Vegas in Less than One Week!!

For those of you who haven't heard (and still read this), Michael and I are going to Vegas next week!!  Michael is going for a work conference, and I get to tag along and enjoy a nice little vacation.  Michael's company will cover all of his costs, including the hotel room.  So all we'll have to pay for me is the plane ticket and food.  :)  I'm looking forward to this trip for a number of reasons: 1- It's a trip with just Michael and me, some relaxation time away from the babies is going to be nice, 2- I've never been to Vegas before, it will be fun to see the city for the first time, 3-Michael and I haven't taken an actual vacation since our honeymoon, and while he will have to work some, this will be our biggest trip in the last 4.5 years (the farthest we've gone since we got married was KC).  I'm looking forward to the trip.  Today what I'm looking forward to the most is a week off of babysitting.  Avery has been teething for the last few days and is extremely fussy.  We're also trying to ween her and get her to drink regular milk instead of formula.  This transition is not going so smoothly.  Then, I don't know if it's because he had to get up early this morning or what, but Dayton has been fussing since Adam left this morning, and shows no signs of wanting to stop.  And then, of course, there's the domino effect.  When one baby cries, it makes the other one cry.  When one finally stops, the other begins again.  It's only 7:50am and I'm already counting down the minutes until naptime.  Hopefully today, and this week, go by fast.  :(

Happy Birthday, Avery!

Woke up around 6am this morning with my to do list running through my head.  Still need to run a load of laundry before we leave for the day, Avery needs a bath, Michael needs to finish the lawn and edgeing, keep nice clothes on hangers until we get to Manhattan, what is everyone going to wear for the trip to Manhattan, dogs in or out, are their feet clean, what still needs cleaned on the house....  On and on the list goes, it seems like my mind won't stop.  Then I realize, today is Avery's birthday.  :)  And while I still turned the laundry, the rest of the list seemed to melt away as I began to reminise on this cool, fall morning one year ago.

By 6am Avery still wasn't close to getting here.  I hadn't started pushing yet, I was just trying to catch up on some sleep from the long day before.  My epidural was in and working and I was comfortable with the exception of the having a nurse come in once every half our to poke my stomach with something sharp to make sure the epidural wasn't numbing too far up.

It's crazy how time has flown by.  I have a beautiful 1 year old daughter and each day that passes with her just makes my life all the more wonderful and worth living.  I am such a lucky woman to have such a spectacular life!  As if an amazing baby weren't enough, I have a handsome husband who cares very deeply and thoughtfully for Avery and me.  He's gentle and kind.  He cares about my safety, health, happiness, and spirit, and that of Avery's as well.  He's a dream come true and I am a very lucky woman to have crossed paths with him and got him to notice.  I love him so very much.

But my blessings don't end there!!  I have 2 beautiful dogs!  One smart as a whip and too smart for her own good.  The other not nearly as smart, but as loving and friendly as you'll ever find.  They have been my babies for years and will always hold a special place in my heart.  They help me watch after Avery and they love her as much as they love me.  They are patient with her and don't get upset when she's a little rough.  I could not ask for 2 better pets and family members.  :)

So much has happened in the last year!!  (Some of these memories may go back a little farther)  Exactly 1 week after we found out we were pregnant with Avery, we put an offer in on our house.  2 months later we were moving in.  On our 3 year anniversary Michael lost his job.  And while the thought of our big new house and our baby on the way worried me with where the finances would come, God was faithful, and 4 hours later Michael had a new job.  That new job has taken good care of him for the last year and a half.  They've given him time off when Avery was born and when we had our miscarriage, they sent a chocolate dipped fruit basket after Avery arrived, they've given him uncharacteristically large raises, and they're sending him to Vegas in 2 weeks and I get to come along!  :D  (Back to the last year-ish)  We had a healthy pregnancy with Avery.  Her arrival went well and she and I both came out doing great.  And then Michael's and my world changed forever when we welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our family.  She was so tiny.  She was (is) so perfect.  That first night, even after all I'd been through, I didn't want to sleep.  All I wanted to do was stare at my beautiful sleeping girl.  All mine, ours.  What a blessing!  And she grew and learned quickly.  It started with tummy time, pulling her head up.  Then she got her arms under her, then she turned herself over.  She would bat and grab at the toys dangled over her on her playmat or in her carseat.  She loved the ones that sang!  She began holding her own bottles quickly and had quite the death grip when it came to getting food, it should have been a hint to us early on how much she loved to eat!  After she got her hands under her, her knees came next.  For a while she rocked back and forth, anxious to move, and then, finally, the crawling came!  She had a number of teeth pop through, averaging about 1-2 new teeth each month from 6 months on.  Crawling didn't last long and she was pulling up.  She would walk along the furniture, but was always timid when it came to that first actual step.  She began saying a couple words like Mama and Dada, along with a lot of other babbling.  She gave up the pacifier on her own around 6 or 7 months.  This was fine with me, because it was much easier to see her beautiful face without it, and hey, at least I didn't have to fight her to wean her off of it.  She began eating solid foods and never looked back.  There was hardly a thing she wouldn't devour.  She still remains an eating machine.  And at 11 months she was only up to 19 pounds!  Where does the weight go?!  From cruising along the furniture she finally began taking those first steps at 9 months.  It started with just 1 or 2, but soon it was 5, and then 10.  By the time she hit 10 months old she was a pro walker!  And once she began walking, she never looked back!  She walks EVERYWHERE!  She has no desire to crawl at all anymore.  :)  She began climbing on top of things; the fireplace, her toddler bed, the chair in her toyroom...  It took a while to figure out how to get back down, but she can do that now as well!  ;)  She giggles and laughs.  She mimics sounds and says more words, especially "dog".  And each day she's learning more, getting bigger and stronger, and more beautiful!  She is the biggest blessing Michael and I have ever received!!  So on this day, 1 year after she joined our family, I pray this prayer for my sweet baby girl...

Father God,
I thank You for this sweet child that You've blessed our lives with!  She brings us overwhelming happiness and joy!  I know that her life is a gift from You, because nothing from this world could be as perfectly formed, wonderfully made, and beautifully created as our daughter.  The past year has been so rewarding!  It has been an honor to be her parents and to guide her in life and watch her grow.  She has come so far.  Lord, I pray that You will continue to guide us and her as she becomes the woman You have designed her to be.  She's in our lives for but a moment, but she is forever Your child.  Lead us as we teach her about You, Your love, Your mercy, and Your goodness, Lord.  Thank You, Lord, for this beautiful baby girl.  We love her so much and give You all the glory for her stunning little life.  Please keep her safe all the days of her life, Lord.  Walk by her side and keep a hedge of protection around her.  Make her into the true woman of God that she has the potential to be.  And forgive us, Michael and I, when we fail to be the perfect parents to Your incredible blessing.  We are human, but derive our strength from You.  And through You all things are possible, even decent parenting from sinners like us.  :)  So, Lord, lead us all to You.  Protect us along the way.  And please help my fabulous little daughter to have a truly blessed 1st birthday and 2nd year of life.  I love You, Lord!
In Jesus' precious name I pray,
Amen.

Have a wonderful Saturday, folks.  :)  And a very happy birthday to miss Avery Rose Voss.  :D

D Day!

At 7:23, on October 4th, 2012, I was in the process of being released from the hospital.  I woke up at 3am having contractions.  Since I'd never been in labor before, I had no idea that the small contractions I was feeling were not anywhere close to the type of contractions I needed to push labor along.  So around 5:30 we went to the hospital, only to be told, it isn't time, and to be sent on our way.

At this time last year I was disappointed and anxious.  I was ready for my baby girl to be here in my arms.  But, yet again, we were sent home, being told, it's not yet time.  When we left the hospital, Michael and I went to Ihop for brunch.  We enjoyed our food and discussed how our lives would be changed by this time tomorrow (I was scheduled to be induced at 7:15am on Friday, the 5th).  I talked about how exhausted I was, Michael said he would help finish cleaning the house, and told me that he wasn't going to go back in to work that day.  The waitress asked me how far along I was, because obviously I was pregnant enough for it to be ok to ask.  9 months, I told her, my due date is tomorrow.  Oh wow!  She exclaimed, and when she went back to the kitchen area, we could hear snippets where she told her colleagues how far along I was.  Hey, a pregnant lady's got to eat, right?!  ;)

After brunch we went home.  Exhausted and still having contractions, I laid in bed with my heating pad on my back and rested for a good chunk of the day.  My Knight in Shining Armour worked on cleaning the house so it was perfect when we came home with our new baby.  That night, Sis came over to help me with my hair.  You see, I knew we'd be taking pictures right after Avery was born, and I didn't want to look like I'd been hit by a train, so I asked Sis to come over and straighten it for me.  Around 9pm and started, and so did the more intense contractions.  By 10 she was done, and I'd made it through my first hour of active labor.  She said to let her know if we went to the hospital that night, but it didn't take me 10 minutes after she left to decide it was time to go.  This time it hurt.  This time I knew it was real.  It was time to go.

We got to the hospital and checked in.  The contractions continued to get worse.  For an hour we waited to make sure that my labor was progressing.  When they finally admitted me, it was time for lab work.  Because my platelets were dropping, we needed to know my levels to make sure I could have the epidural.  So while the lab worked on my tests, everyone got the epidural ready, so that when we knew, we would be ready to go.  Another hour of painful contractions went by.  Finally, we had the lab results and they began my epidural.  The people are right when they say that the shot to numb you hurts worse than the epidural.  It burned, but soon the pain began to lessen.  Lessen, but not go away, because the epidural was only numbing half of my body.  I let them know this by picking up one leg and waving it around, saying, this side isn't numb.  So they did another epidural.  I now had 2 cathedures running into my spine to numb my pain.  Finally I got comfortable, and when they asked if I felt that contraction, I said, what contraction??  Things were working properly.  I was comfortably numb, and now we wait...  Which was fine with my, because by this time it was somewhere between 2 and 3 in the morning.  It was a long day, the day before Avery was born, but the payoff would be entirely worth it.  :)

One year ago...

Only 4 more days until Avery turns a year old!  Wow!  Time has flown by so very fast!!  I just went back in my blog to see what was happening this time a year ago...  Boy, was I uncomfortable!  I was trying everything to get Avery motivated to arrive, lol!  It's funny how you forget the more uncomfortable and not so fun things when you look back.  Even when I look forward...  I want to have another baby, but I only remember good things about my pregnancy with Avery: hearing her heartbeat, finding out we were having a girl, cute clothes for her and me, baby showers, food, a cute belly, and eventually a beautiful baby girl.  :)  The negative stuff just didn't seem to stick in my mind.  :P  Good thing I was a compulsive blogger when I was pregnant!  I can look back and remember, oh yeah, there were not-so-fun parts...  Maybe I'm not in such a big hurry to relive all that.  ;)

In the last year, I have given birth to a beautiful 7 pound, 6 ounce, 20 inch long baby girl!  I have held her in my arms and taken countless pictures of her!  We have brought a daughter into our home and made our family more complete than we ever thought possible.  We have taken her to church where our friends have oooed and awwed over her every week as they watch her grow.  She's gone to the doctor and grown.  She's healthy and happy.  She has 2 furry and 1 human best friends that she plays with constantly.  In the last year she's learned to hold her head up, to roll over, to bat at and grab toys, to hold her bottle, to get up on all 4s and crawl, to feed herself, to stand, to babble, to swim, to crawl on top of things, to walk, to say Mama, Dada, and Dog, and to do so much more.  She's incredible!  She's so smart!  She's so happy!  We are BLESSED to have her!  :)

I can't believe it's been almost a year since she was born.  Time has gone by so fast.  And yet, it's hard to remember what life was like without Avery in it.  She's been with us for such a short time, but it almost seems like life really began when she arrived.  :)  I love that little girl so very much!  Can't wait to celebrate the first year of her life on Saturday and Sunday.  :)

Ok, I suppose that's enough nostalgia for one post.  ;)  Hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday.  :)

Pictures

Not much new to say really.  I love that the weather is changing!  We made vegetable soup the other day, it was delicious!  We were disappointed to lose to Texas on Saturday.  Since I began my time at K-State, I had never seen us lose to Texas.  That's ok, though.  This is a rebuilding year for us.  We still need to see which quarterback is going to step up.  My house is a mess, as it usually is.  We're going to have to start cleaning to get things ready for Avery's party.  We still haven't decided yet if we're going to get the carpets professionally cleaned, or do it ourselves.  Avery really needs a toybox for Christmas.  That may have to be what Michael and I get her.  Her toyroom (which will eventually be her bedroom when she hits 15 months and is old enough to sleep in her big girl bed) is getting pretty messy with all the toys.  We need a better organizational system!  I want to start getting out my fall decorations, but the house needs to be somewhat together first.  Maybe I'll get motivated today.  Alright, that's about all I have.  Sorry for the random, train-of-thought style post.  Now here's the part you've all been waiting for!!  Lot's of pictures of Avery!  :D  Enjoy!

Cute Story

So last night I wanted a little time off to myself to just rest.  So instead of watching Avery while Michael went to Winds of Worship practice, he took her with him and put her in the church childcare while he practiced.  On WOW nights there aren't a lot of other babies in childcare, but more small children.  So instead of being in the nursery, she was with the other kids, most of whom were at least 5 or older.  Here's the cute little story Michael told me about Avery's night at church.

The kids were playing with Duplos and Megablocks.  The woman in charge of the kids explained to them that Avery was still a baby, and that she didn't understand sharing or that she wasn't supposed to mess with their toys.  This way the kids didn't get upset if Avery walked right through their area of play and/or took their toys.  Well the kids built their houses and towers, not aware that Avery has those same blocks at home and plays with them often with her Daddy.  As the kids built their towers, Avery came over, knocked them down, and tore them all apart.  (And here's why I love church kids...)  Instead of being upset, the kids took it and said, "Oh no!  The baby's destroying the factory!"  :D  And this was the game they played for the rest of the evening.  The kids would build as much and as fast as they could and Avery would come over and knock it all down.  They had a blast!

I thought it was such a sweet story, that I needed to share.  ;)

Also, on Michael's way out with Avery, one of the kids caught sight of her and said, "Hey!  It's Avery!  Mom, Dad, that's Avery!"  Apparently she was quite a hit!  ;)  She also wow-ed everyone when she ran all the way from the back of the sactuary to the front where she saw Michael standing.  :)  She is just the sweetest thing!  I'm glad she had a good time and I'm glad I got an hour of quiet time.  It was a very nice evening for everyone.  :)

Manhattan recapped

So here's how our day to Manhattan went this weekend!

We tried to sleep in, but Miss Avery was up at 7am on Saturday morning.  We got up and ready for our trip.  We played and had some breakfast before we laid Avery down for her morning nap.  She slept for about an hour and a half.  Then, when she got up we pack things into the car and drove to Manhattan.  Unfortunately, I forgot the headphones to keep Avery's ears safe during the game.  So we stopped at Dick's sporting goods on our way out of town to pick some up.

Once we got to Manhattan we stopped at the Scenic Overlook.  It's a beautiful place to overlook the Flint Hills, and it's also the place where Michael asked me to marry him.  It's a very special place for us and I love stopped there when we go to town.  Last year we stopped there and took pictures of my huge 36 week pregnant belly.  :)  This year we had a sweet almost 1 year old little girl to take pictures of.  It was very special having Avery in Manhattan with us.  :)

We got into Manhattan and were hoping to go to Aggieville to get Avery a new outfit.  However, we didn't realize that it was band day (which starts with a giant parade of the bands through town).  So our route to Aggieville was blocked and terribly crowded with parents and other students watching the high school bands go by.  For this reason, we decided to skip Aggieville on this trip and headed to campus.  Campus was very busy too, but then again, it usually is, and a gameday is no different.  When we finally found a parking place on the other side of campus we explained to Avery that this was what college was all about, parking forever away and walking most of the way.  I love that campus so much.

We took tons of pictures of Avery on campus!  She looked great and had lots of fun!  Since campus was pretty much empty, we let Avery walk and lead us around.  She seemed to be having a good time.  :)  She even found an acorn and some leaves to carry around.  ;)  What was especially funny about our walk around campus was seeing squirrels.  Avery would look at them and point and say "dog".  We tried to explain to her that they were squirrels and not dogs, but it was a much harder word to say, so she stuck with dog.  :P  We went to the Union and downstairs to Varney's.  We figured we'd look for something new for Avery since we weren't planning on making it to Varney's or Ballards in Aggieville.  Avery liked a little K-State football and carried it around the store with her.  Michael and I looked for some new shirts for us, but in the meantime, Avery found a stuffed puppy in a K-State shirt that she liked as well.  So we decided to forgo our new appearal for a couple new toys that she picked out herself.  We figured we had truly arrived as adults/parents when we decided not to spend money on ourselves to save money, but bought 2 new toys for Avery instead.  ;)  We also found an Alumni license plate cover that we got for Michael's car, since he's never had one.  He was very excited!

After campus we stopped at Tim and Kylee's house to say hi and meet Tim for the first time.  We figured we should at least say hi since we'll be in town and be helping with their wedding in 3 weeks on Avery's birthday.  ;)  It was nice to see their place and visit with them for a few minutes.  Avery loved playing with their cat Oliver, who seemed less than thrilled about her.  ;)

After leaving Kylee and Tim's place we went to the Agronomy Department parking lot across the street from the north endzone where we met up with Melissa and Travis for the tailgate.  We ate and drank and talked and listened to music.  It was a pretty standard tailgate party.  :)  We had a great time!  We brought the pack and play with us for Avery, and she did GREAT in it!  While Michael and I chatted with people and helped ourselves to some snacks Avery played in the pack and play.  She had a who bag full of toys, a bag of snacks (that she quickly upturned and dumped all around her), and a bottle to drink.  She was a very happy camper.  Normally, Avery likes for people to pay a little bit of attention to her.  But in the pack and play with toys, food, and drinks, she was happy as a clam to be hanging out by herself.  She truly is the greatest baby in the world.  :)

When game time was drawing near, Travis and Melissa gave us our tickets.  We packed up the diaper bag, put Avery's headphones on her, and began our treck across the street to the stadium.  The new expansion to the stadium is AMAZING!  It's so impressive and HUGE!!!!!  We had a great time exploring!  Finally, we got to our seats.  We were in the southwest corner of the stadium, on the 14th row (out of about 50).  The seats were great!  We got to our seats with about 25 minutes left before the game would start.  Avery was way more interested at looking at the people around us than she was at watching what was going on on the field.  ;)  Finally, the game started!  We got through most of the first quarter before Avery was getting restless from sitting in the same place for so long.  Now, mind you, she's been sitting patiently in one place for 45 minutes or more.  I was pretty impressed and thought she did a great job!  But with just a few minutes left in the 1st quarter, I took her back out to the tailgate to spend the rest of the game out there with Melissa and Travis.  (I worried that she would be fussy for them, since she'd only taken 1 nap all day and showed no indication of wanting another one, but they said she did GREAT the entire time she was with them!)  :)  Back to the game, Michael and I cheered on the Cats, but past the 1st quarter the looked much better.  It was a great game and we had lots of fun!!  We spent some more time at halftime checking out the expansion.  If we'd had the right tickets we would have explored even more, but everything has another pricetag.  ;)

After the game was over we went back out to the tailgate.  Avery was asleep in Melissa's arms.  She said that she'd fallen asleep around 8pm and had been sleeping for about an hour.  After I left the tailgate in the 2nd quarter Avery had eaten and played with Melissa, Travis, and Travis' sister (and friends).  She behaved well and when she began getting tired, had reached for Melissa.  Melissa made her a bottle and held her.  Avery finished it off and fell right to sleep (which it to be expected because she had a VERY long day with VERY little sleep.  We gathered up our stuff and our sweet sleeping baby.  We thanked Melissa and Travis for the tickets and for watching Avery so we could enjoy the game.  It was a great day!!

On our way back to Topeka we took hwy 24 and went through Wamego.  Marianne Steen, one of my coworkers from when I worked at Washington in Junction City, lives there.  We stopped for a bit and caught up with her and her husband, Tim.  It made for a VERY long evening, but it was good to see them.  :)  We got back to Topeka around midnight and all 3 of us crashed.  It was a wonderful trip!  Can't wait for the next time we get to go to Manhattan.  :)