Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s Ava’s first Thanksgiving!!!

Some friends of ours from church invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner and we had a great time!! I didn’t take any pictures, unfortunately. I need to get better at that!!


I could not get this girl to stay still for a picture! She wasn’t having it!


I am so very thankful for many things! My family, Germany friends (that are like family), friends back at home, my healthy baby and handsome husband(!!) and of course a sovereign, loving God.

I had to add this picture of my two babies watching the football game.

Birthday party!

Some of our good friends celebrated their baby girls 1st birthday today!! Happy Birthday Bella Grace!! Her birthday party was at Yabadoos. It is a really neat play place for kids! There were tons of blow up bouncy houses, face painting, a big jumping swing thing and much more!! I wish I would have gotten some pictures of the place!!

Her birthday theme was Minnie Mouse

Me and the birthday girl

Now that’s how a girl eats!!

She had a few bites then decided she had enough of the cake and all the attention.

We had a blast at Bella’s birthday party!! Happy Birthday Bella!!!

Ava is one month old!!

I can not believe how fast the time has gone. This past month has been the greatest month of my life. I couldn’t have asked for a better baby! Ava is the most precious thing I have ever laid eyes on. Besides my husband, of course!

 

Ava weighs 8 pounds 8 ounces right now. She eats every 3 hours during the day and every 4 hours at night. Last night she slept for 5 hours straight and I had to wake her up to feed her ( I accidentally slept through my alarm. Oops). Ava is such a happy and content baby unless she is sleepy or hungry. Ava is still in her newborn diapers and some of her newborn outfits are still too big. She is a petite little thing. She is still sleeping in our room in her pack-n-play. I will probably move her to her room once she starts sleeping through the night.

Ava is starting to stay awake longer. After she eats, she usually stays awake for about an hour and then she gets really fussy and I have to rock her to sleep. She’s not really a fan of her swing yet. She can handle it for about 5 minutes then she is ready for something new. Her head is so strong and has really good control of it. She LOVES her baths. She always cries when we take her out. She also LOVES her paci.

I can’t imagine my life without Ava Drew. I honestly don’t remember life without her. I remember people saying that before I had Ava and I didn’t really “get it”. I mean, how can someone “forget” what their life was like a month ago? Well, I totally “get it” now. I know its hard to believe that someone could forget what it was like before a life came into your world but its totally real. We have been so blessed with such a good baby. I thank God so much for giving us the privilege of raising this child. She is a blessing.

Mom’s visit!

My mom and aunt Terry came to visit for 2 weeks so that is why I am really behind in blogging! My mom left yesterday and Terry left this morning. It was so nice to have them here! They were such a huge help. While they were here, we got to go visit a few places. We went to Paris for 2 days and Heidelberg to view the city and a castle. We also went to Switzerland to a few festivals and we tried to go see the Swiss Alps but it was so foggy that we couldn’t see anything!!

Our little family at the Eiffel Tower

Our first trip was to Paris. We left at around noon and got to Paris around 5 o’clock. The first thing we did was find a place to eat. We ate at an Italian place and it was DE. LIC.IOUS! Of course we went to the Eiffel Tower after we were done eating to get a night view. We headed back to the hotel to catch some z’s after our trip to the Eiffel Tower. The next day, we went and showed my mom and aunt the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. Then we went to the Notre Dame cathedral. We headed back to Germany at around 6pm but on our way home, my husband decided that he wanted to take an adventure and check out a little town to find something to eat for dinner. Well, that little town had a mall…if anyone knows me, my mom, and aunt, you know we like to shop! But first, we had to eat so we ate at Hippopotamus. It was a restaurant in the mall and it was pretty good. I just got a salad so it was nothing special.

The shops were closing after we got done eating so I fed Ava and we hit the road at about 9pm. We didn’t get home until after midnight.

My mom with Ava

 

I just love this baby girl so much!

Our trip to Switzerland was a lot of fun! It was about a 3 hour drive so it wasn’t bad at all. We went to Basil, Switzerland because they were having 6 festivals all within walking distance and we really wanted to take my mom and aunt to a festival. It’s a great place to go and try all the good food. We hit up 3 festivals the day we got there and the next day, we drove to Lucerne to view the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately, it was really foggy so we couldn’t see anything! It was such a disappointment but Bryce and I will definitely be going back there to visit again. It is such a neat city. We headed back to Germany that night since my mom was leaving the next day. I hate to say it but I didn’t take many pictures!! I only took a few in Lucerne but since it was foggy, it was hard to take pictures.

This is the best picture I could get.

 

It was so sad to see my mom and aunt leave. It was so fun getting to show them where we live. I’m glad they got to experience the German culture for a couple of weeks. We miss them so much already!!