Sunday Surprise!!

We'll let the movie speak for itself!

Fun Times!

Well it's summer so time to have fun right? Some highlights lately have been as follows:

It was just last week that we took part in our church's vacation bible school. Andy lead the kids in worship every night, Wednesday through Saturday and did quite an amazing job. All of the kids loved it. The week ends with a huge outside party after church the Sunday after VBS and a party it was! They rent huge blow up water slides, have a snow cone man (probably the best snow cones ever), and lunch is provided. Avery obviously loved the food and wouldn't stop eating. The pictures we have are of another little girl feeding her (unfortunately we have no idea who this girl is, Avery just started eating her snow cone and she thought it was hilarious), but if nothing else, it made for a good photo opp!


The girl feeding her had to concentrate really hard, it was super cute!


She's just too excited!

Then On Thursday we went to "strole and savor" in Long Beach. It's a really neat outdoor even through the downtown area of Belmont Shores where you buy tickets and multiple restaurants are out selling their "best" foods for a certain amount of tickets. We met up with our friend Tamira and her daughter Ella (who was accompanied by her boyfriend Lucas, they're 5 years old) at a park and then headed to the downtown area. Although both Andy and I were totally overwhelmed by all the people (we don't get out much) and the 5 year olds being crazy (Erica and Brian, it was like having Ella times two at downtown disney post beignets the whole night!), it was a super fun night. By the end, Avery had eaten: beef slider, pad thai, egg roll, gyros, hummus, taziki, a greek spinach pastry type thing, pita bread, a whole piece of pizza, frozen yogurt, and two miniature cupcakes. We had her in the red wagon she got for her birthday and people literally stopped to watch her eat the miniature cupcakes, she also reached out and stole Ella's right out of her little hands. She's quite the eater!


This is when we were playing at the park before doing the strolling...


She loved the swing!


Always time for kisses....


All the kiddos together!


Stuffing the last little bit of the mini cupcake into her mouth...she was upset after this photo was taken because there was no more!

oh and p.s., we had her 12month check up today and she, as always, did amazingly. She's 22lbs. and getting taller as always; 75%ile for height and 60%ile for weight, she didn't even cry for her shots today!

Some days are harder...

Just as a warning, this may be a little heavy. Andy and I have been talking about what we want our blog to be about, we want it a little more honest instead of just all the warm and fuzzy pictures (don't worry we'll still have those too:)

Some days I wonder what my purpose is....I want to go home after work saying, "another day at work, more lives saved" as any nurse should. But I don't feel that way, I feel like I'm hurting them, poisoning them, making them vomit, and sometimes, ultimately taking their lives with "treatment". Tuesday was especially hard, I walked into work to see a sign stating that my patient who I discharged home on Friday (4 days prior) had passed away on Monday. It wasn't an easy or expected passing. Then I went about my usual crazy day which included giving chemo (making the little kiddo sick), running with another RN to give pain medications before a baby peed because it hurt him so bad (from our treatment), holding a little 4 year old down who's spitting out blood because Mom and I are trying to rinse her mouth out with salt water to "cure" the terrible mouth sores that she has, and getting completely chewed out by a Mom because I didn't get to a beep fast enough (little did she know that I was running into another room of a child going downhill quickly who we transferred to a higher acuity unit) while she stated "doesn't my son's insurance pay you to be a good nurse?" (don't even get me started on who's paying for her child's insurance...)

I know that as a Christian my purpose is to live for Christ, to be Christ to my co-workers and families, and to live with a sense of urgency of His return, but quite frankly, it's hard to do in this environment. Maybe I'm having a bit of a weak moment in life, we're all allowed those every now and again, but it's hard to go to work wondering why I'm there, feeling like I'm making people's lives more miserable.

Not to be too depressing...I have gone back to work one other day and it wasn't as hard, I'm just sharing a little bit of my heart with you all, that's it for now!:)

A much needed night out!

The sad fact is that we don't get out a lot, since moving into our new home (in february) we have gone on 1 date just the two of us which was great! It's hard because we use our friends as babysitters for times when we need them (work conflicts, etc.) and feel bad using them more. BUT, last Sunday, we got to go to the Orange County fair. For those that have never lived down here, it's a big deal. I've lived here for 7 years and can't believe I've never been! We went with our great (and newly engaged) friends Kaitlyn and Justin. Grammy (Kathy) and Grandpa Rog were in town for a wedding in San Diego so they drove up just to hang out with her for the evening (oh how we wish we lived by family!). We got to have a ton of fun, totally uninhibited by our daughter (as amazing as she may be). We enjoyed fried avacados, a fried tweenkie, a few sodas, a huge corndog, french fries, a bucket of donuts (yummy!), kettle corn, a ride on the ferris wheel (my very first!), taking photobooth pictures, and winning a fish (he was glorious, i named him scout, unfortunately Scout was dead 1.5 days later, we've already replaced him with 2 beta fish named bear and blue, also known as bob and bob). We had way too much fun and wish we could do it more often! Here are some highlights:



We were pretending to take engagement photos...






Great Friends!

p.s. for the record, when we say "oh how we wished we lived by family" we're trying really hard to move up north STAT and would really appreciate your prayers...to date, we have applied to over a combined 30 jobs in the bay area to know avail and it's rough on our egos as well as our hearts, if you hear of anything let us know!:)

Just another Saturday!

Well...this Saturday I decided to get my craft on. In life, we all struggle, Andy and I struggle with not being able to be the typical "Mom" and "Dad". I want to be the perfect Mom that home-makes every dinner, crafts all the time, etc. and Andy wants to bring home the bacon. While we enjoy where we're at, know that it's where the Lord has us (for now), and are content, it leads us to sometimes do wild and crazy things:) Erica has a friend with a daughter about the same age as Avery and is the quintessential stay at home Mom, perfect in every way. She even runs a successful website, it's crazy! I often find myself wanting to be more and more like her and get disappointed in the realization that I can't, I have a full time job and just simply don't have the time, not to mention the creativity or patience. But I sometimes get inspired by her/her blog and decide to get my craft on. This weekend's project, leggings for the babes! Here are what was produced, she's too cute in them! (oh and check out www.styleberryblog.com, that's my inspiration, and oregon clan, i'm sure you'll love what you see!)



the model...




Some others that I made (cute as long as you don't look too closely...:)

Meg's Wedding

Another quick weekend trip up north for an unforgettable wedding...yeah for Meg and James Rossi! We had a great time coming up there, seeing all the family, taking part in all of the crazy festivities, and celebrating such a great marriage. We're very excited to have a new brother (and Uncle Jimmy:) and are looking forward to all the years to come. Much love to you two! Here are some highlights...


At the rehearsal dinner...the new sibs!


One of the most perfect pictures of love (thank you Nana and Papa for being such a great example of how to love eachother unconditionally, we don't tell you enough how much we love and appreciate you two!)


So great celebrating with the Pratt's, the Koning's, and the Knouse's!


Adios to the Rossi's!

Avery's 1st Birthday!

Avery turned one on July 10th and we had a ton of fun celebrating her. It was quite stressful for Mommy and Daddy because we drove down from norcal (after having been there multiple weeks) the day before the big celebration. Right when we got home, Mommy went out grocery shopping for 3 hours then baked cupcakes till around 10:30pm. Daddy woke up that morning, got balloons, a haircut, and helped organize for the 1:00pm pool party. It all came together and we had tons of food! Only about 10 people came, including Avery's best friend Kaylie and her little bro, as well as her other great friend Ella (age 5). All the kids had a blast playing in the pool together. Then we decided we didn't want the party to be over so we all went back to our house where Avery opened her presents and was able to play all day with the other girls. She love love loved this, she knew it was a special day because she got to miss her nap and have a bunch of friends over. Then Daddy and Hibbs went to get In-n-Out for everyone and we celebrated well into the night. Avery even had a hard time going to sleep (took a few hours, we're assuming it was due to the cupcake:) So all in all Avery's first birthday was perfect! Here are some photos from the day!


Avery with future Uncle Justin (way to propose buddy, we're so happy for you guys!!!)


Great friends, Haley's being super excited about Kaitlyn's new ENGAGEMENT RING!!!


Daddy also got flowers for Avery for her birthday...this was the table we took over at the pool, yummy cupcakes!


Kaylie is literally saying "Happy birthday Avery!"


Avery with her birthday cupcake! It had a "1" on it!


She demolished the entire cupcake (although honestly this was no surprise to us as she had done the same thing to our birthday cakes:)


Giving Mama cupcake kisses!


Pool time! The birthday girl first jumped in with her great friend Ella who towed her all around the pool.


Kaitlyn and Mama playing humpty dumpty with the girls.


Avery with Ella and Kaylie.

Avery floating around with her future husband, Trey Whitsell.


Hanging out with Mama after getting out of the pool


Besties with their Mommies!


More of the girls...Thanks so much for coming ladies!


THe girls all got to take the wagon back (thank you Grandma and Grandpa Pratt for such an awesome wagon! Avery loves it!)


Kaylie is showing Avery how to use the purse that she gave her.


Avery loved the lipstick from her purse.


Going to bed in her new cupcake pj's!


Nobody can deny that she is the cutest baby ever!


Crawling around with her Happy Birthday sign written in chalk.


She was very excited to open up her presents from the Oregon clan.

Thanks to everyone who took part in Avery's 1st birthday. She really had a great day and has loved all of her new presents and clothes!