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......

The last month, in review, via mainly photos:

First, some pictures from Thanksgiving at Doug's parents house in Fruita









And here are some more recent ones of Averie (almost 10 months old)





Hope everyone is having a great Christmas so far!

Welcome

Welcome to the Potter's new blog! Life with a little one exponentially increases the number of updates that seem important enough to share (though most are probably only captivating to us) and so we decided to create this nifty space where we can just put it all out there.

So, I cannot promise how often this thing will get updated, but stay tuned.....