5 years...

It's hard to believe that it's already been 5 years since we were married...

July 29, 2006

I never could have imagined that 5 years later we would have two beautiful little girls and will very soon be moving into our second home.  We have been so very blessed!

Our anniversary celebration looked much different than I originally thought it would.  I always thought we'd be spending our 5 year anniversary in Hawaii laying on the beach.  Instead with 2 girls under 2 (one who is only 8 weeks old and still nursing), we had a quick overnight celebration in Indy.  Complete with dinner at the Oceanaire, a night in a hotel and the girls staying with Nana and Papa (they all survived!).

We forgot to get a picture at the restaurant so we took one ourselves.

Happy Anniversary, Babe!  Here's to many more!

Our days in photos...

This is how we've spent our days at Nana and Papa's so far...

Tractor rides with Papa...this happens quite frequently.

Chats with Mama

Testing out Mama's old bike

Sleeping...

Washing the cars

Pottying!  I think we're getting closer!  Kens usually asks to use the potty at least once a day.  She's figuring out the M&M reward system and knows to ask for a "m-m" when she's done.  She's also pretty obsessed with the toilet paper and likes to try to wipe herself.

Spending time at a local water park...she loved the water slide!

A trip to the 4-H fair...watching the animals.

Swimming in the Mississinewa Reservoir...her first time in a lake!

Enjoying boat rides

Boat ride!

Drinking from the sprinkler

Relaxing poolside

Surviving her first fat lip...she took a tumble and went face first onto the ceramic tile.

More sleeping

Heading to the pool!

Watching "Bickey"

Helping Nana water plants

A ride on the carousel at the zoo

Swimming!

Pool time

Giving lots of smiles!

Avery: 7 week update...

Just a quick 7 week update on Avery for documentation sake.  I've really been enjoying looking back at Kensley's weekly updates and comparing to Avery currently.  Specifically it's been helpful to find out when we can expect to get more sleep!

Right now, Avery is quite the smiley little thing.  As with Kensley, she seems happiest and gives the most smiles when she wakes in the morning.  She will give us smiles and a few coos throughout the day as well whenever she is talked to.  She smiles much more than Kensley did as we often had to really work to get her to smile.

We're still waking several times a night with Avery to eat.  Saturday night seemed to be the roughest night we've had in a while as she woke 3 times (every 3 hours) to eat.  Lately her pattern has been to wake 2 times a night to eat.  I'm hoping as we start trying to get her on more of a schedule, we might be able to get some longer stretches of sleep at night.

Our little peanut is still wearing mostly newborn clothes and a few 0 - 3 month outfits.  I'm noticing that her newborn onesies are looking a little snug so this might be the last of them.

Avery still prefers to be held and will often get upset if she's awake and lying by herself for too long.  Fortunately, I've had some extra help and extra sets of hands so we've been able to take turns holding her.  I'm afraid I'm going to have to break Aves of this soon, as I won't be able to hold her all the time when it's just me and the girls.

Right now Avery is still sleeping in the bassinet part of her pack-n-play (on her back), but we've experimented with putting her on her side to sleep in the top of her pack-n-play.  We're also discovering that we might have another tummy sleeper.  Avery typically takes her longer nap on her tummy next to us on the couch.
The biggest news for this week, is that little Avery got her first bottle.  This past Saturday (just 1 day shy of 7 weeks), daddy gave her a bottle and she seemed to take right to it.  It made me a little sad, but I am thankful that she took to it (for now at least) since we're planning a quick trip away this weekend.

Here are a few pictures of little Avery.

Just lounging by the pool...she loves to be outside.

First bottle from daddy

Couldn't resist snapping a picture with my phone after a middle of the night feeding...looking sweet and content.

Ohio Weekend...

This past weekend we made a trip over to Ohio for a family reunion and to celebrate my grandparent's 60th anniversary.  It was a fun filled weekend and we got to see lots of family (Avery got to meet lots of family for the first time too!).

We stayed in a hotel that had a little water park.  Whenever we were at the hotel and had some free time, we were in the pool.  The girls definitely wore themselves out and were on the go nonstop.  Kens had a great time playing with her cousins last weekend and suddenly seemed so old to me watching her with them. 

Friday afternoon, we spent time in the pool and my friend from college came over with her 3 kids to visit.  It was great to see her and catch up, even if our time was brief.  Saturday morning, we spent time swimming again while the guys went golfing.  Saturday afternoon was our family reunion and then we were back to the hotel for more swimming.  Sunday we went to church and then out to lunch to celebrate my grandparent's anniversary.  Our trip home was a little rougher than the way over.  The first hour was peaceful and quite as both girls slept.  We made a quick stop to feed Avery and the next 2.5 hours consisted of me sitting in the back seat with both girls...trying to keep Avery quiet and the paci in her mouth and feeding Kens snacks in between Mickey episodes.  Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we got home.

Here are some pictures from our fun filled weekend.

Playing at the reunion.
Side note: there were at least 12 small kids at the reunion and they were all girls...not one little boy in the whole place.

Elli holding her baby cousin

Getting ready to go down the slide with daddy

Having fun

She loved it!

Loving the pool

Poor Aves...next year she can join in.

How to entertain two toddlers...rides on a rolling chair up and down the hotel hallway.

Another way to keep them entertained...give them cups of ice to crunch on.

Pausing for a picture with cousin Grace (yes, that is chewed up cookie in her mouth).

Avery patiently hanging out in her carseat while we ate lunch.

Grace holding Avery

The Roberts girls with Great Grandpa and Grandma Brauchler

Sweet Elli

Grandma and Grandpa with the little kids...that's a lot of girls.  Baby boy Lindvall will definitely be outnumbered.

Big family picture (minus Scott)

Avery: 6 weeks old..

Our little Avery girl is 6 weeks old and is growing and changing everyday.  She is such a sweet, little baby and we love learning more about her each day.

Avery is slowing getting into more of a routine and showing some consistency with her eating and sleeping patterns.  For the past 4 - 5 days, she's been only waking to eat once at night.  She typically will eat around 8 or 9 pm, wake anywhere from 2:30 - 3:30 am and then again around 6 - 7ish and then back to sleep for a few hours.  She's getting much better at comforting herself and getting back to sleep on her own, but every few nights she needs some help getting to sleep (ie: being walked around for about 15 - 20 minutes). Throughout the day, she goes back and forth between sleeping and being wide awake every few hours.

Avery is finally starting to wear 0 - 3 month clothing (her first outfit today!).  She still fits best into her newborn clothes, but I anticipate her moving out of them for good within the next few weeks.  She is also now wearing size 1 diapers...they seem huge on her compared to newborns!  We also think she might be starting to lose some of her hair...noticing it mainly in the front on top.

Aves is still a great eater and typically nurses about every 3 hours during the day.  She's still our little spitter and usually gives us the loudest burps after feedings.  The doctor thinks she's just fine especially with her weight gain and the fact that she doesn't seem to be in pain.  So we'll have to deal with the spitting up and know to be armed with lots of burp cloths!

Avery is giving us more and more smiles every day.  It's so sweet to see her little grin.  She loves to be talked to and today she even starting cooing.

Lately, Aves isn't real content in her swing, carseart or bouncy...unless she is asleep.  If she's awake, she prefers to be held and lets us know it.  She can sleep just about anywhere and she tends to prefer it noisy as that's when she sleeps best.  We often comment as we can't believe how soundly she sleeps when kids are yelling and there is lots of commotion going on. 

She is still a decent traveler as of right now (still better than her sister was).  She made her first 3.5 hour car ride to see family this past weekend and did pretty well.  She slept the majority of the way over with a brief stop to eat.  The way home was a little rougher as she got hungry.  After a stop to feed her, she slept off and on for the remaining 2.5 hours.  On most of our hour trips to Indy, it's almost guaranteed that she will melt down at some point in the trip.  At this point, I would say that none of our kids like(d) their carseats.

Here are a few pictures of our sweet, little girl.  Don't let these pictures fool you, little Aves gets held a lot!

Sweet, little sunbather

First boat ride on Nana and Papa's boat.

Watching big sister swim in the backyard

Avery: 1 Month Stats

Well as we suspected, our little peanut is definitely not so little anymore.  Avery shocked our doctor and nurse with a big growth spurt at her 1 month appointment on Tuesday (technically she was 1 month and 1 week old).  She must be eager to catch up with her big sister's stats as her percentiles are quickly rising.

Weight: 9 lbs 7 oz (47th %ile)

Height: 20 3/4 in (29th %ile)

Head: 14.5 in (35th %ile)

Avery did great at her appointment.  No shots this visit.  Just enjoyed getting talked to and snuggled by the doctor.  We hope she's as pleasant and agreeable when she gets shots next month.

Avery's Birth Announcement



Our week in photos

Because I did too much writing in our two monthly posts (which I am realizing might be the case each month with writing about two!), this will be a post full of pictures (lots of them!) from our past week at Nana and Papa's and weekend at Grammy and Grampy's. 

Swimming in the hot tub!

Looking like such a big girl!

Waiting for Papa to start the fireworks

Meeting Great Grandma Zurcher

Meeting Great Grandpa Zurcher

Meeting Great Aunt Carla

Excited to go swimming!

Checking out her little pool

Aves swinging with Nana

Testing out the slip 'n slide

Kens LOVES the water!

Sweet girl

Aves loves boat rides!

Holding up her head!

Accidentally cut her head off...but had to include as it's such a cute smile.

Smiling at daddy...she loved her lifejacket.

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And lastly...two very tired girls on the way home from Grammy and Grampy's.  Don't let these pictures fool you.  Shortly after these pictures were taken, both girls woke up...crying!  Aves was hungry and it was Kensley's bedtime.  Both girls cried for a good 25 minutes until we got home as I tried to soothe them both.  All we could do was laugh...as this is our life now!