Celebrating Ava Jane

Friday night we gathered with family to celebrate our sweet girls first birthday! Adam and I can hardly believe that a whole year has come and gone since Ava Jane entered our family. We have loved every moment that we have had with her. She brings such delight and fun to our family, to say we are smitten with her, would be putting it mildly!

Adam and I chose to do an "Apple of our Eye" theme for her first party. Here is what her invitation looked like, I ordered it from GiggleandGraceDesign off Etsy.



Deuteronomy 32:10 says, "He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye." Leading up to her special day Adam and I were thinking, praying and thanking God for all He has saved her from and healed her of, we were just overwhelmed with God's goodness to her, and us!

I knew as I was planning that I wanted the party to be very girly, so once I decided on the "apple" theme we went with the colors lime green and shades of pink. I think it turned out pretty cute.



I wanted to carry the apple theme through the food I served so that took a little bit of thought and research. I ended up serving a tasty assortment of sandwiches (turkey on hawaiian subs, apple pecan brie on sourdough and grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids).


I thought an apple and cheese tray would be fun so I went to my local Kroger where they have a large selection of every kind of cheese you can imagine. I talked to the cheese director there and he suggested three varieties to try: applewood smoked gouda (which I must say was my favorite), aged gouda, welsh cheddar and mild cheddar (for the kids).


I found an Apple Quinoa salad that I'd never tried and was fairly pleased with how it turned out. I did have to explain what quinoa is several times, and one party guest thought I was serving Thanksgiving dressing...overall I think it was enjoyed.


Instead of just one dessert I decided to serve a variety of sweets. Individual mini apple pies, sugar cookies by my sweet friend Carol who designed these cookies to coordinate perfectly and of course, we had to have cupcakes!





I served Apple Orchard punch and it turned out really nice.


Here's the dining room table. I made bunting out of coordinating paper and put one of Ava Jane's monthly pictures on each. Everyone commented on how much her "look" changed each month, she went from a dark headed little lady to one with very blonde highlights. No matter which month you look at, it's clear that she is adorable! And I just had to put the picture of her in the hospital with all her tubes for her 2-month picture...what a blessing to have her home and healthy! By the way, we recently received word from ACH that "Ava Jane has normal female DNA chromosomal formation"! What a wonderful report to get, a true answer to many many prayers!





Our sweet big girl!


And her guests...








Here are four generations, Grammy (Adam's Mom), Gran (Adam's Grandmother) Adam and Ava Jane.


Make no mistake about it, she LOVED her cupcake!






Ava Jane got many fun gifts but she particularly loved this little lamb, she was pretty cute with it as she snuggled and loved it!


She got many cute clothes and an adorable smocked dress for the fall, but by far my most favorite gift was given to her by Gran. She gave Ava Jane a miniature wood rocking chair that her Dad had sat in on his first birthday which was back in the 1890's...what a treasure, what a gift! I am going to take it and have her picture made with it this next week! I love history and the idea of passing things down so I was touched to have been given a gift with such history!


We did a trivia game testing people knowledge of apples and gave away a $10 Chick-Fil-A gift card to the winner and each guest got to take home some Apple Butter to enjoy.



Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you so much and are grateful that God chose to put you in our family! You are the apple of our eye, and we're so thankful that God cared for you and guarded you as the apple of His!

FIRE!! This IS NOT a Drill!

OH.MY.WORD. Today has been a doozie! It just has been. ALL.DAY.LONG and its only a little after noon. I'm not sure how I am gonna make it through the rest of this day, except for GOD carrying me. I sound dramatic, but any of my closest friends, who just experienced the last 30 minutes of my day, will say, "she is NOT exaggerating!"

Like usual, I packed a lunch for my three youngest kiddos so that we could "ENJOY" a few extra moments with our friends before heading off for naps. (I say "enjoy" because this part of the day has high's and low's--the high is getting to talk with some of my best friends but the low's are that its like a mad house, there is COMPLETE and TOTAL mayhem most of the time, with kids screaming and Emerson eating all of his, and every other person's food, all while Mom's try to keep picking up from their broken conversations...you get the picture it's a zoo!

Today was no different except that I brought my frazzled self into the mixture as well...when I first realized I was completely "frayed" I should've known to pack up the kids and just go home...but no, I thought I'd stick it out, being with friends would surely make things better, right?

Everybody had eaten and was just playing on the inside playground when I noticed Lawson was over near the fire alarm. I only had a second or two to respond and I'll just admit my reflexes were too slow! There I am in slow motion yelling, "NNNOOOOOOO" over the crazed and already noisy chaos when he looks at me and he knows he's done something, and then it starts...lights flashing, siren blaring, and we're in a full out "emergency".


One of the other Mom's said, "oh there goes the Principal" so I took off to catch him. I explained to him that it was my child and I don't even remember him saying anything to me, he just grabbed his cel phone and ran off. I quickly walked back to the indoor playroom where chaos had ensued. Every person in the school was pouring out the doors evacuating the building, the cooks, the students, the teachers, those who were working out...you name it, EVERYONE was being interrupted by this oh so "small" thing my child just did, of pulling the fire alarm. Teachers were yelling at all of us Mom's in the play area, "THIS IS NOT A DRILL! YOU NEED TO GET OUT." And I, in my tears had to say, "it was my child, my son pulled the fire alarm."

Really? Truly? How can this be happening? I was and still am a frazzled mess from the way the whole morning had gone and now this? The past days have been really hard. Over the weekend three of us had the stomach virus and I've been playing catch up from that, then Monday Adam came home early from work feeling sick, Tuesday he HAD to go to work for some major meetings that started at 7am and he didn't get home til 10:30 that night, this morning he had another meeting that started at 7 so that's kind of what led into the spiral of things that occurred today and all the tears that came with it. I left my house this morning with everyone (all their bags, sippy cups, bottles, and homework) by 7:10 (which I must say is a feat in itself), I dropped my oldest at school, headed to my Mother-In-Law's house because she was going to take my other 3 kids to pre-school since I had a 7:40 meeting and Drop Off isn't until 8am. With the traffic in the morning, my estimated 50 minutes wasn't enough time to make the turn around so I walked into the Room Mom meeting that I was supposed to be in just as the coordinator was saying, "and that's about all I need to say". Really? Are you kidding me? That was fun! Then the rest of the morning consisted of me running back and forth to my house for a myriad of things that I kept forgetting, no less then 5 times. FIVE times in 3 hours, WHAT.IS.WRONG.WITH.ME?!!

You can understand my pain when you realize that I only have these precious 3 and a half hours on Wednesday's to run errands and get things done because on Thursday's I have been volunteering at Peyton's school. My time is precious and valuable, and today was just filled with constant forgetfulness, inefficiency and a lot of tears! A.LOT.OF.TEARS!
You can ask ANYONE at First Baptist Church who saw me...I was a WRECK! But Lawson didn't seem too un-done by the whole thing. While other children were crying and screaming in fear and scared to death that there was a fire, Lawson was just standing there, I honestly have NO idea what Emerson was doing and somehow, Ava Jane just kept sleeping soundly in her carseat through the WHOLE escapade (thank you LORD for such a laid back baby!) I have no idea how anyone could sleep through that alarm, it was incredibly loud!

This day has been crazy, its been emotional, I feel completely stretched, utterly at my limit but I have to say, just before I backed my car out of my parking spot I saw a dear friend in my side mirror, she had run across the parking lot to pray for me. What a blessing! To have a friend pray immediately, specifically, FOR ME, was so encouraging. God knew what this day was going to be like, He knew I was a frazzle then, and that I'm still in DESPERATE need of His help right now.

I'm realizing that there are limits to what I can do...I'm going to have to do some serious prioritizing and praying to ask God what specific things does He want me to spend my time doing, because there are just too many things vying for my time and energy and I do not want to waste a single moment on things that are meaningless and worthless. And right now, I feel like I'm doing a lot of things, trying to accomplish a ton of stuff, but I'm not doing any of it well. I sort of feel like I've failed this "drill"....but I'm hoping to have learned from this real life mistake. I'm going to have to slow down, I'm going to have to focus and ask God to show me what to cut out so that I don't repeat the harry-ness of today, ever again, well, at least not for a long time I hope!!

So there's a little blurp into my very wordy Wednesday. I hope you can rest in the Lord today, because, honestly, if I didn't have my God to lean back on in times like these, I have no idea how I would survive. Life is just too hard sometimes, it's just too difficult to navigate alone. I'm so VERY thankful that I have a loving Savior who wants me to lean into Him and to ask for His help and I'm SO grateful for the wonderful friends and family that God has placed around me to support and encourage me, without them I'd be in a real heap of trouble!!

"The First Time Policy"

Last week was the first week of school, when I picked up Lawson (our four year old) from his classroom, his teacher looked at me and said, "Mom, we have a first time policy." I didn't know exactly what she meant, so she continued, "we have a first time policy to obey the first time." I said, "OK. That's a great rule, we'll work on that. See you tomorrow" insert a smile and a wave and we were out the door.

As I walked away from the door and down the hallway I was a little stunned. "A first time policy" sounded a bit strict on the first day of preschool and honestly I was a little surprised by her stern-ness (I don't know if that's a real word or not). But as I have pondered her statement over the last week, and have diligently talked to our kids about obeying the first time, I have been convicted and convinced of a few things.

I have been convicted that I've done my kids a grave disservice by not requiring them to obey the first time ALWAYS. Of course, obeying the first time is what every parent or teacher ideally wants from the children they have in their stead, but requiring it is really hard to do sometimes. Because requiring first time obedience means I have to: stop editing pictures to discipline the constant whining; it means I have to stop unloading the dishwasher to put a child in time out for choosing not to help me unload the silverware basket (which is their chore); it requires me to get off the phone instead of continuing to talk to a dear friend when my kids are going at it on the trampoline or fighting over who is going to get to ride the four wheeler! In each of those scenarios and the hundreds of others that take place throughout any given day or week, it means I have to STOP. I have to set aside what I'm doing and actually stop threatening and actually follow through BEFORE I lose my cool, because we all know, if you lose your cool, then you're WAY past the point of where you should have disciplined them in the first place.

It's really pretty simple, as I have thought about it, why is it wrong for a parent or teacher to expect "first time obedience?" I think for too long I've been a little soft on my kids. Now don't get me wrong, I definitely discipline them, I'm the Mama known for carrying a wooden spoon in the diaper bag, in my purse, and I even have one stuck down between my seat and the console in my car and I am NOT afraid to use it! I have a time out chair, and its called the "potty", I've always put my kids in the bathroom on the closed toilet seat because in every house, in every building, there's at least one potty to go and sit on, so there's never any question for them as to where "time out" is. So when I say I've been "soft on my kids" I really mean, I may have given them a little too much grace...you probably know what I'm talking about...I just think I may have been giving them too many chances.

This whole issue hit me like a ton of bricks a few days ago when the kids and I started re-reading through The Jesus Storybook Bible. We were reading the simple and familiar story of Adam and Eve when they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then hid from God and ultimately were removed from the perfect Garden of Eden. I posed the question to Peyton and Lawson, "how many chances did God give Adam and Eve to sin?" It was ONE. Only one chance to do the right thing!

That's when I had a small epiphany, which really is basic, I'm slightly embarrassed to admit this, I don't know why I'd never thought of it this way before, but if God expected Adam and Eve to obey the first time, and even now, He desires for all of us to show "first time obedience" because delayed obedience is really no obedience, then its ok for me to expect and even require, my kids to have "first time obedience". First time obedience is not too high of a standard to hold them to or "too much to ask of them". There's definitely a time for having grace and understanding that they are, in fact, little children who are learning and growing and going to make mistakes and through those mistakes they are learning what to do and what not to do, but there's also the balance of holding them accountable for their attitudes, words and actions, in requiring them to obey the first time.

By no means do my kids obey the first time, every time, so please don't mistake this post as a bragging one, in fact its quite the opposite, I'm convicted and convinced that I need "to hold their feet to the fire" more, and most of that requires me to be more engaged, more selfless and less concerned with what I WANT to get done or checked off my list and more concerned with my kids. These are all just thoughts from a Mom in process, with kids who are in process. Unfortunately we won't ever "arrive" this side of heaven, but we can strive for it and we can ask God to give us His strength. And its His strength that helps us do the requirement of a "first time policy".

Below is a picture of Lawson, whom I must say is just precious! We are starting to see little glimpses of a soft heart that is turned toward God, which is an answer to many prayers. I love this boy with all my heart and I'm excited to see what God is going to do with him!

Labor Day Weekend: High/Low

Friday's High:
The pizza party we had a the pool with friends was nice. We were quite the crowd with six families...and if I did the math right, then there were nineteen little people all under 8! It was fun to sit and visit with all the Mama's while the Dad's helped coral and entertain all the kids.


Friday's Low:
Watching Adam as he threw his plate of pizza down on the ground, running and jumping into the water, fully clothed (with hat, wallet, shirt and glasses still on) in order to rescue our fearless Emerson from the water. He'd followed our older boys out of the baby pool area into the deeper water without his water wings on and he just kept walking out into the water until his cotton top hair was completely submerged and "floating" as Adam described it. As he pulled Emerson up out of the water with eyes as big as saucers while choking, coughing and crying all at the same time, he was just so thankful to have been rescued! Though it didn't deter him from wanting to get right back in there once he had his floaties on!

Saturday's High:
We got to enjoy a meal out with some good friends, Henry's lets do it again soon! The conversation was so much more fun without our 7 kiddos; nice adult conversation is such a treat, Adam and I are grateful to have friends like these! (And thanks so much for the thoughtful gift card!) I didn't want to interrupt good talking and laughing to take a "blog-worthy" picture...now I sure wish I had!


Saturday's Low:
Prepping the playroom for a new coat of paint. It's not my favorite thing to tape the trim and ceiling, especially in our playroom, because there are so many angles that it makes it quite time consuming to do, but I am thankful that once that part was done the painting went fairly quickly. There will be finished product pictures to come shortly.

Also, a slight "low" was spending the last part of our "date night" at Sam's...its not the most romantic place in the world, but we have been wanting to get a TV for the playroom so we decided since we didn't have any little distractors, that it was a pretty good time to go look. So we came home with this...which really is a high, especially for the kids! It will be nice to have a place for the kids to go watch a movie when we have friends over.


Sunday's High:
Spending one last day on the lake before the warm peaceful days of summer are completed for 2013.


Ava Jane wore her first ponytail, which I must say was adorable! But the rubber band broke so I used a bobby pin to make a french twist! How many 11 month olds do you know who have enough hair to twist it up? This sweet girl surely has plenty of hair and I'm having so much fun playing with it!


Lawson tried his hand at getting up on the ski board but he had a hard time, so after several good tries Peyton gave it a go and got up on the first try! We were thrilled, I think Lawson will catch on next summer, he's definitely got the "want too" so we'll see!


Ava Jane enjoyed her first ride on the tube, though her face does not show it in this picture. She liked it so much that she was lulled to sleep, much to Peyton's dismay! He really wanted to go faster!


Here's the chipper side of Emerson before the "cranker" started up.


Sunday's Low:
Usually the kids LOVE the lake...keyword, usually! Having fussy kids at the lake is very challenging! Emerson and Ava Jane both were quite fussy and in a confined space, that can be a little trying! Though they eventually either fell asleep or got over their "moment of crisis", it still made for some hairy moments! Thanks Mom and Dad for helping us out!

Monday's High:
Getting to have dinner cooked for me by my In Laws, that's always a treat! Bill can cook a mean burger and Donna's cheese dip is addictive! Thanks for having us over, it was all de.li.cious!


Monday's Low:
Having to put everything back together in the playroom. It's always fun to anticipate the changes in a room so pulling pictures off the walls and moving all the furniture to the middle of the room is no problem, but putting it all back together was kind of a pain. I do think it's going to be a fun room and that it will be enjoyed!

All in all, we had a great Labor Day weekend, a great time together with friends and family!

Ava Jane's Heart Update

Well, last week Adam and I took Ava Jane to Children's Hospital for her Cardiology Checkup. We had been praying for months leading up to it, that she'd be able to come off her blood pressure meds and that her bp would be in the normal range.

We absolutely love her Cardiologist, Dr. Bornemeier, she is excellent! She couldn't believe how big Ava Jane had gotten or how much hair she had, which almost everyone comments about. After looking at her and seeing her four extremity bp's she said "I am very pleased", which was quite encouraging to Adam and I.

We took her down the hall to have her Echocardiogram and let me just say, SHE.DID.NOT.LIKE.IT! She was like a crazy lady, we gave her i-phones, cars, pulled the TV screen down close to her face but SHE.WAS.NOT.INTERESTED in Curious George, she was completely over it!!




It's a good thing she finally found that thumb, she was making quite a scene!


They were able to get most of what they needed and from what they saw she looked "good". The gradient of her blood pressure which was a 10 (on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being the worst) back in November when all of this story began, but as of last week she'd moved to a 5 which is a HUGE praise! Dr. Bornemeier said she wanted to try taking her off her bp meds and that she wanted me to take Ava Jane to All For Kids in a week (which was Wed.) and have her bp read.

Her bp was 88/54 which is really good! We feel such answers to prayers so "thank you" to all of you who have faithfully prayed for her and our family over the past nine months! God has certainly heard us and has granted our requests!

I waited to write this post until today because I wanted to see how the blood pressure reading would go and see if I heard back on her DNA testing. I knew I was going to be calling the Cardiology Clinic to tell the nurse what the reading was and I was hoping to find out if the lab work was back from the DNA test. I was hoping today would give us the long awaited answer we've been wanting and that it'd be the closing of this part of her story. Unfortunately the waiting continues.

I feel like the DNA findings will either be closure on this chapter of Ava Jane's story or it will be the start of another. When Coarctation (which is the Congenital Heart Defect that she had) occurs in females, then 50% of the time there can be another issue called Turners Syndrome, which is a chromosomal defect. Not all Coarcs have Turners Syndrome but all Turners Syndrome kids have Coarcs, and Turners Syndrome only effects females. We had to wait this long for the DNA testing because she had to have a blood transfusion after surgery and they couldn't test that blood or else the test would be inaccurate since it's someone else's blood, so we had to wait for it to completely circulate out of her body. I called today hoping that I'd hear an answer only to find out that the DNA testing takes the better part of a month to get back. STINK! So I will be "that" Mom who calls every 2 weeks until we get the results, simply because I'm ready to know and Dr. Bornemeier assured us that, "knowledge is power" and in this scenario, knowledge is certainly powerful and I'm ready to know! There's nothing about her physical traits that resemble "Turners" but Adam and I would still like to know either way so we know how to proceed.

So we continue to wait, knowing God already knows either way, and we're confident knowing that Ava Jane rests solely, smack dab, in the center of His hand, and there's no better place for her to be! He has been her Jehovah Jireh, her Provider, and He'll continue to show Himself faithful as the rest of her story unfolds.

Thanks again for praying for our sweet girl! She is a doll baby and we are thrilled with how well she has done over the past months. It's hard to believe she is almost a year old, we're in the throws of planning a very girly soiree, I can hardly wait!


I can not believe 11 months have come and gone!!