Been a while...

So, I realize that it has been an ENTIRE season and I've missed blogging about Avelyn's birth, Halloween, Thanksgiving, AND Christmas. It's been a BUSY few months. I suppose an update about all of us should cover most of the bases.
Avelyn
Our little surprise was a little GIRL! She was born on September 3, 2012 (Labor Day!) No surprises during her birth, just your average contractions, to hospital, to epidural, to birth! I did have an app on my phone to time contractions because I was not sure I was actually in Labor, but sure enough, I was! They sure do have an app for everything these days! After about 9 hours of contractions, and 1.5 pushes, our little angel was born! 8 lbs 1.5 oz! She was due on Sept 9, so I'm glad she decided to come early! Thankfully, Mom Marquis was down to help watch Cache while we were in the hospital. Today she is 4 months old! She's been growing so fast and has been off the carts big for her age for all of her doctor check ups so far. She's the sweetest little thing and she just loves her big brother. She smiles at him and you can just tell that she admires him. :) Recently, she learned to roll over (both ways), turn in circles on the floor (very slowly!), eat solid foods, and sleep in her own crib! I'm so glad that this little miracle came to live with us!
Cache
 He has been so good welcoming his new baby sister into our family. He's so protective and concerned about her. Whenever she cries, he asks if she's hungry, or wants to go "night night". He brings her blankets and toys and tries to feed her m&m's (scary!). I just love watching him give her kisses and ask her if she wants to dance at the end of a movie. I couldn't ask for a better big brother. He is such a light and happiness in our lives. He loves to make movies interactive and runs and hides at the scary parts, laughs at the funny parts and talks to the characters as if they can hear him. He currently is in love with "Rawr" (Brave), "Louise" (Meet the Robinsons), Wall-E, and Stitch (Lilo and Stitch).
He has had a rough few months, though. Our poor monkey slowly lost his ability to walk and even sit up about mid October. He woke up one day from nap and was acting like a drunken sailor getting out of bed. I didn't know this at the time, but this was the beginning (at least from what I noticed) of a slow, downhill trend that would lead to many doctors visits and a hospitalization at Sanford Children's for almost a week. At first it was called "post infectious cerebellar ataxia" and given about a month to improve on it's own. However, because this was a diagnosis of exclusion, and he hadn't had a recent infection, it was a shot in the dark. After he lost the ability to sit up by himself, we took him to the hospital where they ran lots of tests. So far to date, he has had 2 MRI's, 1 lumbar puncture, a chest exray, multiple blood tests and genetic testing. Nothing has come back with an answer. He was given steroids to help with the inflammation in his cerebellum, and he has regained the ability to walk, dance and even run again. His movements are still stiff and wobbly, but he's back to his normal happy self at least. We still don't know why this happened to him, and we don't know when/if it will get completely better, but I'm glad to have my sweet boy feeling better. We have taken him off gluten, as one of his blood tests came back sensitive for gluten, so we will see where that takes us. People around the states, friends, family, and people we don't even know have been praying for him. It's so touching to have so many people thinking about our little boy. Much love to all of you!
Jared
My strong, hard working husband has kept busy at his job, though not as busy as he would like. He's so smart and a very good worker, but they don't seem to acknowledge this or utilize him as much as they should. I'm so pround of him and I can't believe that his 2 year anniversary for his job is coming up next month! That will make him a Trainee 3. 2 more years to go! He's an amazing daddy and husband and I just love watching him play with the kids. Cache gets a kick out of being tickled and tackled and chased. :) Avie is still pretty young, but she does have lots of smiles for daddy!
Randilinn
Being a mother of two is so much more work than just a mother of 1! I just want to give them both all my time and love, but I have had to work to find a balance. Cache was so used to having me to himself, but he has not showed too much jealousy. I just love that he wants to cuddle so much. I suppose it's all the typical things, like sleep deprivation and exhaustion. Especially since, for a while there, Cache was waking up at night throwing 1-2 hour tantrums while he was really sick. I am loving my little family and couldn't ask for more love and laughter in our house. I'm still working as a casual RN at the local hospital, but don't work very often. Honestly, I miss being on the floor, but I wouldn't change watching my kids grow up for anything. I just wish we lived closer to family so we could share them with them! I am currently going to ZUMBA here in Tyndall 1-2 times a week and I love it! So much fun.

2013 has so much to look forward to. There is always a sense of new beginnings at the start of a new year. Hopefully Cache will continue to get better and maybe we can find some answers. If no answers, then I hope he just gets better. I kind of find myself shocked to know that this year is my 10 year high school reunion. I remember watching movies about such events growing up, always saying that I WILL attend my reunion! Being so far away and knowing that there are no set plans yet, I'm not sure if that will happen, but I might have to rig a small one of my own with friends! This year I will turn 28, Jared will turn 30, Cache will turn 3, and Avie will turn 1! It will be 12 years since I started dating my husband and 8 years since we got married, 2 years since we moved to South Dakota and 7 years since we left Washington. It's a crazy life, but it's mine and I wouldn't change it for the world. I love my family and friends and wish you all love and luck in the new year. I know this is long with no pictures, but I'm not able to add any at the moment. I will update it when I can!

Adventures in Potty Training....

Well, being the impatient one that I am, I decided to try to start Cache on potty training when we were home from all our summer adventures. He has been showing signs of being ready lately, so I hoped this would be an easy task. The first couple of days were difficult and discouraging, but he seemed to pick up on it pretty quick. he got the concept and loved running to the potty when he had to go. But then, he started to try to hold it as long as he could until he would start to leak and then say "uh oh!" He seems to be trying to prolong the innevitable as long as he can. *sigh* He doesn't seem to have the desire to continue much anymore, but he's been really good as taking it in stride. I have a feeling that when the baby is born, we might have a bigger relapse, but at least he has the concept in his head and it won't be NEW when we really go for it again. In the meantime, here are some pictures of Cache man sitting on the big boy potty!

back home in South Dakota (August)

Ok, so now that we are back home, I think I can try to sum up what we have been doing since we got back. Most of our time has been devoted to projects and trying to get things done before baby arrives. For me, that involves trying to get the kitchen cabinets done. Of course, when I started this task back in May, I was only 6 months pregnant and it didn't see so daunting. Now that I am 8 months pregnant, it is a hugely different beast! Fortunatly, we have been able to get the kitchen functional again. The drawers are all back together and the cabinet frames are done. We are still working on the cabinet doors, but at least things are all in their place!

The only cabinet door that's on :)

 Much better than Willy Wonka kitchen!
We also got back just in time for my work's annual dinner at the golf course. They usually have a salsa contest, golf tournament and this year, a Wii bowling tournament. It was fun to get to get out and do something. Cache also got to run around and play with his friend Tyler and a new friend who is the daughter of one of the PA's. He's always chasing after the older girls!

Salsa ready for the contest! (we got there late, so it was kind of silly, but oh well)

playing with Tyler under the table

Jared playing Wii bowling

Jill actually ended up taking home the prize for highest score in Wii bowling! Go Jill! It was something crazy like 242...or something like that. :)
Also some randomness:

Kisses and Raspberries for baby!

Utah (July)

We were also lucky to be able to visit Utah this summer. We have such good friends there. It's always so much fun to visit there. We were grateful to Art and Stefanie for letting us stay at their house yet again. They are always so welcoming and make us fee like part of the family. We just love that family! I miss all of our Utah friends and am glad when we get to see them! Even if we didn't get to see everybody we wanted to this trip, I know we will catch them another time! Not everyone is home during the summer. I know we certainly weren't this summer! Sheesh! While we were there, we got a few chores done on our Utah Rental property as well. Spent 4 hours in the hot sun staining the back deck and picking out a refrigerator to replace the one that died. Across the street lives a great frind and neighbor, LeiMomi, who offered up her late husband's hat for poor Jared to wear while working on the deck. Cache got to enjoy the hat for a little while before giving it to daddy :)

Errol's hat :)

She was also kind enough to make us lunch and help us when we needed water. What a great cul-de-sac to live in! Glad we got to know those great people and neighbors!

We were also there for Pioneer Day! Of course, this was not planned as it's not something you hear about outside of Utah, but it was nice to be able to be there to enjoy the fireworks! It was an eventful show that involved lots of close calls and some holes in blankets...and almost a tree catching on fire lol. Cache enjoyed them and he got to stay up WAY past his bedtime, but it was quite entertaining! Art and Stef had a party that night for the entire Chinese exchange student program, so they got to share the fireworks with all of them as well. I don't know how she does it all! Yikes!

Cache sitting with Emily and the girls watching fireworks.:)

While we were there, Cache got the chance to go play at a park with a water pad. Some of our friends were spending the morning there with their kids, so he got to go play with Stef's three youngest as well.
Here are some pictures that Erika took while waiting for people to show up.

Water pad!

And the reason we make these trips to Utah is so Jared can go on his annual Father/Son campouts with the Ravenburg's in Wyoming. He enjoys doing these traditions so much that I have a feeling we will be trying to make it out every year...no matter where we live. :) Since it was on our way home (driving) I drove up for a couple of days before we left. Here are the pictures that I took from that.

Jared's fish he caught in the river right behind that house.

this fish looks like he's trying to walk off the grill!

I didn't keep my phone on me to take too many pictures because there was no cell reception up there, so this is about all that I took! Crazy to go on vacation and not take a tone of pictures, but I suppose that is a sign that you were having too much fun to stop and click a button.
Well, that's all for Utah! Sorry it's so sparse and lacking in details, but like I said, I'm trying to get these done! :)

Rest of Washington Adventures!

Ok, so seeing as I don't have a TON of time left before baby comes, I thought I'd try to get the rest of these done as quickly as I can. That means maybe skipping a few details (of which, I might have forgotten anyway) and just getting the pictures up for you to enjoy :) Most of them are kind of random anyway, so you won't miss too much. :)

31 weeks pregnant with baby #2 (6/29/12)

Wearing grandma Kristi's Starbucks apron

 Bowling with Grammy!

Chasing Daddy around the trampoline on 4th of July! Loves to play with Daddy :)

Jared and I were able to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary by going to a resort up by Mt. Rainier. It was so nice to be able to spend some time together and to enjoy the trees and outdoors that we don't always get to enjoy in South Dakota. They have all these hiking trails and a year-round heated pool. It was like taking a bath in warm water! Being pregnant, it was heaven! I probably could have just stayed in that pool all night! :) It was the first time we have left Cache over night (at least both of us at the same time)....and come to think of it, the only time I've left him at night at all! It was hard to do, and would have been more difficult if it were more than one night, but it was worth the time we got to spend together. Thanks Grammy for watching our monkey!

 

Playing with Max (Brian and Aubrey's oldest)

 He loves to play with Mr. Potatoe Heads...and the glasses still fit :)

 On the way home! Thank goodness he had his own seat! It would not have been comfortable with him on my lap on the way home...Such a good boy. :)

Finally taking a nap after a long day traveling. He is so stinking cute. I love that little boy!

Isabell's 1st brithday Party (June)

My oldest friend, Elizabeth, was throwing a 1st brithday party for her little girl, Isabell. It was so fun to get to see her and her little girl again. It was also nice that Cache got to go and play with her daughter. I have to say, that growing up, this is not really anything that we considered while we were playing Power Rangers and giggling about boys. I'm just glad that we have stayed good friends despite the distance and time between us. It's always hard to keep a friendship going, but when you have the kind of history we do, it has been easier. :)

Birthday Girl and her cow hat!

Cache's horse hat!

Isabell opening her presents, and Cache helped her out! She wanted to wear every clothing item she got :)

Matt, Elizabeth's husband, was trying to convince Isabell through the tube...

So were the grandpa's and Aunt Megan :)

It worked! Cache was dying to try it out, and he almost climbed in over her!

Cake time! Elizabeth helping her eat it :)

Happy birthday little Isabell!! :)

Elizabeth did such a good job with the treats and decorations! It was a farm themed party and there were so many cute things everywhere! Glad we could make it!

Trip to Portland (June)

Since we were up in the PNW, we decided it would be a good idea to visit Grandma Smith since she lives only hours away from the valley and who knows when we will get to the chance to see her again. So Mom, Mike, Brandi, Cache and I all jumped in a car and drive down to visit. Luckily, we were able to visit some cousins and Aunts along the way as well. Always nice to catch up with family. Grandma was having a good day and was able to enjoy the visit as well. She said that Cache was a sweet boy. I just love that we got that time with her.

Playing Lincoln Logs with Uncle Brandi and Grandma Cole at Aunt Debbie and Great Grandma Smith's house

Goofing off with Uncle Brandi at the mall

Cache's hat at Dairy Queen on the way home :)