Punky turns ONE!!!

Audriana'a Birthday outfit (thanks to her friend Mailee for letting us borrow the idea)
Cake time!
Jail break after bedtime!

On December 11, 2008, our lives changed so dramatically and magically when this little girl came into our lives. Audriana, you have given your Mommy and Daddy so much joy, laughter and love. Since the day you were born, you have utterly spoiled us with your gummy smiles, infectious giggles, and happy personality. We will never forget those big curious eyes staring back at us when the nurses laid you in Mommy's arms. We fell head over heels in love with you at that moment. Never in our wildest dreams could we have asked for a more wonderful and perfect child! Your constant curiosity in the world around you ceases to amaze us. The smiles and giggles you share with those around you shows us of your happy nature. And the mischief that you and Scout seem to get into together makes us smile and giggle at our little trouble-makers. Happy Birthday, baby girl...We love more than you could ever know.

Baby-proofing

As mentioned in our last blog, we are furiously baby-proofing the house--especially the kitchen. Perhaps this should have been done months ago, but since we were not encouraging walking, we figured that we had at least another month or so...WRONG! Alas, our current predicament. We spent last night and today putting baby locks on the kitchen cabinets and outlet covers all over the rest of the house (and not just the kids' wing). I caught about a minute or so of Audriana rummaging through my tupperware cabinets last night. And then this morning, I taped a quick video of her discovering that the cabinets don't open so easily for her anymore. Ha! Baby A: 0, Mommy & Daddy: 1

Walking!

We are happy (and terrifying scared) to announce that our little punky is now a biped! Audriana started standing on her own about a week or two ago. And just this last week, she has started to take steps. The other day, she threw a little ball across the room and got up to walk to get it. I was flabbergasted! We are now in full baby-proofing mode! More videos to come...

Pics from the wedding and our road trip up to D.C.

Audriana fast asleep with her Grandma Te and Great-Grandma K.
Me and my brother, Justin
My brother, Justin and sister, Sochenda
Audriana crawling around at her Great-Uncle's house before the wedding.
Pit stop at South of the Border in South Carolina... I made Bjorn and Audriana stop and take a picture because I have pictures of this place when I was a kid...corny, I know!

Congrats to Rith and Minh-Thu!

For the Thanksgiving holiday, we dropped Scout off at his baby-sitter's, packed up the Maxima and headed north to the Washington, D.C. area to my cousin, Rith's wedding on Saturday, November 28th. We are so happy to welcome Minh-Thu to our family. She is such a beautiful person and we loved meeting her this past weekend.

The wedding weekend was amazing. It was a two day affair that kicked off with a traditional Cambodian ceremony on Friday, a Saturday morning Vietnamese traditional tea ceremony and wrapped up with a stunningly beautiful American-style wedding and reception at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Virginia. The food the entire weekend was sinfully divine...and a dream come true for an eight-month preggo pop!

Congrats to both the groom and bride...may your lives together be filled with love, laughter and great passion!

Cruising

Although, she isn't walking quite yet, Audriana is definitely a cruiser. Enjoy this video!

A couple more videos by popular demand :)

Bombs Away!!!

So, Audriana decided early this morning that it was an excellent morning to get up at 5:15 AM to start her day. Needless to say, Bjorn and I were thinking that 8 AM was a much better time to start to the day. I will let you guess who won that battle :) I have been meaning to get this video for a while. And I finally did this morning. When Audriana gets bored or upset with Bjorn or me, she will start playing "bombs away" with the stuffed animals in her crib. Her decisions as to who goes or stays is really quite calculated (Bjorn spied on her a couple of times). Mr. Snuggles and her bunnies are usually the first to go. Her pink elephant and Boomer the Dog are generally the last ones. One by one they go and as they land, she makes sure to wave at them, giggling. Enjoy!

11 months!

Sticking her little tongue out at Grandma Te.
Passed out at the hospital the day after her birthday!

I cannot believe how fast the past eleven months has just flown by and how our baby girl is turning into a little girl! It is so much fun to see how much and how quickly Audriana is developing into her personality. Her little giggles and toothy grin simply make my heart melt.

At eleven months, Audriana is beginning to stand on her own and clap for herself (while standing) to crown her achievement. She has four sharp little teeth that loves to clamp down on Mommy. Her specialty is biting my belly like she's taking a big bite of an apple. Audriana can also say Mama, wave hello and goodbye (though, only at inanimate objects and Mommy); open the door to let Scout back into the house (we just discovered this one today); imitate reading--even though the book is usually upside down, she is nevertheless very expressive when reading; hates getting her diaper changed and will generally crawl away bottomless if there is not someone or something to distract her; and finally at eleven months, Audriana continues to hone her flirting skills as soon as someone compliments her...talk about smooth operator!

We are so incredibly blessed to have such a beautiful spirited baby in our lives. Bjorn and I are both looking forward to seeing Audriana fulfill and grow into her new role as big sister come January!

Flirty

Over the weekend, Audriana came down with a fever. The fever hovered at around 102-103 degrees. Needless to say, we were pretty worried. She had a little bit of a cough, but otherwise still eating and drinking normally. So on Monday, we decided that it was time to take her to the doctor to make sure it wasn't the flu or anything serious. We called her primary care physician at the base for an appointment. They told us that based on her symptoms, we were not to come near the clinic because it sounds like the flu, but instead go to the flu trailer clinic that they had near the hospital. So we got her dressed and Bjorn brought her to the clinic (we decided that it was a bad idea for me to take her in case there were H1N1 germs floating around the trailer). Subsequently, they told us that they could not see or treat Audriana because she was too young and sent us to the hospital ER. We went to the ER and began the waiting game. At this point, I am in the hospital with them because I couldn't stand not knowing what was going on and Bjorn had to leave for work soon. After a few fake-outs (where they call us in, but only to take and retake Audriana's temp), we were called into a real exam room. When the doctor rolls in, who starts smiling, giggling, and basically flirting with the doctor like she has not a care in the world, much less a fever? Hmmm...could be our baby girl? Yes, yes, it was. Thus, after a two-hour wait, we were sent home with a bottle of baby Motrin and a surmise that it is not the flu. Audriana's fever finally broke and she appears to be on the way to recovery.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Audriana trying out her new costume in the toy room!
Side view of our salmon sashimi
Can you tell she's loving her costume?

This year for Halloween, we decided to dress up as a family in a food theme--Sushi! Audriana was our Salmon Sashimi. I was a bottle of Kikkoman Soy Sauce and Bjorn was a bottle of Kikkoman Low Sodium Soy Sauce. We were a big hit at several Halloween parties and people loved our creativity. Though, I wish I could claim full credit in the creativity department, I cannot. The idea of Audriana as a Salmon Sashimi came from a magazine. The idea of Bjorn and I dressing up as Kikkoman soy sauce bottles was entirely Bjorn's. We were originally go to dress up as chopsticks, but the thought of me in a tan spandex suit had some drawbacks...so the soy sauce bottle it was! Bjorn and I had a great time making our costumes--who knew he was so meticulous about cutting out his felt letters! Happy Halloween, everyone!

Happy 90th Birthday Great Grandma Evelyn!

Hooray! Audriana's great-grandma Evelyn (GG Evelyn for short!) turns 90 today! To mark this wonderful milestone, Grandma and Grandpa Anderson pulled together a weekend of family festivities to celebrate. It started with all the Anderson "boys" flying home: Bjorn from the East and Erik from the West. From the reports, they had a lovely dinner on Saturday and a great open-house on Sunday for GG Evelyn. Even though Audriana and I couldn't make it to MN, we are definitely thinking about you on your special day, Grandma...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Our love and kisses are floating from Jacksonville to MN for you!

Photos of Grandma and Grandpa's visit

At Mickler Beach
Look out for the flying baby!
Grandma and Baby at home.
Tired after a day of shopping with Grandma!
Grandma and Grandpa at home with baby!

Contentment

Last week, we had Grandma and Grandpa Te come visit us and our new home. We LOVED having them visit. And just to make sure their visit was as exciting as Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's visit, the Maxima broke down the day they arrived. We were rescued by Bjorn and a handy tow truck. I was very grateful that Grandma and Grandpa were with us and that Bjorn was just a phone call away to play the role of knight in shining armor (though, the shining armor was by way of a Toyota Previa...aka "covered truck" as Bjorn fondly calls it).

Audriana really enjoyed her visit with her grandparents and they absolutely fell in love with her all over again. Like Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's visit, a visit by her adoring grandparents always yields some pretty presents. Grandma and Grandpa Te took Audriana on a shopping spree for some fall/winter clothes. And at the shopping mall, believe or not, we saw baby gators in the pond between the shops and freeway! They were tiny, about 5 inches long from nose tip to tail. I had to hussle Grandpa into the car as soon as I saw them because if there are baby gators, there's bound to be a mama gator around...and I had no interest in meeting her! We took Grandma and Grandpa to the beach, showed them around Jacksonville, Avondale, San Marco, St. Augustine, and of course our neighborhood. They loved it all! Grandma and Grandpa even baby sat for us so that Bjorn could take me out to celebrate my birthday. It was so lovely. We had to remind Grandma and Grandpa that even though they came to Florida to visit their granddaughter, not to forget to tell people that they saw us, their children, too! I will be posting pictures of their trip soon. Stay tuned....Grandma and Grandpa took over 125 pictures in a span of 4 days and that DOES NOT include video footage. Talk about love and adoration!

On another note, at church this Sunday, the Pastor's sermon was about contentment. I really enjoyed it and really made me think about the things in life that made me CONTENT and not just happy. I do believe that happiness or unhappiness is a state of temporary being whereas contentment is about the state of overall being. As we arrived into church on Sunday, we were given a little key tag. I wanted to post the message on the key tag on this blog to share with you the meaning of contentment in our lives. I hope, as you read it, there rings a truth of recognition in your heart and mind.

CONTENTMENT: "Lord, help me to be grateful for what I have, to remember that I don't need most of what I want, and that joy is found in simplicity and generosity."

-Enough by Adam Hamilton.

Morning Smoochy Baby!

So lately, Audriana has been sporting some really funny expressions. The pursed lips is a common favorite around our household. I finally caught it on camera when she found out that we ran out of her favorite yogurt....she only got half a container after breakfast this morning. The expression was after I showed her the empty container. Seeing her expression like that just makes me want to give her a big smoochy!

Red Velvet Cake

Like my last pregnancy, I could not stop baking/cooking/grilling to save my life. I don't really "nest" like normal pregnant women do, but boy, do I cook up a storm. I remember when Bjorn returned from his deployment last year right before Audriana was born and fully expecting me to nest. He would casually drop an article of clothing (that was hanging in the closet) on the floor and ask me if I felt like nesting yet. My answer was always a resounding no. And he'd have to pick up the clothes. Hahaha.

At anyrate, Bjorn, to his delight, has really been benefiting from this frenzy in the kitchen. My latest creation has been a 4-layer red velvet cake. I don't know why I like it so much other than the fact that I saw it on Steel Magnolias and instantly loved it (both the movie and the cake). I have to admit that for a person who somehow comes dyslexic when reading baking recipes, the red velvet did not fair out too bad. The frosting was amazing...cream cheese and mascarpone. You must try it...it is SINFULLY DIVINE!!! Enjoy the pictures of my handiwork. And if y'all can keep a secret: Audriana loves the frosting as much as her momma....when Daddy isn't looking she takes a swipe of the frosting, too!

New Audriana Pictures

Here are some new pictures of Audriana. She is growing up sooo quickly. Her playroom is an empty room (to be her little brother's room) with all of her toys and a baby gate to curtail her great escapes when Mommy and Daddy are not looking. Audriana is crawling super fast to get to what she wants...a little too fast for Mommy! She also wakes up every morning either with all of her stuffed animals all over her crib or all of her soft books in a circle around her. My most favorite is when she stands in her crib, jumping up and down, and giggling to herself. She is such a character. The other day, I was playing hide-and-seek with Scout and she was laughing so hard that she fell over...which, of course, made me laugh so hard that I had to sit down.

Look Who Just Turned 29!!

Happy birthday to our very favorite pilot! Since Bjorn's birthday landed in the middle of the week this year and because we were not able to properly celebrate due to his instructor training certification at work, we did the next best thing: a SURPRISE PARTY! Bjorn's birthday happens to fall on the same week at my friend, Emily's husband Nate (and Bjorn's friend as well). Emily and I joined forces and gave them a surprise fiesta party. By the expressions on their faces, they had no clue that this was coming.

Emily and I had been planning this party for about 2 weeks. We invited all our friends, got the caterers lined up and the decorations were ready to go. We, the Andersons, headed out to visit Emily and Nate at their house on Saturday morning. The ruse was that Emily, Audriana and I were going to go "shopping" while the guys were suppose to sit at the house and watch football. While we were "shopping" we were busy getting the house set up and welcoming guests. Everything was going smoothly until we called the Bjorn and Nate about 45 minutes before the real party was about to begin. They were at the cigar bar, half way through their cigars and they had just ordered food. This put a slight wrinkle in our plans to say the least. At this point, Emily and I were telling fib after fib to get them to come to their party ASAP. The unfortunate part was that we didn't really line up our fibs with each other since our husbands were sitting right next to each other. Luckily, they didn't catch us and we ended up wrangling them to the house under the guise of a hormonal preggo pop (that would be me). They finally showed up and a great time was had by all!

PS--For the record, I would just like to say that I am a rather pleasant pregnant lady...just ask Bjorn.

New Pictures..ta-da!

Here are a couple of new pictures that I took of our growing baby girl. Audriana is so much fun to take pictures of...my favorite subject to photograph! I had her try on her new little tutu that I managed to whip up for her a few days ago. She loves to pull at the tulle and ribbon to see if it will come undone. A clever little monkey, but good thing her mommy is one step ahead of her ;)

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day to all our friends and family in Minnesota, D.C., Washington, and Florida (and everywhere else in between)! We kicked off our Labor Day celebration by hosting a little pool party get together at the community pool in our neighborhood. As you can tell by the photos, Audriana loves the water (ok, she's not really smiling in the pictures, but I promise, she really does!). We tried to get her to try out her brand spanking new life jacket, but she was having none of that. She was all about having Mommy and Daddy swimming and splashing around in the water with her without a flotation device. It is so much fun for us to see her personality come out every day and every time she interacts with new friends. Enjoy these new photos...she is just growing up way too fast!

Grandma & Grandpa Anderson's First Visit to Florida!

After giving ourselves about 3 weeks to settle into our new house, we had our first house guests--Grandma Kris and Grandpa Byron! It was so nice to see them and show them our new house and the area that we live. I am happy to report that they love our new house and really enjoyed the sweltering walks with Scout and Baby Audriana...haha...okay, perhaps "enjoy" is too strong a word to describe their feelings on the warm weather. It took them quite a while to get used to the heat--especially Grandpa Anderson. I think he finally got used to the heat as he was about to board his plane back to Minneapolis :) We loved having them and I really appreciated the fact that they got my keister into gear to hang pictures on the wall. When Grandpa Byron can't stand having pictures propped on the floor, you know you are in trouble!

Of course, a visit from the doting grandparents yielded pretty presents for Audriana. Not only did Grandma Kris come bearing gifts of a pretty pint-size sippy cup from Sweden and new jammies for the fall, but she and Grandpa Byron also got Audriana an awesome high-chair as her housewarming present! As you can see in the picture, she enjoys eating, drinking, lounging, and (although you can't smell it) dropping the occasional dookie in the chair. A girl after her daddy's heart :)

I think the highlight of the trip for Grandma and Grandpa A was the sighting of the "alligator" in our back pond. Grandpa Byron had the binoculars out waiting for the "alligator" to make his appearance. After a few days of dedicated spying, it turns out that our infamous "alligator" was a mere turtle! It was very fun to give Grandpa Byron a hard time about that as he was convinced that it was an alligator. I know that I probably shouldn't give too hard of a time as I had mistaken a rock for a dolphin (according to Bjorn) on my mini-honeymoon and fell off my bike trying to point it out to my new husband. Bjorn says that Grandpa Byron and I hang out well together as we like to embellish our stories.....posh....I stand by my observation--it was a dolphin!

Two arms, two legs, two kidneys, a strong heart...

Fingers, toes and a little pee-pee! Its gonna be a boy!! Our ultrasound at crack of dawn on Tuesday has pushed our due date back to January 22, 2010! Hopefully, this one will stick :)

1 + 1 = 4? Huh??

We, along with Audriana (and Scout), are ECSTATIC to announce that we will be expecting a new arrival to our family sometime in mid-January, 2010...Yes, I am pregnant with Dash-2! We have been keeping this news to ourselves until we got a definitive due date...but, the beans have been spilled in other areas of the internet :) Also, I did not get my first ultrasound until I was in my second trimester, so the first dating ultrasound at that point was not considered to be particularly accurate. Initially, I had mistaken what was actually morning sickness to be a bout with whatever bug was going around while we were in Minnesota (our families were quite sick--including one Grandpa contracting H1N1). After further evaluation, it turns out that I had contracted a different bug from everyone else: the nine-month variety!

So come 2010, we will be a family of four (plus one) and we could not be happier about it! As soon as we find out about an actual due date, we'll be posting it :)

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!