Ava sleeping while eating

playtime with grandma margie

While I was away at a pastors conference last week, Teressa's mom, Margie came to visit! Ava had so much fun with her Grandma Margie. They even got to go to the zoo and Ava learned what a fishy, monkey, and lion say. She even got to see the big lion roar!

I'm so glad that Margie was able to come and so glad they had such a good time. I got to spend a little time with her when I flew back before she needed to fly home. We decided to go for a walk, since this is the best time of year here in Texas. We walked over to the park that is near our house and Ava had a blast!

Here is Ava trying to walk on this new toy, but every time she took a step, it just kept rolling...

The ol' monkey bars... always harder than they look.

Ava had the greatest time with Grandma in the slide. She would crawl out and look at us, then crawl inside and start screaming "Hi!" Then Grandma would scream, Ava would scream, ... you get the picture. :-)

O Captain, my captain.

She loved climbing "up" the slides. Much more fun than even going down.

This was the tallest slide that she attempted climbing up. I was surprised at how far she was able to make it!

She had fun on the "big girl" swing.

The curls just keep getting curlier.

She loves to ride on my shoulders when we go on walks. She thinks its soooo funny when she has to look down to see mommy. I think we walk about 4 blocks to get to the park and she clapped, sang, and danced the whole time. fun.

i love the little things

i love it when ava sees that everyone else is laughing so she starts "fake laughing" as loud as she can.

i love it when i get home from work and i see her face smooshed against the front screen door waiting for me.

i love it when she doesn't quite make it to the front door, so as i walk in she is walking towards me with her arms out.

i love it when she tries to feed me snacks. but when i tell her im not hungy, she tries and tries and tries some more.

i love it when the word "toothbrush" comes up in a random conversation and the next thing i see is ava running as fast as she can down the hall towards the bathroom.

i love it when i open her door to see if she is still napping and she is standing in her crib with the biggest smile as if she has been waiting for me.

i love it when clasps her hands, bows her head and then yells "aaaaaeeeeennnn!" at the end of our prayers.

i love it when she says the word "lamby" out loud.

i love it when i ask her what the birdy says, and she says "roooaaarrr"

i love it when ava tries really hard to blow her nose because she sees her mommy doing it.

i love it when ava climbed on to the couch last night beside her daddy, then stretched her legs out like daddys were, leaned against some pillows, and tried to stretch her hands behind her head like she saw me doing.

i love it when my beautiful wife sends me hilarious photos of ava throughout the day. the highlight one of the month was of ava lounging on a chair, watching some blues clues, and eating her new favorite "popcorn like" snack known as "pirates booty."

thank you Jesus. you are the giver of all good gifts.

november puddles

Have you ever seen a nice deep puddle with a beautiful reflection that you just wanted to go splash in? Well, Ava sure has. We have had some nice showers these past couple of weeks and Ava was a quick learner when it came to water aerobics!

Enjoy the fun!

Welcome November

I think Ava managed to adjust to the time change. Hallelujah. I got a little worried when she woke up at 6:00 yesterday morning. She's still sleeping and I'm about to go pour myself a cup of coffee. Mornings start off best when I have a cup of coffee in me before she wakes up.

She's so much fun right now. Everyday she does something new and/or funny and I am kicking myself for not doing a better job and noting them down. The only one I can think of at the moment happened last week. I was working in the kitchen and had given her some cheerios as a snack. My back was to her and suddenly I feel this little hand smacking me on the backside. I turned around and there she was looking up at me very earnestly and making the hand sign for "more". She was out of snack and letting me know it.

Oh and also she nearly gave me a heart attack a few days ago when I realized it had been about a minute since I'd last seen her pushing her highchair around the living room. I went into the kitchen and she was SITTING IN HER HIGHCHAIR LOOKING OUT THE KITCHEN WINDOW! I literally did a double take. She likes being in her highchair and she likes looking out the window and I guess she just decided to push it to the window and then climb in. When I came in she just gave me a look like, "What? I don't see anything unusual going on?" She's not a climber and I shudder to think how she got herself up in that highchair with out falling. Needless to say I've been much more careful with letting her play with her highchair now.

Here's some recent pictures. We went to her friend Evie's costume birthday party on Saturday and scored a great deal on a costume by waiting until Halloween day to buy it. The party favors were fairy wings and there were a pair that perfectly matched Ava's dress. So cute.

About 30 minutes before we had to leave for the party Tony and I decided to dress up too. This is what we came up with . . .

The birthday girl, Evie.

Evie's mom Amy made yummy homemade Mac N Cheese for everyone

Evie's brother Simon

And Simon with his Nacho Libre mask.

Princess Lily

Present time. Evie got a play kitchen from her parents and everyone got her accessories for it. Fun. Ava had a bit of a melt down though because she wanted to play with the food and feed the doll. . . I guess I know what she wants for Christmas . . .

Ava playing in their backyard in this cool tree house at Simon and Evie's.