Church

A few weeks ago we headed back to church!  I was scared. It just seems so much easier handling a baby in your own little apartment. However, if I had known how smoothly it was going to go- we would have been back sooner! Ava was an angel babe and slept the entire time. 

Her first church outfit was kind of a snug fit, (and seriously, what outfit of hers isn't???)

 but she looked pretty cute!

Growth Spurt

Girl is growing- and eating- and growing- and eating-

around the clock.

 And we are all tired. 

Growing is hard work.

Happy Monday

I spent the morning cuddling this little one in bed while listening to the rain coming down. 

It was pretty perfect.

Mornings like this make me feel so lucky and blessed that I get to spend all my time with her. 

It also makes up for when she wakes up at 4:00 am ready for the day (last night) or when she has a super sonic major poop explosion out her diaper (uhhh.... like everyday)

but cuddling with her and watching her grow and learn new things has been amazing and 

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Family Time

 Ava got a lot of family time in last week.

Needless to say, she loved everyone!

Ava had only met my Dad through the magic of FaceTime.

 She loved him even more in person :) 

but lets be real- who doesn't love my dad?

Matt leaves in a two weeks for his mission! 

Next time he sees Ava, she'll be two. craziness. 

Ava loves her Grandma

practicing being a Dad is hard work.

during his stay Matt told me he didn't think he ever wanted to have kids. ha.

I'll be sure to warn his future wife.

the first and last time she'll take a bottle. she hates them. 

she only takes them from me so far but....that kind of defeats the purpose of being able to leave her with other peeps so....we're working on it.

Ava was up really early one morning so my Dad and I took her on a walk.

 Everyone else slept- those lazy bones.

Grandma and the burrito babe

Uncle Chris. We can't wait to visit him in San Antonio! Chris already spoils his niece. Ava loves the bouncer seat Chris got for her. 

I love it too- it allows me time to shower :)

Ava, Jeff and his Dad after the blessing. It was so nice of him to fly in for it.

she loved just looking up into grandpa's face

whew. and that's it! I swear every post is a picture explosion. I almost feel bad for our next kid who will probably only have, like, two pictures taken of him/her. haha. 

#firsttimeparents #firstbornproblems

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the new daddy in our little family. Jeff loves being a dad so much. The moment he comes home from school he loves to lay out next to her and kick her legs and cheer her on during tummy time. He's always texting me from school asking for me to send more pics. I have such good memories with my dad -and I still think he's pretty awesome- so it's really special to see Ava and Jeff forging their own little bond. Even in Jeff's sleep he's thinking about taking care of Ava- the other night I was getting up around 3am to feed Ava and Jeff starts mumbling. I turn around and Jeff has taken all the covers on our bed and bundled them into a ball and was trying to shove them into my arms- the whole time telling me I can use his blankets for Ava because, "Ava needs blankets." lol I tried telling Jeff that Ava had her own blankets and didn't need our bed covers but Jeff was persistent so I took the bundle of blankets and Jeff laid back down, curled up in a ball and I could tell he was trying not to shiver. (we've been blasting the AC) It was pretty cute. I covered Jeff back up and carried on with what I was doing, but the whole time I was laughing and thinking about what a thoughtful dad Ava has lol Of course, Jeff had no memory of this in the morning. 

I'm certainly lucky to have the dad that I do and lucky to be married to someone who's turning out to be a pretty great one. Happy Father's Day!

Ava's Blessing Day

Last Tuesday we had Ava's blessing. We decided to do it in our apartment with just close family. That's the way me and all of my siblings were blessed and Jeff and I liked the idea of keeping it simple.  It was nice to see Ava having the support of her family. Jeff gave a beautiful blessing and I was such a proud mama. 

Ava looked adorable in the same blessing dress that I wore that my mom had received as a gift from my great grandma when I was born. 

But all you really need to know about Ava on her blessing day can be summed up by this picture below.

ha, girl was not happy.

cried the entire time.

I got a couple of pictures of her in her dress before.....

....she thought about it.....

and decided she hated her dress

......and these are the faces of two parents who are done taking pictures with a crying baby......

yeah- the moment we took her out of her dress she was all good. 

tricky baby.
I'm waiting to get group pictures from my brother's camera. I was a little distracted by all the crying to make sure my camera was being used. Oh well. 

iphone dump

 As always, I take too many pictures with my phone- it's just so easy and handy! I'm getting better at using my real camera- but here's some pics from my phone from over the past couple weeks of moments I want to remember

daddy daughter workout sessions when Jeff gets home

she just loves to sleep in my arms 

but I've been pretty strict about getting her to her crib and it's starting to pay off!

going on a walk- love her little hat

family nap

wish it wasn't so hot all of the time- otherwise we'd go on a lot more walks

our fam :)