Caden said today ...

"Mom are you going to call the doctor for Avery? Her cryer is broken."

(Note: Avery has been a little sick this week and her voice is hoarse, so she has this sad qu8iet little cry right now.)

Smiles from Avery

Avery is 11 weeks today. Here are some pics of her smiling. Finally!

Avery Overload

Avery has had a few hard weeks. (That means mom too.) A lot of crying and spitting up. She is starting to get better but not sure what exactly is going on. She does like to be held, that's for sure!A binky makes her happier and quieter.

8 weeks old (10/24/08):
I took her for her check up. She weighed in at 9 lbs. 8 oz. (23%), was 21 3/4" long (33%) and her little head circumference was 14 1/4" (4%).

Caden is a good big brother. He will hold Avery and can get her to go to sleep.

He will tell her "Shhhhh, go to sleep baby."
Avery 9 1/2 Weeks old:
I love this hoodie outfit.
My favorite pictures is when they are sleeping.These are the best pictures we can get of her smiling. I think she cries a lot more than she smiles, unfortunately. She likes to stick out her tongue too. (10 weeks old)

(Note: I have been working on this post for a few weeks so I just decided to post it as-is.)

Do your kids have Halloween Meltdowns?

Mine do.
I have a picture of Caden when he was about Alexandra's age having a meltdown Halloween night.

Happy Halloween

Pumpkin Farm

Yesterday, I took the kids to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm, (sans Miles, he was at his piano lesson and piano Halloween party) along with some other friends. Alexandra wasn't sure about the bean pot. But she did like the bean bags and the balls to play with. She also liked the goats and the llama. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, so my good friend Janelle took these pictures for me. And bytheway, it was like 85 degrees that day.



These 2 pictures of me and Zani together look almost exactly the same, but they are 2 different pictures.

Sports Girl: Part 2

Tuesday night, Tim took Alexandra and Caden to a San Jose Sharks Hockey game. Lucky!

Sports girl

Last week, Alexandra had 2 firsts.

Tuesday night Tim took Caden and Alexandra to the Warriors pre-season basketball game. Tim said she was "money" or in other words really good during the game. She cheered and danced.

Then Saturday Tim took her to the CAL Bears football game vs. UCLA. They went with Jeremy and Zoe (who is a month younger than Alexandra.) Once again, she was really good and cheered. Jeremy put a CAL bear tattoo on her cheek (which is still partially on her face.) What a fun daddy-daughter date! Tim is so proud of his little sports loving girl.

A view from their seats.
She was tired as the were leaving the game. She fell asleep on Tim's shoulders. (Thanks J & J for the picture)

Jerry Seinfeld on Halloween

I love this! Enjoy!

Ward "Fall Festival"

We celebrated Fall/Halloween with our ward on Friday night. They had a chili cook-off, corn dogs for the kids. A parade for those who dressed up, Miles won the award for "Most out of this world costume" for dressing up as a Jedi Knight and running around the gym showing off his light saber skills. Then finally the trunk-or-treating. Alexandra enjoyed figuring out that "everyone we know is just giving out candy!" (see Jerry Seinfeld on Halloween post.) It was a pretty low key event but the kids still had fun.

Avery: Looking a little scaredAlexandra & Daddy
Alexandra (Minnie Mouse) and her friend Tyler (who happened to be Mickey!)

A great book

Alexandra was struggling a bit with Avery being born. Some days were better than others. Then we started reading this book to Alexandra. It is now one of her favorite books ... and it has helps out tremendously. A few of the pages say: "The baby is so little. Too little to walk. Too little to talk. Too little to play with toys. Too little to eat pizza or apples or ice cream. Babies like to drink milk They like to sleep. They like to be warm and cozy. Our baby likes to look at me. "Look at me, baby, I'm your big sister." Can I hold our baby? I must ask mommy first! I am gentle with the baby. I sing a little baby song. I'm a big sister - I can make our baby warm and cozy."

This is the result of reading this book (over & over & over ...)

Alexandra is loving having Avery around. She always wants to hold her and give her the binkie. When she is done holding her she says "done" and puts her hands up in the air. Then when you take Avery away she freaks out and wants to hold her more.

Piles O' Laundry

Laundry,
Family of 6,
Nothing washed in 5 days,
Better start before the boys run out of socks.

Date with Grandma

Today Alexandra and Grandma Doll went on a "date" aka shopping trip to the mall. Their goal was to buy a white long sleeved shirt, white tights and black church shoes to finish up Alexandra's Halloween costume. (She is going to be Minnie Mouse.) When they came home from their date this is what Alexandra looked like:

Little Miss ..

Climber ..
Get-into-everything ..
Mischievous ..
Terrible 2 already?

(But she is still cute)

Avery at 5 weeks

Caden and I did a little photo shoot this afternoon. Avery is now 5 weeks old. I am happy to report that she is starting to fill out. She is more alert. Tim and I are fighting over who is going to get the first smile. I am even happier to report that for the past few nights she has only been waking up once a night!!

Trick - or - Treat ??

Yes, Avery is still so small. She can fit into Miles' candy bucket. That's a good costume, right?

Avery Gale's Blessing Day

Our little Avery Gale was blessed yesterday at Church. She was blessed by her Dad and those who helped were Grandpa Redding, Grandpa Doll, Bishop Score, Jeremy Jacobs, Chris Rossi, Matt Cook, Jim Hopkins & Jeff McKissick. (Thanks Guys!) Right before she was blessed I had to change her poopy diaper and feed her in the mother's lounge. I was afraid that I would miss the announcement that she was being blessed, and not be in the room. I just made by about 3 minutes. I was a little worried that she would be our only baby who would scream through her blessing, but she didn't!! The dress that she wore is the dress that I wore when I was blessed.
We had a delicious BBQ lunch at our house after church, which included Tri-Tip, Chicken, Fruit Salad, Macaroni Salad, Garlic Potatoes, Costco Rolls (I think I have eaten 10 rolls already .. they are addicting), Cookies, Pie & Ice Cream. I felt like it was a Thanksgiving get together with all the food and family at our house.
It was a great day.

THE BET

Tim and his buddies like to bet each other. It started on a New Years Eve 2 years ago. They bet each other to see who can lose the most weight and decide the consequences of the losers. There were talks of wearing speedos on boating trips for the losers, but it never happened. They have been betting each other but no one will admit that they ever lost. This time the bet was Tim vs. everyone. Tim had to lose 50 pounds by the time Avery was born. If he won of his friends had to Bic their heads. If he lost he had to grow his hair out. Tim has been shaving his head for a few years now and refuses to let is grow out. He says it is patchy on top and too gray on the sides. So Tim started out strong working out at his parents "gym" in their garage daily. Going for LONG walks while pushing Alexandra in the stroller. And was doing great. Then he went on vacation the end of June and never worked out after that. So the day Avery was born was the first day he had to start growing out his hair. His friends were excited and wanted daily updates on how the hair growing was going. He grew it out for 4 weeks. His hair is a little on thin side on the top and very gray on the sides. Saturday night he got permission to Bic it all off, but first he had to shave off the middle top. This is the shaving party in our bathroom.

Before:
Shaving:
The middle shaved off:
Now he is back to his smooth shaved head and is very happy that way. He says he will NEVER grow out his hair again.