29 years...

29 years, one husband and two daughters. I guess it is exactly what I had hoped for! I love my little family and they are so sweet to me. My birthday was no exception...I got to sleep in and then we all headed to lunch in downtown Pineville. We ate at Two on Earth Bakery with the girls and then Randy and I headed to play a round at a Par 3 course (that stunk by the way but it didn't even matter- we had so much fun!)Then we went and showered/changed and headed to dinner just the two of us. We were long overdue for a nice date like that. We had a wonderful time and came home in time to have cake and open presents with Bella.

Joe Gibbs Racing Tour

We aren't exactly Nascar fans but we have a dear family friend that has worked for Joe Gibbs for 20+ years. I don't know why but I had never been before the other day. Randy and I took the girls to get a private tour and I am so glad we did! We learned so much and got to really see the inside of the racing world. It was so neat to hear about Joe Gibbs and how he runs his business. He is a man of such great character.

Bella didn't like all the information as much as we did but our friend was sure to take care of her in other ways- she got to sit in one of the race cars! In general the public cannot get down to the floor where they are making & fixing the race cars much less get in a car so it was quite the treat! She also got a cute little pink hat, a stuffed Scooby Doo & a special Vegas coin. (Ava got a little outfit too).

You would be shocked at the amount of work and careful planning that goes into this sport. One of the things we saw were these check off sheets taped to the cars. We were able to see where this car would be racing and when so this past Sunday we tuned in and got to see this exact car Bella sat in being raced in Michigan. She was pretty excited to put it all together :)

Murrell's Inlet Beach Trip

We headed to the beach with my family for a long weekend and had a ton of fun. My uncle Les from Knoxville got to come and so did my walking-miracle Grandma! We stayed at my brother-in-law's house in Murrell's Inlet- south of Myrtle Beach in a private harbor. It is so gorgeous! They are right on the beach with their own pool and all the luxuries. There is a nice little spot to walk to at the end where the water is shallow and there are few waves which was fun for Bella. We saw some baby jellyfish, a few crabs & lots of porpoises.

My granny, also known as Grammi, Grandma, Gma, or Gramma :)

We made dinner at the house most nights, but we went to dinner one night at a cool place called Creek Rats. Bella had a blast dancing the night away!

And... since we were all together, we celebrated my birthday that night too!

We took Bella to play Putt Putt one night by herself to give her a little one on one time plus we worked on puzzles a lot before we would go to bed.

The guys golfed some.

The girls played a lot.

And of course we tried to get lots of pictures of everyone too!

It was really cool to take Ava as we had taken Bella a few years ago when she was 3 months old. It made for some cool comparison shots. (top- Ava, bottom- Bella)

6 months

Ava was 6 months on the fourth. I am just that behind! She turned from back to front a couple of weeks ago for the first time. She had been trying for a while but never could get that one arm out from under her. She sits up for small amounts of time on her own too. Catching that on camera is hard though- every time she sees the camera, she starts slowly falling backwards. I finally caught it the other day but I had to sneak it from the side :)

We had her 6 month check up earlier this week and she was 16 lbs. 15.5 oz.! She is in the 80th percentile for height which means... she may be more like her daddy than her sister or mama!

Here she is turning over- right before she gets that arm out of the way!

And here she is sitting up.

so behind

to post soon:

ava's 6 month shoot & update
trip to Joe Gibbs Racing
beach trip with my family
final summer trip to the zoo
& my birthday

(when i get my groove back, that is. feeling a little under the weather since my birthday dinner)

mourning time

that's right. mourning time. not to be confused with morning time.

that is what i have come to call it after a day of annoying reminders and two sweet conversations- one with my sister and one with my husband. i have talked to almost all of my friends and family about it over the last month and even felt comfortable with the idea until today. and now its mourning time.

i don't usually get this personal on here so be forewarned this isn't a bunch of pictures of silly faces and typical milestones. this is my confession. an entry to be placed in here with the rest of the memories i have recorded in our little family's story.

today...i packed up my pumping parts. the pump is still sprawled out on the living room floor but i took the first step and packed up the parts.

i have made fun of people for this kind of thing (i guess that is what i get) and yes here i am feeling sad, mourning the short time i was able to nurse Ava.

i nursed Bella for a year and her weight gain was always perfect. i had trouble in the very beginning but after a short couple of weeks, she was a pro and i felt like one too. maybe it was all of my amazing friends and their role modeling for me, but it just seemed much easier with her. i slowly weened her and had her last nursing session on the night of her first birthday.

Ava came out of the womb ready to eat, unlike her moody big sister. she was a big baby (8 lbs 3 oz) and latched on perfectly. no pain. no soreness. just blissful nursing. i was so thankful! my milk came in quickly and everything went well for months. i felt the suffocation and the "aahhh! i wish somebody else could help me with this!" feeling but overall, it went great, better than i expected it would.

i took her to her four month check up and she had only gained a pound. boom. it hit me like a ton of bricks. looking back, there were signs but it didn't sink in until the words were coming out of my mouth in the doctor's office, "that's not enough, is it?" oh my gosh! i had been starving my child. well, that is what it felt like anyway. the next month i felt so much pressure. i had to take supplements and pray and talk to everyone i knew. i had to pump more, clean more and give more bottles. i had to buy formula and supplement that too. it never got better and i don't know if i gave up at some point or if it just wasn't in the cards for Ava and i but somewhere between five month and six months, my milk supply vanished. i didn't think i would be upset. i thought i would hear freedom bells and feel like dancing, but instead i have been mourning.

Ava did everything right and was such a good little eater. i don't really know what happened but it became a reality when i woke up in the middle of night a couple of weeks ago and realized i had gotten that lovely monthly reminder... four months too soon (that's one of the many perks of breastfeeding!) i didn't even get a little "last time" session with her because she had thrush the last week of my milk's supply.

the good news is she has gained four pounds since her four month check up and i could tell a difference in her the very night i began supplementing. the bad news is this mama is all emotional and feeling down about it.

today was hard as it began with some reminders (which seemed to be everywhere!) that "breast is best." i bagged up all of my pumping parts as they spilled out of the cabinet one last time and washed my nursing covers to be folded and put away for later and then read another mom's blog only to find out it was all about her story of success on the topic, in honor of world breastfeeding week. that's right, world breastfeeding week! man i picked a great week to have closed the doors on my breastfeeding journey. today was the first time i told someone i use formula exclusively and i could barely get the words out of mouth. i am usually sharing my success. it has been a humbling day. its mourning day. the first of many i am sure- for this is the beginning of our little baby's growing up.

*update: since i originally posted this, i got a nice little surprise. i am not sure how it worked out like it did. the only way to describe it is the Lord gave me a sweet little gift. the next morning i packed away my pump and some time that day i started to feel some pain in my breasts- kind of like engorgement. this was it! God gave me one last, small nursing session with Ava! it came out of nowhere and hasn't happened again but i took in every second and praise the Lord for it.

Figure 8 Island Trip

Figure 8 Island is in Wilmington, NC. As long as I have lived here and gone to Wilmington (mostly in college to see friends), I had never heard of Figure 8 until we were planning the Eich family trip. It was private and absolutely gorgeous plus we were just minutes from the town of Wilmington. Apparently it is the place the stars rent. We were told Gwyneth Paltrow & Robert Downey Jr. were staying there while filming Ironman III. We got to peak at the set while were there. We also heard that Jennifer Aniston was filming in Wilmington and the new Nicholas Sparks movie was being filmed in Southport.

As soon as we got there, we headed to the beach!
Ava put her toes in the sand for the first time.

And then in the ocean...

The first full day we were there was Randy and I's five year anniversary so we celebrated on a sunset cruise and had dessert at Riverboat Landing- both in beautiful downtown Wilmington. (We like to say it is a mini Charleston.)

We spent the days playing on the beach, catching craps & starfish, making sand castles, flying kites and swimming in the tide pools. The kids had an absolute blast. Bella adores her cousins and Ava was a peach- taking her morning nap on the beach and then joining in the fun after that.

One day we went to the aquarium in Fort Fisher (Randy, Bella, Ava, Pop Pop and I) and the others (Jay, Lindsey, Sophie, Stone and GaYa) went to Battleship NC. (We didn't think climbing the ladders with Ava would work and Bella was not quite ready for that kind of thing.) Highlights of our visit to the aquarium: Watching the alligators, Bella touching a Bamboo shark & seeing a fish/turtle feeding.

We spent nights eating dinner together at the house and taking walks on the beach. One night we went to Bluewater for dinner- beautiful place- and another night I managed to get out to see my bestie, Lauren! Everyone else had fun playing Putt Putt that night.
Before we left the house on the island we tried to get a family shot of the four of us:

And last but not least we spent the last day there in downtown Wilmington doing some sight-seeing with Lauren. She and her husband, Kyle, live there. She showed us around a bit and we grabbed lunch and ice cream too. It was the perfect ending to a week long vacation.

And we managed to take a peak at the Battleship after all.