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.