Almost 16 Months!!!

Okay so this post is not co-operating so the pictures are just going to be scattered throughout and not placed well. My impatience won. :/

Ava looking for Daddy to come home.

Ava and her letters! And Ava and Mommy.

The Silly Face makes a come-back. :)

Golfing!! Way to go Stephen :)

Ava blowing kisses from her perch in the rocking chair.

At the driving range.

Silly little girl!!!

Here are a few photos we wanted to share from August. Most of them are of Ava, as I have been trying to be better about taking photos of her. Jen Henley asked me the other day about where to get a book to record baby's firsts and as I answered I realized that we have been incredibly negligent in recording most of Ava's first, so I'm trying with pictures and one of these days I'll sit down and remember/record all of her firsts.

Look at how big!!!!

This past weekend was orientation, for which both Stephen and I had to work. "Long days" is pretty much the summation of the whole thing. Fortunately for Stephen, he had Saturday off, so he went golfing with his brother Bryan who's here for orientation, and my Dad and brother TJ who came in with my Mom to watch Ava while we both worked.

Classes started today and while Stephen is breathing easy as this is his first semester after graduation, I'm waiting impatiently for the bookstore to get my book in so I can start reading for my Directed Study course on Human Development. I'm taking the course in addition to assistant teaching at the Montessori school that opens later this month. Ava will also be attending the school, so it's an exciting opportunity for both of us.

Ava is doing more exciting things everyday: now she can open all the drawers in the kitchen which means that now our utencils are no longer safe, along with the innocent oven mitts, none of whom expected the sad abuse they are now receiving. The chairs are also no longer safe in our house, as Ava has figured out how to climb into/out of them. The first accomplishment was the glider which is now downstairs, and this keeps her occupied for quite a long time. Mommy was reluctant to remove her from her new toy, because though it proved to be a falling hazard, she was so happy to get up into the chair and rock and sometimes even sit for a bit and watch some tv.

Two steps forward, one step back.

She also now has a mouth full of teeth. It seemed as though the top two and bottom four came in and then there was a pause and suddenly every other tooth in her head popped through. Other than that, she's walking and running all over, absolutely fearless. We've found that while she loves putting a purse on her shoulder, she also does not cry if she falls down and scrapes her legs. There is nothing she does not want to go see or know about. And while this can be incredibly tiring....INCREDIBLY tiring and trying, it is also great to see someone so full of life and desire to know. She's working on her words, actually sits and reads books with me now.

We did also find out a few weeks ago that Ava has a peanut allergy. Neither Stephen nor I have a peanut allergy so we don't know much about what causes it or much about the allergy itself. The doctor had us take Ava to get blood drawn for the test which was torture in and of itself. We made it through that and then heard that she has a level 5 (of 6 levels) allergy. This requires us to have and carry an epipen with us at all times. The doctor did say that children can grow out of this allergy and that he wants to test her again in two to three years to see if it has changed at all. We hope that it will go away, though we're not sure that she really has the allergy that bad to begin with. Time will tell.

Recap and Zoo Trip

I lost my camera.

Many of you know this already, and some of you may not believe me, as it does sound a bit like "My dog ate my homework." But it really is true: I have found that there exists in our tiny little house, a black hole of sorts. When things go missing, they go to this black hole. And I never find them again. My consolation is that whenever we move from this house, I will find the camera. Likely I will have already bought a new one, but hey, then we'll have two nice, new cameras.

Anyway, the summer has flown past and now it's August. We're heading into another "school year," Stephen's first not being in school. He is, as I was, very much looking forward to being able to cherish the feeling of watching and knowing others are going to and from class, while he is gloriously not. Though I foreshadow for him that this will last a while and then part of him will actually a tiny bit miss classes. A little.

Ava will be 15 months old this Friday and has another doctor's appointment that day as well. She's walking all over and getting into everything, which has recently led us to begin "timeout:" one minute on the bottom step of the stairs. She's also starting to learn some new words: we're working on "up," "down," "done," "out," "in," lots of prepositions. So far they haven't quite taken...but the grunts are starting to sound a little bit more like words everyday. She has some words mastered: "mama," "dada," "nana," (which corresponds both to bananas and Nana) "pa" (for grandpa), and our personal favorite: Bah! for bye. Our little Southern Belle. We're hoping she'll pick up the words quickly, since at times she seems extremely frustrated at not being able to express herself very well and so proud of herself when praised for the words she can say.

Currently Ava is teething again, but this time seems much worse as it appears that the rest of her teeth, including molars, are all coming in at once. So we're in the thick of it right now and hopefully we'll be all done in another two weeks or so. Stephen and I had dentist appointments ourselves about two weeks ago and the dentist took a quick look at Ava's teeth while we were there. Of course, this scared Ava incredibly, so I'm not looking forward to her first official dentist appointment next month.

Yesterday Stephen, Ava and I went to the zoo with the Frain family: Alex, Beth and John. The Naples zoo is free the first Saturday of the month to Collier County residents, and we've been told that this is the only way to go to this zoo. So we went to check it out. Certainly not the most impressive zoo, but it was a good outing for the little ones. Here are some pictures:

Here are the babies ready to go!

A couple family shots:

Ava and the ducklings: Ava's version of a duck quacking: "Guack, guack!"

Stephen and Ava, Alex and John!

One Year Old!

This Thursday is Ava Katherine's 1st birthday! We're very excited and to add to that excitement, Saturday is Stephen's graduation! This week promises to be fun filled, with family starting to arrive on Thursday.

Last Friday, to commemorate Ava's first birthday, Ava and Mommy with Nana and Grampa in tow, went to have Ava's pictures taken. The pictures don't arrive for another couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here is a preview :)

Little Miss Ava, or rather Mommy and Daddy's Big Girl! is walking now, officially. She walks all over and we have noticed in the past few days, that she now seems to get even more annoyed when she is in the stroller or carseat, since she is even more mobile than ever. She is saying more words everyday, like Nana and Mommy and Daddy (transformed from Mama and Dada), and we're even working on Jesus now. She actually said it yesterday, pretty clearly, but of course, at her own will, and never on command. :)

Well, that's it for now. Gotta start getting the house ready! Hope everyone is doing well!

Easter in MD

The married Henleys. Left to right/top: Sean, Kevin, Eric, Stephen; bottom: Erin, Jen, Shannan, Krista. Oh, and so people are aware: Eric and Shannan are Zepps, not Henleys as is a common mistake ;)

USMC Photo Shoot. (No Jeans.)

Erin was super nice enough to make me my very own yummy birthday cake!! Everyone sang Happy Birthday and Aubrey helped blow out the candle.

Ava and Gunner got along VERY well.

Here is a family shot of us during the Easter Egg Hunt. Ava was so happy just to hold one egg, while Daddy took her around to find all the other eggs.

Here is Ava with her one, red egg. "Go, Daddy, go!"

"Daddy! Right there!!"

Right after we got home from Church on Sunday, we decided to take a family picture of us in our Easter Sunday best. :) Really, taking the picture just excused us from wearing these nice, albeit not nearly warm enough, clothing. Oh, dear Florida sunshine: how we shivered in your absence!

Miss Ava was just tuckered out from partying. This is a picture of her sleeping in her car seat at Aunt Shannan's surprise party.

On Friday, we walked around Gettysburg. All the little girls took turns taking a picture here, and Ava, in the Moby, was no exception! You can't see it here, but my head is just at the top!

Here we are waiting to get going! Shannan, Ava, myself, Erin, Aubrey and Ashleigh.

Stephen, Ava and I taking a picture in front of a cannon outside the information center in Gettysburg.

On Thursday, Stephen, Ava and I were lucky enough to meet up with Mary, Ryan and Baby Tompkins for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory in Columbia. We had a great time catching up with them!

Check back, more pictures to come! Stephen is back in FL and Ava and I leave tomorrow with my parents and brother for WVA to see my grandmother and aunt and uncle. We hope everyone had a great and blessed Easter!!

WAIT!!!! I forgot one!!!

Okay, so this isn't a video, but today, I FINALLY caught the "silly face" on camera. It isn't the best shot of it and of course, I will keep trying...but here it is:


Feast your eyes, ladies and gentlemen, on....


THE SILLY FACE!!!!!!



Silly Face: head thrown back, eyes sqinted shut tight, mouth WIDE open in a huge smile....ahh, it makes us laugh everytime.


Hope you all enjoyed it!

Random Pictures and a Quick Update

Here are a couple pictures from some recent events:

This is proof that Stephen did, indeed, have appendicitis. Here he is in the hospital while we waited to see if he'd have surgery or not, in case it was something other than appendicitis. Yeah, right. Anywho, he had just been given some (awesome) pain meds, so this is right when he started being "loopy medicated Stephen." Good times.

Here is miss Ava last Friday, her first time being in a swing. She loved it! She was all smiles the entire time! So cute :)

Here is a picture of my 23rd birthday cake!! Stephen designed it himself! It was super yummy :)

Nothing too much going on here, today we are packing and getting ready to fly to MD tomorrow. It should be an interesting trip, since the last time we flew with Ava she was little and slept the entire flight. Now she's starting to walk and Stephen and I are a bit nervous to fly with her. We'll see!!

Stephen's thesis is going well. He has quite a few pages written already, he's a little more than half through!! As editor-in-chief, I can say that it is quite well written! He has recovered well from his surgery and is starting to get back into the swing of things, even being able to pick up Ava again! Ava is probably most excited about this development.

Speaking of the little miss, Ava is for sure teething again. Her top two teeth should cut within the next few days and it looks as if quite a few are quickly to follow. Also, she took the most amount of consecutive steps the other day: 5 (or so) in a row! Yay!! :) She's walking a little bit each day and each time with a bit more confidence. I'm sure she'll be running in no time!!

Oh and on another note, I received a new camera for my birthday so I promise there will be LOTS of pictures of our trip north!! :)

That's it for now! I'm still working on the beach pictures, we had another beach trip this past weekend, so now I have even more fun in the sun pictures to add! Stay tuned!

DIVA AVA!

This is from this past weekend. Little miss diva loves the camera.