What we've been up to

This post is kind of all over the place so bare with me.

We have been back in Germany for about 4 days now and we're just now getting over the Jet Lag! Whew! It really threw us off! Poor Ava...or should I say poor momma...She just wanted to sleep all day and be up all night. On Wednesday night, I only got 2 1/2 hours of sleep. Bryce and I got to bed really late and then Ava was up from 2:30-4:00am and I had to be up at 6am to get ready for a WIC appointment! When we got to our appointment, we didn't have our LES form so we had to reschedule. Ugh! So, we went home and took a long nap.

Ava loves being back with her daddy. Except for tonight... When Bryce came in the door from work, I handed over Ava so he could rock her to sleep. As he was rocking her, she kept saying "Mama, mama.." It was the sweetest thing...to me..not so much to Bryce.

This is Bryce attempting to do the Ava face.

Ava loves her some strawberries.

Ava is SO close to crawling. She has figured out how to move her arms now so I give her a few days before she really starts moving. Please excuse her nakedness...we don't have A/C and it was really warm today so I let Ava go without clothes for the mid part of the day.

When we were in the states: We had a blast! It was so busy but so fun! I spent my first night away from Ava! My sister had a bachelorette party down in Dallas so my mom kept Ava for the night. It was nice to get away for a girls night but it was SO nice to get back home to my baby girl!

Rebekah's wedding was absolutely beautiful!! I can't wait to share pictures! It was so fun because her and Luke had not kissed yet so their first kiss was on their wedding day. It was so special for them. I am SO beyond happy for them and thankful that the Lord has blessed our family with Luke and Rebekah.

Plane Ride: Ava did great!! She slept 2 of the 3 hour plane ride to Canada and then slept 6 of the 7 1/2 hour plane ride to Frankfurt, Germany. I am a fan of overnight flights!

Pictures!

One of my very best friends offered to take some pictures of Ava while we were in town! Of course I took her up on the offer so we headed out to her parents house to take some pics. Ava did great!!! Here are some of my favorites...

If you are in the North Texas/Dallas area and need a great photographer, Cassie Loree Photography is who you need to call!!! You can visit her facebook page here. 

First Mother's Day!

It's my first Mother's Day this year and I am so thankful! 

Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with such a precious little girl! 

I am also thankful that God has blessed me with such an amazing mom!! I am so thankful for a mom that supports me, loves me, and encourages me!! 

Happy Mother's Day!! 

Ava is 7 Months Old

Ava, you are 7 months old today! 

You are 13 pounds {4%} and I can't remember your height but it is in the 21 percentile. I will check your papers when we get back to Germany.

You wear a size 2 diaper and wear 6 months clothes and some 6-9 month. You are still in a size 1 shoe. 

You nurse 4-5 times a day and you eat oatmeal with breastmilk and a fruit when you first wake up in the mornings and you eat a veggie and fruit for your last feeding of the day. 

You still take 3 naps during the day. One in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. You aren't a very good napper. You typically sleep about 30-45 minutes for each nap. On a good day, you will take an hour and a half nap in the afternoon. 

You love to play on your play mat with your toys. You are very independent and want to go-go-go. You want to crawl SO bad but can't quite figure it out yet. You have learned to tuck your knees under and push up on your arms but not all at the same time. 

You have learned to wave and say "Hi". It is the cutest thing in the world. We are working on Bye-Bye.

You are really starting to jabber a lot now and you can say "Momma" and "Blah Blah Blah". ha! 

{I just had to put this picture up. It is too funny!}

You love Baby Einstein. Anytime I put it on for you, you just stare and sometimes laugh. 

You are the sweetest little girl and such an attention getter. When you get tired, you scratch the back of your right ear and dig your head into my chest. But heaven forbid if I try to snuggle you...you immediately push off of me. You do NOT like to be held close or snuggle. 

You did very well on the plane coming over to the states from Germany. You didn't sleep much, but that was expected. 

You love to watch videos or view pictures of yourself. You smile and laugh and talk the whole time! 

Your schedule: You wake at around 7:30/8:00 and eat oatmeal and a fruit

Play for about an hour and a half and then go down for a nap. 

You are usually up by 10:45 and you nurse at 11:00am.

Play until nap time again at 12:30. You take a really short nap and are usually up by 1:15ish.

You nurse at 2pm and go down for a nap at 3:30 and nap until 4:15ish. Sometimes later. 

Nurse at 5pm and I usually try to keep you up until bedtime but sometimes you tend to squeeze a small cat nap in. 

You nurse at 7:30pm and I also give you your fruit and veggie. I give you a bath and get you ready for bed and you are in bed by 8:00/8:30. 

This schedule is sometimes 30 minutes off depending on when you wake up in the morning. 

Ava, I can not tell you how much fun you have been this month!! It just makes me fall in love with you that much more! You have been such a joy in our family and we love you more than you will EVER know!!! 

The Smockling Giveaway!

Love From Texas is hosting a giveaway from The Smockling! Y'all, I am SO excited about this giveaway! As most of you probably know, I am a sucker for all things monogrammed and smocked!

The Smockling has some PRECIOUS bubbles and dresses!! If you are like me, you should go to their FB page and LIKE them!!! Then head over to Love From Texas and enter to win an outfit!!

They've got CUTE boys outfits too!

I can just picture Ava in this right now... CUTE!! Love the Robin's Eggs!!

Ah! Don't you just love this bubble?! Precious!! I think Ava needs one!!

What are you waiting for?? Go enter the giveaway!!!



Pictures courtesy of The Smockling FB page.  

Sitting Up!

Ava starting sitting up today! She started sitting up about a week ago but right when we would sit her up and she realized we weren't supporting her, she would arch her back to lay down. It was like she was scared to sit up on her own.

I can't believe she is already big enough to sit up. I feel like it was yesterday when we brought her home from the hospital!

Some other things about Ava that I want to remember:

• You sit in the big girl seat in the grocery cart now and every time we go to the grocery store, we get stopped several times by people that want to know all about you. They think you are so sweet and precious! And we do too! :) 
• We started you on solids a couple of weeks ago and you hate peas. I have tried several times to get you to like them but it just isn't happening! You will eat green beans and avocado but they are definitely not your favorite. You will eat about 6 bites and then whine before every bite after that. You really like squash, carrots, bananas, and apples. We are trying sweet potato's and pears tonight!
• We went on a trip to Belgium last week and you did so good in the car. You talked almost the whole way there! 
• You are really into touching everything these days. You are constantly hitting things that are in reaching distance. 
• You are seriously the best baby! Every time we are out in public, you just smile and sit so quietly...even if you missed your nap! 
• We were finally able to get you into the doctor for your 6 month well check up tomorrow and I am anxious to know your stats. 
• You have been getting up about 2 times during the night to eat..I think you're going through a growth spurt. 
• You are VERY vocal! 

Dinant, Belgium

Bryce was off on Thursday and wanted to go somewhere so we went to Belgium. I have been wanting one of their waffles so I was really excited to go. We went to Dinant which is a pretty small town but it is beautiful. I would LOVE to live there!!

The streets of Dinant. 

The castle overlooked the city. 

At the top of the castle. It was beautiful! 

It was really windy and kind of cold so we wore our big coats and Bryce put his ear muffs on Ava. She looked so cute! 

Rockin' the ear muffs! 

This was so crazy! We walked through this and it felt like we were going to fall over. Just look at the water, it is high on the left side but low on the right side. The lights are crooked too. A bomb is what caused this. 

The only pic we could get of all of us. We propped the camera up on something and put it on the self timer. That's why its so crooked.