Back to the 21st Century!

We finally got internet in our house! Well, its been a loooooooong time since I have last posted on our blog. I really thought that we would have been in a house in Jacksonville by July 1st, at the very latest. But it was not to be. At anyrate, we are finally moved into a house in Jacksonville, after being homeless for months and bouncing from house to house of our friends'. We seriously would have been in trouble had it not been for the generosity of our friends here in Jacksonville.

So, to bring everyone up to speed. We initially bought a house in the Avondale area of Jacksonville. Unfortunately, the deal fell through (through no fault of ours). After a bout of fleas at the supposedly reputable hotel we were staying at (Scout contracted them from the carpet and we were on the receiving end of the ankle bites), we found a house in Fleming Island, FL. It is a cute house with plenty of space for Scout to chase the geckos (they drive him CRAZY) and for Audriana to run around and find mischief. It has a lot more space than our old house in La Conner, but I am sure that we will not have trouble find things to fill it with...like brightly colored baby toys and paraphernalia!

Speaking of our darling baby girl...Audriana has gotten HUGE. I love the chubby cheeks, arms and legs. I really have to restrain myself to just pinching them just a little bit. Audriana is mostly on formula and is incrediably interested in whatever we are eating. She seems to have a distaste for traditional baby food. She enjoys a daily afternoon treat of Georgia peaches...and really all fruit. I think its because she has a VERY sophisticated palate :) She loves to give her momma kisses (okay, they are more like bites on the lips and face) when she's tired. She giggles and smiles like its her job...super sociable and just delights in strangers tell her she is cute. She has two little teeth coming in and she is finding it pretty handy when enjoying her afternoon fruit. As for her hair, as a Sears sales guy put it, Audriana made out like a bandit in that department. She has enough for me to throw up in pigtails. And she doesn't seem to mind when I do her hair (a girl after her momma's heart).

Anyways, I will write more later, but in the meantime, here are some new pictures that I snapped of her at our new house. Enjoy!

Update from our hiatus...

Its been a while since I have last posted a blog.  Its been a crazy busy June.  Audriana had her first ear infection while Bjorn was still in Washington doing the closing for our house.  I figured she had an ear infection when she refused to nurse.  Now, coming from a family of healthy eaters, she had never refused food before...so something had to be wrong.  And alas there was--an ear infection in her left ear.  After a little pink bottle of  amoxicillin, she was better in a matter of days and nursing voraciously again!  While Audriana was sick, so was I...and her Auntie Chenda, Uncle Justin and Grandma Te.  Grandpa Te was super sick with pneumonia and Grandpa Anderson got himself sick with Swine Flu!  And eventually, once Bjorn got into MN, got sick too. So, to say the least, it was a tough first two and a half weeks in Minnesota when we were suppose to be vacationing.  But we still got to go out on the speed boat with Grandpa Anderson (after he recovered) on the lake at the family cabin.  

While in Minnesota, we also got to go to a few family weddings:

My cousin, Julie, married her prince charming...Nick on June 6th.  It was beautiful wedding...the Cambodian ceremony was so much fun to experience once I was not the bride and the stunning Catholic Cathedral wedding was just as amazing.  Julie and Nick: We are sooo happy that we could be with you both on your special day.  We cannot wait to see how your love continues to blossom and grow.  Welcome to our family, Nick!  

We also go to share in Bjorn's cousin, Jan's special day as well.  She married her prince charming, Keith on the evening of June 19th.  It was a beautiful wedding.  We are so glad that we could be there to reunite with relatives that we have missed in our past visits through Minnesota and introduce our baby girl to the Anderson clan.  Jan and Keith:  What a beautiful wedding and relationship you two have.  May your lives together continue to be blessed with the tremendous love and joy we saw on your wedding day.  Welcome to the family, Keith!  

Here's a picture of Audriana and the four generation of Kem women as we were getting ready for Julie's Cambodian wedding!  

Flurry of activity...

Well, its been a while since I have last posted new stuff...its been a whirlwind of activity at the Te/Anderson household! To start off, we sold our house in WA. We were so blessed to have gotten a full-price offer on our home after about 24 hours of it being on the market. The movers came at the beginning of May to pack up our stuff and head towards Florida. It was sad to see our lives packed up in boxes and even more sad to leave behind the fond memories and beautiful friendships we have made in Washington. But that is the life of a military family--packing up where the military tells us to go and knowing that we have friends and family all over the world!

Right after the movers came, we began our house hunting trip for Jacksonville, FL. After a night of negotiations, flip-flopping stomachs, sweat...and then finally excitement, we found our home!! Hooray! Its as close to our dream house as we could possibly get while living in Florida. Its super close to my dream kitchen and its a 5-minute drive for Bjorn to base. The location is fantastic and it is even fenced-in for Mr. Scout! I will post up pictures soon. But in the mean time, here are some pictures of Audriana and I at our very first and last Tulip Festival together in the Skagit Valley. The tulips were stunning!

Supermodel Audriana

After four months, I finally have the time to take some professional looking pictures of Audriana since I can't seem to find the time to hire a real one :)   I swear she's just like her brother, Scout...super photogenic!

Four-Month Shots

(Top: Evidence of Audriana's two shots from today; Bottom: Audriana looking around for spaceships)

At four months, Audriana got her second set of shots...one shot for each leg.  She was such a trooper...only cried for a little bit and I was able to distract her so that turned into a heap of giggles in a matter of seconds...happy baby.  For those you dying to find out, here are her stats:

-25th Percentile in weight at 15lbs.

-75th Percentile in height at 25.5 inches

-75% Percentile in head circumference

She's gonna be walking and talking before we know it!  

Pictures of our house for sale!

Here are some pictures of our house.  Say a prayer and please keep your fingers crossed for us!

Our home for sale!

This week, we put our house up on the market.  However, it was not without a lot of sweat, tears and blood.  The pictures above are a before and after of our front yard.  Our front yard really didn't look that bad...it only looks the way it did because Bjorn and our neighbor Joe had been "pruning" (Thank you, Joe, for helping us so much with lending us your tools!).  

The yard came along very nicely...but it could not have been done without the encourage and help of Grandpa and Grandma Anderson and our other neighbors Bob and Kathy!  And an EXTRA, EXTRA special shout out to Grandpa Anderson for working in the cold, wet, rain for um, close to 8 hours straight, on the deck.  After I stained earlier this week, it is looking stunning!!  THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

Another Playdate!

(From top to bottom: Audriana, Georgia, Mailee)

On Tuesday, Audriana's friend, Georgia and her mom, Jen, graciously hosted another playdate at their house.   Audriana jumped at the chance to hang out with her friends Georgia and Mailee, and Mommy also jumped at the chance to hang out with her friends Jen and Caroline.  It was a lot of fun to see how much bigger our little princesses are getting and much more alert they all are.  As you can see, Audriana is all about the hand-holding and posing for the camera...just like her brother, Scout :)

ps--Yes, we are still working on her close-up....perfecting the "blue steel"  look!

Audriana the worker!

To prepare our house to be put on the market, we, along with Grandma Kris and Grandpa Byron, have put forth a lot of work to make everything look super shiny.  Our littlest worker joined in too :)

New pictures

Here are some pictures that I took tonight of Audriana in her Grandma Kris' and Grandpa Byron's arms, respectively (I only cropped them out because they both had their faces away from the camera :)

1-2-3 Take Off!

Audriana and her Grandpa Byron had a great time playing after dinner.  Her giggles were so precious and gave Mommy an extra couple of minutes to clean up...enjoy!

Audriana's Big Speech

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson are in town for spring break.  Audriana delivered a big speech to share with her adoring grandparents :)

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

On March 14th, Grandpa Te celebrated his birthday in Minnesota.  We were sorry that we couldn't be there to help cheer on the party, but we were definitely thinking about him on our drive down to Seattle on Saturday!  Happy Birthday...we love you!

Audriana laughing at her daddy...

To satisfy all of Audriana's fans, here is a bonus footage of her giggling at her daddy's skiing story. Warning: Her giggles are contagious...

Giggly, Happy Baby....

Bjorn came home from a day of skiing at Steven's Pass today and shared some skiing stories with his baby girl.  As you can tell from the video, Audriana was very tickled by her daddy's story-telling.  Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day Weekend in Seattle!

(From top to bottom:  Audriana enjoying her hotel room on the Seattle Waterfront; Audriana and Daddy at the Seattle Aquarium; Audriana and Daddy at Pike's Market on our way to the Crumpet Shop; Audriana on the way home...tuckered out!)

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day Weekend, Bjorn's Squadron had a overnight social function in Seattle.  We decided it would be a great opportunity to introduce Audriana to city life in the great Pacific NW.  We took her to the Seattle Aquarium.  I am still not sure who was more fascinated with the exhibits...baby or daddy.  In the evening,  in true Anderson form, we introduced her to yet another beer drinking establishment.  On Sunday morning, we took her to see Pike's Market to try some tasty treats at the Crumpet Shop and at Piroshky's.  As you can see in the last picture,  she was a tired little puppy by the end of the weekend!

Audriana the Ardvark!

Ever since Audriana was days old, she and her daddy would play anteater.  Bjorn would have her straddle his arm and they would go "hunting" for ants in our house (we really don't have ants in our house)...with Scout running scared silly from them.  The last time she did this with her daddy, she fell asleep in his arms.  So much for the hunt...

Wanna buy a house, anyone??

We are selling our house!  It looks like a storm ripped through our neighborhood, but really it was the all due to the handy work of Bjorn, with the assistance of Audriana and myself, of course.  We are getting ready to put our house on the market.  So we thought that it might be good idea to start pruning our yard a bit.  As you can see, it got a little out of hand.  But at least the yard looks decent!  

Audriana meets her friends...

Since Audriana was 7 weeks old, we have been getting together for a playgroup with two other new moms.  However, we always keep our babies either in their car seats, carrier or joggers when we are out and none of the girls have actually "met" each other.  So we thought that it would be a good idea for the babies to actually meet.  We put them on their stomachs and poof! all three babies were like over-turned turtles :)  From the top view, I will let you surmise which is Audriana....

Our trip to Whistler, BC

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, we decided to take our first family trip abroad (sans Scout)...to Canada!  

As some of you may know, Bjorn is an avid Cross-Country skier and well, I can pretty much go along with that because its pretty slow (as in, there is no skiing down a massive hill and breaking any bones).  But because this was our first time at Whistler, we decided to try our hand at snow-shoeing.  So we rented snow-shoes here in town and brought the necessary apparel to bundle Audriana up underneath Bjorn's jacket.  It was suppose to be a fun-take-it-easy-enjoy-the-scenary trip around A trail.  Unfortunately, it did not turn out that way. 

Snow-shoeing was a blast...for the first 2 hours.  It was after hour 3 that I decided Bjorn tricked me into going snow-shoeing.  Because we (he) were in such a hurry to get on the snow-shoe trail, we (me) did not get the opportunity to look at a map to check out what the different trails were.  As it turns out, my husband took us on a 3.5 -hour, 7k death march.  We got lost because Bjorn thought that the orange trail would be the "easy" trail.  It was not.  In fact, it was the LONGEST trail.  

At anyrate, it makes for a great story and we hope to take another trip soon!  

Bath time!

Here are some recent pictures that I took.  The bath time, I had Bjorn snap because Audriana was looking so cute!

From Week One to Week Eight!

New Grandparents.