Thursday, January 31, 2013

Has It Been A Month?

***So, I realized this little blog post was not posted a week ago when I wrote it. Does the fact that I actually wrote it back then count?***

A month??!! Seriously, it's been a month since Christmas already. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. We have already celebrated the wedding of a sweet young couple, hosted birthday parties and attended birthday parties, baby showers and a baby gender reveal party. 

Does that give me any reprieve from taking so long to post pictures from Christmas? Okay, if that doesn't, how about the fact that I literally took 2,000 pictures in the month of December? "Hi, my name is Abbey, and I may have a picture taking problem."

I won't go all vacation slide show on you but will post a few of the highlights.

Kiss Sanwich


 New Nephew


Singing shepherd
 

Peaceful



4 Years
 

White Elephant, Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

 

Zoo Lights
 
 
With Sweet Friends


 Not-So Happy First Encounters


The Good News
 

Going on Vacation (At least it's better than running away from home.)


1 Year


Holding On


Four Generations


Christmas 2012

Monday, January 14, 2013

Post Birthday Blogging

It seems like we have asked the advice of anyone who has anywhere near a Christmas birthday, what we should do to make Ava's birthday special. We only ask knowing that it must be hard to make Christmas Eve or Christmas Day feel like a birthday. One hundred percent of the people said to make it feel like a birthday rather than Christmas. So, it seems rather ironic that I chose "Twas the Night Before Christmas" as Ava's theme for her first birthday. I kind of thought this might be the only year I could get away with it.




  
 
I used Pinterest for many of the food ideas including the cheese, rosemary, and tomatoes tray as well as the veggie sticks in cups filled with ranch dressing. However, I have to say the cake was mostly my doings or rather undoings. It seemed like I had a disaster on my hands about thirty minutes before the birthday, but managed to pull it together with a little help of peppermints and coconut. I added a little peppermint extract to the cake so I guess it was fitting.

 

 

Almost as soon as the kids walked in I had them head over to the cookie decorating station. Somehow we managed to accumulate just enough Christmas hats for all of the kids.


These kiddos knew the appropriate amount of sprinkles, but apparently my son thought it was a contest to see who could get the most sprinkles on their cookie. I wish I had a picture but let's just say there were so many sprinkles on his cookie even he wouldn't eat it.

 



 After the cookie decorating, I took the kiddos outside for a few games. Here, this cutie is looking through "snow" to find hidden treasures.

 

My sweet friends agreed to be precious presents that were "wrapped."

 

Then, with some crushed Christmas bows I found, the kids had a relay race. It gave me an opportunity to clean up  the festivities of cookie decorating.


 Unlike her brother, Ava seemed to take a liking to her birthday cake.





 And perhaps one of the sweetest portions of the party were to see Ava's guests carrying bags and bags of groceries and household items for the Ronald MacDonald House. This place has a sweet spot in our hearts as it was were we stayed inside Texas Children's Hospital while Ava was in the NICU. This housing allowed us to literally be a five minute walk from Ava's hospital crib. I owe such a big "Thank You" to our family and friends for the donations and for celebrating our sweet little girl.


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

12 Months Old

I couldn't write about Ava's first eleven months and not finish off the year. I even have her 12 month pictures just like the others but man, Christmas, birthdays, New Years, and recovery can take a lot out of a person. We started back in our routine yesterday, and while I enjoyed some pj and movie watching days, it was nice to get back to some sense of "normal."

Well, without further adieu, here you are my darling little one year old.



I was filling out some information for our Sunday School class and when I had to classify the ages of my children, I was really hesitant to put toddler down instead of infant. A tear may have dropped down my cheek. Here you are at one, three, six, nine and 12 months. My, how you have changed!





   


Ava Grace, you make us laugh so much. There's nothing sweeter than when you and your brother start laughing at each other. You have such a sweet, fun-loving personality, but we also see snippets of that fiery personality. Just this week, I was moving you away from some things you shouldn't be into, and you let me know you were not happy about it.


Your one year check up went well. You weigh 17 pounds and 11 ounces and are 28 inches long, I think. I may need to confirm that. Interestingly, you have dropped from the 95% for height to about the 15% and are about the 5% for weight. The doctor said you were probably just averaging out. You are wearing 12 month clothes although the waist on most clothes is big.


You are so close to walking. In fact, you have taken a few steps but have yet to take off. You can stand straight up without holding onto anything and you will walk along furniture. You climb our stairs like a champ with Mommy or Daddy right behind you.


Your MeMe taught you how to blow a bubble which cracks us up, and your Daddy loves it when you give a high five. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star remains your favorite song and you get so excited when you see your soft bunny rabbit.


Sweet girl, we love you so much. As you join this new phase of life called toddlerhood, I am a bit sad but so excited to see what God has in store for you. Love you to the moon and back and more. Mama.