Baby Collin

Collin is a week old already! It's about time I post some pictures of him. I'm not sure if anyone is still checking this blog now that I'm keeping in touch with lots of people on Facebook, but this blog will still give me a record of when the kids were hitting milestones, so I'll keep it up. I was never very good at keeping Avery's baby book updated, but I can always go back through the blog postings and find out when she first ate solid foods, took her first steps, or what she was talking like a year ago. If only there was a magic button I could press to get all this information into her baby book! Ah, but I promise to do better with Collin's book! :)

Collin Marcus Horne was born 12/14/2009 at 2:40pm after a fairly easy labor. Our big boy weighed in at 9lbs 1oz, and 21 3/4 inches long! He joined the world crying (which was an immediate relief) but has been such content baby since then. He did give us a scare in the hospital, getting a slight fever about a day after he was born. But he fought through and seems to be in great health now.

Avery is adjusting pretty well so far to being a big sister. She LOVES her baby brother, and hasn't gone 10 minutes without talking about him or giving him kisses. She is also dealing with our divided attention fairly well too. Luckily she is still enrolled in school 3 days a week, so she's got some consistency and she just loves her class.

Here are a couple pictures of our early Christmas gift...

Avery update

We have about 15 hours until our scheduled appointment to meet our baby boy tomorrow! So, I thought it would be a good time to get Avery's last solo blog posting out here. She really is oblivious to the whole 'baby brother coming tomorrow' thing, and we've been trying to make this last weekend special for her. She got to see Santa (again) at playgroup Friday, and have dinner with a friend we haven't seen in a while. And we rented a couple Christmas movies just for her yesterday.



She is really into Christmas (just like she was last year) and can't get enough of the music. Here she is singing some carols in front of the tree. She's such a little performer! I wonder if she'll keep this up when our attention is divided between the 2 of them?!

December update

I know it's been way too long since I've posted pictures. We have been really busy getting ready for our little guy's arrival next week. We're scheduled to meet him on December 14th, unless he decides to come earlier. Avery talks about Baby Brother a lot, but she really has no idea how her world is about to change!

Once we got everything ready for baby, we decided to get in a bunch of Christmas activities early since we know we won't have a lot of time later this month. Plus it's been really dry out this year, so it has been nice to get out to do these things before the rain sets in.

We love going to see the light displays at our Zoo. This year we met up with some friends from Avery's playgroup, and she really got into the lights this year.

She is also really interested in the Reindeer this year. She knows more of their names than I do! Here she is the first time she saw the display at Macy's!

Jon helped Avery write a letter to Santa this year. She was very excited about sending it to him!

This weekend we had a brunch with our friends, the Conways, and Santa was there! The sun was also out (AMAZING for Portland in December!) so Avery wanted to wear some shades on the way there. We couldn't resist the picture!

Here are Avery and her buddy Rory before breakfast. They are finally at an age where they can play together - it was so cute!!

Avery was so excited to meet Santa AND Mrs Claus! And thought it was so cool that she had a matching outfit! She even remembered to tell him everything that was in the letter that she mailed to him, just in case he forgot.

A couple more pics from that day....

Happy Halloween

Avery had a great Halloween! She wanted to be a purple witch, and her costume was so cute! Here she is with a couple of playgroup friends (Jillian who was Abby Cadaby from Sesame Street, and Noelle who was also a purple witch)...


The kids all decorated cookies at playgroup this week. Avery did not really get the concept of "decorating"...it was more about seeing how much she could pile on one cookie...

There is a cookie under here somewhere...

Here are some of the playgroup buddies..

We carved pumpkins today, and Avery helped with the messy part. She also loved the roasted pumpkin seeds we made...

Avery thought Chloe should be a witch for Halloween too!

Trot was a Ballerina!

Uncle Nick and Grampa Lee are visiting us this weekend. Here they are with Avery as we were leaving to go Trick or Treating...

We met up with our neighbors as we were trick or treating. Here's Avery with Sam and Everett....

Avery was so excited to check out her candy! And amazingly, she still went to bed pretty early after all that sugar!

Fall weekend

We had a beautiful weekend here! It was a little chilly out, but sunny and the fall colors are finally starting to come out a bit. A perfect weekend for the pumpkin patch! We met up with the Conways again and had a blast.

Avery could have run around this hay maze for hours. I remember her loving it last year too!


Avery and Rory around the farm....

We took a hay ride out to the pumpkins - Avery loved this part!!

We picked the perfect pumpkin! Actually we got one for each of us. Avery even picked one out for baby brother!

Saturday night was a big deal around here too. Avery's big girl room was finally ready. Such an emotional transition (for me!). She was so excited to sleep in her new bed!! And even today she keeps telling me she's very tired, just so she can go lie down in her new room!!

She looks so tiny in this big bed! I remember a time when she looked really tiny in her crib too though. They grow so fast!!

Sunday also turned out to be nice, so we headed out to the Columbia Gorge near Mt Hood and went apple picking. Avery was so excited to sit in the wagon as we headed out into the orchard!

She also loved to pull the wagon herself. If you zoom in on the picture you can see Mt Hood in the background. Such pretty views from this orchard!

Avery was so proud every time she picked an apple, so we let her pick A LOT! Now time to go make a few pies!! (Mt Hood is in the background here too!)

Our last stop on the way home was a cute little country store, with a tire swing out front. So much fun!

Vacation

We had a short, but much needed vacation this weekend to Bend, Oregon. We had a great little condo near the Deschutes River and spent the weekend hiking, napping, eating, and swimming. It was 80 degrees and sunny the whole time, but now that we're home Fall has set in. I think we'll be in the 60's all week.

Here are some pictures from the hike the first day. Avery did great! It was a really challenging trail with lots of steep hills, rocks, and cliffs. But Avery walked the whole 2 1/2 hours herself! Such a little hiker!!

The resort also had this great pool that was just Avery's size. She had so much fun swimming around in 2 feet of water!

Avery also had lots of fun at the playground while her mommy got to sit by the pool and relax. Here is our fearless climber!

We took a different trail the next day - it was just as beautiful!

Somehow we forgot to get the camera out to get some good mountain shots while in Bend, but we remembered on the drive home. It was such a pretty place, and these mountains were amazing up close. Great vacation!!