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.

Dancing Fever

We had a great time at my cousin Cody's wedding to his long-time girlfriend, Kari, the last Saturday in August. Ava tolerated the wedding because she was able to go from uncle to uncle to grandpa to grandma and then do it all again, sometimes stopping for a moment with Mom and Dad at their end of the church pew. In the first picture you see Ava at the start of the reception. They had started setting up the buffet line which was conveniently located next to the dance floor so she was able to sneak over and snag a bun off the table and get back to the dance floor before we realized what she was up to. Dancing makes a girl hungry, who can blame her??

Pete and Alex posing for the camera. (This is one of three pictures I had to take for Pete, he kept changing his position and facial expression and asking for another picture.)

Ava wasn't really in the mood for a family photo but we snapped one anyway. I want to point out that Ava's wearing the dress that our niece Samantha wore to Jeff and my wedding four years ago this month. Did you recognize it, Amy? :)

Uncle Luke was the one Ava wanted for most of the evening but especially when she started getting tired. Here he is taking her out to dance on the dance floor.

And here they are at the end of Ava's night, about five minutes later. :)
A good time was had by all! Congratulations to Cody and Kari!

Daddy is Mommy??

Ava used to say "Dad" and "Daddy" but for some reason she stopped. Now when Jeff gets home, she's still as excited as always but she's hollering "Momma!" as she runs to give him a hug and kiss. Jeff will be holding her and we'll ask, "Ava, who's this?" she answers, "Mom." But then "mom" seems to be her second favorite word, second of course to "no". Apparently it has a myriad of meanings such as "I'm hungry, get me food." "I'm thirsty." "I'm tired, put me to bed." "I want that toy." "Look at me, I want an audience." And, of course, it also means "Mom". :) It's up to me to be the interpreter and decipher the meaning behind each separate utterance.

No, no, no, no, no, no!

Our Ava Reese has a learned a new word in the last few weeks. It is her FAVORITE word and she uses it ALL DAY long.
"Can we put your shirt back on, Ava?" "No!"
"Ava, would you like to take a nap?" "No!"
"Ava, can you please pick up your toys?" "No. No. No. No!"
"Would you like to eat lunch?" "No!"
"Let's go change your dirty diaper." "No!"
"Do you have any idea why you say "no" to everything, Ava?" "NO!"
"Would you like some fruit snacks??" "Nooo.... ummm... yeah."
(I guess she doesn't say "no" to everything, not after some consideration.)