Just a little crush

Ava has her first crush - his name: Mr. Steve.

She likes the older married men apparently. Ava sees him at church every Sunday and loves to run up to him and then she'll run away from him just as fast. She gets all flustered when he's around. (It's cute, but I'm not too sure what his wife thinks of this.) :)

Sunday they asked if they could take Ava out to lunch. I knew she would be in heaven to be with Mr. Steve & Kristen. Kristen took a few pictures of the day, so I thought I would post them. Ava was spoiled...just a little!

First stop: Wendy's

3D shades with her happy meal.

Next stop: the park
And yes, Ava is a climber if you haven't noticed.

Ava and Mr. Steve
Last stop: ice cream

On her way home about to fall asleep.
Thank you, Kristen and Steve, for taking Ava out on a date. She had so much fun! What a blessing you are to our family.

Gatlinburg Trip

Here is a short video that Jonathan made of our family trip to Gatlinburg.

Summer

Thought I would add a few more pictures today, since I'm in the mood for blogging and all. Just thought I would share this picture of Ava sleeping since it's too cute not to, and also because I never get pictures like this anymore.

One morning, Jonathan met Ava, Sophie and I at the pool for Jonathan's lunch break. Catherine, Sophie's mommy, came to my house to watch Lily for me so I could take the girls. (Catherine was 9 months pregnant at the time and didn't feel like torturing herself in the heat.)

The above picture is the Newell's family photo we took when we were there for the fourth of July. Can you tell it was around July 4th?

And here is the Thompson's family photo. We were able to all meet together in Gatlinburg this summer. It had been about 2 years since I had seen my brothers and their families, so it was good spending time with everyone. Our families have grown a lot since our last family photo.

Wow...an update!

Yes, I'm finally updating my blog. I know ALL you readers out there have been missing my blog post. HA:)

Over the fourth of July, we went to visit Jonathan's family. It was a super quick trip, but we had a good time seeing his family. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures at all. But I did capture the photo below and it's absolutely adorable! This is Lily and Claire. Claire is our niece and she was born a day before Lily. And, I caught them both smiling. Beautiful!

My grandma came to visit us for a few days this summer. I really enjoyed spending time with her. I just wish I could see her more often. It was nice for her to get to meet Lily for the first time, and spend time with Ava. Ava still talks about Grandma Jo.


Daddy and his girls.

My little cutie pie!

Mommy and the girls.

And here are just a few pictures of Lily a few weeks ago. She is four months now - growing up way too fast! We had he check-up last week and she is growing, but not as fast as the doctors would like to see. So, I'm trying to offer her a bottle once or twice a day after I nurse her. She is little bitty. But then again, so was Ava. I guess we just have little babies.

Sunday trip to Bobbies Dairy Dip

Ava laughing

Random Pictures of the past few weeks.

Lily and Ava

I think most of you have seen these pictures, but I thought I would post them just in case. For some reason it won't let me post them individually, so I just attached a link so you can view them. Enjoy!

I'd like to share my Walmart Digital Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

8 weeks

Okay, so Lily is actually already 10 weeks, but I'm slacking on my post. She had her two month check-up a while ago and she weighs in at 10 lbs. 8 oz. (40th %). She's gained two pounds from her birth weight, which is great. She's still so tiny, but she is starting to get some fat rolls (which I don't remember Ava ever having...and still doesn't have!). Her length is 23 in.(74th %). Lily is smiling all time and cooing a lot. I love to hear her raspy little voice. She's been such a great sleeper, too. This week she gave me a very special gift, she's sleeping through the night consistently now. It's wonderful!

Below is a picture of Lily at 8 weeks. Right below that is a picture of Ava when she was 8 weeks old. Can you even tell that they are related? Some people think they look alike, but I defnitely don't see it.

Ava has been a riot lately, let me tell ya. I have a list of things written down that Ava has said recently that I don't want to forget. (Some of which I couldn't share on here!) But she definitely keeps us laughing, that's for sure! One thing she must do is hold Lily. She asks me all the time. Lily is a trooper about it. She doesnt seem to mind, except of course when she's sleepy.

We have been enjoying our summer so far. Jonathan leaves next week to work at summer camp with our church. We both went last year and had a great time with the youth group. This year I obviously can't go since I'm nursing, so the girls and I are going to visit family. We will miss him a lot, but I'm looking forward to hearing all about it.

What did we do on our rainy day?

Well, we stayed in our pajamas all day and we did some baking. It was fun relaxing with Ava (& Lily) and just enjoyed my daughters. And, as you can see, I think Ava enjoyed the day too.

Ava & Lily

My good friend, Catherine, took some great photos of Ava and Lily. Lily was right at a month old, so I thought it would be fun to get a few of her before she changes too much. Catherine also made the shirts they are wearing. They have their initials on them. She did a great job. She's one of the most creative people I know! It's nice having a friend that's so crafty since I have no crafty or artistic ability.

Thanks, Catherine, for taking great photos!

Lily has recently started smiling - it's precious.

Probably my favorite photo. It's so sweet!

1 Month old

Lily Jane's stats:

9lbs. 1 oz. - 47th percentile

21.5 in. - 68th percentile

The doctor says she's a healthy little girl. Not much else to say about this check-up. I guess that's a good thing!

Life with two

So, as shocking as this may sound, I've been a little busy lately. Life with two kids is very different then life with just one. It's been such a blessing to have so much help after I've had Lily. My mom came in town to help for almost two weeks. The last week she was here, my dad came up too. It was nice to get to spend time with both of them. While they were here, Jonathan decided to go back to work so that I would have the extra help once they left. So this week Jonathan is off work. I've definitely been spoiled with all the help. Next week I'm officially on my own with two kids. If I don't post much in the weeks to come, you'll know why!

Mama with her two granddaughters. She was a HUGE help!

Here is my sweet Lily. She's changing so much already.
I wanted to put a few pictures of Ava and Lily together, but that's actually hard to do, especially since Lily sleeps so much right now. But Ava loves her little sister...A LOT! She wakes up saying, "Hold her?". She can be a little rough at times because she kisses her all the time and wants to hug her. (And Ava's hugs aren't the softest.) But it's sweet that she loves her so much.
While my parents were here, we ended up going to the zoo a couple times. Ava really needed to get out of the house...actually, we ALL needed to get out of the house.
Ava's favorite part of the zoo, the play area. This is also one of my favorite parts of the zoo because I get to sit and watch, using no energy at all. And, it gets Ava's energy out, so she usually takes a good nap after a morning at the zoo. A win win for both of us!

Papa and Ava looking at the meerkats.

Lily has been such a blessing for our family. She's only three weeks old, but I already forgot what life was like without her. God is so good!