An Update

At the beginning of November, we took a weekend trip to Chicago to celebrate Matt's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. We had a great time and got to introduce Ava to that side of the family. 

When we got back, it was time to start planning a first birthday party!  Ava's birthday was on 22 November, and we were lucky to have both sets of grandparents and one of her uncles in town to celebrate with us. We also had friends from Las Vegas over to help celebrate. Matt and I made the cake from scratch (including the icing!) and had a great time with it. Ava was a pro at opening presents and really seemed to revel in the attention. How could a baby not enjoy having so many adoring fans? :-) 

My parents had to leave a couple of days after Ava's birthday in order to host Thanksgiving at their house, but Matt's parents and brother stuck around here for Thanksgiving. We had another big party for Thanksgiving and were happy to welcome so many good friends to join us for dinner. As this year Thanksgiving was also our fourth wedding anniversary, we got to have a great celebration for the day. When you live so far from family, it's nice to have a group which feels like family here. Good times! 

We took Ava for her 12 month well-baby appointment the day after Thanksgiving. She's perfectly normal and healthy. She weighed in at 20lbs, 13 oz, and was 30 inches long. She's mastered all the gross motor skills she should have and she's a happy, active baby. She says uh-oh, duck, socks, quack, Daddy, Hi, and bye-bye. She loves to talk on her cell phone (or anything she can hold up to her ear, including waffles) and put-and-take is her favorite game. She's walking like a pro and is even running quite a bit. The difference between her at 13 months and 12 months is amazing...she truly turned into a toddler in the last month.

The couple of weeks after Thanksgiving passed in a blur. I had finals and final papers to write and Matt was very busy at work. The weekend after finals week, we went to Edwards AFB to visit old friends. Matt & Dave had gone up for TPS Patch Night and Sarah and I took the girls to pick them up. We got together with our TPS friends remaining at Edwards and had a great time. That Saturday morning, we also got to see John P. Casey. He has returned to the US after spending two years in Germany and is now attending TPS. He had just returned the night before and we surprised him by showing up for breakfast at the diner he was in. Great times! 

Despite the busyness, we managed to get through it all just in time to be ready to go to visit Fort Collins, CO, for Michael's commissioning into the United States Army. Matt administered his oath of office. It was a whirlwind trip, but we were glad to be there to celebrate such an important moment of his career.

We returned from Fort Collins on the 22nd of December and then went into Christmas preparation mode. Thanks to help from the Hoffmans, Matt and I were able to go Christmas shopping for Ava without her along to see the surprises. :-) We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Hoffmans and had a great meal.

Christmas Day was wonderful around here. Ava loved opening her presents, although it was slow going. Eventually, we stopped removing the toys from their packaging so that we could at least get them all unwrapped. 

Since Christmas, the great home improvement blitz has been in full gear. I have painted the whole house...we're finally rid of all the crazy, technicolor walls left to us by the previous owners of this home. Matt has been spending time in the garage building a TV stand cabinet. It's in the finishing stages now, and looks great! We'll get some pictures when he's done. 

Even with all the work, we've found time to have fun too. We celebrated Sarah Hoffman's 30th birthday with her and some friends at a Japanese steakhouse. Yay for babysitters! We also celebrated New Year's Eve at the Hoffman's house along with the Fullers. None of us are the wild party people we claim to have been in our younger days, but at least we made it until midnight. 

That’s all I’ve got for now.  More soon!