Mmmm..Cheese!

We put a full hamburger patty down for Avery to see what she would do with it. She proceeded to pick all the cheese off it! :) 

Avery's First School Pictures

Avery's daycare brought in a professional photographer to take pictures of all the kiddos.  It was such a great idea!  We didn't have to worry about booking a photographer and finding time to take our babies to get their pictures done.  Isn't she just the cutest?! :)  My favorite is the pouty picture at the end.

Deck the Halls

 Decking the halls was a little more difficult this year since Avery is mobile.  We didn't do as much as we normally do.  I didn't put up my village and regretted it.  I just couldn't find the time to get it done!  We did most of our decorating while Avery was napping and she didn't take enough naps for the village :)

Avery was fascinated that there was tree in our living room when she woke up from her nap!

The finished product!  Please ignore the mess...  Avery actually did better with the tree than we expected.  We only had to move a few ornaments that she was really interested in.  She shook the tree once and broke one ornament, but that's about it.  I guess it became normal to have a 10' tree in our living room!

Oh the weather outside was frightful...but NYC was so delightful!

On the first weekend of December, we left the crazy snow in NWA and headed to NYC and warmer weather.  We had all been looking forward to this trip and were not going to let a little snow get us down!  The trip definitely did not disappoint.  We had such a great time and got some great clothes.  Thanks Mom for the trip and thanks to both Cici and Aunt Sissy for helping Avery have such a great time!

Avery was helping us pack

Adam and I picked up Cici at a gas station along the way Pop wouldn't have to drive her all the way to the airport.  It was a good thing, too!  The airport had not done any work to their roads and I don't think Pop would have been able to tell where to turn into the airport.  

This was Avery's second time to fly and she did great!  She was a little wigglier than last time, but luckily she could wiggle between me, Cici and Aunt Sissy.  Sadly, the cute black bow didn't make it onto the plane... Maybe some other lucky little girl is now wearing that bow :)

Avery's first ride in a NYC cab.  She doesn't look too happy, but that's because she was starving and sick of being cooped up.

We all perked right up after having a good dinner (didn't get any pics) and hitting the town for a few hours of shopping.  First stop..Build a Bear!  This was the beginning of the "Avery parade."  This child has never met a stranger and loved smiling at all the people and all the exciting things to look at.  Next stop...the American Girl Store.  We just made a quick swipe through, but I'm sure we will be spending many hours here on future trips.

After a few more stores including a lot of smiling and waving in Saks, this little girl was tuckered out!

We had breakfast in Grand Central Station one morning.  This is always such a cool place - the building is just beautiful!

At the end of the first night, this little girl was VERY ready to get out of her stroller!  So we headed back to the hotel while Melissa and Mom did a little more shopping and pick up a Junior's Cheesecake for dinner.

Yes...we really did eat a Junior's Cheesecake for dinner and we were not ashamed!  Even Avery had her 1st bite of cheesecake, and her 2nd bite and 3rd bite, etc.  She kept going back for more from her Cici and Aunt Sissy. She even did a few tricks for some more.  They might have spoiled her just a little on the trip :)

We made a stop at the Macy's mailbox and mailed a letter to Santa.  Avery asked for a tooth!  Unfortunately Santa couldn't come through, but he got her lots of other goodies.

After the first day, we started taking Avery out of her stroller every time we went inside a store.  She did so much better and loved being able to see what was going on.  It was a little hard to shop with a baby on our hip, but between the 3 of us we were able to manage.  We also spent lots of time waiting in lines for changing rooms to nurse in.  NYC is not very nursing friendly at Christmas time - everything was so crowded.

On our last full day we rode the subway to several areas for shopping at Century 21 and Chelsea.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be with a stroller, but I wouldn't want to attempt it by myself.  Usually Mom or Melissa would carry Avery while I carried the stroller, heaved it over turnstiles, etc.  The next morning I woke up sore on my right side and couldn't figure out why until I remembered all that stroller carrying I had done!

On our way back to the hotel, it started to snow and we stopped to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza.  No matter how many times you see it, it is still awe inspiring.  Avery was asleep, so she missed it but I'm sure she will get another chance.

As usual, the last day was a mad scramble to spend the rest of our money, then we headed to the airport.  The flight was really long coming home and was late getting in.  As you can tell from this picture of Avery, it was a rough flight :)

Sweaty crazy hair from napping and covered in biscoff cookie!

 Check out Melissa and Mom's blogs about the trip for more pics and info!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

We took advantage of having Dad's truck at Thanksgiving to take some photos for our Christmas card.  We got several really cute pics and it was so hard to decide which one to use.  Here are some of my favorites.

I thought the ones with us in the truck were really cute, but you can barely see Adam :(