It's Good To Be Home

Ava showing off her dance moves on the fire truck.

The last month or so has been so busy and we have a couple more weeks of craziness before life settles down again (a wedding Tony and I are both helping with this weekend, photography and cupcakes respectively, and then a weekend trip to Yuma). And then just about 8 weeks left until the baby comes . . . Yikes!

Three weekends ago I helped to throw a double baby shower for two ladies at GFA. The theme we used was Bedtime Stories and it really turned out cute and was a lot of fun to plan. I forgot to bring my camera and so I'll have to dig up some pictures later.

Then a couple days later Ava and I flew to Washington to visit my family for a little over two weeks. Tony wasn't planning on coming up at all, but it a blessed turn of events he ended up being able to come for the last 4 days of our trip to do some video work for GFA at CC Olympia. I missed him a lot while we were gone and I was so very excited to see him, have him there with us for a few days and to have him help me with Ava on the flight home. Speaking of Ava, she was ecstatic when she saw him and never wanted to leave his side!

Ava and I have spent the last couple of days recovering. Neither of us slept to well during our trip. Ava was sick with a nasty cold pretty much the entire time which was a bummer since not feeling well and being tired made her pretty clingy to me and not able to have the fun I had hoped for with her cousins. She had a couple of pretty amazing and uncharacteristic meltdowns while we were there and has remained pretty "irrationally emotional" since we've come back.

For example, yesterday after her nap I took her out of her crib and she brought with her the usual trio of Lambie, Baby, and Frog. She has a toddler bed in her room now too and she proceeded to lay all three of them out in it and "tuck them in" with a blanket. Then she headed out the door and down the hallway. About half way down the hall though she suddenly collapsed on the floor wailing. At first I thought she'd hurt herself but she was more mad than sad and I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I asked is she wanted Lambie. She then slowly pulled herself up off the floor, still crying, and ran back to her room. She grabbed Lambie out of the bed and started to head back out, then changed her mind (again) took Lambie back to the bed and tucked him back in with Baby and Frog and headed out happily back down the hall. I called Tony and asked if he was really prepared for life with three girls . . .

In between his work on the video project Tony was able to do some fun things with us, like take Ava up to see Papa Jim at his fire station in Renton. The last time we went up Ava was to little to really participate in the fire station tour. But this time she climbed into the truck like an old pro and had a blast "driving" it and playing with all the knobs and buttons.

Here's some pictures of the fire station fun. More to come soon!

The Natural

Grandma Margie couldn't quite convince her to put my dad's helmet on though. Ava didn't want to mess up her hair . . .

"Look at me! I'm way up high!"

"Copy dispatch."

"Let's see. . .where shall I drive us next?"

"Hi Mama!"

Wearing Papa Jim's bunker gear. She actually put on a little dance show for us in these boots. Something about boots just makes a girl wanna dance I guess . . .

Gettin her groove on

A study in facial expressions

"Dada, this is serious business!"

"Stop freaking out Dad! I know what I'm doing!"

My dad and sisters.

The Dog House. A great little hot dog place owned by my Aunt Tami where we stopped for a post fire station hot dog. If you're ever near Des Moines, WA you gotta try it!

What up Easter Bunny!

Teressa and Ava have been in Washington, visiting family for the past week. I have really been missing them and needed to look at some photos of Ava tonight. I laughed again and again as I remembered some of the silly things she did while she was "supposed" to be picking up easter eggs. ha ha

This was our local "The Colony Easter Egg Hunt."

This is such a classic Easter bunny photo. ha ha

Don't worry... she knows there is no real easter bunny and he is certainly not the reason for the season ;-)

Here is Ava giving the easter bunny "bumps"

I can just hear Ava whispering it now... "pound it!"

daddy's not so little girl

she got to pick out a flower and plant it in this cup.

except her mommy thought that the flower she picked wasn't the prettiest flower.

so teressa "helped" her pick another

she was still really happy and wanted to carry it for the next 45 minutes.

there was a fun petting zoo there.

but the question of the day:

why did they color this baby chick?

some things we should not question.

we will never know...

These few photos are from a local easter egg hunt at a church down the road.

It's called Crossings Church. tv

It was a lot of fun, becuase there were about 40 kids and 5,000 eggs.

Yeah... you do the math.

Ava was done picking up eggs at this point.

She just wanted to open them one by one and eat the chocolate.

We had to bribe her.

What was the price?

One M&M was deposited into her hand for every egg that was placed into the basket.

Want to hear what happens when you give kids M&M's in their hand?

You guessed it.

They let them melt in their firm grasp, and then later, after their dad takes them down the large inflatable slide a few times, they look up at their father, open their hands, and give a big ol' hug.

rock on my egg collectin' friend.

rock on.

Sorry GAP.

This image is copyrighted.

This photo makes me think of Winnie the Pooh.

I can just hear him talking about little Ava.

She went outside to collect eggs.

On a blustery day.

Is that even a word?

It must be.

Because I can see Pooh saying it.

You can't see what she is looking at inside that basket.

But I think she swiped my wallet when I wasn't looking.

I'm missing a Starbucks card...

3 at a time!

That a girl!

Can you find us?

Hint:

Look for the Dad who is doing everything in his power to not pick up any eggs himself but patiently make sure that Ava picks up all eggs by herself.

But if you ask Teressa, she will tell you that I still "cheated."

Because when they said "Go!" I took off sprinting with Ava in my arms. I then placed her right in the middle of a field of eggs.

I thought that was allowed...

Have you ever seen a kid laugh this hard?

Seriously, I had to anchor myself, because she almost sucked me in.

She would run up with her plastic egg and stick it on my lens.

Then she would laugh and laugh and laugh.

Then she would look at her mommy and I.

And make sure we were laughing.

Then she would turn around, run for another, and do it again.

Aren't I hilarious?

Ava

plus

Wind

=

Silliness

Thank you for sharing.

I miss you Ava!

I can't wait to see you again soon...

Meet the Davis Family

This past Saturday, I got to hang out with the Davis family. Our photo session was shortened quite a bit when the rain started and the thick clouds sucked up a lot of our light... but I think we still managed to get a few fun shots in the 20 minutes that we had.

They are such a fun family and it was a blessing to see them interact together. It's not often that you see teenage boys who genuinely get along with their parents. I sure hope Ava likes to hang out with me in the coming years! :-)

Here are a few photos from the session. I made "traditional" copies of the photos too for the family, but I thought I would post some of the ones I like, especially some of the more "unique" versions. I figured these young guys might like something a little... different.

I love this photo so much! I don't know exactly why. I just know that it makes me smile every time I see it. Something about the way that Kris and Scott are joking around together. To see Scott just laughing and how good of friends they are. Keep it up you two! You are an encouragement for all of the young couples around you.

The family

John

You two are fun!

Drew

There is so much character in this photo.

Love it.

John may use this as the cover for his next cd...

hmm... but the buildings look a little too nice.

maybe if he did a P.O.D. album... "Welcome to Uptown"

Drew is about to graduate and is headed down to Texas A&M

Lets go Aggies!