Broken Car and Iron Infusion

As always it's been a while, we apologize:) Life has been busy but really good...we're constantly in awe of how perfect God's timing was in moving us up here and so grateful for being here. Avery loves that family members just stop in and we get to see Aunts/Uncles and Grandparents all the time!

Now onto the country song part of our lives...:) Last week, as we're meeting with a mortgage broker, realtor, etc. looking more seriously into buying a home, Andy's car died...:( It would cost more money than it's worth to fix SO we fixed the bare minimum, got it back to our place, and are waiting to hear from a company that comes and tows cars for free and pays you for the parts:) In the meantime, the Pratt's have been more than generous in letting us borrow their car, the mini cooper which Andy is driving like a champ. We've gone test driving this past weekend (for those that know Haley as a Pratt you should be really proud we didn't come home with a new car:) and we're most likely looking into a certified pre-owned Toyota Sienna or Kia Sedona (both vans...Andy couldn't be more excited!) We've got our information in at Carmax and Costco, both certified pre-owned dealers and we're just waiting to find the right one to test drive!

Also, on a sad note, despite the fact that I (Haley) eat over 100% of my daily iron intake orally it just isn't cutting it with baby Mary Lou eating it all...At the beginning of the pregnancy my hemoglobin was 11 (normal range for my age is 11.4-14); the last set of labs that were drawn showed my hgb to be 9.4, so despite all of my iron intake it has dropped significantly. As you can imagine the Dr. is not too thrilled with this and I have started getting iron infusions. I am only receiving 3 of them, once a week for three weeks, they started last Thursday. They are 1.5 hours long but will hopefully help with the fatigue/dizziness I've been experiencing as well as the crazy restless legs I've been having. Unfortunately, as of today, I haven't noticed any difference at all BUT i'm hoping maybe the 2nd transfusion will really get things going:)

It was very weird being the patient...I didn't love it:)

Other than working we're hanging out a lot with family, enjoying the hot weather, figuring out housing/car stuff, and getting ready for baby Mary Lou's arrival! The girls' room is coming together, it's been painted and we're slowly figuring out what things will go where (the room is very small:) Avery loves the fact that she's having a little sister, she constantly hugs and kisses my belly (that is now growing at quite a fast rate) and asks her baby sister to kick for her. She's already showing signs of being a really good big sister!

Avery is growing a ton. Her vocabulary grows daily and she cracks us up with the things she comes up with, she also loves to talk on the phone. She's also recently added to movie "a bug's life" to her favorite things to watch, it's adorable to watch her just sit there in awe of the movie (and show a scary face during the scary parts:)

One of the projects we're doing for their room is making little initial signs for each girl on their side of the room...Avery's is done! (we have to wait to do baby #2's cause we haven't chosen a name:)

Some of the days before going to work I pack up Avery's lunch and we head to the community pool for some sunshine before work...I love it cause I just get to layout and enjoy the sun and Avery loves it because she gets to hang out in the pool and play on the steps. Here is a video of the most recent trip!

A teaser

Here's a video of Avery when Auntie Erica and I were out to lunch...she was eating the lemon as a dessert!:_

Life is exhausting...:)

Potty training...enough said! Potty training is the most exhausting time we have experienced in the last two years of Avery's life:) Despite the fact that she is doing a phenomenal job at it, every day we want to just throw diapers back on the kid. We started about two weeks ago now, the first few days we were just picking up pee and poop everywhere, now it is rare that she even has accidents BUT we're going to the potty constantly! and she always says, "mommy/daddy i need poop again" she doesn't distinguish between pee and poop which makes it that much more difficult:) it's also exhausting going back to packing multiple outfits in the diaper bag to be prepared for all the accidents! we have found that most accidents are generally our fault...we wont remind her to go often enough or before we go somewhere we'll forget to have her use the potty before leaving and then she goes. we're also trying to make her be able to go anywhere (this is the hard part for mommy, public bathrooms are so gross!!!) so she can now pee on the side of a pool (instead of in the pool:) as well as in the wildnerness (at mt. diablo the other day she popped a squat!) we are very proud of her and she gets to not only do a potty dance every time she goes BUT she gets a treat as well (one m&m:). also if an adult successfully goes on the potty, she gives them a treat! while it's exhausting, we wanted to get it done way in advance before baby number 2 comes so there is no regression.

other than potty training, avery is just talking away! her favorite sayings, "hey mommy/daddy, what doing?", "where'd ______(insert name here) go?" (even if the person is right in front of her, she also often says, "where'd avery go?"). she also loves to lift up mommy's shirt and kiss the baby (even in public:) and she keeps asking for the baby now. she loves loves loves babies! we'll see if that changes at all when baby #2 comes! baby mary-lou is growing a lot! i'm now 23 weeks pregnant and she (like avery) is a very active baby in the womb, constantly kicking and doing summer salts (it probably helps that i eat a lot of candy:) everything with the pregnancy is going great!

as far as andy and i...we've been busy! we're in the throws of working working working! i have finally grown into a set schedule so we're figuring out a routine and working out how each of us is able to spend time with the babes and eachother. at times it feels like we're both single parents (cause the days we both work we just switch off for a few minutes) but we're managing and figuring out what life looks like with our new routine. we're also slowly working on projects around the house. these include new curtains for our room (really great striped ones) and working on the new little girls' room. we've painted avery's bunk beds and put them together which she is currently sleeping in and loves being in a big girl bed (she would hang out in her room all day if we let her:) we have a vision for what the room will look like and we're slowly working on it, having a good time while doing so! as always, we constantly keep an eye on houses for sale around the area hoping some day we'll be able to afford one:)

i'm adding a link of some adventures of this past weekend, our friends the gunther's from LA came and visited with their 7 month old baby Liam (which i'm sure you can imagine avery loved!). we went on multiple adventures including eating domenicos at mt. diablo, going to tilden park in berkeley, etc. and had a good time together. enjoy the pictures and hopefully we'll have an update sooner than this next time!:)

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.645122398067.2126417.68602760&l=b8b6cbee97&type=1