Wow...life just keeps going! And Andy and I just keep learning, we're mainly learning that the learning will never stop! Most recently we had an experience where we forgot to open the flue in our chimney before starting our first fire, woops! First our fire alarm went off, Andy took care of that, then when the flame starting spilling out of the chimney we decided this was a bigger deal than originally thought. I grabbed the baby, escaped through the front door running around knocking on doors asking for a fire extinguisher while Andy stayed in the house trying to put it out himself (it was amazing how not many of our neighbors seemed to care...if our house burnt down so would theirs cause they're connected!). I eventually found a man down the street with one but by the time he put his dogs in the house and ran down to our house, my super manly husband had put it out with water:) Unfortunately we're still cleaning up all the ash a few days later! Chalk it off as another lesson learned;)
On a more serious note, we've learned that though we're trying desperately to move up north (to no avail:( we have to make the best of our lives down here and be content. This doesn't mean we've stopped applying up north, because we haven't, it just means we're also taking steps down here to continue living it up in Anaheim. This has included us planting a garden, painting our kitchen and adding little nick-knacks, transforming our house into a Christmas wonderland, finishing Avery's room (finally, putting up curtains, adding cute flower stick ons, etc.), changing out the knobs on our linen closet to cuter ones, etc. I have also decided to take another position at Biola as a clinical Instructor from the end of January to the end of May. This was a hard decision for us to make as it feels that we're committing that much longer to Anaheim but I've made my boss at Biola aware that if either Andy or I gets a job up north, we'll be moving. So...all that to say, we're happy and content down here:) I'm attaching a bunch of pictures of our lives lately for you viewing pleasure.
Part of learning in my job teaches me to never take a moment with my child for granted because you never know when it will be your last, therefore we try to celebrate Avery's every month. For her 16 month birthday we decided to do something none of us had ever done...we took a ride on the city bus!!! Avery loved it cause she was joined by her best friend Kaylie and family. We had to walk just over a mile to get to the bus stop where we took the city bus to jalepenos, one of our favorite restaurants!
This is us waiting for the bus...unfortunately we waited for about 45 minutes on a street where the speed limit was 45mph, us parents were way stressed where the kids just played and had fun together!
Family shot on the bus...I was amazed that you pay $1.50 and get to go as far as you want! It was so great.
Avery and her best friend Kaylie on the bus, they loved it!
I mean look at the two of them...too cute!
Next up on the update list is that our great friends Kaitlyn and Justin are finally Mr. and Mrs. Campbell!!! We are so stinkin excited for them...the festivities began in Long Beach which included girl's lunch, decorating the church, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, then getting ready all day and partying it up on Saturday celebrating the couple. Kaitlyn was honestly the most beautiful bride I've ever seen, and Justin of course looked dashing. I don't have super good pictures of the actual day cause I was busy with other things, but I'm sure there are more to come!
All of the men in the wedding.
Kaitlyn's ladies...
Mr. and Mrs. Koning.
We are so excited for you guys as you embark on this journey, can't wait to make so many memories!
The day after the wedding was the scheduled day for our family Thanksgiving. We got up early to start cooking and it was sooooo good! We had it all, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, sweet potatoes, 2 pumpking pies, green beans, rolls, everything you need for a perfect holiday! The best part was that we stayed in comfy clothes all day and watched TWO movies, wow, what a day!:)
This was our bird...he was over 20 pounds!!!
Family photo op! Avery was so cute cause she wanted to hold our hands too! (Cori was there too, but she took the picture; so glad you were a part of our thanksgiving friend!)
Next we tried to take some pictures for our Christmas card but they didn't turn out like we had hoped, so here they are for your viewing pleasure:) Avery had just gotten the dress from Grandma and I made the ridiculously cute leg warmers, she's such a little elf. And this was the first time she ever had pig tails! They were super cute but her skin is so sensitive that her little scalp was bright red where the hairs were pulling so they didn't last long...:(
She was so excited about them!
Practicing covering her mouth while coughing/laughing
Family photo op on our new couch!
Next we really wanted to get Avery some skinny jeans/jeggings (for those of you that haven't heard these are leggings that look like jeans) so we went on a family outing to the only mall around with a baby Gap. While there, we saw Santa right outside the store and figured, why not have Avery meet Santa. While waiting for our turn we let her run around, she loved it! She's become such a social butterfly, she would go up to other kids and talk to them and try to hold their hand. She thinks everyone is her friend. The sad part was she watched all the other kids cry when they saw Santa so that's what she did...Santa used a candy cane to lure her closer to him (Andy and I weren't the biggest fans of this tactic, too many SVU's) but we had to stay in the picture, hoping she would stop. She didn't. So here's the picture!
Since we hadn't planned on this, Andy and I hadn't showered or anything, it was too funny.
We're also learning how to be more spontaneous...so at Sunday lunch with our great friends (Whitsells, Rohrbach's, CAMPBELL'S) Kaylie asked if she could come over and we said sure. Avery was delighted to have her friend over and it turned into a night of fun with the Whitsells, these girls are too cute.
They were both wearing tu-tus on the same day!
They love eachother so much.
And lastly...it's the little things that can make such a difference in life. Here are some pictures of our "home improvements"
Here are are new knobs for the linen closet...well there's one next to the old ones, so great!
Here's our back patio with the new plants, lights, etc.
The baby's new and improved room with curtains and walls!
Some of the new kitchen decorations and you can see the paint in the background.
Some of our Christmas decorations. (notice the black on the brick behind the stockings from our little mishap...Dad how can we clean that?)
Lastly, a picture of the cutest kid ever. She is in a baby phase right now, she likes to bring her baby dolls everywhere and she carries them around all the time saying, "mama". Oh dear, we wish you could all experience her cuteness in person. But for now, this update will have to do.
Love and miss you all!
