The Big Girl Room

No more "baby" for us...Ava's crib is gone and the room rearranged to fit the beautiful little lady she is growing into. We bought her a new bed spread *that she helped pick out*. She was instantly excited. She held it the rest the time we were shopping and kept saying "this is my big girl bed". Too smart for words...

Mommy's working...Daddy's playing

I had to work on Labor Day so Ava spent the day with her grandparents and Daddy at the Japanese Festival.

















They had a display of drums. Grandpa helped Ava use the drumstick very gently and play some music! She is very focused...

Our Little Farmer

Ava loves to help her Pawpaw...she just follows him around on the "farm"


She LOVES that tractor. It's always a highlight of her visit.

And, this time...she even got to DRIVE it...what an excited girl we had!






Another favorite is to go down the road to my cousin's house to feed the chickens and goats. She listens to her Pawpaw as he tells her all about the animals and how to take care of them. Who knew chickens like lettuce?

Another visit to the "Farm"

We took a little trip down to the south...spent a week with Nana & Pawpaw. We lovingly call it the farm, although - to most folks its just a country place with some land, a garden, and a barn. Whatever you call it, it's always such a great feeling to be "home".

Playing outside with the dogs. My cousin's dog, Wrangler (aka Reinder in Ava speak) is always right with us. He doesn't want to miss out on any lovin'. Ava loves to throw the ball, Lily of course likes to chase it. I just know that they are well on their way to becoming best friends.




Ava and her cousin Brooke.




She really loves to play Mommy. I hope that she sees only the best mothering from me :) I think I will hide my head in my hands when I observe her being a "cranky" Mommy!

Look at that fabulous "foot skill"




Playing with Pawpaw before bedtime... I'm sure there is a warning label on this storage tub that reads something like "...do not lift children overhead in open containers..." BUT, it sure looks like fun to me :)

Beach Baby

For me, a girl born and raised in the Gulf Coast region of this country, a summer is just NOT complete without at least one visit to the beach. This year we went for an extended weekend...

An explosion on one of the off shore drilling rigs caused an enormous oil spill into the Gulf. Many folks changed their beach plans for the summer. Many beaches had balls of tar wash ashore. We were fortunate at Panama City that we had no oil! The environmental engineers were watching the area carefully but in the end, it was an oil free summer...we did however have to endure the other beach nightmare...SEAWEED! Oh well, we made the most of it and had a great time with our family.



The seagrass is finally getting back to it's normal look. With the recent hurricanes and tropical storms, the seagrass had been pretty pitiful...




I think Ava may be very much like her momma... She seems to love to play in the sand and water but I don't think she's very happy to be *dirty*. We made several trips back and forth to the water to fill up the buckets so she could wash her hands.





THIS IS THE LIFE!
...Now I'm sure she's like her momma...catching some rays right on the water's edge.

"Night Life" at the beach

Heading out for a nice dinner at the beach. We decided to try a new place...it was on the marina and had a nice pier to walk on and lots of boats to see. There were even vending machines to buy fish food...and well, we couldn't resist!


Uncle John, you better watch what you feed those fish!

This was the first time that Uncle John and Aunt Jennifer had seen Ava since Thanksgiving. It was an amazing visit...and the most exciting part was hearing the news that Ava will be getting a new baby cousin in April!!! YAY!

Here we are, at the table we got after an HOUR wait. The food was pretty good...but the atmosphere was...eh. All the tables were outside and it was super HOT!!! They had live music which was probably nice, except that it was only 1 table away from where we sat...what a memory~

Aunt Jennifer and Nana


Uncle John and Aunt Jennifer


Dave and Amy


Aunt Jennifer and Ava


Ava drinking up all the water she could!!


Being silly before bed...

...making fish faces is very much like giving kisses...


Good Night Ya'll!