Oklahoma City

A couple weeks ago we went up to Oklahoma City for a Jeff's cousin's wedding. 

Caroline flew in to Dallas and we all drove up together. It was so nice of her to let us tag along! 

Ann and her family we're already up there and we all met up at the hotel. It was a really fun weekend, and Ava was in heaven with all of the attention she was getting from her cousins. Logan and Taylor were so nice and so good to her.

They made a crawling train. Up and down the hallway all afternoon. 

Ava thought this was just so funny.

Taylor showing off her breakfast masterpiece 

Ava photo-bombing at the recpetion

How cute is this picture?!

Ava and Aunt Ann

Family selfie

Jeff and his mom dancing- Logan and Ava dancing in the background

Cutie cousins

Me and my girl outside the temple

We also took Ava swimming at the hotel pool. 

She loved it, and I can't wait for pool days pretty much every day this Summer.

Before we drove home on the last day, we stopped at the OKC memorial- it was freezing, so we didn't stay long, but it was cool to see. It really is a nice memorial. 

All in all it was was a very fun weekend. Thanks for the good times OKC! and thanks to Jeff's mom for getting us all together.

Baby in a Box

This was our entertainment the other morning.

and now I'm looking for a bigger box :)

*Ava Rees* 10 Months

So late with this! Oh well. At least I'm doing it now, right?

Alright. 

My girl is 10 months!

Ava is so much fun these days. She's so full of personality and has really developed a real sense of what she wants and what she does not! 

Now, when I pick her up while she's playing with a toy she likes, or playing with something she shouldn't- she cries, throws her head back and stiffens her body and is basically so dramatic that I won't let her play with the toilet. Fun stuff. It is a little funny, and a little worrying- I thought tantrums were a thing that older kids did? Isn't she still just my babe? 

Overall though, she really is a sweetheart. She still loves to cuddle and her face still breaks out into the biggest grin every time I come back into the room. 

That face kills me. 

This last month Ava has had three new teeth come in- in total, she has 7.

Sometimes she bites my toes when I'm sitting on the floor. It always makes me jump, and that cracks her up. 

 ^^don't worry, we're going shoe shopping this weekend^^

Right before she turned ten months she took her first steps! She still prefers crawling, but every now and then she'll just stand up on her own and walk across the room. 

For the most part, she really is a good eater. 

She likes bananas, bread, yogurt, cheese, spaghetti, tortillas, and spinach smoothies. However, when she is done eating, she lets me know by flinging the leftover food across the room. 

She also loves her sippy cup! 

Ava loves to clap, and give high-fives. If she's in a good mood, she'll wave bye bye. She's still a little shy around people she doesn't know, but once she warms up she's all smiles and cuddles.

Our typical day starts out with a breakfast of oatmeal and fruit, followed by playing hard with her toys. After playtime, we read books and have a snack- usually yogurt- and then we'll head out to a park, or to meet up with friends. Ava will sometimes take a long nap after lunch. For lunch, she usually eats some cut up cheese and a spinach smoothie with some pieces of bread. Once Ava wakes up from her nap, she gets another snack-usually dry cereal- and then we go on a looooong walk. We break up the walk by stopping at the swings or stopping at the dog park. After we get home, she plays with her toys while I clean up and then she gets dinner- which is basically whatever I'm eating, just cut up in little pieces. After dinner, she gets a bath and pjs and some more book time and snuggles until its time for bed. 

Can't believe I only have two more of these to do! This year is going by so fast!

Love you Ava sweetheart and love our days together!

Valentine's Day 2014

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.

The Sunday before, I had Ava wear a little heart dress to church that my mom used to dress me in. 

I am just loving dressing her up- whether it's my old clothes or shopping for new ones- 

She was pretty happy.....

...until I wouldn't let her play with my camera.

Life's hard for a baby.

*Ava Rees* 9 Months

Alright- better late than never right? 

This last month has been long one- but not necessarily in a bad way. I feel like Ava has grown and accomplished a lot this month. She's such a happy little girl and I'm glad that hasn't changed. 

When she wakes up in the morning, I'm almost never ready to get up- so I'm thankful she likes to cuddle. I can grab her and throw her under the covers in my bed and she'll snuggle up next to me and kick and grab at the comforter. Sometimes she'll fall back asleep- and that's the best. 

I love waking up like this. On the day she turned 9 months I grabbed my camera and snapped some pics of what waking up with Ava is like. 

It involves her monkey and the cutest baby in the world.

This morning she fell asleep for another hour with me. Perfection. 

Ava's become more vocal. Throughout all of these pictures she's squealing and clicking her tongue. She loves to click her tongue. Ava still loves to clap. And she'll clap now when she sees anyone really happy or excited. I was watching Ellen the other day, and when she does that thing where she goes into the audience to dance- Ava looked up at the screen right then and back at me and started clapping and squealing along while bopping her head to the beat of the song. It was pretty cute. 

She likes to feed herself. This is frustrating because she doesn't really eat, but plays with her food instead. But then she gets angry when I try to feed her so...that's been fun.

Ava loves standing. She'll just stand in the middle of the room, not holding on to anything except some toy in her hands. The moment she tries to take a step however, she just topples over. Ava's still pretty tough. She falls over a lot and rarely cries. She really is one happy babe.

Ava loves giving high fives. It's pretty funny. She'll be across the room from me, but when I put out my hand and tell her to come give me a high five, she races over and slaps my hand several times- and she has the biggest grins while doing this. Ava also gives kisses- big, slobbery kisses- all over your face. It's gross and cute at the same time. Last Sunday she wouldn't stop kissing my face in Sunday school. It was awesome.

Ava loves to crash into her block towers. She's much more interested in destroying the towers than in building them. I keep trying to get her to build the towers, but she just excitedly waits until I finish building and then shrieks with joy as she swings her hands through my towers. She looooooooves this. She loves to destroy most anything- I wonder where she gets this from? :)-   ((me))

And right about here when she notices the window and wants to play with the blinds is when we really get up and out of bed. I'm still not ready to wake up- probably because Ava's started waking up several times a night again.....but it's ok. She's happy and healthy and for that I'm thankful.

Love you Ava

bffs

This last month has been busy. Jeff started clinic and coaching two club volleyball teams. This leaves me and Ava with a lot of quality time together. It's nice when Ava can see her dad for at least a few minutes before she has to go to bed, but that doesn't always happen. 

So what do Ava and I do alllll day errr day?

We read, cuddle, do kisses, take baths, eat, go on walks, don't nap, go to church, go to lunch, and apparently, take a lot of pictures.

love my lil bff.

gosh, i love her

Go Tigers

Julie and Jordan sent this adorable Princeton shirt for Ava for Christmas. She looked so cute in it and was so smiley the other morning that I had to take a few pics.

She kept peeking through her excersaucer and smiling so big every time she saw me looking back.

 Go Tigers!

and thanks Jordan and Julie!