Kansas Continued

To start where Jeremy left off...

Friday night when Ava Ann got to Washington she headed over to Hanover to spend the evening w/ the Dragastin cousins. Justin and Emily took her up to Emily's parents house. For the readers that aren't familiar with my sister-in-laws family, she is 1 of 10 kids, several of the kids are married, some have kids, plus the house might as well be a mini-hotel/restaurant because there are always people outside of their family visiting to eat, sleep, or hang out. Needless to say the Bruna house hold is never hard up for entertainment! After 10 minutes of being there Emily sent me an e-mail that said my nephew, Dean, (8 months) was keeping Ava's Sock Monkey, and Emily's neice, Gracie, (2 1/2yrs) was keeping Ava. Gracie's daddy is a doctor who recently completed his Ob rotation and Gracie always asked her daddy to bring her home a baby so she thought this was the baby her daddy brought home to her.

However at the end of the night we did get Ava and the Sock Monkey back via Ava Ann's great-grandmother Ann. Yes this is where Ava got her name. My maternal grandmother is named Ann Davis. My mothers name is Denise Ann and I am Brooke Ann, therefore I wanted Ava to hold the name also so the entire time Jeremy and I were choosing a name I said I wanted it to first off be short to go with Stallbaumer and second to have the name Ann for either the first or middle. So finally (2 minutes after she was born) we decided on Ava Ann. The following pictures is from Ava Ann's baptism however it shows the four generations of the "Ann"

My grandma got into Washington County that evening and went to Justin's house first because they were keeping Ava Ann while I was hosting a couples shower for my long-time childhood friend, Staci and her fiance Schuyler. However everyone at the shower was asking me where Ava was (especially Staci's mother) therefore I called grandma to bring Ava back to my parents house before the party ended.

Saturday was absolutely CRAZY (but wonderful) when it came to visitors! I had to go get fitted for my dress in Staci's wedding that morning so Staci and her good friend Stephanie came over early that morning and the three of us took off. We got home mid-morning then about 12:30 one of my good college friends, Kristin (Kruse) Blanding came over with her mom. They stayed and we had a nice visit! Not 10 minutes after they left my moms great friend Gayle (and Gayle's cousin Nancy) came to doot over Ava Ann. Following there visit was Jessie & Sheri Gilliam, Jessie was my classmate and best friend from the time I was in pre-school to the time I graduated and Sheri has taught with my mom since my mom has worked at Washington. They got to stick around for a while which was great because I miss getting to see Jessie on a regular basis! (I might add while all of this was going on my sister-in-law Emily sat along the edge and patiently waited her turn to spoil Ava) Then that evening Mike, Amber, Aiden, and Linda came over. When Jeremy and I lived in Manhattan Mike, Amber, & Aiden were our neighbors. We pretty much did EVERYTHING with them. Not a day goes by that I didn't wish we still had them close we were pretty much present for the entire first year of Aiden's life then I had to keep up with his happenings via Amber's blog (which is why I wanted to do this blog for Ava because I think Amber does a great job on her blog and I think I'll really be glad I did this in about 10 years) Aiden who is now 2 years and 5 months has grown up to be a very adorable and well behaved young man. I really hope we can talk the three of them to coming and visiting us this summer or fall!

Later that evening my cousin Matt and his girlfriend Megan arrived from Manhattan we had a wonderful dinner while we waiting on my Aunt Steph, Uncle Rex, & cousin Abby to finally arrive (they had plane delays)

Saturday ended about mid-night so it was a long day but totally worth seeing all the friends! Every visit meant a lot to me. Jeremy and I do like living in Auburn however we miss all the people we love in Kansas every minute of every day. This includes everyone we worked with (especially me), hung out with, and are related too!

I did go back and add pictures to the post Jeremy did!

Kansas Part 3: Ava's Day w/ Daddy

As Brooke mentioned in the last post I have become tasked for some reason to contribute to this blog. So here it goes...

Thursday was just like every other day in Kansas to this point, cold and windy. I had called my mothers parents, John and Anna Marie Kuckelman, that morning to see if they were ready to meet Ava. My Grandma answered and she said to come over and that she was excited to meet her. We left shortly after and headed over to Axtell. When we got inside we handed Ava off to my Grandma and that is where she stayed for the next 45 minutes. Ava was very good for her Great Grandma, so much so that we almost did not get her back to leave. Grandma told me that none of the other Great Grand-kids ever behaved well enough for her to hold her for that long. We said our good byes and Grandma and Grandpa reminded me again that I was there favorite grandchild.

We left Axtell and headed back to Seneca. We went through town and stopped at Picture This which is Brooke's favorite store in Seneca. Brooke bought a couple things and it gave Nancy, the stores owner, plenty of time to get acquainted with Ava.

We had to make one more stop after lunch and that was to see Mrs. McGeeney. Mrs. McGeeney was my typing teacher and volunteered to put together bulletins for our church when I was in school. A group of us would go down and help her staple them together on Wednesdays throughout the year. I met up with her again my Senior year when I was a teachers aid and she was a para in the same classroom. Brooke learned about Mrs. McGeeney around our wedding time when we asked her to be a Eucharistic Minister. She still brings it up all the time how wonderful she felt when we asked her and how she had to get a new dress and everything. Mrs. McGeeney caught us up on all the happenings around Seneca and how all of her family was doing.

Thursday was our last night in Seneca so my Parents grilled a couple racks of ribs and some salmon and Kevin, Julia and Kendal made another trip out to see us.

Friday I took Brooke to Marysville to meet up with her mom so she could get ready for Staci and Schylers couples shower and I headed back to Seneca to hang out with my sister Julia. I spent the morning playing with Ava and tossing things across the room for Kendal to fetch. We ate our last Friday non-meat meal of Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo and headed over to my Great Grandma Stallbaumers. Ava was good for Grandma and I was able to get a couple of pictures. Grandma reminded me again how I was her favorite grandchild.

I loaded Ava up and we headed towards Washington. We made a pit-stop in Marysville on the way to see the Noel's. Janelle fed Ava and I played with Ethan and Kolbie a while. When we finished up there we headed over to Washington for the rest of our stay in Kansas.

This concludes my portion of the blogging for now. I understand if you decide not to read anymore because I failed to include any interesting stories in the body of the blog and left you with no real cliffhanger to come back to and see how it ends. I will try harder next time. Maybe.

P.S. I will come back and add some pictures.

Kansas Part 2 - Ava's first trip to the Little Apple

Wednesday was another early morning for our family of three. We took off for Manhattan around 8:00am Our first stop on the list was Amanda's my college room-mate. It was so nice to get to spend the morning with Amanda it had been a long time since I'd seen her.

After spending a few minutes at Amanda's the four of us headed up to the Vet School. I knew this would be a big stop for Ava. All the ladies at the Vet School have a case of baby fever and rightfully so with several of them expected babies themselves. Ava got passed around and handled it beautifully. I was so excited to see all the ladies I miss them everyday.

After spending a good hour at the Vet School we swung by my cousin Sarah's house before she had to scurry off to work. Then we headed out for lunch and we of course went to Willie's! Lunch was great James came and met us along with my cousin Jodi and Jeremy's old room-mate Zach. The food once again was awesome and it was one more reason we had to miss Manhattan.

After lunch Amanda left us to go to class and Jeremy, James, Ava, and I headed to the mall. Here we bought Ava her K-State sock monkey we named Socks. It is perfect size for her and she already grips onto it and won't let it go.

We headed back to Seneca and had a great evening in Seneca with Jeremy's sisters and their kids again.

I know this post doesn't have any pictures which makes me sad but I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures. I'm always to busy talking with people! I hoping I can talk Jeremy into doing the post for the next two days because I'm sure you're all bored with my writing by now!

Kansas Part 1

So I wish I would have had time to blog everyday we were in Kansas because it would have made this overwhelming trip a lot easier however I didn't so I'm going to try and recall everything that happened.

We arrive Monday afternoon in KC and Jeremy's dad picked us up. Ava did amazing on the plane she was a little fussy in the beginning because she was hungry but we fed her and she pretty much slept the rest of the plane ride. Everyone was asking us about her and how old she was they all thought she was adorable. (this was at the end of the plane ride when the realized she was quite the whole time, might have been different had she screamed the entire way) The flight attendant even gave us a pair of flight wings for her which I thought was really cute! So our journey started at 6:00am that morning and we finally arrived in Seneca sometime after 3:00 PM and the SPOILING began.

Jeremy's sister Julia and her son Kendal pretty much came out immediately. They happened to arrive at the house the same time Jeremy's mom did and it was a little bit of an argument who got to hold her first. From this moment on I don't feel like Ava was ignored for 10 days. That evening Jeremy's sister Janelle and her kids came over, it was so fun to have all the cousins together for the first time.
On Tuesday Jeremy and I got up early and headed to Marysville so I could get my hair cut by Lacey. On our way to Marysville Jeremy asked me if I wanted to go to Hanover to see Max and Dean since Emily wasn't working that day. I of course said yes and Emily of course was all for the idea. So we ventured on down Hwy 36 to meet the Dragastin cousins. Max was so excited when we first got there however his interest in Ava last about 2 minutes then he was back off to his trucks. Dean, with his laid-back personality, just looked at her a grinned. Aunt Emily thought she was pretty special also will all her bows and ruffles.

Jeremy and I decided to take Max and Ava over to Washington to see/meet Papa Tom and Uncle Justin. We stopped by Justin's office first then out to the clinic to see Papa. My dad was so surprised and I know excited to see us. He was telling all the "old farmers" in the clinic that Ava was his grand-daughter and this was this first time he got to meet her. We swung by my house to see my mom over her lunch hour and she was excited we decided to come over. Jeremy, Max, Ava, & I headed back to Hanover and ate Ricky's for lunch with Emily and Dean.

We then headed back to Seneca to go meet Uncle James who was coming home for the afternoon. Uncle James was very proud and held her for over an hour while she slept. Ava has a thing for men with big shoulders.

That night we headed back over to Marysville for Pizza at Janelle and Ryan's. My entire family and Jeremy's entire family was there. This was very special for us. We love that our families get along and can spend time all together. Ava of course was passed around after she "wet" Aunt Janelle's floor. However we will blame this on daddy because he was a little slow with the diaper change.

So I've only made it through 2 days of our trip and the post is already lengthy so I will try to post again tomorrow about the day we spent in Manhattan.

There is No Place Like Home

So it is currently 4:30 am and once again I'm to excited to sleep! We are leaving for Kansas today and I'm so excited for Ava to meet everyone in Kansas. First however we have to get through the plane ride. I haven't been this nervous to travel on an airplane since I was a young girl going to California with only my brother and younger cousin. I just hope Ava can sleep through most of it and the other passengers on the plane don't hate us before it's all said and done!

Once again Kansas is going to be a jam packed trip with us trying to see as many people as possible. We are starting the trip out in Seneca, going to make a day trip to Manhattan on Wednesday, then Friday we will be Washington. Friday night I'm hosting a shower for Staci and Schuyler. I'm so glad I can do this I hate not being closer for all the wedding preparations. Saturday is going to be clean-up/set-up (again) for everyone on Sunday. We are having Ava baptized in Washington on Sunday evening. I'm really excited for this special event. Both Jeremy and my families will be there and that is very special to us. Ava will be wearing the same gown I was baptized it which also happens to be the same thing all my Dragastin's cousin's wore!

I know once again I'm posting without pictures but I promise when I can blog again I'll have lots of pictures of our Kansas trip!

31 Days

Our baby girl is official 1 month old today! I look back to that day and think about how everything happened so fast. A lot of people aren't able to say that about their labor but I can! My water broke approx 7:45am and she was born a quick 6 hrs later at 1:42pm. Jeremy and I still talk about how for the first couple hours of her life she hardly made a peep and we were wondering if she'd ever cry. Seems extremely foolish to us now!

Even though I couldn't see Ava for the first few moments of her life everyone in the room tells me she just came out and started looking around taking everything in. I remember holding her for the first time thinking that she was going to have her daddy's personality because she already seemed to be so laid back. At that moment I thought she might resemble me but it only took about 24 hours for her features to change and to realize she was her daddy all the way through.

This past month has been the best month of our life and Jeremy and I would like to thank everyone who has sent us a card, text message, e-mail, gift, or said a prayer for us! We are anxious to get to Kansas next week so little Miss Ava Ann can meet the rest of our family and our friends that we miss everyday.

Three is not a crowd!

So we are going to try this blogging thing out. I told Jeremy he HAS to contribute because if this is just up to me it won't be very successful. I can't even get pictures loaded onto facebook in a very timely matter!

Obviously this blog is going to focus around our pride and joy: Miss Ava Ann Stallbaumer

We are loving parenthood. Even though both Jeremy and I are exhausted we have so much more love for life and each other and our hearts doubled in size on March 13 for our daughter.

Jeremy has been an absolutely AMAZING father. I always knew Jeremy would be a great role model for our kids and when they got old enough he'd dedicate all his free time playing with his kids however I never imagined he would be as much help to me in these "early days" as he has been. Since I've been nursing (which has been going extremely well) Jeremy will get up after I'm done and help burp her and putting her back down. This may not sound like a lot but it has been EXTREMELY beneficial for me. Lately Ava has been pretty consistent to where she goes down around 10:00 wakes up around 2:00 takes an hour to eat and go back down then sleeps to around 6:00. This has been AWESOME. We are following the suggestions of a book called "Babywise" by Ezzo & Bucknam however I can't say we are doing it perfectly since neither Jeremy or I have read the entire book. We just read bits and pieces and then wing the rest of it! However I do feel it has great values and ideas in it.

This post is already fairly long so I guess I'll stop here for today. We are excited to be in Kansas in a little over a week! Hope we can see as many people as possible!

PS I've been working on getting this written for 3 days now so this one is not going to have pictures because I don't want to take more time to do it. Next time I promise!