Friday, July 5, 2013

Indepedence Day 2013

The three of us celebrated 4th of July together and had a wonderful time, but it was also a hard day for J and I.  It was another "first" holiday without our sweet princess. All day long, we kept thinking we should have had our lil princess with us, in our arms, enjoying the day, in her cute 4th of July dress. . .
Instead of loving on her, the day before, we decorated her marker with patriotic flowers, an America flag and a couple of pinwheels.
We had already purchased her dress back in November on clearance.  I still remember how excited I was to finally have the opportunity to buy lil girl dresses.  As soon as I showed it to J, we immediately thought it would be the perfect 4th of July dress for Ava. . .never knowing, she would never get to wear it. =(

On Fourth of July morning, J surprised me by installing the hardware for our new flag. He let B have the honors of hanging the flag for the first time.
 
I LOVE the extra, patriotic touch it adds to our house. =)
 
Afterwards we headed off to the parade in downtown, but as usual we were running a lil behind. Once we got closer, we realized how bad traffic was leading up to it, so we all made the decision to just skip it this year and we could try again next year. Instead we ran a few errands, then went to visit our princess to take our family holiday photos.

 

Afterwards, we went home, watched a movie, and J grilled some yummy turkey burgers while I made a potato salad.  We decided to have an inside picnic. . .away from the heat and bugs. =)  For dessert, I made 4th of July "cupcakes in a cone" topped with star sprinkles and Pop Rocks. 
B thought they were YUMMY!
J's parents visited us last weekend and his mom brought us the precious angel laying down. I LOVE it!
We got some family swim time in too. =)
 
Then we went back to see our princess and do some "celebration poppers" with her.


This picture shows the anticipation on their faces of their grand finale.  Unfortunately it turned out to be a dud and did nothing! =)
 
 We also got to capture a BEAUTIFUL sunset.
 
Then we headed off to get our spot for the fireworks.
Waiting patiently for the firework show to begin. =)

 
As we were watching the fireworks, I happened to look up in the sky at one point. I showed the boys, what seemed to be the brightest star in the sky, just happened to be right above us. It was our sense of peace.  Our lil angel was right there with us, watching the fireworks, only she had the best seat in the world. =)
Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th!
 
Thanks for following along with us, 

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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Ava's Room Part 2

Continuing around Ava's room, right where we left off...
If you missed out on the other two parts, click The Preparation and Part 1 to check those out. . .
We changed out the light switch plate to a pink one. =) Above that is a picture frame with the mat painted the same "summer sunshine" as her walls. We have purposely left this frame empty.  I do not want to put any picture of Ava up that would need to eventually be taken down (from possibly a new sibling), so for now this frame will stay empty.

Ava's diaper bag that we didn't get to use. . .I was SO proud of this too! It's a  Ju-Ju-Be Be All Diaper Bag that normally cost $120 but I got it for FREE from Amazon. Of course, it matches her carseat perfectly. =)

A peak inside her closet...thanks to grandmas and my good friend passing down a ton of clothes and shoes to us, she was already set with a TON of SUPER CUTE clothes and shoes!

 A customized memory board that my dad made for us. It originally came white from Hobby Lobby and my dad gave it a "tea stain" to add some brown to it along with some leftover pink minky fabric from her bedding as the background.  They are hard to see, but I made customized push pins. I also used the fabric from her bedding so it would all coordinate together.
 
A candle leftover from our wedding.  We had used it in the ladies bathroom.  It just so happened to match her things perfectly so I thought it would be great to deodorize those future stinky diapers when needed. =)

 A basket of toys. . .some of the toys are hand-me-downs from B along with a few new "pink" toys. =)
 Customized burp cloths that my mom sewed.  One side is the original burp cloth (made out of cloth baby diapers) and the other side has the girly patterns.  In the picture below, my friend's mom did make the two on the right to go along with my baby shower gift. =)

My mom sewed the two yellow pillows and my friend's mom sewed the pink one to help tie the colors into the guest bed. The pink pillow was great for nursing and holding Ava, one of the other few things she got to actually use.

This painting was done by my grandma who Ava was named after. . .you can see that she signed her name as Lee King (what she went by), rather than Ava Lee King, her full name. Although you can't quite tell very good from the picture, it just so happened to match the color combination that we used for Ava's room PERFECTLY!
Ava's swing that J's parents got us. . .normally it would have gone downstairs in our living room but for obvious reasons we moved it up to Ava's room.  Jason had fun assembling it. =) We were really looking forward to watching Ava swing in it and also to see Lilly's reaction to her swinging. The lap blanket is a customized gift from the doctor's office.
 

As you can see, Ava's room isn't that big so we really didn't have room for a rocker/glider. Originally we weren't going to get one, but then I came up with the idea we could just put one in our room.  I decided to splurge on this is one from Target.  Remember from this post, I got SUCH a steal on her crib?!? I thought I would make up for it with this glider. =) It not only glides, it also reclines and swivels too! Don't worry, I got a great deal on it as well. It was orignally on sale 15% off, plus I was able to use J's (employee discount at the time) and my Redcard discount to get another 15% off.  Along with a few baby shower giftcards I was able to save a little over $300 out of pocket.  J also wants me to mention how he almost broke his back when him and my mom tried to carry it up the stairs into our room. I think he is exaggerating just a lil bit, but it was a HUGE undertaking getting it from our garage to our upstairs bedroom!  I just wish we could have been able to rock her in it!
Her pack and play was another item that we had set up in our room, this was a gift from my parents.  We had planned on her sleeping in our room in this for a few weeks before we switched her to her crib. We now store this in her closet and I think we will come up with an alternative sleeping arrangement for the first few weeks, months, year if we are blessed with another baby.

Her carseat. . .my mom customized a lap blanket to match the carseat handle holder I got for FREE from Amazon.  So cute! Unfortunately, it never even made it out of my car, up to our hospital room.

And this is the box that we were sent home from the hospital with. . .instead of our sweet princess in my lap as I was wheeled down to the car, I had this memory box from the hospital.
 
One of the things you will notice, we had A LOT of pink! We were SO excited to be having a girl, instead of getting gender neutral items, I wanted all the pink we could get! Originally, we figured we wouldn't be having another child until another 4 to 5 years down the road.  By that time, if we were to have a boy, we would want/need new things anyways, at least that was my logic.  Now, who knows. We do plan on trying to have another baby as soon as we can and as much as I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE for it to be a girl, I know we will be blessed with whichever gender we will be given. For now, Ava's room will stay as is.  My hope is that Ava will be a big sister to a lil sister very soon.  I have already teased B, that if we get pregnant with a boy, he just might be getting a new roommate so Ava's room can stay pink and girly and always be her room. =)
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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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