YAY WEATHER!

Can anyone be as excited as me? I heart warm weather, and yes, I know it will get cold again before the marvelous warmth decides to stick around, but I just have to begin my celebration now! We hosted an engagement party for Lacey and Justin on Saturday in our backyard. The weather was great for our setup, the party, and even our breakdown yesterday. Avery watched from her bench:

I am looking forward to the beach, and the lake, and the warm weather in general! I swear I have been a much better mood because of the sunshine on my face! I will post photos of the party later...I took a million!

Lastly, I want to wish a special CONGRATULATIONS and BEST WISHES to Suelin and Phillip!!!! They got engaged on Saturday! I am so excited for yall! TJ, Avery, and I wish you the best, and are looking forward to that wedding in October!!

Avery's Birthday Party

Avery will officially be 1 year on Thursday, but we had a little pre-game party (literally, right before the super bowl) to celebrate the momentous year it has been. Not only does my kid L-O-V-E cake, she thoroughly enjoyed all the extra attention! She slept like a rock when the sugar high wore off. I am posting two videos for your enjoyment. The first one is of some of her other guests at the party, and one of her with the mostly eaten smash cake. (video would not upload, so I will try again later!)

Thank you to all who came and we missed those who couldn't be there! It has been an exceptional year for us. I love my little monkey more than I ever dreamed I could, and TJ and I are so proud of her!

In other news, TJ has merged Partners with Graham C's Source Holdings and is now a lean mean machine of real estate, land sales, and property management.

Go Shawty, It's ya Birthday.

I cannot believe Avery is about to be a year old! How quickly the time has gone by! And by comparison, how long the previous 9 months were to get her here! In honor of this momentous occasion, she and I had a little photo session in Party City the other day.

Yep...I love that kid.

Her newest accomplishments?

1. Pointing to, and saying the word "duck", while looking at the lovely specimen on our mantel.

2. Using every possible item in our house as a "phone". She tries to call "dada" on her sippy cup, her brush, my shoe, the remote control, and my actual phone turned around backwards. She has all the right motions, but can't seem to figure out why no one ever talks back.

3. Tries to put her shoes on, but can't get them on just yet. Boy does she love her shoes. She says "shhhhh" for shoes, and "saaah" for socks.

4. Can sometimes point to Heidi when I say "Where's Heidi?"

5. Grew two new teeth last week for a grand total of 8.

6. Is a wonderful, beautiful sleeper!! Hooray!!! (seriously, this is the best of all, because it means that Dada and Mama get to sleep until 6:30 almost every morning!)

We are most excited about the small birthday party we are having on Sunday! It is Backyardigan themed! She loves the Backyardigans. Check them out on Nick Junior if you have no idea what that is. Photos of that to come!

My favorite time killer...I miss her!

The last few weeks have been so hectic around the Williford house. I am rockin' and rollin' with the Alley, so much, that I am having trouble keeping up with laundry, dishes, and general cleaning at home, and I am missing out on a lot of special time with Avery. The other stuff I can deal with, but I hate that my part time turned full time job is cutting in on my mommy daughter bonding time. I can't keep up with the phone calls! It truly is a great problem to have though. I am not complaining about that part! But I sure to love this face:

Her latest obsession is a little statue of a lamb that Searcy and Alicia gave her (what she is holding in the picture if you can make it out). It is freaking heavy though. She just carries it around with her. Cracks me up. The other favorite object she carries is a satin blanket. That thing gets washed all the time because of the abuse it takes being drug around on the floor several hours a day! She is a funny little girl!

I know this photo is crappy...I couldn't get her to sit still long enough to get the helicopter bow on her head. It was super cute. Boo on my blackberry camera.

WARNING: this post may be boring!

I have been so busy this week! I have gotten back on the weight watchers train (AKA "rehab"). I know that it is proven to work, but I feel so strange in there. Apparently, I am the only person my rehab meeting that actually cooks. (FYI-85% of the women in there are over 50) So I just find it strange that they aren't out searching for new, fun, and delicious recipes like I am! My philosophy is -If I'm going to do this torturous thing to my body, then I will at least gain some new recipes!

I also rejoined the Y, but this time as a family. I did this for several reasons.

1. THEY HAVE DAYCARE!!!! So I can get up, grab big A, and head to gym before I take her to school (She is only signed up for Mother's Morning Out, which doesn't start until 9 and ends at 3, which left me pretty scrapped for time to work out!). And, I know I am totally about to creep someone out, but I can take a shower, get ready, and fully dressed without interruption in the locker room! I think this is a revelation in the world of worker outers! Maybe everyone else has been using this system forever, but it is incredibly wonderful to me, even if I am forced to use a semi-public shower (and revert back to the days of freshmen dorms with the shower shoes!). Speaking of shower shoes, Kara- you will be proud, mine are High School Musical 3. They were the only ones that fit me at Wal-Mart. (EEEK! It must be a recession for me to be shopping at walmart-I am not trying to be a snob, but I generally feel it is important to support our local small businesses! In this case, I needed too many things in a hurry, but I digress.)

2. My parents filled in their pool last summer (bummer). It was totally wasted space! They never used it, and when Avery was born, Ama was pretty concerned that Aves might drown. Reason number two-Pool!!! We need a place to swim this summer, so, now we can do that.

3. Swimming Lessons for Miss Avery. I would like her to be very comfortable in the water as early as possible! She tries to swim in the bathtub all the time! I am hopeful she will at least master "blowing bubbles and drinking water" like her Uncle E did not too many years ago.

Not only am I on a weight loss, get in shape mission this week, but ever since our NYE party that Emerge threw at Alley Station, my dang phone has been ringing off the hook! Which is great, but Scotty and I are having trouble keeping up! And, to top it all off, Scotty is leaving us after Friday!! We are looking for a replacement if anyone knows an organized, fun, smart person looking for a J-O-B in Montgomery!

Last thing I will throw at you today: Jessica McAzar has been posting photos from high school on facebook. They are hilarious, but have got me thinking about all the dumb, yet funny sayings we used to have. I leave you with a few, and let you reminisce if you were a part, or you can ask, what-the-H-E-double-hockey-sticks is she talking about.

1. Let me see yo cubby hole. (my personal favorite, but is not meaning anything dirty, get your mind out of the gutter!) Dave Yate, Jess Mac, Big Bude, Trace Al, et al

2. That movie's off da chain! (random kid Kara and Meggie picked up late night)

3. Money over beaches. (meggie's thug bf)

4. I'm the number four stunna in the stunna club. (Roberto, AK)

I know there are more, but I just drew a blank!

Williford, out!

Hurricane Avery Strikes Again

We all know Avery is an avid eater. She, like her mother and father, enjoys good food. But this really takes the cake (pun intended).

Just for clarification, that is hazelnut cocoa. I made it. It WAS a present for Allison and Michael for Christmas. I will take partial credit here for this big mess. It was after Christmas (of course I didn't deliver it on time), and the only thing left under the big ole tree. So it was easy picking for Little Miss Giant-Mess-Waiting-to-Happen. I left her sitting in the living room to grab her socks and coat, and my shoes. Literally 45 seconds, and I come back to find that! She was licking her fingers and running them through the carpet trying to get more in her little mouth. I was laughing so hard, I couldn't be mad! She was so proud of herself!

Aves is also learning new things all the time. She has learned to "click". TJ or I will make that clucking noise with our mouths and she will repeat it back to us. Pretty cute, but will probably get pretty darn annoying if she keeps doing it! That is how she woke us up one morning last week. Just clucking away. She also has added some words to her now expanding vocabulary. She said Eh-bin (Evan) last night. Uh-oh is one we hear on occasion. The Ki-kat (kitty cat) lives at Ama's house, and Mom is devastated she has said that and not Ama yet! She also has said Jay-Tee (that's what Justin has asked her to call him-another killer for Ama). Speaking of Ama, here is shot G-Daddy got of her last weekend at the mill with his big old goober of a dog, Luke.

He was trying to push her out of "his" chair. Anywho, that's an update in our world for now. I will keep you posted!

Walk like an Egyptian

I shot some video of Avery walking this morning while we were getting ready to leave the house. She has been getting pretty good, but I put shoes on her and it totally messes up her balance!

In other news, we had a great, but very busy Christmas! Avery met some of her Williford relatives she hadn't seen before, and we ate a lot! Avery got a baby Karaoke machine (from me, of course!) We haven't gotten it out of the box yet, but I can already tell she has an aptitude for singing and acting a fool! Since I got my new handy dandy flip video recorder from Uncle

E, I can now upload video in a snap and will be posting some Avery performances very soon!

AND...some Christmas photos:

This is the load of toys we delivered to needy families for the Sunshine Center.

A close up of that muscle man!

Avery in our bed this morning.
And finally, another subtitled photo by Floyd.