Christmas 2012

VIDEO: CHRISTMAS MORNING 2012

Camden Laughing & One More Sneak Peek

Camden gave us some great belly laughs the other night, but when I grabbed the camera and tried to film the little bit that I could catch, Avery jabbered at me the whole time, making it sound chaotic and hard to hear.  So when he started to do the belly laughs again last night, I was able to get a video that can be heard a little better, but of course the best laughs were at the beginning, before I jammed the memory card into the camera and got it turned on.  But it's still decent.

VIDEO: CAMDEN LAUGHING

And since I have a rare moment to sit down at the computer, here's one more sneak peek of the house. This picture was taken a couple weeks ago but I just never had a chance to put it up.

Guest Room, BEFORE:

Guest Room, AFTER:

Reflections of 2012

Wow, 2012.  

As I look back on the roller coaster of this past year, I realize what a banner year it was for us. Although we had some ups and downs, it was mostly "ups" and I tend to think we will probably never in our lives have a year that was as eventful as this one was.

When I was talking about having a second child at the beginning of the year, one of my coworkers told me that this would be a great year to have a baby. According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon. The Year of the Dragon happens every 12 years, and the Dragon is supposed to be the luckiest of all the signs.  Not only that, this year specifically was the Year of the Golden Dragon, which only happens once every 60 years.  She told me that the baby would bring us good fortune, and every time something positive happened for us this year, she would say, "See? It's that Dragon baby!"

Whether or not there is any truth to the baby bringing us good luck, I can't say for sure. But I can say that aside from Avery's hospital visit and broken arm, we have been incredibly fortunate this year, and there were many big changes for our family.

Here is a look back at our highlights of 2012:

- Found out Kristen was pregnant with a baby boy

- Avery's Uncle Aaron got married to Auntie Becky

- Kristen won the American Idol jackpot in the office pool

- Kristen won the grand prize at a Soroptimist dinner

- Josh came home the big winner from a poker night

- Avery graduated to a big girl bed

- Avery got potty trained in less than a week
- Kristen and Josh vacationed in Mexico for Auntie Jennifer's wedding

- Avery got a new little cousin, James

- Josh got a new job

- Josh graduated from UC Irvine with his MBA

- Avery started preschool

- Our offer was selected over 6 other offers on a house, and we were able to move into our new home at the end of September

- We welcomed our healthy boy Camden on October 12, on his Grandpa's birthday

When Phillip Phillips won American Idol, he performed his new song, "Home," as the confetti fell from the rafters.  At the time I was just so excited about winning the office pool, and I downloaded the music video into Avery's little video library on my phone. But later the song came to have great meaning for us, as we moved into our own permanent home and started working hard to make it a comfortable place to raise our children.  Shortly after we moved in, Avery was standing in the living room singing. 

Just know you're not alone, 

Cause I'm gonna make this place your home...

Josh said, "You have no idea what you're saying right now, but it's awesome."

In addition to being happy and healthy, we have also been LUCKY and we are so grateful for all the goodness in our lives, including being surrounded by loving and supportive people.

VIDEO: REFLECTIONS OF 2012

Cheers to 2013!

Santa Visit & Christmas Program

On Avery's birthday we got to have a visit with Santa. Avery was very excited, and we talked about it for days and days before the event.  I asked her a few weeks back what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas, and she said, "Rapunzel backpack, Cinderella toys with a prince, and a Strawberry Shortcake jacket." So we had regularly been rehearsing this response so that she would be ready to tell Santa when she got on his lap. 

I'm sure you can guess what happened. She froze in complete fear, gripped onto her ear (for security?) and didn't say a word, leaving me to quickly give Santa the run-down of her wish list before her turn was up. 

Better luck next year I guess. (Although I'm certain I said that last year as well....)

Tonight was Avery's Christmas Program at school. After the dance recital earlier this year and the Santa visit last weekend, I decided not to get my hopes up that she would "perform." But I was secretly wishing she would prove me wrong.

VIDEO: AVERY'S PRESCHOOL CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

....Better luck next year?

Double Doctor Visit

These are two of my favorite all time pictures of Avery:

She was one almost one month old, and was wide awake at 11:00 pm, staring at us after we had just gotten her all snuggled into bed sound asleep.

We had a repeat of this experience with Camden this week, so I tried to get a similar picture:

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This morning I decided to take both kids in for their check-ups (Camden's 2-month and Avery's 3-year well visit) at the same time. I thought it would be easier. EASIER. 

Where I came up with that hilarious idea I will never know.

Long story short, they both got vaccines and I had two screaming kids. 

Avery is in the 95th percentile for height, and 50th percentile for weight, which means she's tall and skinny. So that's good.

Camden is growing like a weed according to the doctor, and is already 12 lbs, 5 oz and 23 1/4 inches long. 

On the way home from the doctor's office, I decided to "swing by" the post office, where we stood in line for a treacherous half an hour. Avery was emotional and whiny from her shot, and passed the time by rolling on the floor, singing loudly, and untying the drawstring on my pants while I had my arms full of packages.

When will I learn.

Camden's Nursery Sneak Peek

So again, not totally finished... But had to share the progress!

BEFORE:

(Sorry I don't have a before picture from the same angle, but yes it's the same room!)

AFTER:

I had ordered the Beatles decal online several months back. There were many decals to choose from, but I chose the Abbey Road decal just because I liked the simplicity and familiarity of the silhouettes and I thought it would look good on the turquoise. Later that day, just for fun I googled "Beatles Camden" just to see if there was any connection. And up popped this:

Abbey Road is a thoroughfare located in the borough of Camden and the City of Westminster in London, running roughly northwest to southeast through St. John's Wood, near Lord's Cricket Ground. It is part of the B507. This road is best known for the Abbey Road Studios and the 1969 album, Abbey Road, by The Beatles.

I completely freaked out because I had no idea... But I love the coincidence!

Avery Turns Three

Although Avery won't officially be three until this Saturday, we celebrated with all her friends on Sunday at Bounce U!

I can't believe my baby is three already.

VIDEO: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AVERY

Before and After Sneak Peek

We are nowhere near the end of our construction, but I just had to share a sneak peek of Avery's room. I still have about 50% of her stuff to unpack, but we have made good progress and last night was our first night sleeping in our bedrooms instead of downstairs in the family room and dining room.  

BEFORE: 

AFTER: (Removed carpet, baseboards, blinds, then scraped ceilings, textured ceilings and walls, primed and painted walls, new tile floors, new furniture)

We still have to do window coverings, baseboards, trim, light switches, outlets, closet doors, and wall art, but it's not hard to see her excitement!

Our new neighbors are very sweet and they love Avery.  They said they weren't sure if they were going to put up their Christmas lights this year. Josh told them that we wouldn't be hanging up Christmas lights on our house this year either, so they changed their minds and decided to put up all their lights and decorations, just for Avery. Luckily she has a view of their house right out her window. They lit it up for the first time last night so it was a perfect way to celebrate sleeping in her bedroom for the first time.

And Camden decided to celebrate by sleeping for 7 1/2 straight hours last night. 

Things are looking up!

Time Warp

Life with two kids is completely nuts. The weeks are zooming by and I can't seem to keep up with blogging, nor can I keep up with showering, dishes, laundry, or anything else. In the meantime, we have already sailed past Camden's first month, his first doctor's appointment and his first smile. 

So in the interest of time since I don't seem to have any these days, I will just post some pictures from the past several weeks as fast as I can with minimal captions while I bounce him in his baby seat with my foot. 

I feel I was very brave to take us all to a family photo shoot when he was only 8 days old...  but we did it!

(Believe it or not this one was taken with the photographer's iPhone. Not bad!):

Then just two days later we did ANOTHER photo shoot when he was only 10 days old! This time, at our house. Here he is in his (still unfinished and furniture-less) bedroom:

Avery sharing her toys with him:

Halloween:

Josh being "pregnant" with Avery (she loves this game, it makes her hysterical):

Happy smiles!

We are STILL camping downstairs and have not gotten moved up to our bedrooms yet. Amongst many construction setbacks, we are just exhausted and don't seem to have enough hours in the day! But I am hoping in the next few weeks I will be able to post some before and after pictures of the house. We're just not there yet. But it's coming... Stay tuned and Happy Thanksgiving from the Ness family!