House update and loads of photos

We are moving forward with the house purchase, but hit a snag with our appraisal. The house was a fix and flip, so the seller bought it for about $80K less than what he's selling it to us for. It is, however, priced right in line with the neighborhood. Of course, the lender thinks it strange that there is such a jump in price in less that 6 months, so they are requiring a second appraisal. Our closing date has been moved out at least 1 week, but thankfully the couple we found to move in to our house and assume are lease are willing to wait until the 15th of September for us to vacate. Otherwise, it would have been Ben, Avery and I (plus the dog and two cats) moving in with my mom and Kari (plus her two cats) in a two bedroom condo!!! So that's where we are on the house - we'll update once we know anything but it'll be a while since our lender's corporate office has to review and approve the second appraisal. Cross your fingers!!

The backyard at the house we are trying to buy needs some work, but thankfully Tanner will have a friend (yes, that is a rabbit!!):

Here's a plethora of recent photos for you to enjoy!

I am on my way to being a thumb sucker...

Lookin' stylish!

Tummy time with Mommy and Tanner

Hanging out with Daddy

Tough girl!

Waitin' for Daddy to get home from work

Watching Sesame Street

I am just ridiculously cute in this one

Best place to take a snooze!

Mini-update

Well, it's been harder than I thought to keep this updated. Amazing how much time it takes to look after a little one! Once I was back to work the evenings just started to fly by, so taking photos and updating the blog have fallen to the low priority list, my apologies. One of these days we'll be back at it! I only have some photos taken with my Iphone available to upload now (my birthday present!!), so hopefully the quality is OK.

Avery is just a super baby, we truly are so fortunate - she sleeps and eats well, is hardly fussy, and is all SMILES!!! I can't get enough of them. She's done excellent at daycare, and yes, I totally cried the first two days I left her there. Ben doesn't read this blog so I can tell you all this, but he was a bit teary eyed as well.....I was shocked...somewhat...maybe not so much....We just love her and want the best for her. Which is why....we are trying to buy a house. It's so stressful, but we are working thru it and have a closing date of August 27. We can't wait for Ben's dad to come out in September once we get moved in (he can't wait to meet his first grand baby), and then hosting Christmas for Ben's family like we did last year. As for my mom's family, I think we might see about hosting Thanksgiving. We'll see how the place turns out and how the space works for a big dinner.

Between going back to work, looking for a house, finding movers, "thinking" about packing, and just enjoying our family, life has been hectic, but oh, so good!!! Hugs from Avery!

Super cute, sleepy smiler!

Avery was just waking up from a nap, which one of my favorite times to capture her smiles. Enjoy!

My Girl...

Let me just tell you...It is the sweetest thing when you are upstairs going through your closet trying to find work clothes for your first day back, and you hear your husband singing "My Girl" to your new baby girl! That just made my night last night!

Avery had her two month check up yesterday (along with some shots). She is in the 70th percentile for both weight and head circumference, and 85th percentile for height. I still hope she gets some height from daddy! She weighed 11 lb. 7.5 oz, was 23.25 inches long, and her noggin is 15.5 inches around. She did relatively well with her shots. She cried for maybe 60 seconds and then calmed down - she really is a mellow, good baby! She's been sleepy since then, but not terribly fussy. She slept last night from about 9:30 to about 8 this morning!

Here are some photos of the garden. We ate the first tomato yesterday with dinner and it was so good! We both agreed it was much sweeter than mass produced ones. Our pumpkins are still growing massive vines! Daddy loves to walk Avery around the garden telling her how he has developed a green thumb!

Avery's newest pictures are below, along with a video of me trying to capture a big smile. It wasn't so successful, but we'll get one captured soon!

Avery is two months old today!

Can you believe it, 8 weeks has flown by! We have settled into life with a baby and couldn't be happier to have her as part of our family. Mom has one more week at home with her and then it's back to work :( - but the show must go on right! I told Ben tonight to be prepared for some major waterworks next Sunday! He just kinda rolled his eyes, but I can guarantee they will come. Monday won't be so bad since my mom will be here, but Tuesday when I take her to daycare....Let's just say, I have an image in my head and it isn't pretty. I can imagine the director of the daycare having to walk me out, consoling me, letting me just bawl on her shoulder. I show up at work a wreck and just shut my door for the whole day! Yep, that's what's in my head....I'll keep you posted on that.

Tanner was the ultimate rock star tonight - Avery was sitting in her car seat on the porch while Ben was unlocking the door and Tanner walked right by at eye level to her. Ben and I both were watching to make sure he didn't like her face or anything, but once she saw him, she gave the biggest smile. Totally cute! And he did it again, walked by, and she smiled huge again! They are going to be great buds once she's able to start grabbing on him and climbing all over him - we can't wait to see it!

Ben's got a major garden growing in our backyard. He's got way more of a green thumb than I do! He's growing corn, tomatoes, strawberries and pumpkins. Our pumpkins are totally kicking a$$ and we finally got some flowers on them. I'll try to get some pictures of the vines that are basically taking over the garden. We'll see what, if anything we get. I know we'll get some tomatoes, one is already turning red, so we're excited to eat that and see how it is. Ben also discovered a new little garden friend - some ugly spider which built a web in the door leading to the garage. Needless to say, with my HUGE fear of spiders, I will be avoiding the garage from now on....

Here are the latest pictures, enjoy!

Playtime with mommy. We work on tummy time, which strengthens her neck, back, arms, etc., which will help her to roll over and start crawling one of these days. She does great most of the time, until she gets tired and either tries to eat the pillow, as evidenced below, or starts to cry. I also got another cute smile picture, but it's a tad fuzzy - you can still see a good smile though. There is another photo which does good job of showing how blue her eyes are - we'll see if they stay blue or not.

Here she is making her cooing face - she makes the cutest cooing noise when she does this face!
Blue, blue eyes!
Smiley!
Ben's pumpkin flower and his new spider friend.

Here's a video during playtime. Aunt Kari buys the cutest toys - this one giggles. I think she's trying to figure out what it is. It's best if you pause the blog music before playing.

More photos for y'all

Here are Avery's most recent photos. She met Adam (Ben's best friend from college), Mommy finally got some smile picutres on film, and we had our first playdate at the park today with 4 of my friends from high school and their kids. It was awesome!! Today was a major reason I'd want to be a stay at home mom, but I gotta tell you, I am kinda looking forward to some adult interaction! One more week at home, then I'll go thru some serious crying episodes leaving her with my mom and/or daycare, until I've eventually re-adjusted to adult life at work.....

Happy weekend!

Aubrey (my friend Jen's daughter) just LOVES Avery. Cannot kiss, hug, touch, rub her enough. It's too cute. She's getting good practice with baby, which is good, since Jen is due with her second in January!

Jen and Shaleigh's oldest (Aubrey and Kendall) checking out the newest babies. The babies were all born within 12 days of each other one way or another. Avery (left) was born first, followed by Amelia next (middle) and then Cooper (right) was born 12 days after Amelia. It was fun lining them all up!

Avery and Amelia hit it off right away - holding hands!

Shaleigh's little peanut, Kendall. She calls her little brother Pooper (instead of Cooper). It's too funny to hear her say it.

More photos!!

Gardening with Daddy and Tanner

Hanging out with Grandma Lowe

I'm stylin'

Two new posts today - lots of pictures...

Hope this satisfies you!