Ava teasing Daddy

I wasn't really sure what to title this post. This is a video of Ava doing her "thing" and it's a sort of combination of tickling or teasing and a "goochy-goochy-goo" thing. It's so funny and here she's teasing her Daddy with it. What she'll usually do is crouch down and curl her fingers in front of her face and start making this goofy little noise. Then she comes at you and gets you. (Really, how does one explain the make believe silliness of a 21 month old???) We hope you enjoy the video.

Cookie or Clapping?

Today Ava & I were eating at Qdoba with Ellen, Will, & Jeni when Ava heard a good song come on the restaraunt speakers and she needed to do something in reaction to the groovy music. Problem was, Ava had a cookie in her hand at the time so she did the only thing she could: she tucked that cookie under her arm and held it tight there while she clapped her hands to the music. Ellen could only laugh and say that Ava was a born multi-tasker. =) I remembered to tell you all the story tonight because I was treating her shirt for stains and found chocolate marks in the underarms. =)

Ava's First Haircut

Ava had her first haircut and did so well. Note the sucker in her hand in the bottom picture? Magic! She sat and let our friend Janna cut her hair and didn't even hardly move. Next time will probably be a nightmare but... =) Jeff & I love her new look and it seems from the compliments that she garners everywhere we go that others like it, too. We were just ready for it not to be a crazy mess whenever it wasn't pulled back from her face. I think that Janna cut a little over 3 inches off, I couldn't believe it had gotten so long. With the new 'do I think she looks alot like Jeff's little cousin Lucy Farley.

Ava on the Piano (Then and Now)

I have some old videos of Ava that I'm pretty sure I haven't shared. Even if I have, I'm sure you'll love seeing them again. :) Here's a video of Ava playing the piano at about 8 months. I apologize for my videography skills, you'll have to turn your head to watch this first one because I don't know how to switch the orientation. The second video is of Ava playing the piano yesterday at 21 months old. Can you believe how much she's changed and grown?!?

A quick update

This is just a quick update to let everyone know that we are "this" close to being moved out of our house in Brandon! We have some cleaning left to do and there are a few items left in the garage but we're in good shape and will be closing on Monday. Yay!!

Ava's settling into life on the farm well. She and I went for a ride with Grandpa in the combine on Monday and then today I caught her in Grandpa's recliner reading the "Successful Farming" magazine. Apparently, she's going to like farm life.

I am unpacking and arranging all of our items that we brought to Marv & Theresa's. The mounds of stuff are a bit daunting but one box at a time, we're getting it done. Wish us luck!!

More pictures from California

Trick-or-treating in California with the cousins! We had a Ballerina, Golden Princess, Bumblebee, and a Purrty Kitty. We weren't sure what Ava was going to wear for her costume when we arrived in California so Taylor created ballots and we all voted. (The other two options were Zebra and Bumblee.)

Ava's Peapod Travel bed was a hit with all the kids and even though Ava never actually slept in it, the tent got a lot of use during playtime.

California with our Anema cousins

The second half of our California trip was spent with Jeff's sister Amy, her husband Paul, and their three kids: Taylor, Samantha, & Jackson. Ava had a blast with her California cousins and didn't know what to do with herself when she came home and they weren't here to entertain her. We got home late Sunday night and all day Monday she seemed lost and out of sorts. After six days with those three to play with, I can understand how quiet and boring our house seemed!

Mud puddles! Fun for everyone!!

Ava, Jack, and the Cozy Coupe. Ava LOVED this car and if anyone came near when she was in it she said, "No, no, no, no!" Lucky for her, Jack didn't mind sharing as bad as she did and we caught the two of them going for a ride in the coupe.

Taylor is full of ideas and plans and activities. While we were there she created a slide show and then voting ballots for Ava's Halloween costume and gave dance lessons. Here are the three girls taking Taylor's dance lessons, something right up Ava's alley as you saw in the video from a few days ago. :) Bring on the tutus, Taylor! Ava's looking forward to more lessons in December!!

We have so many pictures of Ava and her cousins that I think I'll have to post more another day. Thank you, Anemas, for all the fun we had at your home in California! We look forward to more fun this Christmas when you come to Iowa!

Just making a quick call, Mom.

Chatty Cathy was on her phone again today and this time I was successful in catching her in video. I think she might be singing to whoever is on the other end of the line (not a surprise, she sings all the time). She's very willing to share the phone and let others talk as you will can see at the end of the video when she tries to pass the phone to me. (I didn't think you would enjoy my chatting on the phone as much as Ava's so I didn't bore you with that.)

California with Uncle Roy and Auntie Erica

As promised, here are some pictures of our recent trip to California. The first part of our trip was spent with Uncle Roy (my brother) and his wife, Erica. They live in Fresno and though Levi was able to get the time off to show us around, Erica is on the cusp of opening what we call "her museum", the Fresno Met, and so she was very busy. She managed to get Sunday off while we were there and we were thrilled to have that time to spend with her touring the zoo and the Met.



Ava "packing" before we left home. Uncle Roy & Ava on a walk.

Feeding the giraffes at the Fresno Zoo! This was so much fun! Ava loved it!!

Playing at a park near Levi's house.

Feeding the birds after our Zoo trip. Ava loved chucking pieces of bread at the birds but after being nipped at by one goose and hissed at by another, Auntie Erica was sure there was something better to do. :) Thank you, Levi and Erica, for showing us all around and letting us stay! It was great to see you and we look forward to seeing you at Chrimastime!

Belly Pics

I've had a request from my best friend, Meghan, out in Colorado for belly pictures so I thought I'd just share them with everyone here on the blog. These were taken when I was 21 weeks pregnant, we're almost 24 weeks along now. Ava thinks the belly is funny and if you ask her where the baby is she'll tap my tummy. Or she'll tap her own belly when we ask so (shrug) maybe she doesn't quite understand. :) She's also very willing to "give the baby a kiss" on my tummy which is totally adorable. Hopefully when the baby actually arrives she'll still be this sweet to her or him. :)

Ava trying to get Jack to dance

Ava and I just got back on Sunday from 10 days in California. Whew! We had a great time and got to see my brother Levi and his wife Erica and Jeff's sister Amy and her family. They only live about an hour and a half from each other so it works out very well when we go to visit both families. I'll post more pictures of our trip but I had to get this video up because it is so cute! Ava spent most of her time either beating Jack up or trying to get him to dance with her. There wasn't really a happy medium there. They are still a little young to really play together and more just played side-by-side. One day Jack was standing in front of the tv watching a cartoon and Ava thought it had good music so she tried to get him to dance with her. She stood right next to him, both facing the tv, and grabbed his hand. He dropped her hand immediately, totally uninterested. She grabs his hand again and starts swinging her hips to the music but again, he drops her hand without even looking at her. Apparently she was determined that the music would move him as it was moving her because she gave up trying to hold his hand and grabbed his shoulder and started swaying side-to-side with her hand on his shoulder.

SOLD!!!

We put our house on the market, you heard this, right? But did you hear that it sold? Yes!! Yay!! Our home sold on October 22nd, Jeff's 30th birthday! Not a bad present, would you say? :) We are thrilled and getting ready for the next phase of our life. We are going to restore an old farmhouse down south of Sioux Falls, it is halfway between Beresford and Hawarden (but still in South Dakota!). See the picture below and don't worry, the interior looks much more promising than your view from the outside. While working on this enormous project, we'll be living with Jeff's parents on their farm outside Hawarden, IA. Our closing date is November 24th and we are moving out the weekend of the 15th to give ourselves plenty of time to finish some loose ends up here. What does this mean? We move in 9 days!! We wanted the house to sell fast and it did! Now we have to move our butts and get out, fast! :)

Peek!

Playing Peek-A-Boo at lunchtime.

And truly "peeking" through those chubby little fingers.

Have you heard our drama queen lately? I think that we can officially pass my title on. Notice the above picture? You'll see this image many days of the week at our house but it's a different tone. See, she'll get upset about something, start "crying" and peek through her fingers to make sure that you see how terribly distraught she is. "Boo hoo hoo hoo, can you seeeeee how sad I ammmmmm????"

A Zoo Trip!

We took a trip to the zoo on Monday for Grandma Lacey's birthday! Happy Birthday, Grandma! (I'm sorry that we didn't get a picture with you, how did we forget that??) Auntie Ellen, Will, Sarah, Seth, and Collin also met us at the Zoo so we had a fun morning. This is the first time that I got to take Ava to the zoo but it isn't her first trip. Auntie Jeni and Uncle Tod took Ava along with the rest of their nieces and nephews a few months ago. She loved racing Will and Seth down the paths of the zoo and especially loved the Children's Zoo where she got up close and personal feeding some goats. :) My enjoyment of the zoo was slightly dimmed when I was stung by a bee in the first ten minutes at the zoo. Ouch! I had no idea that a bee sting could hurt so bad or make my arm swell like it did!! As a result I spent most of my time at the zoo fending off predatory insects, sure they were all out to get me now. While running away from the bees in the African Safari with me, Seth made the interesting comment that he had "Lots of Betty's around me today!" I don't really know what he meant but it was cute and worth mentioning. :)

The Recycling Bin

Why does she want to play with the recycling? This cabinet is just sooooo exciting to Ava these last couple of weeks but who knows why? First she would just pull out the newspapers and scatter them. Then she started pulling the cans and plastic out of the bin and playing with them. Then she took the whole bin of recycling out of the drawer and started carrying it around. Now today she discovered that she can fit right in that drawer if she takes everything else out. In she went. And giggled and rocked and giggled some more. Of course I told her not to play in there but how do I not take her picture first? I'm digging through my child-proof locks to see if I have something that will work on this cabinet but I am not finding anything yet. I guess the cabinet is hers for now...

Teeth teeth teeth teeth

Incisors!! Argh!! We hate these teeth! They have been tormenting Ava for two months now and have only just appeared in the last two weeks. But there are four to work on and we're only seeing the top two! And those two are only partially out of her gums! Thank goodness for ice and tylenol! I'm not sure what these teeth bring the number two for a total in her little mouth but it is in the double digits. (It's harder to see the teeth at the back of her mouth and I value my fingers too much to stick a digit in and try to count them all.) What we know for sure is that she's got a lovely smile (and an even better growl that REALLY shows off those teeth)!

I guess Ava's baby doll is hungry this morning because I just caught Ava shoving honeycomb into her doll's mouth. :) It's rather a large mouth because it usually holds a pacifier so why not fill it with some food? "Baby" is one word that Ava says really well and she loves carrying a doll around with her or pushing it in her toy stroller. (But she also likes pushing a book or other toys around in her stroller.) She's usually very sweet with her babies and we're optimistic that she'll be a big fan of her baby brother or sister when they finally arrive. She likes to "help" whenever possible and is just super with the swiffer and broom. :) I'm hoping that she has her Grandma Theresa's "tidy" gene because she didn't inherit any tendency towards tidiness from me or Jeff. She'll also help by wiping up the floor if that's what I'm doing at the moment. Still not a big fan of the vacuum if it gets too close to her but at least she's not crying when it comes on now though she still hates the small handheld dustbuster.

The Princess and the Pea

Ava got her Peapod Travel bed in the mail on Saturday! Yay! She thinks it is the greatest addition to her daily play, even laying down in it for a nap on Saturday afternoon. We're hoping that she'll like it and sleep in it verses the Pack-n-Play because it is ALOT more portable. If it doesn't work out for her, I guess it should for her little sibling. I figure it will keep him or her safe from bugs (and Ava) when we're camping and doing other things. :) My friend Elizabeth gave me the idea because this is what she used for her son's bed when they came to visit her grandparents this summer. Isaac thought it was the greatest thing and now Ava can see why!

Chasing Ava a.k.a. Watching Malory's Soccer Game

We went to the soccer fields in Sioux Falls to watch Malory's soccer game last weekend. We got to see most of the game but since Ava didn't want to sit and didn't want to watch the game, we all spent time chasing Ava. It got much warmer than expected so the longsleeve Hawkeye's shirt Ava had on had to come off. We're getting to the end of our nice weather so it was nice to be out in the sun for a little while. Pictured with Ava today are Malory, Daddy, Bailey, Uncle Greg, and Aunt Wendy.

We'd like to introduce you to Ava's Sibling...

We had our first ultrasound yesterday, we are 18 weeks and two days pregnant in these pictures. Jeff and my mom were able to come along with me to the ultrasound where we got our first glimpse of our baby. We did not find out the sex but judging from watching the ultrasound images we have our suspicions. :) And no, Auntie Jeni, we are not having twins! :) The top picture is of the baby in profile and I think it is pretty self-explanatory. Cute nose, right? :)
In the second picture here you can see the baby's tiny feet. The view is from the bottom of her/his feet so you can see the heels and toes outlined pretty well. It is a side-by-side view of the same shot, pretty much.
Here is a picture of most of our baby. It's a view from their left side but shot kind of from behind them so you're seeing the back of the head, their perfect little spine, left arm and left leg. The baby is facing down in this picture. The technician had a little trouble getting all the pictures that she wanted because the baby was not in the mood to be still. We got to see lots of wiggling arms and kicking legs and could even see the baby's mouth opening and closing. What a miracle!! We are blessed with a healthy little baby and we will just pray that they continue to grow and thrive until we get to officially meet him or her in February!

Arm Wrestling

Jeff can get Ava laughing like no one else. She thinks her Daddy is the greatest thing since fruit snacks (I agree) and whether they are dancing in the garage to Dad's music, playing "tackle" football in the yard, or arm wrestling, it is all great. Sorry if this video is a little shaky, I was having a really hard time not laughing and shaking the camera.

Helping the boys

Uncle Grant gave Ava a ride on the forklift on the day that we hung out in Trent with the boys. Three of my brothers, Grant, Luke, & Zac, are all going to USD this year and we spent a day with them at my parents' before they started school this fall. Hopefully we'll get down to Vermillion soon to spend another day hanging out.

Here's Ava helping haul wood from the truck to the pile. She likes "helping" when she can.

Taking a break from splitting wood, Ava and Uncle Zac play catch with Ruthie and Tom. Ava didn't want to touch the ball because it was slimy so she'd just kick it to the dogs. This usually resulted in the ball rolling slowly maybe 18 inches in front of her and it took Tom watching about four of these attempts by Ava to realize that this was as good as it was going to get. Soon he started getting the ball and returning it to Ava, game for whatever he could get, apparently.

Growling... Not just for bears anymore.

Ava has decided that it is really fun to growl or just generally talk in a deep, mannish voice. On Friday last week she spent the day wandering around singing in this deep voice. It is hilarious! I think she has kept it up because she gets such a great response from her adoring audiences. :) Here's a video of her in the car entertaining Grandpa Kingma, Jeff, and myself.

Bathtime, entertaining as always.

As I type this post, Ava is sitting on top of the kitchen table. This is her "thing". She thinks it's hilarious to climb up on the table and wait for my reaction. So today, I'm not reacting. I'm sitting with my back to her and waiting to see what she does. She's been sitting there for about five minutes and I think she's bored with the game and ready to get down. (There's nothing on the table to get into.) Her problem is, she doesn't know how to get down. She can get up but I always bring her down. Now what? I guess we wait and see. (Don't worry, my bladder won't allow this standoff to go too long. Ava doesn't realize she's got a baby brother or sister on her side, putting pressure on me to get up and move!)

Aren't bathtub pictures so cute? And doesn't she look so big in my arms afterwards? My baby is a year and a half! I can't believe how much she's grown and changed in that short span of time. Jeff says she's not my baby anymore, my baby is now in my belly. :) I know he's right but Ava will always be my baby, my first precious gift from above.