Strickler Family...

Getting together with my Mom's side of the family seems almost impossible.  But this past year, we added three new additions to the family, and my oldest cousins and I decided we all needed to get together and take a family picture.  It just so happened that Memorial Day weekend worked well for ALL of us, and it was also right before my Grandmother's 85th birthday, an added bonus.  So on Saturday, we all descended on Staunton, Va and drove our children, and parents, crazy with copious pictures.  

As you can see in the first one, Miss Hannah did not find this fun.  Actually, with everything going on, I didn't realize it was time for a bottle. Shortly thereafter, she was her happy self again.  And this picture is proof that she isn't always happy. 

(Left to Right, Back to Front) 

Ava, Jackson, Hannah, Carson, & Beatrix

 

Hannah, Carson, & Bea

 The entire Strickler Family

the Grandchildren with spouses/girlfriends

(Left to Right, Back to Front)

Jon (spouse), Skip (cousin), Marisa (cousin), 

Jake (spouse), Nathan (you know him!)

Annie (cousin - married to Jon), Elizabeth (dating Skip)

 Bethany (cousin), Ginny (cousin - married to Jake), & Me.

 
Oh, and yes, we all planned to wear white and green with splashes of pink.  We put WAY too much thought into this.

Annie with her youngest Carson, Me & Miss Hannah

If only Ava would have smiled...  

she was totally DONE by this point. 

 Ava & Jackson with Nana

 Carson & Hannah

 Carson & Bea

 Ava with Nana

Ava with PawPaw

I love this sequence...  

 Carson "Oooo, I love your hat."

 Bea "That't MY hat!"

Babies are much happier when they have something to chew on.

Nana with her Grandchildren (6) and Great Grandchildren (5)

 Nana (Grandma to me!) with Uncle David's family

Flying Bea

Nana with Uncle Mark's family 

(Jackson was about as thrilled as Ava)

 Our family with Grandma aka "Nana"

 fixing the porch swing

 Our photographer for the day was Jon's brother Jimmy.  We couldn't leave him out of the pictures.  We are all looking forward to seeing the ones he took... hopefully they are better than the ones we took. 

 sweethearts!

 not too bad...  quite a bit of cropping had to take place   ;o)

 cousins

Ginny (middle) and I are only 6 months apart in age.  

We have some incredibly bad Olan Mills pictures of us from when we are babies. 

 Fast Friends.  Jackson and Ava reunited after 2 years

On Sunday morning before we headed back to WV, Ava went exploring with PawPaw.  

 isn't it just beautiful? 

 one of my favorite places, the front porch swing, Ava likes it too.

Once back in WV it was too nice not to be outside.  The winter has really done it's work on us, and we are enjoying the green grass and blue skies of WV.

How high can she go?

 High enough to kick the leaves.  She was thrilled. 

 Racing with Daddy.

 I don't know why in the world I even included this picture...  maybe just proof that I can still do it. (and no, I didn't get much air, the trampoline needs major tightening, very little bounce.)

Ava & Hannah with Mimi & PawPaw before we left. 

Still here...

I don't even know what to say.  It's the end of May and our last post was in February.  I don't know how some of my friends find the time to sit down and post to their blogs each week.  I'd love to be able to do that, but it feels impossible. 

 Let's do a quick picture catch up as to what we've been up to the past three months. These are all out of order... 


Hannah Kate is now 8, almost 9 months old.  She is pure joy and a wonderful baby.  She is also toothless!  We've been waiting on teeth for 2 months now and nothing but lots of slobber, chew toys, a few fussy days thrown in there. Despite what she might say, or how she might act, Ava LOVES Hannah and has been a very good big helper. 

On Mother's Day, we had Hannah dedicated, and Mimi came up as she did for Ava...  5 years ago! (wow, time flies)

 

Ava also "graduated" from Pre-K.  They had a small carnival and I believe we came home with three stuffed snails, a fake snake (YUCK!), some temp. tattoos, candy, and other stuff.  She had a blast, but is incredibly excited for Kindergarten. 

 

  

Kindergarten Registration and Testing.

 We were picking colors to paint the hall...  can you guess which colors Ava picked out?

Most of the pictures are on my phone, but Ava got to experience the circus for the first time this year.  It was lots of fun, and she was incredibly spoiled by the whole experience.  From an adult's point of view, it was quite entertaining, and we had fun too.

 And a few extracurricular activities thrown in there as well. 

Now that summer is here, we hope to get outside a lot more.  The winter in the Burgh lasted much longer than it should have!  We have several projects that we are hoping to get done (painting, building a deck, tile work, etc.), and we want to squeeze in at least one trip to the lake... make that two!  So, we plan to stay busy this summer as usual.  Hopefully we can find time to update the blog with pictures so those of you who we don't see often, can see how we are doing. 

Now it's on to the next thing.  Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Oops!

So about three weeks ago I started this post.  Hannah had just turned 4 months and I was planning to share pictures of her along with her stats.  But as it does all the time, life got in the way.  We rarely sit down...  what am I talking about, I don't sit down.  A lot of the time I don't actually sit down until after Ava is in bed.  (You'd think I'd be skinnier from all that moving around... hehe).  And the only reason I'm sitting down right now is that Ava is napping, she has a tummy bug and it has knocked her out.  Here's to hoping the rest of us don't get it.  

So better late than never... and before she turns 5 months next week, Happy 4 months Hannah.  :o)

And as for stats, I don't really remember other than she is in the 30% for weight (13.6 lbs I think), 75% for length, and 90% for head cm. 

who is having more fun?

This is how she sleeps... all the time.

Hannah and her friend Jonathan at Journey Group.  They are were born about one month apart.