Updates! :)

We are getting ready to go to California next week!  Ro and Jackie are getting married on May 8th! We are really excited!  Ava has some new summer clothes I bought a few months back, but they are 24 month size and she is swimming in them!  I pulled out some of her clothes from last spring-summer and was very surprised to find out they fit!!  Most of them are size 6-12 mos!  They are a little more snug than they used to be, but she actually fills them out now!

My newest news is that my last day of work is this Sunday!!!  "SCARY!!"  I am so excited I can barely stand it, but I am a little scared too.  This is going to be a major adjustment for Rafael and I. We have been working opposite shifts since Ava was born to avoid putting her in daycare.  Rafael's shift is changing to M-F next week, so our choices were either I quit, or Ava goes to daycare.  There really was no question, or even a thought of daycare for us.  I am so happy to be able to spend more time with my little girl!  It is SO hard for me to leave her everyday!

There are so many reasons we made the choice to do this.  One is daycare, one is church!  We can go to church now!  The other is that Rafael and I will actually have days off together now.  I miss him so much, and really miss having extra time with him.  Rafael and I were together literally 24/7 since the day we met.  We had the same schedules at work, and worked at the same place.  The departments we worked in were very close with each other so we would see each other all day at work too! After we had Ava, going to opposite shifts was a big adjustment for us.  "I am so excited to have that back again!!!!" :)

Today Ava and I were going through some of my old stuff.  I found this porcelain doll set that I had totally forgotten about!  As soon as I saw it, I knew it had to go in Ava's room!  It looks so cute!



Grandma has been coming to watch Ava on Saturday's while Rafael and I work.  After she left this last Saturday, Ava's been asking for her every single day!  "Gamma Gamma Gamma Gamma!"  She goes to the front door and says that over and over.  The other morning when she woke up, I went in her room and opened the blinds.  Ava pointed outside and kept saying "Gamma"!!!  She loves her Grandma!

Ava lets out these super high pitched squels sometimes.  She thinks it's pretty funny.  Over the last few days, every time she squels loud she says "Oh goodness" right afterwards.  Mommy says that to her when she is loud.  It is so funny!  She even gets that look on her face like "Oh my gosh, did I just make that sound?"

Tonight she made us laugh so hard!  We were sitting on the floor in the living room.  Rafael had his socks off.  Ava started talking about his feet and went over and sat down right next to his feet.  She grabbed his foot, then turned around and looked at us and started to whine... she stood up and put her hand over her nose and said "Stinky!"  We were laughing so hard I though I was gonna die!

She started singing the "patty cake" song, but she says "Pack-a-tay pack-a-tay."  In the past she has just done the motions while I sing it. She has never tried to sing it.

Her new obsession is the garbage can.  I don't even know how many times we go to the garbage can in one day.  Ava LOVES to throw garbage away!  She calls it "Puggage."  Sooo... Ava has really started to pull her own weight around here! (Literally)


                                     Haha, isn't that terrible? She is already doing chores!
                        She likes to take her diapers from the pale outside when it get's full. :)

Spring Fair

We made a quick dash over to the Spring Fair tonight! I got off work at 6, and the fair ended at 8.

We bought some tickets for the rides, but Ava was too small for them. We were all pretty bummed out until we saw the Ponies!!

Ava had her first real pony ride! She was so cute and got a HUGE grin once the pony started walking. She was pretty mellow and just concentrated on what was going on.

Ava got to pet some goats and a baby bunny. She was excited to see the big cows and chickens!

We made a stop for some Elephant Ears (a must when you go to the fair), and headed home around 7:45. We had a great time!

Wedding hair trial!

I have been trying to figure out what to do with Ava's hair for Ro and Jackie's wedding in May!! Ava is their flower girl. :) I did a trial run on Ava last night. I love the way it turned out! Their theme is daisies, so I think I will put some little daisy accents on the places where there are rubber bands. She is going to look so cute! She was very good while I did her hair. She just sat there and played with the rubber bands while I was doing it.




Ava loves Daddy's shoes!


One of our plants in the back yard from Cade! YAY!

Brother's photo shoot! :)

Here are some of the pictures from the photoshoot I did of my brother's. I didn't spend too much time on photoshop fixing them, and there are some little things that need fixing still. They all turned out so cute!

Hello!!

We had a busy weekend! Ava and I met up with some High school friends for lunch on Friday. It was so fun!

The rest of that day didn't turn out so well. On the way home I got a speeding ticket!

Ava had a full cup of apple juice at the restaurant we went to. She doesn't usually drink apple juice when I offer it to her. When I got home I put Ava down fro a nap. When she woke up she had taken her pants off and there was poop all over her bedding! I learned a lesson about apple juice! My sister suggested watering it down next time. I remember back when Ava was having her constipation problems the doc suggested apple juice as a laxative. I guess I wont do that again!!

Among these things, I couldn't find my cell phone! Rafael called and found it in the parking lot at work smashed in 100 pieces! I guess I must have set it down outside on the car and then drove away. Ugh!

What a bad day! When Raf got home from work I cried. The good thing that came from it all was that I realized that I haven't had a bad day for a really long time! It just all got saved up for one day!

I love my husband! He didn't, even for one second, get frustrated with me. All of the things that happened that day were preventable and completely within my control. I just had a delirious day! He was very supportive and just tried to make me feel better about it all. He is such a wonderful person. I am so lucky to have him.

Other than that day, things are great! Saturday Ava and I went to my Mom's house for breakfast! My Mom put together a combined little party from my brother and I's birthdays! It was so fun! My brother brought his girlfriend. She has a 2 1/2 year old daughter. Her and Ava had so much fun playing together! They were so cute! My Mom wanted some updated photos of my brother's. I was so excited to do a little photo shoot of them! My brother's are such handsome guys! I am still working on those photo's, so I will get them up on the blog in a few days.

Here are some of Ava and her cute little friend Aya.





These next two crack me up! Ava has never been a thumb sucker. She was really watching Aya suck her thumb and trying to figure out what she was doing. Then she decided to give it a try.








On Sunday night Raf and I were in the kitchen getting dinner together. I heard a loud thud come from Ava's direction. I was waiting for a cry, but it didn't come. Then I heard the thud again, followed by Ava laughing. I went over to see what she was up to. She got up on the couch, stood up and walked to the edge.... then she jumped off and hit the floor!!! She laughed again!! This kept going on and I was worried Ava was going to hurt herself. I laid out some blankets on the floor to cushion her fall. She kept on going.... she probably did this 50 times! It was so funny! She would get a huge smile on her face right before she took the fateful step off.







Ava talks like crazy!! She was in a grumpy mood the other day and I took her in her room to change her diaper. She was whining. When I laid her down to change her diaper she spouted this off... "Oh no, what happened, are you ok"? I don't know if she was asking herself that question or me.... hehe. She is getting really good with her sentences.

We have noticed the last few weeks that her patience has gotten much shorter. She will usually give something one chance before she gets frustrated and wants help. We have really been working on the no whining, just ask please thing. It seems to be working a little bit. My favorite word of the moment is flowers (Fudders). Ava has taken a real interest in them lately! If she sees a flower or plant she MUST smell it! After she smells is she will either say "Nummy" or "Pretty". She is so fun! :)

Uncle Cade gave us some flower's for my birthday! We planted those today! It was a beautiful day out! Ava and I spent most of the day in the backyard. Ava had so much fun smelling them! She got really muddy too. She saw Mommy digging in the dirt and she wanted to do it too!

Friends!

Ava and I met up with some friends for lunch today! It was fun, and even more fun that we are all at a close stage in life with one kid!

My angel

Happy Easter!!

Easter was so much fun! Unfortunately I had to work, so we planned our Easter festivities around my work schedule. When I came home for lunch, Ava had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard! It only took one egg in her basket for her to figure out what to do! She snatched them all up so fast, we had to take them out of her basket and lay them on the lawn again so we could get more pictures! Ava had fun opening them up, and she actually ate some of the candy inside!
When I got off work we gave Ava her Easter basket and a few new Little People toys we got her. She had fun checking out everything in the basket! She didn't like the Easter grass at all! She would get really frustrated when it would stick to her.

Ava can count to ten now! She says each number very clear! She really likes to count.. she counts almost everything! Sometimes she just walks around saying her numbers. She is so smart! :)

I went shopping with my sister last week and got some dresses! Kohl's was having a big sale. It was fun to have my sister there so she could tell me what looked good and what didn't. We both got some cute stuff!

And now for a loooong post of pictures! I can never figure out which ones to post, so I post them all! :)
























Ava counting her animals