Happy Thanksgiving

What a great Thanksgiving we had this year! First of all, because of Ava we have even more to be thankful for this year. We spent Thursday, Thanksgiving Day at Mom and Dad Pecha's. After we stuffed our faces full of turkey and all the fixings, the girls spent several hours baking goodies to take to Iowa City for the Meinders annual Thanksgiving/Christmas get together. I should note that Rachel quit after about half an hour and mom is the only one who spent the full several hours baking.

Thursday night when we got home we came home to a 58 degree house. Brrrr.... the furnace man needed to be called first thing Friday morning, which gave us a 3 hour late start in heading to Iowa City. No Black Friday shopping for us! We spent the weekend celebrating and visiting with family, most of whom hadn't met Ava yet. Saturday morning we went to the University of Iowa Children's Hospital to donate gifts to the kids. Ava did pretty well this weekend, but I think she was a bit overwhelmed and tired of all the noise and being passed around. She was a little grouchy last night and has been sleeping for a good part of the day today. She must be worn out!

I think tomorrow we will have a nice relaxing day at home, just us girls! I head back to work on Tuesday. Thankfully, only 2 days a week until after Christmas. Of course, the money will be nice, but I am definitely not ready to go back to work anytime soon. I get all misty-eyed just thinking about it.
Ava's First Thanksgiving!

4 generations





Donating gifts at Children's Hospital



4 generations

Church

We had a great weekend. Saturday, Darren didn't have to work so he took the night shift on Friday night and I was able to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep! I felt like a new woman! Saturday we spent most of the day at home as a family and went out to run some errands on Saturday afternoon. That evening Nana and Papa came to babysit so that Darren and I could have a date night. We went to the new restaurant, Roux Orleans, downtown Waterloo. It was very good food and it was nice to get out of the house and have some time for just the two of us. However, we are totally lame and missed Ava so we were home by 8:30!

Sunday, Ava made her first trip to church with mommy and daddy. We also were recognized in church as new members. After church we headed back to Hampton to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Malcolm's. Everyone wanted to take their turn holding Ava, especially Grandma Cindy, Josie, and Great Grandpa Ray.
First trip to church

Our first big outing

We have been pretty much keeping Ava at home because of all the flu that is going around so last weekend when Darren's brother got married it was our first big outing!

Darren ended up having to work late on Friday night so he wasn't able to go with Ava and me to the rehearsal. That was another first... hour long car ride with just mommy and Ava! I left with plenty of time just in case I had to stop to feed her, but she slept the entire time! Ava and I stayed the night at Nana and Papa Pecha's so we wouldn't have to drive so far in the dark. I left the rehearsal around 8:00 and had to make a pit stop at the Hansel corner to feed my screaming, starving baby.

Saturday we got up and went to vist Great Grandma Meinders and Great Great Uncle George and Aunt Edna. They loved to see Ava and thought she was such a doll. Then Nana, Mommy, and Ava went for a walk around the sights of Dumont (I had to show my daughter my old stomping grounds!)

We had to be at the church early to take pictures on Saturday. Ava did good and pretty much slept most of the time. Between pictures and the wedding we made a visit to Great Aunt Mari. She had been shopping and pretty much bought out Gymboree for Ava. Thanks, Mari!

The wedding went great. Mark and Jody looked wonderful, as well as Ava's cousins Zach, Emily and new cousin Josie. We didn't get a lot of pictures from the wedding, so hopefully we'll see some that the photographer took.

After the wedding, Nana and Papa came to take Ava back to their house to babysit during the reception. (They really needed their arms twisted to do this, right?) She was such a good baby for them.


Four generation photo

Ava meeting Great Grandpa Ray, he was in love!

Family photo

I snuck this photo during the wedding when I caught Grandpa Malcolm watching Ava sleep.

The wedding party

One Month Old

I can't believe Ava is a month old already! Ava is changing daily! Since we didn't have a doctor's appointment I weighed her with myself this morning to get an idea of what she is at now... my little princess weighed in at 11 lbs even!

At 1 month old Ava can:

Lift her head for several seconds when lying on her stomach.
Focus on my face and eyes.
Focus on objects, especially those of bright colors.

Ava loves to sit in her bouncy chair and this week has really started to enjoy her swing. She doesn't mind tummy time, but has to be in the right mood for it. She doesn't mind her baths, but hates getting her hair washed! When waking up and hungry, Ava just tends to lie there and talk to herself in her bassinet. She is a very happy baby. She likes when we read to her or talk to her. I've also started playing music for her this week and she seems to enjoy that as well.