Fall is Here!

The fall season is upon us!  It is mine and Dave's favorite season and we are hoping that Avery enjoys it as much as we do.  We have been spending a lot of time outside and enjoying the leaves as they begin to accumulate on the ground.  

Last Thursday we had planned to go to dinner and celebrate my birthday.  I had stopped on the way home to get Avery a flu shot.  Bad idea #1.  She was slightly irritated and was not in the out-for-mom's-birthday-dinner mood.  So we chose to stay in and order pizza.  This pregnant mama didn't mind.  While we waited for Dave's parents to join us, we decided to play outside.  Bad idea #2.  Avery was playing with this little plastic flute/whistle toy.  She likes to play with it and annoy the neighborhood dogs.  Unfortunately, this night she slid down the slide right into my back shoving the flute/whistle right up and along the roof of her mouth.  Needless to say, we had about a one inch gash with blood and all sorts of gross.  The on call doctor said not to worry and to bring her in the next morning.  Fast forward to today- the roof of the mouth is healing, but has possibly caused a secondary infection in the throat.  So, pair that with 2 year molars  coming in, she is miserable.  Thank goodness for Motrin and the antibiotic.  Please send positive thoughts our way.  

How about happier news?  Last weekend to continue celebrating my birthday, a bunch of my friends and  I headed to Chicago to see a concert of our favorite band, The Avett Brothers.  It was so much fun and this pregnant mama enjoyed the concert from the second row and made it until 1am!!  

To top off the weekend, we convinced Ashley to come back with me and spend the weekend here in Bloomington.  Saturday was the Worldwide Day of Play and our downtown area does this great block party full of games and hands on activities for kids.  

And of course there was always time for ice cream!  

Sunday afternoon we took Ashley to the pumpkin farm in town.  Avery loves everything about this place and since we bought season passes, we sure are happy about that!  

She likes to visit the rooster and yell "Cock-a-doo" really loud!

Showing Ashley the bunnies

Driving the tractor

Later that night, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and made a fire in the fire pit.  Of course, fires come with s'mores!

Today it seemed as though our large fall tree decided to drop many of it's leaves today.  Avery couldn't wait to help daddy rake.  Poor Dave though, because Avery doesn't really understand that she should be raking the random leaves and not the piles daddy already made!  :)

Then, after all that hard work, she apparently thought daddy needed a nap.  And of course, with a nap comes a blanket.  Not always a blanket of leaves, but in this case, why not?

This is our gorgeous tree in our backyard (and I love the sight of Dave still lying on the ground "sleeping")

In addition to outside fun, we have also been trying out some new indoor activities like painting...

and midday baths for our friend...

Pregnancy Update:

Currently, I am 17 weeks along and feeling fantastic!  I love the 2nd trimester.  Not only do I not feel so exhausted all day long, but the constant queasiness is gone.  Two weeks from tomorrow we get to find out if we are adding a baby boy or a baby girl to our little family.  With Avery, I had the "girl feeling" the entire time.  This time around, no idea.  We kind of thought boy, but now, no idea.  

Here you go...the first "belly shot" of this pregnancy.  It is amazing how huge I feel already this time around!

BIG Catch Up...

Well, I like to think that I have done a good job of keeping up with the blog, that is until this posting!  Oops! I realized that it has been over a month since our last update, but the reality is that we haven't done a whole lot that has been worth blogging about.  Since our last post, school is back in session, Avery is back at daycare, and oh yes, we are expecting another baby!!  (That last one might actually be a pretty good reason why I have not updated recently!)

Let's start there....
Currently, I am officially at the beginning of the second trimester!  The first trimester was a bit difficult at times.  I was so lucky with Avery- I was never sick!  This time around, I was in a constant state of queasy stomach for the first 9 weeks or so.  Thankfully, that is all gone now and I am looking forward to the day that my energy levels begin to rise again...that will happen, right?  We are told that our due date is around March 14, but we had several due dates with Avery.  Here's our little nugget....can you make out the baby?  During this ultrasound, he (yeah, we kind of think he) was kicking and waving at us!

Avery doesn't really know what to think about it all.  Sometimes at night, however, she climbs onto my lap and will sing songs to the baby or read to him.  It is all very sweet.  We ask her if it is a boy or girl and it fluctuates from day to day.  I think she even told us it was a puppy one time!  :)

Now, speaking of Little Miss Princess.... oh boy!  It is like a light switch was flipped the day she turned 2!  The tantrums are here, the meltdowns are here, the attitude is definitely here!  (Those might actually be taking all my energy away!)  Now there have been plenty of days where she is an absolute delight and we love those days!

This weekend the local pumpkin farm opened up and it was a beautiful day to head out there.

Playing in the corn crib....

Since turning 2, Avery is not really a big fan of having her picture taken. This was the best she could do with mommy...

Little Pumpkin Head

I know you can't see either of their faces, but I just love this picture!

 Jumping on the big jumping pillow!

See what I mean about no picture taking??

Now that the fall weather is officially upon us, we started decorating and of course the window clings came out.  We are not sure Avery understands how these things work...  Silly pumpkin!

And since it has been so long...here's just a few random pictures-

Don't you just love her tongue out too?

Her second favorite thing to do!

Her most favorite thing to do is to go to our little lake and feed the ducks.  However, she is not a fan of the geese that try to bombard her when she starts to feed the ducks.  Once that starts, she usually just throws whatever she has left and takes off running!  You can see how excited she is in this little video!

Love from Bloomington!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

It is official...we have a full blown 2 year old on our hands!!  Last Sunday Avery turned 2 but it seems as though we have been celebrating for much longer than that!  Due to a family picnic (see below) we had to do Avery's birthday party a week before her real birthday.  Good thing when you are 2, the actual date doesn't matter- only cupcakes!

We invited all of our friends with kids and had a nice little backyard party this year.  We served all of Avery's favorite foods- hot dogs, fruit, and cupcakes!  Grandma even brought a pinata for the kids to beat on before a big kid had to break it open!

We had not 1, but 2 pools for the kids.  Thankfully, it divided up the littles from the bigs!

Yes, Avery likes to swim with her clothes on sometimes....

 I did say sometimes!

You would think this plate of food falling would be from a kid.  Think again.  I will not mention names.

And of course there were presents!

 And cupcakes.  (Did you notice that her clothes came back on?  This was the pattern all day!)

And then they came back off!

 Everyone enjoyed the cupcakes!

Some even enjoyed the cupcakes like it was their birthday!  This kid is awesome and loves cupcakes!!!  :)

Then it was pinata time...

We are so thankful for all our friends who were able to help us celebrate!

Then the following weekend we traveled to my family reunion on my dad's side.  This year it happened to fall on Avery's birthday.  Talk about celebrating with the ones you love!  Saturday night we got to my parents house around 6:30, ate dinner and put Avery down around 9:30.  She has slept in the toddler bed a couple times before and has had no problems since I sleep in the bed next to her.  I went to bed about an hour later and fell asleep around 11.  Then, it started.  At 11:30, Avery crawled into bed with me...no problem.  We tried to snuggle, didn't work.  We tried to go back to the toddler bed, didn't work.  At 1am, we were still trying to get Avery to go back to sleep.  Then we went to the basement to the bigger bed.  At 3am we were still trying to get Avery to go back to sleep.  At this point, Dave and I have not slept yet either.  Avery remained awake, and VERY alert, until we made her cry it out at 5:30 in the morning!!!!  Someone sure knew it was her birthday!  She managed to get in about 4 hours of sleep before we had to leave for the picnic.  Dave and I (thanks to my parents) managed a couple hours of sleep as well.

Overall, Avery managed quite fine.  There were lots of people celebrating with her, loving on her and of course Lucas was there to run around with.  By 2:00, she was done and we drove the 2.5 hours home with a sound asleep baby, er, toddler, er, kid(??) in the back seat.

See...she looks miserable, right?

Brownies from Grandma

 And cookies too.  Anything to keep her happy on her birthday!

Ready to play a game with the other kids.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!  We love you so much and are so proud to be your mommy and daddy.  You have brought us such joy in two years and you make us so happy every day.