North, north and more north!

Our week long trip started with us driving up to northern CA on a Saturday morning after I got off work...this drive was probably the longest it has ever been due to the fact that Avery would not sleep which meant Mama, who had stayed up all night, also couldn't sleep! But we made it to Danville! All of us "kids" (Erica, Chas, Kaitlin, Andy, and I) took my parents out to dinner before heading out to a dessert for Todd and his fiance Abby. Sunday was CPC and the Farmer wedding which was way too much fun! Us "Pratt's" teared up the dance floor and had a blast as a family. Auntie Meg and Uncle Jim stayed home with the little one so Mom and Dad could party!

The "Pratt" kids

The whole family out on the dance floor!

We bid Todd and Abby farewell with sparklers...this made me very nervous!

Then Monday we got on a plane and flew up to Oregon! We had a glorious time hanging out with family and of course, meeting the newest family member Roger. Him and Kathy are now officially engaged and will be married in Portland on May 22nd. It was great to watch all of the family members either meet Avery for the first time or just spending time with her...here are some pics!

On the airplane on the way to Oregon...might I add that she was an angel on both flights and everyone kept telling us how amazing she was:)

Checking out Papa...this was the first time they met!

Meeting Caitlin for the first time...Avery just wanted to hold her hand!

Ha ha, Rog worked so hard finding Kathy tulips for the centerpiece, and he succeeded! Unfortunately, the family had other plans and Avery became the centerpiece (which made Daddy very nervous...) but it all worked out.

Drinking ice water from Grandpa Rog, more just licking the ice actually.

Avery is smitten with her GAK (Great Aunt Kris) and GAM (Great Aunt Martha)

She couldn't get enough of Nana!

Sitting with Grammy and Grandpa Rog at their engagement dinner.

3/4 Grandchildren (Ella is holding Avery, Gail is sitting next to them). Maya, who is 2 weeks older than Avery could not attend as they live far away...

Mom and daughter matching on the flight home! Unfortunately as you can see little Avery was not feeling well by this point...she got a pretty bad cold and developed pink eye in both eyes (yuck!)

In good news, Avery now says "mama"! It's very exciting, hopefully we'll get a video to post soon. Please be patient with our future updates as we move in just one week so life is getting a little crazy! (oh, and all you oregonians...I'm sending the pics to you guys so keep your eyes on the mail!)

Always more updates...

January has been busy and the fun has just begun! We celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary by vacationing to Anaheim for a night with our great friends the Farr's (Ben and Stacey). It was absolutely the most perfect anniversary...we had an amazing hotel room, went out to our favorite dinner spot Ruth's Chris for dinner (Roger I don't know if you check this but that's all thanks to you...thank you thank you thank you!), then we heading back to the hotel and watched "Up", such a great movie! We were able to sleep in Monday (thanks to no Avery...) and spend the rest of the day at Disneyland with Ben and Stacey, it was a glorious few days! Avery also had a great time, she spent the night at one of my co-worker/charge nurse's house who has 5 kids (ranging from 13-23). They all fought over her and when we called to check in (only once I might add!) Helen (my co-worker) was concerned because Avery hadn't cried yet!!! I told her it's cause our kid doesn't cry...ha ha we were very proud of her for staying just about 30 hours with other people! To top it all off, Avery fell asleep on my chest in bed that night (something she never does since we've trained her so well to fall asleep on her own in the crib) and it was the perfect ending to a perfect 6 month birthday/2 year anniversary (did I mention it was her 6month birthday the day we dropped her off at Helen's?). Here are a few pics of that excursion and some other things we've been up to...

2 years has gone by so fast!

Our great friends Stacey and Ben!

This was when she fell asleep on me after getting home from Helen's...she was so pooped!

A while ago we had our first play date with a girl Avery's age...Elly! Elly's Mom Katie went to Biola with me and we lived on the same floor, she lives in Petaluma now but was down here for a wedding...very surreal having our babies get together for a play date!

They were very cute together...

A random trip to Disneyland with our friends the Farr's again!

I love her lots...

This is the before picture...did I mention we got her ears pierced???:)

Right after the pokes...last about 10seconds.

This is when she realized she was okay...

Feeling pretty good now!

Telling Daddy all about it afterwards (he couldn't go cause he couldn't handle the tears...fearless roomie Katie J. and I brought her!)

Now we're packing up and getting ready to head home for Todd Farmer's wedding and then up to Oregon to finally introduce the baby to the whole clan...we just bought her a "snow" outfit today for the weather, it's basically a bunny suit to put outside her clothes for when we're in the car and what not...it's amazing, I'll try to get a picture up soon!

Avery's first word...

A few updates...

1. We're officially moving to Anaheim! We will get the keys to our new place on Feb. 5th and we're getting excited about it! We'll have a spare room so we can have tons of visitors and it's less than a mile from Disneyland, so come visit!

2. All 3 of us have a little bit of a cold so we've been staying pretty homebound...here is a video of today where we all stayed in comfy clothes all day and got stuff done around the house, it shows her first words!

You'll have to watch the video to find out her first words...just know that Daddy is very excited about it!

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!!