Welcome to our website!

Hope your first month of 2012 went off well for you and your family. Ours went by quickly which is good since David is away at Basic Training for the Army National Guard. David will be graduating on February 9, 12 and will return home with us! Ashley and Ava are looking forward to having David back and getting things back to normal. Other than David being away not much has changed in our lives. Thank you for continuing to check out this website - we enjoy keeping you in our lives as much as possible! Have a great February! The next set of photos will include David's graduation photos! Yay!!!

Happy New Year!!! The holiday season quickly past by for our family this year. We were thankful to have David back home for the holidays but are not looking forward to him going back to Basic Training on January 3rd. He will be there for another 5 weeks - graduation will be on February 9th. During David's leave we were able to spend lots of time together as a family which was very much needed for all of us. Hope you all had a wondeful holiday season and hope 2012 brings you as much joy as we hope it brings to our little family.

David has been away in Basic Combat Training (BCT) for over 5 weeks now. He is currently in Fort Leonard Wood, MO. David will get a 2 week block leave from December 20, 11 to January 3, 2012. David will graduate on February 9, 2012 and will begin Officer Candidate School (OCS) in March 2012 by completing one weekend per month. OCS will be an 18 month program. Our little family (David, Ashley and Ava) have been doing our best to adapt to the seperation. Ashley and Ava miss having David around, but are handling things in Iowa well on their own and are very much looking forward to having David home for his leave. David was sick for a few weeks with Bronchitis but is feeling much better and passing all of the tests that he is enduring (as far as we know anyways!). Ava is growing very quickly and we are all in shock that she will be turning 3 years in a few short weeks. Time has gone very quickly for this little family. Although life is not always easy, it is worth it and we thank God everyday for what we have and we are truely blessed to have the little family that we do! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All!

Wow I have been trying to get the July photos up for about 2 weeks now... sorry I am a slacker. We had a busy July month looking back on photos. We had an amazing 4th of July with a wonderful city firework display. We had a great visit with Patty and David Heiman (Ava's godparents), went camping with Matt and Lynn, visited 2 museums and a historical sight. We enjoyed a few farmer's markets and ate lots of ice cream to stay cool in the hot humid weather! We are looking forward to fall weather but I am guessing that we will have snow on the ground again before I know it...

What a busy busy month! Ava was invited to 2 of her friends birthday parties - she was the youngest at both but held her own and had a blast! Chuck E Cheese was a blast for her and now she knows all about "coins" and "money". Ava was fortunate to join mom and her work on a field trip to the National Mississippi River museum. It was a fun but very crazy with a total of 117 of us in attendance! Ava and mommy had their first trip (of hopefully many) trips to the Mall of America! It was a blast and Ava was a great shopper! and made out with some goods from the Dora Store! Father's Day was amazing - we went to church then planned to attend a festival at a local partk. Well, the festival was a bust but the splash pad was quite attractive to Daddy and Ava so they played in the water and got soaked! Ava was the only kid out there dripping wet in her Sunday clothes! Luckily we had a change of clothes for her in the car... We ended Father's Day with steak off our grill. It was a perfect day for a wonderful dad! Lastly, Ava is becoming an expert swimmer since she is taking swimming lessons! Hopefully she will continue to prosper into a good swimmer and will enjoy playing in the water with daddy!

Can you believe it is already June 2011? Time sure has gone fast for me our our little DeLayo clan. It seems like just last week we were moving to Iowa and now we have been here over half a year. We have spent the last month very busy with the celebration of Ashley, Matt and Lynn's Birthdays as well as with Karl and Alan visiting us from Ridgecrest! We were fortunate enough to get to spend memorial day in Cincinnati visiting with the Padjen's. It was so much fun to meet our new nephew Jack and see Ava and Emme play together. June will be a fun filled month with Grandma Angie and her side of the family coming out for a visit as well and later in the month grandma Jean Ann and her family. Hope you enjoy our photos and we will post more at the end of this month!

Time is flying faster than we can ever imagine! Ava is a very active two year old. She is enjoying her day care with 7 other children and is picking up words all the time! Ava's vocabulary has sky rocketed and we now question what words she can't say! Ava is now sleeping in a big girl toddler bed and is doing really well in it. Ava has only slept with us once in the 2 months she has been in her toddler bed! Ava is addicted to Dora and if we would allow she would watch it all day long and would only wear Dora items and use Dora cups/toys/etc. Ava enjoys dressing up, playing in her house, playing outside with the dogs and going for walks. Hope you enjoy the photos of Ava growing up and of our first REALLY big snow storm!

Happy New Year!!! Can you believe that Ava is now 2 years old!?!? Where has time gone?!?! Now that Ava has two she has found a new independance and her vocabulary and speech has tripled. Ava loves to help cook, vaccuum, fold laundry, etc. Ava uses multiple sentences including "Where's _"mama/dada/doggies/etc_?" "Beef Stick Please" "Bye Buddy Buy Duchess" and lots lots more! I am so proud of our little toddler! We are enjoying our new place and adjusting to the Iowa winter. We have become "naturals" at snow blowing, shoveling and driving in the snow. We are looking forward to spring so we can spend more time outdoors and allow for Ava to play at all the parks that surround our neighborhood. I will continue to post pictures as often as possible... I am a busy mom and full time employee now!

Time sure has flown by for us the past two months! I can't believe my last post was in Ridgecrest, CA on Sept. 1st. Since the last post we have traveled to Cedar Rapids, IA for a job interview for David, gone to New Orleans for a wedding, back to Cedar Rapids to house hunt then we managed to pack up our lives in Ridgecrest and move across the country! We arrived in Cedar Rapids late on October 14th after a nice few days in Albuquerque where we got to go to the Balloon Fiestas! We got the keys to our new house on October 15th and David started his new job at Rockwell Collins on October 18th. I managed to find a job at a non-profit called Young Parents Network where I am the Moms Program Specialist. I started my job on November 1st. I am part time at 28 hours a week but have managed to work 34-36 hours a week... I am hoping things will slow down and I will be able to actually be part time and spend more time at home and with Ava. Speaking of Ava, she is enjoying her new day care where she is cared for by a nice lady named Pam. Pam watches Ava along with 7 other children throughout the week. 6 of the 7 other kids are boys, so Ava gets lots of attention to say the least and is learning to love to play with cars! We are getting ready for our first big snow which should happen any day now. We are holding our breathes that the snow and cold weather here in Iowa does not make us regret our choice of moving from the desert. I guess only time will tell how we feel about chilly wet winters! Thanksgiving is right around the corner so I am happy that I am able to sit here and update this website before the holidays once again consume my life. We will be having the DeLayos and Padjens to our house for Thanksgiving and we are so happy and blessed that they are willing and able to make it to us to see our new home, city and life that we have just started to create here in the midwest. We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and I do plan to continue to post on here more frequently... at least monthly that is!

We have had a wonderful and busy month with lots of visitors. Great Grandma Yvonne, Great Grandpa Manuel, Aunt Chrissy and Cousins Annika and Carter came out for a long weekend which we jammed packed with lots of activies which were all a lot of fun!!! Grandma Angie, Aunt Ollie and Cousin Krystal came out for a quick weekend visit to pick up the cradle grandpa Steve made and took it back to NM with them. Grandpa Brad and Grandma Jackie came out for one night to enjoy a nice dinner and play with Ava. We have absolutely LOVED having company and hope to get a lot more in the future!!! Ava enjoyed camping and getting covered in dirt and ash and David enjoyed mountain biking (until he got a minor concusion - he is okay now). Ava is getting bigger by the second and learning new things by the second. Ava's favorite things to do consist of playing in the bath, reading, coloring and trying on shoes of all sizes. Ava is starting to talk more but we are still encouraging her to learn more words. We have been told to enjoy this time because once she starts talking we will never get her to stop if she is anything like her mom : ) September is going to be a very busy month for us - we are off to Cedar Rapids, IA for labor day weekend and heading to New Orleans, IA for Maria Jourdan's wedding in the middle of the month. Lots of pictures have been added, so enjoy and have a great September!

Happy fourth of July everyone! We had a great month of June with a girls trip to San Francisco for Ashley and Ava to meet Ashley's new Goddaughter, AnneMarie, and hang out with her friend Melissa. We also took a short family trip to Los Angeles for the day and had a great meal at the Cheesecake Factory which Ava loved! We had some friends (David Lucero, Amanda Sanchez and Matt Makofske) visit for a night which was a ton of fun (except that David was out of town that night). A few days ago Ava had her 18 month birthday and we had a great 4th of July weekend with grandma and grandpa DeLayo. Pictures of the 4th of July to come soon! We will keep posting more - especially after our big Kuckelman Ranch trip that is going to happen July 10-17th in Idaho! Stay out of the heat everyone!

So once again I am being harrassed to update Ava site... Lots of pictures have been added since May was a very busy month for us! There is Ava Month 16, Ava Month 16 #2 and Ava Month 16 #3. During the month we went on several hikes and we had a great mother's day with some good ice cream. We also finally took a family trip to San Diego and we were able to go to the Zoo, the Beach and the Air and Space Museum as well as do some shopping and eat a lot of good food. It was a wonderful trip that we were very happy to have taken! In May Ava got her first haircut! There was not a lot cut off but it was "cleaned up" so it looks better now. It is almost able to get into a full pony tail... hopefully soon with this massive heat we have been having. Lastly, Ava got to go to a baseball game where she was more interested in running around and people watching. It was really hot, so we just tried to keep her out of the sun! Ava loves doing "adult" activities such as feeding mommy and daddy, putting her shoes on and off, putting her baby to sleep, going for walks, reading books, rocking in her chair, brushing her hair and teeth, and completing simple puzzles. Ava now knows how to point to her nose and belly on demand which is really super cute! She thinks it is funny to stick her finger up her nose and lift her shirt to show her belly! It was quite a good month for us! Hopefully we will get used to this intense heat soon and be able to enjoy our summer. Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

Ava has been a busy bee now that summer has rolled into Ridgecrest! Ava loves being outside and insists on taking walks all the time. Ava now knows how to climb up into her stroller on her own and grunt until we take her out. Ava also has mastered climbing up on chairs by herself and getting up onto our kitchen table. Ava is attempting to get on our coffee table but luckly can't yet. I give it another week or so... In April Ava and Mom started attending a playgroup which has been fun and a good way to get some of Ava's energy out! Also, this past month Ava got her first boyfriend who is an almost 4 year old boy named Gage.Gage is the son to one of Ashley's nurses from the Allergy doctors office. Ava and Gage follow each other around and enjoy playing together. They both get upset when the other one has to leave. Dad did not like to see Gage give Ava kisses on her head but mom thought it was cute! Ava's other BIG news is that she is weaned of her pacifier!!! She has not had a suck of it since April 24th and they are all gone in the trash now!!!! Mom and Dad were happy to see them go since she pretty much has all of her teeth now. Mom got braces on April 28th and luckly Ava did not seem to notice them - she still loves and adores mom just as much as pre-braces! Now that the temperature is getting up in the 80's, we are outside playing a lot more. I will plan to post the last of Aprils photos soon but most of them are already up. Hope you all enjoy!

I can't believed I have not updated this site for a month - my deepest apologies! Ava went in for her 15 month well check yesterday and weighed in at 24 lbs 1.5 oz and was 32 inches tall. She is only in the 60th percentile for weight now but is still in the 90th for height - wonder when that will change?!?!? We had a beautiful and blessed Easter. Ava was fortunate and got to hunt eggs on Saturday and twice on Sunday! She got really good by Sunday afternoon and was finding some that us adults were walking past (such as on the tire rim). Ava's favorite part of Easter was the candy and least favorite part was the Easter Bunny! See the picture so you will know what I am talking about! Ava is getting smarter everyday - she is an expert at walking and running now and love to be chased! Ava knows to go to the fridge for her milk, knows where on the counter we keep clementines which she is addicted to, knows how to climb chairs by herself and is learning to stack legos! We love her sooo much and are impressed everyday with her new "tricks". We are still waiting for the words to start coming, but we know once she starts talking we won't be able to keep her quiet : ) We are all doing well and don't have anything else to report that I can think of - if you want to know anything, please e-mail me at ashleydelayo@hotmail.com. As always, our entire collection of pictures are at www.delayofamily.shutterfly.com.

Time is definitly getting away from me and I can't believe how long it had been since I updated... sorry! Ava is doing well and is running around like crazy now! Ava is starting to feed herself with a fork and spoon which is really cute and messy. Ava's new favorite word is "ouch" and she also says "hi there" and "uhoh". Her vocabulary is still really small, but we are sure she will be talking up a storm in no time at all. Ava loves getting her hair brushed and pretends to blow dry her hair with the travel blow dryer while mom blow dries her hair in the morning. Ava loves to play with the phone and be outside. Ava also has learned how to drink from a straw and prefers it over her sippy cup. We can't believe how much she has grown and changed - we love her so much and thank God for her everyday!

Happy Early Valentine's Day everyone! We are all doing great here in Ridgecrest - just busy with life and falling behind on updating this website. Thanks to all of you who remind me regulary to update it.... Hope you enjoy the new pictures! Ava is doing great and walking everywhere now. Ava has some friends at day care now and loves having playmates. I think the 3 year old and 4 year old will be there for only 3 weeks and the new 2 month old little boy will be around indefinitly. Ava is eating anything and everything we offer her (except lasagna!) and loves it all! Ava is drinking whole milk by the gallons (or so it seems) and love juice! We are hoping to make another trip to NM sometime soon but don't know when. We are also hoping that in 2010 we will be able to move back to NM - I guess only god knows what our future holds... We are happy with what we have, but miss our families very much! Well, have a great day of love this upcoming weekend!

Hope everyone is enjoying the new year so far - we are! Things are going well out in CA for us. It actually snowed here last week! We got 4 days of rain and an afternoon/evening of snow.The snow melted quickly and we are back to having beautiful and warm weather. The forcasters say there is more water coming our way, but who knows if it will ever come... will keep you posted! Ava is now fully weaned from breast milk - she has not nursed since last Monday 1-18-10. We all decided it was harder for mom to stop than Ava - Ava is flexible and just going with it and she is loving the Cow's Milk. Ava is now walking all the time - she hardly ever crawls. Ava still loves to go out the doggie door (I thought she would stop when she started walking and being upright, but I was wrong!) and does it all the time - little bugger! David goes to San Diego for work this week (Tuesday to Friday) but luckly Ashley and Ava get to meet up with him there on Friday and spend the weekend there as a family! We are all very excited to make the trip because we have been talking about doing it since we moved here (over 2.5 years ago). We hope to have a good trip and avoid wet weather so we can go to the zoo and do other outdoor things. We will keep you posted on our adventures!

Ava is officially one and walking! We had a wonderful trip to NM and really enjoyed seeing everyone! We had three wonderful Christmas celebrations and two birthday parties for Ava. We were very busy seeing eveyone we love and miss so much. The trip went by very quickly as usual. Ava got loads of toys and has been on toy overload since we got home. Thank you everyone who got Ava these wonderful things to help her get her energy out! We appreciate all of the items she got! Ava celebrated her actual birthday in Ridgecrest by going to dinner with mom and dad. The family of three went out to dinner where Ava was given a slice of chocolate cake and a scoop of chocolate ice cream - she was quite hyper that night and "talked" for about 1 hour while we walked the dogs - it was cute and really funny! We are happy to be home but miss our family and friends very much - we hope to get back to ABQ within a few months, but no dates have been set up yet. We will keep you all posted. I will continue to keep this website up to date with the new year, but please be patient with me - the new year has brought along a lot of new projects... I will get pictures posted soon from NM and Ava's birthday.

We celebrated David's 26th birthday at the LA Auto Show! We went with our good friends Matt and Lynn. All of us had a blast and were exausted when we finally got home late that night. This past weekend we celebrated Christmas in Ridgecrest by doing a gift exchange with our group of friends and had dinner together - it was a blast (and all three of us got some good gifts!)! Tomorrow (12/23) we are leaving for ABQ. We will be in ABQ from 12/23 until 1/3/10. We look forward to good company, good food, and good times! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Ava had a great Thanksgiving in New Mexico. We were VERY busy spending time with grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and more. Ava enjoyed eating lots of good foods and playing with lots of people! Ava was the hit of the party no matter where we were! Ava now pretty much eats everything (except for spicy foods although dad wants to give her some green chili!) and is mastering clapping and waving. Ava can now take about 5 steps on her own and loves cruising around furniture and from person to person. We love having her more each day and really love watching her learn new things. Ava got to meet Santa twice this past weekend and did not mind going to him! We got some really cute photos of her! Ava also had a play date with Zach Pierce who is 6 month old - they enjoyed sharing teething toys! We look forward to being back in NM for Christmas and New Years! We plan to get a birthday party for Ava squeezed in there too! Can't wait!!

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