Teething!

Ava started to cut her first tooth yesterday! You can't really see it yet, but her gum is pretty white and swollen. You can feel the little ridges popping through though. As always, she's being a trooper about it. She didn't sleep very good for her grandma yesterday, but otherwise, she's not being overly fussy. As soon as it pops through enough to take a picture, you know it'll be posted!

The cutest ladybug ever

Ava thoroughly enjoyed her first Halloween (well, I decided that). She came to work with me and went "trick or treating" (which mostly involved everyone oohing and aahing over her). It was a pretty low key night- we took her voting with us, then we picked up some pizza and passed out candy. She was simply adorable in her costume, especially with "love bug" on her feet. And you gotta love how Ava and her cousin Kendall matched!

Not the intended purpose of the jumper, but...

Ava's first real belly laughs caught on camera! Thanks to Melissa for the jumper that greatly amused our little one!

The joys of... carrots?

As Ava expands her culinary experiences, she's deciding what she loves and what she doesn't. Carrots are definitely good. Green beans... not so much.

Stay tuned for Halloween pictures. She's going to be a lady bug!

Big girl time!

Ava's 4 month birthday brought the dreaded shots, but we also learned some fun stuff too. She's now 25 1/2 inches long and 14 lbs, which puts her in the 50th percentile. Everything about her is continuing to look great. We also got the clearance to start her on baby food, so on Sunday, she tried rice cereal for the first time. She wasn't sure about it at first, but now she's crazy about it and is eager for the next bite!

Russ & Stephanie's Wedding

Ava and I made the trip to Arkansas on September 5th for Russ & Stephanie's wedding, and it was definitely worth the trip. Ava, of course, did wonderful on the plane(s)- all of the flight attendants commented on how great she did. Haha, I guess I kinda make it sound like she's always an angel, but she's not- only about 95% of the time ;-) Anyway, it was a beautiful wedding, a fun day, and one of the craziest weekends ever!

The cigarette picture always makes me laugh a little. It kinda epitomizes my family!

What?! No! Shane didn't have anything to drink!

Airplane is fun...

But Shane repeatedly saying, "Get in my belly!" is a little scary.

And finally, this is what my family calls "sightseeing." We all felt bad for the little car!

First camping trip!

We took Ava on her very first camping trip over Labor Day weekend. It should be no surprise to ya that she just rolled with it and was the most perfect little camper ever! Well, except for the one morning that she decided to wake up at 4:30 AM... but that's okay too. We didn't take many pictures because we're not very good at making it a priority, but here's a few that we did take.