Every Last Minute...

Two weeks from today, Ava will turn ONE YEAR OLD. I can't believe it! Where has the time gone? Matt and I are beyond blessed to have Ava in our lives and we really make an effort to savor every minute God has given us as a family. Realizing that the time remaining until Ava turns one is limited, we are making more of an effort to burn this precious time to memory. We aren't sad that Ava is turning one... If anything, we are so excited to see what God has planned for her in the years to come. We just know that Ava will never again be this small and before we know it... we'll be sending her off to college. With that said, this blog post isn't about anything in particular. It is just a glimpse of how we are enjoying every last minute...

A few days ago, as I was getting breakfast ready for Ava, I opened up the blinds in our kitchen window. I couldn't believe how boldly beautiful the leaves were on the trees and the ground. This picture does God's artistry no justice... Plus, our dumpy integra is smack dab in the middle of the shot. Do me a favor and try to imagine this picture with colors 100 times brighter, and no integra ruining the view. :)

It is mornings like the one mentioned above that I adore right now. Ava loves standing up, holding on to the window sill and gazing outside. What a life, huh? At night, when I see that Matt is home from work (he drives the dumpy integra), I say, "Ava, Daddy is home!" Those 4 words put a huge smile on her face and she books it to the front door to watch him walk through the front yard. Love it!

If not the kitchen window, you will commonly find Ava looking out our side door...

I guess it is safe to say that Ava has seen Fergie go through the dog door one too many times. Ava hasn't gone through it yet, and trust me, I won't let her (for now, anyway). I think she is just trying to figure out where it is Fergie comes from and where she goes when she jumps through the big black hole. 

The other night while playing in her room, Ava decided to pull up on her changing table. At first I thought it was cute and then I realized that EVERYTHING on her changing table is stored in bins. Meaning, she had full access to every washcloth, hat, towel, pacifier, burp cloth, bib and blanket I had neatly tucked away. Her favorite bin to raid was her pacifier bin. The only time Ava ever uses a pacifier anymore is at night, when she is going to bed. Call it pacifier withdrawal, but the girl put all of her pacis in her mouth. Every. Single. One. She spent about 15 seconds with each paci before moving on to the next one. My goal is to have her off of her night-time paci in the next month or so. We'll see how that goes...

Also this past week we had a mini photo shoot to capture a picture for Ava's birthday card. (I will post details about the birthday theme and card later.) I ended up with about 50 pictures more than I had anticipated, as always, but here are a few of my favorites...

 And the one that captures Ava's personality the best...