I'm SIX MONTHS old!!

WOW! Hard to believe that half a year has flown by! Avery turned six months old yesterday, and it has been the most incredible, tender, exhausting, exhilarating, life-changing, meaningful time of our lives! We are truly thankful for each minute of her little life and cannot wait to see what God has in store for our precious daughter.

Happy SIX months, Avery! We love you VERY much!
Love,
Mom & Dad

Avery's Boy Friends :)

On Monday, March 19th, one of Avery's boyfriends was born-- Jake Bryson Misemer! We went to visit him in the hospital Tuesday night... He is absolutely adorable. Congratulations, John & Jennifer! He's perfect.


Then on Wednesday, Avery had a play date with another boyfriend, Drew Farell. It is so much fun to see these two together as their Daddies have been good friends since childhood. Lydia and I had so much fun taking pictures of these two. At one point Avery reached over and grabbed Drew's hand! It was a Kodak moment. (Watch out, Daddy... looks like she might be a flirt! ...I wonder who she gets THAT from?) :) The rest of the time they spent flailing their baby arms into one-another's faces... Hilarious.


Avery has stiff competition for these two stud-muffins!! There are quite a few other baby girls she'll have to share with! ;)

Not a huge fan of carrots...

We are having lots of fun trying new foods with Avery. She makes the cutest little faces when she's tasting something new! Bananas went over pretty well. They didn't catch much of a reaction. Carrots stopped her in her tracks as she tried to figure out what in the world I had just fed her! She didn't hate them at first, but she soon decided she wasn't a huge fan. We caught the "carrot face" on video, and we're so glad we did. So far, her favorite foods are the ones Mom mashes up for her! (Makes me feel good that my child prefers my food over Gerber!) Her ultimate favorite so far is a recipe of bananas & avocado, or what we like to call "banana-guac." One thing's for sure: She's a good eater! (She gets that from both sides of her family!) :)

Bananas = Happy Baby


Carrots = Not-so-happy-Baby

Wedding Weekend

Saturday afternoon was lots of fun since Avery got to go to her first wedding! Lacey Mehlenbacher and Mikey Baird said their "I do's" on St. Patty's Day. It was a truly beautiful event and we had tons of fun getting to introduce her to a lot of Collin's friends. She did GREAT and had a ball! Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Mikey Baird!! Hope you're having a wonderful time in Fiji!

Some pictures and a video clip...

Another tooth!

Avery is cutting tooth #2! (This is one of those posts that will probably only interest the Grandparents... You've been warned.) Amazing how quickly these choppers are coming in!... I didn't see it until this afternoon when she was fussy for no reason and I looked at her tooth (#1 that's already in) and right next to it was #2 that's already cut through the gum in two small areas. Poor kiddo. I think it HURTS.

Her new best friends are Tylenol and chewy teether toys that can go in the refrigerator and get cold. She also really likes it when I hold ice water in a straw and let her chew the straw until the water all drips out. Hopefully it'll be a while before she gets tooth #3. I think we all need a break from teething.

Here are a couple of pictures. The camera didn't pick up tooth #2 yet, of course, but you can see the other one.

Baby's first White Rock

A Saturday evening picnic at sunset by White Rock Lake... Does it get any better than this?

"Poage Vogue" - Strike a Pose...

Friday afternoon Avery had her first "photo shoot" at a studio. It was so much fun! I have to admit, I was a little anxious about the whole situation, but it turned out to be fine. I was reflecting on my younger years when we used to get all dolled up to go to Olan Mills for our yearly portraits. There we were (Jen and I) in our red velvet dresses, hair straight out of the hot rollers and "poof bangs" galore, with the photographer's assistants buzzing around molding us into these strange poses that felt SO awkward! I can almost still hear them... (cut to studio scene in the mid 80's) "Okay, Stephanie... I need you to sit up real straight and put your hands in your lap right over left... now look straight at me... bring your chin down... tilt your head to the left... chin to the right... left shoulder in towards me, and SMIIILE...." Ugh.

So-- needless to say, with those memories haunting me I was dragging my feet a little with getting Avery in to have a real portrait made. I was SO pleasantly surprised when the whole event was not only easy, but low-key too. The "digital age" has totally re-vamped studio portraits. It was so nice, and as an added bonus- AVERY LOVED IT! :) She was SUCH a ham!! She LOVED the spotlight and just kept smiling. I was worried she'd scream and cry through the whole thing... I'm so glad she chose to smile instead. Shouldn't surprise me that she felt natural in all those flashes. After all, this kid's no stranger to the camera! I guess my "Mamarazzi" sessions were good for something!

"Rice, Rice, Baby... ding-ding-ding-ding-da-da-ding-ding"

(For anyone reading this and wondering what in the WORLD is up with this title... you must not have grown up in the 90's.)



So we tried rice cereal with Avery the other night! Unless you're a Mom or a Nanny, you are probably clueless (like we were a few days ago) about what "rice cereal" is... and, no, it's not the "Snap-Crackle-Pop" stuff. Rice Cereal is kind of like Instant Mashed Potatoes for babies. It's really just flaky white stuff that you stir into Mom's milk and it thickens it up into a cream-of-wheat type substance. Even though there is a whole long list of nutrients on the box, my Pediatrician says it's not really for nutritional value, but to teach babies how to eat something instead of just drinking their meals. The first few bites were interesting... she has no problem with the whole spoon-to-mouth thing, but doesn't quite get the swallowing part yet. She did REALLY well though, for a first-timer! :)

It's exciting watching her grow up little by little! (I can't believe she's coming up on SIX months.... didn't we JUST bring her home?!) Here are some fun pictures of her first bites!

Nature Walk!

The weather was SO beautiful today that we couldn't help but get out in it. So after a fun few hours walking around Northpark with Andrea and Ella, Howie and I decided that Avery was due for her first "Nature Walk." Just to clarify... we've taken Avery for walks before, of course, but the "Austin" is coming out in me and this one was more centered around introducing Avery to nature; Leaves... trees... grass... bark... etc.

For some reason, this walk was a little nostalgic for me. I'm not sure if everyone has stories like these, or if it's just me, but my Dad LOVED to get my Mom, sister and I outdoors to explore nature. My most vivid childhood memories take me back to warm sunny afternoons spent walking trails at Zilker Park in Austin and feeding ducks with the leftover sandwich bread we kept for such an occasion. I could write forever just about the sights, sounds and smells I remember from those times... and now I appreciate even more the amount of effort my parents poured into making sure I learned from and absorbed my environment at the earliest age possible. So with all that said, it was an especially touching "circle of life" moment to take my baby girl out into nature and put her tiny hands up to plants and textures she's never experienced before just like my parents did with me. Her sweet giggles and gazes upwards to watch tree canopies swaying in the breeze were more of a treat for ME than anything.

It was obvious that she enjoyed her outside time! ...Maybe we have a 3rd generation Landscape Architect on out hands!... :)

I'm 5 Months Old!

Once again, we're late getting this post up but we have a little bit of an excuse in that February 29th didn't occur this year. (Hey, I said "little" excuse!) Happy 5 months, Avery! We love watching you grow!

...getting ready for the blanket photo shoot...


Avery sandwich!!

Teething Bites

It's official! She's got a tooth!

Amazing how time flies... Avery has already cut her first tooth and it's a SHARP little chopper! Didn't seem to bother her too much though. I wouldn't have even checked for a tooth if my Mom hadn't said, "Wash your hands and feel for a tooth..." Sure enough! There it was. It's the bottom right front tooth, for anyone who was curious. This should make feeding her EXTRA fun for me! ;)

She's growing up already!... Crazy.

I'd like to thank the Academy...

Inspired by an evening of watching the stars accept awards for their film performances, I thought it would be appropriate to post our family's "honorable mention" short films:

"Happy Feet"


"Little Miss Sunshine" (A re-make of the original Poage Family Screenplay titled "Peek-a-boo")

"Babble" (....yes, I know it's spelled differently.... it's meant to be punny)


...And the award for "Mom with surprisingly way too much time on her hands who seriously needs to give up the caffeine addiction and go to bed before the sun rises" goes to..... :)

Game On!

Friday night, thanks to Nana, we got to go out with our friends Lindsay and Randy Key (sans-kiddo) for a night on the town. Now-- most new parents would probably take full advantage of an opportunity like this and go someplace very "Adult"... Very mature and distinguished... Someplace in Uptown Dallas where you would never DREAM of going with a baby for fear that the stares of disgust would burn right through your Baby Bjorn... Somewhere that warrants having ACTUALLY ARRANGED for a babysitter.

We are not those people.

Nope! We chose to spend the evening at "Chucky Cheese for Adults!" (a.k.a. Dave and Busters) I must say, it was quite fun. We "Donkey Konged & Skeeballed" our night away! (Actually, truthfully... we spent most of the evening playing Ultimate Trivia, but at the risk of sounding like Ultimate Nerds I probably shouldn't have mentioned that...) So, at the end of the evening instead of receiving stares of disgust from Dallas "20-something" millionaires, we got them from a much more "urban" crowd of 3' tall Dallas knee-knockers as we paraded through the arcade with an embarrassing amount of tickets we had won. The hardest part of the night was deciding how to spend our 3,200 tickets at the prize counter. Did we have the nerve to ask the guy behind the counter for 320 Chinese Finger-cuffs?... Or for 640 bouncy balls?... Unfortunately we did not. A couple of T-Shirts and a VERY classy golf glove later, we headed home.

Good thing we didn't have the kid with us!... THAT might have been embarrassing.

Happy Birthday to me!! ...And Ian too!!

(This post is a little late... Oops!)



It was a weekend full of festivities as we headed to Austin for Birthday celebrations! Our nephew, Ian, celebrated 2 years on February 16th and had his "Curious George" Birthday party on Saturday! We had so much fun getting to see family and celebrating 2 years with Ian. Avery got to meet her Uncle Elliot (Collin's Uncle on his Dad's side) and Aunt Vicki for the first time, and also got to hang out a little with Aunt Chloe (Collin's Aunt on his Mom's side) It was a wonderful party! Fun had by all.

The next day, Sunday the 18th, was MY Birthday so I got to celebrate with my family. Jennifer and Andrew came in town for lunch at Hula Hut (one of my favorites) and then we all went back to the house for cake and presents! It's funny... because now that I'm a Mom I see Birthdays in a whole new light! It's not really as monumental for the "kid" as much as it is for the MOM! All the kid did was be born! The MOM did all the work! :) ...From now on, I think I'll try and give my Mom something on my Birthday as a "Thank you!"

Here are a few fun shots from the festivities!

What's up, Doc?

Avery and I went in to see a pediatric Opthamologist this afternoon. We were concerned about some vision issues and wanted to make sure those pretty peepers were working as well as they possibly can. We have good news to report!... She was given a clean bill of health! I was afraid that her eyes were coming to the center a little more than they should, but the Doctor said that her eyes are functioning just as they should and she doesn't even show risk factors for crossing. He told me that what I was seeing that looked like crossing was a severe optical illusion that can happen in young babies when their noses aren't yet fully formed and protruding. The colored part of her eye sometimes gets "burried" when she looks down and to either side causing an optical illusion that she's crossing. But that's just it-- an "illusion" that will correct itself the older she gets. All that to say-- she's fine.

This was all wonderful news to Mama's ears! :) At least for now, she's still glasses-free. ...She'll just have to borrow Ella's trendy pink ones from time to time when she wants to be fashionable!...

Avery did very well even though the doctor did a series of tests shining lights in her eyes and covering them with different lenses. She did NOT like getting drops put in them to cause them to dilate (and she let us KNOW she didn't like it) but other than that she was a happy little camper. She smiled and giggled at the doctor during the exam. What a flirt! :) She sure was a trooper.

Thanks for the prayers, those of you who knew we were going in! It's always nice to know we're prayed over.

Happy Valentine's Day!

What a great day! Anytime a girl wakes up to a surprise of beautiful flowers in the living room, you know it's going to be a good one... Thanks, honey, for making me feel special today!

...And since it's "Baby's First Valentine's Day" we'd like to share a little slideshow with you. Make sure you turn your volume on so you can hear the sweet song that goes with these pictures. We are so proud of our new "love!" Hope this brings a smile to your heart... Love and Hugs to you ALL this Valentine's Day!

"Be Mine"

Peek-a-boo!

Avery is 4 MONTHS OLD!

Yes, we realize it's February 2nd and we're just now getting around to a post that should have happened on January 29th, but things kept getting in the way. Anyway, we finally got around to taking our 4 month blanket pictures and wanted to post them! This has become one of our favorite monthly traditions... Thanks, Josh & Melanie for giving us the idea! It's tons of fun to track her growth!

Hugs!!

Meeting Drew...

Avery and I got to meet Drew Farell today for the first time! (Collin met & held him moments after he was born, but since that all happened in the wee hours of the morning, Aves and I didn't get to be there.)

Significance of Avery meeting Drew: The Poage/Farell friendships go back a ways... Not only were Glen and Collin best buds through high school & on (and Glen was Collin's best man) but both boys' Moms (Linda Farell and Janice Poage) were friends in College! :o So-- this is the third generation of these "genes" being friends with each other... and you KNOW we took pictures of their first meeting just in case they go to a junior high dance together someday. We can pull these pictures out and say "you guys knew each other when you were THIS little..."


"Hey Drew! I'm Avery... I know how you feel, but hang in there! I'll teach you everything I know."


"Okay, first lesson: When the Mommies and Daddies pull out their shiny silver flashy boxes, try to look in their direction. I don't know why, but that seems to make the flashes stop quicker."


Kendra with Drew


Avery's so happy not to be the littlest one in the room.


Janice with Drew


Drew and the ladies... :)