Introducing Tyler

Well, finally the little tyke decided to arrive! (Only a week late...) Here are his stats (almost exactly like his sister)

Tyler Kenneth Potter

Born Sunday, December 21st, 3:30 am at Mountain Midwifery in a birthing tub

8lb, 5.5oz

21 1/2 inches long

It was an amazing birth. Contractions started at about 4 pm on Saturday, and continued to get stronger, but were manageable. Finally, at about 1:30, they were 5 minutes apart, and then went to 3 minutes apart as soon as I got up. So, off to the midwifery we went. We arrived at 2:30 am. I got in the tub almost immediately, and we all settled in for what we thought would be another 4-6 hours. Our midwife knew better of course, and sure enough, only an hour and a half later, Tyler was born!! Overall, it was a great labor, and Tyler has been a champ eater.

We of course all love him to death, even his big sister. We will continue to post updates and so forth. Here are a few pics though for the meantime.

Just for Tiffany

Okay, so this post is just for Tiffany, who supposedly is saying I never update this thing. Which has been true. So Tiff, this one's for you!! :)

So, what is new? Well, we got a new house, which has been quite an adventure, and we are trying to find a renter for our old house, since the market to sell it is quite crummy. We love our new digs, and are pretty settled in already, which is good since I am hitting the nesting phase. At this point, we are T minus 9 days and counting before baby arrives. (Hopefully!) I am 2 1/2 cm dilated, which pretty much means nothing at this point, but I am thinking that since Averie was a week and a half late, I deserve to not go past my due date on this one.

Speaking of birth, I got to attend my first birth! I served as labor doula for my friend Jessica Clemence, who gave birth to a beautiful little Brodie Kai on December 2nd. It was so neat and wonderful and amazing, all at the same time. So, only 2 more births to go, and some book reading and test taking, until I get my certification! :)

I would post some pics of the house, but I cannot find them currently, so you will have to wait for now. But, here are some of Averie. The first one is of her in our new kitchen, and the second of her at the park.

Grrrr!

There's a lion prowling around the Potter household! (At least for 30 minutes or so.) Here is Averie in her lion costume, the day after. She did wear it for a bit on Halloween, long enough to make it around the cul-de-sac and come home with a handful of candy.

Jack O' Launch 2008

So, keeping up with our annual tradition (since last year) of attending the annual Aurora Jack O Launch, the Potter family, accompanied by our friend Britni, bundled up and ventured forth into the frosty 40 degree weather to brave the throngs for a 2nd time. Last year we had so much fun, we could not stay away!

This year Averie was able to enjoy the sights and sounds a lot more. We started off in the petting zoo, where Averie was fascinated with the baby cow, donkey, goats, and pony. She actually had enough guts to walk up and pet them, rather than writhing in horror as she has done in the past. She loved it when the cow mooed at her! So, this is where we failed as parents and did not get pictures, but there are more to come.

After winding our way through all the various kid activities (all too old for Averie) we ended up at the pumpkin patch, and this is where Averie got excited. Who knew that round orange vegetables could be so cool?! She wandered into the patch and tried to pick up several pumpkins, with no avail. Here are some pictures:

After leaving the pumpkin patch with the perfect small pumpkin, we headed for the Jack O Launch area, where 15 various contraptions eagerly waited to chuck pumpkins as far as possible. There were trebuchets, air compressor tubes, and other variations. Some only chucked the pumpkins a few feet, but one impressive air compressed launcher launched one 1/2 a mile!! Some exploded in the air (officially called "pie") while others waited until they hit the ground to explode into a orange mess. Averie loved doing the countdowns and watched as the pumpkins passed us, soaring through the air.

Despite how bitter cold it was, Averie refused to wear gloves, and seemed to care less at the purple color they kept trying to turn. She remained happy and entertained throughout, and had a blast regardless. We cannot wait to go again next year with new baby in tow!!

Houston, We Have A......Poop!

In the big girl's potty chair that is.

Now, this might not be groundbreaking blog-worthy news to some, but in reality, what really is? And as a stay-at-home mom, my days are numbered with few big milestones, and I have nothing better to do, so, my vote is that this gets blogged.

So, after cleaning up from breakfast, I went into the living room, where Averie immediately stood up and held her nose. (This means either "I went poop," "I tooted," "I am in the midst of pooping," or some similar variation.) Giving her duff a whiff, I realized it was still empty. Grabbing at opportunity, I asked her if she wanted to use her potty. She thinks this is real fun, and has no idea what it is for, so she readily agreed.

I ran out to the garage, grabbed her potty chair, and we sat outside the bathroom. (Her on potty, me on floor.) She "strained" a little, and then got over the novelty of the potty and stood up. I however, not wanting her to give up so quickly, gave her a makeup brush to play with, and as she sat and dabbed at my face, she went poo without a second thought.

After showing her accomplishment, she backed away in disgust, like "Don't get that near me!" and we waved bye bye to the little package as it twirled down the mighty pipe to nowhere. Then, we cleaned her up, did lots of "Big Girl!" and "Good Girl!" shouts and she got a sticker.

Sorry, I forgot to snag a pic. :) Ha ha.

Now if only we can repeat the process sometime. :)

Home Sweet Pain In The Neck

So, for those of you who do not know.....we are selling our house.

It should hopefully go up on the market on September 2nd or shortly thereafter. In the meantime, we have been madly turning our house upside down trying to get it ready for showings. This included our realtor's mom, who is a professional stager, helping us with tips on staging. That is where the chaos ensues.

Furniture is leaving our house faster than we can snap our fingers. Mulch has been laid in all the gardens, trees are trimmed, the kitchen got a face lift, all rooms are de-personalized and bland like your local Holiday Inn, and things are getting packed so that all shelves and closets are only half full, making it seem that we are selling the house because we have too much room.

It is fun creating this fun "sort of" illusion, but geez, it is a lot of work. Hopefully it is all worth it in the end, and we will not be stuck for months with only half our stuff and in this stressfull state of having a perpetually clean house. (Is this even possible with an 18 month old that can create a mess quicker than you can blink?). Thankfully, we have loved this house a lot, and therefore have already done a lot of improvements to it and so all the stuff is really minor.

Oh yeah, and then we have to find another house to move into. That is within budget, fits our high standards, is with the right schools and in the right neihborhood. And I am due with baby #2 in December, which is also right around all of those big holidays.

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out....

The verdict is in

We are having a .................................BABY!

We went in for the 20 week ultrasound today, and everything looks great for baby#2. He/she was measuring right on target, and has all the necessary parts. We even got a fun glimpse of the little one clasping its hands together and then pulling them apart and doing it over and over. Very cute! In this picture, the baby is looking right at the "camera" with an arm showing below and a fist above, and a big baby belly.

First haircut

This post is coming a little late, but here are some pics of Averie's first haircut. We went to Lollilock's, a cute little salon for kids, complete with a fun boutique with a bunch of fun girly stuff. The hairdresser ended up just doing her bangs since the rest of her hair looked good. She did great, and was very engrossed in her toy, as you can see.

Not too much has happened over the last several weeks, other than lazy summer days, which are always fun. I am now 16 weeks along with bambino #2, and feeling much better these days, thank God!

As you can see, I have still managed to stay pretty small and out of maternity, which I was not expecting, since those in the know say you always start blooming like a whale a lot earlier with #2. I guess I am just choosing to do it gracefully. Or maybe it is my aversion to digging out my maternity aka "trying to make a manatee look good in clothes" wear that is keeping me in my regular clothes as long as my belly can stand it.

Doug is doing well at work, and plugging away like normal. We are planning a trip up to Northglenn with our church to watch fireworks and parachuters for the Fourth of July like we did last year. I am most looking forward to the turkey legs and funnel cakes. (Yes, I did put those as plural....)

Averie is growing like a weed, and will be 1 1/2 here in another month and a half. I cannot believe it. Time flies. Here are some pics of her eating (she has acquired a love of using forks and spoons, and does it quite well, I might add ) and one of her in her little green car that her daddy loves to push her around in.

Wow, long time no post!! Things have been busy these last 2 months. At the end of April, Averie and I took a trip to Tucson with her mom and sister, and stopped off in Durango too. Then, the following weekend, the whole family trucked over to Fruita to see Doug's folks and for Doug to take a concealed weapons safety class with his sister and dad. In a few days, Doug will be off to Germany for 10 days for work, and so the madness continues. Maybe June will be a bit slower......

Anyhow, on the BIG NEWS front, we are going to have to change the name of this blog soon. Seems that come December, we will be the 4 Potters. (And yes, for those of you teasing about twins, there is just one, so there!) This whole expecting thing came quite unexpectedly, but hey, we are always game for a few surprises. Besides, it made me have to cancel my wisdom teeth removal until next year, so that was a plus!

Here is a 10 week picture of the new invader. For some reason, Averie is not as excited as we are. She just looks at the picture and points at the blob and frowns. I think she is getting a whiff of a future competitor. Little does she know we will love her just as much as we always have. Actually, it is hard to ponder loving another little person as much as we love Averie, but I think that is how God gives us a glimpse of how he can possibly love all of us broken goods here on earth. It just happens.

Easter!

Since our church meets on Saturday nights, we dressed Averie up a night early. Of course it had to be cold and snowy, so we had to modify her dress a little with a long-sleeved onesie, but it worked.

On Easter morning, we all went out to breakfast, and then came home for a bit. We then ran some errands and went to the park. Averie loves the slide, and can even do the big ones by herself without us having to hold her all the way down. She loves it.

We got her a swing for the back porch and 2 books, all of which she enjoyed.

Easter night we had some friends over for a pot luck, where we made some marinated pork tenderloin (yum!) and enjoyed some fun conversation.

Almost There!

A ton of progress was made on the bathroom this weekend, meaning we are almost done!! Here are some pictures of the progress made today. Now, we only need caulking and to hang the towel racks and put up the trim. :)

Getting Closer.......

Okay, so here are some updated pictures of the bathroom remodel. It has been a week and a half, so not bad. The plumbing is done, new tub is in, tile is up on the wall and laid on the floor, and the walls are texturized. Now, we just need to grout, paint, put the toilet and sink back in, and hang up the new towel fixtures, shelves, etc. Then, we need to clean up the dump that used to be our guest bedroom and bathroom. :)

Man, I cannot wait to have an upstairs toilet again. Those middle of the night trips to the potty get to be long!

And just because she is so cute, here are some new ones of Averie:

Rub a dub dub, 2 men in a tub

Our bathroom at the start of day one. (Friday)

Our bathroom in the hands of two destructive men and a baby.

And the end of day 1 was through. And it was good.

Then day 2 and 3 came. (Sigh.) Nothing worked right. Some sub-floor had to be replaced because of water damage. The pipe work went in fine with some assistance from a neighbor, but then had to be re-done when the measurments did not work. Then, the tub was assembled and brought into the garage to dry from the snow, only to find that it has a defect and has to be returned. The end of day 2 left it looking almost the same as day 1, and day 3 might be the same.

Hopefully day 3 (today, which is Sunday) will end with a new tub being right in that corner. The plumbing is complete and beautiful, and assuming Lowes has a new tub instock and we can get help with carrying it upstairs, it should not be a problem :) Doug is doing an awesome job though, and making sure it is all done right, so we have no worries that we will absolutely love our bathroom when it is through.

More to come!

Averie's 1st Birthday

Here are some highlights of the party we had for Averie on Sunday. She enjoyed a lot of cake (though we had to help her chop off pieces.....she is too neat to dig in herself.)

Averie's first surgery

On Tuesday, January 8th, Averie went into surgery to have a cyst removed on her right brow that she has had since birth. Normally, it would be a in and out surgery with only local anasthesia, but because she is little and cannot hold still, she had to be completely knocked out.

She was happy as a lark the morning of, and because we had scheduled the surgery for 7:30, and she normally wakes at 8:00, she was not too hungry. (A middle of the night feeding also helped.) She made all the nurses smile playing peek a boo with her gown and waving at everyone.

The surgery lasted an hour, and she came out great. Her eye is swollen, and her stitches are covered by steri-strips, but other than that, she looks normal! She was of course a little more groggy than normal coming out, but now, a day later, she is just as normal as can be.

Below are some pictures of her after the surgery at our house. We hope to post some additional pictures from the hospital that are on our phones later.

Christmas 2007

Well, Christmas was a blast here in the Potter family, with a long week's vacation to both Durango and Fruita! Doug unfortunately had a cold the entire time, but he managed to hang in there.Averie loved the festivities, the toys, and the pumpkin pie. All the gals did some last minute shopping, as well as some after Christmas sale shopping in Fruita.

Overall, we all felt so blessed to be able to spend so much time with family and for all the neato gifts.

For the New Year, we hung out with Jon and Jessica Clemence and Aaron and Holly Willis, playing board games and chatting it up. Hey, and we even made it past midnight!

And just for some good ol' pickin' on the little sis, here is another cute pic......