Kids are so resilient!

In the middle of the night, two nights ago, Ava woke up crying saying 'I throwed up, I throwed up!" Luke and I went into her room, and sure enough she had thrown up (just a little thank goodness!) and she was quite hot to the touch. We changed her sheets, I rocked her, and we put her back to bed. The next morning when Ava woke up, she was still hot, and she was obviously ill. She just wanted to lay around all day. We gave her some medicine and she took a nice long nap. After her nap she layed around a little and the next thing I knew was on my bed, bouncing like a monkey and running around like she had never been sick. I even have pictures to document it! I am amazed at how quickly sometimes a bug can run it's course!!! Unfortunately she still has a little bit of a sore throat, but is doing much better today :)

Morning: notice the sad little half eaten applesauce cup right next to her..... :(

Afternoon:

30 minutes after the previous picture!

First Day of Preschool Pictures!

We survived our first week of preschool!!!! And it was great :) Ava absolutely loves it and hasn't looked back. Her teachers say she's the little mother and loves to help. In fact, there are two little girls in her class who also started new last week and who cry every morning they are dropped off. One morning, Ava went up to the and gave each one a hug and said, "It's ok- you're mommy just needs to go to work" Hahaha. I am glad she adjusts so easily, but it just shows you how much she gets it that I am working.... It makes me feel a little sad, but I know in a few months we will be partying every day and she will be begging me to go back to school :) Also, I just wanted to clarify my last post---- No worries, I totally give Ava fruit snacks and she very much enjoys chicken nuggets and french fries, I am just glad that for a meal and a snack every day she is getting healthy, yummy food :)

I am not sure what this sign means, Luke took these pictures, but I am guessing it means "1st day!?"

Second day: I am totally obsessed with these new hair things. You can't really get the full picture of how great they are, but I love that they are a little old fashioned!

The Next Step....

I am feeling a little emotional tonight...... Ava starts preschool tomorrow. As the summer has come to a close and our babysitter has to go back to school we are embarking on a new adventure! I have 5 weeks left of full time rotations so Ava will be going to all day preschool until then. After that, for the next 6 weeks she will just go 2-3 days a week as that is all I have to work during that clerkship block. Then we get to party party for 3 months with our new baby and I don't restart clerkships until the middle of February. It's going to be so awesome (and a little sleep deprived!) I am just amazed at how quickly time goes by. I know all mother's say that, but tonight I am really feeling it. Ava has been talking about preschool for months now so I hope her excitement spills over to tomorrow when she actually goes. Fortunately (and unfortunately :( Luke is going to drop her off. I think I might be too emotional to do it, even though she will probably just run in and start playing with all her new friends and her teachers! The place she is going is really nice and a friend of mine started it about 2 years ago. It is a really clean place and they practice the montessori method as far as learning and teaching. She will start to learn how to read and she will be learning as she plays. They have an on-site chef who cooks all their meals from scratch so I won't be worried about her getting stuffed full of processed, sugary foods and fruit snacks- which makes me really happy! (I am weird like that!) I know she will be safe, treated with respect, and that it will help prepare her to have another sibling. I wanted to post a few pictures from this week to commemorate my "baby" growing up! Next step: taking the binki away! (I was going to take it away a few months ago, but then learned she will be napping at school and I wanted to increase her odds of familiarity for the first few weeks while she learns how to nap around other kids, so we will be taking it away sometime in a month)

Flashback: last year at this time...

The night before preschool.... I feel like she looks mostly the same as a year ago. She has just lost some baby chubbs and grown more hair!

Ava's favorite new game- hide under the blanket with dad and see if mom notices (of course, Ava is laughing the whole time so it would be a little hard to be inconspicuous!)

After the blanket removal...face

Happy Birthday Kari!!! 28 years young :)

Pregnant Me- 27 weeks (and 2 enchilads, a fajita, some spanish rice, and lots of chips and salsa!)

Rocking out!:

Ava Vader

The other night, Luke and Ava were playing and Ava stopped and said the following:

It's not that this joke hasn't been said to Luke a million times, but coming so unexpectedly from our 2 1/2 year old whom has never seen Star Wars or ever heard this phrase that we knew of.... it was so completely hilarious!

Odds and Ends

We had a super fun weekend! My parents came up and we did some girls night shopping (I got such cute cute stuff for Ava and the new baby!), ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and went to Park City to hear the Utah Symphony play broadway tunes at the Snow Park Ampitheater. Ava did so great at the concert and the weather was beautiful!

Last night Ava came out of the bathroom with these little beauties..... toothbrush holder turned binoculars!

Ava came to Deer Creek Reservoir with me last Friday to go boating for youth conference. On our way home she was out light a light!

Last Friday night, on our way home from the mall- our street was closed off and this is what I saw! I thought for sure I had left my flat iron on and burned down our condo complex! Fortunately, it was a vacant house nearby that had caught on fire and the fire crews were able to keep it from spreading

Milcreek Canyon with friends

Last Tuesday we had the funnest time with the Rice's (sans nick :( ) and Mulcocks! We had delicious roasted hot dogs, pasta salad, dutch oven potatoes, and s'mores. We were introduced to the fine art of using Reese's peanut butter cups on s'mores instead of hershey's chocolate. yummmmm.... It was a great night with fabulous company!!!

The beautiful Mulcock ladies :)

Ava after being fiven free reign over the bubbles. They were ALL over within 5 minutes!

Max.... Love the flip out hair shag!! It is so so cute!

How many marshmallows had Ava had at this point!?

We are nearing the end of potty training I think! Ava has only had one accident in the last 10 days!! Hooray! She loves going number 2 in the potty because she gets "poo poo prizes." This particular night she decided she needed to go right before bed so I let her play with her new prize for a few minutes before she went to bed and I also caved and let her take them to bed with her.... After she fell asleep, I crept in to remove the toys and this is what I found:

How precious! She had fallen asleep with her new toys in her hands

Fifteen dollar free hand! And 24 week belly.....

So My cousin Matt is an amazing artist (and our next door neightbor!) For years I have drooled over his sketches, projects, and portfolios!! Well...... I drool no more!!- he just started a blog called fifteen dollar free hand. You can email him a request to sketch whatever your heart desires for only $15! What a steal!!! I have alread commissioned him to make sketches of old airplanes, automobiles, or abstracts for our new babies room and I am so super excited! You can't even get such a sweet steal at IKEA :) Here are some samples of his work: Check our his block at http://fifteendollarfreehand.blogspot.com/

PS- These are NOT his sketches.... Nor will I be having him sketch them! This is the belly in all its glory at 24 weeks....