old stuff

When I made the slideshow of december pics I ran across my old account on slide.com I found this old slideshow I made back in January of 2007! Almost 3 years ago! I just had to post it.... Enjoy

We look so young! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009 was quite a year for the Rhodes family! We are looking forward to whats in store for 2010! Here is a slideshow of some December pics... Just a few :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our friends and family!

2 months cont

Avery had her 2 month check up today!! She weighed in at 11 lbs 1 oz!! Which put her at almost the 60th percentile for weight! She grew to 21 inches which keeps her in the 25th percentile for length! She also got her first shot :( which was not fun! She was all smiles before though... Before the shot After! she was pooped! Her doctor says she looks great! She told me to stay off dairy for another month and then slowly introduce a little at a time.

2 months

My Baby girl is 2 months old today!!! She has her 2 month check up tomorrow! I can't wait to see how much she has grown! Here are some pics of her at 2 months old; She was looking at daddy!! he was getting her to smile! She was about to fall over but finally gave me a little smirk!

Ooooklahoma

We finally made it to Oklahoma on Saturday, the drive wasn't too bad. Only took us about 30 minutes more than normal! We had a fabulous dinner Sat night with my family and also celebrated Christmas! Sunday I got to have lunch with the girls for our annual christmas dinner (although this time it was lunch!). We also had to get me a new phone.... ahh drama. This was my 2nd iphone to burn itself up in 2 months. The last one I got 2 weeks ago! Its a little frustrating! But I'm back in business now! My grandparents came to visit Monday afternoon! It was great to see them both! We had to leave early on Tuesday because they were forecasting SNOW again in dallas! Simply amazing, its snowed 3 times this december. Here are just a few pics... Wish I had taken more!!! Chelsea and Avery Melissa, Avery and I Melissa, Avery and Teresa

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!! We had a great time last night with the Rhodes family. We were planning on driving up to oklahoma this morning but there was this weather problem... i think its called a Blizzard!!! I can't remember the last time there was snow on christmas! We are waiting for the roads to clear and the interstates to open in oklahoma before we try to drive up. We miss you guys but we'll see you eventually! :) Avery has really been showing us her smiles today. I love them. Here is a pic of her from today.... She is 8 weeks 1 day old! I think she has my smile, her eyes squint like mine! LOOOVE HER!

belly pics

This post is a little late but I finally got all the belly pics in order!! its amazing how big i got!!! click here to see! :)

Christmas time!!!

I gave Avery a mini photo shoot today in her Christmas outfit! She didn't last very long but I did manage to get a few cute shots! I'd get about a 30 second window to snap some shots before the paci had to be put back in!!! :) She sure loves the pacifier! Just like her Momma! We are very excited about Avery's first christmas! we will be spending christmas eve with the Rhodes family and driving up to oklahoma christmas morning to see my family. we are hoping to see papa and mommom over the weekend. melissa, teresa and i are also getting together for our annual christmas dinner (although this year it may be breakfast!)!! Busy but fun week ahead! Merry Christmas to you all! p.s. thanks Gigi for the adorable outfit!! :)

bumbo

Avery tried out her bumbo seat for the first time this week! @ 7 weeks old she is growing so fast i can hardly believe it! She smiles more often although they are still random and we haven't gotten her to smile at us yet. Check out those chubby cheeks!!! Update: Avery has gotten much better with her gas pains. I stopped eating diary and any other foods that are gassy. It seems to be working. Its not much fun for me bc i usually eat alot of dairy but hopefully it'll just be for a few months. Now we're just looking forward to her sleeping through the night.... but who knows when that will be!!

playdate

Avery and Ella got together for another "playdate" today! Here is a short video of the 2 of them!! They are getting so big so fast!

Month 1

I have been wanting to take pictures each month to see how much Avery is growing. I finally got her bear that I ordered in, he is huge! I was trying to decide where to take the pic of both of them. Thats why there are 2! My friend Karisa told me about the stickers for each month. I didn't get them before her 1 month birthday but still took her picture at 1 month 1 week. standyby for another in 2 weeks! :)

6 weeks

Today Avery Jo is 6 weeks old. I captured this video this morning, one of the few times she is not plagued by gas pains! She loves to look at the elephant picture over her changing table. Check out the cute smiles and coos! PLEASE disregard my voice, I hate hearing myself on camera!

behind

I am way behind on blogging!! sorry everyone. I will be posting some new pics soon! Avery will be 6 weeks tomorrow! hard to believe. she has been battling really bad gas pains and that keeps me pretty busy trying to console her. I'm cutting dairy and food that cause gas out of my diet to see if its something that I'm eating that bothers her. Hopefully in another week she'll be doing much better. She is such a happy baby when she isn't in pain. :( She is also putting on weight and getting quite the buddha belly! here is a quick pic till I can upload more....

**SNOW**

Ave's first snow day! It didn't stick and has already melted but it was very cool to wake up to a winter wonderland!

1 month

Avery is 1 month old today!! hard to believe its already been a month since she was born. time sure flies. she has started being more awake during the day, opening her eyes and even showing us a smile once in awhile! We had our first trip away from home this week and I think avery did very well considering she was also battleing gas pains. she slept all the way to oklahoma, fort smith and we only had to stop once to feed her on our way back to dallas! we had a great time seeing and spending time with family. hope everyone had a blessed thanksgiving!

Avery at 1 month!! :)

New BFF

My friend Karisa, who has been going through pregnancy with me, had her baby girl (Ella) exactly one week after Avery was born. We got the girls together for the first time and took some pictures. Avery slept through the whole visit. But she is slowly getting out of the newborn sleepy stage! :) It will be fun to watch them both grow up! We plan on having lots of playdates together with our friend Shila and her daughter Layla!

Aren't they too cute!!

Check out the rest of the pics that I took by clicking HERE

Avery's First Photo Shoot

My best friend Teresa came over Nov. 3rd and took some pictures of Avery. They turned out great! Here is a sneak peak:

Click here to see the rest of my favorites!! :)

New Shades

Chris and I took Avery on her first walk yesterday, but not without her new shades!!
Check her out;

cutest kid on the block! :)

She had her 2 week check up and the doctor said she looks great! She's back up to her birth weight and has grown an inch!

More pics

Here are more pics of our beautiful baby girl.....

melissa and teresa helping me through contractions!

naked baby in the nursery!! all cleaned up after her bath

melissa and avery

teresa and avery

gigi and avery

gramma and avery

grandpa and avery

papa and avery

first bath;

parker meets her cousin for the first time!!

more to come!!!! :)

Avery Jo's arrival

Avery Jo has arrived!!!

I had my last appointment Wednesday the 28th, with our induction planned for the 29th. My doctor informs me that since i have no progressed any on my own she wants me to be admitted that evening. We were a little shocked, this was at about noon and we were told to expect to be admitted around 5pm. Chris and I hurried home to clean the house, do laundry and PACK! yes, I still had not packed my hospital bag! Fortunately, the nurse called and told us our check in time was 7pm! Chris and I had our last meal as just a married couple at Chilis and then checked into the hospital. I didn't sleep too well that night, fell asleep at about midnight and was up at 4am to take a shower and get ready for the induction process. by 5:30am they started me on pitocin and away we went! I think I got my epidural sometime around 3pm, boy was that the greatest thing ever! At 7 the nurse told us that it was time to have a baby. My doctor arrived around 8 and after 10 minutes of pushing Avery was born at 8:50pm October 29, 2009. She was the cleanest baby I'd ever seen, and didn't even cry that much. She weighed 6lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long. I was exhausted, after not eating or drinking anything all day, being up since 4am, 15 hours of labor and barely so much as a cat nap. But our baby girl was here and she was beautiful. It was great to have my friends and family there to share in this experience. We have been home now for a week tomorrow and loving every minute of being parents. My mom (Gigi) stayed with us this week and has been a HUGE help. She has been cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and helping with our baby girl! Dad and Sissy arrive tonight! Here are a few pics from the hospital.....

                      Just arrived at the hospital;                                        

Last pic before she arrived;

                                                               Avery Jo!!!!

Proud Daddy!!

Mommy and me;

New family pic;

She's our angel!!!

Baby Avery....

Thursday we will be checking into the hospital at 5am to have our baby girl!!!!
What a relief to have a set day. This past weekend was a rough one for me. emotionally and physically. I am ready to meet our little princess and not be pregnant anymore :)
Be praying for us on thursday!!!!!!! :)

Pregnancy thoughts

with this pregnancy coming to an end "soon" i thought i would jot down my experience;

• first, this pregnancy was a total surprise! shock! but welcomed with open arms, once the shock wore off! :)
• we found out we were preggs on February 27 (Melissa's bday) at about 3am, i was in ATR training and had a 4:30am simulator session that day so we had to get up early to take the test! 
• we told my parents when we came to visit for sissy and i's bdays. i bought 2 bibs that had the words grandma and grandpa on them and put them in gift bags and had mom and dad open them. :)
• that same weekend, chris and i made a t-shirt for parker (our niece) that had winnie the pooh sitting by a pumpkin and said "i'm getting a cousin for halloween" and put it on her to tell his parents!!
• i consider myself extremely lucky to have not gotten sick these whole 9 months!
• i first felt her move at 16 weeks 1 day (May 14), although it just felt like flutters. it took me a little while to realize it was her!
• chris first felt her kick June 25, at 22 weeks 1 day... i think it scared him a bit!!! :-)
• i was convinced she was a boy until our 19 week ultrasound... oops
• flying wasn't any different being pregnant but Avery would always kick on takeoff and descending to land! i'm still not sure if that was because she liked it or not...
• i didn't feel really pregnant till about 36 weeks, then i started getting uncomfortable
• i imagine she will be awake between 9pm and 11pm, because she sure was while in my tummy. like clockwork everynight!
• i never had any real cravings, definitely nothing weird, just once did i really "crave" fries from Braums. ice cream was always welcome of course!
• as i'm writing this, at 39 weeks, i've gained 31 lbs. my goal was 30, so i think i did pretty good. thanks, in part, to isagenix! (doctors recommend 25-35 lbs for a normal pregnancy)
• at this point, i'm up 3 times a night to visit the bathroom.... i won't miss that part!
• i walked almost every day throughout this pregnancy (2-3miles) up until recently... i've just started getting shin splints, OUCH! think it might be my shoes, they've taken a beating
• She is fearfully and wonderfully made! God had a plan before we did.... thats for sure!
• overall i've had a very easy, smooth pregnancy. i wonder if the next time around i'll be so lucky?

i'm sure there is more but this is all i could come up with for now!
8 days to go... 15 at the most (doc says she doesn't like going past 41 weeks). we can't wait to meet her!!!

bag is packed.....

Well... its getting close to that time, the 28th is just around the corner. We are waiting (as patiently as possible) for her to make her entrance into this world!!! I am feeling more uncomfortable by the day, it hurts to laugh, to sneeze and trying to get up from a sitting position! She is still a very active baby (especially from 9-11pm), and gets the hiccups daily! I know I'll miss her movements after she is here but for now they are starting to hurt! In the meantime.... I've packed her hospital bag;

We installed her carseat in the 4runner!

And thanks to my parents I have a fabulous glider just waiting to be rocked in! (well, I may be using it a little bit already!)

12 days to go.... possibly!
Don't forget you can still vote in the poll, its just for fun!

Poll

Just for fun i decided to make a poll about when avery will make her debut into this world, its to the right of these posts. i didn't want to make it too big so it only goes up to a week either way! Feel free to leave a comment as to why you picked your vote!! either way we are very ready to meet baby Avery!

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY tomorrow PAPA! we love you and miss you!

Maternity pics

Our pics are up on beatyphotography!! Check them out.
big thank you to Jon and Emily, we had such a fun time hanging out and the pics turned out fabulous! love em!

not sure if this link will work but you can check out the rest of the pics here...
Pics

less than 3 weeks till her due date! :-P
doc appointment today went well, but she says that Avery is not quite ready yet....

Its October?

I can't believe its October already, someone pinch me. Time has just flown by! We went to the doctor yesterday for our 36 week appt. We had our last ultrasound to see what Avery weighs. She is on the small side, no big surprise there. They estimated her weight at 5lbs 5oz, doc says she thinks she'll be a 7lb baby at delivery day. Now we play the waiting game.... She needs to stay in there another week or so, I still need to find a pediatrician!! :) 27 days to Dday!

Our baby girl @ 36 weeks!! Thats her little wrist next to her mouth!
She had the hiccups during the u/s and we got to see it!

Nursery

I finally finished painting the letters for her name and Chris and I hung them today. The ribbon was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, trying to hang them the way I wanted. I didn't want them straight but staggering them turned out to be a little bit of a challenge. But I just love the end result! I'll be the first to admit, I'm not the most creative person so I am pretty proud of how the letters turned out. Even though the room is very pink I really love it! I surprised myself with how much pink there is, if you know me you know I do not usually like pink. The only thing I have left to get is a lamp for her dresser. I am keeping my eyes open but have yet to find the right one. Here are a few pics;

Pic of just the letters!

Thanks to my cousin Amy, we have more than enough newborn-6 month clothes!! Her closet is full of just newborn and a few 0-3 month clothes, I also have a drawer full. :) This outfit is one that Chris and I bought her from Carter's. Its probably my favorite right now and could be her coming home outfit! We'll see if I change my mind over the next 4.5 weeks :)