Saturday, September 4, 2010

Ava 6 Months!

Here she is........



She can sit up like a pro and thinks she needs to stand ALL the time!
we have yet to get to her 6 month appointment! Bad Mommy! I will get her there soon I promise!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Behind on posts...

K so I need to retraced our steps.... behind on the blogs! First of all, Ava got baptized. She was so good and enjoyed all the attention. She hardly said a peep all day and loved listening to everyone chat about her. We had a nice lunch in the church basement following the service with the whole family. Ava's sponsors are her Aunt Katie and Uncle Cole. She was one of THREE that got baptized that day! Thanks to our wonderful family for helping us celebrate. Here is our pretty little girl all decked out!



She wore the dress she wore to Travis' wedding! So nice to be able to wear it more than once...and of course she looked beautiful!


The boys did NOT want their pictures taken!


Deb got the perfect cake!


Clare Isaac and Helen with Ava Grace!


Grandma and Papa Schueller


Family photo!


Her sponsors!


Best Buds!

We have been spending most of our days at the pool or outside with our neighbors enjoying the summer. Kale loves that sandbox and mimics the building going around in our neighborhood. Joe has the designated job of holding the measuring stick to make sure the hole he is digging is deep enough!


Ready for the pool!


Enjoying the outdoors!

Kale and I were in Jessie's wedding. He did great at rehearsal but I think he thought his job was done after that. In fact after rehearsal he said to my dad, "That's it?!? That wasn't much of a wedding!" When the actual day came of course he was attached to Papa Goeken at the hip. He didn't want to smile in the pictures and Joe makes a really good ring bearer! (He had to walk with Kale to get him down the aisle). Abby Goeken, who was a flowergirl, marched down the aisle perfectly and LOVED all eyes on her! The wedding, and especially the bride, was BEAUTIFUL.
Abby and Kale at rehearsal!


Clare hanging out with the boys!


Looking good at dinner!


A not so great pic of the both of us!

Ava ended up with her first ear infection just before we left for the wedding. She got put on ammoxicilin and I was looking forward to it clearing right up. Well, Sunday morning after about 3 days on being on antibiotics she woke up covered in hives from head to toe. So, we took a different route and took her to the Chiropractor. It seemed to clear it right up. We continue to take her to help with the held tilt thing she does and it seems to be helping her hold her head up and we've seen a lot of improvement in her sitting up. With a head her size I am sure it does help with balance when you can actually keep your head in the center!

Then we came back to Everly the following weekend AGAIN. It was my 10 year class reunion. Joe was less than thrilled but I think he had more fun than I did! It was fun hearing about everyones lives and seeing everyone!

Kale got moved up to the "big kid" preschool room at his daycare. He is going to miss his beloved Ms. Courtney but hopefully all goes smoothly. Can't believe he is going to be 4 soon!

Here is the bug man with the praying mantis he caught one morning before school!

Ava 5 months




I am a little late on posting this but the picture was taken on her 5 month "birthday".
She is working on sitting up and can sit hunched over style by herself for a few seconds. We continue to attempt with the cereal but it seems most of what is wedged in her sealed lips gets pushed right back out with her tongue!

Monday, July 12, 2010

More Summer Fun!

Happy 4th! Here are the kids in their Red White and Blue!

We all went over to Perrigos for the 4th but the weather put a damper on the fireworks!
We were able to catch the parade on the 5th. I ventured over with the neighbors. (and yes, Kale HAD to wear his work gloves to the parade!)

We managed to see the entire parade just before the rain came down and we had to trudge home. Everyone was soaked except for Ava and baby Ellison who had the luxury of being covered by the stroller/carseat shades and slept the whole way home. Next time there is a chance of rain... I think we'll drive :)!

Our old neighbors were back visiting from Colorado. It was fun to get all the neighbor kids together for a reunion. Kale misses his buddy Jack! We got together for supper and as you can see by the rosie cheeks they had a great time playing all together again!


We went to Lake Rathbun with my parents and Shannon and her family (minus Maddie).

We had a really nice cabin at Honey Creek Resort. They have a great little water park area perfect for kids Kale and Jakes age. My dad commented that Shannon and Sheldon should never take jake off an insurance policy for any length of time. He is an accident waiting to happen! :) Both boys had a great time playing in the pool. Jake is just..... well, fearless and not yet so graceful...not a good combination!!
Despite the luxury of our air conditioned, nicely furnished cabin, we did manage to get very "close" to nature. I would say within the first half hour of unloading all our things (which btw we brought our WHOLE house) Kale come running from the hallway as proud as can be and said "Hey guys, you know what I saw running in the house?!?!....a mouse!!!" sure enough, there was a BIG mouse prancing down the hallway like he owned the place. (unfortunately, kales excitment for the cute little mouse as a new pet quickly turned to fear when he saw my freak out reaction..lol..I need to work on that!)
Joe thought he was be the manly one and rescue us all by capturing him. Within minutes of his entry into the room he was last seen, we all heard a girlish shriek and joe came dancing out! Wish i had that one on video!
The front desk brought in sticky traps but this mouse had been around the block a time or two and he managed to gallivant around the cabin the entire weekend untouched getting a rise out of everyone every time.
We are quite sure "Mickey" rain off with Jake's Paci. It was nowhere to be found...so he had to make do with a pink paci from Ava. Desperate times call for desperate measures!


Yummy Smores!



Nana and Ava looking thoughtful...


Here is Papa followed by his little ducklings..

We also did a little boating (dad was having some problems with his boat--we think its time for him to upgrade). Here is Captain Kale with Hawaii five-0 himself :)!

Here is jake on his first boat ride. He looks a little stunned in this pic but he did enjoy himself!


jake put a few miles on Kales bike..... like a mentioned before...insurance policy necessary!



I slept in a room with Ava and as I was up early with her Sunday morning I felt as though I was being stared at. Sure enough, there sitting happily at the foot of my bed was a tree frog! Totally disgusted I made sure everyone was aware of my uninvited roommate! (although after the initial shock I decided I would much rather have a frog in my bed over a mouse or a snake!)
Shannon came to the rescue this time. This too ended in shrieks and dancing as Shannon found out those little buggers can jump very high and have little suction cups on their long toes that can make it easy for them to quickly climb up human arms..LOL. By now, of course, the whole cabin was awake! :)
Here is Kermit himself!

Kale was very impressed by his new pet but we did manage to get him released into the TREES where a TREE frog belongs!

After coming home on Sunday, we finished off the weekend with the postponed Fourth of July celebration. Kale loved the Jump houses and the long awaited fireworks display we watched with our neighbors Jill, Jeremy and Maylee from our driveway!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Firsts!

Here is Ava getting her first taste of cereal. She did great and seemed to enjoy every bite!...and please please please let it help her sleep better :)!


Kale had his first big screen movie experience. Toy Story 3.... he did as well as could be expected with his attention span. There were other kids much younger than him that did MUCH better attending to the movie. He loves Buzz and Woody but he is just not much of a movie watcher but he still LOVED going (mostly for the popcorn and pop). He thought it was a little loud but was quite pleased with the resourceful earplugs I made him out of a napkin.... that was probably the highlight of the whole thing. LOL! We will probably wait awhile to go to another movie but still --it was fun and at least we didn't have to leave early :) !




I am not sure how I feel about it already being July. The summer has just begun and before I know it it will be over! We have hit the public pool a couple of times which is always an experience. All walks of life flock there don't they?!? From women swimming fully clothed like its normal, to a woman swimming is a white cami with nothing underneath..really??? heellloooo we can see right through it... to kale commenting at a poor woman who clearly should not be in a bathing suit "Why is she SO BIG!" to make matters more embarrassing she was standing RIGHT next to us...ugh.


Kale did a great job at Travis' wedding as the ring bearer. It took a few bribes to smile during pictures but other than that he marched right down that aisle looking so handsome in his tux. Ava on the other hand...... she was looking so adorable of course but was LESS THAN THRILLED to be there. I don't know if it was the dress, the people, the headband, the commotion, but whatever it was she was IRATE!! ;) poor thing! She didn't make it a minute into the ceremony and had to be removed. oh Ava.

Ava 4 Months!




15 lbs 4oz. (85th Percentile)
26 inches (95th)
Head 17inches (99th Percentile) Big Brains I'm Sure :)

Accomplishments:

Cereal
Lots of Drooling
Chewing on toys
High Pitched Squeals
Giggling (This one is my favorite)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Start of Summer

What seemed to be the never ending school year because of all our snowdays did, indeed, finally come to an end. It was sad packing up all of my Reading Recovery things but I am on to another new adventure, something that I have wanted to do since I had my favorite teacher Mrs. Meyer, a First Grade teacher! It will be BUSY year next year but I am so excited about it!

Joe has been instructing at a "character camp" the past couple weeks and will be doing that for the month of June. Its basically a bootcamp for highschool aged kids. So, his hours have been great-- normal :)--so we've gotten to have him home at bedtime!


Kale has been LOVING playing with the neighbors now that the "sun is hot" as he says. He has been spending hours in the backyard digging in the sandbox, putting bugs in his bugbarn that he got as a big brother gift, and of course the sprinkler. I am thinking we may need to invest in a more child friendly sprinkler since he has bruises on his legs from where the metal parts spin around at a high rate of speed and whack in him the shins. He doesn't seem to mind though and I figure if there is no blood or tears it can't be that bad :)!

Here he is with our CUTE neighbor girls! You can feel the heightened activity level just by looking at the picture :)!

Ava Grace is changing everyday. She is such a happy girl (although we brought her to a potluck for Joe's work and she screamed the whole time....since she doesn't cry very often I don't really have any tricks to soothe her. A random lady there must of felt sorry for me and offered to give it a shot. I was so embarrassed! Turns out, she just didn't want to be held anymore in that hot room. We put her in her carseat and she turned off the tears immediately..lil turkey). She now is enjoying being on her tummy since she is strong enough to hold her head and chest off the ground to look around. She attempts to reach for the toys on her exersaucer and is sometime successful at grabbing those quick little buggers (they don't move unless she touchs them but still,its tricky. lol). She LOVES to watch her big brother and the wilder and crazier he is the more fun he is to watch. Of course, Kale eats it up and loves being the center of her attention. Tonight he had her giggling for the first time. The deep belly laugh that you can't help but to laugh yourself. :) Love it.


We made the first trip to the swimming pool this summer. Kale of course was everywhere and smiled the WHOLE time. Until we had to leave of course. What made it even better for him was our neighbors went too. Maylee and Kale are two peas in a pod. Here the little fish are in their swimsuits before we left. Isn't Ava's suit Adorable!! (thanks Jane and Clare :))



Kale also got to take Ava on her first trip to the zoo.



First Smores of the season!

There is lots of fun to be had this summer!--- Hopefully the mosquitos tame down a bit or kale will be swollen all summer.... he looks like he got hit in the head with something right now.... a big ol goose egg?? nope just a bug bite..ugh!