Avery's 4th Birthday Party

This Sunday, January 19th, we celebrated Avery's 4th birthday! We had her party at North Shore Gymnastics. She takes gym there on Tuesdays and LOVES the place.

Here are her and sissy ready to party!

 

There are LOTS of pictures to follow. She had a great turn out. All of her friends and cousins came to play. The babies even had fun in the foam pits and on the trampolines.

 This was her favorite party of the party! She got a medal for being the birthday girl.

 It was so nice, while the kids were playing, there were two girls that set up the party room for us. All I had to do was drop off the supplies.

 All of her friends enjoyed the pizza.

 LaLaLoopsy birthday cake.

I was very impressed with Great American Cookie Company.

 Happy 4th birthday baby girl!

I have a picture like this from her past 4 birthdays, I will have to do a collage of them.

 I can't believe how big she getting!

We hope ALL your wishes come true!

We want to thank all of her friends and family that made her birthday party so SPECIAL!

Alexa Eats!

Saturday December 21st Alexa finally got to eat some food! This girl has been ready to get some food! I have been letting her teeth on celery, carrots and apples, but she hasn't actually eaten anything yet.

 "What's going on here?"

 Avery was so excited to feed her.

We gave her pureed avocado with breast milk. She loved it! We aren't going to do the rice cereal and oatmeal this time around. Those are basically just "filler" food and don't have much nutritional value. We are going to start with foods like avocados and egg yolk which have a much higher fat content, which is good for our girls' brain development. So far she has been a messier eater than her sister, but she is certainly enjoying her food!

Merry Christmas 2013

What a wonderful Christmas we have had! It started Saturday with all the Danford's at our house for presents, lunch and visiting.

Christmas Eve we went to Mass with Josh's family and then we went to his grandma's for dinner and to exchange gifts. I did not take one picture :( My hands were full of a certain baby the whole time! It was a great evening though. Corey, Jessica and the kids were there. Josh's sister, parents and grandparents were also their to celebrate, we are so blessed to have such an amazing extended family. We definitely missed Drew and his family.

Both of the girls passed out on the way home from their house. We put them to bed and then Santa came!

 We had very specific instructions to leave out Avery's gingerbread house for Santa as well as some carrots for the reindeer.

 Alexa was up and ready to go at 7am this morning. Avery slept in! Josh finally went in to wake her up around 7:30. She was snuggling in bed with us until we reminded her that it was Christmas. I told her I was going to check to see if Santa had come. I came back in the room with a bag of the pretend candy Coal. I told her Santa only left that for her and her dad, she was very upset! She did not think that was funny at all! We finally let her out into the living room and she was so excited!

 A scooter!

 The makeup table she asked Santa for!

 Alexa was enjoying anything she could chew on :)

 Stocking goodies!

 The reindeer left some fur with their chewed up carrots, she was very excited to see that.

 Here is Avery showing Alexa all of her new toys.

 I love this picture of our girls :)

 She got a new game for her LeapPad and a Bow and Arrow!

 Daddy got some scrubs for his new clinic!

 Alexa loved her make up mirror from Drew and Meredith.

We spent the rest of the day playing with the new toys and relaxing! My mom cooked up a big breakfast of biscuits and gravy and sausage. We all took naps through out the day and ate way to much candy and junk food. We ended the evening with a fire and some roasted marshmallows. It was a very laid back day and it was much needed. 

Danford Christmas 2013

This Saturday, the 21st, the Danford's got together for our Christmas.

 Avery Yvonne was very excited for presents.

 So was Julian Elijah!

 "Planes!'

 "An Easy Bake Oven"

 "I don't really know what's going on here"

 The girls got to hang out a bit.

 My big girl putting on her make up

 We also celebrated Josh's birthday. Here he is with all the kids, and mom :)

Dad and his boys.

We are so thankful to be able to spend the holidays with everyone, we definitely don't take it for granted. Next year, Josh and Jonnilin will be stationed somewhere else and we wont be together unless they make a special trip in for the holidays.

Christmas Cheer

I love Christmas time! I love the decorations, the "holiday cheer" and just the emphasis on family and being together and loving each other. We started our Christmas season the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Although Josh was feeling puny, he put up our 2 huge trees and decorated the house and the outside. It is a Danford family tradition that the baby of the family gets to put the angel on top of the tree. Here is baby Alexa doing the honors this year.

Of course big sister didn't want to miss out on it either :)

It was so funny to me, I remember when we were decorating for Christmas last year I was about 12 weeks pregnant and was having horrible morning sickness. Josh, my mom and Avery did most of the decorating. This year we had a 5 month old watching the festivities. What a difference a year makes!

Speaking of our sweet 5 month old! Josh's cousin does a picture magnet for his grandparents every year, and needed a picture of Alexa. I threw a bow on her and snapped some pictures after work one night. Jonnilin edited them for me and here is our gorgeous chunky girl!

 Thursday December 12th was the only day we could pencil in a visit to Santa with our busy schedules :) We were there are 10am and the girls were the first ones of the day to sit on his lap.

 They did great! Avery was so excited to see him and wasn't shy at all. Alexa did awesome too! She got a handful of beard when we sat her on his lap, but after that she sat sweetly and we even were able to get a few smiles.

 Here is Avery telling him that she is almost 4.

 

And having a heart to heart about her Christmas list.

I don't even want to talk about how much she has grown since last year! She is wearing the same dress and you can see how much taller she is!

Here is Avery's gingerbread house. She decorated it so well! I did the white icing work and the fondant door, everything else was her creation.

This was before church this past week. She looked so cute in her Christmas ensemble.

My sweet girls.

Avery's Christmas program at school was on Friday. Josh was able to leave work to attend and my mom came too. It was so cute the Pre-K kid reenacted the nativity. The younger classes sang all the Christmas songs. Here she is after the program looking like a 12 year old! :(

Thanksgiving 2013

I had to work this year for Thanksgiving, but we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with two very special groups before Turkey day.

 The first celebration was at Avery's school. They do a Thanksgiving feast, completed with turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, rolls and dessert. I was able to stay the morning after dropping her off to help cook. We stayed for the feast and Avery had a great time with her friends Elizabeth, Lainey and Emerson. She also enjoyed seeing her sister and me as well.

 The week before Thanksgiving we has a feast with our church neighborhood group. I had place setting for 16 people.

 We totally filled it up! It was awesome to have everyone together to eat, and visit and enjoy time together. We have an awesome church family and it is such a blessing to spend time with them on Wednesdays to study, talk and grow together.

And here is the kids' table! 10 kids between all of us. They are a crazy when they get together! Ms. Brenda babysat for us, God bless her!

 

Thanksgiving day, I had to work, but Josh took the girls to his grandma's house for their tradition Italian thanksgiving. Fried turkey, meatballs and red gravy and braciolone. I hated to miss it, but would rather work Thanksgiving and be off for Christmas.

Alexa Claire:5 months old!

Alexa Claire, you are 5 months old!

 You are wearing  3-6 month clothes perfectly

Still in size 3 diapers.

I am not sure how much you weigh, but you are a roly poly!

 

 We are STILL working on your sleep schedule.

You are such a cat napper! You can take 4 short naps throughout the day. You poor thing, you always fall asleep in the car seat while Mommy is bringing Avery to school and during our errands through out the day.

You start getting fussy around 5:30 every night. Then it is bath time with sissy, you nurse then you are in bed around 6:30. After that you are up at random times through out the night. You like to nurse every time you wake up too!

 You have been busy this month! We took our first vacation at the beginning of  November. You did pretty well in the car, except you got bored at the end. The portable DVD player was a Godsend!

You didn't sleep very well in the pack n play, but at least mommy got to nap during the day :)

 You started sitting up unassisted this month! You are still very wobbly, but you can stay up for a while. You LOVE the excersaucer and Johnny jumper. You can happily  play in those for a long time.

Teething is in full force! You haven't cut any teeth yet, but you are chewing on everything! Ice, cucumbers, carrots, apple slices, our fingers! I just pray it doesn't hurt you too bad :(

 

Alexa Claire, we love you so much! I love to see your happy little face every morning in your crib. Your face lights up every time you see your sister and she is so in love with you. Your personality is starting to come out more, you are pretty easy going, but I can see a temper/stubborn streak in you. You are such a blessing to your family and although I am a little sleep deprived, I love waking up at night to cuddle and nurse you. We thank God everyday for adding you to our family. Happy 5 months baby girl!