Filling you all in... while she's sleeping

Ava is asleep and has been pretty clingy very "loving" lately, thus while she's sleeping I thought I'd fill you all in.  Tried to do a "Thankful Thursday" post... that didn't happen.  Then I thought I could do a "7 Quick takes Friday" post... that took too long.  The weekend was pretty busy and suddenly here we are already on Monday... in JULY!  I'm sure you all get it.

Update on the new house.

Well, this is a good sign.  This is a photo I took one day of our present house ...see the rainbow?

And this one I captured the other day as we were pulling up to the new one.  Even God sees the potential!

Shaun's been working on the back yard whenever he has time and up and out on his days off early in the morning to get rid of brush from the "jungle".  We're blessed that a great friend has been coming on his time off to take down trees and let us borrow some of his machines to make things a bit easier.  You wouldn't believe me if I told you what it looked like before... this is an IMPROVEMENT!

We're still currently taking bids on the work that needs to be done (boy do THOSE vary!) and checking references, etc... before beginning the work.  No news on the sale of our beautiful home.  That's ok, though we know that trusting God means trusting in His timing and realistically if it sold right away we'd have so much work left to do on the other one, it might not be a good thing.  Still, pray that it sells to the right person, at the right time.

Update on Miss Ava Marie:

Well, she's a crack up.  She definitely has her own great little personality.  She LOVES her Daddy!

 Gets VERY excited when he comes home.

 Loves his kisses.

 And he loves her

 She always wants to play with him... here she is with her new ball (thank you Rita & Rachel!)

 ...OH... you ROLL it?  I thought you just kept hitting me with it!

 She tells him all her troubles..

 He's a good listener...

 The bunny makes it better...

And time with Daddy...

Usually, she loves to just hang out with him.  This is their favorite spot.

She's standing on everything.

Climbing too.

Loves to get into the recyling (two of her favorite things are paper and socks)

She has crazy hair in the morning...

 and loves to SING!!!!

 and dance!!!

 on her cool toy from Nana.  Thanks Nana.

She's teething on EVERYTHING!  ...and FINALLY getting her first tooth (on the bottom) ...I'm still nursing, so I'm not really sure how I feel about that yet.

 here she is teething on the coffee table...

 like how childproof we are?

"Busted!"

We've been doing ponytails lately...

 Which are very cute, but almost make her look too old.

Ava's "sniff-face"

AFTER the ponytails... oh MY!

She recently had her 9mo checkup (last Tuesday) and grew 3 inches!  She's over the 95th percentile in length... off the charts and weighs in at 19lbs 10oz.  The doctor said she's doing great and advanced all around.  We're not doing anything different... she's just got places to go and people to see.  We love her.

Update on NEW Baby Fullen!

Today I'm 9 weeks along with the new baby and he/she is due on February 4th.  We're very excited and feel richly blessed.  Please pray for a safe pregnancy for us both.  So far I feel great.  I'm one of those lucky ones who doesn't have morning sickness... just a bit of nausea from time to time, but overall I feel even better than I did with Ava and I thought HER pregnancy was great!  I also feel less tired than I did with hers (I felt borderline comatose with her), but this might be due to my ability to get rest if I need it and not working full time teaching 25 3year olds and running our parish youth group.  Ava's really good about letting me rest and just hanging out with me if I need some time.  I also have less "food aversion" than I did with hers.  I feel great... just fat.  I didn't lose all the weight from her as I was still nursing and concerned about working out too much and affecting my milk production... then I got pregnant again.  Shaun thinks I'm beautiful, though.  Boy am I lucky!  I do have some issues with my back that have been ongoing for a while, but I guess it's not too much for me to have something to "offer up", right?

Here's some info on what happens in the 9th week:

Most of your baby’s joints are formed now and he is using them. Baby is flexing and stretching, but it will be a couple of months before you can feel it. Your baby is now almost one inch long and weighs just .07 of an ounce, about the size of a grape. Growing more human like from his early embryo days, your baby has finally lost his embryonic tail.

This 9th week of pregnancy, your baby is being nourished by the placenta, rather than the yolk sac. The placenta is an amazing structure, as it provides nutrients to your baby, along with providing a filter for your baby’s waste.

Your baby is now fascinated with his hand, and he actually has a grip. If you were to place a very small object in his hand, he would wrap his little fingers around it. Speaking of fingers, your baby’s fingerprints are also forming, and they are like nobody else’s.

Your baby’s eyelids are now fused together at 9 weeks of pregnancy and will remain that way until about 27 weeks. This gives his eyes a chance to do some developing of their own. Your baby’s ears, nose tip, and tongue have also formed. All major organs are now present, but need a lot of further development to function properly.

Pretty cool, huh???  Tooth buds!  Already!

Other updates:

I cut my hair.  Yup... over 20 inches.  Needed a trim and decided to donate it.... though it's still sitting on my kitchen counter all wrapped up.  I need to just get it in the mail.  What'dya think?

 BEFORE

(Probably should have brushed it first...)

AFTER

BEFORE

 AFTER

BEFORE

 AFTER

BEFORE

 AFTER

That's all folks!  Hope all is well in your worlds.