Stephanie and Alex's Wedding

Travis was in our friends' Stephanie and Alex's wedding Labor Day weekend. I guess somehow I didn't get a picture of the bride and groom! Oops! Ava stayed all night with Grandma and Grandpa Cunningham while we stayed at the reception. It was a good time! I loved Ava's dress!

Trav and the bride.

Trav and his sister Genna. Her husband is Alex's brother.

Ava's 3 Month Pics by Lori

We just got back from Pere Marquette State Park yesterday after a fun-filled Labor Day weekend with the Bettis Family. My 'Aunt' Lori was gracious enough to take Ava's 3 month photos, as well as TONS (500+ to be exact) of family photos of the Bettis fam. Here's a sneak peek of some of our photos. There are tons more--how will I ever decide???

3 months!

Ava is 3 months old today! It's hard to believe. We have had an interesting couple of weeks with me going back to work. A wonderful woman, Jeanne, is watching her in her home, along with Lauren, (my friend Kim's daughter), Natalie (another teacher friend's daughter), and a few other kids. Ava is doing great and I'm slooooooooowly adjusting. I do enjoy teaching but I will say at Ava's age right now, I'd LOVE to stay home with her. I got very spoiled having all summer but am very thankful I had practically 3 months home AND I GOT PAID and I hardly had to take any sick days. Very lucky!!!!!

She continues to be a great baby, which of course, Jeanne agrees. Her sleep schedule has changed a bit, but I swear she must sense something is different because as she was getting up once a night before, since I've been back to school, it is now usually 2 times. I still can't complain. She is up to eat and back in her crib within about 20 minutes. One more month and the dr. says she can start having rice cereal. MAYBE that will fill her belly so she sleeps longer????

Hopefully I'll get back into the habit of blogging (I have tons of pics...) and facebooking but I want to spend every single second with her when I get home and I feel guilty if I'm not paying attention to her. :)

Here are her monthly chair pics. Enjoy. :) She kept falling over so I thought---might as well go with it! :)

Rolling Over!

Not only have we been busy (don't miss my previous post) but miss Ava has also been busy continuing to do new things. DESPITE the fact that I'm horrible at giving her tummy time (hardly ever do it actually), I noticed that she has really been holding her head up pretty well. Since she isn't usually a fan of lying flat on her tummy, we hold her a lot so she's on her tummy but propped up a little bit--as you can see in the photos with her daddy. Anyway, like I said, I totally noticed she was holding her head up very nicely and even looking around so I just out of the blue decided to put her on her belly last night when we were just hanging out and lo' and behold, SHE ROLLED OVER! I about died because I was not expecting it at all. Good job Ava! I joked it was only because she does NOT want to be on her belly so she figured out how to get out of that situation. She then did it several times and I was able to get some action shots and a few video clips.

I got her in action!

Busy Busy...

With school approaching, I guess I've gotten a little behind with my blogs. :) A lot has happened in the last week or so. Ava and I went to the Bettis/Jenkins family reunion on August 1st. Travis had to work that day. It was fun to see everyone even though it was a little rainy.

Love this pic :)

My mom and Aunt Sheri in their "matching outfits"

Belle and Liv--getting too big! Isabelle is entering 4th grade (how?) and Liv will be in Kindergarten

Megan and Reddington

My Grandma and Bridgett playing with Ava

Wisconsin Dells

Ava and I took a girls trip to the Wisconsin Dells with the girls in my family the first week of August. It was tons of fun! We (Mom; Bridgett, Isabelle, and Olivia; and Tammy and Ella), meet every summer for a girls trip! We stayed at Chula Vista resort in the Dells. The girls had a blast at the water parks right there on the resort. Tammy packs all of the food and drinks we need and we just pay her so we don't have to go out to eat. We had tacos, sandwiches, fruit, pasta salad, chips, etc. It was all yummy! Ava did great! She slept most of the time in the car with a few pit stops of course. Ella's birthday is August 17 so we also gave her birthday gifts while we were there. We played mini-golf at the resort as well. Ava enjoyed it by sleeping the entire time in her stroller. :) I, of course, found many photo ops and Bridgett and I took some 'Senior' photos. haha!

Ava got to meet cousin Ella for the first time. She was cracking me up. My favorite comment of the week from Ella was "Does your baby want a chip?" She also asked if my baby could wear a necklace. She was very interested in lil Ava. :)

State Fair

Yesterday Ava and I went to the State Fair with Megan and Reddington. We had a blast. The babies were awesome. Why would we think any different right? It was a little hotter than we thought it was going to be but both Ava and Reddington were lil angels. :)




Thought this sign was appropriate...

The Butter Cow

Happy Babies :)

We got ice cream in the Dairy Building (of course) and went to sit down in a nearby pavilion just in time to see a show put on by The Bucket Boys. Somehow Ava slept through the entire show of them BANGING and I mean BANGING on barrels, parking signs, smashing garbage can lids together, etc. She only woke up when they started talking on the microphone (see the top left photo). We had some fun taking photos of the 2 cousins together. Love em!

Videos

Ava is almost 11 weeks old and each day she does something new and cute. Here are a few videos of her. She has found her voice!!!! :-) She squeals all day long, sometimes when playing with toys, sometimes just for fun and ALWAYS when I rub my hair on her face. It is sooo cute. Usually she coos really softly but today she was wound up! If she sees me with the camera, she usually stops, which is why I might have some odd camera angles. hehe!

2 Months Old

Ava Lynn!

Well, I guess I'll start by saying that I'm still kinda confused about how you determine your baby's age. Apparently 8 weeks isn't the same as being 2 months old? Anyway, she's past both now. She had her 2 month well check up today and weighs 11 pounds 2 ounces and is 22 1/4 inches long. She is in like the 50 and 55% for weight and length but is in the 90% for her huge head. hehe! Dr. Emm said she is doing great and can't believe how well she is sleeping. He said that 'not all babies are this good.' I guess she's either tricking us so we'll give her a sibling OR it's that Beat Belt!! I asked if she can be sleeping TOO much and he said no, she's normal and to enjoy it! (Trust me, I am!) She's been sleeping from around 10pm until about 5am, give or take a 1/2 hour difference here or there. Then she'll usually wake up to eat, then sleep another couple hours, get up and after maybe getting dressed and playing a little, she's tired again. She is awake a lot more though during the day and is super alert. She likes to look at toys and talk to Mr. Whale and Mr. Octopus on her play mat. We also read stories every night before bed and she loves to look at the pictures.

Funny story, Dr. Emm also started out by saying her head strength was 'ok,' not great but not bad (I guess it's hard to hold your head up when it's so big! hehe!). Then he layed her on her belly and she held her head up and looked all around and he and Travis and I were all like WHOA! I admitted she'd never really done that before and that I'm not great at giving her tummy time. She doesn't usually love it, so what can I say? Anyway, it was pretty funny.

She also had her shots today and she did great. She hardly cried immediately after and then slept for about 3 hours almost. Unfortunately when she woke up, she wasn't too happy. She cried for about 15 minutes, which she never does--and wouldn't eat or take her pacifier. I managed to get some Tylenol in and rocked her til she finally fell asleep. She slept more tonight than normal and I just held her while we watched a movie enjoying her and cuddling with her. When she woke up, she was back to her normal self, thank goodness! I'll probably give her a dose of Tylenol next time before her appt. but am glad I waited to see how she would do first.

Here are some pictures including her 'chair' pics. It took me several different photo shoots to get ONE smile--as you'll see with the different outfits. Of course, as soon as I move her or stop taking pictures, she's smiling up a storm!

"Seriously, Are you done yet?"

"Alright, I'll give you a half smile"

"Just call me Vanna!"

In her bath (just about 2 minutes after the chair photo shoot! :) Check out that smile!

She always kicks one leg out of the hammock part. Cracks me up!

It might be hard to see but I finally got my family tree necklace. It says "Our Family, Travis, Stephanie and Ava" with a tree on it--handmade from Lisa Leonard online. Thanks again Megan for the coupon. I LOVE IT and always get compliments on it.

As you can see we're totally in love with her! Hope you've enjoyed as well!