So much to say...

I have so many things that I want to post about these days...but...I have a little 8 month old who has the characteristics of a raccoon and is currently taking every ounce of my time and energy. When she is napping, which by the way we have made HUGE strides in the sleeping department, I usually use that time to put back everything she gets out and keep my house and myself looking decent. So, until I take the time to post more here is the reason I haven't posted more.

Ava's favorite activities are pulling anything out that seems to have a place it belongs and playing with anything that looks like it might NOT be a toy! As you can tell she takes her job very serious?

2009 In Pictures

January – We started off the new year in a new state! The end of 2008 brought us back to TX, so we spend January adjusting to our new home and I started working at a Starbucks in the area (I had transferred from NY).

February - My hubby and I went to San Antonio to celebrate our birthdays, Valentines Day and a little babymoon. It was wonderful!

March - I had a wonderful baby shower to help us celebrate the soon arrival of our little bundle. It was so much fun and I was so blessed with all the fun little things for baby girl! The reality begin to set in even more that this was happening!

April - The 30^th was my due date, but I had a feeling we would have a May baby. April was filled with lots of excitement and lots of lasts before our world changed forever...for the good of course!

May - My life changed forever when our precious Ava Caroline was born. Ava's delivery was the hardest thing I have EVER done, but by far the most rewarding thing. I had a wonderful home birth (all natural birth!) and was surrounded by the people who love me the most. Ava arrived May 3rd and we spend the rest of the month adjusting to life with our baby girl. I celebrated by first mother's day with a 1 week old baby too! That was the best mother’s day gift possible!

June - We made our first trip back to NY to visit family and introduce Ava to them. She did wonderful and was a travel pro! I got my nose pierced, something I have wanted to do for a while just lacked the nerve to do it. We continued to fall more in love with our baby girl every day!

July - I don't remember anything major about July, which I am sure is due to the lack of sleep that July held and the brain cells that I loss due to that! Ava continued to grow and change and was smiling and laughing more and more...oh and she started getting some hair!

August – Ava and I took our first road trip together to Oklahoma to visit a dear friend and meet her new baby boy! We also took a trip back to NY for family camp. Ava loved 3 days in the outdoors!

September – Our baby was mobile, she could roll scoot and get wherever she thought she needed to get. Her personality continued to developed more and more.

October – Ava begin to try and crawl in her 5^th month, she would get up and then fall back down and do that over and over again! The last week of October she got it….and hasn’t stopped since!

November – We took our 3^rd trip back to NY, Ava enjoyed it more then ever. She was crawling so it was a new adventure for her! She also got 2 teeth! On her 6^th month birthday we discovered it! It changed her face and her smile into looking like a big girl! We ran a 5k on Thanksgiving, a first for me! It was fun and hopefully the first of many!

December – It was like re-living Christmas all over again from a child’s eyes watching Ava in awe of the paper, bows, lights and anything else shiny! Ava had no clue what all the excitement was about but we had fun! We had a white Christmas, which hasn’t happened since 1926 so it was a big deal! We spent Christmas in DFW with my family but missed Christmas with our Tallo family.

I cannot imagine 2009 being anymore amazing and feeling anymore blessed looking back on it!