At the Piano

Avery just started pulling up on the piano bench. She's been playing for 15 - 20 minutes at a time. The thing I love about her first picture is how tiny her bum looks. She's usually in cloth diapers during the day, so she can have a good-sized booty. With a little tweaking, I think I might have found my holiday picture.

Avery's First Birthday

Avery's birthday was a great success. Paul's family came up for the occasion, and we had a few friends over. My Aunt Trish sent a gift a few days early, so we thought we would train her to open gifts. It didn't really work, because she was more impressed with small pieces of paper she would rip off than the big package. She ended up carrying the card around for the rest of the weekend.

I decided to make Avery a birthday banner so she can have it every year. It has my favorite fall colors (I'm so glad I have a daughter who was born in the fall!!) and was finished with some brown bias tape (Thanks, Cathy for finishing it up!!). In my continued effort to be more like Martha Stewart, I also made some pinwheels for decorations.

I made carrot cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing. Avery was not impressed. She kept twisting her face when she had the lemon icing and ate about half of her cupcake. But when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her, she started clapping and smiling at her audience. I think she realized this moment was for her.

Avery seemed fond of hugging on Killian, though he seemed more impressed with our niece Anna's paci.

Thanks, friends and family, for making our girl's day so special!!

Cousins

Last weekend was Avery's birthday, so all the Judd cousins were together to celebrate both Avery and four year old Anderson's birthday. I forgot to include Carter and Anna in the mix, but we'll see them soon! We love our cousins!!

Mary Scott and Avery waiting for the party

Mary Scott, Anderson, Benjamin and Catherine awaiting their cupcakes

Anderson getting ready to blow out his candles
The Girls
Hanging out at Cracker Barrel with Nana, Papa, and Brian and Monica and the kids

Month Twelve (also known as 1 Year)

Okay..so this picture was taken on the 13th, but I think it's one of the cutest of the weekend. More birthday pics and updates to follow.

A Very Fast Year

I'm sitting here getting ready for Paul's family to arrive this weekend so we can celebrate Avery's first birthday. WOW. We have always heard how quickly kids grow up, but we didn't realize it would happen this fast. To help me remember Avery at every stage, I took a picture on the 12th of every month this past year. You'll have to wait until next week to see this Sunday's picture, but here is a little taste of how much Avery has grown.