Thursday, June 27, 2013

Ava's Room Part 1

Recently I showed you the preparation that went into Ava's room. If you missed that post, you can check it out here.  Well, here is a tour of Ava's finished room part 1. . .starting with the right side:
 
This is a sign I purchased after Ava passed away. I needed something on her dresser and I thought the message was perfect! We keep her door open and I LOVE that this is what I see each time I walk out of our room and into the hallway.
 

On top of her dresser is a diaper cake that one of my best friends made for Ava's baby shower. Pink "Miracle Bubbles" that we got from the March of Dimes walk. The pink owl holding the pinwheels is another addition I purchased after Ava passed away. Originally, I got it, just because it was pink and cute, not knowing how I would use it. Then I realized it would be a perfect holder to store all of  the pinwheels for her monthly birthdays. =)  We also have her sound machine on top of her dresser.



We always leave the blinds open so the sun can shine through. =) On the nightstand is a few special items. On the bottom is a basket.  My mom sewed the liner to match her bedding, we were storing extra diapers in it. On top of the nightstand is a lamp I made to match her bedding along with a special Willow Tree angel and a metal angel from my oldest sister. Also, a special book that we received as a gift called Mommy, Please Don't Cry: There Are No Tears in Heaven


Ava's bedding. . . my mom made her blanket and my friend's mom made the bumper and crib skirt.
B had a mobile on his crib so I wanted Ava to have one too, this one is from Pottery Barn Kids. My mom made the yellow pillow in the crib too.

Angel wings with Love...since we moved her "Ava canvas" out into the hallway for her memorial wall, we needed something else in its place. I found these angel wings at Hobby Lobby and thought they would be PERFECT! Now, Ava will always be able to watch over her future baby brother/sister as they sleep in her crib.
Ava's diaper stacker, still full of her tiny newborn diapers. I had a diaper stacker when I was a baby so I had got one for B.  I wanted to continue the tradition on with Ava, so my friend's mom made it for us to match her bedding.
A pink minky blanket my mom sewed for Ava. . .it is SOO soft!!!

I couldn't find a pink and brown Boppy cover that I liked, so my mom sewed one for us using a pattern we found off Pinterest and some super soft pink minky fabric.  This is one of the few items we were able to actually use with Ava.

Over her door is an antique angel that I had over my door when I was growing up.  Also, her bow holder that I made for her to match her bedding.

Now at the end of her crib, next to her diaper stacker, we have a bucket full of memorial/tribute items to use over the next few months/year.
 
Stay tuned for part 2 (the other side of Ava's room). =)
 
Thanks for following along with us,
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Mighty Sunflowers

Last week, when J and I were on our way to visit Ava we noticed something we had never seen before...

fields and fields of big, HUGE sunflowers!
 
We had never seen anything like it before. Several cars were pulled over on the side of the highway taking pictures. We also noticed a news crew was there doing a segment as well. I couldn't wait for B to get back into town so I could take him and get his picture in the sunflowers.
 
I knew we had to go quickly because I had read that sunflowers usually only stay in bloom like that for a couple of weeks and we had already noticed some of them had started to wilt away.  So today was the day. =)
 
I already had our location picked out ahead of time, we were going to use a back road by the funeral home/cemetary as opposed to pulling off the side of the highway like everyone else. As soon I parked the car, B saw this. . .
BIG, YELLOW CAUTION tape!
He panicked!! "Mommy, we're not allowed to go in there, we could get in trouble!" I tried to tell him that I think it's ok because other people had done it, and I just wanted a few quick pictures. He didn't like my response....he was petrified that the police were going to come, we were going to get caught, they would arrest us and take us to jail, all for being in a sunflower field. It literally took me a few minutes to convince him its ok and we would be quick.  Finally, he got out of the car and told me "if the police catch us, I'm telling them it's all your fault, that I didn't want to do this and you MADE me do it." As you can see I have a lil bit of a drama king on my hands. =)
 
As he got out, he realized it was kind of like a maze and had fun skipping through the dirt path in between the sunflowers.





 
 
It's not exactly our best photo shoot, to be quite honest, B had me a lil nervous that we WERE going to get caught...something I hadn't even thought about until he was so worried! This photo shoot lasted maybe 5 minutes and then I saw....A POLICE SUV!
 
Thinking of everything B had said earlier, I was quickly trying to come up with a story in my head that we could tell the police officer, why I, as the adult, completely ignored the caution tape AND ignored the "NO trespassing signs" that were off to the sides.
 
B was so wrapped up in the sunflowers that he didn't even notice until I told him. He quickly ran to me, scared to death. As he hid behind me, we kind of froze for a minute, not knowing if we should try and hide or just go to the car...maybe they wouldn't see us?? I decided we should just get out of there and if they said anything to us, I would just have to own up to it. B clenched on to my arm as we made the walk of shame back to our car. Lucky for us, the police SUV did NOT stop and continued going down the gravel road to nowhere. We went on to see Ava and I expressed my disappointment to B that I wasn't done taking pictures, there was still one more I wanted to take.
 
He decided to get brave and said it's ok, if we go back and take one more picture. Even though he "has never been so scared in his whole life", he said if the police come back, we can just explain to them that we have a special police officer friend and maybe they won't arrest us. =) So we made the short drive back to the sunflowers, so I could get my one more picture. . .
 
  Our visit to Ava last week is what introduced us to these fields of beauty.  She deserved to have her picture taken in them as well. =)

Thanks for following along with us,
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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Ava's Room: the Preparation

One of the things J and I would like to share with ya'll is Ava's room.  As in any nursery, A LOT of preparation went into getting Ava's room just perfect and ready for our lil princess.  Other than family and close friends no one has gotten to see the end results, until now...so for the next 2 posts we will share Ava's room and the story behind many of her things.  In case you are wondering, Ava's room is a place of joy for us along with the occasional sadness.  We leave her door wide open and for the most part, everything is left just as it was for her and will continue to stay that way until we are blessed with another baby.

First off, for the preparation of Ava's room we had to move out all of B's things. B was upgraded to our guest/office/exercise/craft/clean, unfolded laundry storage room.  Yes, believe it or not, we were able to fit all five of those needs into 1 room and walk in closet!  =) He is very excited about his new, bigger bedroom! Here are just a couple of pics of his new room.


Next, we had to paint over B's old blue walls. We decided to go with "butter yellow" walls rather than pink walls so we could use lots of pink and brown accents.  We painted Ava's walls a color called "Summer Sunshine".  Based on the "name" of the paint, we thought it was the perfect paint choice because 1) I LOVE summer and 2) we knew Ava would be our lil ray of sunshine...hopefully we aren't the only ones that choose a paint color solely based on the name. =)

 Of course, we had to have a lil helper too. =)

After we got her room painted, we were ready to order her crib.  I was SO excited to get her crib online from Target for only 6cents! Between giftcards, J's employee discount (at the time) and my RedCard discount, our total out of pocket cost was only 6 cents! =)
We chose a dark brown cherry sleigh crib to match the twin cherry bed that we already had for guest/nights your spouse snores too loud and you need a good nights rest. =)
One of J's special talents is assembling furniture, so we also purchased an Ikea dresser that he put together.  This was a plain front dresser (no knobs).  The pink knobs are a personal touch that we added to make her dresser a little more girly. =) I purchased the pink glass knobs off of Amazon (for FREE) and after J put the Ikea dresser together, my dad added the knobs for us. I LOVE the extra "girlyness" the knobs add.
 
Do you see the diaper caddy sitting on the dresser? That was brand new from Pottery Barn Kids and I added some personalization to it too. I felt it also needed a pink, girly touch so I added some pink ribbon accents to it. LOVE how it came out!
I had the same diaper caddy with B (but a white basket and blue gingham liner).  I really felt it was very useful, so I had to get one for our princess too. 
 
 A personalized canvas I had made to go above her crib. . .it matches her bedding. =)
 
All of her bedding was custom made by a combination of my mom and one of my good friend's mom.  They both did an AMAZING job!
 
 A customized bow holder that I made to match her bedding. =)
 
I also made two lampshades to match her bedding. . .
 
  We enjoyed customizing Ava's room so much! Please stay tuned for Part 1 and Part 2 of her finished room. =)
 
Thanks for following along with us,
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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to the Man I love...

  One year ago, we had NO idea all of the things we would have to overcome within our first year of marriage.

Survived J being unemployed for 5 months.
Training our 4 legged princess, Lilly (actually still working on this one). =)
Shared the exciting news with B and our parents that we were expecting a sweet baby.
Finding out we were expecting a sweet, perfect lil girl.
J losing his wedding ring.
J going through the ups/downs of job interviews and finaly getting a new job that he is very happy with. =)
Repainting/redecorating all three bedrooms.
Me having to be on strict bed rest for 7 weeks (causing J to play both roles of mommy/daddy and having one of my parents live with us throughout each of those weeks).
The joy of the birth of our sweet angel, Ava.
Having to say goodbye to our sweet angel, Ava.
Planning the "home going" celebration for our princess.
Finding a new church that we are happy with.

I hesitate on sharing the following information because I fear that it will show what an inadequate job I am doing as a new wife, but I decided J deserves all the credit in the world and he deserves for me to brag how truly wonderful he has been to B and me...even if it reveals what a poor job I am doing at being his wife. 

I LOVE how he cooks and plates my dinner for me (really any meal we eat at home).  Often times I have my meal completed before he even has a chance to sit down and eat (after he fixes our drinks, B's plate (which is usually a different meal) and his own plate)...part of that could be because I'm a teacher and we are trained to scarf our meals down quickly. =) I LOVE how he goes out to buy me ice cream at 10:00 at night, just because it sounds yummy.  I LOVE how he folds our clothes with precision. I LOVE that he plays soccer with B even though football is more his style. I LOVE that he loves me and thinks I'm beautiful even with the extra weight on me. =) I LOVE the way he makes brownies and grills some yummy turkey burgers. I LOVE that he puts up with my mood swings. =) I LOVE that he doesn't expect us to have the cleanest house on the block. I LOVE that he helps me dry and straighten my hair when I'm in a hurry. (He thinks he does a better job combing my hair than my "hot comb"/flat iron). I LOVE that he doesn't get too annoyed with my "controlling" tendancies. I LOVE how he is willing to watch and play video games with B.  I LOVE that he wakes up and takes care of Lilly every morning (and feeds, bathes and brushes her.) I LOVE that he is okay with eating Taco Cabana three days in a row (and has all of our salsa condiments down to a science when getting it to go). I LOVE his laid back attitude and "calmness" he has about himself.  I LOVE that he takes B to Dave and Busters to play when I need some time to myself. I really could go on and on about all the things I LOVE about him but most importantly, I LOVE how he always puts up with me....including me with all my cRaZy pregnancy/postpartum/grief hormones. Everything hasn't always been peaches and cream this last year, but we learn from our experiences and it only makes us stronger as individualas and as a couple. I LOVE with him all my heart and I am SOO thankful he is apart of our life. I can't imagine my life with anyone else!  As you can see, I am one lucky gal. =)

Happy Anniversary J!
I LOVE YOU and can't wait to spend many more anniversaries with you!!
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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Happy 3 Month Angelversary Ava!

Today marks our princess' 3 month Angelversary.  I would love to say it's getting easier, but I wouldn't be telling the truth. Each day is still a challenge. We think about her often and miss her dearly!

Tonight in honor of Ava's angelversary we did our special balloon launch. B was with my parents and sisters camping at Lake Texoma so tonight it was just Ava, J and me.

 


One of the things we noticed tonight was that our princess is no longer a "newbie" to Babyland. . .her grass has completely grown in. You can see her area to the left in comparison to the lil boy next to her on the right that was buried about a month and half after her. 

Since we have buried Ava, sadly there has been 3 more babies buried in Babyland with the most recent being this last Friday. I HATE that other families are having to experience the same pain and heartache we have had to endure.

I wanted to close with one of my favorite purchases that we made over the weekend. . .
It's a small lil wooden block that we found at Barnes and Noble and thought it was just too perfect not to get.  We feel it sums up our feelings exactly. =)

Thanks for following along with us,
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