Our Little Santa Claus

Ava is such a happy baby so it was very easy for us to get some cute Christmas pictures of her. Some of these were used for our Christmas cards so sorry for the spoiler but they are just too fun not to share!
I hope you were nice this year! I'm checkin my list.

Ava hangs her first ornament on the tree w/ technical assistance from mommy.

A Christmas dress she got from MeeMaw
Watch out Dasher and Dancer!

Some More Random Pictures

Ava is growing so fast it seems like she's changing and doing something new everyday. She is a super happy baby these days unless we let her get too tired. Strangers are always amazed at how easily she smiles just when they say hello. Here are some pictures from the past month or so.


Just hangin out w/ my doggie.


See my pretty bow and my chubby chubby cheeks!


Our little Boomer Sooner cheerleader!


Last time Grandma and Grandpa Vincent were here, Grandpa had a cold and didn't want Ava to catch it. But he still wanted to hold her........here was the solution! His idea, not mine.


We were excited when Aunt Bubba (Breea) came to visit for a weekend. Ava had so much fun w/ her and made sure Aunt Bubba got to change her share of poopy diapers!

My First Halloween

Well Ava and I were able to locate a pumpkin costume at the last minute. The size said it was an infant size and I didn't realize they meant 0-24 months so needless to say it is a little large but she still looks cute though she wasn't all that thrilled about wearing it for long. We went to our ward trunk-or-treat and planned to have her be part of the pumkin patch that was our decorating theme. We got there late so our patch was a little sparse as we didn't have time to fully decorate. But it was fun to see all the kids dressed up.



The drowning pumpkin and her witchy mom...how true that is somedays. LOL.



Here I am trying to show off the costume and losing Ava in the process!

Vaccines: Really that necessary?

So Ava's 4 month birthday was yesterday which means another round of vaccinations. It was oh so much fun the first time that I'm not sure why I wasn't thrilled to do it again. I know I know I have many more times of this so I better get used to it. They did all the measuring and weighing mumbo jumbo before the shots. Good little girl didn't even pee on the scale this time. I was so proud. :) Ava now weighs 16 lbs. and she is 26 1/4" long. The weight is the 93rd percentile and height is the 97th I think. I don't have the paper with me. But anyway, they were all in the nineties.......thats A's right? LOL.

The time of her doctors appointment was her naptime so she was already a little crabby. The doctors office wasn't helping things as we had to wait twice as long as normal to be put in a room, for the nurse to show up and for the doctor to see her. So by the time they started stabbing her she was already crying. Needless to say having four needles poked into her chubby little legs didn't help much and it was all I could do to get her calmed down. She was cranky the rest of the day and had to either be in my arms or right next to me. Poor thing. Luckily its another 2 months before we have to do it again.

We have a trunk or treat party w/ our ward tonight. I wasn't sure we'd be able to go w/ Rob having to work so many hours lately and today being the last day of the fiscal year but it looks like he'll finish up in time. So Ava and I are on a hunt for a costume for her today. I'll be sure to post some pictures. She may end up being an OU cheerleader as we already have that one. Happy Halloween all. Steer clear of any ghouls and goblins you see today!

Time Flies

For those of you who are already moms this will come as no surprise. I continue to be amazed at the things Ava learns and how much she changes in just weeks and even days. She has this pink bouncy chair I put her in when I'm showering or making dinner, etc. It has a play bar w/ a hanging flower and there is a plastic ring hanging from the flower. If you pull on the ring it plays a song. Initially when I put her in the chair I would pull the ring and watch her face light up. She apparently is a fan of the music. A few weeks ago she was in the chair on the floor in the kitchen and I had my back to her making dinner. All of the sudden I hear the music from the flower start playing. I gasped and turned around to see her w/ a shocked expression on her face, her fingers still curled around the plastic ring. Unfortunately my clapping and praising for this new accomplishment was met w/ a pouty lip followed by tears and a flailing arm. She had mastered the art of moving her arms around enough that her hand could accidentally make contact w/ the ring and grab hold but she did not yet possess the ability to let go of the ring. So after the initial surprise of grabbing it wore off she began to scream because she couldn't get her hand to release it. Needless to say, I detached the death grip and placed her hand back in the safety of her lap. This morning I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup and I kept hearing the music coming from the chair behind me where Ava sat entertaining herself. I kept waiting to hear her whine for my help but the whining didn't come so I turned around to watch. I watched as she would awkwardly reach up and get her fingers around the ring, pull it until the music started and then let go so she could kick and bounce in excitement w/ the tunes. The music would stop, her bouncing would stop and once more w/ a look of extreme concentration furrowing her brows she would extend her arm to the ring to make the music start again. This cycle was repeated over and over. I was just thrilled that in the space of a few short weeks shes made such progress. Babies are amazing and oh so much fun! So congratulations to the new master of ring pulling!

Here is a picture of the chair. You can barely see the purple ring in the right hand corner. I had it flipped around the bar so I didn't hit her head putting her in. This picture is from the time when she was merely a spectator of the flower ring pulling!

I love my daddy!

Chillin on daddy's lap making my fish face!



Boomer Sooner.....down w/ the longhorns!


I can almost taste all 23 flavors. Yum!

Growing Girl!

Do you like my silly hat?


Not sure how I feel about this headband.


See the cute shoes Grandma Vincent sent me? They have my name on them!


Eating my hands.....its my new thing. I swear my mom feeds me.


Is it bedtime yet?
See all the cute bows Aunt Mellonee made me!

Some more fun pictures

I love all of these pictures and since I was too lazy and didn't get a birth announcement out I will share them with you all on the blog. Enjoy!

Happy Girl

Well Ava is full of smiles and laughs these days. Here's a video of our friend Monica (her only Texas aunt) making her giggle.

Clowning Around

Kitchen Remodel nearly completed

So when we moved into our new house we knew we wanted to replace our kitchen countertops b/c they were an ugly 1990's forest green. We weren't too keen on the cheap-looking (pics don't show this) cabinets. Anyway, since Rob's bro-in-law was home from BYU for the summer we decided to take advantage of his cabinet-making skills! (Lucky him right?) Then we figured while we were redoing cabinets and cutting holes for appliances we might as well get some we liked since the ones here were from the early nineties and looked even older! So one thing led to another and it turned into a full redo. So here are some before and after pictures. We still have to do the backsplash but we think it looks pretty fantastic!

When I grow up

Aunt Mellonee provided a wig so Ava could see what she'd look like as a brunette!

Meeting the Family

Abby and Ava got the chance to go out to Utah to see Abby's family. Ava did a great job on the plane and hardly cried at all although changing a diaper in an airplane bathroom is quite a feat! Ava was able to meet lots of her aunts and uncles and her great grandma and grandpa and see her Roberts grandparents again. She spent lots of time with her cousins and several of them were quite fascinated by her and were quite the little helpers. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of everyone that held her! Bummer!

Nursery

So after lots of work from the proud daddy, the stripes wall in Ava's room is finished and her nursery is nearly complete. It's much ahead of schedule considering that I've already informed Rob that she will be sleeping in with us until she completely or at least nearly sleeps through the night. So here's picture of the nearly finished project. I still have some adorable giraffe pictures my cousin painted that need to go up on the wall and some vinyl lettering I'm putting above the window but you get the idea.

Introducing Ava

On June 30, 2007 our little Ava was born in Dallas and our lives have been turned upside down ever since. She weighed 8 lbs. 1 0z much to my surprise as the doctor had been sure she was high sixes. She was 21 inches long. We spent a couple nights in the hospital with her and then brought her home on July 3rd.