A few firsts...

This past week has been really great because I've had a lot of time off (five days in a row, wow! we'll get to the reasons why...) Because of this, we had the opportunity to hang out a lot as a family and take Avery on a few of her "first" of different adventures:) The first first was going to the movies! I took Avery to see The Lion King at Hacienda with her norcal best friend Dawson and and his Mom Jill, she absolutely loved it. The second we walked into the theater she was mezmorized by the big screen and couldn't stop staring at it. Her and Dawson are so funny together, they ate snacks, watched the movie, held hands, and kissed during the show (I know, she's starting young!) Afterwards they ran around the theater and cried when we had to separate them, too cute!

This was at the beginning of the movie...

Not the cutest picture of Avery but you get the point that they were holding hands:)

The second "first" was Avery's first haircut! This happened Monday...both Andy and I had the day off so we got to go with her to her first due. We took her to my hair lady that I have been going to since junior high, Linda, in Blackhawk. She wasn't so sure about it in the beginning and only wanted Daddy but eventually warmed up to the idea and enjoyed the experience. Afterwards, we took her out to lunch for a job well done, it was a really great day of being a family!

This is her, "I'm not so sure face:("

Starting the haircut process...

She liked to direct all of us in what we should be doing.

Getting the bangs cut was the toughest part.

Distracted doing Mommy's hair

The final product, the cutest girl ever!

She was very happy about her new haircut:)

In case you haven't heard in the news, we went on strike (again) last Thursday the 22nd, because of this, the hospital locked us out for 4 days after the strike (hence the 5 days off). There seems to be a lot more drama surrounding this strike between the hospital and the union but hopefully we'll all come to an agreement soon. On Thursday, Avery and I went to check out he picket line, it wasn't too exciting but after being there about 20 minutes we went out with co-workers to a local happy hour. All of my co-workers love Avery and she loves them, I'm including a picture of Stefani (a co-worker) holding her at the bar while we waited for our seats, keeping it classy:)

Stefani and Avery at the bar...

This week is going to be a busy but really great one! Other than the normal work schedules, Cori is coming up to visit tomorrow night (I'll pick her up on my way home from work Wednesday night, then drop her off on my way to work Friday). Then Grammy and Grandpa Rog are coming to visit! The 3 of us will be going to Andy's 10 year high school reunion Saturday afternoon and then Andy and I will be driving down to southern CA for some much needed relaxation/alone time:) The point of us going down is for Amy Buskirk's wedding (one of my nursing friends/bluefield roommates). We'll be there all day Sunday (the day of the wedding) and head back Monday, a quick trip but we're both really looking forward to getting away and Avery is very excited to have her Grammy come stay with her:) Hope you all are doing well, happy Tuesday!

p.s....

As you can imagine we frequently have dance parties in our home, this is not necessarily the best video but still has some good moves on it, enjoy:)

Mid-September update:)

It's finally cooling off here and Danville (well there has been one day of cool weather) and we continue to be so happy and feel so blessed for our move up north. My belly is growing like a weed (due to the fact that I eat everything in site:), my iron infusions are complete, and we found a great car! I finished my third iron infusion last week, labs showed a bump in my hemoglobin from 9.4 to 9.6 which to my Dr. means it's working (keep in mind normal is 12.4-14). I'm not convinced it's working but I'm waiting it out...she wants me to come in for more labs and get my thyroid tested so we'll see. My Doctor is pretty convinced that my dizziness/lightheadedness is simply due to the fact that it's my second pregnancy, as I said I am not quite convinced but we'll see:) More good news in healthcare, Andy had a PET/CT scan last week and met with his new oncologist today, the scan was clear! We weren't expecting anything different BUT a clear scan is always exciting news.

On more exciting news, we found a van and purchased it on Monday! It's a pre-owned 2011 Toyota Sienna and we love it! Today was the first day that we actually drove it since driving it home from the lot because we've been using the CRV as our work/commuter car but having the van is so great. It's so roomy and comfy and we love it!

For updates and stories about Avery I'm using pictures:

This is the new story of our life...watching "A Bug's Life". Avery wakes up asking for it and talks about it daily, she also gets to watch it almost daily. She is even starting to know some of the lines...

Avery continues to be quite the social one, this is her surrounded by a Livermore soccer team of girls that met her at Pete's in downtown Danville, she loved it and they loved being entertained by her:)

A new tradition? These are ice cream cupcakes that I made for my Dad's 60th birthday, it was my first time and they turned out to be AMAZING! I think it will become a birthday tradition...

This is how Aves felt about car shopping...she wasn't a big fan:)

Here we are with our new van, love it!

I figured out how to make homemade paint (from my favorite website "pinterest") and Avery loved it, it's amazing to see how fast she's growing up!

I haven't figured out how to embed 2 videos so I'm putting one in as a link and then a second one as an actual video, I'll figure it out someday. If you copy and paste the links into your web browser you should be able to enjoy the first one and hopefully the 2nd one works:) The first one is one of her new favorite habits of putting sunscreen on (although in this video she is using her fake lipstick as her sunscreen). The second video is Avery on her phone, this occurs multiple times a day we just happen to be in the car when this video was shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtIU4WuHG98

As far as Avery updates go she continues to be quite the busy little bee! She's on the go non-stop and loves to be active, even if that includes throwing fits:) There is at least one fit a day which is quite exhausting for Mommy and Daddy but we'll survive. We thought we didn't have to worry about certain fits until she was 16 years old BUT almost everytime we get into the car she throws a fit because we don't let her drive...oh dear! She loves making phone calls (particularly to her new best friend Dawson, but no Kaylie, she hasn't forgotten about you:) which usually include saying, "hi", "I'm sorry", and "bye" (as evidenced by the video above). She also loves loves loves to count and sing all the time.

I'm officially into my 3rd trimester and baby #2 is quite the active one. As I said before she just keeps growing:) This week we started unpacking baby stuff...wow is that overwhelming! It's very difficult to decide what to unpack and what to leave in boxes related to the fact that everything we have in newborn is summer and so forth:) It's also hard cause I have a little 2 year old helper that while she means well often makes the process take double if not triple the amount of time it would without her:) It's a slow process and both Andy and I have a difficult time having our home filled with half empty boxes but we're slowly but surely getting there.

That's it for now, stay tuned for more videos/pictures of this little girl...she just keeps growing!

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

Avery's 2nd Birthday

A few things before getting to the 2nd birthday...

First off, I'm sure most of you have heard about Avery's dental emergency of falling off the changing table, and hitting her mouth resulting in two teeth being pushed fully back into her gums and the rest of her upper left side teeth being partially pushed back up:( This has meant that we get to go to the dentist frequently, the good news though is that our 2 week check up and x-ray showed that the two main teeth are coming back! One is considered 30% back and one 50% back, woohoooo! We have our next appointment in another 3 weeks so we'll just keep praying that they continue to come back...the permanent bud on one of the teeth was hit by this accident but we won't know the results for years when the permanent teeth show themselves:)

Secondly, we are now 20 weeks pregnant and recently found out that not only are we having a girl BUT the detailed ultrasound all came back within normal limits! Avery is very excited about having a girl and we're excited for the sole fact that we already have a lot of girl stuff:) I'm feeling better and finally enjoying food which is always exciting, so far all the checkups have been normal!

And lastly, onto the birthday party...it was a success! Avery had a ton of fun and has been re-living it all day today, including being able to open some of her toys and playing a lot in her new tent in her room! (a special shout out to cousins lacie and nadine...lacie the toy that you gave us never stops talking and doesn't work so far and nadine, mrs. potato head has over 40 little pieces! ha ha can't wait for these 2 cousins to have kids so we can give these types of toys too:) Connie and Avery set up the most amazing water park for kids in their back yard and all of the party decorations really came together thanks to all the family pitching in; also thanks to kathy aka grammie for coming down from Oregon! We've put together a little slideshow/video for everyone to enjoy so enjoy watching it! Thanks to everyone who made her day special but and extra special thank you to Connie and Avery for all their hard work in the backyard, Avery LOVED it!