Breakfast with Santa

Ava was so excited to have breakfast with Santa this year. She's more excited about Santa and Christmas in general than ever before! We went to the Breakfast with Santa at the YMCA and it was really fun! They set up crafts for kids to make ornaments and a balloon artist.

Ava made a special envelope for Santa and she put a picture inside. She gave Santa the special envelope before she took her picture with him. When he asked he what she wanted for Christmas she said "princesses." Of course! She's a bit princess obsessed this year!

We met a friendly family of three that morning. Ava had fun with their 5-year old son. They played together in the climbing area while us moms waited for the balloon artist.

The event was better than we expected. We'll definitely do it again next year. It beats the Mall Santa any day!

Breakfast before seeing Santa

Holding her ornament and ice princess wand.

State Fair Visit

Bravely petting the calf.

 

We've been in Indy 4 years now and every August we visit the State Fair. It's been a  different experience each year. Our first year, I was in my early pregnancy with Ava. And now it marks a summer tradition with her as she grows bigger. We like to go on a weekday evening and stay for dinner so we can see the animals without the weekend crowds. 

This year Ava was very brave with petting the animals. She really enjoyed petting the ponies, baby goats, and the baby cows. Her school had their own Fair where they made crafts like quilt and fruits and veggie art projects. They learned all about farms and had their school Fair on the same day that the State Fair kicked off. She really loved it! Here's a look back two years ago when she was afraid of petting the baby calves. And last year at age 2, Ava fed the goats for the first time.

Seeing the babies in the Cattle Barn

First year of the Fair rides.

The Dad's Lounge next to the Lactation Station

Feeding carrots to the goats.

We went through the animal barns when we first arrived. Ava especially loved the sow and her piglets. They were sleeping and then woke up to nurse when we walked up. We hit all the animals first, and then she asked to do some rides. She was just a bit too small to do the rides by herself so we went with her. Aaron rode the air balloons with her and I did a sea ship ride with her. Then she played a game throwing darts to pop a balloon on a wall. Three year olds throwing darts is a bit scary! She picked out a soft toy rose as her prize and carried it the rest of the evening.

Then we walked to get some dinner. Aaron and I got pulled chicken BBQ sandwiches which weren't too unhealthy. But, we did splurge and shared some french fries. After the short dinner break, we continued to the Future Farmers of America barn that has the baby animals and playground area. It's like a petting area for the kids to feed the goats. She had fun feeding the goats carrot shavings.

We stopped in Pioneer Village and saw more horses and ponies. There was a long line for the pony ride so maybe we'll do that next year.

Lemon Shake Up

By the end of the evening, we walked the entire loop! It was starting to rain, but we managed to stop for our favorite Fair treat for dessert. We shared an elephant ear. Ava really loved it.

Ava and I are heading back to the Fair next Friday with Aaron's mom. I'm volunteering at the Lactation Station with a girlfriend next Friday morning and Ava will get to visit the Fair again with Grandma. I volunteer at the Lactation Station every year. It's a nice spot for nursing mamas to stop to breastfeed in comfortable rocking chairs near fans. Usually with the sweltering August humidity, it's nice for mother's to have some fans to cool off.

Ava is excited about going back next week.We really like this fun summer tradition!

Who Am I?

I can't even tell you how many times this week alone a kid or teacher called me "Ava's Mom" as if it were my actual name. I answer to it without hesitation just like if they called me Amanda. After Ava was first born, I wrote a post called "I'm Ava Mom" about kids and grown-ups calling me that instead of my name. It was only a few months ago that Ava wondered about my actual name.

When I was a little girl my family called me Mandi. Now only a few people call me Mandi. After graduating college, I built a professional identity as Amanda Volarvich. Then 7 1/2 years ago, Aaron and I got married and changed my identity to Amanda Berkey. The Volarvich name showed up surprisingly in January when we signed our mortgage refinance paperwork. I couldn't believe after all this time, I signed my name as Amanda Volarvich.

The day I became a Berkey.

Then Ava was born in March 2010. Hearing myself referred to as a mother was surreal. Now, Ava prefers to call me mama or mom. And in sweet moments, she calls us Baby Mama and Baby Daddy. And then if we have another child, I'm sure it will be so cool to hear his/her friends call me by their name too.

First family photo in March 2010.

Here I am 36-years old, and I remember those days in my 20's when I identified with being a feminist focusing my power on advancing a career and being independent. Then after marrying Aaron, we merged our independent lives and identities into a unit. We had to become more reliant on one another. We've adopted a mix of traditional roles in the context of a modern family. I still feel like a feminist, but now inside of marriage and motherhood. I handle the cooking, cleaning (ok, outsourced a bit!), and the bulk of child care duties. That's not because he's unwilling, but naturally with mothering/breastfeeding in Ava's first years she wanted me. Aaron handles all the outdoors work, which is a lot since we have a lot of land for city-standards. But, we adopted these roles by our personal interests. I love to cook and he loves to be outdoors. Now with being a mother, I want to do meaningful and challenging work but not at the expense of my family. So that means, I've put the brakes on surging to higher levels for now while we have a young family.

It makes me look forward to more transformations in the future when Ava grows up or even my 40th birthday, which is not too distant in the future. I want to live my life to honor those important milestones and transitions in life to shape me into the person that I have become. It makes me appreciate my age and where I am in my life. I don't want to hide my age because it's a marker for what I've been through, the good and the bad and in between!

Ava is an energetic and empathetic 3-year old.

Summer is here!

Excited at the ice cream shop

Today is the summer solstice and the days have been so long. It's even more noticeable in Indiana where we're on the westernmost area on the Eastern timezone. It's not completely dark until about 10pm. Ava has been staying up later and later. The days of winter hibernation are long over and now we're in summer mode: going to bed later and waking up earlier with the extra light.

Tonight we made our pizza on the grill instead of using the oven on a hot day. Last summer we changed our Friday night pizza tradition to the grill, but since today was the first day we had to remember how we did it. This time we made it on a metal pizza pan on the grill and it worked out great! It takes longer than the oven, but Ava had a TJ's peach pop after school so she was fine to wait longer for her dinner. I make a whole wheat dough for our pizza and top it with cheese, fresh spinach, pepperoni, and olives.

A couple weeks ago, we took an impromtu Sunday afternoon trip to a local ice cream shop after Ava's nap. Ava got a chocolate ice cream cone and it was so huge that Aaron had to help her eat it! She was excited because her cone had chocolate and sprinkles!

Her favorite flavor is chocolate!

The ice cream shop is on the Monon Trail and we walked a bit afterwards. Then we saw lots of geese and ducks on the canal. We stopped into a local heath food store that sells corn for ducks. That can't be good. But it's probably better than feeding them bread. Ava felt brave enough to carefully drop the kernals to feed the ducks, but the geese were more interested. One of the geese was especially friendly and walked right up to us. I was shocked! We saved the rest of the duck food for another trip.

Ava just wrapped up her soccer season at school today. She asked to do gymnastics instead of soccer. Last month, she went to her friend's birthday party at a gymnastics place. She had a blast, especially loved jumping on the trampoline. I signed her up for some classes in July to try out to see if she will like it. She has also asked for ballet classes and thankfully we can do that on-site at her preschool so that may be in the near future too. We're excited that she is able try some new activities. 

Feeding geese

I'm amazed by how fast she's growing up - emotionally and physically! She must have been going through a growth spurt because we're starting to put away the 3T outfits for 4T, especially in shirts and dresses. She is tall and skinny so the 3T bottoms fit better. I'm amazed by how much she is developing friendships and recognizing social cues. Her emotional development is top of mind right now and we talk about every detail of her day. She tells me about her friends and who hurt her feelings or made her laugh. I believe that the openness of our relationship now will help in those awkward teen years.

Our garden isn't booming like we had hoped, sadly. When we scoped out the garden spot in early spring, the sun was in a different spot and there were no leaves on the trees. Our garden doesn't get much direct sunlight especially now that the trees have filled in so much. Aaron is thinking about cutting some tree limbs directly above our garden. We have some cucumbers and a few green tomatoes developing, but the peppers and cauliflower have been eaten by slugs. We finally have kept the deer away with the netting, but the garden has been attacked by a mole and slugs. We also suspect our new topsoil is packed down to much. Next year, we'll have compost to mix in and we'll aerate the soil to see if that improves it. We keep learning each year. I hope one day we'll have the garden that we've been dreaming about to provide vegetables through the summer. I really want to make salsa with all our veggies.

We're really looking forward to some lake weekends up north to visit Aaron's family. We're heading up on a long weekend around the 4th of July and then have plenty of lake time in the next few months. Ava is really excited to go swimming in the lake and see her family and friends. We were up a couple weeks ago and the lake water was still very cold. No doubt we'll be swimming on the 4th! We're excited that summer is finally here!

Garden Week 2

Garden Week 2

Can you see the deer?

On Mother's Day, we planted our garden, a new tradition that we started last year. Except this year's garden is a much better attempt than ever before! We've come a long way from the small container garden we had on our Chicago condo balcony! Aaron built a raised bed and we filled it with rich top soil earlier in the month. We grew many plants from seed and then last weekend picked up some starter plants too. Last weekend, we put the seedlings and starters in the new bed. I have big plans for our garden yields including salsa, pepper sauces, homemade stocks with amazing herbs, and lots of salads!

What's Growing in the Berkey Garden? 

From seed: a variety of 12 kitchen herbs, spinach, zucchini, cucumber, carrots, and romaine lettuce. Our cucumber plants was damaged by the recent storms so I started another two more to be safe. The romaine lettuce was obliterated from the heavy rain storms too. I started more seeds today, but we may need to get some starter plants. Our beets haven't even sprouted. The carrots are tiny, but are doing really well in the garden. Aaron shielded them with a bit of straw. My basil sprouted, but it's not looking good so we'll see what happens. The sage looks great.

From starter plants: strawberries, mint, rosemary, several varieties of peppers (Jalapeno, Poblano, and Bell), 2 varieties of tomatoes (early girl and roma), butternut squash, green beans, and cauliflower. The green beans are already climbing on the trellis.

We have deer that live in our woods. They walk right up to our front porch or anywhere that we have succulent plants. Here's a picture of one that I scared off from the front porch when it was getting close to the lilies. Aaron put netting around the entire raised bed so it's about 5 feet high. The deer are supposed to be held off because they don't like the netting on their face. I hope it works! Last year, they ate our garden like a big salad bowl! On top of last year's drought, we had barely any yield. But this year, I'm excited for food we'll be able to grow.

Compost is piling up!

We're composting now too. We have a large compost bin with yard clippings, coffee grounds, used tea leaves, droopy fresh cut flowers, rinsed and crushed egg shells, and all the cuttings leftover from cooking. The bugs are going to town! We have a compost container under the kitchen sink and I take it out to the compost bin about every 4-5 days. It's covered so it doesn't smell. We're using biodegradable compost bags for our container under the sink, but they are for commercial composting so I'm not throwing those in our bin.

This weekend, I'm going to do some weeding. I'll keep you all updated!

Allergy Mystery Solved

Having a Tea Party with the Bear Family

Over a month ago, we took Ava for her first chiropractic appointment to a doctor that specializes in pediatrics and very trusted here in our area. In the first few minutes of the exam she told us that Ava has swollen lymph nodes, which is likely due to food sensitivity or allergy. The chiropractor suggested that we remove cows milk from her diet since that's usually the culprit. One of the reasons we took her to the chiropractor was because of snoring and irregular breathing. I told her we hadn't introduced it to her until she was 2-years old because of Aaron's sensitivity to cows milk. Since cows milk tends to increase mucus we thought it would help that symptom as well.

I bought goat's milk cheese and yogurt and started to use coconut milk products too. Ava enjoys a fruit and yogurt smoothie, but I replaced cows milk yogurt with either goat's or coconut milk yogurt. That month, I packed many lunches since there's so much cheese and dairy on the menu at her school. On our family pizza night, I had to make her a personal size pizza with goat's milk and vegan cheese, but she didn't like it as much. I even made a dairy free lasagna with a mix of tofu and garlic as a replacement for ricotta cheese. It was fabulous by the way!

After about a month of not eating cows milk, including her beloved Brown Cow Vanilla Yogurt, Ava still had swollen lymph nodes. The good news is that the combination of chiropractic treatment and elimination of cows milk have significantly improved her snoring and her breathing was regular when she slept at night. Ava's pediatrician ordered a blood test for food and environmental allergies because of the allergies on both sides of our families.

We got the blood test results last week and it turns out she has a moderate allergy to eggs. We were thrilled to learn that she's not allergic to anything else, including cows milk. It is disappointing because Ava loves scrambled eggs and egg breakfast burritos. I went through the school menu with the cook at her school and our new game plan targets replacements for the breakfast items. I made egg-free pancakes, french toast, pancakes, and muffins for her to take to school and it worked out great! The pancakes were delicious! I pureed cooked millet and made them with almond milk and Egg Replacer. I stocked the leftovers in our freezer and plan to make ahead and restock as needed for Ava's school breakfasts.

School lunch: hummus, pita chips, orange slices and smoke almonds.

I packed lunch for her yesterday because they had breakfast for lunch. She loved her packed lunch. It's very interesting that even at her age the 3 and 4-year old children ask me why she's eating something different. But Ava proudly brings her food in a new Princess lunch box! I got some ideas from Lisa of the blog 100 Days of Real Food and got some school lunch supplies from her recommendation list.

We decided to not go overboard on Ava's dairy in take since we saw an improvement and it can't hurt to do less of dairy, given Aaron's sensitivity. She was so happy at Whole Foods last weekend when I told her we could buy her favorite yogurt! We also bought the local, low-temp pasteurization and grass fed cows milk from our Green Bean Delivery, which is supposed to be better for sensitivities.

I think we're in a good place. And I'm thankful that we discovered this early in life and the transition is going well! I'll post some recipes on the blog when we find some that become our favorites!

The Berkey's are Food Composting and Gardening!

This is our 3rd Spring in our house. The first one was when Ava was born and Aaron was a maniac cleaning up the yard since for so many years no one lived on this property. Our house is newly built on a plot land from the 50's. Last year, we tried to garden, but the drought and inadequate deer protection gave us a piddly harvest. This year is our first attempt at a real garden.

Aaron built a large garden bed in the side of the backyard and we filled it with loads and loads of top soil! A couple weeks ago, I planted some seeds and they've sprouted in our sun room.

Aaron bought some deer fencing that will protect our garden up to 5 feet high. Those suckers even eat our pine trees so we're not taking any chances. We love living with the deer n our yard because they're beautiful, but they eat everything except daffodils. Apparently the fence is really irritating to their face if they try to eat the leaves near it.

We're growing carrots, cucumbers, beets, spinach, lettuce and a ton of culinary herbs. And in May we'll get starter plants for tomatoes, bell peppers, and jalapenos. I'm planning to can salsa for the winter months.

I'm excited that we're finally food composting, which will help our garden next year. Since we're on a septic system, I never put food scraps down the drain anyway. Now we collect food scraps and coffee grounds in a biodegradable bag inside a large plastic container under the sink. When I'm cooking, I put it on the counter and use it for food waste like Rachel Ray's Garbage Bowl idea. Aaron bought a large compost bin for the backyard, which now sits by our brush pile far away from the house. We'll throw yard clippings, leaves, straw and the food waste in the bin. Aaron says the worms and bugs will find their way to compost. I found this do's and don'ts sheet on composting that was really informative!

I'll post updates as the garden flourishes!

Mama On the Road

Boston's North End. Thought of my Parmenter family!

The last two weeks have been a blur! I've had two 48-hour trips with two stops each! Last week, I went to Boston and Washington D.C. in 48-hours to charter two new ExactTarget user communities. I was traveling with my coworker, Rachel, and we grabbed a fun Italian dinner in Boston's North End less than a week before the mayhem unfolded with the Marathon.

Then this week, I headed back to D.C. to meet with a client who wants to start up a private user community for their company. I spent a brief night there before heading to Toronto for their user community meeting. I was in Toronto for only a day trip and then was home that evening. I barely made my flight home that night because of bad storms stunting travel in Detroit and Chicago. Thank goodness the sweet Delta agent booked me for the direct Air Canada flight back to Indy about an hour before it took off. But that meant I had to sprint the long haul between different terminals at the Toronto airport and then hurry through customs and security again. That was my closest call for sure. If I hadn't made that fight, I wouldn't have been home until the following day which was another day of tricky travel around storms. When I asked for help getting out of the first terminal, one agent asked me when my departure time was and then told me that I'd never make it so I should just give up. I'm so glad that I didn't. Ava was so happy that mama was home when she woke up!

Before I left this week, Ava told "mama, I'll be so sad when you're gone." I hugged her and reassured her that I'd be home the next night after she went to sleep. I replayed that moment in my mind when I ran to the flight to get home!

Beautiful view crossing the Columbia River

Dinner with Daddy while I was traveling

Ever since becoming a mother, traveling for work has taken a different flavor. It involved intense longing for my own bed and my family at home. But while I'm gone, I enjoy small moments of peace usually from the back seat of a cab or the seat of a train. It's strange in that moment not to on duty for making dinner, helping change into dress-up clothes, or get my preschooler a healthy snack. Traveling requires much more preparation than ever before! Before I leave, I make sure to do bath night, laundry, and prep lunches before I head to the airport. Aaron is a dedicated father, as you can imagine, who arranges his schedule to take Ava to school and back again in the evening. They have dinner dates too! While I was at a happy hour in D.C. with our clients after the charter meeting, I got a text from Aaron that he took her to the mall for dinner at their renovated food court. Those moments that connect me with home are bittersweet.

Cherry Blossoms in D.C.

I book my travel for the minimal time away from my family. It's too hard for me to be away for an extended time for all of us, even if it means waking at 3am for an early 6am departure. My company is empathetic, especially because we're balancing two travel schedules! Aaron and I both work for ExactTarget, our jobs requiring travel for customer meetings. But if I have to take Ava to a doctor appointment at 8:30am on a week day, it's not a big deal since I'm usually on the road. Time balances out.

I spend lots of time in route - the airport, taxis, trains, walking, and in all that time away my heart is always tied so closely to my family back home. Before we had Ava, I missed Aaron of course, but it wasn't a big deal to stay over night or extend time in a city. Now, I soak in as much as I can before rushing back to the airport.

Cozy spot to moderate #ETcafe Twitter chat

I find ways of making it work. Organization and planning ahead really help me stay sane. And on the nights and weekends we're home all together we take more time for laughs and family hugs. I'm about to enjoy some weeks at home before my next trip to Atlanta in May!

Sunny view from Toronto office

Ava is Three!

Birthday Message at Ava's School

It's hard to believe that March is almost over! She was so excited when we started the month of March because she knew it was time for her and Daddy's birthdays!

We celebrated Ava's third birthday two weeks ago with a fun bird themed party! The last two weeks have been all about Ava growing up! After her birthday week, Ava's school started her 2-week transition to her new 3-year old classroom. The big difference is that it's a much larger class size and higher ratio of kids for teachers. They also have a full size playground outside and rotate around the school during their daily schedule. It was a lot to soak in, but she did a great job. We had some difficult drop offs in the last couple weeks, but the teachers were really encouraging. It helped that she had some friends in the new class. Starting Monday, she'll be in her new classroom full-time!

Ava is doing so well with potty training. She is able to nap without a diaper now. We only use diapers overnight and some nights she wakes up dry. They wouldn't have stopped her from entering the new class, but it's nice that she's independently using the potty since there are only two teachers for 16 kids.

Ava is 3!

On her birthday, we got some cupcakes from our favorite bakery, The Flying Cupcake, and sang her Happy Birthday! It was fun to see her reaction. She loves to blow out the candle and likes to hear the song. She requested sprinkled donuts for her class birthday treat that day. I stopped at Dunkin Donuts to pick them up and she shared them for their morning snack.

Birthday cupcakes for a family celebration.

Then on the Saturday after her birthday, we had a party at our house with her friends from school and some of our friends and family. It was so much fun! We had a bird themed party! I got the party invitation from Etsy and just printed it locally. I also got a coordinating party favor image that I used to make favor bag stickers and cupcake toppers. And she loved picking out the coordinating pink and black and white polka dot ribbon for her party.

Princess is ready for her party!

The kids made pine cone bird feeders as a fun activity during the party. They spread peanut butter on the pine cone and dipped it in bird seed. We had paper bags out and art supplies so they could decorate them to take the pine cone bird feeders home. It was really fun! Ava got really into spreading and tasting the peanut butter! I'm glad we had the indoor activity for the kids planned because of the cold weather. For favors, the kids took home pink Peeps or extra bird seed.

She was so excited to open her birthday presents! My mother-in-law made the chocolate and pink vanilla frosting cupcakes. I was so glad to have her help while I made the appetizers and snacks. I served 7-layer Mexican Dip with homemade refried beans, a veggie tray with homemade Penzy's ranch dressing, fruit tray, and Trader Joe's Cat Cookies.

Shawn Pierce took some amazing photos of her birthday party and you can check them out here!

We had so much fun celebrating Ava's birthday! And now my project this weekend is to do the thank you notes! I'm going to use the left over favor tag images for her cards. Ava likes to help decorate the cards so I'll make it a craft project for her too.

Party Favors

Cupcakes with custom toppers!

Girls bench!

Making pine cone bird feeders.

Getting into the peanut butter!

Enjoying the Happy Birthday singing!

The Big Purge, Closet and Bedroom Edition

This weekend was very productive! We are on a roll right now with home organization! Starting with the kitchen pantry renovation in January to now our bedroom organization, we're doing our Spring cleaning early. We've hit our bedroom, Ava's room, and our guest room!

Ever since we moved into our house 3 years ago, it's been a whirlwind to say the least. I was in my third trimester of expecting Ava when we moved in and then after she was born, our life has been on hyper speed! We spend so much time in our bedroom because it's a big room. Ava likes to play in our room while we fold laundry, read books, or get ready in the mornings. It's almost another family room to us! When she was a baby, she slept in a co-sleeper next to our bed. Her diapers, books, and so many toys have been in our bedroom. Then before her first birthday, she transitioned sleeping in a family bed with us. We never used her crib in her room! Eventually, we packed up the co-sleeper and converted her crib to a toddler bed. Well, that didn't work out so well. Being so little, she still needed to sleep next to Mommy and Daddy. And recently, her legs are so long that they hang off the side of her small toddler bed. The family bed has been amazing for the ease of night nursing and bonding for all three of us after we were separated during the day.

But lately, in our seemingly shrinking queen-size bed, I regretted not heeding Aaron's suggestion for a king bed before before Ava was born! We finally decided to take the plunge and buy a king bed! Aaron researched memory foam beds, which made it easy for me to pick which one I liked best from his short list. He's the researcher in the family. Last weekend, he drove to Cincinnati to the nearest Ikea store and he got a new king bed frame, matching night stands, sheets, a new lamp, and even the kitchen cabinet hardware which we wanted forever too. We saved so much money in shipping. 

Ava's first night in her big bed!

With the new king bed in our bedroom, we moved our queen bed to Ava's room and our old bed frame moved to the guest room. This way we can lay down with her until she falls asleep and she has a big sleep surface so she's comfortable. She was so excited! We bought her some new princess castle sheets today and plan to get her a cute pink and girlie comforter. For now, we made it up for her so she was cozy and she really enjoyed it! Aaron is setting up her toddler bed without the side rail like a kid-sized day bed in the basement playroom for her to read books our lounge. I promise to post pictures of our bedroom when we finish the purging project in there! Aaron bought a new dresser to match the bed so we moved a dresser from our room into my closet, which meant we had to move some white cubes from there to the inside of my closet. We've moved so much furniture around the entire house and the whole purging and shifting has been a big undertaking! It's going to be great to have it all finished. And finally our bedroom will have some style again!

Organized!

With the madness of our schedule, I haven't had time to reorganize my closet. I did a complete overhaul! Clothes were shoved into shelves, folded neatly but still it was a mess. I had maternity clothes in a lower, accessible shelf and summer clothes were still close by, even though it's winter! Last night, I went through everything! I moved my maternity clothes to the top shelf, in hopes that one day I can use them again if I get lucky to have another baby and in the same season. I made massive Goodwill donation piles with old shoes and bras that don't fit, thanks to pregnancy. The pile of orange and gray ExactTarget t-shirts was shockingly huge when it wasn't shoved in randomly. Now everything is folded and it makes sense for how I need to use it. I did the same thing for my kitchen, making functional zones so why not use the same philosophy for the closet.

We're lucky to have his and hers walk-in closets. It has been great! Aaron has teased me when he sees my closet because it was a total disaster zone. Today, he secured my white storage shelves in place for me and I went through everything!

I still have to sort through a dresser and the top of this cabinet that now in my closet. I moved my purses from the under bed storage bin inside the bottom part of the dresser in my closet. Doesn't that make more sense?! It feels good to get organized and purge! Aaron purged anything in his closet that he hasn't worn in a year. Together we had four donation bags that we dropped off at Goodwill today and moved things that belong in other parts of the house!

Aaron's parents gave us a closet organizer for our guest room, which Aaron installed a week ago. So finally we have an organized closet for our guest room. Since a developer built our house, we didn't have anything in our closets, not even poles to hang clothes.

I will continue to post more pictures of the bedrooms when we wrap up the big purge and organization!

I purged 2 full size bags!

We moved this from our bedroom to my closet. Jewelry and perfumes on the top.

Almost 3!

On her new Trike!

Ava is such a big girl these days! We're starting to plan her third birthday party in March. She's so excited to have a birthday party coming up and she likes to talk about who will come to celebrate with her. She wants all of her friends and teachers from school to be there. I'm planning to do a bird theme party. Here's a look of some of the fun things that Ava is up to these days.

For Christmas, her Berkey grandparents got her a pink tricycle. We keep it in the basement in our spare room. It's really funny because she disappears for a bit to play with toys in there and then all the sudden you'll hear the little bell and she comes out. She usually pushes it with her feet on the ground instead of using the peddles. We'll put it outside in the Spring when the weather is warmer.

Lunch with Daddy at work

At work with Mommy

On New Year's Eve, Aaron had to work because it was the end of the quarter. I had the week off from work and I was excited to take Ava to visit Daddy for lunch. I had to finish my final expense report before the end of the year so I brought her up to my desk first. She enjoyed playing with her book while I was busy at the computer. Then we met Aaron for lunch! Aaron and I both work at the same company and even in the same building! He just recently moved to another building a couple blocks away, but it was fun when we were in the same building. Ava got to meet our coworkers and she was very friendly that day. We had fun! She's excited to visit Daddy for lunch again soon!

a

Watching Diego

Ava is really into watching Diego, even more than Dora! We have Amazon Prime and we can get free streaming movies on the computer. We limit her TV time so it's a big treat! She knows how to work the iPad and iPhones, of course! When she's on my laptop watching Diego, she tries to push bottons on the screen because she thinks it's a touch screen. We just got her a kids table, which is in the kitchen now. She really likes having her own size furniture to have a snack, do art projects, or play with her baby dolls. She often moves the two chairs so they're side by side so she can sit next to her baby, which is really sweet.

Washing dishes after making brownies

For my January Freezer Meal Exchange, I made homemade brownies. Ava is really into chocolate! She was so excited to taste the batter, which she never does with when we're baking. Then after we got the brownies in the oven she asked me to help her wash the dirty dishes. She pushed the step stool to the sink and put on my gloves. It was so cute!

It's so surreal that Ava is about to turn 3 years old. People ask us if we're planning to have more children. We're not sure which way we'll go. Aaron takes the possibility of adding to our family very seriously when it comes to more responsibility where I see more about the emotional side of having another person to love. It's hard to say what will happen in the future, but we're really enjoying this moment in time with our little family!

Christmas 2012

Ava told us she asked Santa for Baby Dolls and Princesses.

Engrossed with her new Leap Pad on the long drive.

We spent a long weekend at the Lake visiting Aaron's parents and siblings over Christmas. We were excited for Christmas because of the break from work and time with family and friends. Aaron's sister, Jessica, and her husband, Nick, were in town from Portland and we spent time with my other sister-in-law Megan and her family from Chicago. Ava and her cousin, Colin, have so much fun together! I wish I had snapped a picture of my 10-month old niece, Grace, who was having fun keeping up with the preschoolers.

It was stressful finishing all the shopping, Christmas cards, and packing for the trip! I had Friday off from work to get everything done while Aaron worked late to finish up his work for quarter. We exchanged a couple presents on Friday night after he got home. Ava opened up a present from us, which was peel-able Velcro play food for her kitchen. She also opened up the gift from Grandma Anna and Bernard, which was a Leap Pad! She was so excited to have her own "pad." After she went to sleep, I configured it on the computer to get it ready for the drive up to the Lake.




As soon as we arrived on Saturday morning to the Lake, she looked around the house pointing out the Christmas decorations that Grandma and Paga put up since our Thanksgiving visit. She loved the nativity scene. Soon enough the house filled up with family. Ava was so happy to see Colin and Gracie! I made turkey and bean chili for dinner, then finally Jess and Nick showed up after a nightmare travel experience from the West Coast. Nick's luggage was stuck at O'Hare and he didn't get it until late Sunday night.

She went right for the nativity scene.

Story time with her Daddy and cousin, Colin.

Playing with her new princess castle!

 On Sunday, we relaxed and had a big dinner with Colin's Gingerich grandparents, Grandma Berkey, Aaron's Berkey aunt and uncle and cousin, and his best friend, Zac and his family. Todd and Megan made beef sliders and garlic mashed potatoes for dinner. It was delicious! Zac's son, Colt, gave Ava her Christmas present - a princess castle. She loves it! It has a princess and a "daddy" in the set too. Ava gave Colt his Christmas gift and we got lucky because he loves match games.

On Christmas Eve morning, we opened all our presents from under the tree. Grandma and Papa Berkey got Ava a pink tricycle, more play food, a kitty music keyboard and more princess things! She got a special delivery from Santa filled with princess dress-up stuff, a baby doll diaper bag, and a set of princess balls. We ate a lasagna dinner and then headed out for Christmas Eve service at church. Ava loved the music! Grandma took her to the front row and she really enjoyed listening to the music. After church, we got home around 9pm. I was thankful that Ava had an extra long and later afternoon nap. She had plenty of energy for the Bollinger-Berkey Christmas Eve get together after church. We gathered at the Lake and had a great time. After the kids went to bed, we played a game and stayed up way too late!

Since Megan and Todd had to leave on Christmas morning to his parents house, we did all of our celebrations on Christmas Eve. So we slept in a bit and relaxed all morning with Nick and Jess. We drove home and arrived late afternoon. We had such an awesome Christmas! I hope you did too!
 

Playing piano together.

Colin, Ava and Colt.