More pics of our great weekend!

More pics from the Pumpkin Patch! Ava loved crawling around all the pumpkins and found a green one that she started banging on and dancing, my brother got some video of it. Saturday was my Grandpa's 85th Birthday, so we went over again and celebrated. My nephew Kael was getting chased by Ava and he was letting her tackle him and goof off. It was cute, being that he's 3 years older and didn't really care for her the rest of the time.

Ava is showing off her new dress made by my fabulously talented Mother, it turned out really cute! Well, it was a great weekend w/ my family, we are so blessed to have them all in our lives! Thanks to those that came and helped celebrate my sweet Ava's 1st Birthday!

My Birthday Girl!

There it is, the cake I stressed over for a couple weeks! I think it turned out cute, though dopey looking. Well, it didn't taste so great. I made the cake from scratch (some book said that was better for decorating) and it turned out dry. My brother said "at least the frosting was good!" Oh well, better luck next time. Ava didn't seem to notice, she got down business and started munching away. She'll eat ANYTHING you put in front of her, so I knew she'd try it.

It was a great party w/ all my mom's sibling (8 of them) and some of their spouses there as well, including my Grandparents and my Brother and his family. Ava got lots of fun presents, I think she's overwhelmed w/ what to play with first.

On saturday my Brother & his fam and my gang went to a Pumpkin Patch. You miss out on these fun things growing up in CA desert and Vegas. There are sooooo many places to choose from, they are all over OR. Anyway, we found a fun one and got go on a hayride and catapult pumpkins and pick out our own pumpkin. It was great!

AVA IS 1!!!!!

Happy, Happy Birthday to my sweet Ava!!! I cannot believe its been a year since we met. Above pic shows are first moment together, though I was hyperventilating and getting Valium to calm down (the C-secting freaked me out, I was all claustrophobic and felt like I couldn't breathe-horrible!). The doctor pulled her out and called her Thunder Thighs, weighing in at 10lb 12oz!!!





I could not get the pics in the order I wanted, but her is Ava having lunch on her Birtday. Looks like she has a lot to contemplate. Her cake is in the background, but I'll post party pics after all the fun tonight.

This was a couple days ago. Jeremy had taken her outside to help clean up the garden and I come out to find her chewing corn on the cob! Hmmm, yum, though not so much raw!

Ava last Halloween, just a week after she was born! Look at those skinny, long fingers....she is just a doll. Where did the time go????

Though the pic says 10/23, its really 10/24. This is the Birthday girl waking up this morning, she's always so happy to see me!

I could list all the things I love about Ava and the last year, but I won't cause she has woken from her nap and wants out! I truly feel blessed to be her Mom though. She was worth the long wait and all the money we forked over to conceive her. She has filled up that hole in my heart and so much more!!! I love you Baby Girl!!!!!

All in a weekend....

So she doesn't love to have her teeth brushed, but she'll spend over an hour gnawing on it. She's probably doing better than I could of anyway.
Too Funny! Ava's Grandma (Jeremy's mom) sent Ava a babydoll that she bought for her earlier in the year to go with a baby stroller she found on sale, though she's not quite old enough to play w/ the stroller. As we were unwrapping the package and Ava spotted the doll inside, she flipped out and launched for the it!!! She could not be happier!!! I had to fight her to take the doll out of its box, there was screaming and smacking at Mom by the little monster.
Oh she loves it!!!!
Not sure if thats a kiss or just a bite, but I'd go with a bite! Either way, its true love. Hope she gets this excited with the gifts she gets Friday for her Birthday!!!!
Okay, this cute half-naked pic was taken after a SECOND poop incident in the tub......what is the DEAL????? We go a whole year w/out a problem, and now she just feels relaxed enough in there to release it all???? Not too happy about this! But she is still so dang cute!

Another wonderful "first" for Ava!!!

Or should I say, not so wonderful first! I'm giving Ava a bath (I'm sure all you mothers know what is coming...) and talking to Melissa (my sister) on the phone when in the corner of my eye I see Ava about to put something dark into her mouth!!! Oh yes, she did her first poop in the tub and almost ate it!!! Mind you, I was sitting right in front of the tub, just not paying attention to every thing she was doing. I would have been there to catch her had she slid or something, but the poop happened quietly. I start grabbing at Ava and telling Melissa whats happening all the while laughing about it. Poor Ava was freaked out by me yanking her out of the tub and I had to hang up on my sis. What fun, and the tub is still sitting there dirty waiting for my wonderful hubby to return from Scouts to clean it. I would, but I've had a nasty cold all day and only had enough energy to give her the bath, not scrub the tub! Gotta love babies!

If I were only my Mom....

So I spent part of my day covered in frosting...and am now suffering a serious sugar headache from sampling such frosting! I've been obsessing over making Ava's 1st birthday cake perfect! I searched the internet for pictures of what I had in mind and flipped through a few cake books to perfect my image. Well, I'm no pro! My mom always made these fabulous cakes for our Birthdays when we were younger, and I just want to be able to do that for my kids. I'm not including a picture yet, you'll have to wait till after Ava's birthday a week from this Friday (24th), but I think it turned out cute~~even with a few flaws! Jeremy wasn't very helpful in making me feel good about it, but what does he know anyway??? Can't wait to show you all, but gotta wait a week and a half. Now if my head would stop pounding.....

FEAR!!!!!

Okay, this isn't the image of fear. It's just Ava chill'n in the rocking chair with her cool new pink, hi-top Converse shoes. A lady in the ward gave these to me as a baby shower gift, I LOVE them! She is so hip!!!

So here is the FEAR! Ava used to do okay with vaccum's, she'd just crawl away or follow me around. Today I get out the vaccum and just put it there and she scurries under the table, screaming while she does this. Then runs to the patio door like she's going to escape.....
and starts crying and banging on the door to get out! My poor baby, but it was FUNNY and I had to take pictures of all this happening, what a bad Mom I am. Eventually she came over and helped me vaccum the couches with the attachment hose, which I guess is okay as long as the big thing isn't moving toward her. Silly girl!
I cannot believe how tall she is, its crazy! She can now reach the door handles, won't be long before she can turn them and run out the door, not quite though! Time to install the locks way up top!
She has suddenly turned into a Snugglebug! Its way cute, she reaches for her blankie when I take her from the crib and she cuddles it. Sometimes she drags it around the living room, like the picture above and will lay her head down, then sit up then do it all over many times. She's even started laying her head on our shoulders for a quick second. She has NEVER been a cuddler, so its so cute to see. She'll even grab her little stuffed animals and hold them to her chest/neck, so sweet. Only 2 weeks till she is 1!!!!

As for me, just the same old stuff---work, clean, cook, care for Ava and repeat....but tonight we are going on our 2nd date and Jeremy was the one to suggest it! We haven't been to the temple in ages, so we'll make an appearance tonight! More fun.

Giggles..

We just got back from my Grandparents house across town where we got to watch Conference together. Of course they were all great messages. I can't remeber the one who spoke about kids growing up so fast and enjoying every moment while you have it. I want to try that more, enjoy all the little things Ava does and stop stressing about the non-important things like cleaning the house! It makes me sad that my Baby is almost a year old, I wanted a baby for years and it seems I can barely remeber this past year of having her as one. Each day she blesses us with her excitement for life and learning new things. Here are some videos of her sillines! She LAUGHS at me when I say No to her, not good! And tonight she was very tired from all the fun at Great-Grandma's house that she was cracking up over Jeremy shaking some toy in a tin box. Silly, sweet Ava! Life was so dull without her!!!!



Oh, just remebered something funny that happened a half hour ago, Jeremy gave me permission to type this! She crawled down the hallway and into the bathroom where Jeremy was on the toilet :( and he asked her if she found him because of the bad smell and she very clearly said YEP! It was soooo funny, not that she knew what she was answering too, but it was perfect! Gross setting for the story though...ewww!



I'm about to chuck the computer at the wall, the videos won't upload for some reason, so I'll try another day. And my computer is acting in Snail like motion, stupid thing!