A mommy & me morning....

Ava and I spent Monday morning together at the zoo. We have our zoo pass and just on whim when she woke up from her morning nap I decided it would be fun to go. I love meeting up with friends and other moms and kids but today I really enjoyed it being just the two of us on this spontaneous outing.

I brought her in her bathing suit since I knew we'd spend most of our time at the kids splash pond. Here she is waving at the other kids playing...

She enjoyed her very first Icee...

Malee and her mom were also making time to play together and cool off on the hot summer day just like us...

I hope as she grows to find more ways to enjoy unplanned adventures just the two of us!

First Popsicle

We made banna-berry smoothy bars/Popsicles at our house this week for a summer treat. It was pretty easy, healthy and yummy! We made them with frozen mixed berries, banna of course and whole milk.

I used our little food chopper to mix it up.

It makes a pretty purple color, its pretty yummy to eat right away or

you can freeze them...

Ava wasn't sure at first about this whole Popsicle business but she loved it once she figured it out...

Thankful Thursday

This week's gratitudes:

living the dream

a fun long dinner out with the girls

Ava helpers this week while my regular baby sitter is out of town

the lunch bunch back together again

Ryan getting to come home earlier than usual several days this week

watching Ava enjoy her first pop-sickle

Thoughts for Ava on Father's day...

Dear Ava,

Today is father's day and we certainly have a daddy worth celebrating. I know how much you love him as your eyes already light up in a special way just for him. I watch you and smile at all the ways your are like him, From your precious brown eyes and beautiful dark hair to your high energy and independent spirit. One of things I love about how your daddy loves us is that he loves so fully and completely with sincere devotion and adoration. He would and will do anything for you. Of all the worries I have sometimes about raising you in this world today, I feel joy and peace that you will grow always knowing that you have a daddy that loves you deeply and thinks the world of you, and there's nothing you have to do to earn that, from the moment you arrived it was freely given simply because you are you. It sets the best foundation we can for you understanding the way our heavenly father loves you. I am eternally grateful for this gift he is giving you as he father's you. Here's some special pics of you two, many from those first days that I knew you two had something pretty special...

14 Months!

Ava turns 14 months this week! We enjoy her in so many new ways, I just re-read her 13 month post and realize she's changed so much just since that post...

• Her words include da da, bye, hi, uh oh, back (she tells Rory back), she can say mama if prompted and will "ruff" like a dog. She's regularly signing when she's hungry and wants to "eat" and still signs "all done" and "more".
• She is up to 5 teeth, 3 on top two on bottom but I think there are a few more on their way in this week.
• She got a new little chair that someone gave us and she loves to sit in it. She climbs in and out of it to rock and feed her baby, read books or just hang out.

• She's doing more independent play, you will find her often in her room "reading" books from her book basket.

• She is energetic and showing more toddlerness with her up and down emotions, she gets frustrated when she knows what she wants to accomplish but its not quite working out for her. Sometimes I try to guess at what she is wanting to help her but usually she prefers to work it out on her own.

• She's all about hugs lately, here she's giving Rory a hug, she also chased down her first boy for a hug this week. Luckily he reciprocated but he got done hugging before she was ready to be done, so he pryed himself loose and then the chase was on again. (This little guy was from church, I guess if she's chasing down boys I prefer it to be church boys :0)

• She can climb! She gets up on boxes, baskets, chairs to reach things she's wants.
• This month marked a big milestone. We use to rock her all the way to sleep and then at about 5 months old graduated to her putting herself to sleep with us in the room and this month we took the last step of her putting herself to sleep without us in the room. I honestly think she goes to sleep much faster this way at night and at nap times.
• Still on two naps a day, a morning and after lunch one.
• She starting to not hate milk and will drink some in her sippy cup during the day.

Thankful Thursday

Well its been quite a week this week between work, VBS each night, Ava having a crazy sleep night and Rory puking, I am still trying to catch my breath each day but as I reflect there are some grattitudes among the hustle and bustle that I tried to tuck away.

sweet answer's from the kids when you ask spiritual questions

when little eyes light up with excitement

the hugs from the kids that make you know it was worth it to spend these evenings with them

getting to know other fellow brother's and sister's in Christ better

A husband who helps at night, Ryan does really well helping at night, last night we had to tag team because Ava was up and down all night, couldn't of done this week without him

A new smart phone

My Shutterfly book of Ava's first year pictures that I created arriving in the mail that I've looked at least a dozen times.

a kind gift by a co-worker

God's ability to heal and mend

Summer List

I love to make a list each summer of things I want to do. So I think it will be a fun tradition at the beginning of each summer to make a list as a family of things we want to do during that summer. Ava and I made our list this summer on Friday as I soaked my feet in her pool while she preferred to run around the yard with the water bottle instead, we collaborated none the less and got our list done.

So here's our list so far for this summer:

• Go to twilight swim at pelican bay (discounted rates for the 5-7pm swim, plus you don't have to worry as much about sun exposure).
• make & eat Frozen Fresh Fruit sickles (if you have made these before, let me know your tips).
• Share a snow cone
• play in the ocean
• enjoy one of the free outdoor concerts downtown
• Paint Ava's toe nails for the first time
• Take Ava to get Gelatto at the downtown candy store

Other weekend highlights...

Ryan dressed Ava all by himself for our dinner out to Ron's hamburger's Friday night. She actually matches and looks pretty cute if I do say so myself, I had never paired this outfit together...

Thankful Thursday

Ryan was gone for most of this week, so that shaped a lot of my thankful thoughts for this week...

• Ava sleeping well while he was gone.
• technology gets a bad wrap in me eyes a lot of the time, I often wonder if how it helps our ways how it hurts us but this week I was grateful for Skype, I had never done a video kind of phone call before but it was such a great way for Ryan to see us for us to see Ryan. Ava kept pointing at the screen and saying da-da-da, she waved, blew kisses, it was so sweet.
• not being a single mom all the time, I am in awe, how do they do it? We made it through a few days just he two of us but so glad to have my partner in crime back!
• late nights, cozy in bed with a great book, reading as late as I want (long past I should) with the light on.
• Ava going back to sleep each day after that early morning nursing. Sometimes at 5:45 she wants to stay awake for the day which just slays me but this week she went back to sleep each day right away and we enjoyed some snuggled snoozing till almost 8:00am each morning.
• Ryan made it safely home!!!

Ava's fashion finds

A new hobby since becoming the mom of a baby girl is getting to dress her up. Its one of the best parts of my day, deciding which sweet little outfit it will be is always a fun way to start the day off. I love finding great buys for her to support this pastime. So I think I will bring you some installments of "Ava's fashion finds" to share my favorite finds, as I love reading other's blogs that detail their outfits this way. They are usually show casing themselves but Ava's way more fashionable then me so I'm show-casing her instead.

So here's the first one:

Shoes: Pink Jellies from Baby Gap, $5 (gifted by her grandma)

top: Clearance at Kohls, $3.20

Bottom: White Capri's JBF consignment find, $4

Hair clip: homemade gift by Daicia

*What most of my pictures look like these days, a streak of a toddler running by*

Thankful Thursday

Gratitudes from this week:

success in eating in more this week

sunroof down drives

a fun dinner out with some moms

Ava getting so much better with not crying whenever we have to leave her with someone

sweet little pig tails

bath time on a day where we had no where to be or go, playing til her little toes are wrinkled

getting to work with the team I do

The calmness I feel leaving Ava on the days I work with caring and loving friends

A little project

As a busy young family I've been trying to think of ways to to be more in scripture and devotion consistently. I want to set an example for the importance of scripture and being still with God in our daily lives for Ava. Her spiritual development to me is our greatest responsibility in parenting and I ponder often ways to nurture this in her. So I saw on Beth Moore's blog that she has a cute little chalk board in her kitchen she wrote a scripture on and made me think this could be helpful for our family to do a memory verse each week. I came up with this particular idea on my own for how to create it because I couldn't find what I really wanted at any stores so far. So here is the before and after on the project, it feels like it turned out how I wanted which for me is usually about half the time on these kinds of ideas so this feels very successful. So we read together at least every night at dinner and at other times we pass through during the day. We've now done two weeks of memory verses and I'm looking forward to keeping it going.

Everything at Hobby Lobby: an unfinished wood plaque, a little stand and chalkboard spray paint. Total was 12 dollars. The paint it self was $8 the other supplies were half off. I hope I can come up with some more uses for the chalk board spray paint.