Current events....and more on swimming adventures!

Portland got lucky last week and got some SUNSHINE,

we were all in vital need of some good Vit D, so off to the Zoo we went!!!

(The elephants are my favorite there, esp little baby)

This would be "chicken little" Ava, afraid to touch the small goats...wuss.

Now here is Ava's new found favorite animal at the Zoo,

the crocodile (or as she calls it, the Alligator).

A couple days later she woke from a nap and started blabbing away

about how much she liked the sleeping Alligator and wanted

to go see it again and on and on....

wonder if she actually was dreaming about him!

We picked up a couple strange kids at the Zoo also...not really... we've babysat

these 2 munchkins a couple times on Saturdays, they're great kids.

We were going to watch them again this Saturday, but their Grandparents

offered instead, guess the boy was quite disappointed. Somehow we are fun to

hang out with! They just love all the toys I think. We all have fun though!
(Ava & Tyler were not up for smiling here, Ansley was all over it though)

Oooohhhh, ahhhhh......fish are fascinating.

Had to take some pics of our new favorite Saturday hangout... the community center pool, it rocks!!! Ava could go down this slide all day long with her Daddy.

And here they come now, woooshhh.....

This one is better than the other center we'd go to, this has a kiddo slide also, which

Ava spent much time going on over and over again.

Just a cute pic of my big Girl all ready for Church in her new Valentine's dress!

(I went out and bought some white leggings for it today, it looks a little scandalous with just tights, just a tad short!)

As for me and Baby #2, I hit the 12 week mark today, so close to being out

of the 1st Trimester. Tiredness has been my biggest issue this time around (some nausea & queasiness-lost my record and puked once so far). But then I had my Thyroid checked, because I have Hypothyroidism and take meds for it, and it's too low. So my Doc said that'll make me alot more fatigued too. I just can't wait to be done with this part and on to the "yeah I'm so happy to be pregnant" part. Though the Sciatic Nerve pain has already started.....oh the joys of it all. Somedays I know I sound like I'm not grateful for this miracle, but believe you me, I am!!! Just hoping September gets here fast!!!! :)

Happy V_Day to my two Loves!

Actually I have 3 Loves right now (ones that live w/ me at least, I love all the rest of you too).

3rd is my little Peanut above, if you are bad at seeing ultrasounds, it's head is to the left and you can slightly make out it's left arm off it's small body! So cool!

(I tried to get this pic to the bottom, but it was being stubborn)

But 1st would be my Man Jeremy, who has withstood 10 years of

abuse from me and still loves me (or so I think!)!!

Love you Honey and thanks for the past 10 years of marriage,

you are definetly my ROCK!

I've been too tired or just lazy to blog about our little trip to Leavenworth,

but here is a pic of us on a Carriage ride through the little town.

I had a terrible cold the whole week before and that weekend,

so it wasn't as "romantic" as it could have been!

Oh well, I got to relax and be away from Ava-not that I don't love her...

And to my 2nd Love, this smiley girl who brings us such JOY & LAUGHTER!

What did we do before you came???? We were bored for sure!

Ava just got a cute A-line haircut today, makes her even cuter!

The side view! I think the cut is a little crooked, but dang girl wouldn't hold still, not

that they should expect that from a 2 year old.

And my silly girl (before haircut), just playing with her glasses.

*Notice the beautiful flowers in the back??? My sweet hubby sent those to me at work last week for our Anniversary!! :) He was hoping they'd last till V-Day so he wouldn't have to buy more, but some flower in there was putting off some slight smell that was making my tummy churn-so they had to go a few days before V-day. But I'm crossing my fingers-I still haven't puked yet!!!! With Ava I started at 9 weeks and maybe only did it like 10 times, but now I'm 10 weeks and just qeasy and TIRED!!! Here's to hoping.

Happy Valentines Day to all of you~LOVE YOU!!!

Life is SOOO unpredictable!!!!!

This is why I don't make New Year's Resolutions,

I break them!!!

If you remember my post about them, my goals were:

1) Get approved to Adopt

2) Lose all my weight from my 20's & get healthy

Here is why they are broken~

1) They don't let people Adopt when they already

have something growing inside them....

2) I'll be GAINING weight this year!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe in MIRACLES, do you????

Around Sept. 10th, Ava will be a BIG SISTER!

This is truly a miracle, as we've been trying the "old fashioned" way

for 10 years (not to mention all the other ways)....

We feel blessed and beyond words of excitement.

For those that need to know time lines, I'm 9 weeks along.

We had an ultrasound last week to verify that in fact

the 2 home test I took weren't lying to us, though Jeremy

thought I should take about 8 more!!!

Welcome back Nausea & Fatigue, didn't think we'd meet again.....

And thanks to God for this Miracle!!!

Welcome to my newest Nephew!

Welcome Baby Liam

9lbs 15oz

20 1/2 in

Strawberry Blonde hair!

My brother's wife Shanda had this little chunk today (Feb 3rd) and I get to meet

him this weekend when we go up to WA to drop Ava off at my Mom's for a couple nights. Friday is our 10 YEAR Anniversary!!!!!

We are going to this little Bavarian town in WA for the weekend & I'm super excited.

Except for a stupid thing called a COLD!! Man, I need to get better so I can

give lots of hugs and kisses to Baby Liam....PRAY for me! :)

Congrats to Brian & Shanda, they are now a family of FIVE!

Lots of Swimming!!!

Can you see the excitement????

Ava is a little fish, loves the bath and swimming

in the Hot Tub.

Super Cheesy!

That's not Jer behind her, some of our friends

had come over to take advantage of our hot tub,

since we don't get in there much anymore.

But since they came over, Ava has wanted to go in there

all the time, so I let Jer take her.

This past Saturday we went to a community center in Portland that

has a big indoor pool with a big twisty slide, a little lazy river, and

a shallow end w/ lots of squirting toys. Ava could not stay out

of the lazy river and went on the slide w/ Jer (me once) about 7 or 8

times. I like to go down the slide by myself so I can go super fast!

We'll have to go back soon, we went a year ago, but only once.

We are just trying to figure out what to do on Saturdays, still not used to having

Jeremy around to play with!

Snow Play!

No, Portland didn't get any snow, but we have Mt Hood less than an hour away.

So with Jeremy's sister Terry here, we headed up to play.

Sadly though, the snow levels have been really low up there, even though they started out really strong. Oh well, we found a Sno-Park area and did some sledding.

Did I mention Ava is a thrill-seeker??? Well, naturally she loved going down the hill w/ Daddy.

But I don't think she liked being bundled like an Eskimo, found it hard to maneuver around.

She's a great trooper though and we had fun.


Here is a view of part of Mt Hood, so beautiful.
I always love when we have clear days in the winter and we
can see Mt Hood from our house, it's amazing.



Terry, we miss you and had a great visit.
Ava still asks about you, like the other night we went shopping in Jer's car
and she kept pointing to where you had sat and asked "Where' Terry go?"

MY LITTLE DAREDEVIL!!

Jeremy's sister Terry arrived in Portland this morning, she's hanging out with us till Tuesday! After chillin' and watching some football today, we headed to the mall to do some ice skating. Now Ava has done this once before, about a month ago w/ the teens from church, when Jeremy took them there for their weekly activity. But she LOVES it! I think she's into to thrills. Just like she loves big waterslides, she could do it over and over again.

This is Terry & Ava~ taking a break, though Ava didn't want one!

I am by no means good at skating, so we had to take it slow anyway. Ava moved her feet a bit, but mainly got pulled around by us. Jeremy is really good and would take off all fast with her in front of him.

That is NOT a scared face, she was loving it the whole time. Jeremy let her fall a little and when she discovered she was on ice, she wanted to just sit and rub her hands on it. When we got kicked off so the Zamboni could polish it over, is when we decided to sneak away, but Ava was not happy about it. Unfortunatly, we bribed her with going to see the puppies at the Pet Store, except it was no longer there!!!! Ooops!!!

This is Ava & Jer at dinner before skating, too cute, very 1950's! I think all she had to eat was most of that shake, an onion ring, and maybe some pieces of ham. Way too much sugar today! Below pic is how Ava forgot we were supposed to go see puppies. We went to Sears to find some snow pants and she found some babies. If you know Ava, you know she's LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Babies! Mom is no sucker though, not when she already has 6 at home! This is her holding it tight trying to sneak onto the escalater with it. I was checking out when Jeremy and Terry had to get the baby from Ava and Ava out of the store, but don't think it went TOO bad.

It was a GREAT day for us, looking forward to relaxing tomorrow (unfortunatly more Football) and going to play in the snow at Mt Hood on Monday. I just know Ava is going to LOVE sledding, such a thrill seeker!!!