Thoughts On Motherhood

Motherhood.

Something that I've always, my whole life, looked forward to.  Even as a little girl, I dreamt of being a mother.  The wonderful example I had in my mother growing up, showed me that motherhood was a divine calling... something not to be taken lightly, and definitely one of, if not THE most important role that a woman could ever take on.

Today, I am a mother.
To a beautiful, perfect, healthy baby girl... something that years ago seemed so far in the future... is now my current reality. 

And it is awesome.

And it is hard.

But it is worth it every day.

 This little girl teaches me patience.  She teaches me how to love, how to laugh and how to carry on even when days are hard.  She relies on me, she trusts me and she loves me... even when I screw up.

Being a mother is the best.  

I have never felt so happy or so fulfilled.  

I've waited a long time to finally have the title of 'Mom'...
and I am so grateful that she chose me :)


This Mother's Day was a special one for me, as it was my first 'official' Mother's Day.  My loving husband made me feel so loved and appreciated.  And spoiled me pretty good too...

 We've been looking at getting me a new bike for awhile now and after showing some interest in this particular one at Scheels, Jace surprised me by buying it without my knowledge, and giving it to me for Mother's Day.  However, after taking it for a spin around the neighborhood to get a good feel, I decided that it wasn't quite what I wanted, so we took it back.  We are now back in the market for a different one.  He also got me the popcorn popper I've been wanting so badly and some beautiful flowers :)

All ready for church.  And would you look at that face?!  She kills me.

After church, we headed down south to spend the evening with my family.

 So blessed to call her my Mom.

Our traditional girls picture.
I am also so blessed to have such an amazing sister who is an incredible mother.  She has helped me in countless ways, a lot of what I do as a mother, has stemmed from her amazing advice.

These women are some of the greatest women I know.  My brothers did well :) I am so blessed to have such wonderful examples in these sisters.

The following picture is probably one of my favorites... it describes this crazy family to a T.

Trying to get situated for our traditional 'all girls' picture.  It's just so comical.  Fixing hair, checking teeth, pointing fingers, trying to keep babies happy by clapping... oh my goodness... I love it.

If you only knew how chaotic this whole process was... this was the best one I got on my camera.

I sure do love these women, mothers and girls that I call family.
They are all such gems.

Happy Mother's Day.

Ava At 6 Months

This last month has slipped away from me... Ava will be 7 months old next week!  Oh well, now is as good of a time as any I suppose to bring us up to date on her :)

Ava at 6 months...

At the Doc...

She loves mirrors... typical girl!

12lbs 11oz 

24.5 inches long

(probably more now since that was almost a month ago)

We are so in love with how perfectly petite she is!

Our little lady has reached some big milestones this last month!  And a lot of them happened within the same week!  She is getting so smart, so strong and is so hilarious!  She is such a happy baby and keeps us laughing everyday. 

Here are a few of the major things that have happened...

She now can roll from her back to her belly.  Something she has been working on for weeks, and then just one day, she figured it out!  However, once she gets to her belly, she can't remember how to get back to her back again! Something she's been doing for months!  Once on her belly, she just sits there and screams until someone helps her roll back over.  It's hilarious.

 She started holding her bottle all on her own.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one.  Does she think she's a big girl now or something?

We finally started her on solids, and let's just say, it's been a crazy ride.  She was NOT a fan at first, but over the last few weeks has been doing better.  She loves her cereal (oatmeal and whole wheat) but isn't too sure about the other things yet.  We had a rough couple of days with sweet potatoes that involved projectile vomiting, so we're staying away from those for now.  We'll see what the coming weeks bring as we introduce more new things!  Wish us luck!

 

  

One of the biggest things that happened for her just happened this last weekend.  She got her first tooth!  We discovered it on Mother's Day and I was shocked!  I knew that she had been teething for the last couple of months, but never would have thought that a little tooth would actually pop up so soon!!  Now all of her excessive fussiness lately makes sense :) We'll see how the rest follow!

Now, before I blow up this post with cute, random pictures (warning, there are A TON) I have to explain the following few photos...

A little quirky personality trait has developed over the last few weeks.  This girl, when concentrating on something, sticks her tongue out.  It is the most adorable thing ever and very difficult to catch a picture of.  But, I managed to snap a few :)

Here she is trying to get the tag on her book...

And here she is trying to get a little loop on one of the toys of her play gym... 

 

Could you die??  It is so funny!

We love this little girl and her darling personality!  She is truly one of a kind!  She has brought us more joy than we ever could have imagined and is definitely the light of our lives! 

 

I think it's safe to say that our world revolves around her.

And we wouldn't have it any other way :)