How Ava spent her birthday!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Ava’s birthday on Monday! She woke up and I asked her how old she was and she said “I three!!!” After hearing “I be three on my birthday” we weren’t sure how she’d answer it! :)

Since she was born on a Friday, we’ve gotten to spend her first two birthdays with her all day. This was the first year we had to go to work and school and I was a little bummed but I think she had a good day!

I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and since she was all about candles this year, we stuck one in it! She enjoyed that! Birthday girl and mommy!

Sassy birthday girl!!!!!!    

I work literally less than a minute from Ava’s school so I took a break and took treats to her class at snack time. Those little kids were all so cute saying thank you for their cookies before they even got them! Ava was sweet and yelled out “thank you for the cookies mommy!” while I was passing them out. So cute.

Excited when mommy got to her school!!! Her daddy picked her up for school and took her to get a Sonic drink! He had a school function that night that he couldn’t miss so they spent some time together before it. I picked her up from him and we had dinner with my mom.

After her daddy got home, we had a few presents from friends for her to open as well as some cupcakes. She has been so excited about everything birthday this year and it was fun to watch her enthusiasm!!! Opening up a gift from our sweet friends Kristy, Keira, and Kinley! Thanks girls!!! Can’t wait for her to wear it!!! :) Birthday girl and daddy!!!

I would say this girl had a great 3rd birthday!!! :) This is it for the birthday posts!!!!

Lots of things to update about soon. Of course there is the wedding which will be coming soon. I want to give the bride a chance to post some pictures herself first and she’s on her honeymoon! I will share some photos of the rehearsal and dinner soon, though! I also need to do some updates on Reed. I go to the dr tomorrow and expect to be checked for progress. I’m curious to see if my body is getting us ready. Friday is my baby shower at work so I’m sure there will be pictures from that too! I am hopeful for a very restful weekend after the crazy ones we have had. Hopefully there will be no baby arrival just yet! Hope you are all having a good week!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ava!!!!!

“Now you're my whole life,now you're my whole world
I just can't believe the way I feel about you, girl. 
Like a river meets the sea,
stronger than it's ever been. We've come so far since that day
And I thought I loved you then.”

(Then – Brad Paisley)

Dear sweet Ava,

Three years ago I thought that my heart could never hold any more love than it did the day you were born. I could not have been more wrong! Each day I find something about you that makes me love you even more. Some days I feel like my heart could burst because it’s so full of love for you, sweet girl!It has made your mommy’s heart hurt thinking about how quickly these 3 years have gone and how quickly you are growing up. You have made the last 3 years so memorable. We are SO lucky to be your parents. I could not be a more proud mommy. You are learning so many new things every day and I sometimes can’t believe all that your little mind can say and do.To this day, you are still very strong-willed and stubborn. You know exactly what you want, how you want it, and how you want to do it. You have never been an easy child, and some days I wondered (and still wonder) how we would ever survive! But I believe those traits that make you that way are traits that will be to your benefit as you grow older and I pray that you will use them to be a strong woman. You mean the world to us, Ava. Every day with you is an adventure and you are loved more than you will ever know. We pray that you have a life full of love and happiness. Trials and hurdles will be inevitable but we pray that you will always turn to Jesus and to us in those times. We know your future is bright and full of unlimited possibilities and we can’t wait to see what the next year, and the years after that bring for you. Thank you for making us so happy and for being a bright light in our lives. Even on my worst days, they seem a little better when you want to give me a “big kiss” or you ask if mommy is ok. Your sweet heart is one of the things I love the most about you. We love you so much and are so proud of the little girl you are! I could never have imagined I would have such a sassy and spunky daughter and I love you just the way you are! Happy 3rd birthday, precious girl! Love, Mommy

Ava's 3rd Birthday party!!

I don’t think I can convey in words how excited Ava was about her birthday party! I took a little video of her before her party and thought she was pretty cute!

We always have family birthday celebrations! A few weeks before her birthday, Ava asked me if my cousin Caroline (4 weeks older than Ava) could come to her party. Then this week, she asked if the other kids (my other younger girl cousins) could come so it ended up being quite the party!

Zach’s mom, sister, and grandma came down for the party and we got to spend some time with them before the party. They came with gifts for Ava and it wasn’t long before she was going through it all. She got lots of treasures and was a happy kiddo!

Since we had a large crowd, we had the party at my parents’ house. Ava had a wonderful time. She was a little social butterfly and after we had lunch, she came to ask me several times if it was time to do presents! She was happy when I finally said it was time!    

Over the past few months, she has changed her mind many times about what kind of party and cake she wanted. I think she had about 5 different types at one point. We settled on Tinkerbell!

Not so sure about everyone singing to her!!

But definitely into blowing out the candles!!! :)

I would say she had a wonderful birthday, and her birthday hasn’t even come yet! Her actual birthday is Monday!

On Friday, we are off to my brother’s wedding! I could not be more excited for Stephen to marry Leslie! When I posted about Stephen a little over a year ago, I never imagined he would meet his wife through it! There is no one more suited for him than Leslie and I can’t wait to be there to celebrate them becoming husband and wife!

So, until then….

Ava’s Ice Cream Birthday Party!

We celebrated Ava’s birthday early this weekend since next weekend we will be celebrating a marriage! I didn’t really want to put it off until the next weekend because I’ll be 37 weeks pregnant so we went early!

Seeing as how my energy is somewhat limited these days, I wanted a party where we wouldn’t really have to do much. Saturday we had a party for her at our local frozen yogurt shop for her friends! I found this invite on etsy (with info removed):

The shirt that never came was going to match this! It’s ok though… we had a great time even without the shirt!

Here she is right before we left with her balloons! We weren’t even through the singing before she was blowing out the candles! She’s been waiting for her turn to blow out candles for SO long and was so excited! 

All the kiddos eating their ice cream!

And finally time for presents! She had fun seeing what she got! After she finished opening, she was really concerned that her presents weren’t going to make it home with us, so she started loading the bags up on her arm to make sure they went home with us! And here are all the kiddos that came! Looks like they just got done having a really great time, huh? ha! :)

She had a really fun time and we appreciate everyone who came to help her celebrate her 3rd birthday! Stay tuned – up next is the party we had with our family!

What happens when I don’t blog for 2 weeks!

Hi! Remember me? Yes, it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve blogged. Add together very busy and extremely tired and the last thing I’ve wanted to do was sit down and try to put together a cohesive post. I also didn’t feel like I had much to blog about but I think I’m about to be proven wrong on that! :) Hope ya can hang in there!

So, what’s been going on?

• Ava is doing very well at her new school. Drop off is still a little sketchy some days but she is having a wonderful time and we can tell she is learning SO much. I love hearing her stories at the end of the day!
• I turned 28! i had a FABULOUS birthday with lots of surprises. Zach emailed me all day with hints of what we were doing that night. We went to eat at our favorite hibachi grill and he invited my mom along to go with us. My parents got me this fab watch I’ve been wanting for a LONG time!  The band is clear and I love it!
• My little cousin turned 3 on my birthday too so we had a party for her that weekend. I couldn’t find Ava at one point and when I went looking, found her patiently waiting for cake.
• She enjoyed it very much!
• After my birthday, I spent the weekend feeling pretty puny. I had some kind of sinus, cold, something or other going on and wasn’t sleeping well and it just wiped me out.
• I have been getting ready for Ava’s birthday party which is next weekend because in two weekends (when her birthday is), we’ll be getting Leslie and Stephen hitched!
• In other news, I ordered her the cutest shirt on Etsy for her party that matched her invitations and it was delivered here, and came out on my mail route, and the postal worker delivered it TO THE WRONG ADDRESS!!!!!!!!!!! It’s been scanned as delivered and no one has returned it and I’ve been praying and begging every day that it will show up. No, it’s not the end of the world, but I am disappointed. I’ve been in touch with the post office manager and she’s been as helpful as possible but no package. It’s been over a week now and we only have a few days left and I’m starting to lose hope. But, stranger things have happened so I’m just trying to keep the faith that it will show up. But, yeah, seriously? Can’t believe it.
• We have also been super busy getting ready for our little boy’s arrival. We finally painted his nursery and everything is washed and put away! Just working on some wall stuff and then can share! Until then, here’s a small sneak peek:
• Ava has been SO interested in Reed lately. She wants to see him, talk about him, help in every aspect of getting ready for him. She REALLY wanted to help her daddy paint…. but settled for helping him tape up.
• The final product turned out wonderful! I love the color and can’t wait to share some pictures with you!
• This weekend also marked the first Razorback game of the season. We had a little watch party and enjoyed the game while the kids played. Here is my little Hog girl!
• Someone else had to come outside with her too – guess this isn’t a bad idea – she should get used to someone being in a baby carrier!
• And can I just boo-hoo for a minute over how stinking old she is looking? Can’t believe my baby is almost 3!!!!
• Ok, and lastly, and maybe most importantly, I saw these caramel brownies on Pinterest and decided to make them for the game Saturday night. oh. em. gee. They were SO good. Seriously. Huge hit. Can’t wait for an excuse to make them again! Here are mine. Obviously not near as pretty but oh so so good!
• Oh, and one more thing. SIX weeks until my due date. SIX!!!!! Cannot believe Reed will be here so soon!! eek!

So that was our last two weeks! Guess I shouldn’t wait that long to blog again! Thanks for hanging in there!