New Years Eve

Honestly the years go by 10 times faster when you have a kid, can't imagine what it will be like when we have a handful of kids!

We have had a lot happen this year, not all has been that great and sadly enough a lot of the things I wanted to accomplish DID NOT happen, but Ava changed a lot and that was my favorite part!

Ava has:
Gained 8 pounds this year
Grown 5 1/2 inches
Gone from 12-18M clothes to 3T

1 year ago Ava was still army crawling and had JUST started pulling herself up on things. She had 0 teeth and could say 1 word?

She was my little chunky baby 1 year ago and now she's my energetic toddler!

I've worked a TON this year. Brittybird has gone really well and I've stayed extremely busy. We are almost up to 1000 sales on Etsy!! I have been busier than I had ever planned. For most the year I kept telling myself that I needed to work more so that we could pay for things like infertility treatments but I've decided to take less orders this year and focus more on changing myself and losing weight and then hopefully we won't actually need to pay for infertility treatments.. (hopefully).

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my work. I want to make new projects this year that I haven't tried before and with more time that should be possible. I've already started this year off with a new project, recovering my friends car seats!

Merry Christmas

Christmas with a nearly 2 year old was a ton of fun!! She suprised me with how much she was interested with everything else going on but not exactly unwrapping her gifts. She wanted to wander from one person to the next to see what they were doing :) She only focused on her own stuff for a little bit. This was our first Utah Christmas however I was totally sad that there was NO snow and that it has only snowed 2 (maybe 3) times this year... not even an inch each time. UM yes this is ME saying this! I guess I wanted a little bit of a winter wonderland for the year I'm not traveling... Now that Christmas is over we have our countdown till Little Miss turns 2!!! 2 1/2 more months (which also means spring will be here in 2 1/2 more months!) I am excited about that!

2011 in Photos

If you haven't noticed this is my yearly tradition (since 2009) seen here, and here..

So another year has come and gone and we are heading into 2012 now!!! Can't believe it! Our baby girl will be 2 soon and she is the light of our life... hence why the following pictures will pretty much all be of her!

January: Spent most the month indoors away from the cold cuddling with this little girl

February: Celebrated Ava's first Valentines Day

March: Celebrated Ava's 1st birthday!!!

April: Ava got her first tooth on April Fools Day

May: Ava finally started walking!

June: I turned 25 (and these photos were my birthday present :)

July: Ava got tubes in her ears! SO thankful for tubes!

August: Lisa Ava and I went to MONTANA!!

September: Ava turned 18 months and started nursery :)

October: Family photos and Ava's 2nd Halloween

November: 2nd Thanksgiving

December: 2nd Christmas

No truer words

We've hit 1 year since we have wanted a 2nd baby. 1 year and no closer to baby number 2. I thought we'd be having a baby in January. Mothers day weekend I had 3 positive pregnancy tests (yes I kept taking them) but lo and behold I'm not pregnant and not having a baby next month. Chemical pregnancy/early miscarriage, whatever you call it, I call it heartache. I pray with all my heart that by this time next year we will indeed be pregnant expecting our 2nd. Ava truly is a blessing from the start and continues to be the greatest gift I've ever been given.

Santa photos

Awesome Santa vs FAIL Santa

The first photo was taken at Fotofly (at thanksgiving point) and the other at the mall!! AH! We had plans all along to just do the Fotofly photos but we were at the mall over the weekend, and decided to see how Ava would do with Santa so stopped by and saw him. EPIC FAIL! So don't go see the scary Mall Santa! Go to Fotofly at Thanksgiving point! (SIDE NOTE: fotofly pics were taken on a NO nap day!!!! unbelievable!)

Thankful days 16-22

16: I'm thankful for my sister in law Lisa for coming to save me when I was having a mini meltdown
17: I'm thankful for my own intuition to take Ava to the doctor when everyone was telling me she was fine. Her hand was not fine and I'm glad we got her in.
18: Thankful that Ava was happy at the doctor today and we didn't have to hold her down like yesterday.
19: Thankful for Dan and how much he helps me even when I'm covering our house in fabric and crafts
20: I'm thankful for entire days in PJ's
21: I'm thankful for modern medicine and the help it is to us!
22: I'm thankful for my talkative little girl. She amazes me with all the words she can say and I love it! Today she was counting and being adorable like usual :) Also thankful for 4 hour naps :)

Day 8-15 oops

Ive been thinking about these but being lazy
8 I'm thankful for our mini van and that it gets us where we need to go safety. Also for my education and knowledge of car seat safety. If I ever help one person keep their child safer then all my annoying posts and comments are worth it!!!
9 I'm thankful we got to have a fun family outting today to yo gabba gabba live.
10 I'm thankful Dan and I could go on a group date tonight!
11 I'm thankful for the kindness of strangers even if it's just over something silly.
12 I'm thankful for cute clothes. Shallow yes but I love dressing my doll up ;)
13 I'm thankful I got to help Kara pick out sommers sewing machine for her 10th birthday. Her face when she opened it was priceless. Thankful that Kara and her kids are our family.
14 I'm thankful for wonderful understanding supportive friends!
15 I'm thankful for the fact that we still have the hospitals bulb syringe. Only one that ever worked and 20 months old today and very much needed it tonight.

Day 7

I'm thankful for the fact that I know someday I will be able to have another baby be it through pregnancy or adoption. Even though we have been trying for almost a year I know that somehow we will be parents again. Even if it takes a few more years. I know that the tears of sadness I cry today will be replaced with tears of joy.

Day 6

I'm thankful for Dan and the fact that he is so supportive loving and helpful! He is the best Dad I know. He puts Ava first 110% of the time! I love him so much!

Day 5

I'm thankful that Dan is getting up with ava tomorrow so I can sleep in :)

Day 4

I'm thankful for Lisa and Kara :) and a night out of the house!!

Day 3

I'm thankful for the fact that Ava is an awesome sleeper. She still has some 'bad' nights but even then it means I get to rock her back to sleep which I LOVE.

Day 2

I'm thankful for our rec center gym that I work out at and that I've been everyday in November so far ;)

30 days of gratitude: Day 1

I'm thankful for my sweet baby girl! She is the greatest gift God could ever give me. Today she learned a couple of new words like "rain" "snow" "a clue" and "excuse me" ... She amazes me every single day!

19 Months old

Yay Ava is 19+ months old now! I haven't blogged in over a month! Oppps!!!

Little miss Ava is as busy as ever! She has 8 teeth now, 6 in front and 2 molars, with 3 more coming in soon we hope. She's our little curious girl. She loves to be outside and look at all the plants and trees and examine them. She is very interested in animals and books and anything she can study for a little while.

The girl also LOVES to color. She can say 'please' now when we give her a crayon and she will take herself over to her little desk in the corner of our living room and draw (even if there is no paper there!) thankfully the desk is easy to clean and she has never drawn on any walls (yet).

She's a smart little cookie, she only needs to see something done once and she can copy it... sometimes not the best thing for her parents but she is very observant! The other day she spent at least 20 minutes trying to buckle her baby doll into her old infant carrier car seat! I couldn't believe it! It was darling!

I've also been extra busy lately. Brittybird.com has been going REALLY great but can also be tiring. I love what I do and am so thankful for the money it brings in and hoping to start using it to pay off some bills and save for our house (that we desperately need because of my shop)

We have been slacking off on doing weight watchers which is really disappointing... I've been really enjoying working out when I can but I've not had a lot of time. I'm hoping to find a better balance so that I can work out and focus on eating better. Without losing weight theres not a lot of hope in getting pregnant. We are coming up on a year since we decided to have a 2nd. Its very hard not to have our second baby in our arms yet (or my belly) but we pray that it won't be too much longer that we have to wait. Whenever they do arrive they will be so loved and worth the wait I am sure. I've developed more patience than I could have ever imagined and feel like a better mother than I would have been without this journey.

My mom came up to visit us 2 weeks ago! It was so much fun to have her here and I wish so much that she lived here! We love her and we were able to do something REALLY fun with her while she was here! We did our family portraits for the year and got to include my mom in some with just Ava and Ava and I. I adore them and am so grateful for what a wonderful woman she is!

18 Month Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

18 Month Update (long and for my records)

"We are incredibly blessed to have such an amazing little girl. I don't take her for granted for one single second. I wouldn't wish any of my time with her away to be doing anything else. My patience with her has grown exponentially in the last year. Struggling with secondary infertility has been an emotional trial for me but oddly enough a blessing at the same time. I am so grateful for Dan and Ava."

I posted that today on my facebook status. Exactly sums up what I've been feeling for a while now!

Our sweet little Ava turned 18 months old today. That may not seem very old but it feels like she has been in my life forever! I can't imagine it without her! I'm so thankful for her and the joy she brings to my life. I love being a mom and want nothing more than to have more children. It has been a struggle emotionally and physically. However I'll talk about that more another day.

We took Ava to her 18 month appointment today. I think this was by far our best doctors appointment ever! Normally we find something wrong with her ears or lungs or eyes... This time all we discovered is she is allergic to grass....... no big deal right? lol she promised me it wasn't.

Ava's stats today were

34 3/4 inches tall (99.5%)
28 lbs 3 oz (91%)
19 inch head (90%)

She is just growing like a weed lately!! She's wearing 2T and some 3T clothes. I still haven't had the heart to put away all of her 24 month clothes yet however. I keep getting them out too! They are all summer clothes and too small but I love them! Its turning into fall very quickly here. I think we've entered 70 degree weather for good and dropping. Gotta pull out the sweaters soon! She also wears 5/6 in shoes... probably closer to a 6 but once again, I don't want to put away the 5's! TOO much cute stuff! Oh and we finally moved her up to size 5 diapers! Its pretty tough getting any diaper on her wiggly self so we figured the bigger the better!

Our doctor also was very happy with Ava's speech. We were stretching for maybe 5 words back when she was 15 months, and now she has well over 50! She can count to 10 and no longer skips 8 and will even count by herself sometimes. She always cheers for herself at the end :) She also says really funny phrases like "what are you doing" "how are you" "whose there" (always after knocking on something) and "ready set go" in which she always has to run after!

She can name all the Yo Gabba Gabba characters (her favorite tv show), she knows what a dog and a snake say :) she loves animals, especially dogs! She can play this game called "wiggle wiggle hold still" and she dances and holds still when we say. She also knows all the signs to "popcorn popping" "itsy bitsy spider" and "patty cake"... we even found her trying to sing along with one of her shows the other day. So cute. She'll do a lot of the same signs as her shows or talk along with them (probably means we have the TV on too much)...

Lately her favorite things are to color, play outside, play with other kids, read books, open and close everything, sing songs... she's very easy going and generally happy!

She has 7 teeth in as of today! 5 in front and 2 molars on the ride side. Hopefully the other 4 coming in come in quick! Ava still sleeps 12+ hours a night. 7:15p-7:45a usually and then takes 2-3 hour nap in the middle of the day. She is very much a schedule girl and we like it that way!!

She's totally off the bottle and has been for awhile. She drinks great from a sippy cup and is starting to drink from a real cup too at dinner! She's also doing much better at feeding herself with a spoon and fork! Her favorite foods are watermelon, peaches and graham crackers (and milk). She also thinks ketchup is a food... but we will ignore that for now.

Ava still has a binky at night, at naps, and in the car. I don't feel like taking it away yet so I won't. I used to hate the binky but since she doesn't have to have it all of the time I don't really care if she wants it to help her sleep.

Ava also is still rear facing in her car seat! We <3 extended rear facing and will keep her that way till she is too tall for her seat to stay that way... I'd really like her to stay rear facing till 3 or 4 at least, I know people think I'm crazy but I'm okay with that! If they had gone through my major and were anxious about driving anyway, they would feel the exact same way!

Ava is a very sweet and loving little girl. She loves to give kisses and hugs, she'll kiss and hug her baby dolls and she even gave the doctor a hug today and said "awww" while doing so... It is just crazy to see all the things she mimics. All of her little phrases are things I say all of the time and I say "awww" a ton. She also does a little happy sigh after she drinks (does that make sense)... then I realized I do that too!

I love her. She's better than any little girl I ever dreamed about having as a little girl :) She's perfect.

Fall

I can't believe September is already here! I LOVE fall in Utah! Its so pretty and the weather is nice through Halloween... then it starts to get too cold for my blood.

Yesterday at church we had a heck of a time keeping Ava entertained for 3 hours... I am SOO ready for her to go to nursery, but sooo not ready to leave her there! We decided we would take her next Sunday and I'd stay with her. I'm sure she will do great, she's been to nursery a couple of times when we've been traveling.

I am excited for her to get a chance every week to play with other little kids her age and I hope I can finally figure out who in the ward has kids her age so we can start playing with them during the week. Especially when it gets snowy I won't feel like going out as much so it would be nice to have little kids in the neighborhood for her to play with.

I started some new medications this week to help me in my struggle with PCOS and hopefully on our way to having another baby! We've been doing weight watchers together for a month now! I've lost 7 pounds this month and Dan has lost 11. I'm happy with it, its not fast but its something!

End of Summer

Summer is winding down and so we wanted to use one of the last hot days for Ava to swim! We went to Grama and Grampa's and she swam in the baby pool in the front yard then ran up and down the street (with one of us of course) it was fun!

Cup

Ava has been off the bottle for a few months now and now we are leaning towards getting off a sippy!

Today was day 2 of no sippy at dinner. I'm surprised she's doing so great! Dan kept trying to keep her from spilling but I told him its the only way for her to learn.

Counting

We discovered on Friday that Ava can count with us to 10. Sometimes she'll repeat the number after we say it and other times she will say the next number in line. She also skips 8 which is funny and gets excited about 9 and 10. We went swimming on Friday and counted in the pool with her she thinks its so funny. When did my baby get so grown up!?

(16 &) 17 Months Old

Ava is 17 months old!! I somehow missed writing a 16 month update for Ava with getting tubes last month but here we are and she's already 17 months old!! 1 more month and she's off to nursery and will be 1 1/2!!! How is this possible!

She's talking a LOT more since she got the tubes in her ears. I keep track of her words and phrases in my phone and its AMAZING to see how many shes developed just since getting tubes! I honestly think she said about 5 or so words before she got tubes. That day we got home she said 2 new ones and has been adding tons since.

I'm writing this list for me for future reference so enjoy lol and this is about the order she learned them... but not totally

Words:
Dada
Mama
Wow
Hi
Num
Ya
Bye
Kenji
No
Uh Oh
Down
Thank You
Up
Nice
Eyes
Nose
Go
Papa
Night
Share
Baba
Whose there
Hello
One

Has said before but not as easy to get her to repeat:
Lisa
Dortha
Yes (ya-sss)
Ya I do
Doggie
Grandma
You
How are you
Food
Two

If you ask her want a snake says she says "SSSSS" Its cute, she'll sometimes do kitty right and we are working on what a dog says now :)

Ava is wearing 2T and even some 3T clothes now but I haven't had the heart to put away ANY of her 24 month clothes... I need to though. She is wearing 5/6 in shoes. We went and got her shoes the day she turned 1 and those were a size 4 and now her 5's barely fit, so I think we will be in 6's full time here real soon. Why can't she stay tiny!!! We have a ton of clothes we have been storing and I have even more stored coming up for her to wear... Girl has way too many clothes!

Ava has 6 teeth now, and 5 or 6 more coming in soon! She's got 5 teeth in front and 1 molar on top :) Everytime I try to get my finger in her mouth to feel she tries to bite me! Thankfully she doesn't bite otherwise.

She is such a well behaved little girl. Ava and I traveled 4200 miles in 3 weeks through Az, Ut, Id, Wy, Sd, Nd, and Mt. She was perfect the entire time. She sleeps, she eats, we get out a couple of times when we get gas, she plays with some toys, she doesn't whine or fuss or cry. Its sooo nice to travel with her! If she didn't travel well I'm sure I'd never make the drive anywhere because I hate driving!

I'm really impressed with how easy she is. She loves other kids and is such a sweet heart. I am so grateful for what a blessing she is in our life. I've wanted another baby in our home for 9 months now. Unfortunately we know the wait to have one is going to be a lot longer. Its hard for me to think that getting pregnant with Ava was so simple, if this 2nd child was like Ava I'd be giving birth in a week.

This already shows me that every child is different and although my plans were to have another child already, that's not necessarily gods plan for us. I've learned a lot in the last 9 months, and 17 months for that matter. I am looking forward to the day that we find out that I'm pregnant again and pray that it all works out and our battle with secondary infertility will end soon enough. I need to go back to my doctor and talk about some more medical options because so far I haven't seen much changes with the meformin I've been taking.

Here's to more exciting updates in the future :)

Savage Montana