Christmas at Providence part 2

 This Christmas season has been wonderful and very busy (I have like a month's worth of events/photos to blog that I will hopefully get to someday soonish). Our little Avery has been having some constipation issues which wound up with us in the ER at Providence on Christmas day. Everything turned out fine, all serious issues were ruled out via xray and the acute issue was fixed there in the ER so our little princess could feel better. Just a little added trauma to your Christmas day when your 7 week old baby has to have an IV start...Not sure if that was harder on mommy or baby. This phone picture reminded me of pictures of Addie with all her IV's/tubes from her hospital stay on Christmas 5 years ago.

Had to include one of her looking bright eyed the very next day. We are so thankful that she is doing good after a follow-up with her own pediatrician.

Santa Picture!

We got to have the yearly Santa picture while Mimi and Papa were visiting a couple weekends back..I didn't hear what they asked Santa for, but just this past weekend Santa Visited Alexis' birthday party and all the kids got to sit on Santa's lap. Addie asked for a large soft shark with glass eyes and Finn asked for a dog. Santa asked him if he wanted a real one or a toy and luckily Finn requested a toy!

 

Nearly Three

Our little guy has adjusted very well to no longer being the 'baby' of the house. I appreciate his positive attitude (most of the time!) and energetic personality..though we have had a few more frequent time-outs as Finn has learned that when Mommy is feeding baby...its easier to ignore her,  he's working on it!  

Our boy is full of questions and so interested in everything and everyone. I love to hear him ask others "what do you want Santa to bring you?"..I asked him what he thought Avery might want and he thought about it for awhile and then said "to eat"..I think he's right on that one!

I also love to hear him ask daddy each night as he comes home "how's your day, dad?"..another favorite question of his is "what're you thinking?". He frequently asks me this so I turned the question around on him one day..he thought about it for awhile and then said "I'm thinking that Blake's my dad". 

Finn after enjoying his post-nap snack in the early evening. I love that he and sister continue to take a 2-3 hour nap it gives me reprieve to take one myself each day! He was helping me practice taking photos of a fast moving target in low-light for an upcoming birth I will be photographing (it's true I will not be working this year, like last, but have taken just a couple jobs for fun).

6 Week Check-up

Yes, it's true, our little Avery is 6 weeks old. We had our 6 week follow-up at the midwife's office and were glad to have a good report. I am working on eliminating certain foods so we can help her little  belly...right now her nickname is "tootles", so you can understand what the issue is! 

She is growing well and is 11 lbs 1 oz now (I'm glad she is not nearly as big as brother at 6 weeks, I don't know how I carried that boy around!) and looking so big to me! I love seeing her awake more often and enjoyed some sweet smiles from her today!

 First time in jeans! I had to roll them up since these are a 6 month size, but still so cute on her!

Avery's Second Week!

This is the rest of the catch up (I hope!)...I just wasn't (and still am not) on my computer much as I enjoy every spare second of snuggling little Avery. I find that with the busy-ness of having THREE on my own during the weeks...Avery spends more time in her crib or sling and I miss getting to sit and love on her the way I did with my other two...so whenever I get a free second she and I are together getting our snuggle time, mostly weekends when Daddy is around or Wednesdays with Grammy! 

Our second week with Avery we were blessed to have Grammy come stay to help out and take the kids to school for me. We had a wonderful time sipping coffees and enjoying the little bundle..I appreciated all the help cooking and taking care of the big kids!

 She snuck in a late night nap with Daddy when he got home from work one night. I love that Daddy is using her Boppy as his pillow!

We made it to a park for Addie to run off some extra energy one day...

 Addie gave Avery her special Shouka and Baby Dolphin to watch over Avery while we got dressed for the day...she really loves baby sister! "Shouka and Baby Dolphin are watching Avery to make sure she's safe while she sleeps and make her happy."

 Love this peaceful newborn phase...just some squeaky noises when she would wake..and then back to sleeping.

Avery's First Week

Just a little flashback...needed to add some photos from Avery's first week of life so they will be in the blog book next year!

Our first week was wonderful, Avery was so blissful and sweet and we all enjoyed getting to know her! Daddy had 4 days off during the week and we pretty much stuck around home except for the kids who had school and a couple other small outings.

Love to get my hands in my mouth...I would wake up in the night to hear her chomping away on her hands. She would wake once or twice a night to feed and slept like a champ!

Tiny toes:)

Her Grampy!

I still like to scrunch up all tight like in mommy's belly..

 Napping in my Boppy.

 First outing at two days old...to Target!                      

Christmas Jammies

If you happen to have not made it out of your jammies by 11am (yes, bad mommy)...then you should get a couple pictures before bathtime! Each year the kids pick out some Christmas morning jammies and this year they match in the brother/sister jammies!

 They have moments where they're not..but for the most part, these two are buds. I so appreciate how they can play and entertain one another!

A Couple Pics from 5 Weeks!

This past week our princess hit 5 weeks...and is starting to have more awake time though she still sleeps much of the day away! 

Hi!

 Kicking my Feet!

A Chilly Day at the Zoo!

While many MANY people headed out for black Friday sales..we chose to join the much smaller group of people who brave the zoo and zoo playgrounds on a chilly day. We had a blast with our kids and enjoyed the Tangletown pub for lunch as well!

 All bundled up and ready to roll! (a couple days shy of three weeks here)

The Santa Train

We had a lovely (although very cold) trip to North Bend/Snoqualmie for the Santa train with some friends. We enjoyed the ride on the antique railway listening to Christmas carols and stories as we rode. At the end of the train ride was cookies and cocoa and a the chance to see Santa..however, the line was a little bit too long for the kids to wait through in the bitter cold! 

The gang (minus Joel and Avery who were with their Momma's)

 Addie and Hannah enjoyed each other's company. It was a joy to watch these two visit!

Tree Hunting!

On Saturday we did our Christmas tree hunt in Issaquah for the classic outdoors experience...it was a little cold, but we managed to come home with a very pretty frasier to decorate.

Miss Avery didn't notice the cold under all the layers and snuggled into her peanut shell!

While I took Avery to the car to eat and warm up, Daddy and the big kids had fun riding the mini-train and driving this old fire engine they had out for the kids.