Ava's new toy and the nice visit with Grandma

So this past weekend, which is almost been a week ago now, my mom and grand parents came down. Mom and I did what we do best, hand out, shop and run lots of erronds. I am always so tired when we get done, but you know what, we are training Ava early for shopping sprees and wild outings with lots of people around.

Miss Ava even got a new toy that is an alternative to a walker. Guess this saucer thing will not turn over, damage my walls, cause she can not bump into them and will not run over my toes!!! She seems to really have taken to it. At first she thought she was supposed to sit in it and jump like her jumper since it has the same seat, but now she is figureing out that she can turn in this thing. Mom says it has too many toys on it and she might be overwhelmed by all the selections, but I say what the heck. Choices are good. Besides she has some of my tendisies with getting board easily. So lots to do and entertain her is very good.

Other than that the weekend was calm. The weather was nice. One day it got up to 85. Wow what a weird thing...80's in Feb. Wow. Oh on the exciting, but not happening anytime soon front...mom and I went strolling for houses. She keeps telling us she wants to move down, but I am not sure how soon we will be blessed with that.

It would also be nice to have the Shelby's closer too. Hint Hint. I know everyone says horrible things about having your in-laws close, but Mike and I would actually love it. No lies. Selfishly it would definatly make holidays easier, but for not so selfish reasons, it would be nice for everyone to be close for Ava and the other grand kids that will come....probly not from me, but Pat and Amber will have kids one day.

Okay enough of my rabling and on to the pictures of the new toy. You tell me if yall think it has too much on it. I love the bright colors too!!!

Random thoughts...

Okay we will start off with these past few days have been nuts. Ava started out having trouble sleeping, but now we are back up to 6-7 hours of sleep straight. Who knows with this one from day to day? I will just go with the flow and hope that soon we will be up to 8 hrs of sleep!!! Here is a picture of us girls being silly.



Now just to show yall how early Ava and I get up, one morning we took a picture of the sun rising. Just think we see this every day.



Ava is also now eating baby food. I know I know milk is baby food, but I mean stuff like applesauce. This is the first week. We start out with one food for a week. We also are supposed to start out with yellow and orange foods. I don't think she is too sure what is going on from one bite to another. It seems to be this foreign substance that she is supposed to swallow. But she does give some entertaining faces when she eats. Oh and she is very interested in helping feed herself. This as you know can be problematic and only add to the stickiness of feeding.



We also had some drama with Flicka this weekend. We had been capping her claws with cat caps. Well a few of them got glued to her pads and the nail had started to grow into the pad. The vet was very nice and took them off and gave us some antibiotic to give her. She has also now claimed Beau's bed and begun trying to eat people food.




I think that is about all for now. I am a bit brain dead and tired so I will tell you all tomorrow about the rest of our weekend with Grandma, GGG (Great Grandma) and PaPa. Oh and show pics of our new toy. What out Ava may end up with ADD like me from this toy? So many options so little time.

I can roll over and sit!

At approxiatly 4:30pm today Miss Ava rolled over from her belly to her back, all by herself. No she has only done this once, but I figure it is a baby step. Baby step number two Ava can now sit up on her own. It is only for a few minutes at a time, but she us completely unsupported sitting on beds, tables and in chairs! Man she is really growing up fast. No too sure where all the time is going. Soon she will be crawling and walking.

Calling all mothers...

Okay, so I need to know if I am doing this right or not. Ava has slept swaddled almost every night since night 1 in the hospital. She is now almost 6 months old and we are trying to get her used to sleeping unswaddled. She will fall asleep just fine on her own. I can now lay her down in her crib, but she will only last one-two hours unswaddled. After that I very lightly swaddle her so that her arms stay by her side. This then will keep her okay for another 3-4 hours. Help. What I am I doing wrong that #1 she is not sleeping through the night yet and #2 that she needs to be swaddled. If you have read my blog not too long ago she slept 8 hours straight for four nights, but that was short lived. I am open to all ideas except to let her cry. I have spent 6 months building this trust that I will come when she needs me I am not about to break that now.

These are a few of my favorite things...

I thought I would post a few pictures of my favorate things.

#1 would have to be Ava's winter dress that was made by Meme.



#2 would be my OSU house shoes that Mike got me for Christmas. They keep me entertained and my feet nice and cozy warm.



#3 my lovely husband who does not always let me take his picture, but is always silly.



#4 Ava not protesting to getting put in her car seat, but rather laughing and kicking her feet.



#5 Eating out every once and a while at Sonic or Chicken Express my two fav places. Good thing to, cause these are the only fast food places Justin has.

Rainy Day Blues.....

So Ava and I woke up about 1am this morning to lots of wind, rain, thunder and lightning that shook the house. I know lightning should just be bright, but no here in Texas it can shake a house when it cracks. How Mike and the hairy babies slept through it all I have no clue, but they were lucky.

Lately it seems as if Ava and I are spending more and more time a sleep together in "our" chair. To think I almost didn't get this chair when Mike and I bought new furniture for the house, what a mistake that would have been. So back to my point any tips on keeping Ava asleep all night send them my way...other than letting her cry it out. That I will not do, so don't even try to mention it, or you will have the unfortunate wrath of me like a coworker did when he tried to tell me to do this.

Sorry extremely scatter brained today, back to the rain.... so it has rained off and mostly on all day. Instead of going to a park and getting some sun, we have all been forced to nap and watch movies all day long. Generally I am not apposed to this, but now at 5pm, I am extremely board and wondering what to do for the next few hours with Ava until she goes to bed. Thank goodness for bath time.

On another random note, I have noticed that I cannot sing, but at this point it does not matter. I will randomly break out into song, just to get Ava's attention, cheer her up, or for no good reason at all.


Justin, TX as the sky is clearing from a rainy day.

Happy Valentines Day Yall

Well V-day started out true to form...I hate Valentines Day. Usually I am working out of town, on a training trip or do not have a Valentine. This year ended up different. I of course have my Valentines (Mike and Ava), but when I got home today from doing a survey I had red roses and a nice card from Mike. What a man what a man.



Oh I also had to dress Ava in red today. If you look closely you will se ruffles on her butt. Only at her age can a "woman" get away with stuff on their butt and look cute!



Lastly I would like to show the progression of me and my Valentine over these past four years.

Our engagement pic

The wedding picture

Vacation pic

and lastly our most recient family picture!!!

Ava is so noisy.

Here is a little video of Miss Ava and some of her new noises. Enjoy. This is only 1/2 the volume she normally is and remember she will do this all hours of the day when she is just happy. I also forgot to say that Ava now has figured out where the bounce noise comes from and looks up at the spring often.
Also enjoy the pic of Beau rolling on the floor. Sometimes he has a bone, sometimes he just rolls with his paws in the air. Here is one of Bella also...she just wanted to say Hi.

Bathroom

Well after four weeks the bathroom is done!!!! I did not expect it to take over two weekends, but you know things come up and the bathroom gets pushed aside. I can say now that the only room left to paint in the house is the laundry room and this is a project I am not willing to undertake for another month or so. The only picture I missed out on is what the bathroom looked like with all the horrible wallpaper. I sort of got started picking at the wallpaper before Ava was even born.

No wallpaper, no texture yet.
texture no paint yet.
and now we have paint and the bathroom is clean and usable again. Mike even added two hooks instead of a towel bar for us to hang our towels.
P.S. We will be adding white wooden blinds to the windows when our budget allows.

Happy Birthday Pat....

Well Sunday was a big day, Mr. Pat Shelby turned a quarter of a century old. 25 for those of you who choose not to do the math. So Mike and I had him over for dinner. Of course he had an extremely large steaks, potato casserole, home made potato rolls and for dessert cheesecake and his mom's chocolate cake. I also forgot to tell you Ava helped with each cake.

Now I love to bake, but sometimes I am not very good at it. I tend to miss read directions or not fully read them. That was the case with cake number one. I put in coffee instead of making the coffee. Oops. So the cake was a bit dry. No worries, cake number two was perfect. I even was able to write Happy Birthday Pat on it.

Other than that, Sunday was a very relaxing day.

On a lighter note for those of you who thought Bella and Flicka did not get along....well it was an act. I now have picture proof to show they have no problems with one another.

Rugby and Ava's great outdoor adventure...

Saturday started out like any other day. Exhaustion, lots of naps and food here and there....but low and behold it warmed up and we all decided to go support Uncle Pat at his double game.

Pat has taken up rugby. A sport of rough housing, tackling and no pads. Much rougher than football or soccer.

While Pat was playing the whole Texas Shelby group was enjoying the weather and hanging out. Ava even is starting to look like mom with her big sunglasses. She even wears the on her head when she does not need them.

Even the dogs enjoyed the weather and being out and about among people.

This week.

Well as many have noticed this week has been horrible on sleep for all. Between dogs barking, Ava not feeling the best and having to wake up at oh gosh thirty for work, I am not sure I know what sleeping in is. For now I guess that is okay, but I would love for one morning Mike to hear Ava before me, rush up and take care of her while I sleep for 2-3 more hours instead of the other way around. I know I know, not exactly possible right now, but maybe soon! Maybe that can be my Valentines Day gift from Ava and Mike....SLEEP!!!

The following are a few pictures from this week just randomly collected. Enjoy.


Only 14 days to wear the heck out of my Valentines outfit Grandma bought!!!


I am talking, don't you understand me...MOMMA you forgot my bib!


Splish Splash I was taking a bath...