Sweet Family Time

Today Ava and I got to meet her cousin baby Ruby for the first time!  Ruby is my cousin Summer's baby girl and she is named after our sweet grandmother.  Grandmother passed away just a couple of weeks before Ruby was born so she never got to meet these two sweet girls.  Well....she never got to meet them here on this earth.  I KNOW without a doubt she rocked and kissed both those girls before they left Heaven.  And I am sure she sang them a little hymn too because that is what grandmother did best! Here are a couple of pictures from the day.  Cousin Makayla also joined the photo fun as well!

Ava, great granddad and Ruby

Ruby, her momma Summer and granddad

Granddad and his girls

this is the only picture where all eyes were on the camera!

Makayla was eyeing Ava's bow...then she
tried grabbing it off her head!!

Aunt April and her girls

Speaking of my grandmother.  She swore by something called a bumper chair.  Now to most people, it looks just like a normal straight back chair but to grandmother it was a miracle chair.  She believed this chair could cure anything that was wrong with us when we were babies.  It is the BEST remedy for gas and upset tummies.  Well, wouldn't you know that my little girl has quite the tummy issues...gas, reflux, hiccups.  If it has to do with the GI tract, it plagues my baby girl.  So I have been on the hunt for my very own bumper chair.  My cousin Kerri came this weekend and that was our mission.  Who knew how difficult it could be to find but, those who seek shall surely find and find I did.  I got my chair for $5!!!  That's right....I said $5!  Thank you Frisco Resale for this awesome and much needed find.  Here is a pic of Ava's first "bump"!!  Oh how she loves it!

Thank you Kerri for pointing out this
very special chair!

Like I said....Kerri came for a little baby Ava time this weekend too.  We have been so blessed to have such great fellowship with our family this week.  Ava loves her "auntie" Kerri.  She just slept, cooed and smiled for her all weekend.  

taking a little morning nap

great Sunday morning--a good cup of coffee
and a cuddly baby

sweet sleep....we love you Kerri

Like I have said so many times before....man I am so blessed.  Thank you God for such and amazing family.

Remembering

Yesterday was worldwide pregnancy and infant loss remembrance day.  It is still so hard to believe that just a little over a year ago our sweet angel, Ian, was born into the arms of Jesus.  Here is a link to the video our sweet friend/photographer DeEdra made for us with pictures she took when Ian was born.

http://web.me.com/whitt2679/Life_According_to_Whitney/Movie.html

We love you and miss you everyday sweet boy.

So many things have happened in our lives this past year.  We have been so blessed with our baby girl.  We have learned so many things, the most important of those being that life is so short and we must take advantage of every precious moment we are given.  SO....we are doing just that!!  We have taken Ava LOTS of places so far.  Here is her running list:

*church

*high school football game

*pumpkin patch at the Arboretum with her fav cousins

*TONS of dinner/lunch/brunch dates with lots of friends

*Dallas Mavericks game

*Dallas Stars game

*the Texas State Fair

*of course....shopping trips!!

We are having so much fun with this precious baby that God has graciously loaned to us for awhile.  She too is teaching us a lot of things.  The most amazing of those is how great love can be.  I never knew I could love something or someone so much.  I love my husband so dearly but the love I have for both Ian and Ava is so completely different.  I thank God everyday for the gift of being this sweet girl's momma!  I am so blessed and my cup truly is so full.

Enough of my blabbering....here are some more pics of my sweet girl---I know that is what everyone wants to see anyway :)

Rough day at the fair

Ava and momma with Big Tex

Oh how I love that dimple!!
I love waking up to this every day!!

My serious little thinker

We cannot wait to see what else the future holds for our little family!  Please take a minute to really think about all the blessings you have been given and be thankful for each moment.

Long Overdue

Well, this post is LONG overdue!  I decided to join the blogspot family to chronicle this new phase of our lives.  As many of you know, I had a previous blog that went through our journey of becoming parents for the first time and the loss of our son Ian.  For any of you that would like to read those posts, you can follow this link:  http://web.me.com/whitt2679

A lot has happened in the past few weeks.  We welcomed our sweet baby girl, Ava Kate, into our family!  We are so in love with her.  I feel like we have waited so long to have this baby in our arms.  God is so good and we are feeling so blessed.

Ava decided--on her own I might add--that she wanted her birthday to be September 3, 2010.  She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 20.5 in long.  So that will make her 6 weeks old this week!  How is it possible that 6 weeks have passed already??  Man this little pumpkin changes everyday....sometimes right before my eyes I think!  Here are a few of her stats as  of her 1 month check up:

* weight is up to 7lbs 13oz
*now ~21 inches long---she really doesn't enjoy being measured and squirms the whole time!
*she LOVES music
*we enjoy outings most every day--lunch with friends, trips to target, etc...
*she finally loves her bath and MUST take one every night or she DOES NOT sleep well
*daddy feeds her a bottle every night before bed and I think this is a huge reason she sleeps so good
*she is sleeping 4-5hrs at a time at night---woo hoo!!
*she and mommy have started going to church and I think she really likes it--especially the music
*morning times are are best times--this is when she is the happiest and smiles the most

Here are a few of my favorite shots of her these last few weeks!

Janet the giraffe--our new love and paci holder!

Ava and her bestie Jillian

Yea for bath time!

we love getting dressed up for church

with Macie at the pumpkin patch

we were about to lose her

mommy and Ava at the pumpkin patch at the Arboretum

Thanks for joining us in this amazing new chapter of our lives!