Tulips Day 28

The tulip bulbs have been in their vase for 28 days.  The green shoots are getting bigger and I can't wait for them to fully bloom!  I still don't see any roots coming out of the bottoms...but maybe they are hiding.

Day 28

Day 28

Vote for Averie

Parents Magazine has selected one of Averie's photos for the Cute Kid of the Week Contest!  Everybody vote for her!  She needs votes every day!  The voting ends January 2nd, so GET YOUR VOTES IN!!!  She is so beautiful, she deserves to win!  Her page is HERE:
http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/655965

OMG People Food!

I finally downloaded some pictures of Averie and her first experience with rice cereal.  We try to give her a little bit every day, if we remember, in the evenings.  I thought she loved it!  She would open her mouth for the spoon and have no problem eating everything that was in the bowl...it made for some pretty cute pictures!  Little did I know that she would love bananas even more!  But DUH!  Who's going to choose bland rice cereal over sweet creamy bananas?!?!  Needless to say, she opens her mouth for a spoonful of rice cereal, but she will dive face first into a spoon of bananas...I'm going to try and get it on video sometime soon because its fairly amusing.  For now, enjoy the pictures of the baby with people food on her face!

Hey, that's not milk

It's tasty!

Wait...I think I've got some on my face...

Do you have any more?

 And just a quick update on the tulips.  Can you see a difference?

Day 20 from the top

Day 20 from the side

Visiting Santa

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is for my family members to have low expectations.  That way, when all they get from us this year is homemade candy (secret ingredient - love!) they will not be disappointed.

Averie's first encounter with Santa

Its a good thing Averie is social :)  She had a smile on her face pretty much the entire time with Santa!  Notice the camo shirt and chair...Santa was at Cabella's, and you can't really see it in this picture, but Averie was wearing her pink John Deer boots (Thanks Aunt Keri and Uncle Chris!).

Averie is reaching new milestones everyday.  Tasting rice cereal, rolling from tummy to back, realizing that she can actually walk in the walker...she's growing so fast!

On a futuristic note, here's a weekly update on the tulips!

Day 15

Averie's Video Debut

I know I promised pictures of the snow and the rice cereal, but this video is just too good!  She has a music box that I had when I was a kid, and during tummy time she decided it belonged in her mouth!

Tulip Update Day 8

Its day 8 and the tulips have already sprouted little green shoots!  No roots as of yet, but here's a pic from the top of the vase!

Day 8

On a family note, Averie had her first taste of rice cereal this weekend, and she LOVED it!  She realized what the spoon was for pretty quickly and even grabbed it from me at one point.  Pics of the rice cereal extravaganza coming soon!  For now, here's a snow day picture instead!

Happy Thanksgiving!

November Showers Bring May Flowers

Yes, I know it's December and I'm a little late with this post, but it is what it is.

About halfway through November Howard and I picked up and planted the tulip bulbs that we bought in April at the Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon.  I had totally forgotten about them, considering you purchase in April, but don't recieve until October/November, and don't see them until the next April...so it's safe to say that I'll probably forget about them again sometime soon until I see the little green shoots sprouting out of the earth in the spring!

I claim to hate gardening, mostly because I hate getting dirt under my fingernails.  And gardening gloves just do NOT keep enough dirt out from under your fingernails.  But Howard forced me out there to help him while Averie was napping one drizzly afternoon, and about an hour and 28 bulbs later, I realized it wasn't that bad.  I think what saved my experience was actually the drizzle...who knew!

The smell of damp dirt is fairly pleasant, and cool moist air always smells clean and fresh.  We got our little flowerbed all weeded and clear, and mixed up the dirt so it was all dark and crumbly...kinda like cake : )  We got them in the ground about 2 weeks before the freeze and snow, and we didn't have to water them in because of all the rain.  It feels really good to grow things, even though the anticipation is a little painful right now.  And because I couldn't wait until April to see some tulips, I kept 2 of the bulbs for myself and put them in a vase with stones to try and force them to grow indoors.  Maybe I'll give a weekly photo update!  It'll be like a tiny bit of spring in the middle of winter!

Winter Tulips Day 1