10 days late wishing her a happy birthday on my dear ole' blog! Her birthday was a blast but I was crazy busy and the week that followed only sped up and we all got a stomach virus to add to it! So, here I am with a few free minutes that I can finally make her birthday post. A quick snapshot of the birthday girl running around the kitchen
We had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme for her party. It was a lot of fun, although a lot of people cancelled at the last minute due to illness, so it turned out to be a pretty small crowd but we are so grateful for everyone's birthday wishes
and love for our little girl!
Here are some more pictures from the party:

I was crazy enough to make both of her cakes.... The lamb above is a tradition in our family to be the smash cake.

Can you read all over my face what I was thinking while trying to open presents with a 1-year old that likes to eat tissue paper?? lolThe rocking horse her Pappy made :)

Annie and Avery riding the wagon she got from Pappy and Nanna. She would ride this all day if I let her!

Now, for some of what she is up to these days...
Weight: 21.10 lbs (60%)
Height: 31 inches (95%)

*aware of her bodily functions: not so cute, but she giggles everytime she makes a noise, lol
*cartoons in bed: On Saturdays we love to get her up and watch cartoons in bed. She seems to think our bed is a playground instead of laying nicely and cuddling... maybe that will come when she is a bit older.
*puts toys in boxes/cubbies
*tries to brush her hair
*knows her shoes and socks go on her feet and her bows go on her head
*crosses her fingers
*climbing: sits in her chair and climbs up and down steps
*picky eater: when I say picky, I mean PICKY!!! I can't get her to eat anything except her little Gerber snacks. SO ANNOYING!
*puts things in the diaper jeanie: She loves to stuff her laundry and her baby doll in the hole of the diaper jeanie and pull the handle down. Gross!
*flushes the toilet and plays with toilet paper: This is our biggest vice these days
*catching on to the sippy cup: She is getting better but not good enough for me to start weanning off bottles, yet.
*claps her hands: I love this! she gets so excited and claps her hands over everything. It's precious :)

Soup!

Days like today, with the weather only dropping and dropping and "wintery mix" in the forcast, really only call for a large bowl of warm yummy soup! I absolutely love pretty much every form of soup. The only problem is that I dont have any large soup bowls! I would LOVE a set of these so that I dont have to get up from my warm cozy spot on the sofa just to refill my bowl.

Now, off to pour some of my yummy chicken soup that just finished! :)

These Boots Were Made For Walkin'

Creative Whim

Let me start out by saying that I have never taken an Acrylic Painting class; I really don't know what I am doing, besides the few times I have been brave enough to grab a paintbrush and play.

I guess that's my thing... I would say I am more "brave" than I am artistic, lol. I have never made a "masterpiece" by professionals' standpoints, but I love to play with paint and new mediums. I absolutely love paintings with lots of layers and textures and have always wanted to try one out.

I saw a tutorial a long time ago on how to add texture to a painting and the approach that this guy took was really cool so I have always wanted to give it a try. So, last night my courage built up and I took a wack at it. Lets just say that what I produced was NOTHING like the instructors, nor was it ANYTHING like I have hoped it would come out looking like.

That being said, its growing on me and I think I like it...

The first step was to get some joint compound at the hardware store. This proved to be harder than I thought when the guy at the store gave me spackling instead. I didn't realize this until after I started the painting; I was not a happy camper! Stupid hardware store guy! ugh.... I was not off to a good start.

After getting the spackling smoothed out on the canvas as good as I could (joint compound would have laid a LOT smoother so I had to overcome the "crumbles" that spackling would make) I was able to add some texture. I used lots of random things from around the house like a spatula, pine cone, one of Avery's teething rings (don't worry i through it away after I used it, lol), a garlic press, and doilies, etc. I was a bit disappointed with the way the spackling took the textures, also; they were not as deep and pronounced as I would have liked. Oh well.

Here is a pic of just the texture:

Once this dried overnight I was able to add some color. I had originally planned on doing layers of color, letting the dry in between applications and then wiping away where I wanted the under color to show. Due to the consistency of the spackling, it was not as firm as joint compound would have been, or smooth, so I just started adding a bunch of colors all at once.

At first I was really hating it. The man in the tutorial made it look SO MUCH easier and the paint glided on so smoothly. It was very frustrating. But, after working with it for a while and going back 15 million times to add a little here and a little there, I decided I had done all I could do and it was as good as it was going to get.

The picture really doesn't do it justice... Well, to some they might think the picture is better than in person, lol. What is kind of a dark blue here is more of a purple; it's mainly greenish/blue and purple.

I love the colors and I had fun making it. I would really like to try it again, though with the right materials and see if it makes a difference.

I know where I am going to hang it, I just need a beautiful frame to make it look better than it is ;).