Ava Hanging Out

Ava has been enjoying her time away from day care. She's been staying at home with her Daddy and has been spending lots of time playing with her toys. She is really starting to enjoy many of the toys she has, and it's fun to watch her explore new things.

Playing on her new toy she got from Zach's aunt and grandma

Sweet face!

Her daddy let her take a nap on Mom and Dad's bed

Enjoying her swing with her teddy - she loves talking to her "friends" on the side of her swing!

She is also getting really good at grabbing things and holding on!! She especially likes Mommy's hair!

Last but not least is a video of Ava rolling over! She's had this perfected for about two months. Sometimes we lay her down on her tummy and she's over in seconds. These days she's trying very hard to roll from her back to her tummy. She can get about halfway over but her arms get stuck and she can't quite figure out how to get it done. Being as determined as she is, it won't take much longer!

2008 - The Year in Review

2008 has been a very exciting year for us. I wanted to take the time to recap what we went through this year, month by month.

January

January 25 - We're pregnant! We found out on this day that I was indeed pregnant - after all, THREE home pregnancy tests wouldn't lie would they?

February

February 12 - We saw Ava's little heart beat for the very first time. Unfortunately, the u/s machine in the dr's office was broken and couldn't print pictures so we did not get a picture of her little heart. We were also told that there were possibly two heart beats floating around in there. (Unfortunately, I have no corresponding picture for February.)

March

March 20 - After a tortorous 5 week wait, it was confirmed that we were only having one baby and we got our very first picture of our sweet baby girl! It was also at this point that we finally got to start sharing our good news!

April

April 18 - Zach turns 24!!

May

May 22 - It's a Girl!!!!!!!

June

I finished classes for my Master's degree in May, and my graduation was in June.

July

We picked a name and the nursery is done!

August

August 25 - I celebrated my "golden" birthday - 25 on the 25th!

September

September 19 - Happy birthday, Ava!!!!

October

October 26 - Ava is baptized!!

November

November 17 - Mommy went back to work and Ava went to her very first day of day care.

December

December 25 - Our first Christmas with a baby!

Thank you Lord for an incredibly blessed 2008! None of this would have been possible without You. We can't wait to see what You have waiting for us in 2009!

Check us out!

After the fun of checking Jon and Emily's 365 project every day, we decided to give our own a try this year! You can find us here:

The 2009 E Family 365

Come check us out!

Ava's First Christmas

Ava's first Christmas is over! We had a wonderful time celebrating this wonderful holiday with our little girl. On Tuesday evening we traveled to see Zach's family for the holidays. We celebrated Tuesday night with one side of his family. Ava was a little out of sorts and very upset most of the evening. She didn't want anything to do with anyone except her mommy and daddy. She did calm down and was much better the next day. We spent Christmas Eve with the other side of Zach's family. Ava made out like a bandit - our car was so full on the way home I don't think we could have fit anything else in there!

Ava chilling on Christmas Eve morning

After leaving we headed home and went to my grandma's for the Christmas Eve celebration there. One of my favorite traditions from Christmas Eve is that we always have a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Each of the little kids always gets their own candle to burn out and I look forward to Ava having a candle to blow out in the future! She was good for most of the evening until she just got so downright tired she threw a hissy fit. She's a very curious girl and is always concerned she just might miss something! She finally calmed down and slept on my mom the rest of the night. We ventured to Midnight Mass and she slept soundly in her carseat like an angel the entire time! That was the best she's ever behaved in church!

Sleeping during Midnight Mass - she's pulling blankets over her face alot these days

Not so happy when she got home from Midnight Mass

We woke up Christmas morning and had Christmas at our house! Santa was very good to Ava (as were Mommy and Daddy)! She really shouldn't need too many toys for a while! After we had our Christmas we headed over to my parent's house to have our Christmas with them before the rest of the family showed up for Christmas lunch. Ava didn't show much interest in any of her gifts except for one my parents got her. They got her this little doll that giggles and Ava just stared at that thing for a minute and then started laughing at it. She liked that a baby finally "talked" back to her! She had another "scared" episode yesterday and finally fell asleep on my parent's bed with the help of a bottle. I sure hope we outgrow this stage soon!

Merry Christmas! Waking up on Christmas morning

Is it time to open presents yet?!

Mommy and Ava by the tree

Daddy and Ava by the tree

Ava with all of her presents

Ava checking out her loot

We had a wonderful holiday - we hope you did too!

Enjoying her Christmas break..

Someone had a really good day at home with her daddy yesterday!

It's crazy to me how the same little girl can look so different just based on her faces. I also can't believe how big she is getting!!!!!

Love this funny face!

Quick weekend

So another weekend gone. Boo! It will be especially hard to go back to work tomorrow because I know that all day long I will be thinking of Zach and Ava at home having fun! At least I get some time off with them later in the week.

So, it's been a fun weekend. Friday we had dinner with our good friends, Iva and Bobby and their son Logan. We always have a wonderful time with them and enjoy their company tremendously. Iva and I spent a portion of the evening defending ourselves to our husbands about the difference between reading blogs and stalking! They are convinced that is what we do, but we disagree. (Sally, I wish your family had been here too! Miss you guys!)

We spent Saturday finishing up our preparations for Christmas. All of the gifts are wrapped and under the tree and we are ready to go. My aunt's family was in town this weekend and my grandma had our entire family (lots of people!) over to see them. Her oldest son (my cousin) is a senior at West Point this year and so we've only seen him a handful of times (mostly at Christmas) the last few years. However, the night was not so enjoyable for us. For some reason Ava just couldn't keep it together. We don't know if she didn't feel well or if she was just scared and overwhelmed, but she cried and screamed and couldn't calm herself down, so we basically ate and left. I hope that we have better luck with her at our Christmas celebrations.

We got up early this morning and went to church and then ran a few errands. Zach finished up some of his Christmas shopping while Ava and I napped. When he got home, Ava and I headed off to my parent's house so Zach could wrap presents. My mom always bakes Christmas cookies and she hates decorating her sugar cookies, so I always help her decorate them. I did that today while my dad played with Ava.

And now some sleepy pictures of Ava:

She feels good after a good night's sleep


This cracks me up - what a ham!

So for over a year now, I've been on the hunt for a nice Nativity set. We grew up seeing my Mom's out every year, and I knew I'd get one when I was out on my own. However, I've never really found one that I've just seen and knew that I wanted it. I saw one last year that I liked well enough and when I went back to buy it, it was gone. So, I figured I'd just wait. Well, I was out yesterday and I stopped into this little shop and I found one! I saw it and after about 2 seconds I told the lady I'd take it! Not only was it gorgeous, but it was priced at a steal! I couldn't believe my good luck! This picture hardly does it justice, but it will work for now.

Okay, I'm off to spend the rest of the evening with my family! I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas week!

Wasn't it just yesterday?

Ava is three months old today and it feels like it's gone by in the blink of an eye. Seriously? Already? She's a quarter of a year old!!! It amazes me how the time just speeds on by. I am LOVING the stage Ava is in right now. She's SO SO happy and so sweet and I love just being with her. Every day she surprises or amuses us with something and each day is a new adventure but we are loving every moment and milestone.


Ava's Accomplishments @ 3 months old:

• She has discovered her feet and tries to grab at them
• She tries to grab at EVERYTHING!
• She talks and talks and talks - her daddy has said he's scared she's going to be a big talker like her mommy!
• When she is propped up, she tries to pull herself up into a sitting position.
• She tries so hard to roll from her back to her stomach - she can make it about half way. (I'm not quite sure why she wants to do this b/c she HATES tummy time and screams when I put her on her tummy. She usually just rolls over to her back)
• She is starting to have sounds with her laughs/grins.

Things I Love about Ava @ this age:

• Her "talking"
• Her determination in accomplishing tasks
• The way she snuggles in to my body when she's really tired and wants to go to sleep
• The way she smiles at me when I go get her in the middle of the night
• The way she is mesmerized by ceiling fans
• The way she can be crying when we put her in her carseat but stops every time she hears us open the garage door
• The way she smells after her bath
• The way she stretches each morning after we unswaddle her
• Her sweet little lamb cry
• Her quivering chin when she cries
• Her big, beautiful, blue eyes
• How she smiles and talks at/to her "friends" when we put her in her swing
• How she grins and grins at her daddy
• Her strong nature

These of course are only some of the things I love about my sweet daughter. I could never list them all! The last three months have been a roller coaster ride and after our rough start I never thought we'd have the happy days we are having. I am so thankful for her finally feeling better and being happy!


Trying her very hardest to roll from her back to her tummy

We picked her up from playing and she had a little plumber's crack!

Waking up on her 3 month birthday!


Happy girl!!

Happy 3 month birthday, Ava! Thank you for bringing so much joy to our lives!

Paradise

Two years ago we had just gotten back from this paradise - I wish we were back there!

Doesn't it look nice?

Back in the saddle

Whew! It is cold outside! Sorry for the lack of updates.. the bloggy world stops when Mom is sick. That's right, I was unable to escape the current round of sickness in our household. We've all had something different. I hate despise being sick and avoid it at all costs. And usually when I am sick it takes a lot to keep me down, but whatever I got kept me down. I felt awful and had a fever and was pretty much just blah. I went to the walk-in clinic Sunday morning to make sure I didn't have the flu, and I didn't thankfully. Instead, it was just some random 24 hour virus or what not. I didn't feel good yesterday either and even took the day off from work. Yesterday was the first day since I started this job over two years ago that I called in sick. I didn't even call in sick during my whole pregnancy, and there were definitely days I could have. I stayed in bed until 2:30 yesterday afternoon and finally felt a little more human after that. But, anyway, we're back and running, and hopefully everyone can stay healthy from here on out.

Miss Ava had to get her shots this afternoon. :( I'm so not good at seeing my baby hurt. The one thing I dislike about our pediatrician is that they won't give shots in his office. Therefore, we had to go to the germ factory health clinic. Well, they now require an appointment for shots. I did not know this so when I called to schedule her 2 month shots, today was the first opening they had. So, she's a little behind, but her dr's office has said that is ok. Anyway, apparently our appointment meant nothing - it was almost an hour later that she got her shots. And she didn't like it one bit!

Sometimes I feel this blogging is in vain - do we have readers out there? We'd love to hear from you because it's nice to know who is keeping up with us. Leaving a comment is super easy and can be done even if you don't have a blog or an account. We appreciate you stopping by and would like to know who you are. Also, we'd like to visit your page too (if you have one) and it's hard to do that with no comments. Give this girl a piece of mind that the time she puts into this isn't for nothing! And thank you to the loyal commenters - you are greatly appreciated!

And now some food for thought - this looks like something I would do and find humorous!

I'm a Survivor..

Well, I made it my first night away from my baby - and boy was it hard! I cried on Wednesday morning while I fed Ava her bottle before leaving. I did okay when I dropped her off (but I sure bit my lip hard to keep the tears from coming again!). I went to see her right before I left and I held on and hugged extra tight.

Me and my sweet girl before I left - look at the semi-grin!

That night was really hard on me. After we got done around OKC and returned to our hotel, it was the hardest. My hotel room was so quiet and it made me lonely. I called and checked in and of course that made me cry. I definitely am not cut out for traveling often and being away! I also cried Thursday morning - I called to see how they were doing and Ava was crying too, and when Zach put me on speaker phone and she heard me, she stopped crying for just a minute. That of course made my day. I was SO glad to be home - I was a woman on a mission and just prayed that there were no cops out to catch me! Thankfully I made it home safe and sound, and got to see my baby before she fell asleep!

While I was gone, I did manage to have a little fun. We spent a little time shopping, and I got to eat at two of my favorite restaurants: Abuelo's and Ted's. Seriously, these are the best! It was nice to get out and do a few things baby-free, but I would never want this to be a regular occurrence (at least not yet)!

The poor little girl is still fighting a cold - hopefully she'll get over it soon. Last week was mostly just congestion, and this week it turned to the cold. Remarkably, she's been the best baby she's ever been this week while being sick - go figure!

I've been tagged...

... by Jen! Hope you all enjoy!

SEVEN THINGS I DID BEFORE:
1. Wore heels almost every day
2. Always forgot to take pictures even though I had my camera
3. Slept in on the weekends
4. Pick up and go whenever and wherever we pleased
5. Ate Mexican at least once a week (good ole college days)
6. Go grocery shopping with Zach
7. Slept with my bedroom door shut


SEVEN THINGS I DO NOW:
1. Stop by the daycare on my way to work
2. Carry my phone with me ALL the time in case someone needs to get a hold of me regarding Ava
3. Clip coupons for formula and diapers
4. Sit in the cry room at chuch on occasion
5. Drink water all day long
6. Sleep with a baby monitor, complete with alarm, on
7. Put my hands over a naked rear in case accidents happen on the way to the bath tub


SEVEN THINGS I WOULD LIKE TO DO:
1. Have more babies (but not for a while)
2. Live more in the here and now instead of always worrying about the future
3. Quit my job and be a SAHM
4. Go on a trip somewhere warm and beachy
5. Have someone else clean my house
6. Be a blessing to someone each day
7. Live for a very long time to come


SEVEN THINGS THAT ATTRACT ME TO MY HUSBAND
1. He loves me unconditionally
2. He is so patient and understanding with me and my weird quirks
3. He is AMAZING with our daughter
4. He GETS me.. often when no one else does
5. He puts me and Ava first
6. He has a great sense of humor
7. He is my best friend


SEVEN THINGS I SAY MOST OFTEN
1. Mommy loves you
2. Hi, sweet girl
3. Really and truly (although not as much since Zach pointed it out)
4. Hey honey, can you...?
5. You're ok, Ava
6. Nuh-uh
7. Can you smile for momma?

And I tag whoever wants to play!

Wordless Wednesday #2