Christmas #5

Christmas number 5 was at the Tarltons.  Avery was her typical non-cooperative eating self until the cheesecake came out.  She probably had a piece by herself.  Amazingly she actually took a nap afterwords.

 Nom nom nom....

 Opening presents is fun with Avery.  With each tear of the paper she will hand you the trash before continuing the destruction.

 Our little goober...

Christmas #4

Christmas number 4 was our Christmas.  Since we had to leave early Christmas morning to do number 5 and 6, we decided to let her have her present after her nap on Christmas eve.



Avery smiling in front of her kitchen.

 Hard at work cleaning up the kitchen.  Everything has a place and Avery does not appreciate it when you move something from it's place.

 And of course, the best present was a baloon from old navy that came on a stick.

Christmas #3

Christmas #3 was with the smaller Gibson family Sunday morning.  

This time we were smart enough to give her the toys last so she opened most of the presents herself.

Avery got a gigantic hobby horse.  She of course was happy as can be.  I was glad it wasn't a real horse.

 The horse plays a song when you press it's ear.  Loudly.  Extremely loud.  But Avery loves it....  I am going to have to tell her that Santa took the batteries to power his sleigh or his ipod or something.

This picture shows the scale of the horse.  And the grin on Avery's face is worth having this thing around.  Just not enough for it to keep its batteries.

Christmas #2

Christmas number 2 was on Saturday with the Gibson side of the family.  Avery had fun running around like a crazy person and being spoiled rotten.  

Avery's favorite present by far was the stroller for her baby that Grammie got her.  Unfortunately it was the second present she opened, so she did not want to open anymore.  The rest of the evening was trying to convince her to open other presents with limited success.  

 She even wanted to take the baby outside in the stroller to show her the yard.  Ignore the un-trimmed bushes in the background.  Avery will get around to them before she has to go back to school.

TV

We caught her in a trance the other day walking by the TV and had to take a couple pictures.

Christmas Outfits..

Laura dressed Avery up in this for me to take her Grocery shopping...

I think Avery feels the same way as I do about the outfit...

 On a scale of 1-10 how silly do you think this outfit is?  "10!"

 I was squatting down to take a picture, so of course Avery squats...

Christmas #1

This past weekend was the Gentry Family Christmas.  Avery got to run around like a crazy person, smile at everyone, and best of all play with her older cousin Wren.

Our daughter the cornball...  I was in the background sticking out my tongue trying to get her to smile and this is the result.

 Avery made mommy read a book to her and Wren.

 Laughing with her cousin...

 Avery tickling Wren.

 Avery also got her great-grandfather to read her a book.  He tried to set it down a couple times, but she refused to let him stop until the end of the book.

 And of course there were presents!!  She attacked them with ferocity.  Which is odd, because she hasn't opened one since her birthday...  But she knew exactly what it was, how to get into it, and what to do.

Daddy's Lil Helper

I suppose the main reason you have kids is to exploit them for free labor...right?  Avery has gotten pretty good at feeding the dog, letting Charger outside, and putting things in the trash if you ask her.  This was a couple pictures from this week where she helped me unloading the dishwasher.  She knows where most everything goes and will open doors or drawers to put things back if she can reach them.  She likes for the doors to be closed and everything in it's place.  Which is the complete opposite of me...  Laura knows I have unloaded the dishwasher because everything is wide open.  Thank goodness for my toddler...

Computer Time

I don't know what Avery would do without her youtube videos.  Oh yeah....scream about not getting to watch them.  And what might she be watching?  Not cartoons or shows about animals.  Music videos...  And she is very peculiar about what she likes and doesn't like.  She most definitely doesn't like any of the ads that Youtube shows.

Funny Faces

A passing funny face taken by my cell phone.  I keep wondering what she is thinking of in this picture.  It sure does make me smile though.

Sunday At the Park

This weekend was the first weekend we have been home in who knows how long.  Football season is over and preparations for Christmas are underway.  Sunday afternoon, we had about enough hanging around the house and cleaning up so we decided to take Avery to the playground and let her run around like a crazy person.

First stop at the playground is always the slides.  She climbed up the stairs herself and went down herself.  1000 times.

 Excited about more slides.

 This is a picture of my boogie being a goofball.  I love it.

 There was a lake at the park that we went to.  Avery seemed to stop every 10 mins or so and point it out.  And make sure we knew that she was pointing it out and that she knew that it was water.  This is her pointing it out.

 She didn't want to ride the horse or the motorcycle.  Only the big red dog and later the police car.

Laura couldn't help herself...

Hopefully this is the only time she rides in a police car...

Random Smiles

These are some random pictures over the past couple of weeks that I didn't use in the blog because they may have been out of focus, poor lighting, etc.  However, they have great smiles in them (like most pictures of Avery) that every time I flip by them I laugh thinking about what she was smiling about.

Here a couple extra ones from playing in the leaves.  This was about an hour or more after she should have gone down for her nap.  The fact that she doesn't melt down before naptime amazes me.

In these pictures she was playing on the couch, laughing at Mommy in the kitchen.  For whatever reason, she would yell out "Mama" or "Dada" and laugh uncontrollably.

Thanksgiving

So we had Thanksgiving at our house this year.  Only my parents were able to make it on Thanksgiving day, but they brought plenty of food to spoil us with.

On Thanksgiving day, the weather was nice enough to head uptown and watch the Charlotte parade.  We got there just in time as it was starting off.  Avery had a great time cheering on the bands and pointing out all the horses.  After each band would come by she would turn her head and follow it as far as she could see it.  Once it was out of sight, she would turn to me and say "More...more"

She ended up with a pretty good view on daddy's shoulders.

 A big smile for either a horse or a marching band.

 After the parade we went back to the house and made a shrimp boil.  While I was cooking outside, my parents raked leaves into a pile for Avery to play in.  Each handfull of leaves was accompanied with a smile and "more".

 Mommy even showed Avery how to run through a big pile of leaves and kick them.  If you notice her "Sheriff's deputy" sticker on her jacket from the parade.

Drummer Girl

"Give a kid a drum, annoy her parents forever."

We have a special box of toys that we bring out on tough days, rainy days, etc.  We learned this trick from daycare.  They have a special closet of new toys that have been hidden for a while when the kids are especially wound up or they can't go outside because it is raining.  We keep ours in a closed toy box that is hard for Avery to open.  Most of her toys with batteries and loud noises are in there.  As is the drum.  As you can see in the video, she isn't that bad at it.  Hopefully there is some musical talent in there somewhere from watching so many music videos.

Marching and playing at the same time!