Some Of This, Some Of That

It's been a couple weeks since I said "Hi!" to my blogger friends, so here's a random spattering of what we've been up to lately! I'll try and stick to the highlights, so I don't ramble on too much!

But, let me start by showing you what we're trying to teach Ava these days. Getting a toddler to smile on cue is tricky and I wish she learned this about 4 days ago when we took some pictures with TLohse, but what can you do. She gets it now, so, that's all that matters! (The second picture, well, I just liked it. She looks like she's up to no good!).

We made it back to PA without any problems (Thank you, Lord!) and started a whirlwind trip in the northeast. We spent about 48 hours in Pennsylvania and then three days in Baltimore. It went so quickly and we were exhausted by the time we made our long trek back down to NC. Drew and Sharon's wedding was simply perfect, from start to finish. Sharon made a beautiful bride, as if there were any doubt, and she and Drew were just as calm and cool as could be for the entire thing. It was gorgeous! I took over at the wedding and reception with my Mom's super fancy Canon and I'm still waiting for her to send them my way so I can post all 700+ of them! (Well, I won't really post 700, but evidently that's how many were taken.) Ava did a fantastic job as a flower girl and she made it down the aisle all by herself without any stage fright! She made for a darling addition to the wedding party. Now, the fact that she tried to climb the alter to reach her Daddy once she made it down there, well, that's another story. I think it went something like this, "Hi Daddy!!! Hi Daddy!!!" (as she tried to climb the alter, only to be stopped, which ended up in tears. During the procession. Oopsie!). I think all was forgotten though, once the doors were opened and the bride came in, phew! I'll be sure to give more updates once the pictures come my way! (Ahem, Mom!) :) In the meantime, here's a few I have from my handheld Canon, and maybe one I stole from Curt's cousin on facebook. ;)





Also while we were home, much to my surprise, the "small" birthday party I tried to throw for Ava was planned to be something much bigger than I knew about, sneaky family! My Mom and sisters went out of their way to plan a big ol' party for Ava's 2nd Birthday which included some of my friends, and lots of our immediate and extended family. It was wonderful! I honestly didn't want to take any of the excitement away from Drew and Sharon's big weekend so I thought throwing a big party would be too much! So, what they did was have the get together on a Thursday night and made it possible for as many people as they could get to come. It was great! Ava was a trooper, too! She yelled out, "SMILE!" when there was about 10 cameras pointed in her direction! (Hmmm, wonder why she's so comfortable in front of the camera?!?!). She refused to eat much of anything, including some of her Tigger and Pooh cake, but I think it was in part to her yucky cold and the overwhelming excitement of all that was going on. It even took her a few minutes to stop and realize the awesomeness that is opening presents! She cried for the first couple minutes but once she realized that under all that wrapping paper there were toys galore, she was just fine with opening the rest. She managed to learn the "Birthday Song" which she likes to sing over and over again, and even treated Poppy to a quick version last night when we did our iChat for his birthday! (The birthday pictures will come in a different post, still waiting to edit!)

We have another quick trip up to PA planned in a few weeks, but just for Ava and I this time. Curt is headed to Texas for work so we figured we would take a trip up to see family since we won't see them again until Christmas. It may seem like a lot of driving for some, but, this why we chose Seymour as our home and we plan on making many, many trips up I95 over the next few years. Who knows when we'll be within driving distance once again! November proves to be a busy month for us as Curt's parents are headed down our way for a weekend to visit. Lots of family time makes us very happy!

Curt and I are making a conscious effort to take more time for ourselves lately. We have another concert to go to this weekend! That makes three in the past 2 months! I'm also headed out to see Carrie Underwood at the end of the month with Gretchen and I can't WAIT!!! We have seats 11 rows from the center stage. HECK YEA! It's going to be a great time for both shows! I love me some live music! We are trying to take Ava to a corn maze this weekend as well as carve some pumpkins that I bought. Rumor has it, if you cut the pumpkin open too early and leave it outside, the critters have themselves a little feast on your fall decor, so we're trying to wait so we can enjoy them as long as possible!

Finally, Miss Ava is doing well as a brand new two year old! She's doing more each day, talking a million miles per minute, making requests, demands...you get the gist! She's smart as whip and soaks up more than we ever thought possible. I'll leave you with a few Ava-ism's and A LOT of pictures!

-Ava's newest phrase is, "Ta-Da!", and she uses it after she's accomplished something out of the ordinary. It's pretty funny! For example, she stacked up a couple books, climbed on top, and then jumped to the ground! So, therefore that stunt deserved a "Ta-Da"!

-Playing Babies is Ava's most favorite thing in the entire world to do. She cares for them just about as much as I care for her! Lately, if they're sleeping, she whispers quietly and says, "Mommy, SHHHH! Baby sleepin'...". Or, if she's holding one and has to run into her room, she politely asks Curt or I to "hold baby, be right back". So nurturing!

-As soon as Ava wakes up in the morning, she's immediately asks, "Where's Daddy?", to which I either say, "Sleeping", or, "He's at work.". It Daddy's at work, she likes to list all the things he has to be wearing that day in order to be at work. Goes a little something like this, "Daddy at work. He wear 'fight suit', an socks, and boots.". So observant!

-Ava still loves her dance class more than anything else! She's learned a couple songs there which she sings over and over again! Her latest favorite is, "5 little monkeys swinging from a tree, teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me...", along with all the choreographed motions. She loves to sing this for her cousin, AJ. He's surely thought she's lost her mind! He's still cute, though!

-Even after our trip home, Ava still has a massive crush on my sister in law's fiance, Warren. She talks about him non stop. Well, when she finally saw him again at the wedding, she freakin' lost it, and not in a good way. She saw him in the hotel lobby and immediately started crying! It was just too much for her! Never has she acted this way about someone we know, ever! It's so crazy! She's too little!!!! Ha! :) It didn't get better over time, either. She cried every time she saw him and in an effort to soothe herself in his presence, she kept her eyes closed the entire time he was there. She's crazy about him!

-I've finally got the ABC's on video and plan on posting it on FB today! It's kinda cheesy, since I had to video it myself. It's so much more fun when Curt does it with Ava so if I have time and remember to video them tonight, I'll try to post that one instead. Be on the look-out!

So my friend, Amy Duncan, is extremely talented and took on the project of making a 2nd Birthday outfit for Ava, and it turned out AMAZING! We were planning on using this little number in the photo shoot we just did with TLohse but unfortunately, it was the most fall-like weather that morning and it was only in the low 60's and windy! Curt and I thought it would make for a very unhappy Ava if we had her romping around in a skirt and t-shirt, so much to my dismay, we had to wait and do the pictures on another day. I think it's safe to say that I'm not photographer and since I only got these 7-ish pictures out of the 90+ that I took, I have the evidence to back it up. I'm happy that it was almost 80 yesterday and that we were able to get some pictures of Ava in this outfit! It's SO CUTE!

Here is Ava lovin' on her babies. She as two. The both have very different needs as she only give the one baby a bottle and the other gets a sippy cup. One baby is always in the high chair and the other is always in the crib. So particular! ;) (You may not notice it, but of course there's some baby powder on my couch. Of course!).

My house is officially decorated for fall, ya'll! I'm sure I could have gone overboard but in order to make both Curt and myself happy, this is what we came up with... He was not all about the fall-like explosion on the front porch. He's all about the festive decor, but only to a certain extent. I'm pretty happy with the final product!