Another September Update

Let's see.... life is good 'round these parts. Ava's going through a period of "no, I don't want to nap, no matter how tired I am!" But she's down right now, so I thought I'd say 'hi' to everyone. Here are a few more pictures for you. I think next time will be the Lake Michigan bunch, as there are quite a few. We'll see how it goes. Oh, by the way. For those not on my email list, go to wwmt.com and find the Podcast section under the "More News" tab. I helped put the Podcast idea into practice. As far as we can tell, we're the only station in Michigan with a Podcast. I don't actually produce these anymore, but I did come up with what it would actually be, and I produced the opening, break and close. It was kind of my pet project at work for awhile. So I'm excited about it. Anyway, on with the pictures.

Ava likes her Padres jumper.


Look how cool!


"Popping" her collar, just like Uncle Douger. (That means she's too cool for words!)


We went to the farmers market here in town one Saturday morning. Now it's a weekly thing.


The hat was a little big and she kept pulling it down. Help her? No way, it's time for a picture :)

Hey Look, More Pics!!

Hi Borah!

Here are more pics.

Pops giving Ava a cool spoon to ease the teething.


So big, sitting up!


First bite of rice cereal.


Standing on her own.


Our little model.


Pa and Grandma's dress...how classy and cute!


Thanks Alice and Doug for this beautiful outfit!

The Moment You've Been Waiting For...

Thanks everyone for being patient with the lack of posting. I've only received a few hate mails. Glad Kaczynski's busy.

Anyway, life is good at the ranch. Ava's getting bigger and brighter everyday. She's making more noises, a lot of growling and giggling, like she's stretching her vocal chords. And now she's sitting up much better. She hasn't sat up from laying down, on her own, but when we set her soemwhere she's learning how to balance well. And we've given her first taste of "real" food. We mixed rice cereal for her. Of course we used breast milk and kept it very watery, so it wasn't unfamiliar. She loves it. That was a couple of weeks ago, and we've only done it once more. She obviously doesn't need it just yet, but it's getting close. We figure she's up to about 20 pounds now. And 26 inches, which means a new car seat! She still faces rear until a year old, but the new seat is a convertible, so it will turn forward no problem. For anyone looking, we went with the Britax brand, it's more expensive but worth it if you can swing the money. If it's out of the ballpark, Evenflo is pretty great, too.

Let's see, what else...we went camping on Labor Day. Today's photos will be from that. Ava and Becky stayed near (kind of) where we camped at her Uncle Ev and Aunt Margarets place. That way they could come to the campground, but sleep in an actual bed. It wasn't easy, but we got to get away and recharge. And E&M got to see Ava, which I think they enjoyed. And we took Ava to Lake Michigan for the first time. Those pics will come eventually.

Auntie Rach teaching Ava what a can coozie is.


Uncle Douger brought his guitar, cause it ain't campin' without music.


This is what Ava's going to think camping means slumber party!


Chad trying horse shoes. We call that a ringer.


Shoeing Nick like a horse.


Speaking of horses, we visited horses just Ava's size near E&M's.


So tiny!


Ava liked the little horsies.


Hanging out with Grams, playing with a cup. Ava REALLY wants to use cups and silverware. It's so cute.


In her new car seat for the first time.

Apologies

Sorry it's been so long since an update. I was sick for a few days, in fact I slept almost the entire day Monday.

Last week is a blur, but I can tell you about Saturday. We got up in good time (9am) and got aorund, then went to the Farmers Market. I wish we would have done that eralier in the summer, it was fun. Ava loved looking around at all the people and stuff. And we bought some great food, and a pizza dough...mmmmm. I'll just say this. The chicken pesto pizza we made, made me forget all about Papa Murphy's. If you know anything about me, that's saying a lot. So anyway, we had a good time walking and enjoying the outdoors.

Little Miss Ava is in a bad mood this week. We think there's movement in her gums, maybe a tooth but we can't see anything. It's hard when she's screaming and crying (huge crocodile tears) and looking at you like "what is this???" and all you can do is hug her and rock her. I feel so helpless. She eventually calmed down and fell asleep, but it was a hard afternoon Tuesday.

I'll try and get pictures loaded soon. Again, sorry there haven't been any in so long. See ya soon and have fun. All of you :)

Post-Labor Day

Well we made it back from camping. Had a great time, and Ava got to come to the campground a couple of times so I wasn't away fom her as much as I thought I was going to be. It surprised me a little how much I missed her. I picked on Becky a little when she said she didn't want to be away from her for 4 days, but I admit, I missed her a lot, even just for a day and a half!! Anyway, all is well. Back to the grind for us. We have her five month pictures today. Can you all believe it's been five months now! She's getting so big.

Today's crop of pictures is from a couple of events. One was a carnival at the church around the corner from us. Plus, a visit we had a little bit ago. Amy works at the salon with Becky, and her kids came her from church to see Ava.

So big in her co-sleeper. Won't be long 'til she's ready to crawl out of it.


So cute!


Maybe someday Ava will ride horsies like mama used to do!


Pretty horsie.


Ava and the kids.


"I'll get you!"


"Yep, hangin' out with the peeps."


Little girls love babies, didn't you know?


"Let's share."


"Just kidding...mine!"


Maybe this week I'll be able to get this weekend's photos up. We have some real good ones. And some not-so-good ones which will remain unpublished. Lates!

Labor Day

Here's what we're doing to get the word out on how you can help the victims of Katrina.


Well, we're off to the campground today. I wanted to put up some pics for everyone. And I want to say hi to my friend Wayne i nFlorida, and to Kim in New York with Marvin and Georgia.

"What did you say??"


"I'll get that fu yet!"


Pops helping out Ava's teething pains.


What a great smile.


Making eyes at dada.


Gary and Kathy came from Muskegon to get "got" by Ava.


The four month pics from Penney's.


Our favorite.


What a ham!

What I Call a "Quickie"

Not much time for me to blog, but I wanted to post an update. We're going out of town for the weekend, so I'm going to try and put up a few pictures for all to enjoy over the holiday weekend.

Playing with Zeke.


"I do it papa!"


Uncle Dougie showing off.


"I'll show you how dada does it."


On film, AND smiling, AND holding Ava! Wow.


*sniff sniff* What's that smell?


Dada had his thumb, Ava has her big toe.


In case you need a close up.