Growing up!

Ava is already half a year old! I really can't believe how fast time flies. She had her six month well-child check-up recently and was 27 inches long (90th percentile for height) and weighed 17 lb 12.5 oz (75th percentile for weight).

She can sit up like a pro and has quite a reach. She eats baby food and loves Cheerios. Lately she is really attached to me.

Her sleeping is getting a little bit better, but we still have a ways to go. We started "sleep training" again (the cry-it-out method) and after two nights of waking up and crying twice she had a night of sleeping for 11 hours without waking up! It was amazing. I wish it would have lasted, but it didn't. Last night and the night before, she woke up and cried again. It is really frustrating because our whole family needs better sleep! It breaks my heart to hear her cry and it is so hard to know if we should go in and check on her or help her when she wakes up and cries. Nash wasn't nearly this stubborn, so I don't really know how to handle it and still get the results that I want!

Okay, back to my sweet little girl. Other than the hard time getting a long stretch of sleep, she is really fun. She has a beautiful smile and lately she has really been interested in watching other kids play. She lights up when I start singing songs, too. I am so adoring of my beautiful Ava!

Singing, etc.

My calling (assignment) at church is that I am the Primary chorister. So that means that every Sunday I get to spend about an hour total teaching and practicing songs with children ages 3-11. I love working with kids and enjoy spending time with them. I am not very "musical" but as it turns out, I have enjoyed the experience. Once a year, the Primary kids get to present a program in church. They spend one hour saying thir speaking parts and singing songs all based on the yearly theme. This year, the theme is "My Eternal Family." Since I am the chorister, I have the songs running my head all the time and quite frequently sing them around my home. The other day during lunch, I started singing one of the songs and Nash joined in. I had no idea that he could sing the words! I was so impressed that I secretly turned the video camera on to get this video as we sang it for the second time together. It is amazing how much kids learn without you even knowing it!

Speaking of kids learning without you even knowing it, Ava picked up a new thing recently. She has started shaking her head. She did it one morning (below) in response to Steve shaking his head when he was talking to her. Now she does it a lot when she is happy or excited about something. It is really pretty funny.

Today we went to visit Steve's work so we could see his office. We had a good time. He works in a building that has industrial style decor and is nice and open and light. We had a nice time visiting his work and meeting some of his colleagues.

Laughing and Learning

Lately Ava thinks Nash is so funny! She loves to watch him and she laughs when he does funny things. Of course Nash loves this because it means that his little sister is finally interacting with him. Here is a video of Ava laughing at Nash:

Nash is a smart kid. He always amazes us with how advanced he seems. He is an amazing speaker and has an incredible vocabulary. He is easy to talk to and understand and he remembers words really well and uses new words in appropriate ways well after he has heard them. He absolutely loves books (I probably read at least 10-15 books a day to him; it'd be more if I honored every request). Months ago, my mother-in-law started teaching him to read by learning sight words (words that are already in his vocabulary that he can "read" by looking at the word as opposed to sounding out the letters). We haven't done it in awhile, but picked up the cards the other day and were amazed that he remembered them! I added two new ones and took this video:

Sometimes he says really funny things as he's trying to figure out how to express himself with words. These are some that I've enjoyed recently:

Talking about a strainer: "This is a noodle basket."

Driving past a field: "Oh! Crops!"

When asked if he wanted teddy grahams: "I want teddy bears AND grahams."

As we were building a restaurant out of Duplos: "This is a rest-on-it [that's his word for restaurant]. It has rest food in it."

Eating a bowl of Chex cereal and holding up one of the pieces: "Daddy, look! It's a check."

Pointing to his shirt with a number on it: "This is a t-shirt." I respond, "You're right! It's a t-shirt." He says, "No, not a t-shirt, a team shirt. Go, team, go!

He also just started his first day of "playgroup." He is in this group with 3 other 2-3 year olds. He had a blast and didn't want to leave! It is for an hour and a half once a week. The moms are taking turns hosting it. When it is our turn, we sing an opening song, talk about the weather, provide a snack and a short activity. Then the rest of the time is for play or whatever else we choose to do. I like that it isn't too structured--it is just enough for a 2 year old. Here are some pictures of Nash before his first day of the playgroup:

Ava is an absolute doll. I have to admit that we are having issues with sleeping, but now that she is over a small sickness she had last week, we are fully dedicated to "sleep training." She is doing good, but is stubborn. I hope she learns to put herself to sleep soon and learns to sleep longer stretches, because I am in desperate need of a good night's sleep! She can now roll over both directions, but would rather stay in one place until someone comes to play with her. She has a great smile and a great laugh as evidenced in the first video. She loves to be outside and she loves to be held. She likes to grab her toes and she loves chewing on toys. We just started giving her rice cereal and she loves it. She focuses in on the spoon as it comes toward her mouth and swallows the cereal really well. Here are some pictures of Ava eating cereal:

Pictures of our House!

I've finally finished most of the decorating and now have pictures of our new house for you to see! We couldn't be happier with our house and feel so lucky to be here.


Here are pics of the outside of our home:



This is our living room:

Here is our kitchen:

Our main floor bath (we also have a master bath, not pictured):

Our master bedroom:


Here's Nash's room (thanks, Nancy, for the blanket and pillows you gave me so long ago!):

And Ava's room:

And finally, our basement (notice the cute little house Nash and I made out of a box):

Closing postponed and family in town

Well, our closing was postponed until this upcoming Monday instead of last Monday. It is actually good, though, because it has meant that the sellers are doing some minor repairs before closing so we don't have to!

A couple weeks ago, my sister and her family were in town and we are so glad that they came to visit. I am so grateful to her--she is one of my best friends! It was fun to have our families together. We packed a lot of things into the week: Mall of America, shopping at IKEA, BBQ and swimming at Lake George, swimming at the YMCA "waterpark", Chutes and Ladders Park, Como Zoo, foil dinners in the fire pit out front, games, and more.

Here are some pics of their visit:

New House

I just realized that a lot of people don't know this -- WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE! We are very excited. Our closing is on Monday. I'll put up a pic or two after we move in!

It's in a good neighborhood, it's a split with three bedrooms on the main level and a finished basement. We feel so blessed because the timing of everything has worked out so well and we think this house will be perfect for us.

Smiles, Duluth, and Twins!

Ava is smiling! She's been showing off her adorable grin for a few weeks now and we love it. Here are some cute shots we've taken:

We all are smiling lately, though, because of Steve's new job! As I said before, we are very excited. He beat out over 100 other applicants to be offered the position, so it is definitely a big confidence-booster that we needed. Our next step is to find affordable housing in the Twin Cities area. As much as we have loved and benefited living with Steve's family here, we are very eager to get our own place again. We'll keep you all updated on that point.

Even during the excruciating wait period while we had yet to know if he got the job, we did some fun things. We went to Duluth, where Steve's brother, Michael, ran his first marathon (way to go, Michael!). And we also made it to a Twins game which was a blast. For Steve's birthday present I bought tickets for us to go and Steve's mom and Joseph and Michael got to come along, too. Nash was all decked out in his baseball t-shirt and hat and decided that his favorite player is the pitcher. He also enjoyed getting a hot dog to eat and dancing to the music over the loudspeaker. Ava slept through almost the entire game, believe it or not (and it was loud in there!).

Here are some pics from Duluth:

And here are pics from the Twins game:

(did I fool anyone with my post title into thinking I was announcing that I was having Twins?)