And the gloves clothes come off!

Ava got a couple new pairs of pajamas in December that don't have the snap across the top to cover up the zipper. And she discovered that she can move the zipper up and down. She gets really excited about doing it while saying "up! doown! up! doown!" I try to distract her from doing it because I'm afraid with all that excitement we might see some skin end up in that zipper. Ouch! Each day I'm amazed at how much she' s learning even from the day before. And that goes for the zipper too because at first it was just little zip ups and downs and this morning it was this:

See the blue pile in the corner covered in yellow and white ducks? Those would be the jammies (without a snap to cover the zipper) that she was wearing when I put her in the bed. When I walked in to get her this morning she stood up and says "duckies. uh-oh." Uh-oh indeed. Good thing the winters aren't too harsh in Texas. LOL.

The Naughty Doll

So some of you read earlier that I was trying to do some homemade gifts for Christmas. Well, I decided to take my sewing machine to Oklahoma with me so I could try to squeeze in a few more. I got this cute ragdoll pattern from the owner of The Black Apple Etsy shop and decided that I could try it out so that Ava would have a handmade gift. I worked on it off and on throughout Christmas Eve and finished it up that night. And I thought it turned out pretty well. Here's a picture.
But apparently the doll was naughty when I wasn't looking because Ava saw it, ran up to it, picked it up and promptly put it face-first in the corner. And that's not something she learned from me either, we're still in the "no discipline" phase of our parenting. After a good solid three hours or so in the corner Ava returned and gave it some "hug-ees." I think it's been forgiven!

Count your blessings

Did you ever have that thought when you were in college (maybe high school) and you had so many really amazing friends that you couldn't imagine not always living near them and getting to hang out? And then of course life moves on and people go off to master's programs and people get married and start having kids and people get jobs and get transferred clear across the country. Now at least we have email/webcams/facebook/etc. so we can keep in better touch but sometimes when I read the things my friends are up to or on the rare occasion I get to speak to them on the phone I really wish I could live out my childhood fantasy that one day when I became a grown-up, I would live on a street where all my favorite people lived and our kids would grow up together and we'd have barbecues together in the summer and all of such fun things. But alas, such is not life so we go where we are called and we make friends along the way as best we can.

And then we get a phone call.

And find out that.............................................

One of our most FAVORITE friends in the entire world is moving. Where you ask is she moving? To a nice little town that is 15 minutes from where I live! Which is a big improvement seeing as now she lives in D.C. while I live in Dallas. I can hardly contain my excitment. Especially since she will be here so soon (February) along with her brand spankin new baby girl (4 weeks old when she gets here) for me to snuggle and snuggle. I can just see the play dates now! (My daughter is 18 months....think that will be a problem? *S*) Ah but this is an old friend, we'll never be as formal as calling them "playdates." This is a cried on my shoulder, offered her shoulder kinda friend. We used to have a secret word we could say that meant "It doesn't matter what you are doing right now or how cute that boy is that you are studying with or how early your test is in the morning, something serious is going on with me and I need you now!" She's one of those rare people you come across in your life that really "gets" you. Plus she's got a heart of gold.

I am truly blessed!

Good thing we live in Dallas.........

since as you will see by the pictures, apparently Ava isn't a fan of snow, at least snow made out of soap bubbles. I recently gave out these cute handsoaps as gifts to friends and neighbors. One of my friends absolutely loved them and jokingly said I could make her more if I wanted and reminded me that her birthday was coming up......in October! I had an extra container so I told her I could make her one more since I was putting a few together anyway. She was thrilled but insisted that she trade me for some snow pictures of Ava (she happens to be a professional photographer). Um, deal! Since we do live in Dallas and snow doesn't tend to fall during 70 degree weather, I took Ava to her studio where she had a snow-making machine. It was very cool and very loud. Ava was a little freaked out by the loud part. But despite the boo-hooing, we ended up with some darling winter/holiday pictures of the little monkey thanks to my awesome friend LE. That bottle of soap was the best return on investment I've had all year. And here are the pictures to prove it!






Once we turned off the snow, she was so relieved she even gave us a smile or two!

Ouch! There goes Christmas. (Previously titled: We're gonna be blacklisted!)

I love the library. Ever since I was a kid I've always felt a little sneaky walking out of there with 4 or 5 books in tow (that I didn't pay for). I can never believe I actually get to take home as many books as I want (I suppose they might draw the line somewhere though I've yet to see it) and it doesn't cost me a penny. It is FREE. I'm really a geeky bookworm at heart and the fact that someone has put all these adventures, mysteries, tragedies, celebrations, etc right at my fingertips with no money out of my pocket sometimes just makes me absolutely giddy. For a book lover like me, its like hitting the jackpot everytime I walk through those doors. It sometimes seems too good to be true. And I've marveled and thought surely there are strings attached.

There are.

I've recently discovered a few strings, a few very long, very expensive strings.

Let me introduce you to the world of chewed slightly manhandled torn to smithereens damaged books.

A few weeks ago Pumpkin and I went to the library and I picked out some books for her. I purposely picked out the board books so that none of her excited turning of the pages would bend or dishevel them in anyway. She was even so thrilled about one of them that I let her look at it on the drive home and she was very very quiet which is a treat. But then again it's hard to make a lot of noise when your mouth is full of cardboard.

When it was time to return the books I walked sheepishly to the counter and told them I assumed there was a fee associated with chewed up books unless of course they saw the charm associated with sweet little baby teeth marks in a book about babies (hey I tried). They didn't see the charm. They charged me $12.41 for a book I can buy in "very good" condition on Amazon for a penny (plus S&H.) Ouch! There goes Christmas.

But we got through it and I promised myself to never leave Pumpkin unsupervised again w/ library books. And I mostly kept the promise. Mostly. Pumpkin takes her daily bath in my bathtub because its just easier that way for me. I also take my nightly bath in that bathtub and typically leave my books in a pile on the side of the bathtub which has never been a problem................until now.

Tonight after the water and bubbles had drained from Pumpkins bath, I went in to clean out the toys so I could relax in my own bath and curl up and read. Here are the toys I found that needed cleaning up:
The big book you see, the hardcover (cha-ching) just happens to belong to a little place we like to call the library. Me: "But don't you see the charm in this? Now the book is wet and turned to mush and barely recognizable and the book is about viruses that make human bodies turn to mush and barely recognizable. Librarian: That will be 85 dollars and 13 cents please.

Ouch! There goes Christmas.

What am I missing?

So, I got inspired by this blog to make some homemade Christmas gifts. I love to try my hand at new things. One thing I've always wanted to try making is a sock monkey but since Ava is obsessed with elephants these days, I decided to make Ava this adorable sock elephant: Is that the cutest thing you've ever seen? Unfortunately, despite buying the book, I was having a bit of a struggle. Due to the fact that I mostly have taught myself how to sew, I often have a bit of a struggle. Here is what mine looks like:Hmmm, and there should be a couple more arm/legs somewhere. See what I mean? A struggle. So I came downstairs the other night and plopped myself on the couch next to Rob and said "Ugh, I"m so frustrated." Rob: "Why?" Me: "This sock monkey is so hard." Rob: "I thought you were making an elephant." Me: "I am." Rob: "Well, that's your problem. No wonder it's so hard." Hmmm, maybe that is my problem! Whatever it is, at the rate I"m going, Ava may be getting just plain old socks for Christmas, no elephant or monkey attached!!!

But just to prove that I'm not totally incompetent when it comes to crafting, here is the darling rag ball I finished for my cutie-patootie niece:
It even has a jingle bell inside! Now if I can just figure out that elephonkey!

You know you're a mom when.......

you have nothing to feed your daughter (okay, granted the fact that you have a daughter is the first clue that you're a mom but bear with me here) for lunch and then you find a hot dog and some tortillas and the brilliant idea comes into your head to make a hot dog and cheese quesadilla. And then before you know it, that hd&c quesadilla starts to look pretty good so you have one yourself. You actually sit down (okay, you just lean against the counter, who has time for sitting down?) and eat a hot dog and cheese lightly grilled inside a tortilla. And you know what? It's not bad. Well it's either not bad or you've been running around the whole day like a crazy man and haven't eaten anything so at this point cinnamon flavored dirt would taste like a 5 star meal. Yep, that's how you know. You're a mom. Isn't it great?! :)

Benefits of Breastmilk

So did you hear the one about PETA writing a letter to Ben & Jerry's suggesting they start using human breast milk in their ice cream instead of cow's milk? You can read the story here.
In the article, a campaign coordinator for PETA says "....it's pretty absurd for us to be drinking the milk of cows." So they are suggesting we drink the milk of humans instead? What about meat? Is it absurd to be eating the meat of cows? Should we use their logic for that one too? Lol.

Babysitting and Football

For those who haven't been to my other blog, I thought I'd share this here as well. We are now in DC on our second "living in a hotel for a month" stint of the summer. The other day I asked Rob to watch Ava for me while I blow-dried my hair. I had the door to the bathroom closed and above the roar of the dryer I heard a faint tapping. I opened the door and this is what I found:


I should have known better than to ask while he was watching football! Let the season begin!!

World Traveler

Ava and I just returned from our month-long trip away from home. We spent some time in Bear Lake, UT w/ my family and a couple weeks in Palo Alto, CA with Rob who was there for work. We had a lovely time and even got to see my cousin Dacia in California. Her and I have been inseperable since childhood and now that we're "all grown up" (some people may dispute that) and have husbands and such, we don't get to see each other nearly as often as we'd like. We spent one day at the beach where Dacia took some pictures of Ava that she (Ava) will surely grow up to despise. You can see them here but please remember that she was in dire need of a nap and apparently starving!

Dacia and I also got to spend a day at a ginormous flea market which we enjoyed since we both like to scavenge for good finds. Ava was extremely pleased with the purse I bought here as well with the inflatable dolphin with the jingle bell inside (see how well I scavenged :) and I got myself a good bargain on a great purse.

All in all a good trip but we are happy to be home for a couple weeks until we head off to D.C. on September 11th for a few weeks to follow Rob for work.

Slacker

Well I've been a total slacker at updating this blog now that I am trying to keep two of them going. (The other is less of an Ava update and more of random things I'd like to write about. Feel free to check it out www.foldedbutnotputaway.blogspot.com )We are enjoying our summer. Rob is working like a mad man trying to get ready for the big trial they have starting in September. Unfortunately this has meant a lot of time away from home, Ava and I. He was gone a total of 21 days in July and will be out of town most of the month of August. Ava and I have been in Utah/Idaho the last week or so for my family's vacation and then we head out to Palo Alto on Monday so we can at least see Rob for the few minutes he takes each day to eat and sleep! :) Then the three of us will be spending the month of September in Washington D.C. for the trial.

Ava is growing like crazy and seems to learn new things everyday. Her sign language is pretty impressive these days and she can also verbally say 'daddy, momma, bubba (aunt breea), d-nee (her cousin sydnee), all gone, no, uh-uh, uh-oh, dog, bird, thank you (taku), yum yum, .................................. She's walking all over the place and into EVERYTHING. She is super strong, very determined, and a giggling, smiling, performing ham! We love her!

Happy Birthday Ava!

So Ava turned 1 today. I can hardly believe it's already been a year. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday. Rob's parents and brother were here and our friend Monica and Ava's best friend Elle came up from Dallas as well. It was a good day. Ava was cute as ever. She wasn't sure what to think about the cake and loved the wrapping paper almost as much as any of the presents. Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures I took. Enjoy!



This is the ladybug cake I made Ava. Note the double chin (hmmm just like Ava..lol) and cut me some slack as this was my first not square or rectangle birthday cake!


This is Ava in her birthday headband concentrating very hard to walk all the way across the room to mommy.


Uncle Ryan had more fun with the headband than Ava did. This is the birthday comb over that he made with it. I don't have pictures of the Chief headdress he turned it into or the ears he formed out of it.


But this was Ava's favorite way to wear it.


Note the look on the child's face as she reaches for the fire. Do we have a future pyromaniac on our hands?


This look about sums up what Ava thought of the ladybug. Not that impressed. Note the war paint on her cheeks that her daddy helped her do. :)


Here she is amidst all her presents.



And like mother like daughter. Here she is lovingly hugging some of the new clothes that she got. :)


Here's Ava holding her best friend Elle. They don't know they are best friends yet. Her mom and I are working on it. Lol.


I told you, they don't know they are best friends yet. This picture was followed up with "Now Ava, we don't scratch our best friends trying to claw their ears off."

No-No

So Ava has recently started shaking her head no whenever I tell her no. I guess its because I must shake my head when I say no. Good thing I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what it means yet!

Ava signs monkey!

Okay, I've been wanting to post this video forever since it is hilarious (at least if you're the parent) but have just barely gotten around to editing out the parts that make you dizzy and a little nauseated (the beginning and the end where the camera points at the floor and sways). Background: Ava got this stuffed monkey from her Aunt Kristy for Christmas. When you drop it or bounce it it makes a "boing" sound. When she first got it she was too little to be into stuffed animals and wasn't that interested but we pulled it out again recently and without any coaching on our part (seriously) this was her reaction to the sound the monkey makes. Pay close attention to her tongue!

Wow, that's funny everytime I watch it! Hope you got a little chuckle out of it too!

The Many Sides.........

New Member No More

Well some of you know that we lost our sweet puppy. She was very sick with bronchitis and didn't make it. It was super sad for all of us and thats part of the reason I haven't posted forever, b/c I didn't want to come back here and see the post full of pictures of Marley (that ended up being her name). Anyway, we will probably get another dog but not until Ava is at least walking which should not be far away. So I have lots of new pictures and videos to post but I just haven't gotten around to downloading them. But, one of Rob's co-workers (Samantha) told me that I HAD to put a new post up since I no longer had a new member of the family. :( So Samantha, here you go. I'll try to do a better update soon.

The Newest Addition to our Family................

No I was not pregnant w/o telling you but on Monday we added a new member to our family, a little English bulldog puppy! She doesn't have a name yet (she came to us as Baylie and not sure yet if we're gonna change it) but she is oh so cute! So our week has been filled w/ trying to adjust her to our home, adjust her to pooing outside (sometimes she gets it, sometimes she doesn't.......yuck!), and trying to get her to sleep through the night (wait didn't I just get done doing this?) w/o yelping! It'll be a rough couple weeks but she is so darling and fun w/ Ava. As you will see by the following pictures, Ava isn't sure what she thinks yet. She loves her from a distance and likes to reach out and touch the dog, then pull back and let out a nervous giggle and then repeat. I have to keep the dog (who will now be referred to as Baylie) from mauling Ava sometimes! The dog was a surprise from me to Rob and for the first time ever I gave him a gift that 1: he hadn't figured out and 2: he loved! So here are some shots:




"Hey! You're stepping on my toe!"




"HA HA I think I like this little guy (girl)!"




"I don't know where I stand on the whole licking thing."




"Okay, I've had enough and I'm gonna try to get away now."




"I tried....mom save me!"






Lucky that she came around when she did b/c one of her favorite toys is a plastic easter egg. She likes to watch it roll and chase it until it rolls again....repeat, repeat, repeat! LOL.




Hangin out w/ dad!




Poised




This is my good side, take the picture now!




And here is the puppy's favorite place to hang out........at Ava's feet underneath her activity center!

No swimming in March

The weather is starting to warm up here in Texas and that means the beginnings of yard work. We decided to let Ava test out the pool to see if it was ready for swimming. Here's her conclusion:

Watch her go

Ava is crawling all over the place these days. The more excited she gets about something, the faster she goes. Here are some photos of her zoomin around!






Oh yeah, and she can even hold herself up for a few seconds. This was just before she plopped down into the splits!

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you!

My friend Emily tagged me to complete this survey about Rob & I. This is the most recent pic I have of the two of us and we look pretty much the same except my hair is much shorter! Anyway, here's the survey:

What is his name? Robert Anthony Vincent....I call him Rob but his family calls him Robbie

How long have you been married? 2 1/2 years

How long did you date? Well, it depends on who you ask. Rob was in denial about us dating for awhile. He had just gotten out of a long-term relationship and kept telling me that he would probably take out other girls and that he wanted to play the field for awhile since he'd been in a relationship for so long. But after we'd been hanging out exclusively everyday for 3 months he finally admitted that we probably were dating! We dated 5 months before we got engaged but we'd known each other almost a year.

How old is he? 30

Who eats more? Thats a toss up as sometimes I can eat quite a bit. Rob was pretty impressed the first time I finished an entire Big Mac. Although when I split dinner exactly in half Rob tells me I should only get half as much as him because I'm only half as big. When it comes to donuts I definitely win and when it comes to wings he takes the cake (I don't like chicken that has skin on it. )

Who said I love you first? Hmmm, I don’t know. It was kind of at the same time.

Who is taller? Rob

Who can sing better? I'm not sure. I can sing okay but I often sing the wrong words to songs on the radio when I can't understand them which Rob likes to tease me about. (Lil o-ret o-ret baby your much too fat. Or little red corvette whatever!) but Rob is better at making up songs for Ava. He made up a song when she was like 3 months old that she still recognizes and gets excited about!

Who is smarter? Up until last night I would have definitely said Rob (well at least much more logical) but according to our online IQ tests, we're only 3 points apart so technically he would be a little smarter but its pretty darn close! :)

Who does the laundry? Define "does". I usually wash the laundry and even fold it but I'm not so good at putting it away. But Rob does it more often than you'd think.......usually when I've forgotten to wash the clothes he needs for church. Oops!

Who pays the bills? Um, the internet?! LOL we love automatic payments. Rob used to mostly handle the money but now we pretty much do it together.

Who sleeps on the right side? If you're standing at the foot of the bed looking at it I do. But thats just b/c when I was pregnant I made him switch me so that when I slept on my left side I wasn't facing the middle of the bed. I don't like to face the middle of the bed....I know, weird.

Who mows the lawn? Rob though we don't have much lawn to mow these days...but yeah Rob does. I even have it on video the first time he mowed it at our house...it was a very "ah! we're really grown-ups" moment for us, having a lawn that belonged to us and was our responsibility to mow! :) We had to document it for posterity...lol.

Who cooks dinner? Well on a regular basis I do but Rob can make a mean bowl of mac & cheese! And he can cook when he needs to.

Who is a better cook? I am. Well I know how to cook more stuff at least. And Rob's pretty good about eating what I cook even if its not the best!

Who drives? When we're together Rob does though we sometimes split the drive to Oklahoma and back. We both have complaints about the others driving and we both think all other drivers on the road are idiots!

Who is more stubborn? Hmmmm I would say I am

Who asked who out first? Well Rob asked me out first but I said no....partly b/c I had to babysit a friends kids and partly b/c he had a girlfriend! ;) Granted they were in the process of breaking up.......the first time we went out when he was single he invited me over to watch 24 at his apartment and the rest is history......24 hours (and many months) later we were practically engaged!

Who proposed? Rob did of course but he did it much sooner than planned after I wouldn't stop whining about wanting a ring so I could tell people it was official. Little did I know I forfeited a hot air baloon ride by not waiting. Boo to me!

Happy Easter!

So there is this lady in my ward that I am friends with and she is a photographer. (http://www.photographybyle.com/ & http://www.belliesbyle.com/ ) Last weekend she did Easter pictures for her clients and she had told me earlier that I should bring Ava by. I had a crazy week and didn't get to it and Sunday she told me the set was still up so to bring her by on Monday and she'd take some Easter pictures of her. There were even live ducks and bunnies! It was hilarious b/c at first Ava was annoyed at the itchy turf and the bunny upset her further. She didn't know quite what to think and went from hysteria to confusion to finally somewhat calm. At one point the brown bunny had a spastic attack and started running back and forth from Ava to behind the plants back to Ava etc. with EXTREME speed. Too funny! So here are a few of my favorites:


Not sure what to think, not sure whether to touch....


I guess I want to pet him after all but he is getting away!


Do you see what they are putting me through? Practically forcing me to play w/ sweet bunnies and ducks!


Okay, I guess this isn't THAT bad.


Can you believe all these baby ducks that want to hang out w/ me?


Notice the duck sitting behind Ava. It was her little friend. The other would run away and that once stayed near her most of the time and at one point even fell asleep sitting right next to her.