Ava Saying Dada

This isn't the best video but Ava is continuing to say DADA every day now. Travis got the best clips on his phone via an audio recording. I'll have to see if I can upload those but CUTE regardless! :)

Our 8 Month Old!

It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into.

-Terri Guillemets

Well, I don't know how this has happened in the blink of an eye...but our baby is 8 months old! For some reason ALL OF THE SUDDEN, it has hit me that she just isn't a little baby anymore. Could it be that she is enjoying lots of table food? Could it be that she is ALMOST crawling? Could it be that she is sleeping great and even starting to weed out her evening nap (not completely yet...)? That she is saying DADA!? That she is even getting better at holding her own bottle? Could it be that she has started to go to sleep in all kinds of different positions and is pretty much never on her back anymore? Could it be that she is getting better at hanging out by herself and has started to like her jumperoo? That her hair is growing like crazy and is even growing over her ears? Could it be that she is sitting in a high chair now at restaurants and loving it!? That she has figured out that if you open the wipes container and pull on the little wet white thing sticking out, there is another one there and another one and another one and another! Oh I think I could go on an on!

Well, all of the sudden it has hit me that she isn't a newborn anymore. She is a sweet, beautiful, hilarious, little person. I absolutely LOVE newborns---their sweetness, their innocence and it is hard to believe that she was once a tiny little 7 pounds 19 ounces! I still have her outift that she came home from the hospital hanging in her room and tonight I was rocking her and giving her her nighttime bottle and just reminiscing. As cliche as it may sound, I will always tell a pregnant woman or a mother of a newborn to truly cherish every. single. moment with their baby. They grow and change every day and it really does go by in the blink of an eye! I will cherish every video and picture we have and I really do feel like I never took any single moment for granted.


On that note, each new stage is fun and exciting and I LOVE this stage right now too. She is so much fun and Travis and I have noticed that she is really seeming to understand and be communicating with us. Just tonight, we were laughing and she will look right at you and smile or laugh. Her new thing is to close her eyes and give a huge grin! So funny!

Happy 8 month birthday Ava! We LOVE you!

Ava 7 months+

Look familiar??? I have a thing about extreme closeups. I love her!

Enjoyin' some puffs

She thinks her bottle is a toy lately :)

She loves her fishies...

Ready to crawl!

Ava 7 3/4 months ;)

• Still no teeth. Poor girl. I am a little afraid of when she DOES get them...
• Anyway, she still loves to eat with or without teeth. She's had shredded cheese, cottage cheese, bread, lunchmeat, tater tots, etc. She had one of those biter biscuits tonight too. She seemed to like it. Wow those are messy! :) She also likes suckers. I let her have a little lick last night!
• On the verge of crawling. She can get around and around and around. She can also push herself backwards and pull herself forward. It is just getting the legs figured out and she'll be off! She hasn't quite gotten herself up on her knees yet.
• She typically does NOT like to be alone. I don't think we necessarily 'spoil' her but she has her moments. Sometimes she is completely fine playing by herself but other times she must be saying "PLAY WITH ME!"
• She started shaking her head (no??) last week. It is hilarious though I don't think she knows quite yet what it means. She will do it when she doesn't want a bite but then 2 seconds later she'll take a bite. She also does it when she is being silly or we're singing, etc. so maybe it is her version of dancing because she LOVES music.
• Today I was just singing her name really loudly and she was giving me her huge-open-mouth grin. LOVE HER!

Dear Pre-Pregnancy Body part 2

Dear Pre-Pregnancy Body,

Well, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your kindness towards me as I have been working to get you back. Last week I accomplished my GOAL! I did a workout video 2 times last week and even managed to get myself to the gym on Saturday morning to attend a spinning class. Let me just say IT FELT GREAT! I have truly missed spinning.

This new body is, well, pretty out of shape (I was struggling dying a little bit with a video that I used to do WITH 5 lb weights...and was doing it with NO weights...) but I plan to keep my goal and even work out a few more times a week hopefully. I didn't want to kill myself too much the first week back. I'm HOPEFULLY going to be going to Florida for my mom's retirement party in June, so I plan to have you back by then...

I even said NO to a cookie at Blimpie the other day. And let me just tell you, they have awesome sugar cookies. :)

Yours truly,



Steph

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was really fun. Travis and I got up and did our stockings to each other (we don't do 'gifts'...Stockings are my fave anyway! :) Travis always finds me cool pens, sharpies, etc. This year he got me scented colored pencils. The kids at school will be JEALOUS...LOL. :)

I'm not sure how my DIET is going to go with all of these sweets!!!

I got Travis 2 ornaments on our St. Charles trip. One of a sushi roll and the other a chinese take out box--2 of his favorites! I also picniked the pic of Ava from our Christmas photo shoot to take to work. I put Daddy's Little Deer at the top and I love you daddy at the bottom, 2009 :)

Oh and the safety goggles were just a gag!

Me with my coffee!!!!!!!!!!!! I HEART YOU!

Then we got lil Miss Ava up for her 1st Christmas morning. :) To be quite honest, we didn't buy her a ton. I mean, we buy her WAY TOO MUCH on a daily basis so I wrapped up a couple things for her to 'open!'

I think we had more fun with the bow from her present. Always a photo op...

"Now what????"

Me half ready. I did my makeup in the car.

Ava and her daddy. See a resemblance??????


These are a few pics from Gma and Gpa Cunningham's. They had these cute little wooden dolls and blocks set up. The dolls moved and Ava was very intrigued!

Can't wait til next year!

ps. Since Ava turned 7 MONTHS on the day after Christmas, and with us traveling for the holidays, I'm using those as her 7 month chair pics/Christmas morning pics. :) Not long and she'll be 8 months! Hard to believe!

More Journaling

Ava is getting to be such a big girl. Here are her latest 'things.' Remember this is me journaling...

• She is continuing to roll over a lot. She is even rolling over and moving ALL over in her crib. Sometimes it gets in the way of her sleeping. At first she would roll to her belly and then get so mad that she couldn't go anywhere and she'd scream and cry. It's like she forgot how to roll from her belly to her back, which she did a long time ago. Silly girl! :) It's getting better. When we went to get her out of her crib this morning she was sleeping away on her belly. It's pretty cute---hands up by her face and legs crossed or sometimes on her side a little.


• She can sit up on her own quite well and push her body up with her arms while on her belly and scoot along, do 360s, etc. Once she gets those legs figured out, she'll be GONE! It will still be a little while I think, which is totally fine with me. Still haven't fully baby-proofed the house. I am not sure how that is all going to work out. If you've been to my house, you know what I mean. I have a lot of CRAP stuff that isn't for little Miss Ava.


• She is getting very cuddly and even gives some VERY slobbery kisses from time to time.


• We are attempting to teach her sign language for "more," "all done," and "thank you." (Thanks Nanci!)


• She has always enjoyed her bath but has been playing with her toys in the bath and even splashing the water. I think she is going to be a water baby! She is very intrigued when I turn on the kitchen faucet.


• She is loving to eat. She is actually quite the little pig! So far she's had the fruit and veggie baby foods and a few of the other dinner type ones. I don't think she's a huge fan. Probably because she has also had shredded cheese, cottage cheese, pizza, monkey bread, and her daddy's pumpkin bars. She will actually take her left hand and grab the pieces, shovel it in her mouth and then her right hand IMMEDIATELY, and do the same. I have to just make sure she isn't getting too much in her mouth at one time. Stinker! She loves her puffs, too and the Yo Baby yogurt meals. She gets super excited if she thinks she is getting food. Even tonight I was stirring the sour cream and she was in her high chair and she was getting all excited thinking it was for her.


• No teeth still---nothin even close that we can tell. :)


• She is scared of men and is recognizing strangers but typically it is just males and even sometimes men she does know scare her. Sorry guys! My mom said she gets that from me. I was quite the cry-baby.


• She is very social otherwise. She seems to like to be 'on-the-go' and loves shopping trips and being out and about or having the constant entertainment at Jeanne's of the other kids and her 2 dogs.

Back to Life, Back to Reality...

Dear Pre-Pregnancy Body,

I am very sorry I did not appreciate you as I should have. Please forgive me! I have genuinely missed you but have not had the time or motivation to get you back and until the recent holiday season, I didn't think you were too far gone. It is my goal (not really a new years resolution...) to do a workout video a few times a week (or more) and attend a weekend class at the gym (since I'm S.T.I.L.L. paying membership) a few times a month (or more). I will also stop feeding you all of the "quote-un-quote" GOODIES that have filled my house and the teacher's lounge for the last about month. (well, once they are gone maybe...).

Please don't be too hard on me tomorrow after our first workout tonight. I'd like to be able to walk pain free! I said please!

Yours truly,

Steph

Christmas---Part 1

This year was our year to do Christmas Day with Trav's extended family, so the Bettis fam (my mom's side) alternates so that we can all still be together at Christmas time. We got together at my mom's house for a brunch on the day after Christmas.




Travis and his pumpkin bars! They were YUMMY! We also had pumpkin french toast the next morning for breakfast and I must say that was awesome too. I think we've finally used all of our pumpkin from Halloween. :) haha




Me and Megan---the bobsy twins once again!



Sisters---Bridgett, Tammy, Steph



Belle and Ava. Isabelle is in the 4th grade (hard to believe!) and is such a good cousin. Olivia was sick and couldn't come (pink eye!).



Some family shots. As you can maybe see, it was quite the crowd! My mom has 4 siblings. I think everyone in the family was there except cousin Anna who lives in AZ and was home for Thanksgiving so 11 of 12 were there plus OUR kids! I am sooo bummed we didn't at least get an all cousin shot of all the cousins that were there. NEXT TIME!


More family shots. :)


Typically we choose a separate day to open gifts with my siblings but it worked out that my sister Tammy and family were home for Christmas on Christmas, so they were able to be there for the Bettis celebration and then we opened our gifts to each other that evening.

Travis and Jeff (Tammy's husband)...Jeff got the cooler so I guess that Fancy Nancy box is Trav's. haha

Ava had some fun playing with her cousins. Ella had these clip-on hair things for her ponies so she 'ever so gently' clipped one in Ava's hair. It was hilarious! She didn't even notice!


My mom still does stockings for us since one year I about had a cow when she stopped. :) She now also does them for the grandkids. Thanks mom! :) Stockings are my fave! She also started the tradition of getting Ava a Holiday Barbie for Christmas.

Jammies!

Ella

Ava just hanging out.

The great-grandbabies born last year. My grandma has 8 great-grandchildren total.

Ava: 7 months

Dasani: 9 months

Reddington: 10 months

Landen: 4 months

Christmas---Part 2 coming soon including Ava's Christmas morning and her 7 month chair pics. :)

Snow Baby

I am not really a HUGE fan of wintery weather, ice, etc---ICK---but mainly because I hate being cold (it could last for the month of December and I'd be happy), however, I will say I always loved playing in the snow and sledding growing up. We lived on a lake so we would occasionally go ice skating at our friends' house and I think I remember a few times that my best friends Kelli and Les and I snuck down to the lake when it was frozen and just messed around. Not very smart but, hey, we survived! and had lots of fun in the process. :)

We took these pics of Ava at my mom's house the day after Christmas. She had just gotten this cute snowsuit and the snowflakes coming down were huge and beautiful! I am not sure she really thought it was too fun but I'm sure she will in a few years and it made for some cute pics of her first time in the snow.

Christmas Eve

This year we made the decision to be at home on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning...something that has not happened since Travis and I have been together. We still traveled on Christmas morning, but it was nice to be at home and get up on Christmas morning to do our Christmas together---a tradition we both had growing up that we wanted to pass on to Ava!

Since we were home, we were also able to attend the Christmas Eve service, which I don't think I have ever done. I was glad Ava would get the chance to wear her Christmas dress again, too! She did great...with a little help from some Gerber 'puffs' :) And it was just nice to be able to celebrate the real reason for the CHRISTmas season!

We went with Kim and Craig and Ava's buddy, Lauren and each of their families. Then Kim's mom graciously invited us over for dinner. I guess you could say we were like honorary family members that night. :)

Christmas Photo Shoot/6month Chair Pics

Well, as I mentioned I'm a bit behind in my blogging so here goes. I am going to try to get caught up as much as I can. I have been too busy over break enjoying the holidays, my birthday, spending time with Travis and Ava and family and friends, and organizing just about every closet, drawer, cabinet, etc. in our house! I even got all of Ava's "too small" clothes put away and labeled in tubs. Whew!!!

Lori came up and took our Christmas family photos in early December and also did Ava's 6 month chair pics. Despite Ava being still a little sick, she did great and as you'll see, we got some AmAZinG photos!!!!

*Remember you can click on the collages/photos to view them larger. :)

I absolutely loved this one. It's like she's saying "Doot de doo...what now?" Lori said she looked like an old lady who forgot to put her teeth in. :)

We had some fun with Christmas props as you can see!

"Daddy's Little Deer"----LOVE this outfit!

Catching up!

Wow! I have some catching up to do. The only other things on my 'to-do' list today are...
Enjoy the last day of break with my lil girl...
Sit on the couch...
and MAYBE (I did say maybe) help Travis with laundry.

So, check back soon for updates of Steph, Trav and Ava.