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!

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...