Long Time, No Write...

Hey Friends! I hate to admit this but I've been the WORST blogger this summer for a couple reasons. The top three are because I didn't have any free time, I had too much to say, and most importantly, I didn't feel like it. Just keepin' it real. This may be the most confusing post ever, but I really do have a lot to say so I'm just going to go where my mind takes me.

Someone looks like her Daddy! (or her Mommy, I guess we really can't tell even today!)


Let's start with the most important news, according to Ava, at least. Ava's doing really well as she approaches her 2nd birthday in just a few short weeks. Seriously. Seriously? How did this happen? Wasn't she just a little peanut in my belly, like, yesterday? Hearing someone tell you, "they grow up so fast!" may just be the most annoying statement known to man. Unfortunately, it's true. It may just be time for us to start thinking about planting a new seed, yes? ;) I guess only time will tell...

Ava's talking up a storm these days. Lots of questions! "What's that noise? What happened? Where'd it go? Who's that? What's that?" and the list goes on. She's an inquisitive little girl, that's for sure. On the other hand, she's also quite demanding. "Mommy! Come here!". Or my personal favorite, "Mommy! Hurry up!" and "Mommy! Move!" or the oh-so-polite, "STOP!". But, we're most proud of things like, "Thank you!", "Thanks", "Yes, please", and "I love you". (The "I love you" sounds much more like "i-of-ooo", but you catch my drift. She's also big on, "Mommy hold you?" or "Mommy show you?". Too cute... Her vocabulary is expanding daily. She knows more words than I can give her credit for, really. Any and all animals, toys, things in the house, things outside, cars and trucks, things at the store... Impressive, if I do say so myself. Her memory is getting better and better all the time. She remembers families as a whole, "Ken and Deena and doggie Ely" or "Peter and Gretchen and baby Kaylee". If we mention one person she likes to list all the other remaining members of the family. She loves her babysitter, Marissa, and asks for her all the time. As for the extended family? They are her personal favorite. She asks to go over to AJ's house at least once a day, but more like 50 times per day. She asks for her aunts, uncles, grandma's and grandpa's ALL THE TIME. Man, we live TOO FAR from home.

Just like always, Ava absolutely loves to dance and sing! I've signed her up for a ballet class on base that meets once per week and she's doing fantastic. I think we have many a dance recital in our future with this little girl. I bought her a cute ballet outfit from Target last week that I will take a picture of next week when she gets to wear it for the first time. It's ADORABLE. The singing just warms my heart. She's got quite a few memorized after the millions of sign along sessions that we've had. Music is my number one bribe for Ava. I can always get her to come to me if I offer to sing her a song. It's her only weakness!

I'm still a teacher at heart and the first person that tells me I'm running a "hot house" will be on the receiving end of...nothing good outta me. Ava's a sponge and I'm all about teaching her whatever she wants to learn. So far, she can count to 15, name all the colors in the rainbow plus some, she knows all the basic shapes plus some, and she knows about 6 numbers and 10 letters in the alphabet. I'm so proud of her! Lately she's all about labeling things with their respective color. Like, Black car, or red shirt. We label A LOT. Most car rides she's yelling from the back seat, "Green rectangle!" or "yellow diamond" as we pass the road signs. She's got Curt's overachieving brains. Hopefully she gets my fashion sense. ;) Ava is my life, guys. I'm overly impressed by how much she can do each and every passing day. Soon enough she won't even be able to get help from me. We all know high school math and science wasn't my strongest area. Curt, on the other hand, smart as a whip. ;)

She's working on getting undressed on her own but the shirt proves to be quite difficult. She usually gets her head stuck half way through and gets mad enough to just quit. It's actually kinda funny. She can follow directions and helps out with things like laundry and cleaning up her toys.

Last but not least, Ava has finally broken her food boycott and she's trying more and more things each day. Praise the Lord! I knew she'd open up some day and realize there is life outside of goldfish and chicken!!!! Her new favorites are pizza and grapes. She eats more pizza and grapes, oh man, it's non stop. I'm just happy she's let her guard down and doesn't completely shut down when we present her with a new food. She's growing up!!!

Okay, without blabbing on and on for too long... I've got about a zillion videos on FB so feel free to hop on over there and check them out! Ava and Daddy videos are my favorite!!!!!

I've spent most of my summer in PA and we all had such a great time visiting family and taking vacations whenever we could. I managed to visit an old friend from school in Pittsburgh, go to the shore for a week, catch up with hs friends at home, and most importantly relax. We had a fantastic time and I have loads of pictures to prove it. I'll try and give you a little something with each picture I post...

Curt's been super busy at work, flying nights, going in early. Man! Life as a weapons officers comes with some serious commitment. Thankfully, Curt's all about it. He's doing a great job at home, too, whenever he's here. He practically begs me to go out and do things on my own after a long week is over so I can have some free time. He loves spending his downtime with Ava so he can catch up on all she learned that week. Sometimes her new words and phrases make him seriously grin ear to ear and laugh out loud in amazement. He gets bummed sometimes that he misses out on some things but as you can see, I'm the VIDEO QUEEN, so nothing goes undocumented. We, no kidding, have a wedding in the northeast every month until December. Will he be able to go to all of them? Of course not. But we will make it up there for as many as we can and we really value those trips we can take up to see family while we're living so close.

My house is about 90% complete. Curt keeps joking to me that even though we're supposed to be here 2.5-3 years they're going to change they're minds and move us early. Me? I don't think it's quite as funny as he does... I honestly love this house! I love the layout, I love the look, I love the decorating. LOVE. I have yet to take pictures and hopefully I'll get to do that in a separate post. I've had a great time adding my own personal touch to a place that we can finally call our own...

On a more sour note, I must say. I HATE, yes, HATE the weather here. Evidently it's one of the hottest summers EVER and I am melting. Yes, melting. It's been in the high 90's to low 100's all summer long. Um, NO thanks. I don't like to be in the sun, I don't like to sweat, I don't like summer clothes. I mean, I'm just over it. Ava and I have spent most of the summer in doors because it's honestly too unsafe for us to be running around outside in 100+ degree temps when I know it's impossible to keep her out of the sun and hydrated. For your skeptics out there, we play at daybreak and in the evening outside. We're not complete shut-in's. For all my England buddies out there, do you remember when we used to joke that for every sunny day we got in the UK it rained for the next two weeks? Well, here it's the exact opposite. For every rainy day we get it's a blazing hot, sunny mess for a MONTH. I mean, enough already. I've already made a mental note: Must retire somewhere north of New York. I need a mild summer with a long winter. Yes. LONG winter.

Last but not least, let's talk about ME. I've been trying to plan out the next few years of my life. Well, guess what? That's next to impossible to do if you're "married to the military". I'm so thankful for Curt and his awesome career, but it makes life a tad bit difficult for me as far as careers are concerned. I need to go back to school to finish my masters. Last time I checked, I was half way there. I'm not ready to put Ava in daycare or with a babysitter so as far as a job is concerned, I'm technically out of luck. Sure, I could get a job tomorrow in NC working in a public school. Not to toot my own horn, but those of you that follow education in America know that schools in NC are struggling and will really take anyone they can get. I'm just not quite there yet. I want to expand my family and raise my kids the way I want them to be raised. Do I wish I could have both? Of course. Is that possible. Of course not. Curt is our provider and he does more than enough to keep us afloat. It would a personal satisfaction making my way back into the classroom and someday, I will be back where I belong.

For now, here's some pictures of our summer!

Enjoy!

Not a care in the world, these two. Must be nice...


Um, kinda scary! Ava loves her a good ol' jump in the bed!


Sunbathing. But really, I think it was around 730 pm. Like I'd ever let her sunbathe in a diaper. No thanks. ;)


Swimming in my clothes?!?! So fun! What happens at Grandma's house, stays at Grandma's house.


Tearing it up on Mimi and Poppy's back deck. "I runnin'...!"


Where's Ava?!?!?


Peek-a-boo! Yes, this game never gets old. NEVER!


Here ya go, Maggie. I'm all finished so you can have it. Maggie was at Ava's feet pretty much constantly waiting patiently for her to pass off her "leftovers".


So happy!


Ava emptied this cabinet at my parents house DAILY. Everything out!


If Maggie could talk she'd say, "Drrrrrop it. Just drop it! Please?"


Ava LOVES when Poppy reads her books. She prefers him over anyone else when it comes time to read...anything!


Ava has now turned the table on all of us and SHE is now the tickle monster...


Best Friend, Poppy.


Ava and Aunt "Coal-een"


I smell TROUBLE! Of course, they get away with it ALL because of their high levels of cuteness...


Best buds. Snacks on the swing in the middle of summer. Life is bueno...


Colleen once said, "When they come at me at once I feel like I'm being attacked by pigeons! ;)


AJ! Always RUNNING!!!!


Don't they look like they're up to no good? They're conspiring to do...something. ;)


First boating trip! She was NOT a fan of the lifejacket.


First attempt on the tube with Daddy? Epic fail. She hated it!


Snacking on the boat while spending the day with our other families, the Yule's and the Madsen's at Buckhorn Lake!


My cousin John's wedding in NEPA. I finally made it home for a wedding! I sure missed a lot while I was living overseas.


Curt and his sister, Angela. Drinks while out one night in AC!


Angela and her hubby-to-be, Warren. Heidi and Spencer 2.0, right? Although, much cuter...and nicer...and down to earth.


Curt and I, sans Ava, for a night out in Atlantic City. (I need to lose like, 10 pounds, and the botched bang trim isn't helping. )


This is where you'll find cool people like Curt and I who have sworn off the sun. Be jealous.


My one night out with some of my favorite girlfriends from PA. So fun!


Ava's first day at the beach this summer! Contrary to her happy smile in this picture, she HATED the water. We need swimming lessons, now!


Beach Bum.


Ava and Daddy, strolling on the coast.


Hi, My name is Ava and I LOVE Swedish Fish. A lot.


Gummy worms? Don't mind if I do!


Riding the elephants with Daddy! So cool that she was able to go on the rides at the boardwalk this year. She LOVED it!


Merry-go-round with Mommy. She refused to get on the horse. Too scary!


Hating the pool. Not sure what that was all about. Maybe it was too cold? Either way, she refused to go in all week. Bummer...


Our first surrey ride! So beautiful first thing in the morning on the boardwalk.


Our navigator. She did great!


Wiped out after spending the morning in Cape May.


Daddy? Toys, Please?


Making wishes!!!


Random: How cute is this shower gift that I gave to my great friend, Deena, for her baby that's due this week?!?! Obviously, her hubs is a pilot too. Just perfect.

Pretty Things

Things I'm lusting:

Michael Kors Gold Watch:

JCrew Pearl Bib Necklace:

Chanel Jumbo Flap:

TB Revas:

Michael Kors White Ceramic Watch:


Style I'm Loving:
Here's my Lauren Conrad Inspiration! So, put all your preconceived notions about "LC" and the hills aside. This girl has great taste. She's always, according to me, spot on when she dresses for the big stuff, as well as the little stuff. Here's a few of my favorite looks she's had in the past...

Aunt Manuel!

So, Aunt Manuel (aka, Mariel) was here for a whole FIVE DAYS to spend some time with us. It was fantastic! We didn't want her to leave and Ava's been looking for her ever since we got home from the airport. It's so sweet and sad at the same time! Ava is convinced she's either (a) in the guest room or (b) out by the baby pool that Mariel bought for her while she was visiting. Only a few weeks until we're back in PA so Ava will get her Aunt Manual fix in no time!

Mariel was kind enough to watch Ava for Curt and I so we could venture out to Asheville over night for a wedding of a close friend to Curt from waaaay back in pilot training. It was great for them to see each other after a couple years! So much to catch up on! I hate complaining about a wedding because in honesty, it was great. Beautiful and lots of fun. However. Having an outdoor ceremony in North Carolina, in the summer, in the mountains...is...umm...well... Let's just say that Curt perspired from his under arm all the way to his belt before the ceremony was even over and I woke up the next morning with 8 mosquito bites. Bummer... But, congrats to the happy couple! ;)

Ava's lookin' like a big girl these days and, naturally, acting like one too. She's becoming more adventurous with her food choices, although we do have a ways to go, but she did try a cherry...or 8!...the other night. Big deal, friends. Big deal!

Here's a few Ava moments I can share before I attempt to get some sleep!

-Grandma is now "MiMi". We have a "MiMi" and a "Poppy". CUTE.

-Ava always says, "Thank You!" every time you give her something and she even says "Bless You" when you sneeze. Manners. Such a sweet pea.

-She sings outloud and does the motions to "Head, Shoulders.......Toes!" about a million times a day. It's fantastic. And, no, we don't include the knees. ;) She has many other favorite songs that she can't quite sing from start to finish, but she loves yelling out the words that she knows while they're playing. I may have a musician on my hands. That would be pretty awesome...


-Ava loves looking at herself in the mirror. LOVES. She also loves watching herself on video and when she sees herself on camera or in a picture, she says, "A-ba!" Girl knows her name!

-We love to examine our "owie's" over and over again... She's had a scratch on her foot for three days and makes she we all see her "owie" a few times a day. It very exciting, that scratch of hers.

-We're working on lots of three word sentences. Her favorites start with "Mommy" or "Daddy"...followed by, "come here" and "let's go"!

-Sometimes she likes to call her Daddy...."Curt!" Ha! She usually only does it right after I say it, but still. So funny!

-She can now successfully take my iphone out of idle mode by pushing the button and gracefully sliding her finger over the scroll button. Lovely.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things but my mind is mush. These past few nights have been late ones so I could hang with Mariel in the evenings but you know Ava's an early riser! I'll try to do a life/house/family update tomorrow! Lots more to say, I promise! Be sure to see the fun videos I have on FB!!!! More of those from Mariel's visit to come!

Nothin' New

So, I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a while but I swear that with Curt back in the house, we've been so boring getting back into our routine. I have so many pictures I need to upload from Relay and I want to dedicate a whole post to that, but I'm so lazy in my downtime after chasing Ava all over God's green earth from sunrise to sunset, that I honestly am searching for the motivation to do a lot of things these days. I was on a role while Curt was away but once he got back into the house I kinda lost my fire. I'm sure it'll be back soon. We're headed out of town this coming weekend to a wedding for an old friend and to be honest, I'm pretty excited for a change of scenery. It's only overnight but I think it's the perfect amount of time that we need to just "getaway". The month of July is literally jam packed with weddings, showers, and trips to PA we're honestly considering the "logistics" (as Curt would say...) of the entire traveling back and forth. Basically, to make life easy on Ava and I, we should just spend about 3 weeks in PA. Unfortunately for Curt, there's no freakin' way the AF would allow such a "vacation" and would laugh in his face if he even requested such a thing (even though the boy has 60+ days stored away). So, do we make the traveling easy for Ava and I easy, or, do we remember that we have a husband and life down here in NC that we can't just turn our back on.... Hmmm, what to do, what to do. It doesn't help that we've been apart so much this past year so adding more separation on top of what we've already had to do doesn't really help.

Okay.

Now I'm just typing thoughts. I'm sure you're done... So, I'm done.

Ha!

More exciting stuff to come.

To catch up on Ava be sure to see what I've posted on Facebook in the videos. She's just being awesome, as always. Numbers, Colors, Shapes. Alllll the good stuff... Oh, and I'll leave you with my favorite Ava moment of the week. I caught her singing and doing the motions to "head, shoulders, knees, and toes..." the other day and literally smiled and cried simultaneously. She's growing up too fast. I was literally so blown away but her little song I cried. Hmmm, love that monkey. A lot.

K, be back soon with more news of our upcoming weekend...and RELAY! I promise....for you Mom!!!!

All About Ava

Here's a quick update on the boss of the place. Literally! She's run me ragged these past few weeks and I think she knows it! I'm wiped out, friends.

Ava has been working on her new words and phrases like a champ! Here is just some of the new things I hear all day, every day:
-"et's go ow-side" or "let's go outside!!!"
-"sh-icken" or "chicken"
-"da-dee" or "daddy". no more "da!"
-"mommy turn" (for when we're "taking turns")
-"of you" or "love you"
-"hug"
-"yucky"
-"tubby now?"
-"okay"...."okay, okay, okay..." lots and lots of "OKAY!"
-"rocks"
-"bugs" (we love finding rocks and bug outside. LOVE.)
-"pants", "bow", "shirt", "sock", and "shoes" are all part of her daily vocabulary.
Hmmm, that's about all I can think of now, she's working on new ones daily so it's hard to keep up!!!

(***And, Yes. It's okay if I brag about Ava. My blog. My brag.***)

I guess those are the new biggies? My mind is mush... I will say hearing her say "of-you" is about the best thing, ever.

She's also all about pointing out letters EVERYWHERE, or in her case, "ABC's". We've discovered shapes like "circle", "i-angle" (triangle), "quare" (square), and the oh so famous, "star"!. We're also big on colors. She's got the basics down, red-orange-yellow-green-blue, but the absolute favorite is definitely PINK. She finds pink things EVERYWHERE. Pink! Pink! Pink! We've been doing great with reading stories. Before she was interested in flipping through the pages but now she'll sit for a pretty decent size story that I read aloud to her. Sometimes over and over...and over! :) Ava is also a big sorter these days. She likes the farmer toys to be with the farmer toys and then blocks to be with the blocks. She's quite organized! Lately, when she's getting dressed each morning and then into her pj's at night, she likes to give her ensemble a quick once-over just to see what she's rocking out in. She likes it when there is some sort of a character, like a princess or a frog, that she can call out when she sees it. Oh, and if there is some "abc's" on the front, that's a big plus too. She loves to "cow-er" and "urn page" with her crayons. In less exciting news I've laid the hammer down with this whole eating business. Basically, I make a meal and she either eats it, or she doesn't. Today we have some toast with strawberry jelly and peaches on the side. Bust. Then she had some grilled cheese for lunch with peaches on the side. Bust. Dinner is set to be spaghetti and meat sauce and some bread with butter. Which, surely, will be a bust. My frustration is that Ava won't even TRY it. She lives on chicken fingers and that has got to stop. WIsh me luck as this first day is proving to be unsuccessful.

Okay, so my girl is doing great and I love sharing her awesomeness with anyone who will listen. Ugh. I'm officially one of those parents! Be sure to check out my FB videos!!! Lots to dance routines to see on there!!!!!!

House Becoming A Home

Here are some new pieces I just ordered this week. Things are moving along!!! Curt has given me free reign to get this place in order (within reason, of course) so I've been a busy bee in regards to getting some random odds and ends. I'm about to take on the task of measuring for curtains and hanging something simple, yet dramatic enough, to make our large window in the kitchen have some life into it! I'm thinking some sort of a chocolate brown micro-suede material. We're both anti curtain, so this is a big step for us!

I found my beautiful wrought iron table online, as if there was ever any doubt, and it's going to get here next Wednesday. I've honestly never been so excited about a piece of furniture in my entire life.


Here are the other things I just bought this morning and should be arriving over the next few weeks.

I saw this mirror and instantly knew I had to have it. There are so many places it would fit just perfectly so I'm not sure where it will ultimately hang, but again, I love it.


So, I'm learning that I really, really, REALLY have a thing for wrought iron furniture. I just gravitate towards anything with some iron on it and have a lot of trouble looking away! We were in search of a computer desk for some time now and I'm glad I stumbled across this one. It had the option of coming with 2 drawers instead of 4 but we're all about functionality as well as overall appearance. So, this should work out great in the office. Plus, it will match the antique bookcase we bought in England. SOLD!


Yes, I need a full length mirror. NEED. You can only imagine my disappointment when I realized that they didn't have one to go along with the full bedroom set we just bought. Our BR furniture is quite dark in finish so although I knew it'd be difficult to match something completely, I think this will get pretty close.


I can't wait to take some pictures of the house once it's all finished! I'm pretty proud of myself for taking this on without second guessing my choices. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be very happy with the final result.

(The console table was purchased at homelivingstyle.com and the other three pieces were found at homedecorators.com. I was pretty impressed with the prices as homedecorators, not too bad! The console table? Well, lets just say that took some convincing on my part in order to get Curt on board. He actually really likes it and believe it or not, he'd sooner pay $$$ for a quality piece as opposed to $ for a cheap-o, junky piece.)

My Closet Inspiration

When Curt and I first got married, he learned pretty quickly how many magazines I always buy on a weekly basis. the first thing he did was get me some subscriptions so I wasn't paying full price! Any way, he saw how I essentially started hoarding them all in my room in an effort to hold onto the ones that had things inside of the that I really liked, which was a lot. Ummm, let's just say he made his thoughts on that stack of InStyle's pretty quickly so to keep everyone happy, instead of keeping the entire magazines I began ripping out the pages that I really liked.

Introducing: "The Book". (Clever, I know.) Those of you that don't really take an interest into clothing, accessories, etc., are going to find this a bit weird and boring. However, we each have our own "weird" obsessions and this just happens to be mine. So of you might day dream about fixing up houses, some of you may day dream about scrap booking, and then of course we have the big cookers and bakers and crafters out there. Me? I like the clothes, the bags, the jewels... That's me, and that's what I like. Correction. That's what I love.

So, here she is. It's, of course, broken down into categories and sections and organized ever so perfectly so I can reference particular things at different times. Sometimes, if I'm bored, I just go through the entire thing...front to back...and gaze at all the lovely things I've collected. I'm...actually...serious.


I've been updating the book the past few days with some new pages I've collected and also because I was searching for a couple new dresses. (For those of you that really know me, I KNOW, I already have enough dresses.) We have TONS of things coming up over the next few months so I wanted to see if there was anything out there that caught my eye. Well, there is. There's a lot.

I'm seriously loving a lot of neutrals with some subtle, and not so subtle, embellishments. These are all completely out of my price range but like pottery barn, I see what I want, and then try to find it at a reasonable price.




This is the one I walked away with. I'm seriously about to go back and get this beauty in black, too, because the price was a steal! I can totally picture this dress with a really pretty pearl cluster necklace like the one on Kim Raver and my hair in a loose side bun like Mischa. Hmmm, tough decisions, I know! :) You see! Saving my favorite pictures really helps with my brainstorming!





I tried to include some of my favorite pictures from my book but blogger is being a big, slow, pain in my rear. So... Not tonight.

I'm off to sleep but I hope to get up my post about Relay this past weekend! I have a couple great pictures to share with you. Oh, and if you're feeling like you need a little Ava fix, feel free to check out the 50 million videos I put on FB the past few days. I have a big Ava post coming up too! She's got lots of new things to share with everyone!!!