Pierced Ears

I think baby girls look so cute with their ears pierced! I always said that if I had a girl, I would pierce her ears when she is a baby. Casey and I decided that 4 months is a good age to get them done. She turns 4 months tomorrow and we got her ears pierced yesterday. Casey's mom pierced them and my sister-in-law, Jessica, helped. Casey and I went outside and sat in the jeep until she was done because we didn't want to hear her cry. About 5 minutes later, they came out and got us. They said she did so good! She didn't even cry the first ear but then she cried when they did the other ear. I guess it wore her out because she fell right to sleep on the way home and then when she woke up, she was her happy self again. They don't bother her at all and she looks even more girly now. I love it!

Before 

After 

Pregnant with Avery

When I was looking through my pictures the other day, I noticed I don't have any posts about my baby belly. Eventually I am going to print my blog posts so I can have them as a journal and I definitely want my baby belly pictures as one of the pages.
Looking at the pictures brings back so many memories. I remember thinking how big I thought I was at 22 weeks then how huge I actually was at 39 weeks!  At one point I thought I would never start showing and then my belly popped out of no where. At the end of my pregnancy, my stomach looked like I swallowed a basketball because of how round it was.
I took pictures randomly of my baby belly. I wish I would have taken consistent weekly pictures and in the same position, that way it would be easier to see how much my stomach grew. I probably shouldn't have taken all the pictures with my stomach showing and in the morning when I look rough as ever. Oh well...I'll fix these problems for my next pregnancy.

Valentine's Day

We had a fun Valentine's Day this year! I woke up and tried to be super quiet so I could decorate Casey's office. I made a bunch of heart paper chains and strung them around the whole room. It turned out really cute. I wrote him a poem for Valentine's Day and laid that on his desk with a Happy Valentine's Day sign. It was more of a sentimental gift this year, so I hope he liked it! I went in the kitchen and on the counter was a sweet letter from my husband and next to it was a chocolate rose and a huge Reese's chocolate heart. He knows how much I love chocolate! At the end of the note he told me to pack our bags because he is taking Avery and I to Salt Lake to stay in a hotel and also to see Safe Haven, a new chick flick. I love weekend getaways! Also on the counter was a little stuffed animal he bought for Avery. He is such a sweet dad!

I came home from work and played with Avery. I love coming home to her cute smiley face! We took a couple Valentine pictures since it was her first Valentine's Day. 

Her shirt says: Daddy's Little Sweetie

  

Casey finished working for the day and then we had some friends stop by to visit. They have a little boy that is about 2 months older than Avery. It was so fun watching them stare at each other and get excited! We were taking pictures and Tate grabbed Avery's hand a couple times. She didn't know what to think. He's putting the moves on her for Valentine's Day. Smart boy! This picture will be fun to show them when they get older. We had a great time visiting with Tyler and Megan. They have such a cute family!

After I got off work on Friday, we left for Salt Lake. We checked in to our hotel and then went to eat before Safe Haven. Avery did really well at the movies. Then we went back to our hotel and got ready to go swimming! It was Avery's first time at the swimming pool so we were excited to see her reaction. 

Casey got in the pool first with her and he dipped in her the water a little bit. She didn't know what to think. She had a stunned look on her face, probably because the water was pretty chilly for being a heated pool. She whimpered a little bit so we didn't keep her in for long. 

I got in the pool with her afterwards. The water was way too cold for me which is why I'm all tensed up in the picture. Gosh I need a tan! 

We laid Avery down while we got in the hot tub! It was my first time in a hot tub since before I was pregnant. Wow, I forget how much I missed it. 

I loved getting away for a night and just spending time with my baby and my husband!!

Skills

I think it is so amazing how babies acquire new skills and they aren't even taught how to do them. I love watching Avery grow and develop even though it's sad she isn't a teeny baby anymore. Casey and I love how she is getting older and reacting to everything and also smiling so much. She is such a happy baby!

I sit in the back seat with her when our we drive places and sometimes Avery just stares at me. I think it is the cutest thing. Her eyebrows are down and she just sucks on her binky and stares. 

Avery hates tummy time. Sometimes she will only last like 2 minutes on her tummy. I use the boppy to help lift her up a little bit or else her face would be squished into the floor and that makes her even more mad. I have been slacking on doing tummy time because I know she hates it so much. Well....the other day I put her on the boppy and of course she just laid there like she always does. 

 

Then all of the sudden, she lifted her head up! This is a huge accomplishment for her, being that she hates tummy time. I think she finally has it down because she did it on another occasion. Now she just needs to do it without the boppy. We'll have to work on that one.

 

She has mastered holding onto little toys, which is fun because I felt bad when she just sat there doing nothing. She thinks she's pretty smart!

I love my baby girl!

New Blog

I had to start a new blog because my last blog wouldn't save any of the changes I made. It was so frustrating because I wanted to change the font, color of my font and other stuff but it wouldn't let me. Ugh. And I'm not an extreme blogger so I couldn't figure out how to fix the problem. Therefore, I had to start all over with a new blog. That's okay though because I had fun making my new blog!

Disneyland Vacation

I can now say I have finally been to Disneyland!! We went with Casey's family and had such an amazing time. It was nice to have a vacation and spend time together as a family. Avery had a lot of first's on this trip: first vacation, first time touching sand, first time going to Vegas, and first time to Disneyland. Too bad she won't remember any of it. Good thing we have pictures!

We started Disneyland off with Breakfast with Minnie and Friends. While we ate, the characters walked around and visited us and we were able to take pictures with them! Avery didn't know what to think. She just stared at them. The food was also amazing and I definitely ate way too much.

The rest of the day we walked around, rode rides, and took a bunch of pictures! We walked soooo much. By the end of the day we were all exhausted, but it was definitely worth it.

Avery was such a good baby the whole entire time. She just chilled in her stroller and looked around or slept. We took her on a lot of the little kid rides and she loved it!