Pictures!

It's been awhile since I had just a picture post and there are so many I want to share. Here goes!

These are the rest of our favorites of her 8-month pictures done by our niece, Cassie Kendall.

The much-loved "bully face"

First time standing all the way up on her own

Safari Baby

Just a cute smile

First time in the "big" bathtub

"You can't keep anything from me now!"

Cruising

"I'm going to pull aaaaall these toys out!"

Her latest "thing" is squinting for pictures

That's all for now!

Standing up (live action)!

So, we know Averie has pulled herself up but this is the first time we got a VIDEO of her doing it! Yippee! Check it out. There are two separate "instances" of her pulling herself up with a short transition between the two so you can tell them apart. Enjoy!

Sneak Preview

As I mentioned in Averie's 8-month blog post, my niece Cassie took some pictures of Averie for us. We just got a sneak preview and if this picture is anything like the rest of them, I am going to be on pins and needles waiting to see the others!

Our angel

Standing up!

This afternoon, Averie was napping and then we heard her crying over the baby monitor. We decided to just leave her because she had only been asleep for a short time and we knew she needed to sleep longer, and if we just let her fuss for a little bit, she almost always goes back to sleep. Well, after 15 minutes, she was still crying so we went in and found her like this!
Standing up all by herself! Good thing we lowered the crib mattress a notch a few days ago!

And to give you some perspective, the blue bib in her hand was on top of that pile on the other side of the crib, and she had tossed aside the cardboard hanger it was originally on (how did she get that off?!)....
We were feeling a little guilty that she had been standing up and crying that whole time -- presumably because she couldn't figure out how to sit back down (a common problem when babies first learn to stand on their own) -- but then we were just so proud of her!

I wonder when will she take her first steps unassisted. I doubt it's very far off.

8 Months!

Averie turned 8 months old yesterday! Our niece Cassie took some great pictures of her that I can't wait to share. In the meantime, Averie has made some BIG accomplishments in the last month.

First of all, she has started getting up on all fours in "crawling position." She doesn't crawl forward on her hands and knees yet but she does rock back and forth (like she's raring to go!).
She's a fast little army crawler though and there's been more than one time that I have set her down on the floor to play, turned around for a minute, turned back and found her all the way across the room, getting into trouble! :)

Averie is a pro at sitting now too and very rarely tips over anymore (and when she does, she can usually catch herself before she face plants). She also just learned how to sit up on her own from laying down (on her stomach).

Pushing up, then sitting up straight

And last, but certainly not least - Averie has started pulling herself up to stand! Today she made the most progress she has ever had. Started with this...

Then to this!

Now, I freely admit that this last picture, we gave her a little nudge to get onto her feet from her knees...
But from there, she supported herself entirely with her own arms and legs for a good 7 seconds!! So proud of our baby girl! And with that, it's baby-proofing time!

Other "fun facts" about Averie:
Favorite food - Sweet potatoes. Boy am I glad that one of her favorite foods is a veggie. She loves her pureed sweet potatoes and also the sweet potato flavored Gerber puffs that she gets as a treat and to learn how to chew.

Diapers - She is in size 2-3 Pampers right now, but we only have a few left and will probably be moving to size 3 Huggies in the next couple days. We'll play it by ear though - the 2-3s are still pretty roomy on her so we might need more of those before moving into full-blown size 3.

Clothes - Averie has FINALLY moved into 6 to 9 month clothes! Most of the 6-12 month sized things are still too big, but the 6-9s fit well.

I can't believe how fast she is growing and how much she has changed just in the past couple weeks.

Smith's Double Coupon Days

It's been awhile since my last coupon post and I definitely wanted to share this one.

Smith's is making all coupons $1.00 again! So a $0.20 coupon is now a $1, $0.50 is now a $1 and so on. Last time they did this, it made for some super cheap ketchup and mustard, and I bought a few more to add to my stockpile (who can turn down 25 cent ketchup?)! Here's my haul from today:
I spent $22.55 and saved $54 (71% savings!).

Items I'm most proud of (besides the aforementioned ketchup) - three 5-pound bags of sugar plus 30 packets of Kool-Aid for $6! Two bags of sugar alone would have cost more than that! Also, relish was free and two boxes of Trix were $0.44 each.

I also scored a sweet $3.50 catalina to use on my next purchase (for buying 5 or more boxes of the fruit snacks) and a second catalina for $1.50 off 3 boxes of General Mills (probably from the Trix?).

I was also pleased to see that it looks like Smith's was a little bit more on top of keeping the shelves stocked than last time. This time, I only missed out on one item. The double coupon days go through June 29 so you still have some time, but who knows how long the stock will last!

Sprinklers

Remember setting up the sprinkler in the backyard as a kid and running and jumping through it and playing and everyone having a great time?

Yeah. Not my daughter.
In her defense, it was very close to nap time when we went out to play in the water with our neighbor Morgan and her boy Ethan. Hopefully next time will be a better experience :).

Crash!

On Saturday morning, we were on our way to a family function in Salt Lake. As we turned off of our road onto Center Street to head to the freeway, another driver turned left out in front of us. There was definitely not enough time to stop and...
Ours is the white car. Chris and Averie were unharmed, thank goodness. Even though I was wearing my seat belt, I slid forward on the leather and banged my knee on the glove box. I also got my first ride in an ambulance that day (obviously nothing life threatening but had no other way to get to the hospital).
It's very swollen and very bruised but otherwise okay.

We have to throw out Averie's infant carrier seat (not safe to use after it's been in a crash) but the insurance will pay for a new one so I guess the silver lining is we'll have a shiny new car seat for our next baby!

It's inconvenient to be without our second car - neither of us likes Averie and me being here without any transportation - but hopefully the repairs don't take long and we'll have our other car back in no time.

7 Months!

Averie is another month older! I can't believe we're more than halfway to a year now. She is still wearing size 2 diapers and her 3 to 6 month sized clothes. If it it were still long pants weather, I think we would have moved onto 6 to 12 clothes already - her 3 to 6 month pants are perfect in the waist but are now too short! Luckily, it's getting into warmer weather (yay, shorts!) so pant length isn't as critical.

New accomplishments and "tricks":
Standing - She does not pull herself up yet but will stand for extended periods of time holding onto the furniture if we put her there. Still no real interest in crawling, but if she's anything like I was as a baby, she will skip right past crawling for the most part and go straight to walking.
Gargling - This is a funny one :).
High-pitched screaming - A not so funny one. There is no rhyme or reason to the screaming but we just hope she outgrows this very soon.
Wiggling her nose like a rabbit
Making kissy noises

Favorite toys (in order of preference):
Any paper that can be crumpled, torn to shreds or eaten (receipts and newspaper ads are preferred, LOL)
Fan remote
Empty water bottle
The ones we actually spent money on :)

We co-slept with Averie in our bed shortly after she started teething - it was just easier on all of us. At about 6 1/2 months, we decided it was time for her to move back to her crib. We hadn't planned to do so but we ended up going with the "cry it out" (CIO) method. The first night was definitely the hardest (total 30 minutes of crying) but it's been smooth sailing since. She is back to sleeping 11 hours straight through in her crib, and Chris and I are very happy to have her out of our bed!

Averie is a Daddy's girl through and through - her entire face just lights up as soon as she hears the key in the door that means Daddy is home!

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Chris turned 27 last Thursday but sadly, he had to work. We did make up for it with a a wonderful celebration that weekend though! My parents offered to babysit for us - a real sacrifice for them, I know ;-) - and Chris and I went to Rodizio Grill for lunch and then saw IronMan 2 in the theater. Both the lunch and the movie were fabulous.

On Sunday, we went to my parents' house for dinner, cake and presents. My dad made dinner (delicious, as always) and I made this cake. The cake was a huge hit! After dinner and cake, Chris opened his gifts:
My parents gave him a new game for our Wii and a movie theater gift card (hmmm...ulterior motive to get to babysit Averie more often? We think so :-D). I gave him some new headphones for his iPod and a crepe maker.

I am just so blessed to have Chris in my life. He is a fantastic husband and an even more wonderful father. Love you!