Being snowed in leaves time to reflect

10 things I loved about 2010. I realize we are well into 2011 but I always love a good numbered list, especially when it inspires any type of reflection, so here it goes...

1. Of course meeting our baby girl! 2010 will forever be in my heart as one of the best year of my life for that very reason.

2. Moving to part time at work. I love my job and I love it even more being part time.

3. Finding out Matt and Lori are moving to Dallas. Finally in all their travels they are moving to this part of the country. I am really excited we will get to see them more.

4. Celebrating 6 years of marriage! The expereinces and challenges of this year have brought Ryan and I closer than ever. He bore the brunt of my sleep deprived irritabilities and was amazingly patient with me. Being bonded through first smiles, sleepless nights, stomach bugs and everything else that came with this first year of parenthood has truely grown our love to something even deeper.

5. I love that two of my dear friends also had baby girls in 2010!

6. cooking! Maybe its the theme of maternalness of this past year but I really got more into cooking. I especially love that I found several great recipes that work well as freezer meals which of course was key for us this year when I went back to work. I acutally enojoy cooking when I have time. I can even now do a couple of things from scratch!

7. I am giving maternity leave its own number. I loved taking that time with Ava where that was my only "job". I loved lazy mornings in our PJs, meeting friends for lunch, forgeting what day it was and all the other special things that remind me of that time.

8. Ava and I's first road trips, one to Houston and one to suprise my grandparents in New Mexico.

9. Starting new traditions, First Fridays, homemade cinnamon rolls for the holidays, just to name a few.

10. Ryan passing the CPA exams!!!

One of our favorite things....

Who doesn't love packages in the mail? Each month of Ava's life so far our dear friends Daicia and her little sweetie Quinn send us a monthly birthday package, usually with home made goodies that are developmentally on target for each month. We got our 9 month package the other day and have loved all the fun things! We also got a valentine package from grandma Askew with a valentine and a 'my first valentines day' outfit. Its fun now that Ava can help me open the packages and gets excited about what we find. (Thanks so much!)

Tiny Tot & Tooth!

Ava had her 9 month check at the doctor today. It was a shot free visit so that was a nice break. She has grown about a little under 1 pound per month since her last visit but that still put her at only 16 lbs- which is only the 8th percentile! Also in other Ava news she is getting her first tooth! Monday was such a crazy day and night, I am glad to know now what was happening. You can feel the tippy top of it when you run your finger along her lower front gum. Things are happening so rapidly in the past month for her, crawling, pulling up, teeth, soon she'll be talking, walking and leaving for college! okay maybe thats a little dramatic but seriously as with most mommy feelings I seem to expereince this theme again and again, I am 95% so excited for these new stages and developments but also I have that other smaller but present feeling of saying slow down, don't grow up too fast, be my baby forever.

9 months!

Ava turns 9 months old this week! So much has happened in the past month for her developmentally, the list of new things she can do seems to be growing each day. She has started crawling, pulling up on anything and everything, beginning to feed herself some finger foods, clapping her hands, giving us a high five and I am sure I could just going. She loves to cuddle and will put her little head down on our shoulders when she's sleepy. It's so exciting to see all the new changes. With the sleep lady's help we have a much better sleeping schedule for all of us. She still wakes up some nights but is doing ten times better than a month ago. We had two nights this week where she slept 11 hours straight through which made for some lovely sleeping for all of us. (The other nights she woke up from 3-5am) She gets very excited when Ryan comes home and I love to see the huge smile on her face when he walks through the door.

I can't believe this time last year I didn't even know her name yet! I love knowing her more every day. I can get caught up in missing her tiny newbornness or wishing ahead for the when she can talk to me and tell me whats going on in her mind but then I would miss what is now and I want to savor this moment because what is now is pretty great.

pics from this month

Here's some sweet pictures of our girl from this last month.

Here's Ava's new high chair we got last month. It was suprisingly hard to find a classic wooden high chair. Since I had to order this one without getting to see it, I was hoping I would love it and when it came I was very pleased.


Now that she's gone mobile (I will post more on her 9 month milestones this week, so much has happened!) I get creative with ways to keep her entertained and contained:

2011 Goals

Okay so after lots of thought I have come up with my goals for the comming year.

1. Develop my attitude towards finding and experiencing more joy and contentment in my roles and responsibilities with my family, friends, church and work. I will do this by: A) not overloading myself, sometimes I may have to actually say "no". B) asking for help when I need it. C) Increasing prayers for this specifically.
2. Create a more calm, simplified and orgainized living space. I want our home to be even more of a calm sanctuary for all of us. I've decided that part of what I find overwhelming in working, being a mom and wife is keeping a decent house. I've decided we have too much stuff! If we had less, we could keep it more orgainized and it would be easier to keep it clean. To do this I will a) clean out every drawyer and closset before march. b) not buy more junk to fill up this place, so that also means I will be more thoughtful in what purchases we make.
3. I want our financial goal this year to be to live off of Ryan's income only, so mine can just be for savings or projects or special contributions. To do this I will a) signficantly reduce buying pop when eat out at restaurants, its such a waste of $2-3 and that adds up fast! b) I will keep my eating out each week to Tuesdays lunch, first friday lunch and maybe one other meal out on the weekends. C) I am reducing how much I shop for fun. There's lots of other things I can do for fun with friends or with Ava so I am cutting this way down.

I don't have a specific goal for spirtual growth because I see these three areas so spirtually based: having an attitude more in Christ centered, being fulfilled with Him and not things of this world and being a better steward of what He has entrusted.

Feels good to write all this out of what has been swimming around in my head, wow (for those of you in the field - feels like I just did my own treatment plan for this year! Guess that means I should re-evaluate in six months see how its going!)

First Christmas

I am just getting around to posting on our Christmas. We enjoyed lots of relaxing time with family. Ava enjoyed opening presents more than I thought she would. It makes Christmas so special to share it now with her! We had a great time and will always cherish this special first Christmas.