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,

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!!

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,

Ava's Memory Wall

When I was pregnant, one of the things we tried to prepare B ahead of time was that he would need to share "wall" space with Ava, specifically with pictures displayed around the house. We already had warned him that some of his pictures that were on display would probably have to be taken down so we could put new pictures of Ava on the wall. Thankfully, he understood and was good with that.

At the top of our stairs we have our "B wall". It's a picture display that I wasn't quite ready to part with. . .

Before Ava was born we had already decided that we would give her, a similiar, special picture wall in our upstairs hallway.  After Ava passed away, J and I both knew that we still wanted to do her picture wall. Now, it would just turn into her special memory wall.

Shortly after we decided to continue on with Ava's memory wall, my mom and I went to Mardels and Hobby Lobby to get a variety of frames and other special memorbilla. Once I started putting all of the frames together, I quickly realized that Ava's memory wall was going to take up the ENTIRE wall! Oops! =) You might say, I overdid it, just a lil bit, but can anything ever be "overdone" for a princess?!?!

The frame on the left, I jazzed up a lil bit. . .originally it was just a pink glitter frame, but on the bottom I added a brown headband of Ava's along with painting/adding the crosses and adding the princess crown.  We LOVE the picture in that frame because to us it is "life size". . .it gets lots of extra kisses as we walk by it. =)

This Ava sign was originally hanging above her crib. I had made it to match all of her bedding.

 I jazzed this frame up too by painting it pink and of course adding the pink flower. =)

Even though our sweet princess is no longer with us, we still feel SO blessed that she is apart of our life. We feel SO blessed that we were able to spend 36 hours in pure joy, holding and showering her with all of our love.

That is a picture that B had drawn for Ava before she was born. He wanted to include it on her special memory wall too. =)

We finished Ava's memory wall a lil over a month ago.  It was one of my projects that I wanted completed before I went back to school.  Some might think it would be hard to have her pictures displayed in one of our main hallways, but we LOVE it!

After J and I finished hanging everything up, we stepped back to admire our princess' wall. I asked J, "do you think it's too much?" He replied, "for a diva, you can never have too much." Then we teased that our next child won't have any special wall space because we've run out of room. =) Hopefully they won't be the jealous type. =)

Thanks for following along with us,

Last Day of School

Friday was the last day of school for B and I. It's SOO hard to believe we have ended another successful year! It was such a bitter sweet day for us.  We were hapy that summer will be starting, but also sad that it was our last day to be in second grade together. . .a few tears were shed by both of us.  Ok, maybe A LOT of tears were shed by one of us. =)

I will definitely miss having him just a couple of classrooms away from me in the same hallway. It was so comforting to see his smiling, happy, face several times throughout the day. =) I am SOO lucky that he is able to come to school with me!

His classmates voted him as having the Best Manners...so proud of him!

 

He was hoping that he would have gotten the class award for  "Computer Genius".   I told him instead he could just be my lil computer genius and that being voted for having the Best Manners was by far a more rewarding award. =)

 

Here is a super short snippet from our second grade song that the students sang at our end of year assembly on Friday. . .

 

B and his classmates singing "it's great to be in 3rd grade!!" I. am. just. not. ready to hear my lil boy say those words. I need time to sssslllloooww down!

 

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!

B the Stud Muffin

I recently won my FIRST EVER, Blog Giveaway.  I was SO excited! Jenna over at The Jackson Five was hosting a giveaway from I Dream of Johnny. I was able to pick out a new tshirt for B and I Dream of Johnny shipped it to us for free. . . I had such a hard time choosing between the designs! I had narrowed it down to two options, then, I asked B his opinion. He immediately knew which one he wanted. . . the "Stud Muffin" tshirt!  So here he is, modeling  his new, free tshirt. =)

Standing next to our Ava tribute.  Isn't he one, handsome, young boy?!? =)

 And a goofball too! =)

 

 

Thanks Jenna and Johnny!

 

If you have a gmail account, please be sure to follow us by "joining our site" over on the right hand side or "follow us by email."  Thanks so much!!

Truly Touched

Today I had a different post planned, I was going to show off some really cute new pictures of B and tell you about my first win on a Blog Giveaway. Instead, I'm going to save that post for another day and share with you some really special moments B and I have had the last couple of days. I am truly touched!!

Yesterday, after school B and I went to visit Ava. As soon as I pulled up, I noticed her flowers were missing, everything else was there. . .her angel, her pinwheel, even the canister her flowers were in, was still there. My initial thought was maybe the wind got ahold of them. We walked up to Ava's marker and then I noticed even the styrofoam (that was built in) was missing from the canister. B and I looked around EVERYWHERE for ANY lil piece of Ava's arrangement for me to be comforted that the "wind" and not "someone" took her flowers, I realized it was impossible. It was impossible for the styrofoam and flowers to be "blown out" of the canister.  I was also immediately able to eliminate the groundkeepers from doing anything with them...because 1) everyone else's flowers were still there from the weekend 2) they wouldn't have left her angel and pinwheel, everything would have been cleared out.  I was upset, not mad, just upset. I immediately called J at work to tell him what happened. He couldn't believe it.  I just couldn't believe that someone could look at our lil princess' picture and take her flowers.  Knowing there wasn't anything I could do about it, B and I went home. On our way home, the more I thought about it, the more "mad" I was getting. Since we are new to this, I just wanted to know if this is common, and if it is something else that we need to be aware of.  B and I got home, let Lilly out, then we got right back in the car so I could drive back to the funeral home and ask.

As we pulled up, I could tell a visitation was about to start, so I specifically asked B to be on his best behavior and told him why.  We walked inside and were thankfully greeted by Bryson our favorite funeral home director, the one who directed Ava's service. (I say thankfully because you might remember this post, where I told you about my horrible experience with our other funeral director. I just have to add that they have soo many people working at the funeral home, it really is amazing that Bryson was there in the front lobby. I have never seen him working the front door any other time we have gone.)

I noticed a police officer setting in a chair in the lobby, but I honestly didn't think much of it. I explained to Bryson what had just happened to us and I was just asking him if it was common for flowers to be taken.  Meanwhile, as I was talking, I noticed B waving to the police officer. Bryson was very apologetic and wanted to go double check with the groundskeeper to see if they knew of anything happening to Ava's flowers or if they could think of anything that could have happened to them.  As he left, B asked me why the police officer was there and I told him, I wasn't sure, and it probably wasn't any of our business.  She overheard me and said it was ok to ask, it had been on the news. Then she told us a McKinney police officer (Officer John Libby) was killed in an off duty motorcycle/car accident on Memorial Day.  I felt so horrible and embarrased that I had not seen it on the news!  (I stopped watching the news, after Ava passed away.  Every morning, as we got ready for work/school we always watched Fox 4 News. Well, recently one of the morning co-anchors had a lil baby girl, and I just haven't been able to bring myself to turn the morning news back on.)  The police officer then explained to us that an officer stays with the deceased officer for 24 hours around the clock until the funeral.  Then she told us that Officer Libby was her best friend, so she would be there the next day and Friday watching over him. I was truly touched by that!

I told her I was so sorry to hear of her loss, we were just recently in that same position. I told her about Ava.  She complimented B for being so strong for his mommy. I just LOVE when others naturally see that sweet spirit B has and how well he helps takes care of me. By this time, Bryson came back. Him and I talked as B went to go continue his conversation with the police officer.  Basically the only conclusion the groundskeeper could come up with was someone had taken them. Again, Bryson was very apologetic and even offered for me to go to the flower shop (inside the funeral home) and pick something out and it would be on him. I told him not to worry about it, it wasn't his fault, we had some other flowers at home that we could bring back. The next thing I know, B is sitting in the police officer's chair and she is tying his shoes for him. =)  At the time, I didn't really know much about their conversation because I was busy with Bryson, so I thanked her and we said our good byes.

As we left, I called J to tell him about our special experience. I told him how Officer Messner was there all day and would be there Thursday and Friday as well and that we just had SUCH a special moment. I was amazed at her strength after just losing her best friend and felt like we needed to do something for her, knowing she would be there the next two days. . .that HAS to be an emotional time.  J asked me what I had in mind, I told him I wasn't sure, but she was drinking some kind of a Starbucks drink so maybe that would be a good gift...(they even have a Starbucks cafe in the funeral home). So I planned on us going back the next day to give her a small lil treat as she watched over her best friend.

When I got home, I immediately went to the local newstation websites to read the stories on Officer Libby. Here and here are just a couple. All evening long, I continued to be truly touched by Officer Messner and Officer Libby.

Fast forward to today, B and I went to visit Ava after school. The moment I pulled up, I could tell someone did something special for our lil angel.  =)

Our lil angel had a full bouquet of big, BEAUTIFUL, real, pink gerber daisies. I was truly touched by someone's sweet and kind gesture.  B was sound asleep in the car, so I didnt get him out of the car to show him.  I decided we would just give Officer Messner her gift on Friday instead of waking B up and having him possibly be a lil grouchy.

As we were leaving our lil princess, I looked over to the pond right next to where Ava is and I saw a duck!  We have never seen ducks there before, so I got my phone out to take a picture.  I wanted to be able to show B what he missed out on and just as I went to take the picture, the duck started to fly away. . .

I texted a picture and called J to tell him about Ava's beautiful gift. I told him, I suspected it was Bryson since he insisted the day before. J thought maybe it was him too because Bryson had called him earlier in the day, but J didn't get a chance to answer the phone. Just as soon as B and I got home, I got a call from J telling me to go back to the funeral home he had just talked to Bryson on the phone.  He had a special gift for us on his desk. J wouldn't tell me what the gift was because he wanted us to be surprised.

As we drove back to the funeral home, now that B was awake, I told him he could give Officer Messner her gift when we saw her. As we pulled up, we didn't see her police car. I didn't think too much of it because I thought maybe she just parked in the back somewhere. We walked in the front door and B immediately noticed Officer Messner was not in the chair we saw her sitting in, instead a different police officer was on watch.  I asked him if he knew where Officer Messner was and he said that she had just left, but she would be back tomorrow. I thanked him and then asked the funeral director that was in the lobby for Bryson. A few minutes later, Bryson came bearing a gift.  He gave the gift to B and let him know that the nice police officer he met yesterday left him a special gift. Officer Messner got B a Lego police officer set and wrote him THE SWEETEST message on the box along with a sweet card for Jason and I.  She thanked us for B's sweet words the day before and how he brought joy into her day. =)

She also wanted to make "right" what went wrong for us yesterday with Ava's flowers being taken.  She gave Ava the gift of her big, BEAUTIFUL, pink gerber daises and gave B the special gift of the Police Officer Lego set. = ) Part of the special message she wrote, that I love, "Officer Libby will watch over your sister just like he's watching over us! She's got her own police officer!" 

Afterwards, B wanted me to take him back to see Ava's new, BEAUTIFUL flowers. =)

A few things I learned from their brief lil conversation the day before was that B had told Officer Messner that she was his new best friend. . .since she just lost her best friend.  He also told her that pink gerber daisies were our favorite flower for Ava.  I am so thankful that we were able to meet Officer Messner, of course, I wish it could have been under different circumstances. She helped turn a bad situation, into a positive and memorable experience for us.  =)  After school tomorrow, B and I plan on going back to the funeral home and hope to see Officer Messner to give her our gift.

 

Here is a link to Officer Libby's online obituary if you would like to check it out.  Please join us in saying an extra prayer on Saturday at 2:00 as his family and friends lay him to rest.

 

Thanks for following along with us,