1st Birthday Party

Gluten free cake I made for Ava

Birthday Girl

pool safe ;)

Birthday hat

slooowwwly digging in

tired baby

Daddy's present for Ava

... and she likes her new fishy

saying hello to friend Christian

her first gift was a box of tissues

oh the fun you can have with tissues

Hang'n with Grandma

Ava's birthday party went really well it was at 12 in the afternoon at a friends house who was gracious enough to let us use their facilities.  :)  We swam and ate bbq chicken, and swam some more.  Ava was pretty tired when she was put in front of her cake, so she wasn't all that into it, but most the fun for me was actually making the cake for her, I really enjoyed doing that.  A friend brought some sail boats, so as the afternoon went on, we went sailing,  and didn't really start cleaning up until it started to storm.  It was a good day, and I'm so glad we have friends and family to celebrate our little girl with us.
  People are starting to refer to my baby girl as a toddler, and it's hard for me to grasp that, to me she's still just a BIG baby... :)   I think she'll be more of a toddler when she's walking, but that's just my opinion. 

June 14th

Very Pregnant!

In Labor.

Baby Ava just born

State of unbelief at the beauty and newness of our baby girl

One Month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

 

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

Swimming with cousin Levi and Aunt Cherie

A year old, and not feeling the best

 It's crazy to think about all that has happened in a year.  TJ and I are so thankful for our little girl, she is a blessing, and oh how she has changed our lives... in a good way of course.  :)  She was a little sick on her birthday, fever and runny nose, poor girl, we did go swimming, since that is her favorite thing to do.  Saturday is her birthday party which will also be at the pool.  I'll post pictures from that as well of course. 

A year ago

Today  :) 

Ava

So... I'm planning Ava's Birthday celebration, since she's turning one in less than a month.  You might not know, but I have not been feeding Ava gluten or sugar... so I'm trying to decide on a cake, I'm still going to stick with the no gluten for a while, but this cake I'm looking at has sugar, and CREAM!  Anyway, I feel like I'm going to be polluting my baby... what do you think?
Lighter than Air Chocolate cake

Another fact you may not know... We swaddle Ava every night when she goes to bed, and have done so since she was born... she sleeps better.  BUT, she is getting older and needs to learn how to sleep with out being swaddled.  It ended the other night when in the middle of the night we let her cry for a few hours straight in hopes that she would discontinue this cycle of waking up every single night at 3:00 am... on the dot!  She fell asleep folded over on herself, from then on out, she has desired to sleep on her side or stomach.  So when we put her to bed, she goes for her belly, pulls her knees under her, and falls asleep sucking on her blanket... my precious baby, growing up. 

Also, Ava was sick the past few days, she threw up twice, and had a nice little fever... : (  It was sad!  She is doing much better now. 

kitchen Fun!

Sushi making's (and my cute baby of course)

First time making Sushi in my own house!

TJ and I were hanging out at the beach last Friday, and on the way home we decided we wanted to make Sushi, so we got some sushi grade tuna, and everything else we needed to make some delicious Sushi.  We were a little sloppy, and could use some tutoring in this area, but it was fun, and yummy. 

gross!

Hopefully our mad sushi making skills will improve with time

Ava eating her sushi (a rice rusk)

sitting down to some sloppy made delicious sushi after a day at the beach

dark chocolate short cakes

Sunday afternoon I had the urge to make some dark chocolate strawberry short cake with amaretto cream... because I'm a chocolate lover and would much rather have chocolate, than lame ol' normal short cake (I may later get smacked for that comment), and a gourmet cream, because I'm just that way.  When making the recipe for the short cakes I followed it exactly except for the sugar, I used coconut palm sugar, in place of white sugar, in an attempt to be slightly more healthy... Oh!  And I did half whole wheat.
 As far as the cream goes, you don't have to mix all the ingredients separately, trust me on this one (I do this with eclairs as well)  First stir together milk and pudding, then throw in the rest of the ingredients, and whip it till it's... well... WHIPPED! (It does takes a few minutes to whip all the way)  And there you have it, also I think you may need more than 4 cups of strawberries, but that's just my opinion, because I like lots of strawberries.   

Also, Ava was 11 months on Saturday, and I forgot to take a picture, but we only have one more month until her birthday, so I'm kind of excited about that. 

All baked... yum!

cream ingredients~pudding, amaretto, cream, milk, cream cheese

Finished product (And yes we did eat this for dinner w/ delicious coffee :)

It may not be pretty, but it was definitely tasty!