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Ava Elisabeth: August 2010

Friday, August 27, 2010

Happenings in the Life of Ava

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Ava’s vocabulary has really exploded the past couple of months. She now repeats just about everything we say. In fact, I will often yell for Adam when I am in the kitchen (usually because I am fixing dinner and Ava is pulling everything out or whining to be held) so when Ava is yelling for her Daddy she is now saying “A-um! A-um” It is so funny (and cute)! What makes it funny is she only does it when she is yelling for him. If you ask her his name she will tell you “A-um” but if you ask her what she calls him she says “Daddy”, so at least she isn’t confused. She can also tell you just about anything you want to know and has a memory like you wouldn’t believe! I am amazed at how little it takes for her to grasp something.

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Another major milestone (probably more so in my life than in hers) is that she no longer cries going to Waumba Land! WOOOHOOO! It has been a little over a month now since she last cried when I dropped her off before heading to church or Upstreet and what is even better is that now she does a sort of skip down the hallway to her class! Praise the Lord! I have been waiting for this to happen since the first time I dropped her off and had to hear her scream down the hallway as I left!  

Thursday, August 26, 2010

A Buggy Ride

Today is the last day of the vendor conference (Thank you Lord!) I have been going non-stop since arriving and now that our big dinner is over I can actually exhale! This event is a great event, but oh so very stressful for me. We did manage to have a little fun and take Ava on a carriage ride. We have another FULL day of meetings, hopefully those will go just as smoothly as the ones on Tuesday and then I am home free! Yipee!

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Tuesday night it was a beautiful, breezy, and a full moon, so you couldn’t have asked for a more picturesque setting. Our horse that carted us throughout St. Augustine went by Rumsfeld, but his nickname was Rummy. It was a 45 – 60 minute tour and Ava fell asleep right at the very end, so she did really well (a lot better than we all assumed she would!) She did wake up to say goodbye to the horse and our wonderful tour guide Kenny, who was definitely a hoot!

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I am so glad I will be heading back home tomorrow- I miss Adam way to much :) While I have enjoyed someone making my bed each day and cleaning my room and fresh clean towels and gift baskets….wait, I’m rethinking this going home thing…;) I really am ready to be home! Of course that only means it is time to prepare for the meeting next week and Ava’s birthday party!   

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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Ava’s Playroom

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We recently decided on a whim to paint Ava’s playroom. I say we as in I and I say whim as in mulled over it since we moved into the house and just never committed to doing it. I came home one day and had all the necessities to complete the project- it helps that we have a hardware store :)

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We started that night after Ava fell asleep. We didn’t want to have to worry about her getting into the paint and tracking it throughout the house, so we figured it would be in everyone’s best interest to wait!

 

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I’m so happy with how it turned out. I wanted a color that was really playful and wasn’t overly girly. Her room (if we ever finish it…) is pretty girly so I wanted something a little different than that, plus I knew the toys (i.e. the pink kitchen) would girly it up quite a bit. I want to find/make a cool valance to hang above the window but I just haven’t quite decided what I am looking for.

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Ava loves the color, she tells everyone that comes over it is “blue”

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Movin’ on Up

So after a really really really long day in meetings here at our conference in St. Augustine, I’m really tired, but I did want to post! Truly devoted I tell ya! :)

We recently switch Ava to her toddler bed and we weren’t really sure how it was going to go over. We debated buying new bedding and making a really big deal out of it- in the end we just said hey- let’s try it and see. It has gone amazingly well! She lets us know when she is ready to go “Night Night” and we go and read books and sing songs until she falls asleep. She has slept better and now comes and crawls in bed with us when she gets up around 6:00 – 6:30ish and we snuggle for a little while, such sweet times.

However, the second night she was in it I went to check on her right before we were going to bed and this is what I found:

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She had fallen out of the bed and her head was at the opposite end of where I placed it. Being the fantastic mom I am I ran to get Adam AND my camera- of course I had to take a picture before I put her back in the bed. She never woke up and ever since then, she hasn’t fallen out- so I think she has learned the boundaries. I guess that means we should shop for new bedding now….yay!

Ava and I will be in St. Augustine for 2 more days and we are busy busy busy! After four days of non-stop going I will be ready to get home and relax, of course, this time of year  it is just about impossible to do that- but it won’t stop me from trying! :)

Monday, August 23, 2010

Mom’s Birthday

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We celebrated Mom’s birthday by a few of us eating lunch together. Ava decided she needed to practice up for her own birthday by unwrapping mom’s present.

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She is so particular- she takes one piece of tissue paper at a time. For the longest time, she would just look at the present, I don’t think she quite understood there was something good inside the package. I’m sure there will come a day that she tears into them, but now is not it.

Also, since I know “Aunt RoRo” reads this…Ava was asking for you and “Meggie” yesterday.

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I think she go what she wanted….we bought her a laptop, so now she can stop using mine!!! :)

Friday, August 20, 2010

Beach

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All of the family ministry volunteers at church were invited to the beach to hangout together Sunday evening. Adam nor I are “beach” people. We would rather hang out at the pool….but we thought it would be fun to hang out with everyone else. We knew we couldn’t go to church that morning and come back home because we would be turning right back around to head back, so we got lunch and opted to stay at Grammy’s that afternoon and let Ava take a nap. It was so nice to just relax and not have anything to do. If we had been home I would have been doing a million and one other things, but we didn’t have ANYTHING to do- so we watched tv and napped (Grammy and Big Papa were not here…so we weren’t being unsociable :) )

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We ended up driving down to the beach instead of walking, which probably was the best idea because after Ava getting so sandy, I drove the car back to Grammy’s with the chairs and cooler while Adam pulled Ava back in wagon. She was only like 7-8 blocks from where we met everyone. 

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Adam and I hadn’t even been to the beach this year (did I already mention we weren’t beach people?) Ava had been with my mom and sister, but that was at the beginning of summer and apparently the entire time she was there she kept saying “Mess! Mess!” to the sand. Well, as the pictures so…she was not too worried about the mess this time, she had it all over her! I changed her into her bathing suit shortly after we arrived. She had so much fun playing!

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This is Raegan…one of my girls in Upstreet- I love this girl- sand and all :)

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The tide kept moving in so we all had to keep moving our stuff back, we were almost in the dunes by the time we left. It ended up creating a nice pool for the kids to play in, they would ride their boogie boards in the little pool area and when a wave would come up they would surf it…it was pretty funny watching them- they were having a blast- however, the little kids weren’t able to participate- it was a little too rough for them. Ava didn’t really like the water- she would want me to hold her whenever a wave came.


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Caleb was trying out the more relaxing style of surfing….

After we left we went back to Grammy’s and showered and rinsed all of our beach stuff off….it was so nice to have all of that done before we got home and we didn’t have to drive all that way home with sand everywhere!

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For a day they had been forecasting rain for most of the afternoon/evening, it didn’t rain at all and there was such a nice breeze that it wasn’t really hot either. We had such a great time.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Jaguars Scrimmage

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Every year, the Jaguars hold a scrimmage that is open to the public, this year they changed it up a little and only allowed season ticket holders the ability to attain tickets. Each season ticket holder could request as many tickets as they like, so in essence, everyone could go to the game, it was just a way to allow season ticket holders an added privilege. Of course we went, it was actually a test to see how Ava would do at the actual games. We hadn’t purchased her a season ticket- last year we made do with buying a ticket on a per game basis, she went to just about every single one last year. We didn’t know how a 2 year old was going to handle the game atmosphere, so this gave us a chance to feel her out.

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What can I say, my girl loves football. She started clapping as soon as she saw the players- she must have remembered this from last year! We sat in the same general area as our regular seats, so I think she felt right at home. Of course, she also loved seeing “Jax” (aka Jaxson de Ville) all over the field. She kept waving to him and pointing him out to her daddy!

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The scrimmage didn’t start until 7:30 so she got pretty tired as the evening went on. We know that she will not be attending any of the late games (there is only 1 this season), which is for 2 reasons, 1 because it will be past her bedtime and 2 I don’t think I am quite ready to introduce her to that atmosphere.

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We called the ticket office and added her a seat the very next business day. My sister is already complaining because she says she is the only unloved one in the family….my response is- yeah…right!….

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Win or lose, this little munchkin is going to have some fun! I think we are going to have to invest in a cheerleading outfit…she liked the other little girls at the scrimmage who had them on….Adam is just praying she doesn’t actually want to become one! ;0

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Storytime Live!

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Some dear friends invited us to join them on an adventure to see Nick Jr’s Storytime Live. We had been to see Disney Live but hadn’t seen Nick Jr yet, so we thought it would be fun! Ava did great- she loved watching the entire show! Her friend Gabe invited us along and while Gabe’s mom and myself were taking pictures of the two of them (keep in mind the stage where the show actually takes place is to our backs- Gabe and Ava are looking towards it) a lady comes up to us and says that we can’t take pictures……Deanna and I just looked at each other, trying to figure out how taking pictures of our kids in their seats BEFORE the show even started could be wrong. So we sat down in our seats and kid our cameras.

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Before the show ended she had been deemed the “Picture Nazi” She would tell you to put away your camera or cell phone. She even had the audacity to walk up next to the guy sitting directly in front of us and look down at his phone (closely) and she made the remark- “Oh, you’re texting…” I was blown away. She loved her job and was really good at it if her job was to try and ruin everyone’s night! Regardless of the Picture Nazi, we still had a great time. They had face painting, cookie decorating, and coloring that could be done before the show started, the only thing Ava was interested in was the coloring- she loves to color- so She and Gabe grabbed some sheets and colored.

    

We had a great time! I’m pretty sure Ava had sweet dreams about all of her Nick Jr friends that night- she was out as soon as I put her in her carseat!- Thanks for inviting us along Gabe!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Sweet Pete’s and the Library

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There is a new candy shop that has just opened in the Springfield area in Jacksonville. It is an all natural sweet shoppe. The owner is actually the Peter of Peterbrooke. Anyone associated with that must make great candy, right? His candy contains no artificial preservatives or colorings. He also has some vegan candy and gluten free candy and it is all so delicious! When we first arrived we were give a piece of his sea salt caramel…OMG! They are addictive! We bought some caramels, some chocolate covered pretzels, and a few other pieces of chocolate and Ava got a sucker. They also have ice cream…if you live near here, you really should check it out. Plus it is a really cute shop!

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I mean- doesn’t that just scream candy shoppe?!

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After leaving the sweet shoppe, we headed over to the main library, I had been wanting to take Ava for a while, but never really wanted to devote the time to drive downtown. Since we were already downtown I thought it would be a good chance to try. They have the neatest children’s area, plus I just absolutely LOVE this library, they really did everything right with the design, it is a place even people who aren’t book lovers would want to be. Ava knew immediately what to do as soon as we walked in.

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The only downside was they were in the middle of storytime and I didn’t want Ava to disturb them, so I tried to keep her away from that area, but that limited us to only a small portion of her area of the library. Oh well, it is just a good excuse for us to make another visit right? I remember growing up, I LOVED the library. I have always loved to read.  I don’t have time to read as much as I would like, but I know that time will eventually come back- for now, I enjoy reading Ava her books. Ever summer mom would take me to the library and I would get a stack of books (and I mean a stack- I would check out the maximum number of books I could) and every 2 weeks I would trade them out for a new stack. Adam doesn’t like to read- he wishes he liked it, but he just doesn’t. I really hope Ava loves to read when she gets older, if she stays on the same track she is now, I think she will. She likes to read books, but her attention span is still pretty short, so it better be a picture book with only a few words :) Although, here lately she has let me read a few longer books to her, so maybe its getting better :)

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After walking around in the children’s area, we walked outside to the courtyard on the 2nd story that has this fountain/pool so Ava could check it out. She did not want to leave the library, but fortunately we escaped without the librarian having to “shhhh!” us!

Friday, August 13, 2010

A little something to hold you over :)


This is the absolute busiest time of year for me. We have our annual conference that I am in charge of the last week of August, the first week of September we have a meeting with some people from the corporate offices and that Saturday is the day of Ava's birthday party- I can't believe I am about to have a 2 year old!!! I promise to get some posts done soon! But until then I thought I would post a cute picture to hold you over :)

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Ava Elisabeth: August 2010

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Ava Elisabeth

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