Obnoxious Mom...

Uncle Dave took a few pictures of Ava during her party. This is mostly for me as currently this blog is the only documentation of Ava's life...but I thought they were pretty cute. :)

Party!

We had Ava's family birthday party on Saturday... lots of fun! The men, however, were disappointed in how ladylike she was with the cake. I even got mostly white icing because of a previous run in with neon pink cupcakes. (pictures to be shared shortly) Anyway-we had a fun time even though she was clean!

525,600 minutes...

I realize that pretty much everyone in the world has had a child with a first birthday and that I am nothing new. But man, it's weird! All the stuff everyone says, can't believe, time flies, blah blah blah. So true. When I look at the first picture from a year ago, to the one where she is eating Garbanzo beans with cilantro for dinner-it kind of hits me! (she didn't complain and it was good protein)

We had such a fun day. Mark was home with us and we played, opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa and Oma and Opa, our cousins and Aunt Lindy came over, it was a great day. And, since it was Mark's half birthday, he got a little boat action in. :) I am so thankful for our precious girl. I'm praying she grows up to love Jesus and can't thank him enough for giving her to us to love. Happy Birthday sweet Ava!! (Way overtook pictures, wanted to squeeze them all in! She loved the rubber duckies from Oma and wanted one everywhere she could hold one! And thanks Grandma Judy for the cute birthday outfit!)

when mom's away...

Dad will go buy something to play with! Mark has wanted a radio controlled boat for as long as I've known him. This was the big weekend. The thing goes like 50 miles an hour. I don't really get it, but my nephew told me that's because I'm not a guy. Anyway-Mark was happy, so I am, too.

Could not pay me enough money to wade in that water that had snow on it 3 weeks ago!!

One boat rescue-thank goodness for our fancy canoe!

Ava LOVES living by her four boy cousins. They are so sweet to her! Luke, above-people have always said looks like me, so it's ok that Ava looks like her daddy. My face got stuck somewhere in the family. :)

She found a headband and spent the better part of 20 minutes trying to get it on her head. That's a girl for ya! I finally helped her out.

weekend away.......

Three cheers for Mark for staying with Ava for the weekend so I could go play with some friends! :) It was their first weekend alone...sadly-I think Mark did a better job than I do! I came home to a clean house and a happy baby. So much for my tales about how hard my job is! We got together to celebrate Beth's upcoming baby-Keller. (how cute are those cupcakes!)

If you pray...

Please pray for these sweet people. I don't know them, but will copy the post from my sister-in-laws blog. I guess they went to Taylor-where Mark and I went to college. It feels kind of shallow to post what I was about to-so I will wait.

"Please be praying for college friends of mine, Matt & Shannon (works for US Govt, living in London) whose children (4 yrs & 1 yr) were both recently diagnosed with Sanfilippo Syndrome, (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001210.htm a very rare, terminal disease.
I can’t even imagine what is going through their minds right now knowing that both of their children will probably not live through the teen years. The heartache must be unbearable. They have a long road ahead with their two little ones and it will be especially tough living overseas without family close by. Here is a link to their blog to read more http://familymctravels.blogspot.com/."

hello, husband...

Thanks to the help of lots of gracious people and lots of hours in the car with an 11 month old...I got to go on vacation with my husband. It was so nice to see him. :) Between him traveling, working, traveling, his blackberry, and a baby-it's not a common occurence! We had such a fabulous time.

Okay my eyes are closed but how cute is that kid I married??? It's always so funny to think how he went from this cool kid to watching me give birth, wear shlumpadinka clothes and no make up, and we still think the other is the greatest. :)

I'm sorry...

Title chosen because according to my friend Kelly, I say that a lot?? Who knew. She started fining me a quarter every time. We will buy ourselves Diet Coke. One of my few true soul sisters who can potentially outdrink me with the evil brown liquid.


Everyone we knew in Grand Rapids left for Spring Break so Ava and I figured we'd better bail, too. We had a VERY much fun visit with our friends the Mannings. The best part about being someone else's house when you're pregnant is that you can lie on the couch without feeling like you need to be doing laundry or vacuuming or, or, or....



I'm pleased to see Bryce already examining Ava's left hand, although it seems like he wasn't too interested, only after he had already captured her heart and she didn't want to let him go. Typical male. :)

"Birthday" Party.....

Because let's be honest, people want to see Ava. Not a 29 year old in a ponytail. :) Mark wasn't home on my birthday so surprised me last night by having our family come over for dinner. We had such a good time!

Love Sac torture.

Grandma's purse had so many fun things. Hand sanitizer, pill bottles, like Christmas!

This could be the only picture of the two of us since Ava was born and obviously it's not the best. Oh well. Maybe when we grow up!