Pumpkin Patch 2012

Our niece turned 5 on Sept. 23rd however we didn't celebrate the big occasion until the 29th which worked out really well for us because K-State had an off week.  The party was Saturday night and I think it was a little bit of foresight into what Christmas is going to be like this year.  Currently there are four grandkids on the Stallbaumer side.  There will be 5 by Christmas 2012 because Jeremy's sister, Julia, is due at Thanksgiving.  Needless to say it already felt a little hectic but it was ton of fun.  Sunday we made a spur of the moment decision to go to Renyer's Pumpkin Patch near Wetmore.  The day was BEAUTIFUL we had perfect weather for it and I tried to take pictures.  I only had my phone which does a pretty good job but sometimes doesn't react as fast as I need it to because these four kids are BUSY.

Kolbie driving the pumpkin truck!

The best we could do!

Ryan and Ethan trying to jump out and scare us in the corn maze.

Big girl!

We barely had the car started...

Labor Day 2012

The Stallbaumer's had another full but fun weekend!  Friday night my mom came down and we went out to eat at Willie's.  It had been a long time (for us) since we'd been their to eat so that was amazing as usual.  Mom and I then dropped Jeremy and Ava at home and ran some errands and came home to prepare the food we needed to for Saturday.

We started tailgating at the Adelhardt's tailgate with the Dragastin cousins.  Jeremy was in HEAVEN because Uncle Gary got a TV hooked up to tailgate this year.  I have to admit it is pretty cool.  My cousin Kaycee was home from Arizona so it was fun to get a lot of us in the same spot.

Drag Cousins - Jodi, Kaycee, Sarah, Ava, Me, and Lauren

Jeremy bought Ava new dress to wear to the Tailgate.  She stayed true to her southern roots by wearing a dress to the football game.  We couldn't get a picture of her standing up but she did look adorable.  She only lasted a few ours because it was so hot outside.  I'm so thankful my mom was willing and is willing to come down and watch Ava so Jeremy and I can enjoy the game.  I see so many people that bring their kids to the games and in my opinion it doesn't look like a fun time for the kid or for the parents!

Ava in her new dress!

We ended the weekend with a trip to Seneca for the Labor Day Church Picnic.  All of Jeremy's siblings were home so it was fun to all be together.

In addition to having season Football tickets we also have season Volleyball tickets.  We have a friend who a senior on the Volleyball team and therefore since we actually live in Manhattan this Volleyball season I wanted to get tickets.  I made a shirt for Ava to wear to the games to show our support for Alex.  I was pretty please with how it turned out especially since I did it all for under $10.

Ava's new thing is to stick her hands in her pockets!

She was barely big enough to fit all the words!

Be careful what you wish for!!!

Jeremy, Ava, and I have officially been Kansas residents for a year!  WOW has this past year FLEW!  Tonight on the birthday of this beautiful country, we are sitting at home with no plans and I don't mind this one bit.  I feel as if we haven't sat still since we crossed the state line 366 (thanks leap year) days ago.  However I have no regrets!  I L-O-V-E the fact that all of Ava's cousin's are within an hours drive and she's growing up right along side them.

This past weekend my grandma and uncle were in town for a wedding therefore my mom, sister-in-law, and nephews came to town for the day/evening.  My dad had to work that morning and my brother was sick so they didn't make the trip.  We had a wonderful day filled with a trip to the Splash Park, then to church, followed by a wonderful home cooked meal.  Max and Dean had never been to the Splash Park before and I believe they enjoyed themselves.  My mom took pictures but I don't have copies so I will try to get them uploaded soon!

Lucky for us...Jeremy and I didn't have plans for Sunday because we found out on Saturday afternoon that they were having a 75th Birthday party in St. Benedict for Jeremy's grandmother.  Everyone was able to attend except for three grandchildren and one fiance.  Currently there are 67 people in the Patty Stallbaumer family.  Breakdown:  Grandma Stallbaumer, 10 kids plus their 8 spouses, 31 grandchildren plus their 7 spouses and 2 fiance's, and 8 great-grandchildren.  (this part only took me about 10 minutes to figure out...thanks to the trusty family calendar)  We had a great time and it was fun to see everyone!

Jeremy parents, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew came down last night so the guys could get up bright and early this morning to fish.  We had a fun relaxing day that also included a trip to the Splash Park.  It's so great to have a house so they can come visit and we can spend more quality family time.

I will say I'm not a fan of a mid-week holiday.  Monday and Tuesday at work were rough and I have a feeling Thursday and Friday aren't going to be much better.  However we have another fun and busy weekend planned.  Hope everyone enjoyed their Holiday and I apologize for the lack of pictures.  I will try to upload soon!

Love to all!  - Brooke

15 Months and Still a Runt

I took Ava in for her 15 month check up last week.  Ava came into this world at a whopping 5lbs 6oz so from day one she has been small.  Compared to other 15 month olds this is how Ava sizes up.  She currently weights 19lbs 14oz this - 9% she is 29 3/4" tall - 29%.  However she is healthy and developing just fine so we just deal with the fact that she a runt.  Currently Ava has 12 teeth and is eats pretty much everything and has for the past two months.  Her favorite foods are eggs, bananas (whole she has to hold it and bite off of it), and hot dogs.  When Ava turned one her hair all of sudden took off.  We got her "bangs" trimmed last Friday and got a cute picture to show of it.  She didn't fuss and all but was looking at Lacey and I like we were crazy.  Ava can give a good look.

Ava's 1st Hair cut by the beautiful and talented Lacey Byers!

We have almost been back in Kansas for an entire year.  We moved 4th of July weekend last year.  I have not been more thankful to have been in Kansas than I was these past few months.  Jeremy and I were both blessed with wonderful loving families.  We are very grateful for the fact that we have each and everyone of them and love the fact that all of them are less than an hour drive now!

My sister-in-law Emily and I at the Duel Piano's in Hanover at Snappers.

Decided the guys were worthy enough to have their picture taken with us!

 

 

 

 

 

Stallbaumer grandkids enjoy a little pool time in the back yard!

Waiting on Grandpa G's homemade strawberry ice cream!

Grandma Drag and Ava at the Hanover Parade (unusually cold for the 1st week of June)

Max having some of his candy!

Ava thinks she'll have a piece also!

Ava's 1st Birthday

I know I know...I haven't posted since Ava was a month old.  I could come up with a million excuses why but none of them matter.  What does matter is that I am going to try to do better.  (won't be hard huh?)

To get started again we are going to go back in time to Ava's 1st Birthday Party.

I am not a very "creative idea" person.  I can be fairly crafty if I want to be but I have to copy other people I don't come up with the ideas on my own.  For whatever reason zebra print is really big right now and easy to find.  Therefore when it came to Ava's party I decided to just do zebra print, pink and purple...not very original but super cute and easy.  I made Ava a onesie with the #1 on it and her very creative and crafty Aunt Julia completed the outfit with a tutu and hair bow.

We did a taco bar for the food and I had a cake made.  All of Jeremy's family and my family were in attendance along with the Sherlock and the Rottinghaus Families.  Ava got completely spoiled and didn't get a nap that day but overall did very well. 

A friend from work tipped me off to get the whipped topping on Ava's cake so that it would smear better and boy was she right.  Ava L O V E D her cake and had no problem digging right in and making a mess.

Ava's gifts included everything from clothes to dolls.  She got a wagon from Grandma and Grandpa Stallbaumer however it was opened and put together in the afternoon so all the kids could go on a walk at once.  The sunglasses were from Cassie and Kellen.  She surprisingly left them on for a while!

Ava Ann had a great first birthday and we feel so blessed to have this healthy beautiful baby girl!

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.