Our Arizona/California Vacation - Day 1

Last year, Jake, Jackson, Myself and my Mother-In-Law went to visit a family friend of ours that lives in Phoenix, AZ. Our friend Jim used to live here and work with my MIL, but transferred to Phoenix back in the late 90's. Jim and my MIL stayed very close friends even though they live so far from one another. He comes here for a visit or she visits him at least once a year. He was here for our wedding and Jake's brothers' weddings as well. 

Jim works in the travel business and was able to get free tickets to the Phoenix Open golf tournament. Jake is a golfer, so Jim invited Jake to come along last year. We had such a great time last year, that Jim invited us to come back this year, so we started planning our trip to go back months ago. 

This year we planned to stay a whole week and soak up some Arizona sunshine during the cold Winter back in St. Louis. So we had plenty of time to do some site seeing and still get to go to the Phoenix Open. Then back in October or November, Jackson saw a commercial for Disney World on t.v. and instantly wanted to go there and see the castle. It was a few weeks later that I thought, why don't we drive out to California and visit Disneyland while we're in Arizona since we'll have some extra time. So Jake agreed and we talked our friend Jim and my MIL into going along too.

So Wednesday morning, (January 28th) we flew into Phoenix, stayed the night there and then drove out to California until Saturday. We then drove back to Phoenix Saturday afternoon and stayed until the following Wednesday morning, when we flew back home to St. Louis. It was such a busy, but super fun trip. A trip that I will cherish forever. 

Day 1 had an early start with getting to the airport and flying into Phoenix. This was Jackson's second flight ever and he did amazing! Last year when we flew to Phoenix, I don't think he quite understood what was going on, but this year he really got it and loved it!

Here's a little video of us taking off Wednesday morning. I am so happy I thought to video it so I can re-watch his reaction. It was so cute!

http://instagram.com/p/yagw1uuKHL/?modal=true

Once we landed in Phoenix, we headed over to pick up our rental car and then headed to our friend Jim's house. Once we got there, we decided to all go and eat some Mexican food at a yummy restaurant near his home. 

After lunch, we made a quick stop by the store for dinner, snacks and drinks for the week and then headed back to Jim's house. He has a beautiful back patio and yard where we spent a majority of our time because the weather was mostly sunny and in the 70's... Perfect!!

Jackson loved being able to play in the back yard while we sipped cocktails and talked.

Jim has a small grapefruit tree that gets a few grapefruits on it each year. Last year they were ripe enough to pick while we were there, so he let Jackson pick them for him and he made grapefruit martinis (of which I couldn't have any because I was pregnant with Avery). This year he saved them for Jackson to pick again and later in our trip, we had grapefruit/tangerine martinis, which were very yummy.

That evening, Jim made a yummy pork tenderloin on the grill and we had dinner on the patio.

It was a great first day to our vacation!

Avery's 9th Month

Avery,

You turned 9 months old on January 28th and we have had such a fun month with you! You have been such a happy girl lately and I love it!

If I had to guess, you are probably around 20+ pounds now, but I'll know for sure at your 9 month appointment next Tuesday. You are eating like a champ. You usually have 3 meals of baby food a day (which you'll eat anything we give you) and you have around four 7-8 ounce bottles a day. You have even had a few non-baby food items recently. You love macaroni and cheese, little pieces of bread, cooked green beans, spaghetti, ice cream and cake of course. If you see one of us eating something, you think you should get a bite as well. Your like a baby bird, you always have your mouth open for food. LOL You love to eat!!

You are still sleeping great. The last few nights you have slept straight through the night and I am loving it! Even when you do wake up though, it's usually only long enough for you to take a bottle and go right back to sleep! I love that you're such a great sleeper. Keep it up!!

You are still wearing size 4 diapers and 12-18 month clothes! I can't get over what a big girl you are.

You have mastered scooting across the floor on your bottom to get to whatever it is you want, but you still aren't crawling and I'm starting to think you may never crawl. You seem to be perfectly content scooting and it seems to be working just fine for you. (Here's a little video of how you scoot, it's hilarious.)You have also mastered pulling up to anything and everything and you even walk along the couch, table or ottoman while holding on. This past weekend you even walked behind a toy you can push. You fell down a few times because you got going too fast, but you did great. These are all signs that it won't be long and we'll have a walker. Slow down baby girl, I feel like you were just born!!

You got 2 more teeth this month! One on either side of your top two front teeth. So now you have 6 total! You look so cute with all your little teeth! I love it.

You can say Momma and Dada very plainly now and you say them quite often. You really only say momma when you're sad and you want your momma. :-) You know who we are by name now as well. If I ask you "where's Jackson" you will look right at him, or if I ask "where's Dada" you look right at Daddy. :-) You also say baba often, but I don't think you associate it with your bottle yet. Papa claims you've also said Papa, but I haven't heard this yet. ;-) You have started clapping with your hands open now and do this all the time. You also wave bye bye and put your hands up in the air when we say "so big"!! It's adorable! You tilt your head sideways when we say "upside down", which I taught your cousin Landon when he was little as well... so cute! You still love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and you've taken an interest to Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood as well, (probably because your brother watches it non-stop).

I think that covers you at 9 months old! I know I say it every month but you really are getting so big so fast. It just amazes me how fast this first year is flying by. You are the prettiest, sweetest, most amazing baby girl and I love you so very very much Avery! You are momma's girl and always will be. ♥

 xoxo - Mommy

52 Project 2015: Week 6

"A portrait of each of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

 Jackson: Jake throwing Jackson up in the air while we were in Phoenix this past week! This was in our friend's beautiful green back yard. I could really get used to green grass and trees all year long!

 Avery: My mom made me an afghan when I was little and I had kind of forgotten about it until recently. So earlier last week I asked my mom about it and she gave it to me to use for some photos of Avery and this is one I took of her on it. I just love her smile and I love this afghan!

(Linking up here at Practising Simplicity)

Favorite Photo Friday

If you're friends with me on Facebook or Instagram, then you've seen this picture, but I just had to share it here because I love it so much!

I took this while we were at Disneyland last Friday. We had such a great time!!!! I will do a whole post (or two) on that next week, but i just wanted to share this picture because it is so sweet. It's my favorite picture from Disneyland. We were just saying goodbye to Mickey and I am so happy I snapped this picture! 

I would say this day at Disneyland was most definitely in my top 10! It was just that great! Seeing Disneyland through Jackson's eyes was amazing! I can't wait til we can go back with Avery!

52 Project 2015: Week 5

"A portrait of each of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Jackson: wearing his favorite jammies. They were his cousin Landon's and they are footie pajamas! He wanted me to take this picture. He chose his spot up against the wall, posed and smiled for the camera like  a big boy! Maybe, just maybe, his hate for my camera is starting to wear off. :-)

Avery: A new trick she can do now is when you say "So Big" she will raise her hands up in the air. It is super cute!! Maw Maw and Papa taught her this. :-)


(Linking up here at Practising Simplicity)

Storybook Photography-Family Session

I met this lovely family down in Forest Park back in November for a beautiful sunset family session. This was one of my favorite sessions from last year and made me really love sunset sessions. Their clothes coordinated so well. I just loved everything about this session!

This is by far one of my favorite photos that I've ever taken. I just love it so much!

Embrace The Camera

Monday night after bathtime, I had my camera out taking a few weekly pictures of the kiddos and Jackson wanted to get in a picture with me. He never wants his picture taken, much less get in a picture with me, so I was thrilled. I set the camera on the table in Avery's room, set the timer and I embraced the camera with my two sweet-peas. :-)

I already had my comfy clothes on and my hair pulled back, but I know my kids won't care about any of that when they look back at these pictures. They'll be happy to have pictures of them with their mom and that's what is most important.

I really really love these next two of Jackson, I just wish Avery was looking at the camera. 

Embrace the Camera is where you'll take a picture of YOU with your kids, spouse, friends, etc. The point of embrace the camera is to get in front of the camera and to document a bit of yourself.