YAY!

I taught Ava how to clap her hands when I say, "Yay". Its a little rough but she knows what she is doing! How cute!

Ava Playing in Her Bouncy Seat

Ava's New Bouncy Seat Thingy

We got this in the mail yesterday and I was so excited when I saw it came. I couldn't wait to put her in it and see how she liked it. She is just getting the hang of it and she loves it already. She turns around and around in circles and bounces a little but she just loves being able to turn wherever we are and see us.

Playing catch up with pictures of Ava...

Ava Loves Her Bouncy Seat

Ava loves her bouncy seat...even if its just because it gets her that much closer to her feet.

She cant seem to bring them all the way to her mouth and it makes her so mad!

I have kept up with her tummy time every day and she is now liking it more and more. She doesn't cry at all anymore and eventually after kicking and moving her arms, she gets tired and falls asleep.

She is also almost sleeping through the night. She wakes up at about 5 in the morning just to eat and then falls back asleep. I then wake up at eight and she is still asleep. Its great!

What can I say? I have a good baby! She is so sweet and cuddly too.

We cant imagine life without her! Thank God for these sweet little ones:)

Ava is four months old...yesterday!

In this last picture, I had set her up for a picture and when I walked away to take it, she fell forward in slow motion and landed on her bed like this.

Sorry but I completely forgot to blog about her being four months yesterday. Anyways, every month I take a picture in the exact same spot in her crib to watch her grow. This month she was so wiggly and it took forever to get a decent picture! Here are all of the pictures I took. I went to my WIC appointment the other day and learned that she is 24 inches long and 15 pounds! She is in the 95% for weight and the 90% for height. I thought maybe we were going to have a 7 foot tall child but my mom said that I was almost exactly what Ava is at her age. I am only 5'2 1/2 so she will probably slow down at some point.

"I love my daddy"

Get your laptops ready! This is Ava sideways!

Alright get your laptops ready. This is a really sweet video of Ava but I accidentally had the camera turned the wrong way. Anyways, its sideways...so you have to turn your head or your laptop. I couldn't help posting it though because its so cute.

Enjoying Our Little Girl

Precious

Ava loves playing on this mat. She gets into a fight with the toys. She will knock the toy into her face trying to eat it but she ends up hitting it so hard she gets hurt.

This just makes her hit the toy harder and in doing so, she cries even harder. Crazy girl!

Ava Playing

Big Blue Eyes

After a year in England...

I cant believe its almost a year since we got here. The 21st of May will be one year since we left the states. Crazy. When we first got here, I remember holding in my tears until we got to the hotel room on base. I could barely contain my emotion while our room was being prepared. I burst out crying when we stepped into our room and asked Gregg is there was ANY way we could go back. He calmly told me there was no way. Now a year later...and I asked myself today what has changed? I definitely feel like we are settled into our house, our life and our routines. I feel like our home is our little getaway from the world and from anything that is not normal. I also am close with the loving, wonderful people at church here. They have all been so sweet and gracious to Gregg and I. When we got here, they were an answer to prayers. Its great how the body of Christ is the same everywhere you go, as long as it is patterned after the New Testament. The Christians here truly do love one another. That is a blessing. Separate and apart from the wonderful body of Christ here in England, let me just say that living here is harder than you think. While they speak the same language (kinda) its also a complete culture shock in other aspects. I now feel that I have a firm grasp on the actual size of my car. Before, I thought that I was about to scrape the car next to me in the roomy parking spots in the states but here I have it down to a science. I can fit anywhere...and so can everyone else. Sometimes I get a knot in my stomach as a large bus barely squeezes by on an extremely narrow road (paved horse trail). There are definitely a lot of great things about living in England. I mean, this really is a chance of a lifetime. We plan on visiting other countries while we are here and trying to soak up as much of Europe as we possibly can. Saying all that, I still miss home. A lot. I have realized that the only reason that I have started to relax at all is because we have established our new "normal" in our little town of Mildenhall. I know where everything is here and I can easily maneuver the roads to get where i need to go. Tonight I was heading to Sainsburys (local grocery store) to get some ice and I felt a little scared. That probably sounds silly but I did. A year of living here and I felt scared! I quickly got over it and realized it was dumb for me to feel that way. Other times, I purposely go out of my way to get something on base rather than off base because I just want to be around Americans, people who are in the same boat we are. I feel a wave of comfort rush over me as I come on base. I even got sad when I found out that our American neighbors were moving. We barely talked to them and I found myself genuinely upset they were leaving. I also miss home so much sometimes that I have saved receipts from purchases from when we were in Oklahoma and I don't dare throw them away. For fun I will look at them sometimes and remember good times back in Oklahoma. I probably will never throw them away. All of this sounds crazy to me so I know it will to you too but this is where I am a year from our arrival. When we are done over here I will honestly say I am glad we came. I will be glad for the adventures and for the time this has given Gregg and I to really grow together. God has sent us here for a reason, and after a year I think I am beginning to understand why. I will keep you posted as another year starts in England.

Daddy's Gal

Gregg says Ava is his little gal. I love these pictures.

Ava is getting bigger...and sweeter

Hello! Here are some recent pictures of sweet little Ava. She is such a good, sweet baby. She will be four months on the 14th!!! I cant believe it. Time has flown by! We are enjoying every minute.