My Avery

I doubt the pictures will upload in the correct order, but here are some of my more recent favorites of Avery and a few words about how much I love her. Sorry if there are repeats that have already been on here.  Enjoy!

Avery loves dogs! She loves our puppies here at home, she loves Buddy at Grandma and Grandpa Heorman's house, and she loves random dogs like this sweet puppy at the Humane Society.  :) Maybe she'll be a vet someday. She has such a loving spirit.  :) Beautiful!

Avery loves rides!  I know this picture doesn't look like she's too happy, but that's only because at this point I wasn't allowing her to play on the ground anymore because she was eating the mulch.  :P  Avery is always great in the stroller.  She loves riding and looking around at people.  The zoo is one of her favorite places.  She does more people watching than animal watching.  ;)

Avery is standing!!  She's growing up so fast!  She's always been so smart and advanced, hitting her milestones long before she's expected to.  I'm so impressed by her!  It's so much fun watching her grow!  She learns new things every day!  This week Michael taught her to wave and clap!  She's so amazing!

Avery loves to walk!  She's working on her balance with standing, but as soon as she's got it down, she'll be ready to walk and run.  She loves when you hold her hands and let her walk. She's ready to be on the move!  She moves pretty fast with her crawling, but I know that when she's upright, she'll go even faster.  Also, the girls at work love her!  :)  She's basically our store mascot, lol.  ;)

Avery enjoys the water!  I don't know when I started loving the water, but I remember liking it when I was a kid.  She loves bathtime and pooltime.  She'll be quite the little waterbug as she gets bigger.  I love this idea, because I love the water too.  :)  When she gets bigger we plan to enroll her in survival swimming.  :)

Avery is growing up so big and beautiful.  Each day she gets prettier and prettier, inside and out.  She's growing up and into her own sweet personality.  She's loving, smart, energetic, and beautiful!  She's been a complete joy to mother.  I'm looking forward to many more amazing years with this incredible little girl.  :)

And that is only a very small fraction of the reasons I love my Avey Baby.  :)

Peace

I'm not sure that I'll ever be ok with what happened to us.  What I have been desiring from the Lord is peace.  He has been so good.  Walking through many fires and trials since even before we were married, we know how to get through them.  Hand in hand, Michael and I pray for peace that surpasses all understanding.  And the Lord hears our prayers and calms our hearts.  This does not mean that we forget or that we are hardened to the trial that we are going through, it simply means that the Lord is standing with us and carrying us through the hardest areas where our souls grow weak and we can no longer carry ourselves. 

As many of you know, I have a tattoo on my foot.  My tattoo has 3 tiny footprints and a reference, Isaiah 52:7.  This tattoo has a great deal of meaning to me, and as we head out of this trial, slightly downtrodden, but ever increasing with hope of what's to come, my tattoo gives me peace.  You see, one of my favorite poems has always been The Footprints in the Sand.  If you haven't read it, you should look it up and read it before I spoil the ending for you.  *spoiler alert*  At the end of the poem Jesus enlightens the man that when he saw only one set of footprints in the sand, during the times in his life that held the greatest trials and tribulation, it was during those times that Jesus carried the man, thus, a single set of footprints.  My tattoo has a single set of footprints.  And while the ink in my foot holds many more meanings for me, it is this single set of footprints that I want to focus on. 

The time Michael and I are going through at the moment is one of those trials.  I praise God that we have each other to help each other here on earth, a physical shoulder to cry and lean on.  So in our story there are 3 sets of footprints.  And Michael and I lean on each other, but when the burden is too much to bear, God steps in a carries each of us, sometimes at the same time.

But after a little over 2 weeks, I can say that the peace is coming.  It may not be completely here, but it is working it's way into my heart.  I'm so thankful for Michael who has held me tight in his arms through this whole unfortunate time.  He's been such an amazing rock for me.  And Avery has been a joy, as usual, making me focus on happier things in life.

So that's how I'm doing.  :)  Thanks for reading.

A Case of the Mondays

Wow!  Mondays are so difficult.  :(  After a nice weekend with Michael and Avery we are now back to Monday.  Michael is back off to work and I'm running around the house with Avery and Dayton.  Whew!  Only 8am and I'm already worn out!  If only we'd gotten to the grocery store this weekend, then I'd have coffee creamer and be able to wake myself up.  ;)  That's slated for tonight's family time activity.  ;)  I just want sleep.  -_-  zzzz....

I have many things on my to-do list this week.  I need to clean all the stuff I didn't get done last week: the living room, the nursery, Avery's new room, and the basement.  I need to hang up all of Avery's 12 month clothes in her closet and take her box of outgrown clothes downstairs.  I'm also going to clean out the closet in her new room and begin hanging all of her 18month+ clothes in there.  We plan on having her out of the nursery and into her own room between 15 and 18 months.

I need to go shopping this week.  This weekend I'm going to Manhattan for a combination bridal shower/bachelorette party.  I'll come home Saturday night because Linda is coming to visit on Sunday, but I'll miss the impromptu baby shower x 2 that will also be in Manhattan on Sunday.  So I need 4 gifts for this weekend!!  Maybe I'll get brave after the babies have their morning nap and we'll all head out to Target for some shopping.  :)  The work is never done around here...  *sigh*

Hoping this week goes well and that I'm rested and ready to see my friends, whom I haven't seen for quite some time, and family this weekend.  Another great thing, I don't work at all this weekend!!  Looking forward to a nice weekend with my family (except for Saturday when I'll be in Manhattan).  :)  Well, better begin tackling that to-do list.  Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go!

Wishing you a happy, productive, and energetic Monday.  :)

Sleepy

Boy can I tell it's Friday!  Wow!  I am exhausted.  I had big plans this morning of cleaning up the house, but in the short time that the babies slept, I just sat down and rested.  I have to close tonight at work, so that's going to make my day just a little bit longer.  Ugh.  Just worn out.  I think we need to start putting Avery to bed earlier, that way Michael and I still have time to ourselves in the evening, but we don't have to stay up quite so late to get that time.  The weekend also brings a little relief in that I only have Avery to watch.  I thought it would be a breeze adding Dayton in since he's so close in age to Avery, but their personality differences can be extremely tiring.  Dayton wants to be held a lot, he doesn't listen when he's told no, and he's walking so he's all over the house very fast, making it easy for him to get into things.  Avery is loud and loves to talk and shout, she's trying to stand and walk, but sometimes loses her balance which can hurt her or just make her mad, and she's a very easy going baby who can casually go from one toy to another with very little irritation when a toy is taken away.  The combination is draining.  But tomorrow is Saturday, tomorrow I get to sleep in (followed by an 8 hour shift).  :'(  I just want to rest.  *sigh*  Maybe another day.

Beautiful

My little girl is beautiful!  From her sweet smile and loving personality to her kind and gentle spirit.  She is beautiful inside and out.  The outside is easy to photograph.  She's a natural beauty and nearly every picture of her is amazing.  The beauty on the inside is harder to capture, but there are moments when I see it shining through.  When her Daddy comes home from work and she smiles to big and crawls towards him as quick as she can, that's beauty showing from the inside out.  When she's sleepy or hurt and she cuddles with me for comfort, her beauty shows from the inside out.  When she's eating and I'm admiring her and she smiles up at me as if she has some secret that only she knows, and then goes back to eating, that is her childish (in the best way) beauty showing from the inside out.  You can't capture laughter in a picture, but you can get close, and those pictures warm my soul.  I might not always catch her winning smile or her triumphant solo standing on camera, but the moments before and after remind me of those perfect moments, too fleeting to be caught on film.  She is my angel.