Merry Christmas!

Impromptu Photo Shoot

I know I haven't written much on the blog lately... Really the only thing that has happened lately was our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. We had lots of fun and Avery got to meet a lot of family/friends for the first time. She did pretty well flying (with the exception few melt downs). She came home pretty spoiled from all the extra attention, not to mention her schedule was all out of whack... Unfortunately we didn't take very many pictures on the trip. We always forget to use the camera when we see family.

It was a really nice day on Sunday (for December) and Avery was wearing a cute outfit, so I took her out around the corner from our house for an impromptu photo shoot. It didn't last very long... All she wanted to do was walk towards me and touch the camera, I did manage to get a few good ones though. Avery is 16 months this month... She has been growing and learning a lot lately. She is walking really well now, and is finally starting to learn some more words. She is very social and friendly, and likes to wave and say "Hi!" to everyone at church, the store, pretty much everywhere. She always finds a way to get lots of attention!

Look what I can do!

For those of you who haven't seen Avery's latest trick-

Avery update

Avery had her 15 month check up today and I am happy to announce that she is officially on the charts! 

This is big people! 

Here are her stats:

18 lbs 6 oz......3rd percentile

29 inches tall.....15th percentile

17 3/4 inches (head circ.).........25th percentile

Avery is always on the move. She is taking  several steps on her own, but crawling is still much more efficient.  The last couple of days she has started to stand up from sitting on her own.  We took away her binky a few months ago. The adjustment wasn't too bad, it only took a week or two to get over it.  She  drinks from a sippy cup, but she still has a bottle right before bed.  We are still working on words.  She says mommy/mama, daddy/dada.  She says lots of other gibberish, and has a few funny phrases (still gibberish) that are her favorites. She is doing really well on solid foods, but still eats baby food as well.  Her favorites are yogurt, applesauce, sliced bananas, mandarin oranges, diced peaches, diced pears, cooked carrots, ice cream, popsicles.  Anytime we are eating and she isn't, she gets right up in your face with her mouth open like a baby bird.  She usually still takes two naps during the day.  She is starting to learn what NO means...but usually just smiles at you and does it anyway.  She thinks it is funny to watch our reaction as she turns the dish receiver off and on while we are watching a show.  She also loves to empty any drawer or cabinet that is not locked, and scatter/suck on every item she pulls out.

She is a funny happy little girl that loves just about everyone.  She gets more and more personality everyday and we love her to pieces!

Here are a few recent pics

 

Moo!

 After much debate (scary vs. cute), we decided to go with cheap and easy.  So a cow it is!  We played around with some pink fabric to make an utter... but it turned out border line inappropriate.  So we scratched that idea and added a bow instead!  Avery loved wearing it and was very cooperative while taking pictures.  She was in a cute/funny mood so I just couldn't decide on one or two pictures, so here are a bunch!

 

Saturday we went to our wards trunk or treat/dinner.

 I dusted off the old bat wings once again and we walked in the costume parade.

Rand put Avery's candy bag on her head as a joke. 

She thought it was funny and kept it on for a good 10 minutes while she played.

 

The pumpkins!  We did a puking pumpkin for the third year in a row.  All the kids love it and seem to remember it from year to year.  I guess it is a tradition now!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Whiteman air show (finally!)

Last month we went to the air show held at Whiteman Air Force Base just down the road from us. This year was the second year we have been able to go, and it is well worth spending all day in the heat and sun. It was a pretty hot that day but it was a lot of fun. Avery did really well, she even took a good nap despite the noise, heat, etc... We were also lucky to get a spot in the shade pretty much the whole time.
There was a lot of different aircraft performances and demonstrations. This year the big headlining act was the Air Force Thunderbirds. They flew right at the end, and on the 1st day of the show a lightning storm started rolling in towards the end and ended up cutting their performance short. We were very dissapointed because they were so amazing and fun to watch. We decided to head back at the very end of the 2nd day of the show just to see the full Thunderbirds performance. It was well worth another trip, the full performance was awesome! Rand took TONS of pictures and we had to go through 2 or 3 rounds of eliminating photos to get down to these. There is still a lot, so buckle up!

They had lots of static displays on the ground. These are the B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit, and the Apache.

The Army Golden Knights parachuting team opened up the show

The A-10 Thunderbolts here at Whiteman did a formation flyby. There was also a Vietnam reenactment with all of the helicopters from that time period.

This crazy girl did an awesome wing walking routine. If you enlarge the pictures you can see her just hanging out while the pilot did all kinds of aerobatics.

These guys did some pretty cool formation and stunt stuff.

This is the F/A-18 Hornet. The newer fighter jets are always some of the funnest ones to watch.

This is the B-2 Spirit stationed at Whiteman, we get to see these all the time. 

Whiteman is the only base that B-2 is stationed at.

And the Thunderbirds... (these were the pictures we had to cut down the most) They were very fast and very loud, most of the small children were crying when they came screaming by.

They did a lot of crazy maneuvers and formation stunts.

 I'm sure you can tell that Rand coached me a lot on this post, I hope you made it through!