66/365 Bear Down!

My girl is getting so big! Some days I don't even notice how grown up she's becoming and then other days it hits me like a ton of bricks. Today was one of those days. After my newborn session on Thursday I was wondering the last time I had taken a picture of her in her Bears gear and though it seemed like yesterday it wasn't it was almost 2 years ago! I could really use that pause button now, I just want more time to enjoy everything, more time to play and have slumber parties, more time for tickle fights and more time to snuggle before she goes to sleep every night. Where did my baby go?  

65/365 A Sculpture made for a King

So I just figured out that I can change the size of the image I post!! I told you I was new to this whole blogging thing!

Thursday after my photo-shoot Avery and I watched a movie and played with Play-Doh. She kept asking me to make meatballs and hot dogs which is the norm but, then her requests got a little weird. She asked me to make a rocket, a tomato and then a king. The king was her favorite, she did get mad at me though for not making him a "magic" wand at first :)

64/365 A girl's best friend isn't always diamonds

Phew, I think that this post makes me all caught up! Now to get caught up on editing.

I had a session this morning with the cutest little two-year old and I wanted to get everything set-up and even though Avery and her two-year molars are currently not on very good terms she let me take some test shots of her and Zibby, my mom's dog, jumped in for a few too. I felt it was only fitting that he be included because our dear, sweet, Tallulah was included in last years session.

63/365 Photographer in Training

Avery is going to be like her momma and love photography, at least I hope she will still love it as much as she does now. She loves taking my iPhone and snapping pictures of things that interest her, I want to save some of the good ones and make a book for her because they are some hilarious things sometimes and other times it's completely embarrassing: i.e. the time she took a picture of me fresh out of the shower shaving my legs!

I was going to take a picture of her dancing to Little Einsteins for my 365 picture but, the toddler in Avery said. "No Mommy, let me do it!" So, I handed her my iPhone, and this was the result of her labor. I also got some great close up shots of her nostrils and eyeballs as well as some sweet shots of the pigs on her pajamas. I love everything about this little girl, and love watching her creativity blossom.

62/365 Workin' at the Car Wash

Can you tell that I am so behind on posting my 365 pictures? Life has been a little crazy around here lately but I did manage to get Edna, my car, washed. She looked like a million bucks for all of 2 minutes before the salt and snow sludge covered her again. I cannot wait for summer black cars and winter are not a good match, plus I have been dying to open my sunroof again! On the bright side the colors were pretty awesome in the soap that they used to clean my car!

61/365 One Little Monkey

Avery has been obsessed lately with the Five Little Monkey's song. If you don't know it, be glad. No it involves a bed and monkeys and them jumping on said bed and getting hurt. It's not a bad song the first 100 times you hear it, after that you just want to punch the monkey's mom for letting him jump on the bed in the first place.

I think that Avery loves the song because she's a monkey at heart; she's climbing all over things and getting the courage to do things that scare me as an adult. She is fearless. Her new favorite thing is to hold on to Ray's legs and hang upside down while he walks around the living room. 

60/365 Pretty, Oh so Pretty

My mom was in the bathroom getting ready for church and Avery thought that she had to have some make up too. Of course, grandmas always give their grandchildren what they want right? So armed with a powder brush and some powder Avery was is heaven and kept checking out her new "look" in the mirror saying she was beautiful and it was so pretty. Grandma had to help just a little bit though because I think more was ending on the counter than on Avery's face.

59/365 Edit your Heart Out

I have been editing all day, well editing and cleaning that is. I am trying my best to stay caught up so when I am swamped this summer, I don't have a 2 month turn around time and I can spend days with Avery at the sprinkler park and at the pool without feeling guilty, that is if we ever have warm weather again!

58/365 Can a Girl have too many Clothes?

Cleaning and organizing the house has reached a whole new level once I started tackling Avery's room, today. I have been filling a tub with all of her clothes that have become too small for her and I learned the quick way that she has way too many outfit options. After the purge today we had 9 boxes making it 36 total boxes since she has been born, and the newborn/other baby sizes are stuffed because the clothes are so tiny!

Thankfully we will be trying to have another curly red-head soon, not too soon, because we are running out of space!

57/365 Weighing In

I've been working out and eating healthier, and I admit probably weighing myself more than I should. Avery has noticed my love for the scale lately and decided that she too needed to hop on. I'd say you'd have to deduct at least a pound for those rain boots though. Surprisingly she weighed more than I thought, that explains why my arms ache when she wants to be carried around, she's growing up way too fast!

56/365 Nothing Better

My camera has been packed away for the last few days and I have been concentrating on getting our house really clean so it's not so hard to maintain when we go to put it on the market this spring/summer. But nothing beats having a little downtime and snuggling with Avery.

She's actually been quite the helper in our cleaning quest (My mom told me to take advantage of it because in a few years I won't be able to bribe her for help) We have 2 more rooms to go and 2 more days left in the week, I think I will take it slow and snuggle a little more before we start cleaning again.

55/365 Drivin' around in my Automobile

This is probably the worst picture EVER! But, with an iPhone they never are that great!

As I have disclosed before, Saturday is our bowling night and Avery loves coming with us. I think that her love has more to do with the kids there and the gum ball machine. One of her favorite things is the game room, even though she's not tall enough to really see the screen, or even really playing the game. She could stand there pretending for hours, and usually cries when we have to leave.

54/365 Pretty Please, with Sprinkles on Top.

Avery is addicted to anything chocolate, who wouldn't be right? In our quest to eat healthier I didn't want to keep giving her Oreos and other cookies so I introduced her to chocolate "ice cream" it's really frozen yogurt and she absolutely loves it, and I can pronounce all the ingredients in it!

That has been my biggest quest buying things that have 6 or less ingredients in them because after the latest hoopla about Subway bread and the findings that other fast-food places use the same bread, I just want actual food please.

We wonder why people are so quick to get Cancer but we put foods like Subway bread in our bodies that have chemicals in them that we don't even know what they are.

53/365 She's got the Whole World in her Hands

Avery has become a little mischievous in the past few weeks, I think that it stems from me making the comment that we haven't had to deal with any "Terrible Two's" yet. In the past week she has smeared ketchup on the wall, taken all the money out of my purse, broken a nail polish that turned everything pink, and then this. She's a huge fan of coloring all over her hands and arms then promptly wanting it washed off. Please let this phase go by fast :)

52/365 No TV Friday

I try my best to do things with Avery and not watch that much TV. Today we turned it on in the morning while we were eating breakfast and then it went of so we could just play. Avery has been in her own world of make believe all day and I am amazed at the imagination that she has already. Of course that means that there are toys all over my house  

After her nap, I was finishing up with my flyers and she came and sat next to me, looked at me like this, and said "Mommy no work, come play with Avery!" How could you tell that little face no 

51/365 Playing Mommy

While I was busy getting dinner ready, Avery pulled her rocking chair into the dining room and rocked her baby, singing her songs that I sing to her at night. She's such a little lover and I don't want her to ever lose that trait. I love all the little kisses and hugs that I get all day long 

50/365 Chocolate Milk Monster

Avery is obsessed with chocolate milk, and it's very rare that I actually buy the stuff to make it because she can and will drink "plain" milk as she calls it. Today she decided that she was going to bring all of the stuff to fill up her cup because obviously she needed the milk that second 

49/365 Every Rose has it's Thorn

I love getting flowers from my man (hint,hint) ha ha I am really sad that I suck at keeping them alive and I can't enjoy them year round. At least they are gorgeous for the time being

48/365 Life of a stay-at-home-mom

This is how exciting my Tuesday was  I did go visit my friend Dacia and two of her kiddos, that was the best part. Other than that I cooked, cleaned, changed diapers and before I knew it the day was over.

47/365 Open up the Tired Eyes

I took this picture just as Avery was waking up, we managed to squeeze in a little nap together and I love how innocent her little face looks when she wakes up.

46/365 Daddy's Girl

Avery would pick Ray over me every time to put her to sleep. She tries her hardest to not have to sleep by asking for water, saying she's hungry, saying she's hurt etc. By the time she finally does fall asleep so does daddy 

45/365 What a LOVEly sight!

Avery and I woke up on Valentine's Day with quite the surprise! We looked out the window and saw this big huge white blur, and I admit my first thought was oh no more of our roof to fix! But, instead we had this beautiful visitor to watch for a few minutes before he flew away.

44/365 Betty Crocker

Okay so not really Betty Crocker, more like Avery wanted to bake cupcakes and she doesn't care what they look like so I will just slap some frosting on here with a knife instead of dirtying all the frosting tips 

She loved them and told me they were beautiful, then licked the frosting off it and was done, next time I will just buy her a can of frosting and a spoon. ha ha! 

43/365 Stinky Feet

Avery thinks that it's hilarious when I wash her stinky feet in the bathtub and hangs them over the edge like this until I do it! She laughs uncontrollably and screams "that tickles" and then says, "again mom, again." Sometimes it's just the little things like washing feet that makes me love being a stay at home mom.

42/365 I've come down with Baby Fever, again.

Today I spent a good chunk of my day holding this little stud muffin. One of my good friends had a baby on the 7th and due to me being stuffy and gross, today was the first time I got to meet him and catch up with his momma.

I could have held him all night long, his little noises and faces ahh! I am in love 

41/365 Keeping her Busy

I've been trying to get pictures edited so I don't get behind and overwhelmed. I thought it was going to be a hard feat today but Avery was entertained with Play-doh for hours and let me get a big chunk of editing done 

40/365 New Kicks

I am not a tennis shoe person, I am a flip flop person and the shoes that I am currently wearing to the gym aren't cutting it (I believe I got them 5 year ago! ) So for Valentine's Day my love bought me these! I am excited to go to the gym tomorrow and show these babies off ! Ha Ha

39/365 I get by with a little help from my Friends

Saturday night is bowling night and Avery wasn't too excited about being there until she saw her cousin Kaylee! She loves playing with her and running around the bowling alley! Especially because Kaylee helps her get drinks from the fountain 

38/365 Best Friends

Being a stay-at-home mom isn't always easy, we have good days and bad days, days where we just need to leave the house, days where I have to get things done, and a lot of days like today.

Today I don't care that my house is a mess, I don't care about getting dressed to go somewhere, I don't care about anything but playing with Avery.

I am going to try and get in more pictures with Avery, even on days like today when I don't match, haven't done my hair and have no make up on, because this is real, this is enjoying time together, this is us 

37/365 Avery's 1st Haircut

I finally caved in and decided that we should try cutting Avery's hair to tame it just a little and to make brushing it not be such a chore. So my mom came over today after work and cut some of her beautiful curls off!

Avery loved it, and loved the result too! I really does look so much better and brushing it out after her bath was so much easier! 

Thanks mom!!

36/365 Sleeping Beauty

Avery didn't want to wake up this morning, it was also one of the first nights that she didn't come into our room and have to be put back in hers. I couldn't resist snapping this picture though before I woke her up, I just love baby eyelashes 

35/365 Susie Homemaker

I had dinner in the crock-pot and everything ready for my shoot today before noon so I decided to use up the last of the bananas from Lexi's session and make some banana bread.

I think that this might be my favorite thing in the world, not only does is smell amazing it tastes amazing too! 

34/365 Maybe is Maybelline

I have been so busy lately, sorry for the quick iPhone snaps the past two days. 

Avery and I went to the grocery store this morning and before we left I was getting everything together and she starts proudly saying look at me mom, look at me. At this point I knew it was going to be hilarious and I turn around to this! She got into the lipstick I used for my mini sessions this weekend and didn't want to take it off. I finally convinced her I would buy her some she could use and she agreed to take it off.

33/365 A Girl and Her Grandpa

Avery is in love with her grandpa, anytime he's around she could care less about Ray and I. She was glued to his side for most of the game and when I left early I asked if she wanted to come with and nope, she wanted to stay with Papa.

32/365 Goldfish have stripes right?

Meet the newest member of our Family. It's Avery's Valentine's Day present that she got a little earlier because I wanted to borrow him for today's photo-shoot 

Avery is in love and didn't even want to go to her sleep over tonight because she wanted to stay at home with her fish.

I asked her what she wanted to name it and she thought about it for awhile and smiled and proudly said Stripes 

31/365 It's the Little Things

As busy as my husband and I have been lately, it's moment's like these that make everything worth it for me. It's okay to let the dishes pile up and to dry the same load of laundry 4 times in a row because Avery will never remember any of that, she will remember the moments cuddled with daddy on the couch, it's the little things that matter the most 

30/365 Cloud Dough

I'm a little behind in posting so here is today's actual image. 

We got a little crafty today. We made cloud dough, it's texture is kinda like wet sand it's soft and you can mold it but it crumbles in your hands.

Avery LOVED it! and it smelled amazing! We played for what seemed like forever with it all over our dining room floor.

Next time I would buy a huge Rubbermaid container to put it in so we didn't have to put it on the floor, it made it a little slippery after we cleaned it up.

Want to make it?
2 Cups of Flour
1/4 Cup of Baby Oil (I added a little more)

29/365 Take a bath, Wash yourself

Avery and I have a bath-time song that we sing every time she takes a bath, it's called Take a Bath, Wash yourself. She's now started singing it when I even mention a bath and it's too funny! 

It's sang to the tune of Mistikal's: Shake it Fast which in it's true version is a really bad song for a toddler to know! SO we improvised! 

It goes; "Take a bath, wash yourself... Take a bath, show me what'cha working with" 

28/365 The sun will come out, Tomorrow

Who knew that I would ever be up before the sunrise! Avery decided that she wanted to get up a 7 o'clock sharp this morning and to my amazement it was still pitch black outside. 

I looked at her and laughed, then told her from now on we wait until 8 to get up because the sun isn't even up yet! 

That then started a mass hysteria of where is the sun mommy, where did it go!? But, at least it's beautiful 

27/365 A bath-a-day will keep the snow away?

We have been cooped up in the house for what seems like forever but we still find time to be crazy and laugh all day. My husband was sent home early from work today and he is off tomorrow so we were able to have some fun with him too. 

As much as I would love to be running outside and leave my house, I love having time with just the 3 of us even more

26/365 Highway to the Danger Zone

Traveling to an from Toledo this weekend was pretty smooth despite me reading weather reports and having a mini-heart-attack every time I thought about how long it would take us to get there, us getting trapped etc.

Toll road was pretty clear both ways the only thing that was scary was the wind. We saw 10+ cars off the road in the ditch, mostly semis.

It's dirty though, my car needs a washing asap 

25/365 13 going on 30

I spent the night with 8 spunky teenagers, yesterday. My sister-in-law (the one with gorgeous hair on the right) turned the big 1-3 on the 22nd and we visited Toledo for her party. 

I set up a photo booth for her and her friend in the basement and it was hilarious watching them! 

I will say that I am glad I have a few years before I join the mom with a teen girl club, I don't think I will ever be ready!

24/365 So hot, So cold

Today has been miserable, the chiropractor couldn't get me in until Monday the only reason I've been mobile is because of this heaven in a tube

I've tried all the sciatic stretches and nothing is working. Anyone want to give me donor leg? 

If this is what 30 looks like I am not looking forward to 40 ha ha 

23/365 Cookie Monster

What do you do when you're not feeling good and you have a bum leg and your daughter comes up to you and says make cookies mom ?

You guessed it you make cookies  Thankfully this was after the icy hot started kicking in or I may have just let her eat the dough. 

22/365 Busy Bee

It was errand city today. Two trips to the grocery store, my husband rescuing me and bringing me my purse I forgot at home, a trip to the bank, followed by working out = this hot mess on my front seat. 

And, I still didn't get everything done! Whew! Can't I go to bed now?

Exciting picture right!? ha ha

21/365 These Boots were made for Walking

Avery is finally feeling better and hasn't "burped" (that's what she calls throwing up) for awhile now and has managed to eat a little bit today.

That was my first go at little ones throwing up and I will say I was not prepared for that in the slightest bit!

She's back to her spunky self though, and has been parading around in super girl jammies and her boots all day, refusing to take them off. She's definitely got her own style 

20/365 This is What you Get

Avery was sick with the stomach flu yesterday and by the time I realized that I didn't take my 365 picture there was nothing going on. So that equals you getting a picture of my work out summary from my phone last minute and me not posting it until the day after ha ha ! I promise today's picture won't be as lame.

19/365 New Background-itis

You'll only get the name of today's image if you watch Doc McStuffins all the time like I do, sometimes after Avery goes to bed I find myself still watching it lol! 

I got a new background today and wanted Miss Avery to help me try it out and she wanted me to photograph her stuffed animals instead.

After trying to get her to do it instead I decided what the heck, So here is Stuffy, Hallie and Chilly and my new background (Lambie was at our now daily tea party)

18/365 Not Camera Shy

I was setting up for my photo-shoot today and I didn't even have my lights out of the bag before I heard "Mommy look-at-me!" She might be a little vain and love taking pictures then looking at them and, I might be to blame 

17/365 "Silly Mommy, Silly Avery"

We spent most of the morning shopping then ate lunch, which was macaroni and cheese if you can't tell by the left overs on her face and shirt. Then after Avery's nap and my catch up on Parenthood from last night (I am addicted it needs to be 2 hours long) we started to have a tea party and guess what!? I was invited this time  

Our tea party quickly turned into us putting our faces inside the giant tea pot that holds everything and laughing hysterically at the way it made our faces look!

It's the moments like these that make me glad I have the ability to stay at home with her, and make me appreciate my husband that much more because he works his booty off so I can.