phone dump

I have so many pics on my phone that I just need to post somewhere- even though they're not the best quality, I don't want to lose them because they're the best way to remember what our day to day is like.

However.... I'm dumping A LOT of these pic all right here so.... feel free to scroll fast :)

Out at the Cook's the morning after watching the kids- Ava was digging Taylor's pancakes

Sometimes I miss her when she sleeps and so I sneak in to take pictures

while she is not happy alllllllll of the time, she is happy most of the time :) 

and she has developed the cheesiest, most wonderful grin. 

love it.

Love that smile!

me and my girl! I really am the luckiest mama

if you're on the floor...she'll run and sit on you

while I was letting my CTR-5 class at church color, Ava picked up a crayon and just started coloring too! I was pretty surprised since it's not something we've ever done- now I just strap her into her high-chair and she's content to just color for about ten minutes. It's great- but she does still try to eat the crayons sometimes....we're working on that part :)-

The morning Ava turned 1!!!

She comes into my bed in the mornings and promptly rolls around like crazy until she's upside down in bed... but at least she's still sleeping!

Jumping on Uncle Mike!

Has so much fun destroying the bookshelf...

hahaha she's the best.

she loves to stand backwards on her car and rock back and forth

She still loves to read to herself

on the left in both pics she is about 2 weeks old and on the right she is 1.

Craziness 

sporting her new backpack

She's big into climbing anything and everything

still looooooves that shopping cart!

annnnnnd that's it. finally. 

My Cowgirl

A few weekends ago I went out to Wylie to stay with Taylor and Logan. It was good to see the Cooks again, and we had a great weekend. Taylor ended up coming back with me and having a sleep over back here in Coppell. Jeff was out working all weekend so it was a fun girl's night for us.

We started to the weekend by going boot shopping for Taylor's horse riding lessons- Ava even scored her own pair of darling boots. Thanks Ann! It took her a second to get the hang of walking in them, but I about die every time she wears them because they are so darn cute on her. 

Just getting the hang of it...

and she's off....

Cowgirl cousins

The next morning I took the kids to their lesson- Ava dressed up in her boots to show her support. 

Ava and Logan in front of The Colonel 

and since I still get a little anxious around horses- this is about as close as I would get. The girls that were working there kept telling me I could pet them and I just kept inching farther and farther away from them. From now on I'm just going to declare that I'm extremely allergic to horses. That's how allergies work right?

Anyways, surprise, surprise Ava's cute in boots. 

Love my girl!

*Ava Rees* 12 Months

Alright. Finally- the last monthly update! Of course I'll keep posting when I can about this little bug, but I won't be doing the monthly update thing. 

My goal was to do it for the first 12 months. 

Done and done.

This last month she seems much less my little baby and more and more a sassy toddler. 

She tries to repeat a lot of words that I say, but the only three words she says unprompted are mama, no, and whoa! She says mama while running towards me with her arms out and a big grin on her face. I love it. She yells NO whenever she just doesn't like a situation. I do not love this. And she says whoa! Every time she falls on her bum. It's pretty cute.

While she is pretty independent, she's also a momma's girl. She'll play with her toys forever, but if I catch her eye she'll squeal and run towards me, giving me a giant bear hug. She also follows me from room to room- she'll be playing in the corner, but if she sees me walk into the bedroom she gets herself up and hustles after me.

I took her to her 12 month check-up last week

Weight: 22 lbs 4 oz     69%

                                                             Height: 30.5 inches     89%

                                                             Head Circ: 47 cm        93%

Now that she's running around, she's leaning out and thankfully the check-up went great.

She likes to read books, stack blocks, dance to music and run around exploring.

She does not like diaper changes, putting on clothes, sitting in her car seat or high chair.

This is what she looks like when she runs toward me :) She throws out her arms like Frankenstein and gets this big goofy grin. It's the best.

She still loves to hide random things in her clothes hamper- the tv remote, my phone, her sippy cup- if something's missing, look in her hamper.

Ava also loves to point. She'll point at something and then look at me, waiting for me to tell her what it is. Last Sunday during church she wouldn't stop pointing at the kids behind us. Add on to the pointing, she was yelling No! No! Nooooooooooo! at them lol I think she didn't like them playing with toys? We had to take her out- the whole time she's wailing Noooooooooooooooooo! And she does thins thing now when she doesn't like something she makes her whole body go limp and she'll just wilt to the floor. It's charming.

Overall though, she really is the best little girl. The changes that occur in the first year are remarkable. I'm so grateful that I get be the one to be her mama and see her make all of these changes and developments. She's such a special, fun little girl and I can't wait for the new fun stuff we get to experience together.

Love you Ava Rees!

Ava is One!!!

So if it feels like we celebrated Ava's birthday for a week and a half.....that's only because we did. 

People kept coming over and seeing all of the decorations I put up like, a week in advance-and I think it kind of weirded them out-- But I was just really excited to celebrate! And every day we did something special with Ava to celebrate her birthday. I also felt like I was celebrating me getting through a whole year with both of us alive and in good spirits :) 

I kind of let Ava open a couple of presents a day for the week leading up to her birthday- mostly because I wanted to see what was in them and she wanted to play with the wrapping paper. 

Thank you to the grandparents and great-grandparents, friends, and family for all of the packages, presents and cards! It's so fun seeing other people celebrate the little girl that you just love more than anything.

This was on the Sunday after her birthday with some of her new toys. 

She really does love that little car- always on it

I also hung streamers everywhere- and they did look cool, but I forgot to take a picture :/ 

One of her special breakfasts this week was pancakes and eggs- she was pretty happy it wasn't her usual oatmeal.

So many puzzles and books. So much more to do now- She was pretty good about knowing what to do with opening presents.

Birthday flowers

Such a happy little birthday girl

After presents on her real birthday, we took her over to the park and let her run around, go down the slide as many times as she wanted, and played with bubbles.

We love you Ava Rees!

Happy Birthday!