Birthdays, birthdays everywhere!

What a weekend! There was a lot to celebrate during this short 2-day period. First of all, Trevor is home on leave until he reports to the army base Anchorage, Alaska on the 28th of February. He graduated from Airborne training last week (yes, that means he jumps out of planes now) and is getting to visit before goes off for who knows how long. We are having a wonderful time getting to hang out with him and as you can see here, Avery is pretty fond of her Uncle Trevor! This weekend also marked my Dad's 53rd birthday. When Mom asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate, he said he wanted to go to the farm! We got to spend all of Saturday down in Cleburne. Tara, John Mark and Kellan even surprised everyone by driving in from Abilene to spend a few hours with the rest of us celebrating Daddy's birthday. Here are a few pictures from Saturday...

It was pretty cold (especially riding the 4-wheelers) so Mom bundled up and definitely made a fashion statement. :)
Here's Clay playing in the creek. I made him let me off the 4-wheeler while he was going through the deepest part of the creek so I didn't ruin the camera. That's when I got this picture.
Ever heard of the Barnett Shale? Well, our farm sits right on top of it. The gas company is in the middle of laying pipeline for transporting natural gas. It's a pretty large and impressive project as you can see here. I think it looks like a great waterslide! :)Here's the big party! Dad requested his usual Amaretto chocolate cake (YUM!). Avery really got into the party... she's deep asleep in the car seat.Clay got Daddy his own official PearlSnap Pro hat for his birthday. I think Daddy liked it!I just couldn't resist this picture of Kellan. He's getting so big and so dadgum cute. I can't believe he's going to be a big brother soon!You thought we were done?... Nope! Sunday was my Nanny's birthday so after church we traveled to Whitney to celebrate with her. It was a wonderful day! Here's Nanny and Papaw with Avery.We had a great time! Uncle Darrell brought a birthday cake and we celebrated all afternoon. I'm so thankful to have my family! I wouldn't trade them for the world.Somehow (I think my husband had something to do with it) a rumor started that it was Nanny's 74th birthday. I won't tell how old Nanny is, but I will tell you it is much younger than 74! It wasn't until after the pictures were taken that we realized that Clay had recruited Little Grandma to help him spread the 74 rumor even further. Notice Clay is holding up seven fingers and Little Grandma put up four! You have to watch Little Grandma... she's not scared to stir up a little trouble every once in a while. :)Well, after such an eventful weekend you can imagine that Avery was tired and a little cranky. On our way back home she was loudly voicing her frustration and nothing was calming her down. Trevor pulled out this little toy that Avery is holding here that came with a McDonalds Happy Meal. She LOVED it! She was completely in awe of it the entire rest of the way home! What did the toy do?... It made fart noises! Yes, you heard right! You press down on the arm of the character and it makes three different fart noises. That's my girl! If you don't think fart noises are funny, you've lost a wonderful part of your sense of humor!

I Can't Think of a Title

Well, we went to Paris this weekend and Avery got to hang out with all three of her cousins. Here they are all together for the first time... Avery, Roselyn, and the twins! What a crew there will be in just a few short months.

While we were in Paris I think all the talk about Roselyn rolling over finally got to Avery and she decided she was going to show out and roll over too! Personally, I preferred her completely stationary. It was nice to put her somewhere and know she wasn't going anywhere until you moved her. You wouldn't think she could get very far, but here she is at least three rolls from the middle of her blanket. Way to go Avery!At the moment, Avery mostly rolls back to tummy. The problem is she doesn't like her tummy most of the time (as you can see in this next picture). I keep having to explain to her that tummy time is in her control now and if she puts herself on her tummy then she needs to figure out how to get back around when she wants. Mostly she just cries until I turn her over though. Avery is developing some interests. She has found her voice and likes to yell. She isn't sad or angry most of the time. I just think she likes to make the noise. Here she is very much enjoying the sound of her voice. She also loves her blocks. She will only look at one side though (the side with the ladybugs). She will sit and stare at these bugs for a long time before she gets tired of them. I often wonder what in the world makes these bugs so interesting compared to all the designs on the other side of the blocks. We'll probably never know.

Her newest interest has been her horse blanket. Nana bought it for her a little while ago and she has started to really like to hold on to it. It's so cute to see her wrap her little arms around it before she goes to sleep at night.
And there's really nothing to say about this picture... no story or little quip. I think it's cute so I'm posting it!

Mom's musings...

It is amazing to see how quickly babies catch on to things! I mean, one day Avery is laying there just able to look at her toys and then all of a sudden she realizes she can pick them up and play with them. Granted it seems like a small feat, but it really is incredible to me how their little bodies and brains grow. Avery loves this toy because it has those crinkly sounding wings. This is Clay's favorite game to play with Avery. He loves to lean his head in and try to get her to give him "kisses". He doesn't think it's fair that she always latches on to my cheek, but will only briefly touch his. Can you blame her though? The feeling of whiskers isn't the most inviting.I love the way Avery is looking at the camera here. She can sometimes stare a hole through you!We took Avery's 3 month pictures the other day and it became a photo shoot of sorts. She just kept looking so cute that I kept snapping pictures. Thank goodness for the digital camera!She's definitely finding her fingers on a regular basis. The big mystery is will she choose fingers or thumb over the magical Paci? Isn't this just about the cutest outfit you've seen? Mama Gay gave it to her and I've been waiting to take pictures in it. Her giraffe is the toy we take all of her monthly pictures with so we can see her relative growth. I think she likes him! It looks like they're about to start up a game of patty-cake here. Notice stuffed animal and baby are sitting in the exact same way! :)

Avery decided games were over and reached in to give Mr. Giraffe a big hug!I think we'll have to say good-bye for now with this picture. I can here Avery stirring and I've only got so long before sweet stirring becomes ardent frustration.

For Martha :)

We traveled to Paris last weekend and were happy to be told that I needed to update our blog more often! It's always nice to know that others like to look at pictures of your child as much as you do (well, almost as much). So this blog's for Martha...

While we were visiting Paris, Roselyn came over to play. RoJo (as we like to call her) is already ballin' at the young age of 3 months in her J's that she got from Uncle Kory and Aunt P. (For my baseball minded family, J's are Michael Jordan basketball shoes.) RoJo let Avery try them on... I'm not sure what Avery thought. Could it be that Avery has more of an affinity for the click of metal cleats and the earthy smell of the leather baseball glove? Not that I'm pushing her in any particular direction. She could be a multi-sport All-American if she wants. :)
Avery finally can sit for a little while in her Bumbo seat. Here she is helping out in the kitchen. After about 5 minutes her little head gets tired and slowly begins to bob lower and lower, so I'm cooking fast these days.
A couple of nights ago we had a great poop explosion experience. We ran out of our wonderful Pampers Swaddlers and were using Huggies until I could get to the store. This is dangerous because somehow Avery can completely circumvent the absorptive power of Huggies and everything ends up on her clothes. This night I heard it coming, but it was too late (notice the dark stain on my sweater). Clay scooped Avery up and tried to save her socks by ripping them off, but instead slung little drops of poop all over the wall, her calendar and one small drop on Jaymie's "Guide to Parenthood" book. It was all over Avery as well so bath time it was!
Daddy better hope it's all out! Naked babies are so cute, but it's a game of Russian Roulette!
Avery has come to like her baths. I love how she is staring intently at her Daddy here.
We got this cute little frog towel from our dear friends, the Kings. I think Avery really likes it!

Catching Up

Wow... I think I'm just now breathing for the first time since sometime in mid-December. Our apartment looks like a tornado hit it, we have a stack of unopened mail a mile high and I just realized I didn't even finish sending out all our Christmas cards! I have to admit though, we had a wonderful Christmas. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks.

Here is Avery with the real Santa Claus. How do I know? Take a look for yourself, his cheeks are like roses, his nose like a cherry, his droll little mouth drawn up like a bow and the beard on his chin as white as the snow... and yes! when he laughed he shook like a bowl full of jelly!

We had Christmas in Paris and Gilmer with Clay's family first. We had a wonderful time with everyone, including little Roselyn of course!

Gifts galore!

That looks like a devious expression on Roselyn's face! :)Then came Christmas with the McWilliams! More toys and high fashion for Avery! Here are Nana and Pop with all the grandkids... it won't be current for very much longer since Tara is due in July with another one!!! Avery didn't quite get into the actual opening of the gifts, but appreciates them all nonetheless.Sierra and Avery in their matching Christmas PJs.Last, but definitely not least, Avery had her 2 month appointment with her very good friend Dr. Cody Mihills! She is doing great and staying true to the Spencer/McWilliams body type... only 10 pounds 12 ounces (in the 50th percentile), but 24 inches long (in the 95th percentile). What a surprise huh?

Christmas is Coming!

I don't know who is more excited about Christmas coming... me or Avery. I wasn't sure how she would react to Christmas being so young and all. You don't believe that a 6-week old can be excited? Here is the proof. These two pictures were taken just after I explained to her about Santa Claus...

Avery was so excited that she decided to get into the Christmas spirit right away!

Avery went to a tree farm with her friends Luke, Katie, Adam and Doodle to select her first Chrstmas tree! Great idea Katie! Here we are after it was all decorated. Thanks for the decorating help mom and dad!

Big Smiles!

Thought I'd share some first smiles! They came about 2:30am last night after her diaper change! Something must have tickled her (or maybe she was overjoyed to have a clean diaper) because she smiled and cooed for about 15 minutes!