Wow it has only been 3 months..

Guess it is time for an update! Baby will hopefully be here soon and I'll have many more updates, but I wanted to post a few halloween pics, and a cute video of Nick and Ava.

Ava was quite a forlorn looking little ladybug...she didn't think much of her costume. She wouldn't tolerate the headpiece at ALL!

Nick seemed to be quite a happy little Yoda though! Too cute. And Kelsey was a very cute Tinkerbell!
Here's a video of Nick vacuuming with a little "help" from Ava.

Splash Pad

I took Ava to the splash pad at Lamar park today, she had a blast! I thought she'd be scared of most of the stuff, but she just ran right through most of it. Here's a video of one of her more "tame" endeavors at the splash pad. She got much more adventurous after that.

Vacation!

We just got back from vacation yesterday in the Upper Peninsula. It was...interesting. :) We did have some fun, and I got to meet Brian's dad and step-mom. Brian's brother and his family were there too for awhile, and took Austin home with them for a couple weeks. We visited Tahquamenon Falls, Oswald's Bear Ranch, and a Deer Ranch on the way home. Ava met grandpa's golden retriever, Napoleon, and learned to say "Woof woof". Then when we went to the bear ranch, the bears were BIG "woof woofs". She was being a little flirt the whole time, grinning at everyone and saying "Hiiiii!!" Anyway, here are a few videos from the 4th of July parade in Newberry, and a link to my vacation photo album. It's the first time I used photobucket, so I hope I didn't screw it up too badly. To get all the descriptions and full titles, you have to click on the thumbnail and forward through the pictures that way I think, unless I'm missing something. We're glad to be home, and I think Ava is too, if her happy mood is any indication. :)

Here is the link for my picture album.

http://s334.photobucket.com/albums/m432/sjoh0912/Vacation/

It's a....

BOY!!! We're so excited. We had our ultrasound last night, and he showed us the goods right away. And more importantly, everything else appeared healthy. He was EXTREMELY active. The tech had a hard time getting him to hold still long enough to measure. I was 19 weeks yesterday based on my first ultrasound at 6 weeks, and he measured 20 weeks 3 days. I know at this point it doesn't mean much, because I believe Ava measured a week big at 20 weeks, but we stuck with my original due date and she still came a week after that. :) As for me, I've been feeling pretty good this pregnancy *knock on wood*. Aside from having to eat right away when my body yells at me to eat something, I've been feeling pretty good, just a bit tired. But I'm sure that's partly the fact that I'm having to chase after a toddler now. I can't lay down and rest whenever I want to like I did when I was pregnant with her.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the ultrasound.

Here's his little face. Just like Ava he wouldn't give us a decent profile shot, so we got one from the front.

And here's his little winky...aren't we sick, making them take pictures of that? Ah well, the things we expectant parents get excited about.

I feel so excited and blessed that I'm going to have one of each! It'll be fun to see how Ava interacts with the new baby. Now...the name battle begins, but at least we only have to "discuss" one gender. :) I'll hopefully post again soon, since Ava is having her 1 year pics taken (at 13 months..hehe) this weekend.

Our little girl is growing up. /sniff

I'm a bit behind the times, since Ava kinda started walking a week ago, but I finally am posting a video of her toddling around. She is getting so good at it! Don't mind the food all over her pajamas, or my messy living room!

Here's another cute picture of her. We had gotten her a new "toybox" and she really seems to like it. To sit in. I can put toys back in it all day and two seconds after she's in the living room, they're all over the floor and the toybox is empty. But she's so darn cute!

Guess what?

Yep, Ava is going to be a big sister believe it or not! We had our first ultrasound yesterday to find out my due date. It's going to be November 12! Not as early as I had hoped, but pretty close. The baby was only 4mm long from crown to rump, yet we could clearly see it's little heartbeat, and hear it too! That's just amazing to me that you can see and hear a heartbeat on something so tiny. It was beating a nice strong 136 beats per minute. Here's a picture...I know it doesn't look like much yet (tadpole? fishstick?) but at least we got to see SOMETHING.

I'm happy...everythings looks good and healthy right now, and there was only one baby, so I don't have to worry about my husband running away to Mexico. :)

Sorry I haven't updated my blog in awhile....been slacking, and this pregnancy is kicking my butt fatigue-wise. Not to mention Ava has taken to waking up in the middle of the night again, so that doesn't help! Here's a few more of Ava's 9 month pictures. Ain't she cute?

More baby pictures/videos

Some of these videos are going to be like watching paint dry to some people I suppose, but to mommy and daddy they're all little accomplishments that are fun to have on video! So watch at your own risk of falling asleep :) There is one of her playing with the cat (my favorite), one of her standing up at the couch when she first started learning, and one feeding herself "puffs" and drinking from a sippy. Don't mind the "toy explosion" in the first video.

Chasing Baby

It's starting...for several weeks now, we've been chasing little miss Ava down over and over. Our living room could look like a nuclear blast filled with toys hit , yet she'd still rather crawl off into the dining room/kitchen. She's getting better at it...faster...and also getting more attitude when we pull her back into the living room. We put the baby gate up between the living room and dining area the other day, and it made her so angry! I wish I had had the camera at that moment, it was hilarious!. But now in the last few days, she has been pulling herself up on things like crazy. First it was just pulling herself to her knees in her crib, but now, within a week of that episode, it's full-blown standing. She likes to try pulling herself up on unstable objects, like her sound stage in my last post, or the mini-basketball hoop Austin got her for Christmas. So we constantly have to watch her to make sure she doesn't fall, or let her fall so she'll learn (which sounds terrible, doesn't it?) I usually try to prevent the fall, but when I do that she gets a 'tude with me. It won't be long and she'll be running around on her little feet. Crazy. Here's a picture of her when she first pulled herself up in the crib.

Pics from the holidays

Wow I've been slacking on my blog! The holidays have been very busy, as well as life in general. Ava is just getting busier and busier all the time. She keeps us on our toes. Just thought I'd post some pics from the holidays.

She had some fun under the Christmas tree at home

Here's a few from Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house

Here's one of Ava and Nick smoochinStarting to get tired here...note thumb in the mouth, mom had to help her a lot on opening presents toward the end there. She managed to stay awake til the ride home though...poor tuckered out baby. And now for Christmas morning at our house

Oliver has become so tolerant of us in his "old" age

And someone started pushing herself up onto her feet for the first time on Christmas day!
One of her favorite toys was from Grandma and Grandpa...she has so much fun with her little "sound stage"!
Here's one more pic just because I think it's so cute

I guess that's all for now! I'll try to post more often