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!

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!