One Year Ago....

One year ago today, I got a phone call from Wendy around 3:30pm.  I was student teaching in Reinbeck at the time and as soon as I saw that I had a call from her, I had a feeling that it was about baby Malcolm (which is what we called Ava through Wendy's whole pregnancy because we didn't know the gender).  I talked to Wendy and she said "I'm going to have a baby today!!!"  I was so excited so I quickly left school and headed home!  I picked up Sophie on my way - Wendy was freaking out that she would be left alone :).  Tyson and I took Sophie for a quick run, then I showered and headed to Allen Hospital.  I was greeted by my mom, dad, brother, Darren, and Wendy.  The next several hours were spent with the guys focused on Monday night football (who knew they even watched Monday night football?!?!?!) and Wendy yelling at them to shut the tv off!!  Hahaha!

My dad's perfect spot for Monday night football.

Darren must be mad that my pictures are interrupting football. :)

After awhile, we left the Malcolm's alone and headed to the lobby where my dad proceeded to fall asleep watching football (I guess he's not THAT big of a fan).  Eventually, we moved back up to the small waiting room just outside of Wendy's room.  My mom and Darren were in the room with her while my dad, Josh, and I sat waiting outside the room.  Every now and then we would stick our ears up to the door to see if we could hear a crying baby.  Finally (I don't know the time but know it was after midnight), we heard "IT'S A GIRL!!!" followed by a crying baby!  We couldn't wait to be able to get in the room to see this brand new baby!!

First family picture!

Nana and Ava

Papa and Ava - showing off his shirt. 

Auntie Rachel and Ava

Uncle Joshie and Ava

Before we were let into the room, my mom brought out her camera to show us some pictures.  The first thing I said was "she looks like Wendy!" Finally we were allowed in the room and got to hold baby Malcolm. (Still no name at this point).  I was getting tired and had to teach the next day, so I left to go to bed.  The next morning I was waiting for a text message with baby Malcolm's name!  It finally came: Ava Nicole! :) Since Tyson wasn't able to make it the first night, we went after school so he could meet his brand new niece.

Uncle Tyson finally gets to meet Ava!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY (tomorrow) AVA!!  Uncle Tyson and Aunt Rachel love you!!!

Parents in Training

After a BUSY week with two days of parent-teacher conferences, I was ready to relax this weekend!  In case I hadn't mentioned before, Tyson is the athletic trainer for G-R football, so that keeps him busy every Friday night.  It was G-R's homecoming, so I headed to Gladbrook for the game.  They won 49-6!  Way to go Rebels!  After the game, we went to Mulligan's for a late supper.  I was almost asleep when we were there, so I went right to bed when we got home.

On Saturday, I slept ALL morning!!  My parents and Lewis' stopped by on their way to the UNI game to see Ava, who showed up around 1:00pm.  Wendy and Darren were headed to Des Moines for a wedding, so Tyson and I were in charge of Ava and Sophie for the night.  However, Tyson had a ticket to the Iowa vs. Penn State game, so he left around 2:30, and then it was just the 3 girls.  We didn't really have any plans, so we went to Target for a little while, but spent most of the afternoon playing at home.  I made pancakes for supper (my favorite!!) and Ava loved them too.  I'm sure Sophie would have loved them if I had given in to her whining.  :) After supper and Ava's bath, we watched some of the Iowa game watching for Uncle Tyson on the tv! We never saw him though.

This morning we woke up around 7:45am and played inside while it was still cold out.  Then we went for a walk and Ava was out right away.  (We left Tyson and Sophie at home...they were napping).  I CAREFULLY got Ava out of her stroller and into her pack-n-play to finish her nap at home.  By the time she finally woke up and ate lunch, mommy and daddy were here to pick her up!!  Ahhh....another great weekend in the Burton household.

Reading her favorite book - "Sooo Big"

Happy baby!! :)

Walking around the table AND trying to grab the remote.

Lovin' on her new baby.

I'll be finishing my last full week at Cunningham this week, although I'll be teaching an additional 2 weeks during intercession, but those are just half-days. 

A day trip and a triathlon

On Friday after school, I went straight to work at Pheasant Ridge while Tyson traveled to Jewell with the G-R football team.  He got home late and I was already in bed. 

On Saturday, I was back at Pheasant Ridge by 6:30am and Tyson got to sleep in and spend some time relaxing and watching the Hawkeyes play!  When I got off work, we left for Dumont.  Our original plans were for Tyson to ride his bike to Hampton (part of his training) and I would drive over and pick him up.  However, with crappy weather on Saturday, Tyson decided not to ride, but we still wanted to go. I dropped Tyson off at my parents' house and my mom and I took off to go to Hampton to the Orange Possum!  I got some GREAT new stuff!!  After O.P., my mom and I walked around to a few other stores in Hampton, got some cappuccino, and then went to Fareway to get groceries for supper.  We spent the next couple hours relaxing, watching football, and eating supper.  Then we took off for Cedar Falls.  Before going home, we made a stop at the Malcolm's to pick up some cookie dough.

Today, Tyson had the Peregrine Triathlon at George Wyth.  We got up around 5:30am so I could put on his temporary race number tattoos and get everything packed up in the truck.  It was a CHILLY morning for a race, but luckily for us, Tyson was the first wave out, which also meant he was one of the first ones done!  Yay!!  My parents decided to come down for the race too, so I had someone to wait with while Tyson was out racing!  After the race, the 4 of us met the Malcolm's and Hannah at Panera for breakfast.  Tyson and I spent the rest of the morning relaxing (I napped and he watched tv).  I then made a quick trip to Kohl's, Walmart for groceries, and we hit up our neighborhood party for about 30 minutes.  Now, I just finished doing report cards which are due in the morning and about ready to head to bed.  What a great weekend!!  

Tri tats

Finally we had someone to take a picture of us together before a race!!

Ready to hit the chilly water!

Crusin' in on his bike

And he's off on the run!

FINISHED!!

While we waited for Tyson to finish, my parents found a different type of bike to check out!

It's a busy week coming up: 3 days of school, 2 days of my first parent-teacher conferences, and then a sleepover with Ava this weekend!  Then, only one more week of full-time teaching before the kids have intercession.

He's Home!!

Tyson finally made it home tonight around 6:00.  After a long, hard race yesterday in the Branson heat, he decided to spend another night.  Good idea since he wouldn't have gotten home until probably 2:00 or 3:00am.  He packed up this morning and headed back....and is now currently enjoying a glass of wine in his new Branson 70.3 souvenir wine glass! :)

Other news....I got home from school today to (finally) find a box on our front porch with our thank yous in it!!  Now...when do we start those?!?!  Look for yours soon..uhh..hopefully soon!  Hahaha!


I believe Tyson said he took some pictures, but he hasn't unpacked the camera yet, so I'll get pictures up tomorrow of his solo trip to Branson!

Strep Throat...Again!! and Tyson's solo trip to Branson

I started this blog when I had strep throat, and here I am again (4 months later) and this illness is back!  Will my body become immune to this at some point?? I won't get into details because I'm sure most of you know what it's like to have strep.

Tyson and I were supposed to leave for Branson on Friday for his Ironman 70.3 triathlon, however, after having a fever starting on Thursday..Tyson made the executive decision that I needed to stay home and rest.  So off he went Friday morning around 8:00am or so.  He arrived in Branson at my aunt and uncle's house around 6:30pm.  He said he found their house without a probably (thanks to his BlackBerry) but any 10+ hour drive is miserable, especially alone. 


Today (Saturday) he went to pick up his registration packet and then drove the bike course.  He said that they could not have fit anymore hills into the course if they tried!  He'll do great anyway!

Look for updates after tomorrow's race!!

Oh yeah, I forgot to add....while the weather was cold and rainy here in Iowa today, he said it was miserable and hot in Branson! That should make for a fun day of racing tomorrow.

GO TYSON!!!!

Iowa vs. Iowa State

Tyson scored us some row 1 tickets to the Iowa vs. Iowa State game on Saturday...so of course we couldn't pass this up!!  We loaded up the truck on Saturday morning and headed to Kinnick.  We arrived around 10am .  We made friends with a guy who was tailgating next to us (as you'll see in some pictures!).  We tailgated until about 1:00pm, and then we headed to walk around on Melrose and get some Yolanda's (which I had no idea what this was until we got there). 

The game was great and so were the seats!  We can't wait to go back!

Just arrived!

Time to shot gun!!

Shots from our tailgating neighbor

Yolanda's BBQ pork on a stick!!

Tyson's next purchase (LOOK: they even make them for kids!! Haha!)

Our friends Ashton and Demi just leaving the game

We got our picture with Herky! (well...Herky's beak anyway)

Not bad seats huh?  No one blocking our view!

End of August

Lately, there hasn't been a lot going on.  We have a busy next couple of weeks though, so this break has been nice. 

A much needed night out :) 

We were waiting and waiting for baby Foster to arrive, and she FINALLY did on August 30th at 6:48pm.  Elise Claire Foster weighed in at 6lbs 11 oz and 20.5 in long!  We received a text message from Robin the night before and headed to Covenant to meet them and pick up Braydon for a slumber party at our house!  Braydon was so excited.  Too bad we got home at went right back to bed (it was 11pm Sunday night).  Tyson played daddy on Monday morning and got Braydon up and ready for school. 

Newest addition to the Foster family!

I also started teaching Robin's kindergarten class at Cunningham that Monday as well.  We planned on me being her long-term sub since June or July.  There were a number of dates about when I would start, so I was excited when the day came and it was also the day that Elise was born!


Over Labor Day weekend, I caught up on A LOT of sleep.  I think I took a nap every day!  Obviously it was needed because I have been feeling great this week and not as tired as last week.  I just needed to get back into the swing of things with school again!  We also attended Lori & Jo's wedding at Black Hawk park in Cedar Falls.  I didn't even know this park existed, but it was really nice!!  It could have been a little less windy, but still a PERFECT day for a wedding. 

Lori and Tyson

Watch for lots of blogs in the next month!  I just looked at a calendar and realized we don't have a completely free weekend until October 16-17.  However, I'm really looking forward to the next month: Iowa/Iowa State game, Branson, my first triathlon (hopefully I don't back out....haha!), sleepover with Ava, Ava's first birthday and party, my birthday :), then a free weekend before UNI homecoming :)