Sweet New Friend

Ava Kate recently got to meet one of her newest friends for the first time sweet Griffin. Griffin's mommy and daddy have been special friends for a long time and it is fun to be having babies together now. Ava Kate is also especially fond of Griffin's big brother Creighton and was making all kinds of googly eyes and big smiles for him at dinner this week. Since Benjie has to come to Abilene for work often we have had the pleasure of getting to see them a lot lately.

Our Beauty!

We had a wonderful weekend with Grandma and Grandpa, just wish they could have stayed longer! It had only been three weeks since they were here last but I think they were both amazed at how much Ava Kate had changed in that time and how much more she is doing now. She is now sitting up as you'll see in several of the photos below and she is also enjoying her walker now too! Grandma got to feed Ava Kate, help give her a bath and read her a bedtime story. Ava thought Grandma's coughing was very amusing and would laugh and laugh at her- needless to say the rest of us were coughing all weekend to try and get the same response. Grandpa cooked us a delicious breakfast this morning before they left- we all think he needs to open his own breakfast grill. We got to have our first family dinner at Natalie and Joel's new house today. After lunch I got to help Natalie shop for and decorate her new house- it was soooo much fun! It made me want to start another side business- who knows maybe I will! We also made time for a photo shoot before this morning and I have to share some of my favorites of the many photos we took of Ava Kate. She is our little beauty!

5 Months is Oh So Fun!

I’m amazed at the changes that have come in the last month. Ava Kate is now rolling over, sitting up for short periods by herself, trying and generally liking new foods, laughing and talking more, loving to grab her feet, teething and putting anything she can get hold of in her mouth! Each month just seems to get more fun! I also get a little sad each month as I think about the previous month that has already passed and I can’t get those moments back. I have definitely learned how precious each moment is with our funny little bunny! The other day we went to see some of our friends new baby girl and she was the exact same size Ava was when we brought her home- I really didn’t believe it. I kept thinking there is no way she was that tiny but she was. Life before Ava truly feels like a lifetime ago. I can hardly remember what life was like before we had her. What did we do with our time? This week Justin went back to work and for the first time in all his years of teaching he was not ready to go back. I know the feeling- it is so hard to leave her in the mornings. We know she is in excellent hands though with her Nana. She will be with her the next 3 weeks everyday and in September she will start going to Mother’s Day Out on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We finally took her to the nursery at church a couple of weeks ago. Up until then she had still been going to Sunday School and church with us. She did great in the nursery! It was so funny because I was going to take her the week before and I was praying at bedtime the night before that God would give us the strength we needed to take her and leave her and when I finished praying Justin said, “the nursery, she is way too young for that!” She was 4 ½ months old at the time– too funny!

This month we spent a lot of time with family. We helped Natalie and Joel move into their beautiful new house last weekend. It will be fun to have them and Keller and Ethan close by. We also got to enjoy some time with Nathan and Sarah and Lila and Laney. When those two girls are around Ava Kate has 3 mothers on duty! In fact Lila had a slumber party with us Saturday night and boy what a huge help she is! I can see why some people have their children several years apart. She helped give Ava her bath, read her a bedtime story, picked out her clothes and dressed her the next day, watched her while I got ready- it was wonderful to have that extra set of hands. After we put Ava to bed that night Lila and I got to watch Elf and enjoy some popcorn together. I was wishing she lived closer so we could do it more often. Ava really loves all her cousins and when they are all running around you can just see in her eyes that she is really wishing she was big enough to get down there in the middle of them- not much longer and she will be!

Bananas!


Our Ballerina Baby




Hanging Out in Ethan's New Room



Pretty as a Flower!




More Cousin Time!





First Slumber Party with Lila!









Can you tell how much we love each other?

Contagious Laughter!

Okay I promise I will update the blog very soon. Seems we have just been really busy lately. I did want to go ahead and share this precious video of Ava Kate laughing as I read Mr. Brown Can Moo at bedtime one night last week (sorry that you have to endure my silly voices). I think you will find it to truly be contagious laughter!

A Face Like this Melts a Mamma!

Justin took Ava Kate for a walk around the block this afternoon because she was a little restless. This is what I saw when they returned and she absolutely made me melt looking so precious! A walk around the block takes a lot out of a baby girl.

A Fun Weekend with Grandma & Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us for the weekend. As always they spoiled us while they were here. We ate lots of good food and did a little shopping. They even helped daddy give Bella and Oscar a much needed haircut and bath! Thank you for all you do for us Grandma and Grandpa, we had a wonderful visit with you and look forward to the next!

Got on My Big Girl Jeans!

We figured we better at least get a picture in her first pair of jeans since it appears with her not so little belly that snap might pop any second. And a girl can't wear her jeans without some oh so chic leapard flats and a flower on her head to pull it all together.