Living on Love, leftovers, and credit card debt...

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

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!:_

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

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

Monday, July 11, 2011

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!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

South Carolina and some...

As many of you know we had some really great family adventures this past week. Despite the fact that we were SOOOOOO stressed getting out of town, we made it and had a great time (the reason for being stressed was that we had to be prepared before leaving for my birthday, andy's birthday, sending something for Kathy's birthday, Father's day cards out, a father's day present for andy, and invitations ordered for avery's birthday...woof!) But we had a great time nonetheless and would do it over again:)

Our adventures started Friday afternoon when we got picked up by annie (one of my bluefield roomies), drove to mountain view where we unloaded the car, loaded into a honda accord, pick up her husband dan, and start our long drive to LA (at approximately 3:30pm! with avery's carseat being as big as it is the backseat where annie and i sat was quite squishy but we had fun. we stopped for things like potty breaks, cherries for sale on the side of the road, food, and needing to get the baby wipes from the trunk. it was a really great adventure, one that lasted about 7 hours. we pulled into Torrance where we were staying at Anne's (another bluefield roomie) grammie's house. everyone was up and it was so great to see them all. we all stayed very comfortably at grammie's house. saturday we hung out and went to aubrey and dave's wedding saturday night. sunday we got up and went to the airport to fly to S. Carolina! avery did amazingly on the airplane, we gave her play-do for the first time which entertained her for a while. she also napped well and we borrowed a portable dvd player from my cousin lacie which kept her happy.

our week in S. Carolina was great, we stayed in the most amazing house with the whole koning clan (minus brian and daniel who couldn't make it and steve and tim who stayed in a hotel). we spent our days playing in the ocean and the pool which was so much fun. avery is now a little fishy and is constantly under water. we also went to ft. sumter one day, which despite the fact that it was so hot, was super fun to learn about the beginning of the civil war.

we flew back on my birthday, then i worked the next two nights (as did andy that weekend at church). yesterday we were finally able to relax for andy's birthday, we went on a bikeride as a family (sounded like a good idea but then went all the way to target to get groceries, turned into a very long ride!) at night we met the pratt's, the hibbs' and brian (erica's husband) for a bocce ball tournament at sycamore park and a picnic of domenicos sandwiches, it was very fun. so our birthdays are over, now we just have to get through avery's! this week will be busy as i work the next 4 in a row and andy's trying to play catchup but we always get through:)

we're already 18 weeks pregnant and baby marylou is definitely starting to pop out! we find out next week if it's a boy or girl, crazy! instead of re-uploading all the pictures i'm attaching a link to the ones that i've put on facebook, hopefully this works for everyone as it takes a huge step out of the process for me:) love to everyone!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.639947793017.2124262.68602760&l=5ae3ba243e

Monday, May 30, 2011

Wedding Weekend!

Wow what a great weekend! The three of us headed to Holman Ranch in Carmel Valley on Friday afternoon. The ranch that we stayed at (and that the wedding was at) was absolutely incredible. It was kind of like camping because we were all together but we each had our own room and bathrooms! After unloading and getting a tour, we all got ready and headed down to a local steakhouse for some grub (with a group of about 15 others). When we headed back to the ranch we hung out in the gameroom which was fully equipped with a pool table, food, drinks, etc. We stayed up way too late playing games with everyone and having a great time!

One set of the rooms we stayed in

Mom and Dad relaxing in front of our rooms:)

The next morning about 15 of us headed out to Monterey to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it was crazy busy but worth going, Avery absolutely loved all that she got to see! Later that night was rehearsal and dinner back at the ranch, it rained so we had to move everything into the "carriage house" but it was still a glorious night!

Me and my eshmay before heading to the aquarium

Avery and Daddy gearing up for the busy day:)

The cute couple!

She wanted to be with anybody BUT mommy and daddy...here she's learning about stingrays!

With Daddy "inside" a wave!

Later that night at rehearsal...the whole wedding party!

Practicing the first kiss:)

The girls

the boys

The whole pratt clan!

We started getting ready about 10am the day of the wedding, us girls got our hair done (and some got their makeup done) and we just hung out until it was our turn to take pictures. The day was a complete success! Kaitlin and Chas had a ton of fun and were such a beautiful couple! We were pretty nervous about Avery being the flower girl, but our brother in law Brian was her "handler" and he was so good with her...when it was her turn to walk down the aisle she ran behind the guests to the right, then the left, then finally down the aisle (oh and thanks to Kathy she looked amazing)! So she did great, during the ceremony she just walked around and sat with various people, we couldn't have asked for her to do better! Unfortunately I only have pictures of before the wedding so I don't have any of the happy couple (because between the baby and her stuff we weren't exactly carrying around a camera:) but when I get some I'll post them. Avery stayed up dancing the night away with us until we all went to bed around 10pm...AND she slept in a big girl bed for the first time! She's getting just a little too big for that pack and play, she did great!