It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... :)

I know, I know...Christmas is OVER, but...I have lots of cute pictures from the days leading up to our celebration of Jesus's birthday! :)

Our little family lit the advent candle in both services at church a few weeks ago! I just loved the little outift I dressed Avaree up in. It was from a sweet lady that works with my mom!! :)

 She sees the camera a lot. Thus, she is purposely not looking at me. Stinker!

 This is Ave's BFF #1, affectionately named "Penguin." Penguin is small and pink.

 BFF #2 is "Paz." Paz (also a penguin) is large and black/white. Paz is named after the main character in one of her favorite shows, "Ready, Set, Learn." She absolutely knows the difference between the two. We can say, "Where's Penguin?" and she'll go find the little pink one and love on it. :)

 Love Paz... :)

 Playing with Daddy is in Avaree's Top Five! :)

 Look at Daddy's face in this one...too funny!

 A courtesy look at the camera... :)

 Respite with Mama after the tickle war was over... :)

 Love this smile! She's even gotten another tooth since this was taken! :)

 Daddy put together the kitchen that Granmama and Pop Pop got Ave for Christmas! She loved "helping" Daddy. :)

 We are looking forward to several years of fun with this kitchen.

 The other side of the kitchen is a little "diner." So cute. :)

 I brought my camera to Mrs. Donna's house the last day before Christmas break! :) These pictures are priceless.

Playing at Mrs. Donna's house. (It is a kid's disney world, for sure! Not to mention it has one amazing lady with endless patience that loves on you all day long!)

 A kiss from Mrs. Donna!

 Singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with Mrs. Donna!

 Kya and Trista--two precious little girls that stay with Avaree at Mrs. Donna's!!!

 love...

 Sweet Tatum. This is Trista's older sister that stayed with Avaree at Mrs. Donna's last year. She's a doll.

 Too sweet!! Those Bridges girls are soooo beautiful. (Of course, so is their Mama!)

 Back home....this is what Avaree does to the coffee pot. I have two thoughts: 1) Yes...she loves coffee just like her mama. 2) Really? Let's never do this in real life. :)

 This is my rocking chair from when I was a little bitty girl. Of course, it might be Spencer's. We're not sure! :)

 Brandon and I knew that we wouldn't get any alone time during Christmas so we opened our gifts from each other before we left town!

Daddy opening... He is the only one that got a stocking at our house this year! He must be reallllllly special! :)

 Mama opening.... (a massage and photo editing software....YAY!!!!!!!!!)

a gift card to Best Buy....yay!!!!!

 Brandon decided last year that he wanted one of our family's traditions to be watching a movie together on Christmas Eve. Well, we knew we wouldn't be home on C.E. this year, so we did it early also! We were soooo excited to show Avaree happy feet (she's in love with penguins, in case you didn't know!), and she really liked it! She watched a little, and played a little...:)

 We also had our Christmas with sweet Uncle Spencer and Shannon early!

Avaree loved putting the bows on Shannon! :)

 Showing off her beautiful new coat that Uncle S and Shannon got her!!!

 Giving Shannon a kiss... :)

 Sweet, sweet picture! :) Uncle Spencer and Shannon also babysat for us a couple of weeks ago, so that we could go to the FBC Hurst Staff Christmas party. THANK YOU, you two! You are both so wonderful!!!

Coming up: Three Christmases (Bridge City, College Station, and Hemphill). :) Stay tuned!

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas together. Above all, we hope you had a chance to celebrate the birth of our Risen Savior! :)

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Happy 15 Months, baby girl!

To celebrate Avaree's 15-month birthday, we took her to the park by our house late this afternoon. It was beautiful, and I LOVED my photography subjects! :)

 Swinging is probably one of Ave's favorite thing in the whole entire world. It's right behind Mama, penguin, Daddy tickling her, "Hi-5" and mandarin oranges. :)

 my two loves... :)

 Who do you think is having more fun? :)

 We can now add sliding to her list of favorite things. :)

 And of course it is perfectly logical to want to get back to the top and do it again. Why wouldn't you just climb right back up? That's what she thought too.... :)

 She's stubborn....I wonder where she gets that? :)

 beautiful angel

At 15 months, Avaree is a little person. She is enamored with three objects right now: her pink penguin, named "Penguin"; her life-size Paz; and Eebee Weebie. She can't take Paz to bed with her (not that she hasn't tried), but she alternates between Penguin and Eebee most every night. Avaree's latest achievement is sharing. She will share with Mama, Daddy, Penguin, Eebee, Mrs. Donna and pretty much anyone except the little boys in her class at church. :) I had been modeling sharing with her dolls, but I was so excited when she shared with me unprompted. She is still a good eater, but has gotten pickier. Everyone says that it is just the toddler phase and she'll grow out of it, but I work hard to make sure she eats all of her food groups right now. We are currently on Christmas Vacation and loooooooving being home together. Avaree even slept until five till 8 this morning! It was glorious.

We will be traveling for Christmas and New Year's, so more posts will be coming soon! :) Thank you for loving our sweet baby girl. I can't imagine loving anything more...

Bye, Bye Baby...

It's true. My baby very seldom acts like a baby anymore. While it is absolutely bittersweet to say "bye bye" to her baby stage, it is so fun to see her learn and grow every day!

I am absolutely behind on EVERYTHING around here, so my apologies for a super-long post! :) We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to celebrating Jesus's birthday in just a few short weeks! Meanwhile, a lot has happened around our house... :)



Avaree brushes her own teeth!

(Or at least, she enjoys holding it in her mouth after Mama has brushed her teeth with the toothpaste!)

 GiGi and G-Pops came for a visit the week before Thanksgiving!

 Riding in style in her new shopping cart!

 She loves to shop... :) (Watch out, Daddy!)

 Dancing with GiGi...

 "Itsy Bitsy" with Daddy!!!!!

 I think this picture is hilarious! Avaree was mad at me for trying to take her picture when all she wanted was to dig in Shannon's glass of water. (Please note her mean stare...haha, it's too cute not to laugh at her!)

 All pretty before church a few weeks ago. It was one of the random 80 degree days we had! :)

 Reason # 5,367 that we LOVED Thanksgiving Break: Mommy and Ave stayed in their jammies until after lunch on Monday! That was the only day that we had to relax and play...so we did it up right! :) She was doing "touchdown" to distract me from the fact that she wasn't eating her meat! ha! :)

 New skill # 3000 for the month: Avaree can feed herself with a spoon!!!

Putting mashed potatoes on her spoon....

... and in her mouth with minimal spillage! :)

 Daddy getting the turkey ready on Thanksgiving Eve. I'm sure that you can tell by this picture that we were beyond delirious. We had had a long adventure to Houston and back by way of College Station that day! Thank you, Daddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*And, though I don't have any pictures to show, we did get to see Poppa and Niecey over the break too! They met us in Houston and played with, rocked, held Avaree while Mama was in the doctor's office! We are so grateful for them and can't wait to go to Bridge City for Christmas! :)

 Mama, Daddy and Ave on Thanksgiving!!!

 YES...we were together for a little while over the break! :) And GOOO Cowboys! Brandon (and the rest of the men on my Mom's side of the family) got to go to the Cowboys v. Saints game. They had a blast!

 Ave laughing at Paz and Pop Pop! :)

 Relaxing with Great-Maw Maw!

 Showing off her jacket with Granmama!

 Uncle D's legs are a fun jungle gym!!!

 "This Little Light of Mine" with GiGi!

 Dancing with Uncle Darrin...!!! We looove Aunt Jamie too! Somehow, I didn't get a picture of she and Ave together! :(

 Sweet Ave in her beautiful dress from GiGi/G-Pops

 In case you ever wondered why Brandon calls Avaree "Pooper face"....haha! :)

 Cuddling with Granmama!!

and

Pearson Family Thanksgiving 2010! This was the first time in years that we were all together and it was soooo fun! :)

 My sweet girl...

I am no Kerri, but last week I took a few pictures of Allie Tingle at Prestonwood, and of course I snapped a few of Ave too! :)

 I love precious Allie's face here... :)