Wordless Wednesday

Happy Father's Day

Father's day was good- except for the unbelievable heat that we were experiencing- I mean I know it's Florida- but it's only June and it shouldn't be THIS hot in June! Adam and actually taken Saturday off and we went to see a few kids from church swim in their neighborhood swim meet. It was very interesting for a person who hasn't ever been to a swim meet- but it was also very hot. (Ps- all the the swimmers did great!) Afterwards, Adam had to pick up his guitar after having a little maintance done to it and Ava and I decided to give him his Father's day present a day early, since he was going to have to pick it out. I was certain that whatever I picked out would have been wrong, even if he hadn't let on to it. So we went and bought him a new golf bag...yeah...my thoughts exactly- wooohooo..... We really enjoyed spending the day together. On Sunday, we got up...let me clarify what I mean by "got up", becuase Ava doesn't know how to sleep past 5:30, so we are always "up", but when I say "got up" I mean we got out of bed and dressed ready to go somewhere....So, we got up and went to church early to listen to rehearsal since both Adam and I were teaching in Upstreet. I absolutely love teaching Upstreet, but that is a completely separate post for a different day. After church, we went and had lunch at my moms to celebrate Father's day and my dad's birthday which was on Monday. June is like Christmas for us in regards to buying gifts- we have both of Adam's parents' birthdays in June (21st and 24th) my dad's birthday (22nd) and Father's day for the parents and now Adam...geesh! I snapped a few shots of Adam and Ava...do you think she has him wrapped around his finger?

Happy Father's Day to a great father and my best friend! From the moment Ava was born and I was still somewhat comatose from the c-section you have taken care of both myself and our little girl. I fell in love with you all over again seeing how protective and inquisitive you were of every little thing at the hospital- joking how the nurses probably laughed and hid every time you started walking toward the nursery because you asked so many questions. I fell in love even more when I had to tell you to stop getting up every 20 seconds when we first brought her home to make sure she was still breathing because I needed sleep! I love watching you play with her, I love seeing the way she lights up as soon as she sees you, I love the way she says "Dada" and just recently has started saying "Hey Dada" with her wave (although I am jealous at the same time). I love that she is a daddy's girl and that she has an unbelievable Daddy to look up too. I am grateful you are such a great friend and husband and couldn't imagine doing life without you! We love you Dada!

p7f2c8smyt

Run for the Pies

Pre-race photo

Run for the Pies (5k) took place Saturday night, there was a Championship race (which we definitely didn't/wouldn't/couldn't qualify for, the winner of that race came in at under 5:00 min miles...way too fast for me!!!) So, we all ran the open race that started at 8:00. Adam pushed Ava in the stroller, which I have to give him kudos for! It is very hard to run and push the stroller, I didn't realize how much it made a difference until I had to run with her a few times. I really want Ava to "roll" with us in these races, I would love for her to grow up running in them, not to win, just to stay active in life, and I think that having her tag along helps encourage that. Plus she loves riding in the stroller and watching all the runners. Of course, everyone we passed talked about how cute she was :)

It started raining in the middle of the race, I think we had just past mile marker #2, so I sat her back in the stroller and pulled the cover over her, she didn't care, she wanted to sit up in the rain. Thank goodness it was a brief shower and was over almost as soon as it started. I enjoyed the rain, it felt very good on my hot body (no, I don't mean like my smokin' body- haha!).

This was my mom's first race- she did very well- we were all very proud of her, she actually finished better than my first time! She was proud of the fact she ran the entire race, slow at some points, but she was running nonetheless.

A little dark- but resting after the race

Ava was eating my post race banana, can you tell she liked it?

Hot and Sweaty- Don't we look great!

We had a great evening and as always after every race, I can't wait until the next one!

Swimming

We took Ava swimming Friday night out at Aunt Vicki and Uncle Brad's house. She wasn't too sure of the water and clug to me, I even tried putting her in her float a couple of times and she took some persuading before she would stay in it without fussing, but once she saw it was okay and she wasn't going to drown she seemed to like it. The water was plenty warm...89 degrees warm, I didn't even have to inch into the pool and get used to the temperature, I am not one of those people who can just dive into the water, I prefer to take my time. I think Ava is a lot like her mom!

She wasn't too sure of the "big bathtub"

Chad and Shelby came swimming with us

Swimming wore her out, she actually fell asleep while I was holding her in the pool and stayed asleep as I passed her to Shelby so I could change clothes.

So sweet :)

9 Months Old

On June 5th, Ava turned 9 months old. This means the next big milestone is her 1st birthday!!! She is such a joy to be around and is constantly making us smile and laugh. She is growing up so fast! She has learned to pose for the camera, yep, that's right, she will sit still and smile at the camera, my first thought was YAY!, but now my thoughts have turned to, what kind of monster are we creating that she loves all the attention and having her picture made! :) She still isn't really crawling, she can crawl on all fours, but prefers to scoot and I love her ability to sit up on her own. When she gets to a toy she wants to play with, all she has to do now is sit up, before she would fuss a little until we went over and sat her up. She waves and says bye-bye and it is the sweetest, cutest little thing! She has started pulling up on things, but she hasn't tried to take any steps on her own. I don't think she is going to be a daredevil of any sort- she contemplates her actions before she takes them (mommy is praising the Lord for this!). She has become a little more attached, especially when she isn't feeling very good or really tired. She still has only 2 teeth, but the top 2 are starting to break through now. She is feeding herself more and more everyday, in all honesty, I am the one holding us back for fear of her choking. She actually ate a banana the other day without it being cut up, I had peeled it and she grabbed it and took a bite, after the initial shock and then the terror of oh my gosh she is going to choke, I realized she actually did well with it, but we do not make that a habit! She is still the same size as she was 1 month ago and seems to be holding steady there, amazingly she still wears her 3-6 month clothes and she can fit into a few 9 month clothes. There are so many moments I wish I could freeze time so that I could back and relive it whenever I wanted. Watching a child grow up is bittersweet. You love they can do and learn new things, but you hate the independence they are gaining at the same time! Which is exactly why I am dreading the 1st birthday! I don't know how I will make it through that day...

Here she is doing her impression of Aunt Robin :)

Like Father Like Daughter

There are times in life where you have to stop and laugh-Ava had been giving us a fit one night, and usually she is pretty good *knock on wood* about going to sleep, even though she still wakes up about once every night, she is usually pretty good about going back to sleep...this particular night was Oh my gosh I could scream completely out of the normal for us. Ava decided she wanted to wake up and play at about 2:00 in the morning, but she didn't want to play in her crib so that mommy and daddy could stay in their bed and continue to sleep, she wanted to climb over us and between us and she constantly tried to dive off the end of the bed. I, the frustrated, exhausted, about to pull my hair out, patient mom that I am got up took her to the living room and hoped that a round of baby einstein would calm her down and relax her....she wanted nothing to do with it...so it went on like this for about 2 hours and I finally had her quieted down and drifting off to never, never land. I head in to her room, lay her down and on cue, she sits straight up and looks at me, as if to say, I intend on teaching you a lesson about leaving me in the middle of the night, Mommy, please let me stay with you! So I pick her up and we go through the entire routin again. At about 6 in the morning, mind you I have been dealing with this since 2, I turn to Adam, who doesn't have to get up and go to work and pour on the guilt trip about how I am the one who has to be at work the next morning and how he has the opportunity to take a nap later on, he should be the on who is up with her lovingly ask if he will please take over so I could get just a couple more hours of sleep. At that point I was so tired, as soon as he walked out the bedroom door, I was out until about 8:30. When I woke back up, I didn't hear any commotion in the house, and usually our child is running at full speed by 7:00 so I started to get worried and I sneak into the living room and find Adam and Ava on the loveseat, sound asleep- I would say it is so much like father like daughter- but I will let the picture do the talking....

It's moments like these that make you forget that the night was so bad!

Little Red Wagon

What happens when a little girl has her grandfather wrapped around her finger?

This.....

After hearing that we had bought her a little wagon, he went on a mission to find one that he could get for her and keep at his house, or as you can see, the store. When she was over at the store this particular morning, he left to go get the wagon from home and bring it back....she loves riding in the wagon! Stacey better watch out- she is no longer our dad's little girl! :)

and yes, that is a little bit of food on her nose, she just would not let me get it...

Jax Jazz Fest

So, as many of you know, Adam is a devout fan of music- any and all types, as long as it is good music. A couple of weeks ago, we took Ava to my parents house on Saturday afternoon and said our goodbyes, as we would not be seeing her again until the following night- Let it be known that the longest I have ever left her was 12 hours, this was going to be at least 24.....ahhhh! However, Adam and I both really needed a night without having to get up in the middle of it and without having to hit the ground running at 6:00 the next morning. We stayed downtown and didn't have any set plans (except for the Chris Botti concert on Sunday). We decided after we had gotten settled in our rooms that we wanted to have a nice dinner, so I called Ruth's Chris and made us reservations, Adam hadn't ever eaten here so I wanted take him. He throughouly enjoyed himself, saying he has eaten at several nice steakhouses, but this was the best meal he had ever had (not to sure if not having to entertain/feed/watch a baby the entire meal had anything to do with that or not) :)

Sunday morning, we had breakfast in bed and then proceeded to plan out the rest of our day. The jazz fest was starting at 11:00 and I wanted to get the best seats possible for Chris Botti, who was set to play at 4:30. Nothing was going to stand in the way of that!!! We decided to take a stroll down the boardwalk and take our time before we headed over to the festival. Once we arrived at the stage Chris would be on (notice I am on a first name basis with him), we set up our chairs and had great seats, 8 rows from the front, and the first 6 were reserved! There were 2 other performers before Chris, and we were interested to hear both of them, Mindi Abair and The New Orleans Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Weather had been a factor the previous day, so we were hoping it would hold off for us, and it did, for the most part. It only drizzled once, but you know us, we were fully prepared, frogg toggs, canopy chairs, you name it, we had it, I don't think a single drop touched us!

Mindi Abair on the Sax

Mindi's bass player

The New Orleans Preservation Hall Jazz Band

The concerts were great, and the highlight of my weekend was seeing Chris Botti play and meeting him spending time with my hubby! We had a really great time and have said countless times that we wish we could relive it again. Here's looking to next year!

Ava did very well overnight, even though Adam and I woke up at  6:00 Sunday morning, we were grateful to be able to just lay there and not worry about getting her taken care of, but I did miss her like crazy and was so excited to see her when we got back later that night. 

The One and Only- Chris Botti

Sy Smith with Chris Botti

Sidenote: So, I asked Adam what he would do if Chris asked me to marry him :) His reply- typical for a male- I don't care, just give me some money! HaHa! I know you can't see it- but in this picture (above) he actually has his arm around me and we are touching heads! I told Adam that he was close to proposing- I just know he was!