This Outfit

Too bad im 7 1/2 months pregnant right now...

Spring??

So its only March 22, and we have already had almost a full week of 80 degree weather. How crazy has this been? And what is up with the huge pre-historic looking bumble bees! They are massive and scary...i would no clue what to do if Avery got stung by one of those suckers. Personally, i wish it would stay in the 60s or 70s for awhile longer, but warm weather means more outside time with Avie which helps with the boredom and whining at home. :) So i can't complain! 

Avery loves flowers...crushing them that is.

Avery cant take too much sun, and when i say that i mean she goes limp like a noodle when she has been in it for more than like 10 minutes. So we figured out sand and water tables and shady parks help her enjoy being outside longer and have helped out over the past week or so. Oh, and cousins to play with help too. :)

This was BeBe's attempt at planting flowers with Jesse, Levi, and Avie

And we got to go hang out with this little cutie yesterday at the zoo. We have so much fun with Lo and Cherry and the zoo is always a fun place for the kiddos cause they get to ride in the wagon and get fed an endless supply of goldfish. Pretty sure Avie just goes for the goldfish.

This past weekend we had a girls reunion with college friends and we had a blast catching up and eating tons of good food. They all surprised me on Saturday night with a dinner at Maggianos and a surprise 'sprinkle' for Sloan! They all pitched in to get us our rug for Sloan's room which i am so excited about! His room is basically complete. Well, complete as in we have everything for it but its all packed up for our move. It was so sweet to get to see my friends and catch up on life, especially since we area all so busy these days and spread out across 3 different states.

Aunty Em came and stayed with us for the weekend and got to have some one on one time with miss Avie. She is now Avie's favorite person cause of the gigantic cookie she brought her from Edgar's bakery in bham.

The next few weeks should be pretty interesting for us with packing and moving. Luckily, we are spreading our move across a week time span so we wont be too rushed or stressed.  And with me being 33 weeks pregnant, im pretty sure i will be doing more directing than moving. :) 

Happy Thursday!!

So We Bought a House

Yeah, we're crazy. After deciding last week that we were going to put off buying a house until after Sloan got here, we went out and bought one. It's a funny story actually, but it involves seeing a house last Sunday morning after our friends/neighborhood spys told us about it coming on the market that morning, and then us immediately putting a contract on it after we saw it. So now we are going through with inspections and appraisals, oh and that thing called packing, which is oh so fun. So now instead of setting up Sloan's room we are tearing down what little we had done and packing it up to move. If everything goes to plan we will close on April 6th and move in the week after, so prayers would be appreciated! Mainly, that stress would not get the best of me and that little man would stay put until May. The house we bought is in Cottonwood which is neighborhood in Franklin, and we have been zeroing in on that neighborhood for what feels like forever now. And since the market is definitively not a seller's market right now we are going to rent our house here in Lenox Village. If anyone knows of someone looking to rent a 3 bed/2.5 bath house in that area please let me know! I dont have a picture of the outside of the house but ill try and post one soon!

In other news, i had the best weekend with family and friends celebrating Sloan. On Friday night, Katelyn (Aunt KK) had an ice cream party where we had about 10 girls come and celebrate with us. She did such an amazing job decorating for a little boy, of course it doesnt take much cause her house is beautiful anyways. 

Me and the Hostess

Everything was so adorable and yummy. Pretty sure i ate 3 ice cream balls and 2 ice cream cone cupcakes...

Uncle Puff Daddy helped out with the balloon ice cream cones!

Family picture with mom, Deb, Ash, and Roch

Love these two...Aubs is having her baby, Carter, TOMORROW!!! Cherry is due two weeks before me with little Adler!

Some of the girls at the shower...

Here we are at 38, 32, and 34 weeks!

Then the following day, we celebrated with all the women in out family thanks to mom and Ash. They worked so hard to make it a sweet and special occasion and it was beautiful! All of our loving family was there to celebrate Sloan, and they blessed us with so many sweet gifts. My GG has saved so many special things from over the years to pass down to her great grandchildren, and every shower we have had for one of her great grandkids she has surprised us with the sweetest memories and gifts that we get to pass along to our children. Here are a few pictures from that shower... im waiting on some from my dad but here are some that were made on my camera...

diaper cake made by mom and ash...owl hat made by Ash!

Amazing cakes made by Katie Winstead

Hand made 'S' by my dad! Isn't it amazing!

Me and Aunty Ash

Banner made by Tia Rochelle

Thank you to everyone who helped make this weekend special. We feel so loved and are so thankful for all of you! Thank you for already loving Sloan so much!

God is so Good

"As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?"  Jesus anwered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him."  -John 9:1-3

I really am speechless when i try to put into words how amazing/ merciful/gracious our Lord has been to this little guy. To look back over the past 4 years and to see how much he has been through, but also how much God has carried him and rescued him from things, its truly humbling. I was reading in a book this morning on a chapter about Jehovah Rapha, "Our God who heals" and just kind of looking through verses that it gave on God healing Israel in the OT and how he as our Lord heals our souls. Then i came to the verses above and i was reminded that God is being displayed and glorified through Levi! I mean as Christians  isn't that what our life should really be about anyways? But through all of Levi's struggles and surgeries God has chosen him to be an earthly living example to us all of how mighty He is and how He as our God, heals us! What an amazing gift! Thank you Lord for taking Lord for taking this sweet 1 lb 4oz little guy and using him to show us your power and glory.  

 Thank you to all of you who have kept up with Levi's progress through the years and have prayed countless prayers for him. As a family we are truly grateful and humbled by everyone's love and support. Please continue to pray for his recovery and progress over the next few months. 

18 Months

I can not believe i am writing an 18 month post. It is so weird how fast the time has flown since Avery's birthday but with all the changes that have come to us in the past 6 months it should not be any surprise. 

We LOVE this stage that Avery is in right now. I think i say that about every stage she goes through but each and every stage she goes through turns out to be so fun and "our favorite" at the time. We celebrated 18 months while at the beach with Joe and Deb a few weeks ago and enjoyed every minute of our 80 degree sunny weather by playing at the beach and at the pool. I wasnt sure how A would react to the sand but she loved it. Well, that is the first day she did. We spent our first day at the beach and she loved playing in it and was basically running into the ocean. Most of the other days were spent at the pool though cause Avery got sick of the sand, but nevertheless it was an awesome vacation spent relaxing.

Here are a few things that Avie has been doing lately that i wanted to be sure to write down so that i would not forget...

• currently the first thing you do in the mornings is to immediately stand up and point to the ipod that is on your nightstand for me to turn on music. 
• you point to everything and say "dat" for us to then tell you what you are pointing at.
• you are really obsessed with the ABC's and like for us to run through the letters so that you can make the sounds that the letters make.
• you try and grab Stoney's tail whenever you can and i am pretty sure he has caught onto this game because for no reason he stands there and wags it for you.
• one of the funniest things you have started doing is when we read "Llama Llama Red Pajama" you start off sitting next to us, then as we get closer and closer to the page where he goes crazy yelling for his mama you scoot farther and farther away from us until you are off of the couch and basically standing across the room from us and then then as we pass that page you come back and crawl all over us until the end when llama goes to sleep.
• I love when you look up at me while reading a book and smile
• When you are sitting in your highchair eating and i am texting or looking down at my phone you lean over so that you are in my view and smile until i look up at you.
• you babble NON STOP, we keep wondering when you will start actually turning that babble into real words and sentences but here lately i just keep reminding myself how cute it is and to not take it for granted.
• you still love pulling up my shirt to look for baby brother and in turn have started pointing to your tummy and belly button.
• your favorite food seems to be cheese, spaghetti, and grapes
• you love your bed and all your blankets and animals that go to bed with you at night.
• soft things are your favorite right now and you walk around the house during the day with a blanket over your head running into things and laughing. It.is.hilarious.

This is one of the only family shots we got at the beach, sad i know....

Happy Monday!!

Crazy February

It's only February 2nd and my head is already spinning from what all we have going on. Jonas left last Saturday to go to San Diego for 5 days due to a trade show for work, so needless to say me and Avie were pretty bored. Well i say bored, but really she was super snotty/needing lots of TLC and i was more so bored cause i didnt feel like we could go anywhere. But it did warm up for a few days so we did a lot of this...

and this...

Before Jonas left we tried to think of a fun indoor activity to do with her so we came up with this...

She didnt know what to do with it at first but then she LOVED it and all she wanted to do was make handprints and footprints. Once, daddy was gone we went back to this...

bored and alone...

No, we really made it out ok and had a fun weekend together but we weren't the only ones to miss Jonas...

Stoney is so different when Jonas is gone. He mopes around all day basically and doesnt pay any attention to me. That was fine with me though cause he desperately needs a bath and we are waiting on Jonas to do that fun chore. :)

Jonas got back last night from Cali and now im off to Birmingham tomorrow for a hair cut (pathetic, i know) and some time with Ash and the girls! Brooklyn is having a birthday party on Saturday too and we are going to try and help Ash get ready for that. I can't believe that B is going to be 2! 

Its crazy how fast time flies which is starting to scare me more and more because before i know it we are going to have a newborn again! Exciting and scary all at the same time. Anyways, back to Bham...this little nugget was 2 months yesterday...

I cant wait to get down there and squeeze them both!

After we get back from Bham we are going to head to Sanibel Island with Joe and Deb next Tuesday and i could not be more ready or excited!! This will be Avery's first beach trip and first airplane ride! It's times like this where i am super thankful for technology and for people like Steve Jobs who invented the ipad, because we will be banking on that for entertainment for little miss on the airplane. :)

I cant wait to be here and sitting in that chair 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Frustration + Transition with a side of Patience PLEASE!!!

Whew, since Christmas i feel like our world has been a whirl wind. As many of you know we have been searching for houses for quite some time. We decided to rent our house out and look into moving before this new baby boy arrives, and we thought the hard part would be finding a house when it has turned into a waiting game that requires a lot of patience. We found two houses in Cottonwood that we love, thanks to Uncle Puff and KK that is, but the only problem is that the people who currently own these houses have to find a place to move to before they can sell them. Thus the waiting game...

So since we have been driving over to Cottonwood like every other day to look at houses our lives have felt crazy, and its been extra hard to know if we should go ahead and start on baby boy's nursery in this current house or not. So all that to say, that is why i have not posted any pics of new baby stuff or plans for the new nursery because up until last week that room was a cluttered mess. And while we are on the topic we have finally decided on a name for this little dude...

SLOAN PERSSON FRIDRICHSEN

We finally decided right after Christmas and we really like it! Persson is a Swedish family name from obviously Jonas' side of the family, and Sloan was just a name that we both loved and agreed upon! We have been working with Avery on saying baby brother and knowing where he is, which has led to this...

It was so sweet the first couple of times she did this but now she proceeds to lift my shirt up at the grocery store...just as sweet but not quite as convenient.

Now back to today's title...little miss Avie has had a lot of changes over the past week. It started off with a super clingy and more on the babyish side kid and has now changed to a more independent toddler who plays great on her own, but gets super frustrated with the fact that we cant communicate clearly with words. Frustrated may be an understatement too because her version of this is laying face down on the floor, kicking, and crying for like 10 seconds. However, once she has done that she is normally done so i guess i cant really complain but its so weird how much her personality has changed this week. But, even though she has changed so much it hasnt changed her love for music and her love for doing this...

Luckily she has not gotten sick of her christmas toys yet so she still has a love for this guy..

Mr. Cozy Coupe has been a great gift thanks to Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jan!! 

Hope everyone is having a great week! So glad its Friday and we are having sunny weather with 60 degrees on Sunday!!! Arrington Vineyards in calling our name!