Pumpkin patch

I'm trying to think back to over a week ago and remember what we were up to.  The weeks seem to be flying by.  Before we know it the little guy will be here and life will become even more chaotic (in a good way I'm sure). 

A week ago Friday Nate met our building supervisor at 7 am to do a walk through of the house.  Boppa drove him down there and did the walk through with him.  That way we didn't have to wake Ava up at 5:45 am to come with us.  She and I stayed home.  Besides, let's be honest, I have no idea what we were supposed to be looking for during this walk through.  Nate was very impressed and everything is on schedule.  We got an e-mail this week stating that we will be closing on Nov. 30th.  I'm so excited to have an actual date!

Saturday morning Nate and Uncle Wes went up to the cabin to meet Boppa so that they could take the docks out.  The cabin season is officially over.  Ava and I stayed home and got to spend some time outside.  She loves riding her bike and is getting much better at it.  The weather was beautiful, and I'm pretty sure that those nice warm days are over as it's been quite cool here the past few days. 

Sunday morning we headed south to Emma Krumbee's to go to the pumpkin patch and pick some apples at the orchard.  The early morning was very cool but it warmed up very quickly.  I was wishing that I would have worn shorts.  Ava had been talking for weeks about how she wanted to ride the camel.  We got there and saw the ponies first.  I wasn't sure if she would really want to ride on them once we got up there.  But she picked out what pony she wanted to ride, I put her in the saddle,and she smiled the whole time.  She loved it.  We then headed over to Nick the camel.  We decided that Daddy would ride with her since I was pretty sure that I wouldn't fit with my extremely large midsection.  They got ready to get on and she changed her mind.  The camel looks much bigger when you're standing right next to it.  She told me that she didn't ride because she got scared.  That's ok, there's always next year.  :)  She had a great time riding the "train", feeding the goats, and playing on all of the slides.  We went for lunch and after waiting for 45 minutes finally got a seat.  We decided after a very disappointing meal that we won't be eating there next year.  Ava did enjoy her shake though.  I think that she ate more than Nate did.  After lunch we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch.  We then came back to pick apples in the orchard.  When we went to get our bag we were told that they closed the orchard that morning due to the frost.  Evidently a lot of the orchards were closing because they didn't have many good apples.  So, we got a bag of pre-picked apples and headed home.

We are now going to my OB appointments on a weekly basis.  Ava loves going to listen to the heartbeat and see Nurse Lynda and Dr. Dittmanson.  Not a lot of changes over the past week.  I'm still dilated from 1-2, she thinks that he's just moved down a little bit.  I feel like this kid is going to be huge since my stomach is bigger than it was with Ava (I'm really hoping it's not fat and truly is the baby) and I'm so much more uncomfortable.  If I lay on my side then my ribs hurt, and I feel like he's constantly kicking me in the ribcage.  His living space has definitely gotten smaller, but he lets me know that he's still in there.  Now everybody else can see it too as my stomach looks like an alien is moving around inside of it.  Next appt. is Friday.

I had an eye appt. this afternoon.  For the past month or so I've had really blurry vision in my right eye.  It's the same thing that I had after having Ava.  So, I'll be wearing my glasses for the next month.  I am less than thrilled about this since I hate wearing my glasses.  However, I'm hoping that this with the eye drops will do the trick.  Last time it took steroid drops, but my Dr. today didn't want to give me steroids being  that I'm 38 weeks pregnant.  I hope that this doesn't last long!

Well I'm exhausted and hardly thinking straight so I'll wrap this up.  Hope you enjoy the pictures below.

Progress on the house

 

 

 

Ava loved riding that pony!

 

We decided to just pet Nick the camel rather than ride him

Riding the train with Daddy

 

 

She also loved feeding the goats

Another train ride, this time with Mema

Trying to find the perfect pumpkin

 

Going to the chapel

We spent last weekend in IA helping cousin Kristin & Luke celebrate their wedding day.  We got to Grandma & Grandpa's Thursday evening around 9:00, about 10 minutes after Ava fell asleep in the car of course.  Cousin Reece was there to make sure that she was wide awake for awhile while they played. 

Friday was a very busy day.  Ava was up early and ready to go.  We must have trained her well because she went down to Grandma & Grandpa's room bright and early on the following two days and woke them up instead of Daddy and me.  :)  Nate was out the door by 7:00 to go golfing with his friend Nate in Amana, while us girls and Reece got ready to go help decorate the reception site for Kristin & Luke's wedding.  After decorating we ran home for lunch and Aunt Lisa watched Ava while I got my hair done.  Grandma got off work early and after Ava woke up from her nap all of us took Great Grandma to DQ for ice cream to celebrate her 80th birthday.  She has to be one of the most active and well traveled 80 year olds that I know.  That woman is always on the go! Ava loved singing Happy Birthday to her multiple times while she ate her first DQ ice cream (with sprinkles of course).  We then rushed home to get ready for rehearsal.  It was another late night for Ava, but she did good. 

Saturday was the big day, the day that Ava got to wear her "princess dress".  We were lucky enough to sneak in a quick morning nap for both her and Reece before we had to be at the church for pictures.  Ava was still requesting a nap by early afternoon and every time that we would get her settled and ready to sleep they would come and get us to tell us that they needed her for another picture.  The poor thing was exhausted, but overall did really good.

Nate and I waited anxiously at the front of the church for her to come down the aisle.  She started out so good, walking down dropping one flower petal at a time.  Unfortunately, she ran out of flower petals about 1/4 of the way down the aisle and wasn't quite sure what to do after that.  Reece just kind of stood there looking at her as Ava looked around wondering if she should go back and pick the petals up and start over.  After a few awkward moments cousin Melissa went and got them and walked them down the aisle.  Luckily Kristin didn't really care if they made it down the aisle by themselves or not.  She was a great layed back bride (who looked absolutely beautiful).  Ava fell asleep on the way to the reception so Daddy sat in the car with her a bit so that she could get a little rest.  I thought that Ava would be tearing it up on the dance floor after dinner, but she was just too exhausted.  We ended up leaving the dance around 10:00. 

Ava was still up early Sunday.  I'm sure that it was because she wanted to be the first to wish her Daddy a happy birthday.  I can't even tell you how many times she sang Happy Birthday to him that day.  He loved it every single time.  :)  Grandma made a yummy breakfast for us that morning and then we hit the road.  We stopped at Nana's on the way home and had lunch with her and got to see Aunt Sue while we were there.  Ava loved Nana's cooking and had a lot of fun riding on the golf cart with Aunt Sue.  She slept probably 3/4 of the drive home from IA.  She definitely had some catching up to do.

This past week went by quickly, nothing too exciting to report.  We did get to have dinner with Cora, Mike, and Kristi.  Ava had been looking forward to seeing Cora for quite some time (and of course we looked forward to seeing Mike & Kristi).  :)  It's always great to catch up with them, and watch the girls play together.  Yesterday afternoon/evening Ava hung out with Mema while Boppa, Daddy, and I went to the gopher game.  It was another Gopher win which makes for an enjoyable evening with my husband.

We  hope that you had a fabulous weekend and hope that your week starts out well!     

 

Great-Grandma, Ava , & Mommy

The picture above is my favorite from the whole weekend.  Aren't they cute?!?

Grandma & Grandpa with all the grandkids (minus Jordan)

 

Parr family picture

Great-grandma with the grandkids

Kristin & Ava

Grandma & Ava

Getting to the point where the petals in her basket ran out

All the "Parr" girls

Go Gophers

Saturday morning was the day that Nate had been looking forward to for months.  No, not the birth of our child...the Gopher home opener!  We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to spend outside with the family.  Nate and Boppa headed down for tailgating early, while us girls stayed home for a bit and met them down there around 9:30 for the 11:00 game.  Ava had a great time.  She fell asleep at the end of the first quarter for about 30 minutes (until I tried to move her).  She loved cheering on the Gophers, yelling "first down" and "go gophers", giving high fives and knuckles to the people around us after the touchdowns, and of course loved snack time.  Like I said, it was the perfect day to take her, and it really helped that the Gophers won.

We have a busy week ahead of us.  Today Ava and I will head to my OB appt. so that Ava can "listen to the baby's heartbeat".  She gets so excited for this every time that we go.  Only 6 weeks to go, but I feel like it could be a long 6 weeks.  I'm starting to get more uncomfortable (mainly when sitting or attempting to sleep) since I feel as though he sits very high.  Although I feel like he's very high, at the same time I also feel like he's sitting directly on my bladder.  There's not a night that goes by that I'm not up to pee at least twice...I feel like I'm 90 years old. 

Thursday afternoon Ava and I will pick Daddy up from work and we'll head to IA for cousin Kristin's wedding. We are really looking forward to celebrating her and Luke, and spending a great day with our family. I'm also saying a prayer that Ava is well behaved. She's the flower girl and will be wearing her "princess dress". I'm really hoping that she walks nicely and quietly down the aisle with Reece. It could be interesting, especially if she doesn't get her nap in. No matter what, I'm sure that it will be a weekend filled with lots of love, laughs, and memory making!

 This was just prior to Ava's 1st quarter nap.

 Cheering on the Gophers!  She was a very vocal fan...I wonder where she gets that from. :)

 More progress on the house!!!  These are from last Friday, if they stay on schedule the whole house should be framed in by the end of Friday.

Lo hicimos!

Lo hicimos, we did it!!!  That's what Ava (and Dora) would say.  We finally decided on day care for the kids once we move to Apple Valley in December.  I can't tell you how relieved I am to not have to worry about it anymore.  Don't get me wrong, I never stop worrying about leaving my children with strangers, but we feel good about the situation that we're going in to.  We decided to go with a lady name Cyndi who was a nanny at one time, but last worked as an accountant until she had her second son and now is a stay at home mom.  She has a two year old (and an older child) that she stays home with, and will then watch our two kids three days a week when I work.  She lives super close to our new place, and we feel as though our kids will get a lot of attention and interaction while in her care.  We're excited about it and hope that it works well. 

Speaking of moving, we haven't been down to our new place since last Thursday, but the building contractor called Nate last Friday just to let him know that everything is going smoothly and is on schedule.  They were supposed to start framing in the house last Friday, and continue through this week.  The weather has been perfect so I'm assuming that everything is still on schedule. 

As mentioned in my previous post, we stayed home this past weekend and it was Wonderful!  We went to the park Saturday morning, to the mall in the afternoon, and picked up some yummy unhealthy chinese for dinner on the way home.  Sunday morning we were off to church.  The greeters informed us when we walked in that there was no child care that day.  I guess it makes sense seeming as though it was a holiday weekend.  We were once again reminded of how grateful we are for those volunteers who work in the nursery/childcare area at church.  Nate took Ava out for a little while (after we ran out of snacks) and when they came back Ava climbed up onto my lap and fell asleep.  Unfortunately this was also disturbing to people around us because she was snoring so loudly.  People kept looking around and then spotted our little girl with the big snores.  You couldn't help but laugh. 

Monday Daddy fired up the smoker and we had delicious brisket and ribs for dinner.  That morning Ava & Daddy decided to wash all the cars.  Ava had a blast!  She went out in her pjs.  She was soaking head to toe by the time that they were done.  She washed the cars for awhile, but then decided to take the soapy sponge to herself (body and clothes included).  She then took the hose and sprayed herself down.  The water was freezing cold but it didn't seem to bother her. 

This week I've been busy working and have been exhausted by the time that we get home.  Tomorrow evening we're going out for a nice dinner to celebrate Daddy & Uncle Wes's birthday.  Ava gets to stay home with Lauryn, which means a nice peaceful dinner out for Nate and me.  :)  We won't be out to late because the boys have to get some rest for an early morning of tailgating.  That's right, the gopher's home opener is Saturday.  Us girls will be tailgating as well, just at a later time.  The weather is supposed to be fall like and gorgeous.  It should be a great day!  Hopefully Ava will have a good time (which means that we can have a good time).

Hoping that you all had a great Labor  Day, and enjoy the upcoming weekend!


 

Helping Daddy wash the cars

She loved playing with that hose.

Ava's new bedroom set

Update

The days have been flying by and I've been just too exhausted to update the blog.  Ava has been busy starting her days with her new wake-up time...6:20.  Oh yes, I'm very excited about this!  It used to be 7 or 7:30 which was great.  I'm not sure if she wakes up when she hears Mema up and getting ready for work, or if she just wakes up on her own and wants to make sure she doesn't miss out on anything.  Either way, I'm REALLY hoping that it stops once we get in to our new place.  I doubt that this will be the case though, seeming as though it will have been her new routine for 4 months.  I have to say that I'm at least grateful that for the past week she's stayed in her bed all night long.  Last week we (ok, I, because Nate could sleep through a train coming through the house) would hear the pitter patter of her little feet coming across the floor, down the stairs, and into our bedroom.  It's 12:30 am and I hear "I'm awake".  When asked why she just smiles and says, "I'm awake".  Back to bed we go and 15 minutes later the pitter patter is back.  We do this 4 times.  At 2:00 she comes down and says, "Mommy, I can't find my shoes".  Back to bed we go and up goes the baby gate in front of her room so that she definitely can't find her shoes by the front door and escape into the garage.  We are now locking the garage door so that she doesn't find her way out there in the middle of the night and get stuck out there.  I can't imagine!!!  Like I said, this week is much better. 

Ava finally got a comforter for her big girl bed and she's super excited about it.  We'll get a picture for you as soon as I finally go and get her some sheets that match as well as some pillows for the shams.  She loves it and so do I (it was a gift from Mema because Mommy was to cheap to buy this particular one).  I was shocked at how difficult it was to try to find a cute comforter for her bed. 

The potty training continues.  Some days are definitely better than others.  Some days she gets super excited to go and other times she doesn't even want to sit on the potty.  I was home on Monday after my long weekend of work.  Ava had just pooped on the potty and we went directly to the kitchen to get her stickers to put on her potty chart.  She's standing their looking at the stickers and I hear a toot.  I look over at her and there is a pile of poop on the floor!!!  I asked what happened as she and I both looked at the floor in horror and she says, "I pooped".  Dear God!  It was down her leg, on her dress, and of course on the floor.  Thank God it was on the hardwood floor!!!  If I'm not at work cleaning up poop then I'm at home doing it.  So, let the potty training continue!

We are still in the process of looking for a new daycare for the kids once we move to Apple Valley.  We met with a lady last evening and are hoping to hear back from her by tomorrow.  This search has been more stressful than building a new house.  Trying to find somebody to trust your most precious gifts with has to be the worst job.  You can only go with your gut and pray that you're making the right decision.  After meeting with her we stopped by and took a peek at the progress that's being made on our house.  Slowly but surely it's on its way up.  I can't wait for them to frame it in so that I can get a better sense of the size of it and exactly how it will look on the land. 

I'm off to work this evening and then we'll be home all weekend.  I am SO looking forward to a low key and hopefully relaxing weekend at home with my family.  We're hoping for a trip to the park, a picnic, maybe the pool, and just hanging out.  It will be nice to be able to stay home and not have to pack up for another road trip.

Wishing you and your family a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!
 

Ava loves playing with her Dora kitchen

This was Ava at 8:30 the other morning.  She just laid down on the hardwood floor and fell asleep.  I think that this is a good indication that 6:20 is far to early for a little girl like her to be waking up. 

On our way to the park yesterday.  Thanks Aunt Darlene for the Dora sunglasses...Ava loves them!

Time flies

The past two weeks have flown by.  We have managed to find a place for most of our things here at Mema & Boppa's.  There are still a few stray items that I should probably get to, but haven't quite found the ambition to do so yet.  They haven't threatened to kick us out yet so I'm assuming that it's not bothering them to much.

The calendar has been packed full of things and I keep thinking that things will slow down here soon.  However, it appears that every weekend is booked (and sometimes double booked) up until the baby comes.  The one free weekend we have is Labor Day weekend and I have forbidden Nate to schedule anything that weekend.  I picture us having a low key weekend of going to a park, having a picnic, etc...we'll see.  :) 

A couple of weekends ago we went to the cabin for a "family weekend" with Mema, Boppa, Uncle Wes, and Janna.  The weather was fairly cool so we didn't spend a lot of time out on the boat.  Uncle Wes & Daddy went golfing on Uncle Wes's birthday and we had a big dinner with neighbors that night to celebrate birthdays (it was Grandpa Dick's birthday on Sunday).  We left late Sunday mornings, as we had lots of things to do to get ready for the upcoming week.

We met with our building contractor last Monday morning at 7:00 am in Apple Valley, which meant a very early morning for Ava.  She had breakfast at our meeting and then played with the ipad.  Thank God for that ipad.  She loves it, it keeps her quiet and entertained, and I like to tell myself that it's educational so that it makes me feel better about having it babysit her during times like this meeting and my Dr. appointments (if it's not the ipad then it's food).  We got a timeline that they will be following as closely as possible, so it's nice to be able to see what progress should be taking place and when; especially since we're so far from the building site.  They broke ground last Tuesday, the 14th.  Moving a little dirt may not sound like a big deal, but I had been looking forward to that date forever since it meant that we should at least start seeing progress.  We stopped at the site on Sunday on our way back from IA.  There was indeed a hole with some concrete in it.  They are hoping that we will be able to close around Nov. 28th.  I hope that they are right because I'm already making arrangements for my family to come help us move in the first weekend of Dec...yes Lisa & Brent that's you!  :)

Friday morning I had another Dr's appt. with my OB.  Ava came with again and couldn't wait to hear the baby's heartbeat.  It was thankfully once again strong and 152 beats per minute.  I asked my Dr. if my stomach is measuring okay since I feel as though I'm so much bigger this time around.  She said that it's perfect and that the baby is just long...hopefully he's more coordinated than Ava and we'll have a basketball player.  I now start my every two week appointments.  When I think about how I'm only 31 weeks pregnant I feel like I still have so long to go.  However, I know that time will fly with how busy we are.  I'm enjoying my time with Miss Ava and praying every day that she adapts well to having to share her time with us when the little guy arrives. 

Ava has adapted to living with Mema & Boppa much better than I would have ever anticipated.  She still wakes up earlier than she ever did at home, but overall she's done very well.  She sleeps well in her big girl bed at night, and we've been doing fairly well with potty training.  Unfortunately we had an accident Friday morning.  I was of course getting ready, trying to finish packing for our trip to IA, and then get out the door in time for my Dr's appt.  She comes running into our bedroom and told me she peed.  She definitely had!  So, I picked up all of her play food out of the puddle of pee to disinfect them, soaked up the pee puddles, scrubbed the floor, threw her in the tub for a quick scrub down, scrubbed the floor again (carpet of course, she couldn't have peed on the hard wood floors), got her dressed, scrubbed the floor again, and ran out the door.  Luckily everybody drives 12 mph over the speed limit so I blended right into traffic and still made it to my appointment only 2 minutes late after a bathroom break.

Ava and I had lunch downtown and then headed over to pick Daddy up so that we could head back to IA for my annual girls get together with my high school friends.  That night we got to see Grandma & Grandpa for a short time before they left town on Saturday morning.  Grandma Great was nice enough to come down and see us for a bit.  Then on Saturday, the 6 of us girls and our families gathered for lunch.  It was so great to see this group of girls again, and all the spouses and kids.  After lunch we all went our separate ways so that we could drop our kids (and spouses) off so that just us girls could get together to catch up over dinner.  Nate and Uncle Craig got to spend the afternoon golfing while Aunt Darlene took Ava.  A HUGE thanks to Aunt Darlene for taking her.  From what she told me at 6 am on Sunday, she had a great time.  :)  It was so nice to get to spend some quiet time catching up with these amazing woman over dinner.  These friendships go back to our freshmen year of high school.  I am so grateful to have these women in my life.  Thanks for a great day ladies!!!

Sunday morning we left to head back home to the cities.  By the time that we stopped for lunch, stopped at our building site, and made a few stops in Maple Grove it was getting late by the time that we got home.  I was hoping to go shopping for some clothes since I have two outfits that fit me.  Unfortunately that will have to wait for another day.  Good thing that I wear scrubs to work every day. 

So those are the highlights of our past two weeks.  Hope that you're enjoying this beautiful weather!

Lyndsey, Steph, Jenny, Lisa, Nikki, and me after enjoying a great dinner together

It's not much now, but it will eventually be home sweet home!

What a month!!!

Yes, I'm very well aware that it's been a month since the last update. Let me tell you, it's been an action packed month!

After getting back from a weekend at the cabin with my sister and her family we headed up for another weekend with Nate's family.  We had such beautiful weather and really enjoyed our time together.  Unfortunately, that's the only weekend in July that I was at the cabin.  Nate and Ava spent the following weekend up there for fireworks while I was back home working. 

The Wednesday after that the three of us packed up the car (I mean fully packed) for a "long road trip" to Door County for a Becker family vacation.  We stayed in a condo with Grandma & Grandpa, while Uncle Marc & Aunt Sara stayed in a hotel next door, and Aunt Lisa and her large bunch stayed at a nearby campground.  We spent a lot of time swimming in our pool, going to the beach, and Ava and I watched everybody do go carts after we all played mini golf.  Daddy got to spend a day out on the lake salmon fishing with Grandpa and Uncle Brent.  They had a great time, didn't get sick, and brought home A LOT of fish!!!  It was great to spend that time with everybody.  Unfortunately we knew that when we got home we had a lot of work to do to get out of our house.
This past weekend, with the help of Mema, Boppa, and our dear friends Brian and Jason, we moved out of our town home.  We honestly couldn't have done it without Brian and Jason, and are so very grateful for their time and help.  We lucked out and had good weather.  Most of our things are in a 16 foot "pod" that is being stored.  We have a few things scattered at Uncle Wes's house, and a lot of things here at Mema & Boppa's.  Unfortunately we had to bring all the new baby things, plus winter things since we'll be here until the end of Nov.  That's a lot of stuff!!!  Ava is adjusting fairly well, except for that her wake-up time is now 6:15 am...not cool!  She is still going to the same daycare in Mounds View which means a lot of commuting for Nate and me on the days that I work.  I picked her up the other day and she said that she wanted to go home.  I told her that we had to go to Mema & Boppa's and she said, "we stay there until our new house is built".  So, hopefully she gets it.  However, the next day she asked me if the house was done so she doesn't quite understand the timeline that we're working with. 

Saturday night was our first night at Mema & Boppa's, and Ava's first night in her big girl bed.  I had been talking this bed up for the past month.  It paid off...she loves it.  I was up all night Saturday worried that she was going to roll off the bottom or wake up scared or not sleep...she slept all night.  We have a large rail on one side and the other side is along with wall since she is such a crazy sleeper. 

Sunday Nate and I finished cleaning the town home after church and then rushed home to shower so that we could take Ava back over to our neighbor girl's birthday party.  It was a bit stressful getting everything done, but a great way to spend our last day.  It was very odd to say good-bye to our neighbors of the past 5 years.  We took one last trip through the house.  Ava played peek-a-boo in her closet and then made the request for a family sing-a-long of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in her room one last time.  I will admit, I shed a few tears during that time.  I'm so very excited for our new house, but Ava's bedroom holds so many wonderful memories.  There were so many giggles shared, stories read, and songs sang in that room.  It really was a great house for us to start our family.  Tuesday evening Nate and I made things final and we closed on the house.

We've been busy this month making final decisions for our new house, as well as packing and wrapping things up with our "old house". The cabinets, flooring, etc are all picked out...now they just have to start digging. I think that they are breaking ground on August 14th. It's been almost two months since we signed for the house so I'm very anxious to actually see some sort of progress being made on the actual structure of our new home. They tell us a closing date of Nov. 21st...we'll see.

Well this has gotten quite wordy so I'll wrap it up with some pictures.  If you don't hear from me for a while it means that we're still digging out and trying to find all of our stuff here.  Thanks for not giving up on me and checking in.  :)


Mema & Ava hanging out on the beach at the cabin

A nice shot of all of the "kids".  (why is it that the large pregnant lady decided to stand next to the two skinniest people on Lower Hay Lake?...think next time Steph!)

We found time to squeeze in a fun night out with our friends Bill, Riley, Miles, Mike, Kristi, & Cora while Miles was visiting from WI.

Ava just chill'n by the campfire

Daddy & Ava in the arcade

Who knew that it would be cold and we would need sweaters on day 1 of vacation?

Aunt Lisa & Ava

Go-Karts...Daddy would like to point out that he won!

One of the fish that Nate caught.

Daddy, Grandpa, & Uncle Brent on their fishing excursion

An afternoon at the beach

Love this picture!