Tagged...

What is his name? Steven Paul Astle
How long have you been together? Almost three years.
How long did you date? One month until we got engaged (fast I know), and then had a five month engagement.
How old is he? He is 25, younger then me by 10 months.
Who eats more? Him, but when I was pregnant, I think I did.
Who said I love you first? He did, it was really sweet.
Who is taller? He is. I'm only 5'2", it doesn't take much to be taller then me.
Who can sing better? Let's just say neither of us received much talent in the voice area.
Who is smarter? Steven is, he really is very smart.
Who does the laundry? I do the laundry. I really don't mind doing it. Plus I'm kinda picky about how it's done. But he will do a load now and then if I ask him too.
Who pays the bills? I do, probably my least favorite job because of the stress involved. But Steven really doesn't have the time.
Who sleeps on the right side? If your facing the bed Steven does.
Who mows the lawn? Steven does. I have mowed it once though.
Who cooks dinner? I do. But every once in a great while Steven will do it, always a nice surprise.
Who drives? Steven does, only because I don't like to drive if I don't have to.
Who is more stubborn? Oh Steven is for sure!
Who kissed who first? He kissed me.
Who proposed? Steven did of course. It was very romantic, maybe I'll tell that story sometime, I don't feel like typing it right now.
Who has more friends? I would say it's pretty equal, most of our friends our other couples we hang out with, so it's pretty even.
Who is more sensitive? I am for sure, but Steven knows how to be sensitive too.
Who has more siblings? Steven does by one.
Who wears the pants? I would say we both do equally.

I tag: Anyone who hasn't already done this one!

Brad Paisley!!!

For my birthday my friend Lisa bought me a ticket to the Brad Paisley concert this past Saturday! It was sooo fun! I love Brad!! He puts on such a great show!! I saw him last year too, I can never get enough Brad Paisley! Anyway, we had a girls night out! It was Lisa & I and Lisa's daughter Carissa and her two friends Destiny and Vivianne. We went to dinner before and then headed out to the ampatheather!

Here we all are waiting for the show to start. We had lawn seats, it was such a nice night hanging out on a blanket watching a great show! For those of you who don't know...from left- Lisa, me, Vivianne, Carissa, & Destiny. The cute girls, they are all going to be Juniors in high school next year. They were a lot of fun to hangout with for the night.
Here is Brad! Since we had lawn seats, it was hard to take pictures of the stage, but I had to at least get one. This was when he was playing "Ticks"
I took a picture of the big screen, so you could see his face a little better.

It was so fun! Thanks Lisa for a great night!!
P.S. This was the longest I have left Ava for. My mom watched her for me and said she did great!

Random

Here are a few other random pictures...I'm working on getting caught up on my posting my pictures on here if you can't tell :)

Ava and me, I think this was taken on Fathers Day if I remember correctly?
This was a picture Steven took with his camera phone one morning when he and Ava were laying in bed together. I think it shows how much she looks like him!
These next few pictures were taken on Fathers Day, all the dads napping at my parents house. Well I guess Blake isn't a dad yet. They were all napping at the same time, so I had to get some pictures.

Hanging out

Here are a few pictures from the last few days....they got out of order when I was loading them. I don't know why I am having such a problem with that lately??

Steven and I took Ava swimming in our pool for the first time, she loved it!!
Just a cute picture of her. Here is our little swimmer, just hanging out in her little floaty thing.

This is how she feel asleep on her Great Grandma Empey's floor.

Sitting on uncle Blake's new bike, making my daddy very jealous and my mommy very nervous! (Grandpa Ron is holding her on there)

So there are a few of our summer happenings. We've just been hanging out trying to keep cool in the hot weather!

Tagged

JOYS:
1. My family
2. Traveling
3. Feeling organized

FEARS:
1. Someone breaking into our house and taking Ava out of her crib at night. Which is one of the reasons why she is still sleeping in our room. I'll get there soon enough.
2. Losing any of my family members.
3. The dark. Yes, I am still afraid of the dark.

GOALS:
1. To be a good mother and wife. (yes I know that's two)
2. To get Steven through school
3. To lose the baby weight, plus a little more.

CURRENT OBSESSIONS:
1. Ava
2. The Twilight series
3. So You Think You Can Dance (I LOVE this show!)

RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS:
1. I love new jeans, I have more jeans then I need, I will admit it.
2. I love taking a shower, it's one of my favorite times of my day.
3. I don't know what I would do without spell check, I'm terrible at spelling.

I tag whoever wants to do this. You know you want to

Today and Friday

Here are a bunch of pictures. Mostly from today at my parents house, but a few from when my Aunt Lynn, cousin Alysia and her daughter Braydee Lou were visiting from Idaho this past week. My parents had a BBQ at their house on Friday while they were here with my grandma and grandpa Empey. These pictures got way out of order when I was adding them, I don't know what I did?? So anyway, here they are...enjoy!

I'm still here!

Just checking in letting everyone know our Internet has been down, we can't figure out what's wrong with it. Steven thinks he might have cut a wire when he was up in the attic a few weeks ago installing a whole house fan. So I'm not sure when it will be back up. I'm at my parents house right now, checking everyone's blogs.
Just a little Ava update, I took her in for her two month well baby check-up this past week. She is 13lbs 2oz and 23 3/4 inches long! Big girl! She's in the 99th percentile for her weight and 95th percentile for her height! She is doing so great and smiling all the time now! I'll get a picture up as soon as I can.
Also, for those of you who don't know, I am starting a daycare...I'll be doing daycare out of our home, so our life has been consumed with a new baby and getting our house ready for daycare! I am getting licensed and as well as having a preschool program for kids of that age. We just had our house inspected this morning and we passed! So a week from Monday I'll be up and running. I'm excited to start even though I think I might go a little crazy! lol. It will be good for us, we really need me to still have an income, but I didn't want to have to go back to working out of the home after having Ava, so here we are. I'll be doing this for probably the next 5 years or so until Steven finishes school. So wish me luck!!
Well, that is an update of what is going on in our life! Hopefully up Internet will be up and running soon so I can be back to blogging more regularly!

Ava's Blessing

This past Sunday we had Ava blessed. It was such an amazing feeling to have Steven bless our daughter. I really can't explain it, but those of you who have already been through this experience probably know what I mean. The spirit was with me so strongly all day. It was such a great day!
Here are a just a few pictures we took of Ava, she is just so beautiful! I know some of these are kinda blurry, I don't know why I have such a hard time getting a clear picture, no one else seems to have this problem, I think I just have shaky hands or something.

The blanket was made by Ruth Wilder, a good friend of my family.

I love this picture of her and Steven! He didn't know I was taking this, I'm so glad I caught the moment! It shows how in love with her he is. Steven is an amazing father, I can't believe how well and how fast he transitioned into fatherhood. He has been so great since day one, I am so thankful for him and love him so much!!

New pictures of AJ

So here are a bunch of new pictures of Ava. I know it's been a while, I've been meaning to get on here and put these up I just haven't sat down and done it. But my dad told me that Linda has requested more pictures asap, so here you go :)
Also, we had her two week well baby check up last week (she was actually three weeks old, her Dr. couldn't get her in any sooner). She is now 9.4 lbs and 21 inches! I can't believe how much bigger she is! And as of yesterday she is no longer in new born diapers. It's crazy how fast babies grow!

She is definitely her daddy's daughter!

I love this pic because it looks like she is annoyed with me that I put that big ol' hat on her.

This was this morning before church, her first time going.

My dad is a baby hog, he won't let anyone else hold her when he has her, it's pretty funny!



She is such a sweaty baby! I don't know if all babies sweat this much, but the poor girl is always sweaty. You can see her shinny sweaty face here.

Napping on grandpas lap.

Introducing....

Ava Janae Astle

4/4/08

7lbs 8oz & 20.25"

8:37am

We are so happy to finally have her here!

Just getting ready to leave the hospital. Sorry for the bad picture of Steven.

She is a very happy content little girl, with big blue eyes and lots of dark hair that we think will probably fall out and grow back blond. So far, everyone is saying she looks a lot like Steven, she has most of his facial features.

She is a very loved little girl!

Birth Story...

For those of you who haven't heard, I'll give a little recap of the loooong labor/birth.

I went to the Dr. on the 31st to have my check up, one week over due. He decided to have me induced the next day. So Tuesday 4/1/08 we went to the hospital at 7:00am they put a little pill (I can't remember the name) on my cervix that is supposed to make it thin out and then cause me to start having contractions. When I got to the hospital I was only 2cm, 70% effaced. After a couple of hours the contractions started coming, not very strong, but slowly getting stronger and closer together. By mid afternoon, my contractions seemed to be progressing quite well, so we were pretty excited thinking that night we would have her here. But little Ava decided to pull and April fools joke on us. Around 4:30 everything started slowing down...eventually to almost nothing. So my Dr. decided at midnight to send me home to get some rest and eat some food. He told me to stay home all day Wednesday, hoping that I would go into labor and if not then to come back Thursday morning and they would induce me again. We decided to do this to try to avoid having to have a c section. So, nothing exciting happened all day Wednesday, just very light contractions about 30 min. apart. So on Thursday we were back at the hospital at 12:00pm. They checked me and I was 2.5 cm and 80% effaced. Not much progress at all. They put the pill on my cervix again, and again a couple of hours later the contractions started coming, but not very strong and still not very close together. And my body wasn't making much progress. So at 4:30 my Dr. broke my water and then shortly after that the contractions came on! I endured them for 2 hours (2 of the most painful hours of my life) They checked me after two hours of really good contractions and I was only 3 cm, 90% effaced! I thought I was gonna die! So I asked for the epidural, and then life was much better. I was in labor for 13 more hours!!! Thankfully not feeling the crazy contractions I was having. Finally after an hour of pushing and the Dr. having to help with the vacuum, she arrived at 8:37am!

It was a very long week! But so worth every minute of it!! And Steven has been so great through all of it! I couldn't have asked him to do anything better.

I think my dad has some better pictures on his camera, so as soon as he gets those to me, I'll post some more pictures.