What have we been up to?

We have been a busy little family as of late. It seems like we are always running to do something else. Here are a few pics from the last month. Ava's first haircut, Ava swinging in a big kid swing (WOW!) and our little Ella busy smiling and cooing at us. We are constantly in awe of these two little girls growing so fast.

I hope to have some more recent pics, including Ella's baptism, up on the blog soon. Hope all are doing well!

Go Pack!

We put Ava in her new Packer outfit - Ella will be wearing Ava's from last year. Ava really gets a kick out of watching the Packer games. She watches for us to cheer and she starts jumping around too! It is really cute.

Ella has been keeping Kevin and I busy from 8 p.m. - 1 a.m. Once she falls asleep she is really good through the night, but it is getting her to bed that is the biggest issue at this point. Kevin and I have been taking shifts to get through it. She always seems to fall asleep better for Kevin.

Can you believe Ella is one month old today??? We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful little family.

We are looking forward to seeing Grandma Schmollinger tomorrow.

Quick Update

I will get more pictures up soon. I just wanted to update everyone to say that things have been going fairly well. We have been a busy little family trying to keep Ava occupied and caring for Ella. Monte is at a doggie playdate today at Homer Ridge Kennels, so he is having a good time too! We had Ella's two week appt today and she has surpassed her birth weight (8 lbs 11 oz) and is currently 9 lbs 3 1/2 oz. She is doing well and has already grown out of her newborn diapers and is comfortably wearing size 1 diapers (we are already stocking up on size 2!)

Thank goodness Kevin has off this week to continue to help me out during the day. I don't know how we are going to manage when he is back to work!

Thanks again to everyone who has dropped off a dinner it has really helped us maintain our energy levels!

Welcome Ella!

Ella Grace was born August 14th at 11:20 a.m. She weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz. at birth.

We are so happy to have Ella join our family. She is a very sweet baby. We have been busy adjusting to life as a family of four, but we like to think we are managing well. A HUGE thank you to all that have helped us out (Grandma and Grandpa Schmollinger and Uncle Anthony especially). We can't thank you enough.

Ava has been adjusting well - she has her moments when sharing mom or dad causes an outburst. Day by day, hour by hour we are figuring it out and having some special family time.

Ava's First Bow

At a recent play date, I put a bow in Ava's hair... and it stayed! It stayed until she pulled it out. The look on her face is priceless - it isn't too hard to figure out what she is thinking. I have been trying to get a bow in her hair for a very long time, so this was a big deal to mom!

Doctor Appt

Today we had another doctor appt. This was just a standard appt. I had a lot of crazy things happening on Friday night, but things calmed down around midnight and I was able to go to sleep. Today we found out (after a quick ultrasound) that our little one is again breech - in the last four weeks she went from breech to transverse to head down and now back to breech. Good thing we have everything scheduled already. The heartburn is terrible when her head is up - it is so bad I can hardly get air!

Thanks to everyone who is on call to help us when this little person decides to make her entrance!!

A beautiful day

This is from a few days ago. We drove up to Garvin Heights - it has been years since we were up there last - to see the sights. The mosquitos were so bad that we had to make it a fast visit, but it was a beautiful night.

Our New Addition

We decided to take the plunge and trade in the Camry for a new Sienna. We like it a lot and think it will be great for handling two kids!! We took her on a drive tonight to show her the sights!

Recovering From the Weekend

We had a busy weekend that started with a little shower with some of my girlfriends. It was nice to get together and chat a bit, eat some yummy food and watch Ava and her little friend play together. Kevin was busy at home working on finishing the trim for Ava's new room and completing some other items on the "honey do" list!

Ava's hair is coming in more and more every week. Recently she brought me the tiny barrettes that I bought her - she wanted nothing to do with them before that. She was watching me pull my hair back with a couple and must have thought that it was a good idea. She even posed for me so I could take a picture of her with them in!

Only three weeks until we get to meet our new addition!

A Busy Summer

Somehow we have managed to have found ourselves so busy that the blog has not been updated in almost a month. I apologize to those to check it from time to time - I really don't have a good excuse!

We are four weeks from meeting our little Ella; we are very excited. And I am not yet feeling prepared. I haven't packed our bags, but have made lists of what to pack for everyone.

Here are some pictures from the last month. We went up to the cities a couple of weeks ago and stayed with Melissa and Jeff in their new home. We visited Underwater World at the Mall of America and the MN Zoo. It was a nice weekend. Melissa and Jeff were so thoughtful and we were so relaxed those couple of days. (Thanks Again!!)

How Ava Gets Our Attention

With all of the work going on upstairs in Ava's room, Mom and Dad were distracted with the project. We thought Ava was just playing with the pots and pans - little did we realize that Ava grabbed the potato buds box and emptied it into all of the pots and pans and then emptied them onto the floor!! She was really having a good time until Mom cleaned it up - What a mess!!!

Our Little Piano Player

These pictures are not staged! Ava has really taken to the piano this last week. She can open it up by herself to get at the keys (not something we are totally thrilled about) and this morning she pulled herself up on the piano bench.

We invested in this piano a few weeks ago and Kevin is working on sharpening his skills. It is going to be interesting to see if Ava continues to stay interested or not. Kevin has tried to show her how to play "chopsticks", but she won't let him play at the same time she is. It is pretty funny to see this little girl get so focused while she is playing!

STAY TUNED! Pictures of Ava's new room will be posted soon!

Ava in a Basket

Ava has taken to climbing in her toy box or laundry basket or anything big enough to fit her (kitchen cupboard with the pots and pans) and playing with toys - many times I know she can't be comfortable, but she seems to like having her own space. It is a good thing Kevin is almost finished with her room upstairs. It will be completed with carpet next Wednesday!

Lunch

Here are some pictures of Ava at lunchtime yesterday. She was being really cute and kept signing for me to take more pictures!! What a silly girl!

Ava has been a bit cranky most days - the poor kid is breaking in a few more teeth.

The Big Visit

I'm not sure were the time has gone, but I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our big weekend (May 18th). Uncle Anthony (my brother) graduated from UW Stevens Point and we visited with family before the big day. Ava had a great time with the kitty and Grandma and Grandpa - not to mention her Great Aunt Terri and Cousin Amber. I am more than a little upset that with all of the pictures I took, I somehow missed taking one with Terri and Amber - if anyone has one that they can send to us, it would be very much appreciated!!!!

It was wonderful to see everyone and spend some good, quality time with the family. Special thank you to G & G for your hospitality over the weekend!

The Barn

I found this barn and barn animals with a tractor at a garage sale - a $5 bargin! It has been something different for Ava to play with. I was distracted packing some things up a couple feet away and the next thing I know Ava is saying "Eh - Eh". She opened the barn doors, crawled through and got a bit stuck!

Good stuff!

Busy Growing Up

Ava likes to feed herself - sometimes I try to help more than she would like, but in these pictures she wrestled the spoon away from me so she could get to the applesauce herself. She's a bit messier than when I feed her, but I guess it is good for her to want to do this on her own!

We are taking a day off from going to the Y to go to Toddler Tuesday at a local museum. They have many activities for kids to do and I am hoping Ava has a good time.

We're Back!! Happy Mother's Day!

We had intended on having a picnic today, but the weather just didn't warm up like we were hoping.

We went to Rochester for a little shopping and so Ava could play at the playland at the mall. She was having a great time! Our adventure ended as soon as she ran out of the playland and down the mall hallway - YES, SHE RUNS - the little stinker!

Catching Up

Here are some pictures from around Valentine's Day. Our little valentine was busy finger painting her valentines although she found it more entertaining to finger paint on Mommy and herself. Needless to say she was immediately thrown into the tub for some cleanup afterward!

We gave Ava a Valentine's teddy bear that she really seemed to like. She gives him big hugs and carries him around the house.

She seems to have turned another page as we find ourselves looking at our little girl and realizing that she is not a baby anymore. It is always exciting to see what new things she is going to do.

On a side note - I have been extremely terrible at not only updating the blog but also contacting some special people. I apologize and hope to be getting in touch with you soon! Have a great day!!

Happy Birthday Grandma Schmollinger!

Here is Ava sitting at her table. The chairs are a bit big for her, but she still manages to scoot up there and sit down like a little lady. There have been times when she decides she would like to crawl up on the table.

We hope Grandma Schmollinger has a very happy birthday!

Super Tuesday!

The Koopman's went to caucus last night and little Ava headed up the cheering section for Obama. It was a good thing we didn't have to stay any later because it was getting late and she was very ready for bed!

Our Weekend

I had intended on getting this on the blog earlier today, but Ava didn't like the idea of napping today so I had very limited free time.

Kevin and I had a very exciting weekend. Some friends of ours (thank you again Melissa and Jeff!) let us stay at their apt overnight on Saturday so we could go see Barack Obama at the Target Center. Thank goodness we didn't have Ava with us (Melissa and Jeff were nice enough to watch her) because we waited in a HUGE line for 2 1/2 hours to get into the Target Center. Cold. Cold. Cold.

We were fortunate to get in as we were four rows from the very top row. It was a wonderful experience. Don't forget to vote on Tuesday!!!!!

Keeping Up with Ava

The top pictures are from this morning. Ava loves carrying around her Puppy and making it sing songs to her - she even claps to "If you're happy and you know it.." Super cute! Thanks again Melissa and Jeff for this awesome toy - she gets a ton of use out of it everyday!

The bottom pic is from Tuesday afternoon. Heather and Connor came over for a bit. Ava and Connor had an awesome time playing and throwing Kix around the room - both kids decided that Kix are good to eat but better to watch as they fall like confetti! Needless to say, Monte is more than happy to clean up the mess!

The bottom picture is unposed - Ava got all comfortable on Heather and drank her bottle while reclining. I had a few more pictures of the kids playing together, but because they move around so much I didn't have any good ones - they were all very fuzzy.

Kevin had to take the car to work today because the door to his van didn't close all of the way and the battery is dead. Ava and I are stuck in the house for our third day in a row. *Sigh* We are looking forward to going to Bearly Toddler class tomorrow morning!!!