Happy New Years Eve!

Avery's New Bling

Almost a new year!!!

I have some new pictures to post, but with all the holiday craziness - just havent gotten around to downloading them just yet. Avery has to show off her new "bling" stay tuned....

Merry Christmas

Thanks Shella - your awsome! We miss you Conner!!

Another page from Avery's book

Someone in our house is VERY excited for Christmas!!! Bedtime should be fun tonight. The holidays will always be sorta bittersweet for us - We have so much to be thankful for, especially with our little miracle Avery, and a truly amazing little 5 year old. That said, a piece of our hearts is in heaven, and I wish I could see Conner opening presents. We just miss him so very much. A very Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all our friends and family. And a special holiday hug for all those families that are celebrating this year without their loved ones.

An earthshattering event happened today!!!

Avery had her 4 month appt this morning. since we were there, and she was awake - I decided she should practice some tummy time on the exam table - and then she surprised me so much I nearly fell over - she rolled over for the first time!!!! WOW. Then - for a double whammy - she did it again for the nurse practicitoner. We are so proud of her!!!!!

Avery's officially 4 months - 2 1/2 adjusted

12 pounds 15 ounces

"There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were."
-- Dwight David Eisenhower

This picture was taken by dear friends of ours - we love you Kirchner's!!!!! Thanks for always remembering and loving Conner as much as we do!

A visit with Santa

After 1 hour in line - yup, 1 whole hour - We finally gor to see Santa. When Santa asked Brenden what he wanted for Christmas - he promptly replies... "a BMW" the conversation goes like this...

Santa: "what would you like for Christmas this year?"

Brenden: " a BMW"

Santa: Your not old enough to drive yet"

Brenden: "It's for my dad, and I want a porshe too"

Santa got a good giggle, and so did we!

Oh, and Carl, if your reading this - your NOT getting a BMW - lol

page from Avery's book

I have been working on a book of Avery's photos for 3 weeks now - uggg. I only have 4/10 pages done - but I put this one together and I am totally in love with it - so I thought I'd share it. I tried to get some pictures of her again today - but she was not having any of that! So hopefully I can get this book done sometime in the near future so I can send it in to be printed. Oh, and I think she may have a milk allergy - so no more milk for me! I will spare you all the in detail "baby poop" description. Im sure it would be WAY more detail than anyone would want to know - lol. So I will just have to cut dairy from my diet until she's done breastfeeding. It will be tough - cause I love my cereal - but I will do it in a second for my Avery!

Some more cute pictures!

Avery getting super close to 4 mos!!!

Just some cute pics to post today - oh and last night - she hit a record - slept 12 1/2 hours - straight!!!!! WOW

Annual Candle lighting pictures

Our picture of our candle is here - and extra special candle I had made just for our angel - we only light it on very special occasions like Conner's birthday, today for the annual candle lighting, Conner's diagnosis day, and the day he died. The second picture is from an old friend who also has a special angel in heaven little Matthew. How nice of her to remember not only her angel, but ours as well - their candle had two wicks - one for Matthew and one for Conner. Today we remember our angel, but also all the other children who have died too soon. This year has been an especially tough year on our NTSAD family - many children have lost their battle to these diseases - so while we have Conner's candle - we also lit another for the families that are near and dear to our hearts!

Ive just added baby Charles's picture, one that Imust mention is very very close to our hearts! This is the first holiday season this family will celebrate without their amazing little guy! We love you Anderson family & we miss you sweet Charles!

Avery - almost 4 mos old

The black and white on on top is my new FAV!!! LOVE IT :)

A huge smile!

So it would seems that the books are right and around 4 months old babies start getting their personality! Avery has been rather chatty in the evenings (mostly for her daddy - uggg) she is cooing and smiling and as seen in the posts below she is sucking her thumb! I really struggled with Christmas presents for her this year since she's still so little - so I decided to spring for this really beautiful pacifier clip - it's crystal and has her name in beads on it - So I order it - whew - it comes - and it's amazing, but in the week and a half it took to get here - she decided that she dosent want the pacifier - she would much prefer her thumb! So....back to the drawing board. Now these are the kind of worries I can totally handle!!! I felt at ease last night for the first time since she was just a few weeks old - like our miracle might just turn out afterall! This year we have so much to be thankful for - just one year ago we were getting ready to take a huge leap of faith with in-vitro and today - she's right here in front of us!

This may be the cutest thing I have seen in a while!

we are SO excited that Avery's MRI was normal!!!!! This is the best Christmas gift ever!!!!!!!!

World Wide Candle Lighting on this Sunday!!!

SUNDAY 7 PM - PLEASE LIGHT A CANDLE FOR CONNER!!!

This Sunday, December 14th, is the Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting. This candle lighting unites families and friends around the globe as they light candles for one hour to honor and remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles are lit at 7 p.m. (your local time), a virtual wave of light will be created as it moves from time zone to time zone around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people will be commemorating and honoring the memories of children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries.

If you want to email me your candle picture - I can post them here on the blog!

Avery 3 months 3 weeks

Our three Christmas tree's - No MRI results yet - Avery had it yesterday and since she was a preemie and required anesthesia for the MRI - we had an unexpected hospital stay last night - not fun!!! She didnt have any complications it was just precautionary since she came early - sometimes babies forget to breathe after anesthesia. So for now we wait.... and wait....and wait - everytime the phone rings I almost throw up Im so nervous!

Avery 3 1/2 mos

Avery's MRI is this afternoon - I am just a wreck. I am so exhausted from always having something wrong. I guess Im just scared - really scared. Im hoping we will have the results maybe Friday. Brenden was sick last night - he threw up in the sink - thank goodness he made it to the sink. Here's a cute picture of him curled up in our bed last night with his bucket handy - just incase. He said he was feeling much better this morning - so he went to school, lets hope he makes it through the day.

Christmas tree

Believe it or not, this is our FIRST family photo with our new addition Avery!!! (I'm always on the other side of the camera. ) Man it was cold getting that tree yesterday, although I'm glad we got it done, because today the wind would've made it impossible. Busy week this week - Avery has her MRI on Wednesday - I'm already nauseous just thinking about it!

Avery 3 months 2.5 weeks

Nothing much to report - So just some pictures :)

Avery 3 months 2 weeks

Just a picture post ! :)

oh yeah, and the pink bow on Avery's head in the post below - the puppies ate it - guess I can add hair bows to the list - lol

Avery 3 months 2 weeks - Adjusted age 2 mos :)

12 Pounds 6.5 Ounces

Avery was up to her old tricks again last night - she finally crashed at 4:30 AM. I think she is hitting a growth spurt - she is eating like crazy and has hiccups a few times a day. The longest she has slept in the past 2 days is 4 hours (Im yawning as I type, it's 1am now and she is going strong) We went to a pediatric dermatologist today to get an official opinion on her birthmarks. There hadent been any concern until the pediatric neuro-opthomologist at Wilmer insisted that they were not stork bites, and they were port wine stains (PWS's are a permanant birthmark and stork bites are not) as we had suspected the dermatologist confirmed that they are infact "stork bites" and should completly dissapear on their own by age 2. We have already seen the nose and upper lip fade significantly since birth - they only really flare up if she's hot or cold, or my favorite - steamin MAD. Have I yet mentioned what an a** the neuro-opthomologist was?

Avery 3 months 1 + weeks

Managed to get some pretty cute pictures yesterday! Avery is doing better over the past few nights with sleeping - thank goodness her fans stopped sending those all night party invitations! she slept nearly 10 hours on Friday night - WOW! We have the house all decorated for the holidays with the exception of our real tree - how in the world did we end up with 3 Christmas trees?? We have Conner's tree done in all stars, then the kids tree which I think cant possibly hold one more onrnament , and our real tree. I think we may need a fourth - but where would we put it? I will post some pictures later when we have the third and last tree up. We always go to a farm and cut our real tree - so it should be a lot of fun this year - Brenden is REALLY into Christmas this year! He is growing up so fast. He asked Santa for Sketchers - I asked him what they looked like and he states "Mom - there shoes" (as if I didn't know that already) How funny - he is so into looking cool these days - he also only requested clothes if they are under armour - have I mentioned he's only 5...!!! He's super excited to take his list to Macy's and put in Santa's mailbox - what a fabulous idea!

Will those dogs eat anything??? SERIOUSLY!

Lets see if I can list the various things that Tucker and Lexi have eaten the past year...

1. Candles (in a glass holder)

2. Socks

3. Matchbox cars

4. Socks (countless socks - this one made the list twice there have been so many)

5. My nightguard for my teeth

6. Weed fabric under the deck

7. my crocs

8. tennis shoes

9. carpet

10. Pillow

11. plastic mosquito lantern

12. Sand bucket

13. Shovel - plastic

14. the stand off a picture frame

15. the pool table leg - ugggggg

16. towel

17. toys - tons and tons of toys have moved to the land of 1/2 eaten toys

18. logs that we have stacked for the firepit - they are a quite delicious Tucker says

19. Nerf football - we found that nicely shredded outback

20. cardboard box

21. Large paintbrush

22. Hampster bedding and food

23. Newspaper

24. Reciepts for all of the baby stuff when Avery was born

25. plastic shopping bags

26. pH strips for the hot tub - container and all

27. The Kitchen scissors that someone left outside on the table - no it wasnt Brenden

28. the edges of the wood blinds in the front windows - this way they dont have to move them to look out

the most handsome boy in the world ... I think anyway

I had to bribe Brenden - but he did model for me yesterday - what a great Thanksgiving day present, cause I got this amazing picture!!!