Ava has another new cousin!

Michael Trent has arrived!

Friday November 21, 2009 at 2:20 p.m.
7lbs 1 oz and 19.5 inches

Courtney is doing amazing. You wouldn't even know she just had a baby yesterday. Baby Trent is happy and healthy. What an exciting Thanksgiving this is going to be!

jump jump jumparoo

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Baptism Class

We had Ava's baptism class which is really more for the parents on Sunday. It was to go over what happens on that day and what Baptism for an infant means in the church etc. Anyway this is a picture of her before the class. She has her new shoes on too :) Mommy is a little tired as you can see.

The class was about an hour long and there were several other parents in there with babies Ava's age, including our friends Rhonda and Kevin with Ava's little friend Kate who is getting baptized with Ava. We chuckled on the way home because Ava's personality was more apparent to us in that class than ever. All of the other babies were mellow, may wimper a little bit and then doze off to sleep with a bottle. One even fell right asleep in her dads arms (foreign concept to us), but not our little Ava. No way! She had to be standing and kicking those little legs at all times. Steve held her most of the time and she was watching everyone and would get a smile on her face when she noticed another baby. We caught her a few times smiling at baby Kate (who was being a sweet girl and sitting quietly or taking a bottle). Then the best part...she let out a big toot in the middle of class! Everyone got a chuckle out of that!!

15 weeks

This week Ava can roll over! Of course she was able to do this last week and started trying the week before but this is the first week she mastered the full rollover! Yay for Ava!! She loves to roll over but once she's on her tummy she starts grunting and fussing because she can't roll back over. Today I had her sitting in her bouncy seat and turned away for a minute only to look back and find Ava with her mouth wide open while Biscuit licked her in the mouth...yuck!! Didn't phase Ava a bit. As I mentioned before she just LOVES Biscuit and ejoys watching her and blowing raspberries at her. Biscuit has realized that having this baby around isn't so bad because every time she spits up, it gives Biscuit something to lick up off the floor. She's enjoying her new job as the spit up cleaner.

We started "sleep training" Ava this week to take naps in her crib unassisted. It has been very hard on mommy to hear her cry and not run to her, but she is doing a little better each day. Today she took a good solid nap and didn't cry too long at all. I went in there at one point to roll her over since she was "stuck" on her tummy. When she saw me she broke out into a big smile and thought I was there to rescue her. It just killed me to leave the room after that. Of course in 5 minutes she was asleep. One thing that makes it a little easier on mommy is the big smile I get when I go to get her up from her nap. I get big smiles and lots of raspberries and coos.

One other new development this week. She finally has enough hair for a bow! Yay Ava!!

Casper is still enjoying all of his new beds that came with Baby Ava

Look at me..I'm bigger!

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14 weeks

At 14 weeks Ava is able to recognize mommy and daddy and gets really excited when she see's one of us. The most notable is daddy though since she's always been excited to see mommy :) When she sees Steve she gets a big smile on her face and makes this dolphin like squeal. Steve says she talks dolphin language to us right now. We haven't heard a giggle or a chuckle yet, just the dolphin squeal. One of her favorite things to do lately is to look at her reflection in the mirror. We stand in front of the mirror and she smiles and squeals. At one point she squealed at herself and then buried her face in my shoulder to hide before taking another look at the baby in the mirror. She repeated this for about 5 minutes. I finally attached a little mirror to her jumparoo and she loves that too.

Thursday we hit the mall for a day of shopping and lunch with Sara. Ava was an absolute doll the entire time. She got so much attention at the mall it was ridiculous. I had her in the baby bjorn and I told Sara I felt like I had Paris Hilton strapped to my chest with the amount of attention she got. She fell asleep in her bjorn and then rode around quietly in her stroller while mommy shopped. It was a good little outing for us.

Friday Steve had his 4th eye surgery to correct his vision. He had the first one about a year and a half ago and it never took in one of his eyes so they've been in 3 more times now trying to get it corrected. We really hope it works this time. He went back to work today and only really complained of pain for a day or two.

Saturday I had a hair appointment so I dropped Ava off with her nana for a couple of hours. She missed her morning nap that day so she was way overtired that she no longer an absolute doll. Nana said she screamed herself to sleep but it took her about half an hour to get to sleep. I felt bad that poor Nana had to deal with that because I had just bragged to her about what a happy baby Ava is. I was hoping her nap in the car on the way there would have helped but she still was way too tired when I dropped her off. Mommy's fault!

Yesterday we met my friend Kelley and her family at Discovery Green where she took some family photos of us. We are going to use them for our Christmas card and she sent me a few samples this morning. The pictures of Ava are so beautiful. Kelley you are so talented! Steve makes fun of me for always wanting so many pictures, but I told him that she's never going to be a baby again!

Here I am at my favorite time of the day! Look how big I've gotten!

Okay can you resist me in my hoodie jacket?

Here I am after our family portraits. Thank you Aunt Brenda for my dress!

Daddy & Baby time after my bath.

13 Weeks-Happy Halloween!

Okay did anyone notice that Ava had a diaper blowout in the butterfly video? haha it's hard to hear but it cracked me up. Well we are back to screaming in the car when I put Ava in her car seat. Last weekend we went out to Tomball for my cousin Courtney's baby shower and Ava cried almost the entire way. She finally fell asleep when I was about 5 minutes away. I now know that she is okay and is only crying because she wants to go to sleep and not because she feels abandoned. We stopped at my dads for a little bit and he hates to hear her cry so he got upset when I drove off with a crying baby in the back of my car. The next day we went out to my moms and luckily she was fine to and from there. It's much easier if I can get her in the car on a full tummy BEFORE she is too tired. Then she will sit peacefully and just close her eyes and go to sleep.

Ava has now been to 4 baby showers and they are all boys! She will have plenty of boyfriends to choose from when she gets older :) She is such a doll the entire time and everyone comments on what a good baby she is. And to think I thought she was going to be a difficult baby. We are so blessed! She has suddenly decided that she no longer likes the bottle and will just play around with it and spit it out or gag on it, so now we are trying to give her a bottle more often. She will need to learn to take the bottle again before I go back to work. She also hates to be held like a baby. She only wants to be sitting up facing out or standing in your lap so that she can see the world. This might explain why she hates her car seat. She can't stand to be restrained! You can see her pulling trying to sit up..is this normal for a 3month old? Lord help us when she is mobile!

This week she has become completely fascinated with Biscuit. Anytime she sees biscuit she stops what she's doing to watch her and she gets a big smile on her face. It is too cute. Not so much fascinated with Magnum which is odd because he just adores Ava.

watchin the game drinkin a bud

watching the Texans game & laughing at the Texans
Daddy with his girls
aren't I too cute in this hat?

The prettiest butterfly on earth

Are we going trick or treating or what??
Daddy & Grandad- I'm ready to go hunting!