October Overload

I don't even know where to begin.  

The second half of October was, and will always be, one of the craziest, most busy times of the year for me!  With Ava's birthday, Jace's birthday and Halloween, all within days of each other, you can see why one would feel a little overwhelmed.  Not to mention exhausted!  I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off these past few weeks.  Planning for this, and prepping for that.  As much fun as it all was, I'm not lying when I say that I'm glad it's all over.  I can actually breathe for a minute.

With that said, you can imagine how lengthy this post will be then, considering all that went on, and considering how picture obsessed I am.  So sit back, grab a snack, and enjoy our October Overload!

Ava 12 Months

It happened.  A day that for so long, felt so far in the future, happened.  My baby turned one.  The whole week leading up to her birthday, I was a blubbering idiot.  I just couldn't grasp the idea that an entire year had passed so quickly!  And we all had survived!  It was a very sentimental time, as you can imagine, and we feel so blessed and so grateful to have had this little angel in our lives and in our home for the past year.  She is such a gem! 

A few days before her birthday, I decided I wanted to do a little 'birthday' photo shoot.  So Jace and I took our baby out to the field behind our house and snapped a few photos of her.  I must say, I was worried as to how they would turn out.  But the weather was perfect, the lighting was perfect, and she was perfect.  I'm so glad I was able to capture this special time in her life with these photos! 

I just have to throw in there, that these photos were taken using our little point and shoot camera, and edited on iPhoto.  Not bad, if I do say so myself. 

Okay, done bragging :)

Ava's actual birthday, October 25th, was pretty laid back.  She and I went and had lunch with Jace at eBay.  After which she had a nice 'birthday' nap, and a yummy birthday dinner at Cafe Rio.  We invited Jace's parents, and Tessa, Spencer and Cooper to come along with us.  After dinner, they all came over to hang out with the birthday girl, and watch the BYU game.

I promise, she does like to visit her Daddy at work.  This is just her tired, so ready for a nap face :)

Cafe Rio has always been, and will always be my favorite.  Even more so now that my child can eat their FREE "Nino" quesadilla! That place is so bomb.

The Party

I decided to do Ava's birthday party on Sunday, October 27th, as that was the day that all of our family would be able to make it.  My sister-in-law gave me the idea a few months back of doing an "Instagram Themed" first birthday party.  She saw the idea on Pinterest and sent me the link so I could check it out for myself.  Those of you who know me well, know that I am an Instagram freak, so of course, I took the idea and ran with it!  And oh how perfect it was for my little lady!  I had so much fun putting together Instagram collages, searching Pinterest for cake ideas, and buying and making decorations!  It was very easy, super stress free, and in the end, it all came together so nicely!  

The Invite

Needless to say, she loved her cake :)

Thanks to all of our family that came to support our baby girl! And a HUGE thanks to my parents for letting us use their house! 

We love you all!

Ava's 12 months stats:

Weight: 17 lbs

Height: 27 inches

Still about as tiny and petite as they come!  

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

Last month's findings:

Ava FINALLY started to crawl!  We never thought the day would come, but it literally happened overnight.  Now she's a crawling beast and is pretty fast at it too!  She also loves to climb up stairs, but hasn't quite figured out how to go down yet.

She loves to walk with us holding her hands, and while pushing her new "bike" she got for her birthday.  She is still pretty unstable on her feet, so we think it'll be a little while longer before she is walking on her own. And I am SO okay with that. 

Her 7th tooth popped up a few weeks ago, and we're thinking her 1st year molars might be next.  She is always chewing on her fingers and putting them far back in her mouth.  Poor baby, I despise teething. 

My wonderful little eater is starting to get a lot more picky lately (ARG!).  We've tried a lot of new things, most of which she takes a few bites of, and then refuses.  I've been told that every baby goes through a picky stage, usually around age 1, so that's comforting.  We did start her on whole milk, which she wasn't too sure about at first.  I had to mix her bottles with half formula, half milk, to help with the transition, but since have slowly been weening that out and just doing straight milk.  She hasn't seemed to notice the difference, thank goodness!  

She has officially transitioned to one nap a day, which is typically 2-2.5 hours long, in the afternoon.  I DID NOT want to accept this fact for the longest time.  I LOVED two nap times.  I was able to get so much done!  But, she's the boss, so I got over it and realized that having a baby that sleeps 12+ hours a night (8pm-8am) is definitely something to be grateful for!  Heck, if I was sleeping that much at night, I wouldn't need two naps during the day either! 

She loves to wave 'Hi' and 'Bye' and loves to dance whenever she hears music.  She's always busting a move!  She LOVES Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  Her favorite show to watch is The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney channel.  Every time it comes on, her little face lights up and she gets so excited!  It is the most adorable thing ever.  She loves to go on walks and we are dreading the cold season that is upon us.  I don't know what we are going to do when we can't go outside to play!  I thought I had cabin fever last year with a newborn, I can't even imagine this year with a toddler!  Oh, Heaven help me!

She is starting to understand a few different words.  She will go get her ball when we say, "Where's your ball?  Go get your ball!"  And when we say, "Where's Momma?" Or "Where's Daddy?" or "Where's Jett?", she will look at either Jace or I or Jett (whomever we are asking about) and give us a little pat.  It is adorable.  She also tries to mimic what we say, "Da-da" for Daddy, "Mi-Mi" for Momma and sometimes she says what we think is her version of "Jett" :)  It is so fun to watch her grow and develop and learn new things!  We just love and adore her so much and feel so incredibly blessed that she chose to come to our family!  

And, then there's this guy...

He had a birthday too.  The last one in his twenties to be exact :)  We celebrated by going to his favorite place, Buffalo Wild Wings, for dinner.  It was pretty low key, but that's how he prefers it.  He is such a wonderful husband, and an incredible father.  Ava and I are two lucky girls to have him in our lives!

Halloween

I was really looking forward to Halloween this year.  Last year Ava wasn't even a week old, so needless to say, we didn't do much.  This year however, we (mainly me) had so much fun dressing her up and going out!

I made a little Halloween tutu, that I turned into a witch costume.  It was pretty much adorable.  She wore that for my family's Halloween party, and for Trick-or-Treating at eBay on Halloween day.

And, Ava received a belated birthday package in the mail on Halloween from Uncle Del and Aunt Kristen...

Yep, you can guess where this is going...

Ta-Da!  

How could I NOT have turned this into a costume?!  I mean, seriously?  It was just too perfect!  I already had the dress, so I just threw some black leggings on her, with her black shirt, and there you have it.

Minnie Mouse. 

I almost died :)

We had made dinner plans with Tessa and Spencer for that night and afterwards, to take the little ones Trick-or-Treating.  On our way down south, we of course had to stop at Grandma and Grandpa Park's house to show off our little mouse.  And Ava wanted to visit her cousins as well :)

Ava and Cooper were just thrilled to go Trick-or-Treating!  You can see it in their faces :)

And it's not Halloween without a little ice cream cake for the birthday boy! 

All in all, it was a very busy, but fun Halloween.  Our little mouse got hooked up with a bucket full of candy and had enough determination to get a taste of it by chewing her way through the wrapper of a Twix bar.  She's trouble I tell ya.

THE END

See?  Told ya.  

OVERLOAD.

And October is just the start of the craziness.  Next we have Thanksgiving, my birthday and then Christmas!  Did I just say that?

Good grief.

I need a nap.