Thanksgiving 09

Me and Jeremy

Mom carving the turkey

We had a great Thanksgiving. We celebrated at moms house this year. As usual we ate too much and ate multiple times :) Ava took a very long nap while we all ate. She missed most of the day due to her nap. It was so chilly on Thanksgiving. We tried to walk but I froze. We were trying to make ourselves feel better about going back to eat more pie :)

Me and mom did our annual Black Friday shopping trip. We LOVE it!!!!!!!!!! My Friend Martha kept Ava for me. We had a great day of shopping and eating our favorite, Olive Garden.

Adam got all my Christmas stuff down yesterday so today that is part of what I have to get done. I have a baby shower to go to at 2. Plus Jeremy is leaving today so I hope we can sneak in some time with him before he heads back to ATL.

Gatlinburg 09

We had such a good trip. We left Thursday around lunch time and had a good trip. Ava did so good. She slept most of the way and played the rest. We made good time and I only had to stop once for her. Thursday night we checked in our hotel and met up with Adams parents. We ate dinner at the Peddler and it was sooo good. We shopped in Gatlinburg after dinner. Ava loved the lights and people. We bundled her up as you can see in the pics. It was very cold that night but not as cold as it has been in past years. It was our first time staying in a hotel with Ava. That was a experience. :) I am a germaphob so I didn't want her touching the floors or comforters on the bed. I brought a blanket and we let her play on that or we held her. She didn't sleep good that night. I might have got 5-6 hours. Friday morning we woke up early and ate breakfast at the Pancake Pantry. YUMO. We shopped at Tanger in Pigeon Forge. I got a lot of stuff for her and some stuff for me. We all met up at the cabin late Friday night. We ate dinner there and just chilled. Saturday the guys and girls went and rode horses. YEAH, not my thing at all so we went to Gatlinburg while they did their thing. SHEW they stunk too. I made Adam put his clothes and shoes in a bag to take home. They had fun though and had some funny stories to share. We all went back to Pigeon forge to eat lunch and shop some more. Saturday night we had a late dinner at the cabin. It was good though. Ava was exhausted. Sunday morning we woke up and packed up to leave. We had breakfast at the Old Mill and then shopped on the way home. It was nice trip. Ava had so much fun with everyone. She loves all that attention. Rachel is pg and due in February so it was odd thinking I was pg with Ava this trip last year. So next year we are all looking forward to having Ava and Gabriel with us. It should be fun :)

We got home around 6 Sunday night. We had so much to unpack and organize.

Today I am covered up with laundry and cleaning.

8 Months

her first sippy cup

Ava is 8 months old today!! She is growing so fast. I added our monthly pictures but I am not sure how much longer I can keep that up....Ava wants to grab the paper. She can officially crawl and might I add a new found discovery that she can get into everything. I no longer can walk out of the room to return to have her in the same place :) She has 2 teeth! She loves to play any game you can make up. Seriously this kid wants to play all the time. She thinks when I am talking on the phone I am talking to her and she just laughs. She thinks everyone coming near her is playing "get her". She will squirm in your arms to get away from them. We can thank Nana and Paw paw for that one. :) She still loves her cereal and vegetable baby food. She doesn't like fruits. I introduced the sippy cup yesterday. She doesn't quite understand to suck the spout instead of chomp it. She loves playing with it though.

I am super excited this week because Thursday we leave for Gatlinburg. This is a much needed getaway. We are meeting Adams family there. I plan on shopping at the Tanger outlets....my therapy. LOL So be prepared to be bombarded with pictures next week.

Into Everything

Ava has discovered that she can move....and move fast. I spent pretty much all day Tuesday saying "No Ava, don't pull that speaker cord", or "No Ava, daddy's shoes are nasty, don't eat them". I was exhausted by the end of the day. So I decided it was time to make some changes in the house. I know a lot of people say don't move things just teach them not to touch them. Well thats fine and dandy if it works for your kid but mine it doesn't :) I think she understands "NO" to an extent. Me and Adam realized this last night while I was feeding her. She was in her highchair and it was near a cabinet. She started leaning over and pulling the knob. I told her a firm no and moved her hand. We probably repeated this 20 times....no joke. I even spat her hand (that was hard and I hated every minute of it) but she just got her feelings hurt. Once she stopped crying she immediately reached for the cabinet again. Adam said I think she is too young to understand or remember. But I guess the only way they learn is for us to be consistent.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated....LOL

BTW...I had my yard sale last weekend. I did ok. I made $67 plus $15 from stuff dad took to the pawn shop. Its a little extra spending money for our vacation next week to Gatlinburg.

Stupid Time Change

I HATE it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ava wakes up at 6 ready to go! I am so tired and it seems like the day is never ending. By 6pm I feel like its 10 and time for bed.

Ava has another tooth coming in and she is whiny. She can get up on all fours but she hasn't figured out how to move her arms and legs together. She scoots and rolls all over the living room though. Adam is off this week so we are spending a lot of quality time together. We are going to the park in a bit.

I am planning a yard sale this Saturday at moms. I am in a cleaning out mood. I just want to get rid of so much. What I don't sale is going to charity. I don't plan on bringing it back home.

Avas 1st Halloween

Alot of the kids from church

Bro. Shirley (our pastor)

Nana and AVa

My grandmother with Ava

My grandpa with Ava

Daddy and Ava

Ava was a Bumble Bee for her first Halloween! We started our Halloween adventures with pictures then we went to my grandparents house. They wanted to see her and I wanted to take her to be with them for a while. I am so thankful they are still living to see Ava grow up. We then went to our pastors (Bro. Shirley) house. We took some pics and had some laughs. We made one more stop and Ava was tired and ready to call it a night. I really wanted to go to a bonfire at a friend's house but Ava calls the shots at our house :) We grabbed some dinner and stayed in the rest of the night. She was so tired she went to bed at 6:45!!!

She surprised me too and wasn't scared at all the costumes. She didn't eat any of her candy either.....me and Adam will take care of it for her.

Weekend in ATL

Ok, I am typing this post on Sunday night while riding in the backseat on the way home from Atlanta. I figure I better use all my extra time because after a trip I have laundry and just added stuff to keep me crazy busy. We went to ATL Friday night. I have to say the trip there went great. We waited till it was later and we figured Ava would sleep. She did great! She slept some but played quietly some too. We had a great visit with Adams side of the family. Saturday we went to Aunt Aprils for Shelby's Birthday party. Us girls took a quick trip to the "Sock Shoppe". A place they have been telling me about. I racked up on cheap socks, tights, etc. Saturday night was the singing. It went good. Sunday we went to church then went back to Nana's for dinner. I did manage to sneak in some Tanger Outlet shopping today too :) You would be amazed how much I can accomplish in a short amount of time. I was on a mission to find Ava some warm hats and mittens for our Gatlinburg trip in November. His family probably thinks I am some crazed shopaholic but what they don't understand is we live in Scottsvegas....the town of no shopping :)

We have to drive at least 45 minutes to go to any decent store....especially for kids.

Our trip home wasn't as quiet. Ava screamed bloody murder for the first hour. We even pulled over thinking she might just need a break. NO she was just pitching a fit :) We endured it though and she fell asleep.