Getting Ready for Christmas

During our last week in Bellevue, we hit Snowflake Lane - the last time as residents.  And we saw Santa, or as Avery calls him, the "BoogeyMan." 





Avery didn't want anything to do with the BoogeyMan and had a death grip on me.  The result?  A family photo with Santa. 

We finally got Lola the Elf out and she was up to all kinds of chananigans every night.


Partying with Cinderella.

Sneaking cookies

We got a great Christmas tree from the boyscouts at a tree lot just down the street from us, our normal Frasier Fur.

According to Avery she's been a good girl this year so Santa should be coming to our house with a dollhouse and not coal... we'll see!


New House!



We finally moved into our new house in Snoqualmie Ridge the end of November.  And it's been a crazy whirl-wind of moving, unpacking, painting, hanging and organizing.  We're exhausted!  We had the help of our friends Margaret & Scott, and Amy & Jay along with our parents, which was GREATLY appreciated.  Who knew we had so much stuff crammed in our condo?  We're slowly getting through projects but as we've found, home ownership means never ending house projects.  So far we have gotten rid of the horrible red walls and huge holes and replaced them with grey ones.  We painted Avery's room from light yellow (including ceilings) to what was supposed to be tan but turned out a little mauvish.  Next room: Baby girl's - right now it is a baby blue with a horrible Hawaii wallpaper mural on one wall...

Avery has enjoyed having Opie around helping out with projects.  Oma even came one day and Avery got to cuddle with her.   She loves giving people tours of her new house.

Avery has adjusted really well to her new home, I'm so proud of her.  She loves it.  She has her own bathroom now and thought her tub looked like Grandma's tub.  She loves going outside in the yard whenever she wants.

Unfortunately, during our move Avery got pinkeye (a parting gift from daycare) that knocked her out.  Washcloths seemed to help.

Daddy even mowed the lawn already.  He did perfect stripes in the backyard, what a pro!

We got our first visit from a wood-land neighbor.  (Our yard backs up to a greenbelt).  Avery tried to feed & pet the bunny but he wasn't too sure about that.

And, living in the mountains now, we had our first snow, and boy did it snow!  Avery thought it was great, though she's more of a snowbunny than anything.

We're so glad to finally be in a house in a great community with lots of room for both of our girls to play and grow.  We have so much to be thankful for this year.

Hunt Girls Update

Phew, it's been a crazy couple of weeks for us with more to come.  In the midst of our packing up and moving, I volunteered to be an ultrasound model at Siemens in Issaquah.  This was my 2nd time doing this with baby #2 and Andy came along to check out the 3D/4D images.  So far, this little girl is proving to be as stubborn as big sis: she has feet, legs, arms all in front of her face for every scan!  But it looks like she has Daddy's cheeks, Mommy's nose and Mommy & Avery's monkey toes!  (The sonographer was astonished by the big gap between toes 1&2 - they look just like Avery's!)
During this 2nd scan, the tech saw something and out of moral obligation had to tell us that she found something but couldn't diagnose or tell us what she thought it was - just that it was a cystic structure next to her bladder.  Of course that sent us into panick mode.  Since KK is a high-risk sonographer she was the 1st person I called.  She thought it sounded like an ovarian cyst.  We finally had a follow-up ultrasound yesterday at a high-rick clinic and they are 90% certain that KK is right: baby has an ovarian cyst.  It's something that should go away shortly after birth, but they will monitor it with ultrasounds.  It shouldn't cause her or me any pain.  Doctor said only 2 cases in her career have ever needed to be surgically removed.  So it looks like our little girl is a fighter!  Thanks to everyone who said extra prayers for us, they seem to have worked for now.

Baby Hunt, 28 weeks, the first model ultrasound in 3D:

Baby Hunt, 31.5 weeks:

Meanwhile, big sister Avery is busy entertaining us.  Her last day of daycare was last week, and her teachers were very sad to see her go.  She's learned alot socially and educationally in her 6 months there.  And her Avery antics never fail to keep us laughing.  I don't know where she gets some of this stuff but it sure makes life fun!  Here are a couple highlights in the world of Avery-isms.  Some of them are pretty hilarious but also pretty inappropriate.

"I go pottty."  She's a fibber.  She'll pull her pants down and shut the door, only to sit on the toilet with a diaper, wipe, flush and then "all done."  We're working on this...

If you ask her if she wants something (usually food), she'll respond "No, I good now."

My little potty mouth.  With the chaos and stress in our lives right now, Mommy's had a bit of a loose tongue lately.  Somehow, Avery found herself a new favorite phrase, and not only does she use it appropriately (when she's frustrated, things go wrong...) she says it clear as a bell.  My favorite instance was this: her pants kept falling off one day (no draw string & skinny girl) so as she bends down to pull them up again, she says "Son of a Bitch!"  Mom and I had to compose ourselves before telling her how naughty that is.  We're trying very hard to work this out of her vocabulary but I can't help but chuckle when she says it.

Singing.  Avery is very much a creature of habit.  She has created a bed time routine that consists strictly of jammies, brush teeth, kiss Daddy and lead him into her room for rocking/lullibies before kisses & hugs and to bed.  Her favorite songs are: twinkle little star, you are my sunshine, monkeys jumping on the bed, abc's, old macdonald and wheels on the bus.  Too cute to hear her rendition of the classics.

Giving Thanks

Andy and I have so much to be thankful for this year.  We have a beautiful, spunky little 2 1/2 year old that fills our life with laughter, love and keeps us on our toes.  After a hard day, sometimes all you need is a sweet hug & kiss from our little stinker to make it all better.  We have each other, 12 years and counting!  We have another sweet baby girl on the way who we get to meet and snuggle in 2 months.  God has blessed us with the easy ability to make little girls. :)  And though it comes with additional stress, we were able to purchase a house for our family in Snoqualmie Ridge!  We are so excited to be able to provide our girls with a safe, stable community to grow up in and a yard to play in.  We have loved living in Bellevue/Kirkland for the last 6 1/2 years and will surely miss having everything at our finger tips but are looking forward to our next adventure in the suburbs.

Here's what we've been up to:

Avery had a week or 2 of rough sleep - didn't want to be in her crib.  She ended up taking a few naps in Mommy's arms.  (Can't lie, I love to snuggle with my sleeping beauty)

Avery is a die-hard park fan, even if it's dark and cold outside. 

She has to take her own clothes off before bathtime.  This night she was striking poses for Daddy.

Mommy has been fighting a nasty cold for 2 weeks, and one of those days Avery was a sick baby too.  Luckily Nana was there to snuggle with.

We went to the first official Husky basketball home opener.

We spent Thanksgiving with the Hunt family.  Avery loves going to Papa & Grandma's house and playing with her cousins.  Avery and Braden are good buddies, chasing each other around getting quite a kick out of one another.  They even shared a dance.  And they thought Cousin Brian was pretty cool wrestling with them.

More pics to come from the Hunt Cousin Ping-Pong Championship...

And finally and most significantly, we are thankful to have such loving and supportinve family and friends!

Baby Hunt Shower

I am so blessed to have such great best friends who are not only fun to be around, supportive and loyal, they also truly care about me and my little family. Since we are having baby girl #2 I didn't think a baby shower was totally necessary, but these 3 ladies not only insisted I have one, but put together a beautiful, fun shower for our baby girl. Thank you KK, Di, and Margie, you are the best Aunties ever!



The decor - all in lavender & sage - nursery colors.

Mom's Diaper cake. So beautiful!

KK joined us via Skype.

Thank you to all the ladies who came and celebrated baby girl #2 with us!  We love you.

Cara, Jen & Baby Grey

Auntie Boni & Mom

Jess, Sue, Cindy & Sarah

Avery & Baby Cole

Auntie Nan, Avery, Nana & Mom's friend Sarahjane

The 2 preggos: Di & Jenn

My girls: Tammy, Erin, Margie, Di, (& KK)

The Hermans ladies: Mom, Kristin, Avery & I and Oma

Grandma (& KK peaking in the corner) ;)

My Mommy & KK's Mommy - Stephanie

Thank you all for the beautiful shower & thoughtful gifts.  Now let's get this baby girl out!

Daddy

There is nothing I adore more than the sweet bond between Avery and her Daddy. Avery is still very much a Mommy's girl, but there's something special between the bond she and Andy have and it makes my heart melt. Sundays and Mondays Andy works later and doesn't get home until Avery's long asleep. But she always asks to wait for Daddy so she can give him kisses. As promised Daddy always kisses her goodnight upon arrival. Last night, out of instinct she reached up in her sleep and gave him a hug. This morning as I was heading to the gym, Avery woke up, asking to "night-night Daddy" and cuddled up right next to him in bed. Seeing the love they have for each other makes me fall for my husband all over again.

There's something very special about the Father-Daughter bond.  I hope both my girls are close to their Dad throughout their lives.  I still value the bond with my Dad.  Here's to great Dads and their Daughters.

"Trick-A-Treat!"



We had such a fun Halloween this year!  We started off the weekend before at Nannie's & Opie's house to show them our little peacock.  Avery wasn't a fan of the hat, but I got one picture of her with it after Opie modeled it first.  She practiced her "Trick-A-Treat" pose. 

We carved a pumpkin a few weeks before.  Mickey Mouse is one of Avery's favorites.  She wasn't into carving the pumpkin at all this year, she thought the pumpkin guts were "ew, yucky!"

On Halloween Nana picked Avery up from daycare and brought her to Starbucks so she could participate in the fun kids activities and trick-or-treating they do there.

And then we came home to get Daddy and hit one of the hot neighborhoods in downtown Bellevue for some real trick-or-treating.  We weren't sure how she'd do since it had been raining all day and she wasn't excited to put on her costume again.  (I had to let her paint my face to re-paint hers).  But she put on her costume and rain boots, the skies opened up for us, and we had a BLAST going house to house.  In fact, I didn't want to stop!  She had so much fun, it was so fun to see her go house to house, saying "trick-a-treat", hold out her bag, and then "thank you."  This was definitely my favorite Halloween.  This is what it's all about.

That night as I was getting Avery ready for bed, she gave me a huge hug and said "I had fun trick-a-treat Mommy."  So sweet.  Best Halloween ever!