Avery's Dedication Day

A couple of Sundays ago, Avery participated in the Infant Dedication at church. It was such a special day for our little one. We feel so incredibly blessed to be chosen as Avery's parents. She has brought so much joy to our lives, and we are so thankful for her. During the service, we, as Avery's parents, vowed to help her with her faith journey so that one day she will choose Jesus as her Savior. She will then be Baptized once she has made that commitment herself.

We had lunch at our house before the service and then headed up to the church. There were 6 babies involved in the service- 3 for infant dedication and 3 for infant baptism. We were in the first group to go up on stage. Avery decided that it would be a good idea to lift up her dress so that the entire audience could see her belly. NOT appropriate Ave! She thinks that she looks so good that everyone must see! Billy was on the ball and quickly pulled it down. Avery also was fascinated with Pastor Ken and couldn't keep her eyes off of him while he was holding her. It was really sweet! Here are some pictures from the day-

Up on stage

Soaking up every word from Pastor Ken

The Zipps Family

The Glass Family

Avery loves her Godparents!

We can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for Avery's future!

Bring on 2011!

I have never had wild and crazy New Years Eve nights; however, this year was by far the most tame. Having a 6 month old limits the amount of activities that we could do but we managed to make some plans with friends.

We started out at Pappasitos. We figured that the restaurant is nice and loud so the babies could be noisy. I also love, love, love their fajitas. We were placed in a private room, and there was even some musical entertainment.

Checking out what was on the menu

Luke dancing to the tunes!

Jackson loved the music too

Avery patiently let us eat our food

After dinner, we headed back to our house. The plan was to get the babies to bed so that we could have some down time with just adults. Before putting them to bed, we decided to have a photoshoot with the babies in jammies.

This is the best one I could get of the three. Poor Luke always gets stuck between these crazy two. (Jackson hadn't gotten to the house yet)

The babies sure looked cute in their party hats!

Hmm...

We then put the babies to sleep. The one thing that we did not anticipate was all of the firecrackers. They were horrible! I never thought that I would be one of those people who think firecrackers should be finished by 9pm but I definitely was this year! Don't people know that babies are trying to sleep??? So, 3 out of the 4 babies went to sleep but Jackson wanted to party it up with the adults. We had a good hour or so of fun and then little by little, the babies started to wake up. Poor Luke woke up with a fever so Ash and Kyle headed home. We decided to call it a night at around 10:30. I actually was pretty proud that we made it that late! Bill and I decided to stay up long enough to see the ball drop in New York at 11:00 pm. I think we were both asleep by 11:10. Oh well! I guess that is the trade off for having all of our sweet babies with us this year. 2010 welcomed so many wonderful changes to our lives. I can't wait to see what 2011 has to offer!

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas was so special this year. Having a baby brings so much joy to the holiday! Even though Avery didn't really have a clue what was going on, we had a lot of fun with her.

We started the holiday off by attending the 2:00 pm Christmas Eve service at Faithbridge with Bill's fam. I absolutely love this service every year. Ben Stuart did a great job making the message relevant to each person in the audience. Now that I'm a mom, I felt like I could relate more to Mary this year. It's amazing to think that Mary gave birth to an innocent, helpless baby who would eventually become our Savior. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the presents and decorations and forget about what the holiday is all about. Thankfully, the Christmas Eve service always seems to put our minds and hearts back on to what is important.

After church, we came back to our house for dinner. Avery took a good long nap, so we were able to prepare dinner and eat. What a wonderful Christmas present she gave to us- a peaceful meal. Bill did a great job making his deboned, stuffed chickens and ham. What a great chef he is!

The group after dinner (minus Wendy who was taking the picture)

Avery woke up just in time for presents. She didn't want to miss out!

Mesmerized by her gifts

Getting some love by her Great Nana

Grace wanted some love too- she is ridiculous!

We had such a good Christmas Eve with Billy's family! After everyone left and Avery went to bed, Bill and I watched It's A Wonderful Life. Several years ago, my dad forced my sisters and me to watch it (it is 3 hours long and black and white so I wasn't thrilled at the idea). I loved it so much that I forced Billy to watch it when we first got married. He really liked it too. It is such a good movie that just makes you feel happy after you watch it.

We didn't have to be anywhere until 3 pm on Christmas day, so we were able to have a relaxing morning. We had a breakfast of cinnamon rolls (for us) and peas (sorry Ave, that doesn't sound too appetizing!)

So excited!

Stocking time

Ignore my awkward position- she was still lopping over in the sitting position at this point

The sweet book that Bill made for me. I literally had a few tears well up as I looked through it.

Loving her new kitchen

Around 2 pm, we headed over to my parents house to drop off Shelby before going over to my Aunt and Uncle's house.

Passed out in the car

Shelby could not have gotten a better Christmas gift. She LOVES riding in cars. It made her day. Notice that she has shotgun and not me!

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures over at my Aunt and Uncle's house. We stayed the night at my parent's house that night so I snuck a few in there.

We left her red shoes in the car so picture them on her

Getting a little sleepy

But not too sleepy to open a few more presents!

It had been a while since she had slept in another place so I didn't have very high expectations. She did great, though! She even slept in until 9am. We were shocked that she did so well.

The next morning, Papa and Jackie came to do yet another Christmas (I loved that they were so spread out so I didn't get stressed or overwhelmed). We had some brunch, followed by presents, and then game time.

Loving on Jackie

Showing off her new cell phone

One side of the table

...and the other

We are so overwhelmingly blessed to have great family to spend Christmas with. We made some fun memories, and I cannot wait until next year when Ave understands it all a little more!