See Post Below. (couldn't get the dumb things in order)

ben and ava checking out the nightcrawlers. (ava wonders if they taste better than the keys that are currently in her mouth!)

ali was SO sweet to basically take care of my child for the weekend. (and clean the kitchen, vacuum, wash the sheets and remake my bed, uhh-can i get some of that energy?!)

sometimes i get a little frustrated with ava at restaurants i guess. :)

Also, Ali posted a collage with about 352 pictures on her blog. It's over there--->

(the moser family)

Back when I had bangs....

I met some of my best friends. So thankful they were able to see past me being from Texas and thinking they were still cool and love me anyway. We had SUCH a fun weekend with our friends The Mosers and April got to be here a little bit, too.



ben and sheriff cuddling on the couch.



if anyone in west michigan is missing any sticks-it's probably because ben threw them all in the river! :)
april was our roommate for the last 2 weeks, but only saw ava twice!
love this of ben and mike...
ummmmm, hello!?!

Can't think of a title.

That gets hard sometimes. I have spent all my brain power sorting through Ava's clothes and cleaning out under our bathroom cupboards. Maybe I even inhaled too much Method Pink Grapefruit cleaner. I don't know.

Searching for all rock and grass particles for possible ingestion.

This is how Ava feels when Dad is not home on Friday night. I thought I was fun to hang out with. Guess not.

Foreshadowing?

I hope not!

Fire-man...

We had to do some minor remodeling (tear out heinous paneling and put up dry wall) in our basement bedroom to make it livable for guests. This has been a several month project leading to a large pile of wood outside our basement door which we have affectionately named "Termie Town". In order to prevent any termites or other creatures from inhabiting our pile, Mark did the logical thing, and made a firepit to burn the paneling.

I am so lucky to be married to such a manly man. :)

The weather has been so amazing here-I guess I'm still in shock coming from Texas. But this night was cold enough you wanted to be by the fire, and the grass wasn't wet. A perfect combination. My friend April enjoyed the fire with us for a little while.

Then Mark's cousin Jeff and his girlfriend Amber came to join us. If you are in the area, stop by! We still have lots of wood to burn! :)

To the Dads...

Pretty much everyone has posted all the wonderful things you can say about Father's Day and I'm late. This is not surprising if you know me. I'm a procrastinator. Although lately I've been turning over a new leaf. Nesting this early? Who knows. I'm going with it.

A few words about my husband. When I first met Mark, I just wasn't sure he was my type. (This could be because I'd had undiagnosed mono for 3 months and spent the day after he professed his like for me in the hospital.) Anyway, I thought he was cute as they come, but just a little skeptical. Then I saw him with my nephews I was living with that summer. I went from doubt, to wedding invitation design. Mark is so fabulous with kids-and I feel so fortunate to have the ones that are his.

My sweet Dad. Isn't he precious? I have the Dad who ALWAYS does what he says he will do-early-who slips me a 20 dollar bill as "our little secret" whenever I see him-who still holds my elbow if we cross a street and makes sure I wear "a wrap" if it's below 90. And most importantly, a Dad who prays more for my siblings and me then I can even imagine. I truly feel like his prayers have yielded blessings on our lives. Yea Dad!

Mark's Dad is also a man of such great faith-and his Grandfather to boot. We are blessed by the strong legacy and Christlike examples we have in all the dads in our family. Dad DeKorne I love you and am so thankful my husband has such a Godly role model in you!

My child? A bully??!

As a teacher for several years I was always shocked when parents had no clue that their kids were terrors in school. I guess that should have been my first clue. I think I AM that parent. We got to see Ava's friend Meimei and I thought the poor child might never recover. Ava was pulling her around, pulling her hair, and banging on her head. Maybe it's because Meimei outweighed her by at least 10 pounds for the first 8 months of their lives, I don't know.

(August 07)

Meimei relaxed, Ava on her way out.

My dear friend Nicole trying to tame the beast. :)

This outing also gave me some insight into why I have a super sleeper. Because she is NEVER NOT MOVING. Sweet Meimei would try to sit and read books and play with toys until attacked by the Avanator. Sit? Read books? Not at our house. Eat books. Throw books. Chase the dog. We don't sit.

Innappropriate? Perhaps....

Ok, I probably shouldn't be posting this on my blog. Mixed audience, a few grandmothers, and potentially people under 10. BUT, I just have to write and share my excitement, maybe I'm behind the times-but I just found out Victoria's Secret starting carrying a line of nursing bras. How cool is that? Who knows if they will be supportive, break after one washing, etc...but after wearing ugly-ness for so long I'm willing to try. (Side note, obviously none of the women modeling them have ever actually HAD a baby.)

Oh, and Happy Father's Day, Mark. I'd like to post pictures of our exciting day (please note sarcasm)-but the camera is not here yet. Ordered though! So that's a step! Maybe I will post a few pictures of my cute husband (who is an AWESOME dad) and Ava later...try and bury this post a little. Until then, Happy Sunday! :)

g with an o, o with a d, t and an i and an m and an e, good time

In this very lovely and flattering picture below (love that pool hair, Heidi) is my dear friend Katie. The most tragic part of our move was missing the birth of two babies, her daughter Lucy included. Her husband Jeremy (Superman) is below. Pretty much when we hang out with them I laugh more then I do in a month of Sundays. Serious heartache about how much we miss our couple friends. Didn't get enough pictures, (we must have been laughing, or fighting over Catch Phrase..), but you can see how cute the rest of their kids are on their blog to the right! (Liardons)

And the most important reason we went to Houston, to see Grandma and Grandpa!!!

These are our old across the street neighbors who helped Ava survive her first ten months of life. It was SO fun to see Ava with them-she totally remembered Julie and Olivia (and Eric who missed out on the photo shoot). As soon as Ava saw Olivia she crawled right on her and gave her a hug. SO CUTE! She didn't leave their side, or Julie's purse the whole day.

Just realized the picture got cropped, but Ava was dragging around the big old purse all over the house. :)

chapter 2

Soooooooo many people to see that we love in Houston. My friend Larisa came over with her exceptionally cute kids and Ava fell in love with her. (Note: her 7 month old outweighs Ava by 4 pounds!)

My Mom has a car able to play videos. If I could insert music, it would be the Hallelujah Chorus. Life changing. I know this is nothing new for most technologically forward folks, but it was for us. If you need to know any Sunday School Songs-I have them all memorized. Anyway, nice to have her transformed from the screaming baby of a couple posts ago into this lovely docile creature.

Fun in the Sun!

Houston-Episode 1

My good friend Melissa and her sweet baby Addison. Melissa and I have been friends since 5th grade. This picture had to be made into black and white due to the lack of make up on my part. Sorry Melissa. :)

Uncle Jim and Aunt Ann had a dog carnival. They also had a lot of glass things that Ava wanted to break. We tried to mostly distract with the dogs.

Aunt Ann cuddling with Ava.

This was cracking me up. Ava was playing peek-a-boo under Grandma's apron. Clearly she was not familiar with the concept of "apron". She was thinking-that's weird...my Mom and i just get food all over our clothes.

All Cameras Go to Heaven.

We are at Grandma and Grandpa's, and while we have been able to use their camera, we do not have the latest technology here to upload said photos to the computer. SO...I decided to just look back over a life, as with any loss, and remember some of the good times we had with our old Fuji Finepix. I found these pictures on my Mom's computer from pre-Ava...when Mark and I lived with them for a few months last year. I've been struggling on blog creativity lately, but at least it's a post. :)

I realized looking through these it's a good thing we had kids...otherwise this blog would be very boring. I also realized I have a really fun husband...God knew what he was doing giving a Grandma like me such a great playmate!

This would have been darling if Mr. Yatooma could have held the bread basket for one more minute.
This is pretty typical. Extremely typical.
Did you not get our Christmas Card picture two years ago? Last year? Oh that's right. Nobody did. Maybe this year.
Pregnant with baby Ava in these last two...signaling the end of pictures with Mark and Heidi!

Fun Weekend. Bad Ending.

Mark spent a lot of the weekend fishing with the fam. Aidan came to show off his big catch. He also conned his cousins into doing some weeding. I love the one of Ava peering over the balcony watching them fish!

You may wonder why I included the last naked, not so flattering Ava shot. Well, that's because it was the last shot ever taken by our trusty camera. I killed it shortly thereafter. Mark said "hey throw me the camera". Anyone who knows me knows I shouldn't throw much, but especially large, heavy black cameras with lenses fully extended. Goodbye camera. :(