Tag Archives: birthday

1 Year Photos With A Blanket, A Basket, and Pretty Pink Balloons

Ten days from now, at precisely 4:13 pm, Avery will officially be one year old! #holycrap

That means she has ten days left to start walking so we can watch her run around for her birthday. Pretty slim chance, huh? Really though, that’s okay with me, she moves around just fine on her hands and knees anyway.

We just had Avery’s one year pics taken at a small botanical gardens near where we live and the day was thankfully really calm and beautiful. Besides the annoying mosquitoes and Avery being a little very fussy, the photo session was pleasant and turned out great.

I’m cutting it short with words and just want to share my favorite photos here.  Enjoy!

All photos posted were taken professionally by Kristin Hafner of Kristen Hafner Photography. She was very helpful during the photo session and since she has kids of her own, was understanding of Avery’s fussiness and how to deal with it.

 

Avery 1yr and Liley Family (24 of 25)

Avery 1yr and Liley Family (1 of 25)

Avery 1yr and Liley Family (2 of 25)

Avery 1yr and Liley Family (8 of 25)

Avery 1yr and Liley Family (9 of 25)

Avery 1yr and Liley Family (14 of 25)

Avery 1yr and Liley Family (18 of 25)

Avery 1yr and Liley Family (23 of 25)

I love the black and white one with Going Mom and Avery! It’s now the background on my computer so I can see it every time I turn it on!

Did you have or do you plan on having 1 year photos taken of your baby?

Any themes you’re going for?

Last Week’s Workouts and the Start of Movember

Had a pretty good week of workouts and decided to stick with an upper/lower routine by following one I wrote out a few years ago. I’m still adding more conditioning work than needed, but it’s getting better. Avery did great by “spotting” me in her jumper and cheering me on with her cute and loud coos.

I don’t write it out, but I always warm up before lifting with a 10 minutes of dynamic moves and stationary biking before ramping up the weights to my working sets. Again, this is in additional to walking at least a total of 3 or 4 miles each day of the week and chasing a very fast crawler around the house.

Monday – 10/27

– Back Squat: 4 x 8 x 215lbs

– Straight Leg Dead Lift: 4 x 8 x 205lbs

– Dumbbell Lunges: 3 x 10/side x 45lb/side

Superset w/ Glute-Ham Raise: 3 x 12

– Double Kettlebell Swings: 3 x 31 x 25lb/arm

– 31 1-leg squats and Push-ups

Tuesday – 10/28

– Bench Press: 4 x 8 x 160lbs

Superset w/ Strict Chin-ups: 4 x 6

– Dumbbell Hang Clean & Press: 4 x 10 x 30lb/arm

– 1-arm Dumbbell Rows: 3 x 12 x 45lb

Superset w/ Bodyweight Dips: 3 x 13

– Renegade Rows w/ 30lb Dumbbells: 3 x 10

– Dumbbell Curls “21’s”: 3 x 20lb

Superset w/ Standing Triceps Ext w/ 45lb plate: 3 x 12

– 31 1-leg squats and Push-ups

Wednesday – 10/29

– Warm-up walk/jog followed by 12 x ~75 meter hill sprints pushing Avery in stroller with 35lb weights in bottom basket; cool down jog of ¾ mile

– 31 1-leg squats and Push-ups + run 2 miles easy

Thursday – 10/30

– Front Squat: 4 x 8 x 170lbs

– Dead Lift: 3 x 8 x 230lbs

– Clean: 5 x 5 x 120lbs

– 31 Bulgarian Split Squats w/ 20lb Dumbbells/arm and 31 Push-ups

– 1 Round of Tabata bike

Friday – 10/31

– Overhead Press: 4 x 8 x 105lbs

– Barbell Bent Row: 4 x 8 x 130lbs

Superset w/ Dumbbell Incline Press: 4 x 10 x 45lb/arm

– Dumbbell Hang Clean & Press: 5 x 5 x 45lb/arm

– 4 Rounds: Close-grip Bench – 10 x 130lbs, Wide-grip Pull ups x 5, Kettlebell Windmill w/ 25lb/side x 10/side, Bike ~30 seconds

– 31 1-leg squats and Push-ups

Saturday – 11/01

– Cardio Challenge (30 min of 30s on: 30s off) wearing Elevation Training Mask

– 31 1-leg squats and Push-ups

Sunday – 11/02

– Walk 1.5 miles with Kelley and Avery in stroller to playground to push Avery in swing and then run 1.5 miles back

– Reel Mow back yard while wearing Avery in the Onya

– 31 1-leg squats and Push-ups

– Strict Pull ups x 10, 11, 11

November 1st marked the end of October and the month Avery was born. Yep, we’ll be celebrating her one year birthday on the 15th!!! Ahhhh! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it many times again; being a parent is equivalent to having a time machine stuck on the “future” setting.

I’ll be sharing more about her birthday soon, including her 1 year pictures we had done recently. But I need to go for now and just wanted to mention that I’m participating in Movember and just shaved my face clean on 11/01. Now I’m all set to let my mustache grow…..or something to that effect, it never grew well before.

Starting with a clean slate.....
Starting with a clean slate…..

If you can, I’d love to have you support the cause by donating to my page or team of Dads/Bloggers. Just sharing our page with your friends, family, and followers would be much appreciated too!

Any plans for November?

Have you heard of Movember?

Who’s the Ruler of All Pumpkins?

Avery, of course.

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This past weekend was actually a lovely 4 day weekend for Going Mom and we had a wonderful time together!

On Saturday, G-ma came over to watch Avery as I took Kelley to Martin House Brewery for her 30th birthday, the same place I went for my 30th. We love our little girl, but it sure was nice with just the two of us; big thanks to my mom for watching our increasingly crazy girl!

We are lightweights when it comes to drinking (not ashamed), and the 3 full glasses we each had with the tour had us slightly numb in the face with, ummmm, happiness! I also blame the beer on my over-determination to take a good selfie of us; I swear I was hitting that button!

After we returned home and G-ma left, we were sluggish the rest of the day and ready for bed. Geez, being 30 is rough! But we still had a cute little girl to care for and get to bed before we could do the same. Luckily, we had a giant box for Kelley and I to play around in with Avery and get her energy out.

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Best free thing I took from a neighbor’s curbside in a looonnngg time!

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The next day, Kelley’s actual birthday, I made chocolate French toast and coffee along with this fine presentation….

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She gave my good beer for my 30th, and I returned the favor, plus Chimay cheese, also a great beer! Needless to say, we’re fans of good beer. I normally hand write my cards to her, but since I finally installed the printer we bought several months ago, I figured I’d use it instead.

My mom, G-ma, came back up to take Kelley out shopping as I stayed home with Avery. Basically just another day for our baby and me, but Kelley had a great time shopping with my mom and I was happy to stay at home. Shopping for clothes is not my strong suit (ha ha, get it?), and when I do, it’s online. Plus, Avery and I had some more cardboard box playing to tend to.

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On Monday, we made plans to go to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden to see the pumpkin exhibit and take pictures. The drive ended up taking longer than we anticipated and we left later than we should’ve, but Avery had a nap and we enjoyed our time together surrounded by a beautiful landscape.

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We wondered around taking in the scenes, and yes, we were a little lost too since we really wanted to find the pumpkin patch. Turns out, if you just follow the pumpkins lining the paths, it leads right to the patch. Go figure!

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Avery kept pretty well-behaved as we took turns posing with her and taking dozens of pumpkin packed pictures.

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Obviously, you MUST raise your arms when posing for pictures or the Pumpkin Ruler (aka Avery) will turn you into a pumpkin. Note the field of previous violators behind us..

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Many pictures and poses later, Avery started to get fussy and we were about ready to head out to make the trek back home. But first, we had to shamelessly ask an innocent bystander to take our picture in front of this cool “squash house”.

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I mean, c’mon, who wouldn’t want their picture with this gorgeous gourd home?! Okay, probably Avery, but she didn’t get a say.

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Going Mom and I enjoyed the family trip, but we both agreed it will be a while until we drive back out to Dallas for something like this. Once Avery is older and can run around and talk, we’ll look into it again, but there are plenty of similar things closer to us and that’s good enough!

Our 4 days of togetherness were fun-filled and now we are both parents in our 30’s…..uh oh…getting older!! Avery stood on her own several times making us think she would take her first steps, but still won’t do it! I thought it would be a cool birthday present, but Avery thought otherwise. Maybe it’ll just be a little belated?

Have you ever been to a pumpkin patch or something similar?

How long did your little one go from standing on their own to actually walking?