Easter Egg Hunting

After church on Easter Sunday we would usually spend time with my Dad's side of the family, however, this year, with Memaw being in the assisted living facility and having only been there a few weeks, they didn't think it would be a good idea to take her anywhere yet, so Nana and Aunt Kay went to have lunch with her. Our family decided to spend the afternoon at Grammy's beach house. They all came to church with us since our church is only 10 mins from her house :)

Ava is the only child in the family so there really wasn't a big to-do about egg hunting, but we didn't want Ava to go without, so we hid the eggs- in very obvious places :) and let her find them. There were some money eggs Grammy put out, so the older "kids" were allotted 2 eggs a piece.

Ava was so funny, she knew what to do, she just didn't like picking up the real eggs that had been colored, she kept picking them up and dropping them saying mess and wiping off her hands. It was so cute.

Mom and Grammy bought her these eggs and will say cute things like "Yoo-hoo, come find me!" or "I'm over here!" so Ava could find these eggs when they were hidden by listening to them. She still likes to turn them on and play with them...thank-you-very-much-mom-and-grammy! *insert rolling eyes here!*

She had her Easter basket filled to the top full of eggs- and she loved hunting for them.

I think she is going to have to become a little more aggressive next year- especially if there is money involved....

Okay, so here is a question for you: What do you get when you have only 1 kid in the family?

Christmas instead of Easter! This is what we left with from Grammy's house. (this doesn't count what the Easter bunny brought and what Adam's parents gave her.)

Ava received presents from her Gammie, Grammy, Auntie Ro-Ro, and Aunt Stacey- can we say spoiled much?

A Thief = Goodbye Purse

Our life has been a little crazy lately. Last Wednesday, while I was at work, my purse was stolen from my car. Now, yes, let me go ahead and put it out there, my car was unlocked- I don't ever lock my car. I park at the back door to my office and haven't ever had a problem. In fact, most of my family that parks around back do not lock their car doors. It is amazing how much of a hassle it is when you have your purse stolen. I had to cancel credit cards, which turned out to be the easiest thing I had to do. Then I had to close my checking account and open a new one, order new checks and debit card. Both mine and Ava's social security cards were in there, my driver's license, gift cards, cash...I mean everything that I carry around day-to-day. On top of all that, my coach purse I had gotten for Christmas and I LOVED that purse! I know that most of these things are replaceable (for the most part). The one thing I am most upset about is my Flip camera that Adam bought me for Christmas. I wanted a video camera that was small and I could carry around anywhere I went, so no matter where I was I could pull it out and video Ava. I have a nice bigger video camera, but I loved the ease of the Flip. It was in my purse, with videos from Easter of Ava hunting eggs, and I will never see those videos again. I am still sick over losing those videos. I even told Adam I would gladly let the person have everything and the camera if they would just bring it back for me to take the videos off. The entire ordeal was just sickening. So, if you want to know why I have been too busy to post, its because I have been changing everything I needed to change and sort everything out. I had videos to post of Ava hunting eggs, however, since they are gone, pictures alone will have to settle.....

P.s. I now lock my car door and carry my purse inside with me :(

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Ava looked so cute in her easter dress and bow! She had been sick with a cold most of the week, but seemed to be getting better. Adam and I questioned even putting her in the nursery before we left for church. I would hate to know that it was my child that caused everyone to end up sick. I was teaching in Upstreet and my entire family on my mom's side was coming to church. I knew from the week before that Ava would not sit through church. Adam played guitar the Sunday before and thanks to a certain someone named Jim, she kept yelling "Daddy! Daddy" and pointing at him. Of course everyone thought it was cute, but after he walked off stage, she started saying "Daddy? Daddy?" and I didn't want to be the cause of a huge disruption, so I took her to Waumba Land. I knew if I were to let Adam take her into church, not one person in my family would hear the message- they would be passing her back and forth and trying to keep her quiet.

She looks like she is ready to hunt :)

We were still debating what to do when we were in the car heading to church, when Ava started coughing. Next thing I knew, she had thrown up all over her Easter dress! I thought, I definitely can't take her into nursery now! Luckily, it was white from the milk she had drank before we left and I knew it wasn't the flu or anything, it was just from her coughing- poor thing! The material of her dress made it very easy to wipe up, so I cleaned her up as good as I could and you really couldn't even see that she had gotten sick.She also wasn't wearing her coat in the carseat, so we could easily throw that on over her dress. The only problem was the smell- ick! We didn't have time to turn around and change her clothes and she really didn't act like she felt that bad, so we decided she would come with me to Upstreet- plus my girls LOVED having her visit- they made her feel so special- throw-up smell and all :)

It ended up working out great and she enjoyed being with me and the girls and she still looked beautiful- icky smell and all :)

A Visit from the Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny made a visit to our house this year.

It was always a tradition in my house growing up that the Easter bunny would hide our baskets and we would have to look for them. The Easter Bunny told me he would continue that tradition with Ava once she was old enough to look for it.

You didn't have to tell Ava twice to look and see what the bunny brought her- she took off toward the basket as soon as she saw it. Then she went through everything and examined each item closely before looking at the next one.

One of my favorite gifts Ava received was her very own pair of Reef flip-flops. Her Daddy also received a new pair of flip-flops.

Its now offical, we all have reef flip-flops :)

Are these not just the cutest on her little feet ?!

Ava also got several books, a coloring book, a DVD, some candy, jewelry (play), stickers, and few other things. We did sit her down and tell her that none of these gifts are greater than the gift we each received on the very first Easter- the gift of forgiveness and salvation. Hopefully she will always remember the greatest gift and the price that was paid for that gift. I know she is a little young to comprehend any of it now, but it isn't ever too early to start drilling in these truths. I also believe she comprehends so much more than we give her credit for and I don't want to miss a single opportunity to tell her how much God loves her and what he did for her.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

The day before Easter (nothing like waiting until the last minute) we decided to dye easter eggs. I pulled out Ava's Ace apron and got everything ready.

She loved dropping them into the dye, however, she never did it very easy- she would always splatter the liquid all over everything. I had planned for this, so it wasn't a big deal.

We bought a kit that had several differnt options for decorating the eggs. Ava's favorite was the stickers. She was very precise on where each sticker went on the egg.

Our first fatality of the day- She seemed to think they were unbreakable like her plastic eggs. She also tore one apart- much like she does her plastic eggs- but she received a little surprise when she broke into one of these- hehe! Thank goodness I boiled them!

One of the eggs Adam colored

Our finished masterpieces- minus a few that didn't make it and a couple that I had previously used for a recipe. There was such a big difference in the way she acted this year versus last year- she is growing up way too fast!

A Visit with Memaw

Many people probably do not know this, but my great-grandmother, Memaw is living in an assisted living facility. She has been there for about a month and half to two months. She has alzheimers and just wasn't content living at home because she didn't think she was at home. She needed around the clock care and an assisted living facility seemed like a good option. She has done pretty well- she does have her bad moments, but usually if you get her talking about something else, she will change her mood. Several of us went to visit her the other day. Both of her great-great-granddaughters we there and she really enjoyed watching both of them- as did several of the other residents. I don't imagine they get visits from children very often.

Memaw-Raeleigh-Me-Ava

Raeleigh kept going after Ava's bow

They are 1 year apart (to the month). There are 3 great-great-grandchildren. Raeleigh, Caden, and Ava. Ava is the oldest by a year, but all 3 were born in September.

Raeleigh decided she would be sweet and instead of going for Ava's bow, they gave each other a hug.

It was a sweet time to visit and I know Memaw enjoyed it.

Moving Day(s)

I mentioned in my previous post I had a good reason for my lack of blog posts and my reason.... We've moved, or should I say moving.............

Adam and I bought a house and closed on it the day before Playhouse Disney Live. It happened very fast and therefore, I really hadn't packed....anything! Thank goodness for family and friends!

We have been looking for a house earnestly for about a year now. We really wanted a house that sat on a golf course (or at least was a golf course community), but we also knew that with today's housing market and the economy the way it was, we should shop foreclosures and wait patiently for a good deal. Patiently was the key word- it was so hard to not get emotionally attached to certian homes we looked at or to raise your initial amount you believe the house was worth to justify buying it. We waited- a year- and we saw a house come up on the foreclosure list that was near where we lived now, it wasn't on a golf course, but it had an inground pool- so we thought, well- we can try- if they turn our offer down- no biggie. Well, they didn't turn the offer down, but countered and only dropped their asking price by 3 grand. (When I say they- I mean the bank). We told the realtor they weren't interested in selling, so we would try again after it had been on the market for 3 months. The house was immaculate and that is hardly ever the case with foreclosures. The only real thing that needed work was the pool in the backyard, but only because it had been neglected for several months. February 1st, we called back to resubmit our offer and we were told there was an offer on the table, so we thought, okay, we didn't have our heart set on it- so again- no biggie. About a week later, the realtor called and said the offer fell through, would we like to resubmit our bid- thinking we didn't have anything to loose we said, sure. Within 4 days, we had negotiated them down inside our range of what we perceived to be a good deal on the house and within 3 weeks we had signed the papers- it was our house. We believe the whole situtation was definitely a God thing and as we sat in our house after everyone had left and looked at the piles of boxes we had to unpack- we both agreed that we were so glad we hadn't gotten impatient. We learned a lot of things, both about real estate and about God's timing through the whole process. We also learned about being satisfied in your current situtation and with what we have. We realized how blessed we are and how rich we are both in possesions and love. What people in other parts of the world would give to just have a sturdy roof above their heads....It is so easy to get caught up in our country's way of give me! give me! give me! it is a constant battle to keep yourself in check. Needless to say, we feel very fortunate for what we have.

Leslie and Ava

I didn't get many pictures, mostly becuase I was at the old house packing away and they were here putting away.

Meghan, Les, and Ava

Humorous story:

We have never had sliding glass doors and most certianly never had a 3 part sliding glass door- so we really didn't know how to work them. We were trying to move the couch into the back living room- I say "we" like I was doing it-haha! Anyways, we couldnt' figure out how to open the door anymore than a single door length, which wasn't big enough to get the couch through. After the guys look at it for several minutes, they move on to Plan B. Aunt Robin decides she can figure it out and guess what?- She does!

At this point, the guys come back over and look at it realizing they can't get the screen door to pop off or move down any further, causing them to be in no better shape than they were before and head back to proceed with their Plan B, which by the way, wasn't going very smoothly. Might I also add here that 1 of these guys owns a hardware store and the other two have worked at the hardware store........

Wouldn't you know that it would take 2 girls and a pink screwdriver to easily pop off the screen door and claim victory over the sliding glass door?!

Let this be a lesson to all of the men to try to take on a woman- you aren't a match for us! :)

*Also let this be a warning to all of the women, do not boast about how easily you popped the door off when your husband finally gets the couch through the front door and into the back living room- the glare you will receive is piercing and definitely has a tone of "Sit down and shut up"

Playhouse Disney Live

Hi there, remember me? It's been a very long time- but I have had a good excuse...more to come on that later. First I want to try and catch up on one thing I haven't posted.

The weekend after our trip to Disney, we had tickets to Playhouse Disney Live. My parents had bought us tickets and given them to us as a Christmas gift. We all knew Ava would love it and she did- she would clap and bounce along with the characters and she kept saying "Mouse! Mouse!" as she pointed to Mickey and Minnie on stage. She wasn't really interested in cooperating for pictures, so we don't have many of her, but I did get plenty of the show, however, I will spare you most of them :)

Ava had a fantastic time and Adam and I both said it is a definite must-do anytime it comes to town.