Happy New Year 2014!!

What an amazing year 2013 was.  One of the best ever in my book.  2013 will forever be the year I became a mom for the first time, we became a family of 3, and I was finally able to meet my beautiful daughter and watch her encounter so many firsts.  Given how amazing 2013 was, I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2014.  We will be working hard on our dossier in hopes of getting home baby as soon as possible so that we can become a family of 4.  The New Year is bound to be full of challenges, more firsts, lessons to learn, laughter, family time, and joy.  I can't wait!!  Learning to love every minute.

   

Ava's First Christmas!

What a blessing Ava's first Christmas was for all of us. God has blessed our family beyond what I ever imagined over the past year. It's hard to think that just a year ago Ava was living in an orphanage, without an idea of what even Christmas is.

It was the simple things about Christmas that Ava loved...the lights, baking goodies for the neighbors, checking out all the pretties on the Christmas tree, having family around.  She didn't even know that presents were a part of Christmas until we started opening packages. And truthfully she didn't need the gifts to know Christmas is special...and magical.  It has been so fun watching the innocence of Christmas through my daughter's eyes. One of these days I'll have to tell her about all the life lessons she has taught me :)

We celebrated Christmas in 3 different parts. The weekend before Christmas my whole family came to our home to celebrate together. The weekend was spent laughing, playing games, baking, watching basketball, opening gifts, and just hanging out. Last year we started a new tradition of cooking a big Chinese dinner the night before Christmas. This year we made Mongolian beef, pork dumplings, fried rice and ordered in Kung pow chicken and steamed buns. So yummy!!  Ava got lots of cool toys. Some high lights were:  a new baby doll, large building blocks, mrs potato head, piggy bank, alphabet magnets, and bubbles.  Us adults had as much fun as she did playing with her new toys.  Ava spent tons of time with her family and loved every minute.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we were able to hang out with just our little family. Candle light service, Christmas movies, sleeping in late, junk food, new toys, and lots of playing together.  It was such a fun, laid back Christmas. Ava got a basketball goal from Santa so we spent a lot of time working on our game!  She also got 4 cars that we used to race circles around the house!!  So many great memories were made on this Christmas Day. I couldn't finish the day without looking back at some of our first pictures of Ava. Wow, how a year has changed all of us :)

The weekend after Christmas we made the drive to celebrate with Matt's side of the family.   The weekend was filled with cousins running around crazy, loud laughing and talking by all, baking, tractor rides, 4 wheeler rides, fun on the farm, presents, and lots of cuddle time with family.  I absolutely love watching Ava with her cousins.  Each time she gets more and more into playing with them.  I love to hear her belly laugh when she's having so much fun with family.  Her and her cousin Addie hung together this weekend...I think they know the girls have to stick together.   Some of Ava's favorite gifts were lots of cute clothes, games we can play together as a family, a race track with cars, and a Minnie Mouse bean chair.  She knows she is one loved little girl.

10 Months...Narrowing in on a Year Together

Every month I feel like Ava is growing and learning things faster and faster.  It amazes me how she can change on a daily basis.  Ava is a sweet, big hearted little girl.  I soak up every minute I can with her.  

10 Month List  

1. Ava is a chatter box.  Talking all the time and we are understanding more and more all the time.  Her list of words continues to grow but one of the most fun new things this month is that she walks around singing songs all the time.  Some of them we can tell what she's singing, some of them not.  She sings Old McDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Elmo's Song, If You're Happy and You Know It.  And each time she finishes a song, she claps and cheers for herself!  Love it :)

2. Ava loves to help Mama and Baba around the house.  She helps with loading and unloading the dishwasher, closing all the doors in the house, taking things to the trash, picking up toys and other things around the house, and shopping for groceries.  She actually is a good little helper for the most part.  So we are always trying to find ways to be helpful around the house.

3.  Favorite Movies this Month:  Elmo's Favorite Songs, Madagascar (all 3), Planes, Baby Einstein.

4.  Overnights are still fairly rough.  We are up her anywhere from 3-8 times per night.  Sometimes she just needs to be comforted and reminded we're there and other times she wakes up screaming.  We are doing lots of research on sleep (or lack there of) this month and trying every different thing we can think of and is suggested.  We took Ava in to the doctor this last week because of a lingering cough and discovered she had an ear infection.  We had no idea, she gave us no signs...but we are really hoping that once the ear infection is gone, maybe she'll sleep again.  Knock on wood, we're on the right track.  We all need sleep in this house :)

5.  Ava celebrated her first Thanksgiving during the last month.  On Thanksgiving we went to Kansas City to be with my family and then went to Kansas again for the weekend to be with Matt's family.  Holidays mean so much more with a little one around.  Everything is so new and exciting!!  I love to watch the innocence in her eyes when she watches the turkey cooking for the first time and eating more food in one sitting than she could have ever imagined before.  Makes me so thankful for her and so sad for all those kiddos still waiting for their forever families.  The other part of holidays that I love now is having a house full of little kids.  Listening to them run, play, and laugh together.  One of the best sounds in the world!

6.  You still love daycare; your teachers and your friends.  The biting has been very minimal over the last couple of months.  You are learning all kinds of new things and making so many cute crafts that I don't even know what to do with them all.  I am now the mom that has a refrigerator covered in crafts and I wouldn't change it for anything.  When we get to the center in the mornings, you can't get out of your carseat fast enough but you are always happy to see us at the end of the day.  We learned this last week, that Ava gives hugs to the parents she knows as they come to pick up their kids.  I love that she's such a lover!!

7.  Books, books, and more books.  You love to read!  This month Ava is perfectly happy reading her books on her own if Mama and Baba are busy at the moment.  But reading books together is one of my favorite times of the day.

8.  Ava has been eating much better.  Sometimes it takes a little sneaky business from Mama and Baba but at least she is eating from all her food groups.  She loves her milk!  She will not drink juice or chocolate milk, but just good old 2% white milk.  We have started making her drink water with meals.  Mainly because we are really working on drinking out of a big girl cup and it often ends up all over the floor :)

9.   Ava getting more picky about her clothes already.  She loves to pick out her clothes for the day.  She actually does a pretty good job of matching things.  The only problem is that she tends to pick the same clothes over and over again.  So we have some clothes that are not getting worn very many times. This is called picking your battles.

10.  This month we've had Christmas decorations up in preparation for the Christmas season.  It has been so fun to experience the lights, Santa Clauses, Christmas Tree and ornaments, nativity scenes, touring around the city to look at Christmas lights with her.  I have a feeling this is going to be the best Christmas ever!  Living through the eyes of our beautiful daughter!