Sunday, October 17, 2010

Pumpkin Patch

Ava went to her first Pumpkin Patch today! As a matter of fact, it was my first as well. After church this morning we went to a friend's house for some chili and biscuits and then went out and picked some pumpkins for carving. We got one Ava-sized one (it turned out to only weigh one pound!) and a couple big ones for us. The carving happens next weekend. It was a big day and now Ava is exhausted.





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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Miscellaneously Cute

Sorry about the long lapse in blogging (about 7 weeks, I think). I quit right about the time I went back to work. It's taken a while to get used to the schedule with me working and all that that entails. It has been an adventure. It's going fine and I'm happy to be back at work (although I do sometimes long to be at home with Ava again) and Ava is doing well, we are just SO busy! It's hard to find time for all the responsibilities we always had plus a baby (I know, all you seasoned parents are chuckling; yes, we did know this would be the case). We're starting to get the hang of it, though! Ava is doing well at "school". I've been meaning to take some pictures of her classroom ever since she started but haven't managed that yet. Lately she's become the queen of the half hour nap there, but I think that will pass. There's just so much going on that she doesn't want to miss out! She wakes up happy and is generally happy there, so I guess it's not all bad.

Work is going well for me. I have gone down to working four days per week, which has been fabulous so far. I have Thursdays off (random, but it's the day that works best) and I consider them my "work-at-home" days. My goal is to accomplish much of the cleaning and grocery shopping on those days so that we have less of that to do on the weekends. I try not to be overly optimistic with my to-do lists, as it is hard to accomplish much while taking care of a baby. I love the extra time with Ava, though, and try not to let my busyness distract me from the joy of having time with her. And this day off is how I am managing to do this blog entry today. :)

Other than our trip to St. Louis, nothing ground-breaking has happened since I blogged last. We dedicated Ava at church on September 19th. One of our friends snapped some pictures for us, but they're pretty dark (it's really hard to get decent pictures in our church sanctuary). We'll have to see if we can get them lightened up a little to show off. The day before that we did a family photo shoot with our friend Kathryn Bacalis, who is a photographer. We should be seeing those pictures in a couple weeks and I can't wait! It ended up being a cool, rainy day, which was a bummer since we did the shoot outside at the Oval on the CSU campus. The trees protected us from the rain some, though, and the lighting was great for pictures. Ava was a good sport. Afterwards she experienced her first outdoor football game. We went and hung out with Grandpa Clint and Garney while Tyler (Clint's nephew) played pee-wee football. Quite chilly, but still fun (they won, yea!).

Tomorrow evening we are driving up to Beaver Creek to spend the weekend at a condo with the other couples (four others) on our small group. It should be fun and I'm sure the fall colors will be beautiful! Ava's new friend Chase (about 2 and a half weeks old now) will be there, too.

Since it has been so long, we have quite a few random pictures of Ava that I will post here. She's getting so big! 3 months old (14 weeks tomorrow) already!
















Sitting at the dinner table in her Bumbo chair. She was pretty interested in what we were doing. :)











Her first walk in the stroller without the car seat. She seemed to love being able to see where we were going!













Sunday, September 26, 2010

Ava Rolls Over!

On this last Thursday night Ava started rolling over! I was home with her during the afternoon (as I usually have Thursdays off now) and had her doing some tummy time. Kind of out of nowhere she started lifting up higher than usual, getting her whole chest off the floor. I was very impressed and cheered her on. When Tim came home that night I told him about it and we put her on her tummy to see if she would do it again. Well, she did that and so much more! She rolled over and subsequently did it several more times, every time we placed her on her tummy. She's a little rockstar, she is. And we got it on video. Check it out

Ava goes to St. Louis

Over Labor Day weekend we went on a quick trip to St. Louis, Missouri, to visit my sister and her family. It was Ava's first vacation and airplane ride! It was a weekend full of lots of firsts for Ava, including meeting her aunt, uncle and cousins. My sister (Jessica) and her husband (Brandon) have a three year old son (Cameron) and another baby boy who was born just about a month after Ava (Everett). This was our first time meeting Everett as well. Ava did really well on the airplane rides. When she started to get a little fussy I just fed her and, well, eating fixes everything for our little girl.
While in St. Louis we visited the Botanical Gardens, where their Japanese Festival was going on, the Zoo, and Ted Drewe's, which is famous for its frozen custard and is a popular tourist stop. We also spent a lot of time just relaxing at Jess and Brandon's house. It's a little complicated to go anywhere when you have four adults and three car seats. Any outing required two cars and that wasn't always possible since Brandon did have to work. Cameron got to spend a lot of time with his Uncle Tim while the moms took care of the babies. And Tim was a very good sport and played a lot with Cameron.

What was also fun was that we finally got to give Cameron (and Everett) a rocking horse made by Uncle Tim. Tim worked really hard in the four weeks before our trip and built a rocking horse for our nephews. He shipped it to St. Louis in a couple big pieces before we left and then finished assembling it once we were there. Cameron seemed to like it and hopefully Everett will one day, too.

Here is a selection of pictures from our trip:



Ava on the airplane right after landing in St. Louis. She wasn't too happy to have been woken up from her nap.



Cousins Ava and Everett doing some tummy time together. They were close to the same length, but Ava had quite a bit of weight on Everett. Ava was 10 weeks old and Everett was 6.




Cameron decided he needed a little tummy time, too.







Cameron riding his new rocking horse. When he first saw it he asked me what it was. I said, "It's a rocking horse that Uncle Tim made for you and Everett." He replied in a quiet voice, "Please I ride it?" :)









Here we are at the zoo! Ava experienced her first penguin exhibit. She may have been asleep in the stroller, but at least she was there.




Cameron and Brandon at the zoo.





No matter where she is, Ava loves to stand!





I got to see my good friend Erin while we were there! She lives in St. Louis and came over for dinner one night. It was fun to have her meet Ava.






Daddy time.






Tim with his hands full.



On our last full day there we went to Brandon's parents' house to hang out by their pool for a bit. This is Ava relaxing by the pool.






Such a big girl!





Relaxing with Mom by the pool.




At the Botanical Gardens.





Everett slept through most of the Botanical Gardens tour and Ava cried. :) She was pretty hungry.






Who is that guy in the background? I don't remember his name, but he's the one responsible for the Botanical Gardens.





Plants are awesome!










































Friday, August 6, 2010

Ava at 6 Weeks

Ava is six weeks old today! That seems like a milestone. And what new things is she doing, you ask? Well, she has several new tricks. In about the last week and a half we've noticed her beginning to see objects in front of her, including toys and her mobile. She now enjoys watching them, especially if they're moving! Her bouncy seat has a little bar that goes over the top with some things that hang down for her to look at. We've begun using that and it is good for entertaining her for a while. She likes to watch the toys move. When they move she wiggles, which makes them move more, which makes her even happier and more wiggly! It's pretty cute. She can also follow an object with her eyes for a little ways, if you hold it in front of her and move it to the side. She can hold a rattle or smallish object if you help put it in her hand. There's a video below of her shaking a rattle (not so much on purpose, but still fun). She can hold her head up like it's her job and loves to do so. Her little neck is pretty strong. There's video below from almost two weeks ago of her doing that, so she's even better now! What else? One of Tim's favorite tricks is helping her stand up on her legs in his lap and then balancing her while she "stands". She can hold her own weight pretty well. Unfortunately, this trick only works if she's mad. :) And the best of all: she's smiling! She's still a little stingy with her smiles, but when she gives them they're adorable! And I captured the elusive smile today! I figured it would be months before I got any smiles on camera, but she gave me several good ones this afternoon. There are pictures below. And she definitely smiled back at me this afternoon when I smiled at her and said "hi!". So fun to see a response!
In recent events we had dinner with Grandpa Clint last night. He was in town on his way to Sturgis. Ava slept through it all, of course, but I'm sure she was glad to "see" him.
Ava and I went for a walk today with Jenn, Breyton and Mara. Breyton is almost two and a half and Mara is about 12 weeks old. Ava and Mara may not know it yet, but they're going to be best friends (at least if Jenn and I have anything to say about it!).
Ava and I only have one more week at home, so we're going to try to make the best of it! Soon she'll be experiencing all kinds of new things when she's at "school". I keep telling her about how neat it will be to watch all the other babies and learn from them. Hopefully she likes it!


I think she's going to love it when she can sit up on her own.


Aren't I cute?

Look at me! I'm holding a rattle AND smiling!


Look at that beautiful smile!

Sparkly little eyes.


Check out these videos. They're probably only exciting if it's your baby, but . . . well, I think they're cute!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Happy Anniversary!



Four years ago today Team Kelleher was created. It's hard to believe it has been that long, and yet, at the same time, it's hard to remember what life was like before we were married. Much has happened in those four years and our lives have seen some pretty big changes. In January 2006 we were engaged, in August 2006 we were married, in April 2007 I started a new job, in May 2007 Tim graduated college, in July 2008 we bought a house, and we've seen several huge changes already in 2010. While all four years have been wonderful, it is the last fifteen months or so that have really made me wonder what I would do without my partner in life and all the messiness that goes with it. From our miscarriage in May 2009 to the death of our parents in April and May of 2010 and of course the birth of our daughter in June, life has definitely required a team effort. I am grateful for all of these things because I know that we are stronger now because of them. And I am so thankful to have my loving husband by my side as I look ahead and consider what else life might bring. I'm so glad that the Lord brought us together. I'm so glad you asked me to marry you, Tim. I'm so glad to be where we are today. I love you, husband!









Thursday, July 22, 2010

Happy Happy Joy Joy

It has been nearly a month since Ava entered our world and life is good. Little Miss has her moments, but she's a good baby and we are really enjoying having her here. She's quite the trooper and has been out and about with us many times now. She's good at sleeping through meetings and events, which is quite convenient for us. She even went grocery shopping with me this week and had her first trip to the Foothills Mall today. What fun. She continues to be healthy and happy. We're struggling a little with her daytime naps (she mostly just doesn't sleep through them) but I'll take that any day considering how well she sleeps at night. It's wonderful to get to spend so much time with her; it will be hard to go back to work, although I suspect that a part of me will be ready, too. It's like the old days of being in school: at the beginning of summer you wanted to never have to go to school again, but by the end of summer you couldn't wait to get back. At least I know she'll be close by and in the best of care. That helps a lot.

In other news, Tim and I have a new nephew! My sister, Jessica, and her husband, Brandon, had their second child just yesterday, the 21st. Little Everett Anthony Sather was born at just about 4pm their time and is a healthy baby boy, weighing in at 7lbs. 13oz., with a length of 20.5in. Both he and mommy are doing great! I can't wait to hear what big brother Cameron thinks of him (he thought his little brother's name should be Spiderman). Tim and I have just bought tickets this week to go out and visit all of them over Labor Day. Ava will get to meet her cousins! I'm slightly fearful about flying with an infant, but figure it's probably easier at 2 months than at 12 months.

Tim has just started another job at work, which is kind of exciting. He'll be working next on a jail renovation in Denver. He'll still be working on the project from the office in Longmont, so he doesn't have to commute down there every day, thankfully. Many of his co-workers will not have work (they will still be employed-but with little to do) come September, so we are praying that FCI is able to find more projects.

I've attached some more pictures, including one of Ava's first visit from Grandpa Clint. He and Great Grandma Garnie (GGG) came up for a bit to see us last Saturday.



Here she is having some "back time" on her "playgym". She now can/will lay on her back happily for quite a while, which makes her much easier to entertain.


Awwww . . .




Grandpa Clint!





Tummy time.



Her first nap in her crib! She's been napping in there for quite a while now, although we have yet to attempt to put her there through the night.


Someday she'll choose her own clothing but for now . . . mommy wins.



She may be scheming . . . or just pooping.