How the time flys!!!

We just realized that we have not updated the blog since May....that seems impossible! Avery is growing almost as fast as the time is racing by. Just tonight she measured right at 36" and when we picked up Zoey from the vet the other day she was 31-1/2lbs on the scale. She is getting bigger every day, and learning so many new words and phrases. There are times when you have to remind yourself that you are still talking to an "almost" 2-1/2 year old because her vocabulary is quite advanced. She uses words like dangerous in a complete sentence. Wonder why? Maybe because she hears her parents explain to her time and time again that she needs to stay off of certain objects because they are dangerous. Avery is very busy and almost never sits still. She loves to be outside collecting rocks and playing hopskotch with her sidewalk chalk. She also likes to run, and she does it "a lot"! Tonight her and Mommy were running up and down the front sidewalk like they were doing sprints for Tough Mudder training or something. She also enjoys looking for airplanes and almost everything to do with nature or animals, I have to admit that makes me smile! When she is inside she likes to play with Legos, read books, watch Caliou (sp?) and other movies, play with her dolls and harrass Zoey. She also loves to act like a lion and roar at you while asking you to be a lion too. Hide and seek is another favorite along with making her Daddy pretend to be a doggy and riding on his back. That one is great fun and really strengthens the knees a lot!

Another new skill is her ability and desire to talk on the phone. She is getting better at it and can now have a short conversation with someone. Here is a picture from her trip with Mommy to Galesburg, IL where she was showing off her phone skills. It won't be long and we will wish we never taught her this! We hope everyone enjoyed catching up on the goings on around here and we wish you all the best!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!! It has been way too long since our last update, and for that we apologize. 2012 has proven to be a whirlwind with family events and work and all the other business that comes along with an almost 2 year old. Yes, Avery will be 2 on June 13th....that's next month already!!! In the spirit of Mother's Day Avery and Daddy tried to let Mommy sleep in this morning but, Avery was insistent on making sure Mommy was up. The two of them went to the library on Friday and rented several books and a few are "Caillou Books". The first thing she did this morning when she got up was yell, "Mommy read Caillou Books!"....so much for Daddy trying to keep the house quiet so Mommy could sleep in. The trip to the library was amusing in itself. She was running down the aisle at the library on Mommy's instruction and picking out 10 books. Avery would grab one, toss it on the floor, and quickly move on to the next one. Erin was frantically trying to keep up with her, collecting the books behind her as she turned the library into a scene from the Tazmanian Devil cartoon. Avery loves books, so much in fact that she wants all of them to herself and sometimes has a hard time deciding which ones she wants to read. We hope her love for books stays this strong as she gets older!

Yesterday we took a trip to the Deanna Rose Children's Farm in Overland Park, KS. Avery loved it and got to feed the goats. She also got a lesson on why you do not charge in on animals or, in this case, birds. There were two geese that we are pretty sure just flew in for a free meal from the outside world. These geese were fairly straight forward in what they wanted, food. As Avery charged in on the female, she stuck her beak out and nipped at Avery's fingers in search of food. Avery, being the fearless little one that she is just stood there while Mommy and Daddy's brains went "ut oh" and we raced over and grabbed her quickly. Anyone who knows anything about geese knows that if you upset them, it can get ugly really quick, especially when you are about the same height as one. Luckily we were able to get to her before that goose decided to turn her inside out in search of food. Avery still has no idea what happened really, and was unaware that the male (the larger goose) was flanking her from the side about to tag team her with the female....crisis averted!!!

Last weekend Avery and Daddy went fishing together for the first time. What a blast....she was so funny when we caught the first fish. Her squeels of excitement could be heard for miles I bet in the still morning air. She caught five blue gills in five casts and was mostly fascinated by the bobber, not the fish. She also was very intrigued by the worms....go figure. I am pretty sure Daddy had the most fun of the two and he cannot wait until she is old enough to do more things together in the outdoors!

Avery is quite the busy little girl and aside from reading books, she absolutely loves to be outside. She enjoys playing with ther plastic golf clubs, soccer ball, collecting rocks, chasing bumble bees, running, riding on her trike, and anything else she can find to do outside. She's always on the go and never tires it seems. She is also learning so much about communication right now. Everyday she picks up a new word or learns how to extend sentences farther out to better explain what she wants to say. Her temper tantrums have lessened likely due to her new ability to tell us pretty much anything that she needs. Her temper; however, has not disappeared as she is not shy about letting you know when she is unhappy. Overall though, she has a great little personality and is very socialable and always telling people "hi" where ever we go. It's awesome being this little girl's parent....we love her so much!!!

Catch Up Time!

I realize this is long overdue...the holidays really got away from us this year. So I will do my best to provide you with all the updates (in the life of Avery) since November.

December 10 Avery got her first haircut! I cannot say the hair dresser took too much off but it really helped with being able to control her curls. Avery did great! She sat very still (relatively speaking) and didn't seem to mind too much. She did not enjoy looking down so she could cut the back, but bless Casey (the hair dresser) for her patience and her skill of working with first timers!

Before



After


We had a GREAT time with family over the holidays! We got to spend time with the Gavins (Deb, Mike, Melissa), Great-Grandpa Huls, Dan (or Dano according to Avery), the Briggs, the Costarellas and family, the Browns, the Havigs, the Rawlings and Grandpa Lee. As expected Avery was a lot of fun this Christmas. We had a tough time getting her to focus. She would get so excited about the gift she had just opened that she would forget about all the others. Thanks to our wonderful families she made out pretty good. She now has a new collection of items to play with - everyday! Her favorites include degos (aka legos), puzzles, a tricycle, "hiddin" (aka a play tent) and some new books. Here are just a few shots of our fun...










Anticipating that winter may be tough for such as active child, Nick and I enrolled Avery in swim lessons/water orientation class. Little did we now we would have 60 degree January days like today when we can run and play outdoor. For six weeks we will attend class and work with her on getting comfortable in the water. We work on getting out of the pool, jumping into the pool, front floats, back floats, kicking, moving our arms, blowing bubbles and going under water. The first week she was out of her element and was rather clingy. This weekend was week three and she was very comfortable as she took Daddy on a tour of the pool running and jumping as she went. She was definitely more comfortable. Not too many pictures of swim lessons yet, but here is one of her at the slide before class.

Trick or Treat

I love Halloween and what is Halloween without trick or treating! OK, you got us, this was really for us and we LOVED it. We got her all dressed up in her watermelon costume and took her to a nearby neighborhood. She was on cloud nine. She got to be outside running and taking in all the other kids in costumes. She ran past more houses than she stopped at but did stop at a few and got some candy.

Fall is upon us...

Fall is finally here and the Johnson household is excited (for different reasons) Hunting season is here! Nick is actually in a tree as we speak and I love the cooler weather, fall colors and craft shows. As always we have been very busy with a big part of that being our non-stop bundle of joy. I know we say this every post but she really is getting so BIG so FAST. I noticed another month has gone by since the last post so I thought I would take some time (while the little monster is sleeping) to get you all caught up. So here goes (post 1 of 3)....

Avery now has 12 teeth, yes I said 12! All eight front teeth graced us with their presence a while ago and the latest 4 molars all popped through in the last couple of weeks. It was touch and go for a while, I thought with all the drool we were regressing! In all reality though she did really well. I hear the "I" teeth are the worst so we are hoping they hold off for another 6 months.

Her biggest fascinations lately seem to be shoes, forts and climbing. If she sees a shoe she will let you know, usually picking up the ones I have left around the house. She also tries, successfully, to wear any shoes she can find. She is also all about hiding in forts. They don't have to be fancy just made with love. I was traveling this last week to CO for work and got this picture. Dad had made her a fort under the kitchen table. According to him, this was build number 1. The next model came with a blanket on the floor so she didn't have to sit on cold tile. He loves his little girl! Then comes the climbing. Uh need I say more. She is getting very strong and pulling herself up onto anything she can. This morning she climbed onto the kitchen chair and then the table - man is she fast! We are both awaiting the morning we wake up to a thump as she figures out how to climb out of her crib.



She is also really learning to communicate and building up her list of words. At last count she was up to 24! For those interestedhey include (in no particular order): football, ball, shoe, mommy, daddy, puppy, hi, bye-bye, no, nigh nigh, thanks, sorry, deer, eat, nose, cheese, sit, go, yes, whoa, uh oh, two, tickle tickle tickle and meow.

With the nicer weather we have also been going to the park more. We found this new park that is vacant most of the time so she has the run of the place. She just jumped right in without fear and climbs all over the place at this points we wouldn't expect anything less.





We really do feel blessed to have her in our lives and in a month when we should give thanks, we just can't give enough.

Pumpkin Time!!!

As part of our fall festivities we visited a local pumpkin farm and later carved a pumpkin for Halloween. Avery loved it all. She had a blast at the pumpkin farm. There she got to feed the goats, play in a tepee, ride a saddled rocking horse, complete a tire obstacle course, take a riding lawn mower powered train, and search through a sea full of pumpkins. Pumpkin carving was a treat. She wasn't shy at all and got right in there to see what Dad was up to. She even tried a little raw pumpkin and seems to be a fan. Just wait till she has some pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving!


Avery feeding the goats, all by herself one small piece of food at a time!


Crawling through part of the obstacle course!


A tepee is like a fort - notice dad's hand coming under the tepee to "get her".


Family photo opportunity


Dad, what's in there?


MMMMmmmm, pumpkin!

Holy Cow!!!

Wow...where has this summer and year for that matter, gone!? We have had so many events and surprises over the past few months that we really have forgotten to update this blog as often as we would like. Thank you Aunt Terri for reminding us that it was time.

Miss Avery is quite the little girl. She is still a mover and a shaker as everyone at the Briggs' wedding found out two weeks ago. She loves to bounce and jump to different songs and beats on the TV or radio, and her inner dancer came out at the wedding for sure! I do not know where she got that ability, must be on her Mother's side.

Her newest skill sets include the ability to communicate to us, in broken and highly fragmented English, what she wants. She can tell us more, and eat, and nite nite and other similar commands. She also points to stuff and makes it clear when she does not like something. Yes, we have officially hit the temper tantrums and let me tell you, these are no fun. They usually start off as humerous but then end as somewhat alarming. I never knew little kids were so strong!!!

Avery does have her cute moments. Recently she has also started to let us know when she is ready for bath and bed. She will come up to you and say Nite Nite and then when we head for the stairs she will grab your finger and walk up every stair like a big girl. She is growing up so fast!!!

Here is a recent picture from when Avery and I made our first batch of homemade cookies together. This tradition runs deep in the Johnson household....Avery caught on very quick!




We hope this blog update finds everyone in good spirits and thank you for taking a few minutes to share in our joy!

Love,
The Johnson's

It's been a while!

We have had quite the eventful summer as you can tell, it's hard to believe that we have not posted on here since June! Avery is now 14 months and running, climbing stairs both up and down, and working hard on her vocabulary. She can say short phrases like "nite nite" and "bye bye", but nothing too long yet.

We constantly think we hear something come out of her and by the end of that week, she is usually saying exactly what we think we hear. A cute little example of this. The other day I said "Daddy loves you Avery" and she looked up from her book and said back "I know". It just about melted me where I stood. She seems to catch on to new words and short phrases extremely quick.

We have had a few trips back to Iowa this summer to see family and friends. Avery is getting much better at car rides, but she still has her moments where she just wants to be out. She hardly ever sits still when she is awake so being in the carseat for 5 hours is pretty difficult for her. None the less, she has done extremely well on the last few trips and we don't even have a DVD player.

Today we went for a nice long bike ride and had her in the buggy. She loves being outside and is very content to sit in the buggy and catch the wind and absorb nature. Wonder where she gets that from?

We will try to do a better job this fall of posting and keeping the blog up to date. This little girl is so busy....it's hard to keep up!

Avery turns 1!!

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long since we updated the blog...our apologies. Avery started walking and I don't think we've sat down since. She is becoming quite the little toddler. At the age of one she is 21 lbs 8oz and 29 3/4 inches long. She is walking and has six teeth that have broken through (three on the top and three on the bottom). The 7th tooth (top) is within sight and the pediatrician said her molars wouldn't be far behind! We cannot believe how quick the year has gone and how much she has changed, grown and become her own little person. She is truly a bundle of joy. She loves books, jabbering (if only we knew what she was trying to tell us) and hamming it up for the camera!

We celebrated her first birthday with friends and family at a Lowenstein Park in Lee's Summit. We had a great time grilling out, taking turns chasing Avery all over and enjoyed watching her devour her first cake! We know there is a lot of distance between many of you and us, so please take a few moments to see her first birthday highlight reel...tp://www.abundantmoments.com/Avery

And she's off!!!

It's official folks, Avery is now walking...well at least in short bursts that is. She started taking her first steps last Wednesday and she has been nonstop ever since. She has been so frustrated lately and now we know why....she wants to walk like Mommy and Daddy!!! We hope you all enjoy this short video!

Avery's 1st Easter

We survived Avery's first Easter and what an Easter it was! This Easter we embarked on another long car ride to visit the Huls crew - Great-Grandma and Grandpa Huls plus 10 Great-Aunts/Uncles and 25 cousins/spouses. Avery had a great time! On Saturday the great-grandkids all took part in searching for some 200 eggs scattered throughout the yard. It was comical watching the kids run around the yard so excited that they would run right past eggs lying in plain sight in search of others hidden in the trees, bushes, flower beds, etc. Avery (with mom and dad's help) found quite a few eggs, although she seemed more interested discovering the grass than the eggs. After exerting all that effort the entire family met up at the Community Center for a pizza party!

Sunday was another great day! Avery started her Easter morning with a bunny beany baby from Grandma and Grandpa Gavin, then we were off to church and baby Konnor's (the 9th and newest great-grandchild) baptism. It didn't take long before the entire family was back together around the table (ok, several tables) for our Easter feast.

We shared a lot of laughs, made a lot of memories and had a great time with our family.


Look, an egg!


We're on the hunt!


So intrigued by the grass, she didn't even care about the egg...


Now she wants the eggs...


An Easter Bunny!


All dressed up.

Busy, busy busy..........

...that is how we describe our little girl! She never sits still or stops chattering and she is in full on "I want to walk" mode! She cannot manage this on her own yet, but she is off and running with the aid of a favorite push toy or anyone willing to hold her hands and keep up with her. She will actually get upset if you don't let her try and walk and we can see her independence has already developed extensively. Couple that with the frustrations of not being able to speak, well English that is, and cutting more teeth....ooofda! Here is a short video clip of her with her push toy....so cute!!!

I just cannot believe it

Within a month of learning to crawl Avery has started pulling herself up, attempted to climb the stairs and now stands up to play with her toys! She is really enjoying her freedom and can often be found at one of her favorite spots...sitting at the back door (looking outside), hanging out under the kitchen table or under her high chair. She is very inquisitive and studies how everything is put together.



At her 9 month check-up the doctor said she was doing great! She weighed in at 18 lbs 4 ounces and was 28.5 inches long. Dr. Yanette advised us she would soon be walking and more teeth were on their way. (To get everyone caught up, her second tooth broke through last week.) Nick and I feel so lucky to have such a healthy and happy little girl.

As some of you may know, I made one New Year's resolution - TAKE MORE PICTURES! Life changes so fast and I wanted to capture as many of these moments as I could. In a short four months I have given the camera a workout and all for a good cause. Here are a few of my favorites...

It's official....Avery can crawl!!!

She took her first plunge into the crawling life two days ago. This morning we managed to capture it on a short video! She is really enjoying her new freedom. Any guesses on how long it takes to her start walking? Enjoy!

Looking Forward to Spring!!!

Well it certainly has been a challenging couple of weeks at the Johnson household. It seems like someone has been sick every weekend plus last week Linda Hopper lost her husband Joe to a 3 year battle with cancer. Linda is Avery's daycare lady and both her and Joe have become like family to us over the last 6 months or so. Our hearts and prayers go out to Linda and her family and Joe will be missed dearly.

So, we have made temporary arrangements with daycare until Linda is ready to go back to work. Avery is now at Anne Barry's in-home daycare, a referral from Linda. Anne is doing a good job, but she has almost twice as many kids as Linda, which as you all know means twice as many germs. It's official, Avery has her first cold and she is miserable. She has also successfully given it to her father, who was sick a week ago as well. Ugggh! Oh well, at least it's still winter and the weather has not quite broke enough to go outside and have fun so we are getting these illnesses out of the way now....hopefully!

Avery is working very hard on crawling. In fact, just this weekend she has on two seperate occasions taken two or three short steps (crawl steps that is) and then she sort of gives up and goes back to scooting and rolling. She has also been doing this downward dog type pose which is really interesting and she can pull herself up to a standing position with little trouble. She just lacks the overall balance to hold it for any length of time.




It will not be long now and our lives will be upside down. She exhibits the desire to be very mobile, and true to her father's example she hardly ever sits still. She still just has one tooth and we did manage to get a picture of it....look closely in the center on her bottom gum...it's there but kind of hard to see.



Erin and I cannot wait until spring gets here so we can get outside...it's actually been a long winter even down here in K.C.!!!

Finally...Avery has a tooth!

After eluding us for what seems like months Avery's very first tooth has finally surfaced! I tried repeatedly to get a picture this morning, but think I am going to have to give it a few more days or weeks to really reveal itself. For those of you wondering her first tooth is her lower, left front tooth.

Stay tuned - this is just the first of many landmarks that will be quickly passing us by. She is nearing the crawling point and constantly pulls herself onto all fours and "revs" up to go (as Nick calls it). Even without crawling she covers a lot of ground by rolling and rolling and rolling. Then when she runs out of room, she spins on her belly and starts rolling again! She is quite the curious little girl.

LeT iT sNoW!!

And snow it did! We rushed out of town last week a day early in hopes of missing the freezing rain and snow they were forecasting for our planned travel day. While we were not entirely successful we did miss a majority of it. We only had to deal with partially covered roads for about the last hour of our drive, but counted over 5 vehicles in the ditch in that short stretch...thank goodness it was not us! By the time we got the car unpacked we were pooped and went to bed only to wake up to 7 inches of fresh snow on the ground. On top of the few inches they already had we no doubt had a white Christmas! Now we realize that Avery isn't old enough to know what snow is or care for that matter, but we didn't let that stop us! We dressed Avery up in her snowsuit and headed outside to plop her in a snow bank and capture the moment. Avery has always loved the outdoors and the snow and cold didn't seem to bother her at all. Once securely positioned on a mound of snow she just took it all in; with looks of 'awe' and 'wonder'! Guess we know where we will be spending our time next winter.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from the Johnson household! It's hard to believe that 2010 is behind us and we are on to all the great things 2011 has to offer. We spent Christmas in Iowa this year visiting family and friends. We had a great time and Avery enjoyed some new adventures!

Nick and I tried to pack the entire car for our week away but, we just couldn't make it all fit. We had to weed out of some of Avery's toys and distractions in hopes that she would get some new ones come Christmas morning. Little did we know how much we would miss her standup activity center. For the last 3-4 weeks Avery has been working very hard at unassisted sitting and in the process wants very little to do with laying on the floor. Thanks to some great neighbors down the street, Grandma was able to borrow a jump-a-roo that provided hours of entertainment for Avery and the entire family!



What would a trip to Iowa and Christmas be without a party? On Christmas Eve we dressed up Avery in her Christmas dress and headed next door for a get together with the Costerella's. Avery was a hit! Minus the fact that instead of going to bed she wanted to stay up and party with all the big kids, we had a blast. Here are a few pictures of her Christmas dress with our tree.





And then there was Christmas morning! Avery's first Christmas was a good one. She got some new toys, outfits and an activity center that are sure to keep her entertained (at least for a few months). While she didn't really know what was going on, she did play with each new toy as it was unwrapped for her. We can't wait for next year when she can unwrap her own presents!!

Tiz the Season...Avery is 6 months old!!!

Since the last post we have been extremely busy and Avery has certainly been working hard! We recently started trying solids or rice cereal that is...try is the key word there. She has not fully gotten the hang of it yet, but she is working on it almost daily. Here is a picture of her first trial run. Sorry about the clarity, but this face was too good not to post the pic!



As for her skills at rolling and sitting, she has made huge strides and seems a little anxious to crawl and be more independent. Hmmm, wonder where she would get that? Right now she can roll around pretty well and just the other day I had put her down on a blanket to run to the kitchen quick. When I turned around she had rolled clear across the floor, off the blanket and was grabbing at the presents under the Christmas tree! This makes having a dog and a baby in a townhome challenging, but Zoey is managing to behave and take caution with her growing little sister.

Avery is also sitting up more and more every day with our help of course. She still cannot get into a sitting position on her own, but once propped up she can support herself pretty well and sometimes she will go into an "unstable" crawling position. This is usually followed up by intense grunting and sounds of frustration as she just cannot quite put it all together yet.

On antoher note, she is also working hard at cutting her first tooth. This kid definately gives Zoey a run for her money on the drool front! Her gums are extremely hard and she has random short outbursts that would suggest she is really close to getting teeth. We are taking bets on whether she will crawl or cut her first tooth by Christmas...which by the way is only 2 weeks away!

Last weekend we had our annual tradition of watching The Polar Express and putting up the Christmas tree. Although she is too young to really know what it is all about, Avery adds a whole new element of Christmas cheer to the season! Here is another pic of Avery and Mommy hanging her first Christmas ornament...Mommy's favorite part of Christmas by far!!!



After the tree was up and the Christmas decor was finalized, we had to watch the Chiefs beat up on the Broncos! It is official, Avery likes football and Grandpa Lee has finally seen the light and left those losing Broncs...we have converted him to a Chiefs fan!!!



These moments will always be cherished and we look forward to a New Year's post in the upcoming weeks....HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!!

5 months old!

I cannot believe our little Avery is 5 months old already! The time has just flown by and we are loving every minute of it. She has officially mastered rolling from back to front and even managed to put together a couple of full rolls one morning this week. I guess this means we really have to start paying attention to where we put her down at. I'm afraid the days of just setting her anywhere are officially over.

We are working really hard now at sitting up. Up until last week, we weren't spending a lot of time on this skill, but am pretty sure she is trying to tell us she's ready. Every time we sit her in her bouncer, swing or just lay her on her back she curls her whole body into that sit up position and tries so hard to make it happen. We have found that the learning curve for this skill is especially trying during bath time. You really have to pay attention and try to catch her head before she lets it fall against the floor of the tub.

Last weekend we went to the photographers house for our second photo session. I really wanted to capture the time in between "newborn" and when she can sit on her own. I was slightly concerned we might miss it with so much going on lately, but our photographer is great and found time to fit in a photo shoot on Sunday. Avery was in a great mood (as you will see) and did a wonderful job. We couldn't be happier with our images! We only had one minor melt down and it only lasted moments; not really sure what happened but she was not on board for that picture. Don't worry, it too is included and you can't miss it. Hope you enjoy these as much as we are!

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