Ava Grace {4}

 September 28th...

that day my life changed forever.

This little girl revolutionized my world

and threw me into the arena called Parenting.

For all the wisdom I thought I possessed, 

she has proven me inadequate over and over again.

And for all those times, God has shown that He is the only true parent,

and I am just a vessel. 

 Through Ava, God has taught me about 

honesty, integrity, humor,

balance, silliness, structure,

holiness, strength, and honor.

 

 (One year)

Through her eyes the world is a different place,

and yet we are very similar.

She is strong-willed, opinionated, and almost desperate in her quest to make everyone else follow the rules.

 (Two years)

 She is learning right from wrong.

Her vocabulary stumps adults on occasion.

She loves to sing about Jesus.

Memory verses are getting stored away; her heart is tender toward God.

(Three Years)

Now, I am four years into this journey that no one warned me about.

No one told me the way my heart would break when her feelings got hurt,

or how much anxiety when she is unsure about a new task.

I had no idea the frustration she would cause, or the excitement she would take everywhere she goes.

 

She sings, tells stories, narrates adventures for her toys, dances, and loves to be crazy.

Her whole world is a place of twirling happiness...

it hurts when a harsher reality cracks her sphere of sunshine.

 

This girl has the potential to be anything she wants to be.

She can travel, explore, or stay and have her own family.

The future has endless potential for Ava.

 

Ultimately, in everything she does, our desire is that she have God first,

that she choose the Lord Jesus as her salvation.

May her true purpose be in Christ, 

and may that shine to others.

 

Love you forever, sweetheart.

I am so glad you are my daughter.

Ava's Birthday

 Happy Birthday!

Red streamers all around.

We surprised her with a parade (part of our local Oktemberfest).

 This included seeing one of her favorite friends, Allison, and making new friends in Allison's cousins.

 Oh, and there were Minions. That was probably their favorite part.

Then her favorite, Pizza Ranch, for lunch. She eats the chicken and not the pizza. But hey, it's the best chicken, no joke.

Then the blackboard picture:

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Food: Pizza Ranch Chicken

What I want to be when I grow up: A Woman (so she can eat gum)

The big gift this year: A new bike!

(She needs a lot of practice.)

 She isn't naturally adventurous, so it was a big deal to get on a big bike and pedal!

 Eventually, Scott just put the thing up on blocks so Ava could practice pedaling and not worry about crashing. Haha! She looks at her feet...so you see the safety risks...

Ava said it was the best birthday ever! 

She certainly is the most wonderful oldest child I ever could have had. 

Happy 4th Birthday, Miss Ava!

Stickin' our Toe in...

 This is our first year of official schooling.

It qualifies as preschool for both girls (Ava isn't yet 4), but they are learning a lot!

We read through Genesis 1, learning about Creation. I made coloring pages for each day; they were a big hit, and helped solidify learning what God made.

We worked through pattern review:

When Riley is here, he joins right in. 

Shapes, animals, colors, numbers, alphabet recognition. 

Good stuff.

Ava is learning to write letters.

(Sometimes she gets distracted and draws pies, ice cream, and makes "lists". Super cute, I know!)

(This picture looks sideways to me, but loaded the right direction. I'm not seeing an instant fix, so please be so kind as to tilt your head to the right. Thanks.)

These are uppercase letters (although Ava now can write through P),

 and these are lowercase letters.

 Then she signed her work:

She is also learning simple +1 addition and basic phonics. And the best part: When I teach Ava, Lucy wants to learn it too. 2/1 education, right? :-)

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I love teaching my children. After all, I birthed them, I love them the very best that a momma can, I have invested in them; why would I separate education from that?

These are the best years. These are the short years. 

I don't want to waste them.

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.

Olivia Michelle

Baby is here, and she is wonderful!

On March 6th, I woke up at 4am with contractions ever 10-20 minutes. 

As the day went on they stayed consistent enough to know that I was in labor.

By 3pm things were getting intense enough that I was ready to head to the hospital.

and here I am still on the easy end of things...

When we got to the hospital at 3:30, I was only dilated to 3.5cm. 

That was a little discouraging, but away from home and not feeling like I wanted to get all.the.things done, I was able to relax and let labor do it's work.

By 5:30, contractions were noticeably more intense and I was dilated to 5cm.

That was also when my water broke! I was pretty excited, because with Ava and Lucy the doctor had broken my water.

Things progressed very quickly after that!

At 7:30 contractions changed again, becoming longer, closer together, and harder to easily breathe through.

It was taking a good bit of concentration to hold control. I figured I was in transition, and Dr. McCarville must have figured the same thing.

At 8:20 he decided to check my progress. The next thing I heard was, "Okay, it's time to push!"

I had a breather in between contractions, and when the next one came I started pushing. Then another crazy thing happened-I just kept pushing! One mighty push with some deep breaths caught here and there, and my sweet third daughter made her appearance!

There were tears and laughter from Scott and I as we met our new little girl.

So beautiful and perfect!

 She even has a dimple in her right cheek!

 And a ton of long, dark hair!

Olivia means "Peace"

Michelle means "Who is Like God"

Now we are home and settling in to Life with Baby. 

Much love from all of us to you!

In One Year

Out of curiousity (and maybe a little nostalgia) I looked at pictures from one year ago.

I was blown away by how much the girls have changed in one year!

Here is February 2012:

 ......................................................................................

One year ago,

Lucy didn't even have teeth,

could only crawl,

and had barely enough hair in front for a tiny barrette.

Now she runs,

dresses up,

wears hair bows and pigtails,

and has lots of teeth in her cute little grin.

 One year ago,

Ava was just learning her alphabet,

her hair fit into a clip,

the most complicated thing to learn was potty training,

and she was obsessed with Thomas the Train.

Now she is learning basic phonics and writing letters and numbers,

her hair falls to her waist,

she loves to tell big, expounded stories,

we answer questions like, "are there night monsters?",

and she still loves Thomas, but Strawberry Shortcake too.

 

It is amazing what changes in one year.

It has been a good year.

Now they are sisters that have tea parties and are princesses and play silly with bears

and learn verses together and wake up and go crazy together.

They are growing up, and I wouldn't miss this life for anything.

My View

For my bloggy friends not on Facebook, here is why the above is my view.

While we were in Lincoln with family, I was walking down the driveway and a fresh coat of snow on a glaze of ice proved my downfall.

I have a hairline fracture in one of my leg bones, at the base in my ankle. 

The boot is my buddy, and I'm scheduled for x-rays in 2 weeks to see how things are healing.

I'm so thankful it wasn't worse.

So thankful for a husband who has been doing laundry, cooking meals, cleaning, and helping me, all after spending a day at work.

Thankful for little girls who are helpful, kind to each other, and patient with Mommy being super slow right now.

I can walk in the boot, but my ankle does ache and give me pause.

So right now, I'm learning to be patient and slow down and relax and not overthink life.

I don't like being slow, and less capable.

But God is teaching my patience anyway. :-)

Three

Someone here turned 3 years old.

She loves red, so red it was.

And her new favorite special breakfast is cinnamon rolls.

As my little Miss says, "My two is all gone, because now I am three!"

(This picture was at breakfast, after she cleaned up her cinnamon roll and asked for yogurt, then she learned how to do three fingers.)

This was the best/worst part of her day: 

knowing that there were cupcakes but she had to wait for them.

Finally, after a special shopping trip and supper at her very favorite, Pizza Ranch, she finally had the coveted cupcake!

Yay for candles!

 Here are the special things from shopping:

An apron, chef's hat, and oven mitt

and Color Wonder markers.

(She was very excited to use her own special birthday money to pay for her new things.)

How about one more fabulous smile from my 3-year-old: 

Happy Birthday, dear Ava!

You light up our lives

and you adore your little sister (even when she bugs you).

You are kind to others

you tell the best stories

you want to know more about Jesus

we love to hear you pray

you are the best ballerina

and proficient in all things Thomas and Friends.

We love being your mommy and daddy

and watching you grow into an amazing little person.

We love you so much, forever and always.