PUMPKINS!!!

On Friday, Christie and I took Ava to a local pumpkin patch. It was so much fun. They also had pumpkins, horses, goats, roosters, and rabbits. It took Ava about 10 minutes to warm up but then after that she was running around the farm after all the animals. She loved the roosters the most and whenever they would make a noise, she would turn and point to them. We will definitely be going back here before the end of the season.

Ava warming up!
Holding her pumpkin

Feeding the horse some hay

Standing near her favorite horse

The wonderful but stinky roosters

The horse tire swing

The pumpkin patch

Family Fun

Playing with Great Aunt Faith
Bath Time with Aunt Christie

At Disney's Boardwalk with Aunt Christie

Great Uncle Lyle tickling Ava's feet

Reading a book with Aunt Christie

Aunt Christie combing Ava's hair

On a walk!

Walking! (There's a belly shot for all of those asking!)

Ava wearing her shirt from Aunt Christie - It says, "I'll try a glass of the house white!"

Ava and Aunt Christie - Christie was wearing her out by dancing. Ava loved Aunt Christie!

Ava's New Russian Friends!

Also on Saturday, my Uncle Lyle and Aunt Faith flew in for about a week. Lyle happened to have a conference here in town. Way back when I was in middle school, Faith and Lyle had a foreign exchange student from Russia, Masha. She also planned a trip to Orlando to go to Disney with her husband, Slava, and their 5-year old daughter, Sasha. It was amazing how everything worked out and everyone could be here at the same time. I got together with them yesterday for the day. We hung out at their resort for a little while and then went to one of the outlets nearby for some shopping. Masha is the only one that can speak or understand English so it was very interesting. Sasha would try to talk to Ava and Ava would reply with all of her babble. They seemed to understand each others language and became best friends very quickly. Sasha loved helping me with Ava. Sasha even said her first English sentence yesterday and it was to Ava: "Can I help you?" It was so sweet. Sasha would push Ava around the mall in the stroller, give her water, snacks or anything else she could think that Ava might need. Ava really loved Slava. She thought he was hilarious and would laugh at whatever he did. By the end of the day, she really liked him. It was so sweet to see them all again after so many years.

Sasha (the princess) and Ava meeting for the first time.
Me, Ava, Aunt Christie and Sasha

Ava and Sasha...attached at the hip. If Ava likes it or not! :)

Sasha and Ava

Sasha and Ava riding a Police motorcycle. Ava wouldn't let go of Sasha but loved it!

Sasha and Ava riding on a dinosaur.

Ava with Slava and Masha

Ava and her new best friend, Slava. She even layed her head down on his shoulder while he sang her a Russian lullaby. So sweet!

Sister Hazel

This past weekend, my sister flew down to celebrate her 30th birthday. Her birthday was back in June but her present wasn't redeemable until now. I bought her tickets to see Sister Hazel. Yes, they are still around, and still AWESOME!!! They are from Gainesville, FL so they come to Orlando often. I have seen them a couple times but Jenn has never seen them. So, on Saturday, we picked up our cousin Katie (who happened to be coming to Orlando to visit her family) and we all headed to Epcot for the Sister Hazel concert. It was amazing! They had three shows and after each show, you had to leave the theatre and come back in for the next show. Our wonderful cousin Katie would leave the show early to go get in line for the next show so we could be up close. What a great cousin! We love you Katie!!! Here are a few pictures from our fun weekend. Happy Belated Birthday Jenn! I love you!

Jenn and I

Sister Hazel

Sister Hazel Again

The Three of Us!

After our long day at Epcot, we dropped Katie off at her parents hotel.

Aunt Faith, Me, Jenn, and Katie

Splish Splash

It was raining this afternoon and Ava really wanted to go outside to play. I was explaining to her that it was raining and we couldn't go outside because we would get all wet. Then I remembered that Papa and Nana bought her a raincoat and we still haven't used it. I quickly went to get her some pants, shoes and her coat. She had the best time ever! It was so much fun. She really didn't want to come back inside but mommy and daddy were ready to get dry. :) We will definitely be doing this again....especially if she never forgets that "it's raining" isn't a good enough excuse to stay inside! :)

Ava all ready to go splashing in the puddles! Can you tell she's a little excited!?!
Splashing in the puddles. She doesn't quite know what to do yet.

Playing in the puddle.

" WOW!!! This is a blast! I can't believe they are letting me do this!"

Jumping in the puddles.

Sorry that the video is sideways. We forgot that we can't switch it once it is already recorded. OOPS! Hopefully you can still watch it.

THANK YOU PAPA AND NANA FOR MY WONDERFUL RAINCOAT!!!!

Our Silly Girl

Our Silly Girl...she would not let me put her shoes on this morning without putting these red socks on first! She did not want to wear the shoes without the socks. She thought she was the coolest kid around! :) It was funny. Luckily, she let me take them off before we left the house.

Our cute little girl all ready for church. We had to go out and buy her some new shoes. She is now in a size 5!!! Not even 2 months ago she was still wearing size 2 or 3. She grew fast! :) She is obsessed with shoes so this was a great day for her!

Long Time....

...No Blog! I'm so sorry to all of you that check our blog regularly. I've been slacking. :( The past 6 weeks, I have been feeling pretty sick majority of the time. Finally, now that I'm past the 12 week mark, I'm starting to feel much better. Because I haven't felt very good, I haven't taken too many pictures. But here is what I have taken. Ava is getting so big. She now says the following words all the time: uh-oh, wow, whoa, dog, ROAR!, moo moo, dada, mama, and we think a few others but it's hard to tell. She signs please, thank you, and more too. She doesn't really like us to carry her anywhere....she must walk! Which is a very good thing considering we have another one on the way. She likes to grab for your finger to take you somewhere or to help her with something. Ava is definitely a girly girl! We can't leave the house without her wanting to put a bow in her hair. She will pat her head just to check if she has her bow. She loves to cook! She has some of my pots, pans, and wooden spoons and she loves to pretend to cook. She will stir the food, put the lid on the pot, and sniff inside the pot to see if it smells good. Guess what she's getting for Christmas --- her very own kitchen!!! :) She loves to play with her dolls.
She is a joy to have around the house and we look forward to play with her. She can always put a smile on your face with her different expressions or actions. We can't believe how big she is getting.


Playing with her doll and cooking at the same time!

Sitting in her chair watching her favoritie show - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

We went to an indoor play lounge. It has a bunch of toys and you can take your kids there to play while you relax and watch them play. You are not expected to pick up any of the toys so that was really nice! Ava loved it! This is her in the house. She lived in here pretty much the entire time we were there!

Carrying the stool into her house!

Bouncing on the trampoline and watching the other kids wanting to get on.

Just Having Fun!

Here are just some pictures that we took over the weekend of Ava doing some of her favorite things! Sitting on her chair (mine from Great-Grandpa!) She will carry this chair all over the house to sit on it. It's perfect for her! :)

Pushing her stroller with either Anna, Quentin or Buster or all of them sometimes!

Reading books! She is obsessed with reading books lately. She is constantly bringing us books to read to her but she doesn't want to sit still long enough for us to read them to her. She brings it to us, sits down on our lap for 1 page and then runs to get a new book. Silly Girl!

Kissing Shadow...she's usually hitting or sitting on Shadow so this is kind of unusual. Shadow has started to be afraid of Ava! I thought it would be the other way around! :)

Ava sitting in her Pottery Barn chair! Her other favorite place to sit!

Getting books WHILE holding onto her purse. This was my purse from when I was little and she loves it!

Another picture with her purse!

Ava with all of her shopping bags! She will find bags and put them on her stroller or carrying them all like she's shopping. She's definitely a girly girl!

Ava in her lovely apron. She got this for her birthday from her friend Gavin and it finally fits. She wore it all over the house yesterday and didn't want to take it off! (Oh, and she still has her purse!)

Shadow being sad because she isn't getting enough attention. Poor girl! She'll just have to get over that!!! :)

Ava Playing

Here are two videos that we took over the weekend. Ava is obsessed with taking care of her dolls. She will take them all over the house! She has even started to take care of them like we take care of her. If you watch closely in the video, you will see her patting Anna on the back. It's so cute! We tried to get a video of her tickling Anna or Daddy but she didn't want to perform! It's so cute! She's obsessed with tickling everyone and everything too! We'll keep trying!

Sea World

Our wonderful cousin Abby got us annual passes to Sea World! Thanks Abby! We went for the first time last Saturday and had a great time seeing Shamu! Today we went with some friends to see Elmo and Abby Caddabby. They are only there from Memorial Day through Labor Day and for special occasions/holidays. Ava loves Sesame Street so we had to take advantage of seeing Elmo for free! She loved the show but was terrified when she actually got to meet Elmo. After we saw Elmo, we went to the splash park and let the kids play before heading home. It was a great day!