Christmas and Some...

It has been way too long since we've updated this thing and for that we are sorry. BUT...we'll try our best to recap what has been going on. Haley is done with her Biola job and had a great trip to NYC with her fam. Andy continues his new job at BellOne where he is learning a lot and staying busy. He had a Christmas Eve service at BellOne plus he was hired out to play 2 more at WACC (Whittier Area Community Church) after the one at BellOne. As usual, he did awesome! He also played a service New Years Eve at BellOne and Haley is worked at the hospital (got floated to NICU....blah!). Avery is growing like a weed! She has moved on to eating real foods (Mom so far has been making all the babyfood, we'll see how long this lasts:) She loves sweet potatoes, applesauce, and bananas so far and dislikes carrots. Here are some pics of everything!:

Our first bath with a friend...Kaylie absolutely loved it, Avery was not as convinced...

They were both working on sharing...Avery absolutely loved playing with toys in the bath!

Haley, her Mom, seesta, and Aunt Deter bundled up in NYC!

Christmas morning at the Konings...lots of presents!!!

We made it work in our little house, these were everyone's "stockings" when we woke up on Christmas morning

Christmas morning!

She loved to help open her gifts...

And the liked it!

In her new hat from Grandma and Grandpa...poor thing was teething on Christmas!

Practicing cute poses...

Playing with Grandpa on Christmas day!!!

So Much to Say!!

So it has been a busy few weeks!! Phew! This will be a long one to catch everyone up....

Haley has been working both at the hospital and as a clinical instructor at Biola, something she has always wanted to do. It's been very stressful, and not exactly what she was hoping for, but I think rewarding to a certain degree as well. All her students will be joining us for dinner this Thursday as a last hoorah. For Haley, the extreme caraziness will all be over soon, maybe not soon enough, haha. I just started last week my new worship leading position at First Christian Reformed Church of Bellflower. I can definitely say it will be an experience being here, my first week was an organ, piano, and myself--all hymns. I came home and told Haley, "welp, I only offended one person...seems like a success!" (An older women didn't like the way I did a hymn, and thought I was inappropriately dressed. I thought cut off jean shorts and tank tops were totally acceptable, ha!!). Apparently my work is cut out for me, but I am excited to see what can happen here. The church is full of very kind, loving, and Godly people, there are just some who hold on very dearly to their traditions and details so I need to help the church move forward while being sensitive to the denomination's traditions. Avery Jean, as Kaiser Permanente would say, is "thriving"! She started rolling over a while ago, and then stopped. But within the past couple of days, she can't stay on her back for very long. She even is sleeping on her tummy now, swaddled and everything! She has such a wonderful personality and is still just loving to smile and put things in her mouth.

We've had many busy events, with Thanksgiving, and a visit from my Mom, Nana, and Aunt Kris. This afternoon we'll be grabbing dinner with Martha, and this coming weekend Haley leaves for New York with her Mom, Sister and Aunt, and Grandpa Avery comes down to help me with Baby Avery! Wow! With my new job, I will continue the tradition of the church musician and play Christmas Eve. We were bummed at first to not be with family but are starting to get excited about having it just be us! Once December is done maybe we can take a breath, we'll see.

Okay, enough chitchat. I think that covers about everything, so here are some pictures:

As always, we love our rice cereal in the evenings!

Thanksgiving Day:

Avery with her cousin Michael on Thanksgiving, they were born within two hours of each other

The Lodi Thanksgiving:

We got to see our good friends Justin and Julia while we were up and see their son, Elijah.... And this is also the look he constantly gave me whenever he saw me

The Larsen's post Thanksgiving visit:

Connie's parents Elmer and Beatrice

Grandma, cousin Heidi and the other two you should know

playing with Uncle Chas

cousin Nadine and her husband John

The Oregon Clan's visit:

Bath time fun!

Thanks all!!