Baby Gabriel is here!!

Baby Gabriel was born this morning. He was 5 lbs and 12 ozs and 21 inches long. I wish I had some good pictures to post. I will post some when we go down to see him in a few days. I just wanted to let everyone know he was born and everyone is doing ok. I am excited to see him!!

Ava is still sick too. She is coughing with a runny nose!! If she is still sick when we go to visit we are going to have to arrange something because I don't want her near the baby. I know how I felt when Ava was born. I was scared to death of germs and sick people. :)

Kyndall's party and sick again

Yesterday we went to our dear friend Kyndall's 5th Birthday party!!! Ava LOVES Kyndall. Kyndall doesn't even have to try and Ava laughs and just adores her. I think its so sweet! Ava started getting a cold this past week so she hasn't been feeling great. Her nose is runny and she is coughing. I hope it passes faster than her last cold that seemed to last a month or longer. She felt ok yesterday so we went ahead and went to the party. It was a carnival theme and oh so cute. Ava had her first taste of cotton candy and a cupcake. She wasn't so sure about the cotton candy at first but once she got you were suppose to eat it, she loved it. She also got her face painted....a lady bug. Well it was suppose to be a lady bug but Ava only let him paint the red circle and one black dot. :) It was still adorable.

We had such a fun day! The adults were exhausted but thats what we do for our kids :)

Cry it out

Cry it out.....those words sound so harsh. I thought so before I understood them. We have rocked and held Ava from day one. The only way she would go to sleep was that....or so we thought. I heard the "Cry it out" method and it caught my attention. It seemed like every time I wanted to try it everyone found reasons to not. Ava was sick a lot during December and the first of January so I kept holding off on it. So finally last Sunday night I told Adam this is the night. I made sure she was fed, changed and ready for some sleep. I put her down and walked out of the room. It was hard.....not going to act like it wasn't. I was prepared for her to cry for hours, maybe more. I just think she is very strong willed and I imagined it was going to be a very hard task. She cried maybe 30 minutes and then I heard the best thing......silence :) WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!! So from then on I have been laying her down at night and for her naps. No parent wants to hear their baby cry, but when you know they are ok and its best for them its not so hard. I can't even tell you how better it makes me feel. Let me just explain. Ava wasn't the child that enjoyed being rocked where she would cuddle and let you rock her. She would fight me to no end....EVERY time. I would walk out of her nursery feeling totally exhausted. This is best for us!!! Now she sometimes doesn't even cry....other days it might be 10 minutes or so.

fake laugh

I have been meaning to record Ava and put a video of her on here, but I just haven't' got around to it. She has started this fake laugh that is hilarious. She has been doing it for a few weeks. She laughs at everything. Last night me and Adam were laughing at something and she was playing in the floor. She stopped playing looked up at us and started laughing like she knew what we were laughing at. It was so cute. She is pulling up on everything. I have a gut instinct that this girl is going to be a climber. She is afraid of NOTHING and that scares me! A couple days ago she stood alone. She pulled up on the chair and a half and then stood for a second before starting to clap. The clap threw her off balance and she fell but she didn't let it phase her.
She has another tooth on top. She is driving me nuts grinding that top tooth on her bottom. I guess it just feels so odd to her.

Today is Uncle Jeremy's Birthday. Happy Birthday!!! We love you!

birthdays and baby shower

First of all let me say Adam passed his final TVA oral board last Thursday. His training is over. We are SOOO proud of him!!

We had a busy weekend!! Friday we went to Atlanta. Friday night the whole family went out to eat at the Italian Oven for my birthday. My birthday is today and Jeremy's is Thursday, but the weekend was the time we celebrated. It was good, you can't go wrong with Italian in my opinion. Saturday was Rachel and Andy's baby shower. Me and Ava went to that and enjoyed seeing all the cute stuff for baby Gabriel. I did some quick shopping on the way back to the house. Saturday night we enjoyed a nice dinner at a place in Atlanta called Wisteria. It was very good gourmet home cooking. I had pasta in a arugula pesto sauce. Jeremy had skate (a type of fish). We also had some sinful dessert. It was awesome. We enjoyed our dinner and time together. After dinner Jeremy took us to a place I love to shop in Buckhead. Nana and Pawpaw Estes kept Ava for us while we enjoyed dinner. They of course enjoyed the time with her and we enjoyed a quiet dinner. Sunday we went to church and then made our way home. Ava made the trip good.

Oh and Saturday Ava turned 10 months old. I took some quick pictures....gotta keep up the tradition. :)

SNOW!

Ava experienced her first snow this week! It started snowing Thursday and is still on the ground today. We only got maybe an inch or so but it was pretty. I couldn't resist, I had to take her out in it. She just stared at it all. Adam made a snow ball and let her lick it. I just stood back cringing, but let him do it. I was like Nicole don't think about what might be in that snow, she will be ok :)

I was so proud we got to use her snowsuit. My aunt bought it for her in California and I LOVE it!!

I worked Thursday and Friday so I didn't get out and play in it.....although the inner child in me really wanted too!!!!

Happy New Year

Wow, 2009 was so full of ups and downs. The most memorable was the birth of our baby girl, Ava. This year has been the hardest but most life altering year of my life. I can honestly say that! We are so proud that Ava is a healthy and happy baby. I am so thankful for that. So when I look back on the year that stands out the most.

So like always with time comes changes. So many things have changed this year. Some for the better and some heartbreaking.

I hope 2010 holds many great things for our family. We are looking forward to Ava's first birthday, Adam moving into his permanent job at TVA, the birth of another Estes baby, and a plethora of other things unknown.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!