Christmas Day at the Burke's

We spent Christmas day evening with Kyle's mom's side of the family. We had a great time of opening presents, watching Ava and Laine play together and playing games.

Laine and Ava in the Christmas attire

We tried to take a cute picture of the great grandkids so we could give Great Grandma a picture frame, but as you can see it was a little difficult but funny trying to get the three of them to look at us and smile all at the same time.....



This is the one we chose because after this one Ava and Laine both started crying!!!!!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning with Ava was a lot of fun. She was very animated when you would hand her a gift. She would try to rip the wrapping paper, but couldn't always get a hold of it. Ava got Kyle a new Michigan t-shirt, Lions, Redwings and then a onesie to match for herself to wear with daddy. She got me a pedicure and manicure gift card. That's not what Kyle wanted to get me from her (which was a camcorder), so hopefully we can get that soon. Also, we are upgrading our kitchen with new countertops, sink and a DISHWASHER!!! I am so excited for the dishwasher.

Christmas Eve at the Layman's

We spent Christmas Eve night at my mom's. We went to 4 o'clock mass at St. James. Then came home and opened presents while dinner was cooking. My mom's friend Steve and his mom Janette joined us. After opening the numerous presents we took our annual Layman family pictures...................

Rissy, Brie, Alicia

Ava

Alicia, my mom
Rissy, Me and Ava
Me reading to Ava............one of the many books she received
Kyle, Ava and I
Ava playing with a toy that my mom found for her

Christmas Eve at the Hensley's

We spent Christmas Eve morning over at Kyle's parents house. Ava had a lots of fun opening her gifts when she was awake.

Ava with her stocking that Grandma Hensley made her.

Us next to the tree

Ava in her Christmas sleeper

Ava opening a present
Ava and her maraca's

Kyle's Birthday

On Sunday the 23rd we celebrated Kyle's 28th birthday at our house with our family. Everyone came over for sloppy joes, cheesey potatoes, cake and Euchre. As much as Kyle and I wanted to repeat as Euchre champs and take home all the money like last year, but we weren't that lucky this year. Jane took first, Kirk took second and Ken had the most loaners. It was a great time had by all and a great stress reliever from the previous few days!!!

Pictures with Santa

On Saturday December 22nd, we went to Buddies in Holt for the Hensley Christmas. Uncle Ron was great and bought the first round of drinks and asked Santa to come in. Not sure how Ava would do on his lap, but as you can see Santa didn't scare her this year!!!

That evening we also went out to our friend's the Womble's for games and a gift exchange. It was nice to get together with them because Sally (lives in Texas), Mark, Diasy, Calum and Issac (live in Scotland) and Patrick and Atalie (live in Missouri) were all home for the holidays!!! Ava finally got to meet Calum and Issac. Issac who is 11 months old was very fond of Ava!!!

My short time with my Great Papa

Yesterday Ava's Great Papa Burke passed away peacefully surrounded by his family. Papa lived a great 75 years (2/26/1932-12/21/2007). Ava got to say goodbye to her Papa on Thursday and thus this is when the picture below was taken.While Ava was holding his hand, she was smiling and he told her he loved her!!!!!

Great Papa holding his 2nd great granddaughter

Great Grandparents holding their great granddaughters on their front porch

Great Papa and Ava at Thanksgiving

5 Generations (Great Great Grandma Louise, Great Papa Don, Grandma Jane, Dad Kyle and Ava)

We love you Papa and miss you already. Have a great Christmas this year in Heaven!!!

Growing up so fast..........

On Thursday night, Ava rolled over from her back to her belly at Grandpa and Grandma Hensley's house. She has done it a couple times since including tonight. Once she got onto her belly on the couch she managed to push her little butt up in the air and crawl. She started out about 6-8 inches away from my leg and next thing I know her little head is resting on my leg looking up at me. Kyle and I are both so excited that we both got to witness this milestone of our daughters' life!!!! Christmas might be a little more fun than we first thought if she starts crawling a little more!!!

We just want to wish all of you Happy Holidays and we are very thankful for all of our friends and family. Don't forget to tell your loved ones that you love them every chance you get because you never know when it will be the last time that you will see them.

Mmmmm........cereal

We started Ava on rice cereal last Thursday. She did okay. She had a hard time moving the food from the spoon to the back of her mouth, but if I left the spoon on her lips she would suck on that to move the food. Each time we have feed her she has gotten better at it. Now she just needs to learn patience!!!!

Mmmmmm....good!!!

I will use my wonderful hand to get the rest of it, mom!!!!!

4 month Check up

Today was Ava's 4 month check up and shots. She weighed in at 11# 12.5 oz. and is 25" long. The doctor seemed a little worried (as was myself) about her not gaining that much weight since her last appointment 2 weeks ago. I was sure she was over 12#. It's not like she isn't eating. This girl never misses a meal and she eats it all. So, we got the go ahead to start her on rice cereal. So, we will see how that goes!!!!! This picture of Ava was taken about 2 hours after shots with a nap in between, but she still is a little fussy from the shots............poor thing....

Silver Bells in the City.........City of Mason that is.....

Cris, Megan, Kyle and I took Ava and Aubrey to Silver Bells in Mason on Friday night. We really weren't impressed with the parade because there was at least a block and a half between each float, but there were some nice ones (at least the ones we did see). So, we left thinking the parade was done, but boy were we mistaken. It was just slow.... So we ventured on to see Santa. Not the greatest pick for Santa and Mrs. Claus, they looked at little rough. We definitely wouldn't let them hold Ava. We will go to the mall soon and have her picture taken with Santa there (hopefully he doesn't look like he was picked from the streets). Here are a few pics from that night.

My mom picked this up for "the baby" last Christmas. It is very cute, but Ava got a little lost in it!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at Kyle's parents house. It was very nice to have everyone there. Ava was great all day and everyone holding her. Here she is with her Grandpa Hewy in her 1st Thanksgiving outfit.

Here is Ava with her great grandpa who hadn't seen her in two months, boy were they happy to see each other!!!
Grandpa, I'm tuckered out and stuffed!!!! Can we snuggle???

GO STATE & HAWKS!!!!

We took Ava last night to her first MSU hockey game. She did very well. None of the loud noises (the siren that went off 6 times after MSU goals) didn't even phase her. Since we were there and Ava was dressed in her MSU attire (Kyle was not too pleased) we thought it would be nice to get Ava's picture taken with Sparty.

I would like to send a shout out to the Leslie Blackhawk football team for pulling an upset on Saturday against #1 ranked Kalamazoo Christian. The boys' played awesome and stopped on offense that averages 43 points a game and held them to zero. They now move on to play Blissfield Saturday November 17th at 1pm at Hillsdale College for the semi-finals. I wouldn't mind making a trip to Ford Field the day after Thanksgiving. I hope we can go down and beat Blissfield, since they were sooooooo sure they were going to be playing Kzoo Christian, that even the radio announcers on Friday were saying that next up for Blissfield was Kzoo Christian and they hadn't even won yet. Never under estimate the underdog!!!!

GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fall

I took Ava outside today, so I could get some fall pictures before the snow actually started to stick. They turned out great!!!

What are these???

Bath time

During Ava's bath last night, I decided to actually just put her in the tub after we were done bathing her. She wasn't to fond of being on her back, but she loved being on her belly. She was kicking and splashing with her hands. She would also slide down and then push of the end of the tub. It was a lot of fun to watch her play in the water. Next summer will be a lot of fun swimming in my mom's pool.

3 months old

Ava turned 3 months old on October 28th. So here are her pictures. She is happy and almost healthy (still fighting off a little bit of her cold). She is starting to babble a ton and turn herself in circles on the floor. She is rolling from belly to back, but hasn't quite got the back to belly bit, almost though.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Since Ava was feeling a little better, she still has a horrible cough, we decided to dress her up and take her out to Trick or Treat.

This was her sleeper she was in all day at daycare. She had a witches' hat to go with it, but I forgot to put it on before I took her picture.
Happy lil' Candy Corn
Ava and Kyle with Kyle's cousin Kirk and his daughter Laine (dressed as a kitty cat)
We didn't stay outside too long, but we did get around to most everyone's house tonight so they could see our little candy corn!!!!! We can't wait for next year when she can walk and actually trick or treat!!!!