Fall Time Baby

This little fall time baby is just under 2 weeks away from celebrating her first birthday.

Someone grab me a tissue!

As tradition goes, Monday night, we all bundled up and headed to Jaker's Jack-O-Lanterns, the pumpkin patch in Springville, with my family.  Ava's first time of course.  It was cold. And windy. And crowded. And did I mention it was cold?  Ava wasn't a fan of the cold.  Or the wind.  Or the pumpkins for that matter.  But it was still fun regardless :)

I love that she is pretty much the same size as the pumpkins :)

Oh, and we must not forget about the scary corn pit too...

Oh, I just love this little tender hearted angel! 

And I love this time of year! 

Family Of Three

Back in September, Jace won a Facebook giveaway with a local photographer.  The prize was a 30 minute "mini" family photo shoot, with 20-25 edited images.  To say I was ecstatic that he won, would be an understatement.  I had been stressing, and I mean STRESSING over family pictures for awhile.  Who would we have take them?  How will we pay for it?  What will we wear??  You get the point.  To have two out of those three concerns lifted off of my shoulders, just like that, felt pretty darn good.  Sherry Ward is amazing.  And when I say amazing, I mean ridiculously AMAZING.  Her work is incredible and I was shocked, relieved and beyond happy that she got the beautiful pictures of our little family that she did!  Especially because a certain little lady wasn't being all that cooperative.  And I do have to give some credit to my parents who were there dancing, singing and waving toys about to try and get her to smile.  They helped immensely :)

All in all, we are so grateful for the opportunity we had to work with Sherry, and even more grateful for the wonderful photo memories she captured!

5 Years & 10 Months

I really, really wish I could find the time to blog more than once a month.  But hey, I will give myself a pat on the back for doing AT LEAST that!  Life is busy!  And this past month especially, we found ourselves constantly trying to catch our breath.  Ava reached some HUGE milestones this past month and Jace and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage!  Not to mention that every single one of us got some kind of sickness within the month of September.  Not cool.  But all in all, it was a great month.  Here's the recap...

The end of August we celebrated Jace's mom, Julene's, 50th birthday.  Grandma Bea and Papa came into town from Missoula for her surprise birthday bash, as well as Uncle Del, Julene's brother, who Ava met for the first time!  We spent a lot of time with them that weekend.  There is nothing better than family! 

September 12, 2013

My sweetheart and I celebrated 5 years together.  It's crazy to think that I've been with this guy for half a decade!  We decided to do something a little extra special since it was our 5 year anniversary.  We left Ava with my parents overnight (first time EVER leaving her overnight) to spend some alone time up in  beautiful Park City.  As hard as it was to leave my baby for the first time, it was very nice to get away with my man and have a little break.  I am happy to say that, after 5 years, we are still in love :)

And Ava is growing up right before our very eyes! 

She has two new teeth, totaling 6 now.  She has started to climb on everything, including the stairs at my parents house.  She pulls herself up to stand now, something that literally happened overnight.  We lowered her crib mattress when we noticed that she was getting onto her knees in her crib, and the very next day, she was standing up in it when I went in to get her in the morning.  Little stinker!  

She still loves to scoot everywhere on her back, and army crawls like nobody's business.  She will pull herself up to her hands and knees when she wants to climb on something, or stand up, but she STILL will not crawl on her hands and knees.  It is so funny!  We think that she is just going to go from scooting to walking.  

She will eat pretty much anything that is placed in front of her, and is starting to realize that big people food is SO much tastier than baby food.  She will still eat a few different assortments of baby food, mostly the jars of fruit, but now completely refuses the jars of veggies.  She loves to eat whatever we are eating, and loves to feed herself.  Some of her favorites include:

Avocado

String Cheese

Graham Crackers

Goldfish Crackers

Yogurt

Tomatoes
Pizza

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Tilapia 

Mashed Potatoes

French Fries

Ice Cream

Broccoli 

Bananas

Sauteed Zucchini 

Mac 'n' Cheese

Just to name a few.

We feel so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful eater!  We just pray that it continues!

She loves to dance!  Anytime she hears any kind of music or beat, she will start to bounce and wiggle her little body, kicking her legs and flailing her arms!  It is THE cutest thing in all the world.  She loves to talk and will make her little voice heard throughout our entire house.  

She is a curious little monster, tries to get into anything and everything she's not supposed to, loves to read books and is such a joy to be around!  She is so hilarious and keeps Jace and I laughing every day.  

And then this happened...

It is so hard for me to believe that my baby is almost ONE!  Where did that year go??

My gosh, I LOVE HER! 

August & Ava

It's that time of year again.  

Summer is coming to an end and as much as I LOVE summer, my second favorite is fall and I find myself getting so excited for fall!  Sweaters, jackets, boots. Oh, I can't wait.  

August treated us well, much like any other month, but we were able to do a few fun things to close out the summer season. 

At the first part of the month we ventured up to the high Uintas where my family was camping for a week.  We only went for one day and one night, but with a 9 month old, that was plenty.  I was worried about staying the night because Ava has never slept a night away from her crib since the day she came home from the hospital, but much to my surprise, she did really well!  We had a blast with my family and are looking forward to doing it again next year! 

Ava and I went with some friends over to Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country for our very first time.  Sad that we live about 5 minutes from it, and had never been!  It was so much fun!  Ava wasn't too sure what to think about all of the animals at first, but she warmed up to them.  And she LOVED the tractor ride.

We also took Ava to Lagoon for her first time.  Ebay does a Lagoon day every year and Jace gets discounted tickets so we thought, what the heck, let's go.  We invited Jace's parents and Tessa, Spencer and Cooper to come along with us.  Without them (Grandpa Mark especially) it wouldn't have even been worth it.  We needed someone there to help us with Ava so we could actually ride on the rides!  So a big thanks to them for babysitting :) 

And Ava did get to go on a few rides as well.

And after all of that excitement, Ava turned 10 months old! 

Double digits people!  

Time is flying.

For some reason, she looks so grown up in this picture.  No longer a baby, but a toddler.  It hurts my heart! 

Not a lot has changed with our little lady this last month, other than all of the new, fun things she's gotten to do of course.  She's still not quite crawling.  She does still do her infamous back scoot and is REALLY good at the army crawl now.  She goes EVERYWHERE in those two ways, so in reality, she doesn't really need to crawl cause nothing is stopping her from getting around just fine like that.  She does go from a sitting position to her hands and knees, sits there for a minute, rocks back and forth, and then falls to her belly.  It cracks us up.  It's almost like she knows what to do, and has actually moved one knee and one hand forward at times, but then is like, "Eh, screw that, I know how to get around." 

 And get around she does.  I cannot take my eyes off of her for a second before she is into something she's not supposed to be in to.  She is a curious one and is starting to test the boundaries.  If she gets near something she's not supposed to play with, she will actually look back at me to see if I'm watching her, wait for me to say "No, no" and then proceed to grab/touch/kick whatever it might be, smiling while doing so until I remove her from the situation.

She's a beast I tell ya. 

We've got our hands full with that one.

But oh how fun she is!  We wouldn't trade her and her busy little curious self for anything in this world.  This stage is so so fun and we are just having a blast and soaking it all in.  She will be talking back to me before I know it, so I will enjoy this time while it lasts :)

Seriously.  She takes my breath away! 

(Oh, and cheers to me for figuring out how to use Google Picasa with it's photo collage setting! Booya!)

Ava's Nursery

9 months later, I'm finally documenting Ava's nursery.  Mostly for me, so I can look back and remember how it was.  It's been so fun transforming her room into a sweet, girly, safe haven of sorts!

8 Month Ava

This summer has been pretty busy for us, especially this last month.  Which is why I am just now getting around to an update about Ava.  She is now 9 months old, can you believe that??  Cause I can't. 9 months was as long as I carried her in my growing belly.  I'm amazed at how fast the time has gone!  It never went by this fast before she was around.  3 more months and we'll be having a first birthday party! 

I entered Ava in the Lehi City Baby Contest on June 25th. The day she turned 8 months old.  We did it with Tessa and Cooper and Grandma Julene came along as well.  Unfortunately, we didn't win, but it was still fun!  What do stupid judges know anyway?  My child is gorgeous and I don't need strangers to tell me that!

Jace picked up a love for cycling and at the end of June, rode in the MS 150 up in Logan with a team from eBay.  He trained so hard for this race and I am so proud of him for doing it.  He's very much enjoying his new hobby and plans to do more races later this year.  

While he was gone for the weekend doing the race, Ava and I spent some time down south at my parents' house.  Ava LOVES these girl cousins of hers.

Our July 4th was pretty low key.  We went to lunch with Gma and Gpa Park and walked through Provo's Freedom Festival booths.

 Our little firecracker!  She looked so darling in her patriotic outfit :)

Later that night we joined Gma and Gpa Helean at their neighborhood barbecue... 

Poor Jett was so freaked out by all the fireworks.  She just laid next to Ava the whole time!  This never happens :)

We ended the evening with our good friends watching the Thanksgiving Point firework show.  Ava actually stayed awake to watch the fireworks!  Until the last 10 minutes or so when she fell asleep in my arms.

July 4th still is and always will be my favorite holiday!  

We went to an Orem Owlz game with Tessa and Cooper in mid-July.  It was bloody hot, but so much fun!  The babies played on the grass and we ate hotdogs and shaved ice :)  

Can you tell these two are related??  Jeez...

Poor Coop!  He puts up with so much!  Ava just loves him :)

I don't have many candid photos of me and my sweet babe so props to the husband for capturing this moment.  I just love this picture so much!

I signed Ava and I up for a "Mom & Tot" swim class at the Lehi Legacy Center in mid-July.  It was two weeks long and we had a blast!  I had been wanting to do something like this with her for awhile and I am so glad I finally did.  It really got her used to being in the water, and really made me a lot more comfortable putting her in the water as well.  She LOVES the water and has become quite the little fish.

And.... cue random photos from the month...

We finally started putting Ava in the shopping carts at stores.  She's just been too tiny until now!  She still looks ridiculously small in those giant carts, but I know she feels like a big girl.  Every time we go somewhere now, she gets so excited when we put her in the cart.  Not to mention, it's so nice not having to lug her around in her carseat anymore! 

This little Diva LOVES seeing herself in the front facing camera on my phone.  Here we are snapping a few at church... don't judge, it kept her occupied for a few minutes. 

Haha!  Love that face! 

She is the craziest sleeper I know.  I'm always finding her in the weirdest positions!

This was taken after one of the roughest days we've had thus far.  Poor thing is trying to push through her top two front teeth.  She was miserable that day, and still is.  Did I mention that I HATE teething??  It is so cruel. 

I like it much better when she's like this :) 

 First taste of a dill pickle.  That's my girl!  She loved it.

And so that puts us at the present day!
Ava had her 9 month checkup last Friday and is as healthy as can be, and perfectly petite in every way.

15 lbs. 3 oz. 

26 inches long.

She has literally gained one pound a month since she was born. 

6 lbs-15 lbs in 9 months!

She still scoots around on her back and army crawls on her belly.  She has gotten really good at it too. She even steers herself and goes from room to room throughout the house! When we put her on her hands and knees, she sits there for a minute, just rocking back and forth, and then falls to her belly and rolls over to her back.  Cracks us up.  But she will probably be crawling within the month. 

We have been blessed with such a good eater!  She loves her food and will eat pretty much everything. I'm surprised that she hasn't chunked up more, with all that she eats.  Fast metabolism I guess.

She is still wearing mostly 6 month clothes.  A few 9 month things fit.  Sort of.

She has become quite the little social butterfly and loves smiling and talking to people.  Along with all of the squawking, squealing and bubble blowing, her latest sounds have been, 'Da-da' and 'Ba-ba', and loves to click her tongue on the roof of her mouth.  We're still working on the 'Ma-ma' part :)

She graduated to size 3 diapers and get ready for this... we've switched to Luvs!  I know I know, WHAT?!  I have always been in love with Pampers, like in an unhealthy obsessive way, but when our supply ran out unexpectedly, all I had were Luvs.  So I put her in those while we ordered another shipment of Pampers.  But to my surprise, I really liked them!  We cancelled our Pampers order and ordered a shipment of Luvs instead :)  Call me crazy I guess.  

Bonus:  They are insanely cheaper!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... we are so in love with our little lady and each day with her is such a joy.  She has richly blessed our lives and we couldn't imagine life without her!