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,

Ava's "Marker" Reveal

If you have followed our blog, you might remember this post, where we talked about how difficult it was to design Ava's marker, well here is the big reveal of our princess' marker. =)

First, this is our view when we get out of the car. Ava's marker is in the back, on the left with the flowers.  We love how you can see the shiny gold from her marker just as soon as you step out of the car. Although it's hard to tell from the picture quality, the shiny gold helps her marker stand out from the rest (one of the reasons it made it extra difficult to order). =)

Adding her picture horizontally was another feature that is not very common.  Most markers, if they even have pictures, are vertical, so this was just one more thing that made her marker more difficult to order.  We love how it turned out though. =)

Through this, J and I have also had to learn how to put flower arrangements together.  As you can see from the flowers above, we're still mastering that new talent. =)

 

Our attempt of "family photos". . . taken in pieces.

 

 

On Saturday as we were out shopping, we decided to stop and visit our princess for a lil bit. As we pulled up, we noticed they had cleared out ALL of the flowers and decorations in Babyland.  This has happened to us before and each time I see it, I get a knot in my stomach. I am just so disgusted that they clear out EVERYTHING! After our visit, we went back to the back of the cemetary, by the dumpsters, where they have storage tubs that they put all of the decorations from Babyland. We dug through the tubs, looking not just for Ava's things, but any of the other items that we could recongize and put back where they belong. As we were leaving, we noticed something new...something that has always been there before, something that we have drove by probably fifty times and never noticed it, but for some reason it caught our eye on Saturday. We noticed a section with lots of tiny markers, probably a fourth the size of Ava's. We were curious, so we drove back around so we could take a look at it.  I noticed the cherub statue and with the tiny markers, I instantly thought it must have been the original Babyland. We got out of the car to take a look, and sure enough it was. We looked around for a little bit and as we did I began to get emotional.   I came across this marker. . .

His name was Martin, his birthday was May 24, 1963 and his angelversary was May 25, 1963 (the day we were visiting). Just like Ava, there were no days in between his birthday and angelversary. This year, Martin would have been fifty years old.  We were amazed how there was a fresh new set of flowers on his marker, not sure if they were there in honor of his birthday, angelversary, Memorial Day or a combination of all, but it made us stop and think about him and who delivered his flowers. Was it his parents, siblings, or another loved one? Then the realization hit me, that this is our life, our future.  Fifty years from now, we will still be visiting our sweet lil princess, Ava, in Babyland.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

 

Thanks for following along with us,

Spring Soccer

B's Spring Soccer Season is officially over, so I thought it would be fun to show a collection of some of my favorite pictures from the season.  Well, from the games I remembered to take my camera, that is. . . =)

B and one of his best buddies. I'd love to know what he is whispering to him. =)

This was their last season to play 4 on 4. Next season they will play 7 on 7 with official positions.  Even though they did not have official positions the last few seasons, B did play "sweeper" quite a bit, it's similar to a goalie, he just couldn't use his hands like a goalie. . .so that's why you will see lots of pictures of him in front of the goal by himself. He wanted to make sure everyone knew he wasn't just a "flower picker."  =)

Team Captains =)

And finally getting his "end of season" trophy. B has really started to love soccer, so this summer he plans on attending a soccer camp for the first time. We also signed him up for an indoor soccer league that he is super excited about!