Easter 2011

Happy Easter! Praise the Lord for He is Risen!

I hope you have all have a very blessed Easter holiday! We certainly have!

Friday was a day off for all of us. We had a very productive morning and spent some quality family time together the rest of the day.

Saturday we went to NWA to visit with Zach’s family and to celebrate his birthday. Here’s Ava with her Grandma, Aunt Mal, and Grandma P (as Ava calls her).

This morning Ava woke up to see the Easter Bunny had stopped by our house for a visit! This girl has been SO happy all day because the EB brought her a package of lip gloss!!!!! She hasn’t stopped talking about it all day! Best $1 the EB spent! :)

The EB also hid lots of eggs for Ava to find. Since we’ve had rain for the past eleventy days week, it was super wet out so she was only able to hunt inside. She still had fun though!

After egg hunting, we got ready for church. Can I just tell y’all how much I LOVE her dress this year?! I found it in Dallas on my girls weekend in pink but didn’t buy it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it! I did snap a pic of the tag though so when I got home I started hunting and found out they had it in purple and blue! I couldn’t find a blue one, but found this purple one and am so glad I waited – love this purple seersucker beauty! Now I’m secretly hoping for another little girl so I can use this dress again! :)

After we came out of church and it was raining yet again, we headed to my parents house. Here’s Ava with my parents.

And our family! Hard to believe that before long there will be another little bebe in our photos! :) Can’t wait!  

We had a wonderful Easter, but are about to have another round of very nasty weather. This is currently the view from my backyard. Yikes!

 

Praying for no twisters! Hope you have all had a blessed Easter holiday!

mid-week blab

Hello blog friends! Hope everyone is having a good week! I just can’t believe tomorrow is Thursday and my last day of work! I’m going to relish the holidays I have in the next few months b/c I’m saving ALLLLL my time off for when this bebe comes! That makes a long few months!!!

So far we’ve had a fun week! Monday we went to a Japanese hibachi grill for dinner to celebrate Zach’s birthday! Ava had been before but she acted very scared this time! The chef talked to her and she was very stand-offish! She certainly did enjoy when he flipped food at everyone to see if they could catch it with their mouth – my sister and I both did – he said that means we have big mouths! ha!     

Ava got to take her Easter basket to school today for an egg hunt! She was soooooooooooooooo excited! She kept telling me she wanted to show her friends, which she did when we got there! She gets to hunt again tomorrow since she goes every day and they try to hit up all the days for all the kids! Here she is with her best buds at school – they all had to hold their baskets!

When she called me after Zach picked her up, she was so excited and squealed to me “I got my Easter basket!!!!! My have candy!!!” :) So cute! Can’t wait to watch her hunt this weekend!

And now I’m going to share a few pictures of the girl I’ve failed to post. A few are from my phone so not the best quality! She constantly keeps us laughing!!!

This last photo is my phone background – makes me happy when I see it!

That’s all friends! Hope you are having a good week!

P.S. – I’m loving how the baby poll is changing daily – boy was winning until tonight! Now girl is ahead! can’t wait to find out!

Miscellany Monday

***ONE***

This is my first time to participate in Miscellany Monday! I’ve intended to join in for a long time and then just never get around to it and this week I did!

***TWO***

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ZACH TODAY!!!!! I’m so thankful to be celebrating another year with you! Ava and I love you VERY much!!! We are going to celebrate at one of his favorite restaurants tonight and I can’t wait!

***THREE***

I’ve added a poll on the left side for you to guess the gender of the baby! Zach and I have differing opinions! Most people are on the same team, except for a handful of people. I’m curious to see what others think!

***FOUR***

This is a short work week for me!! My work is closed for Good Friday and every year when it rolls around, I’m so thankful that they recognize the importance of the day and allow us that time off.

***FIVE***

I seem to be having extreme swings in hormones lately. One minute I'm happy and feeling blissful, the next I’m totally sad, upset and feeling very insecure. Gotta love hormones. I’m super sure my hubby loves them too – ha! :)

***SIX***

I kind of overdid things on Saturday and paid for it afterwards. I was exhausted and in pain the rest of the weekend. I’m not even ashamed to admit that it landed me in bed last night at 8:45. Sleep felt good!

***SEVEN***

I wish I had pictures to post along today, but I’ve been a slacker lately. So no pictures this week.

So that’s it for this time! Hope everyone has a fantastic Monday!

Much ado about nothing

Sooooo, not much going on here. Nothing very blogworthy for sure.

I’m still feeling pretty pooped by the end of the day. I really thought maybe the energy would pick up in the 2nd trimester – I’ve had FB friends inform me that it’s not the case when you already have a wild one to chase! :) I guess I’ll just have to keep going to bed early!!

Saturday evening, we had dinner with my cousin and her hubby and afterward we went to play putt-putt. It was Ava’s first time to play and boy was it interesting!

We had fun but it might be a while before we take her again, or at least get her a club and ball. We fished the ball out of the water and I ended up carrying the club most of the time.  :)

I’m gonna end tonight with a couple cute stories I just don’t want to forget!

Sometimes Ava will come up and rub my belly or kiss it and say “hi baby!” One night Zach was laying on the couch and she went up and rubbed his and said “hi baby!” Too funny!

My brother, Nick, and his girlfriend, Sam, went to Chicago over Spring Break. All my brothers are big Cubs fans, and Nick got our new baby a Cubs pacifier. They told her it was for the new baby and she brought it over to me, lifted my shirt and tried to put it in my belly button! Love the mind of a little kid!

I’ve been thinking. The name of our blog is Adventures in Ava-Land. I love that name, but obviously our adventure is going to change. I need help with a new name? Any thoughts? Should I wait and see what this baby is and until it has a name? Or should I just do something like “The E Family”? I’d really like something a little more original than that but the creative juices just aren’t flowing! Suggestions totally welcome (so please bring them!)! Ready – GO!

Things I’ve been asked..

First of all, thank you all so much for your sweet words on my last post! It’s so exciting to be sharing this with everyone. I didn’t start blogging until I was close to having Ava so it will be fun to keep track of this pregnancy on here!

Upon hearing that we were having a baby, there were steady streams of questions and I thought I’d address some of them here!

- How long have you known/when did you find out?

I took a pregnancy test on Thursday, January 27th and it was negative. I told Zach that I was going to test again on the next Thursday but couldn’t wait. I got a positive test on Tuesday, February 1st.

- How did you tell Zach?

The day we found out was actually one of the several snow days we had here and Zach and Ava were both out of school. He got up and wanted to get a shower before Ava woke up so she wouldn’t one and I told him I was pregnant. He just kind of looked at me and I showed him the test. I think he was in shock. :) No special way of sharing – I was way too impatient!

- How did you tell your families?

We found out about the baby during the time when Zach’s grandmother was very ill in the hospital. We didn’t know when we would be able to get with them and share our news so a few days after we found out, Zach called and share the news. That same night, we went to tell my mom. I put Ava in a “big sister” shirt and put a jacket over it. My mom and sister were there and my mom never did notice the shirt. My sister saw it and read it and said “Are you pregnant?!” about 3 times before my mom realized what she was saying! We then took a picture of Ava in her shirt and texted it to my dad.

- Have you been to the doctor?

Yes, I’ve been to the doctor twice now. My first appointment was on March 2nd and we got to see our little bebe for the first time. At this point, I was 7w3d. I went again on March 31st and instead of trying to listen to the heartbeat, my doctor let us take another peek, which is the photo I posted in my last post.

- When are you due?

My official due date is 10/16. At my last appointment, the u/s measured the baby at 12 weeks even, though according to my due date I was 11w4d. The due date was not adjusted.

- How are you feeling?

I have been feeling alright. I’ve had the normal first trimester symptoms. I’ve been incredibly exhausted but am thankful my energy slowly seems to be returning. I have had a little bit more morning sickness this time than I did with Ava, but I am in no way complaining. My morning sickness mostly consisted of just feeling nauseous and wanting to gag. It could have been much worse! I also have a few other symptoms but none that anyone probably wants to read about! ha!

- Does Ava know?

Yes, Ava knows though I’m not sure what she grasps. Some days people will ask her if she wants her mama to have a baby and she says “NO!” Other times, she will rub my belly or give it a kiss and say “hi baby!” Some days she says she wants a girl, others a boy. I’m not sure it will be real to her until she sees the baby!

- How is this pregnancy different from your first?

Let me just say, I had a very easy pregnancy with Ava and I LOVED being pregnant. So far, this one has been a little tougher, but it’s still not been very bad. I’m VERY fortunate. One major difference(between the ms mentioned above), is my appetite. Almost immediately, I was RAVENOUS! I seriously could not got enough to eat! I was starting to wonder if there were two in there with as much as I wanted to eat. Fortunately that disappeared fairly quickly. The ms has also been worse and lasted a little longer than it did with Ava. I’m just thankful it was just nausea. I also felt this baby move several weeks earlier than I did with Ava. I felt Ava relatively early for a first time baby, and this one I felt very early. I love it though!!!

- Do you want a boy or a girl?

I know it’s so cliché, but we really just want a healthy baby. That being said, I know Zach would LOVE a little boy. Me? I’m sure a little boy would be wonderful but I know how to be a girl mom! I’m sure I’d learn but it scares me a little. The other thing is that we everything we need if we have a girl. If we have a boy, we’ll have to get some new things. Either way though, we’ll be totally happy. I can’t wait to hold this little baby in my arms!!! We should know in just about 7 or 8 weeks who this little baby is!

So there ya go! These are a lot of the questions I’ve been asked. If you have others, pass them on! :)

Spilling the beans!

Ava is so excited to finally tell y’all that her mommy is

and that she is going to be a

This precious little munchkin will join our family in October!!! :)