Back in "My Texas"

We decided to take the New Mexico way back to Texas. The drive home went by so quickly! We passed by Arches and I got a little taste of the real arch that I've never seen.

 We stopped to see the Monticello temple.

We stayed the night in Albuquerque, and then the next evening we were back home in Texas! Ava was sooooo excited to go home. She kept saying, "my Texas!" It was nice to get back home because we like it here! Ava especially likes the pool:

 If you can zoom in on this picture, you'll see a huge grin on her face.

Ava and I went to an ice cream relief society activity about Sundays (sundaes). They had it decorated so cute.

Brent's very anxious to potty-train Ava before baby #2 comes, so we worked on learning to sit and pee on the potty. We have a long ways to go. But Ava did get a popsicle a few times for peeing on the potty.

Proud face:

We went to my doctor for a check-up right when we got back- 28 weeks.

Triple checked now: this baby is a BOY.

Brent's first day of school- I made him pose for a picture :) He has two classes this semester and the third one is working on his masters thesis. He also is a TA/co-teaching a class for undergrads. He is also watching Ava for me while I work and looking at phd programs, so it's a busy time!

Ava looking cute with her doll. She is so attached to this doll and I hope it's helping her practice being a good big sister.

She loves watching the garbage truck come:

Work was really hard for me during September. Busy and stressful and working more than I wanted. Luckily the benefit of working from home is having ice cream therapy (although that's put on hold at the moment with gestational diabetes now).

My grandma sent me this great maternity website that had awesome deals! I got this cute shirt. And here's our mother-daughter mirror selfie.

Ava kills me because any time we go anywhere she has to pack a bag. She is such her father's daughter, packing as much in to a bag and trying to take as much as possible. Here she is ready to go to the library (and I'm holding another bag she packed).

We talked a lot to Ava about Laura's wedding coming up. She was very excited that they were going to kiss. A video:

For weekend fun we went to a Tex-mex place called Fuzzy's. These brisket nachos were the bomb.

While Brent was at school one day I was trying to get some work done during Ava's quiet time. (She resists napping but we usually can still get her to take a nap in the late afternoon. If not, she gets quiet time). I went in to check on Ava because she sounded like she was being wild. This is what I found:

Yes, that is her diaper somehow wrapped around her middle, but with the velcro still in tact. It took everything I had not to bust up laughing. I sent this picture to Brent and he was just about crying. 

On September 1 it was Ava's "half-birthday" and I decided we should celebrate since Ava is so obsessed with birthdays. I'm so happy we did because she was ecstatic. We watched the un-birthday scene from Alice in Wonderland, Brent made her a birthday hat, and we had cupcakes. 

A video:

I failed my first glucose screening test so I had to go back to my doctor's office for the 3 hour test, fasting, to find out if I have gestational diabetes. I was so nervous about it because I still feel sick if I don't eat every few hours, and the first one hour test had made me feel so yucky. Brent and Ava came along for moral support for the first bit and went out shopping for the last 2 hours. I did much better this time and got through the fasting part :) Brent sent me with a DVD player to help pass the time.

While we were in Utah I got the results- yep, I have gestational diabetes. More on that later. On Saturday morning we got on the plane and went back to Utah for Laura's wedding!