Valentine's Day 2011

We decided to keep Valentine's Day pretty low-key this year.  Drew decided he wanted to make me a Valentine's dinner on Sunday the 13th and he did a great job.  He made Chicken Cordon Bleu Soup Bowls and they were delicious and he only needed my help stirring the chicken while he did some other stuff.  Way to go Drewski! 

 On Valentine's Day I made roasted chicken, baked sweet potatoes, rolls, roasted asparagus and I even made my very first homemade cheesecake.  It actually turned out pretty tasty if I do say so myself!

 Instead of giving Drew a card this year, I made him an "edible" card out of big conversation hearts.  I took a microplane grater and took off the printed sayings on the candy and then wrote some of the things I love about him with edible ink pens.  (Yes, I am now the proud owner of edible ink pens so if you ever need some you know who to turn to!)

Here is Ava on V-Day.  Please notice the copious amount of drool on her shirt.  If she wears a shirt that doesn't tuck into her pants she pulls up the bottom of it and stuffs it into her mouth and sucks on it.  It drives me crazy!  If I put a bib on her then she just sucks on the bib until it's dripping wet so she ends up getting soaked either way! This girl LOVES to suck on anything, especially her hands.  It's actually quite amazing to see her literally put her entire hand into her mouth.  Yeah, my baby's got mad skills!



I sure am grateful to have spent the "Day of Love" with the two people that I love the very most.

Ava Update

My little baby girl is 5 months old!  I know everyone always says this, but I really can't believe how fast the time has gone by!  Here are a few of the latest pictures of our Ava girl.

All gussied up and ready for church on her 5 Month "Birthday" (the picture is blurry because I took it on my ipod - my camera is on the fritz.  Not good for a mom who is slightly obsessed with photographing her baby)

We went for a walk last week.  I was getting cabin fever and might have pushed the season a little bit because it was still pretty chilly, but we had a good time and Ava looked darling in the little apple hat my friend RoseAnna made her.

Ava is an on-again/off-again thumb sucker.  She loves her pacifier but will sometimes spit it out and suck her thumb.  I think it's pretty sweet - for now.

Ava is a very happy baby.  It's so easy to get her to smile and she has the cutest little giggle in the whole wide world.  It pretty much makes my heart happy every time I hear it. 

Here's a little video of her playing on her exersaucer - it's not all that exciting but I, of course, think it's adorable.

 This is Ava at four months.

At her four month appointment Ava weighed 13 lbs. 15 oz (56th Percentile) and was 25 1/4 inches long (80th Percentile).  She loves to play with toys on her playmat and bouncer and loves her Johnny Jump Up and exersaucer (as you can see from the video above).  She still sometimes pretends like she doesn't know how to roll over but then other times she will do it over and over again.  Silly girl! Drew and I are having so much fun watching her learn and grow and often wonder what we did for entertainment before she arrived!

Ava Rolls Over!

On January 10th I was playing with Ava on the floor and she was acting like she was going to roll over so I grabbed my ipod and started recording her, and much to my surprise she actually rolled over!  I really didn't think she would do it (as you can tell from my nerdy, overly-excited narration of the video).  This is probably the only significant "first" that I will ever get on video so I just had to share!  Ava still sometimes pretends that she doesn't know how to roll over but we've got the proof on film!

Ava's Nursery

This post is long over-due but I wanted to post a few pictures of Ava's nursery.  My mom came out for a week this past July and worked her tail off painting the room, painting a crib and dresser, sewing curtains, bumper pads, and a quilt and much, much more!  Drew and I helped, of course, but she really did the bulk of the work.  



My friend Densie made me the cute vinyl lettering and she actually gave us the dresser too when we moved into this house.  Drew and I had been using it and it was a little outdated.  It's amazing what a coat of paint and new hardware can do!  I am so happy with how it all turned out.  It is now my favorite room of the house - it just makes me so happy!