enjoying the ADVENTURE: Playing Catch-up...

Talk about picture overload... get ready!!! I think the best way to catch up, considering we've neglected the blog since November, is to show you pictures from our adventures. Now, we took more pictures than this, but I chose the ones that best depicted what we did. Plus, who wants to take pictures constantly and miss out on all the fun? So here you go! Oh, and most of them are out of order, sorry!

Knowing we couldn't travel over Christmas, we headed to Charleston at Thanksgiving since Sarah had Thursday and Friday off... a much needed break and treat!

Swinging in her new tire swing

trying our PawPaw's lawn mower

chalk with Daddy

Ava also made a new friend in Megan, who lives next door. She still talks about " my friend" Megan. They had a blast drawing with the chalk and running around the yard.

Daddy had a little fun with Momma too!

filthy girl

filthy Grey Boy

HopScotch

finally getting a ride on the "tractor"

my OCD girl playing with her favorite thing, rocks

sharing PawPaw's icecream

waiting in line to see Santa!

she LOVED Santa!

Her "crown" antlers...

that she proudly wore backwards

I'm not ready for this!!!!

this is what happens when you try to get a

picture of the three of them

*****************************

Back home:

Ginger, Ava's elf who came to visit. She did some funny things, sweet things, and naughty things. Ava occasionally asks about her. I think she'll be very excited when Ginger visits next year.

Ginger climbed the tree after decorating it with Ava's undies... now that was a sight to see.

Ginger also stole one of Daddy's pop... kinda reminds me of:

my little Elf and her favorite drink

Ava has loved helping in the kitchen, especially when it comes to making cookies.

There are probably Ava's all time favorite cookies. Why? Because they have SPRINKLES in them!! I'm working on a solid Sprinkle cake for her, just not sure when to make it.

We also went to visit Santa up here with our friends Christan & Callie, like we did last year!

chillin' on her way to see Santa

waiting on Santa

hanging out with Callie and her friend

riding the train

blurry, but I LOVE that face!

this unfortunately is the best picture I could get of our tree this year... messy tree skirt and all. Ace loved the tree skirt. Sleeping under it, rolling in it, hiding things in it... it never stayed in place. This was the first year in a while that we've even had a tree skirt... I wonder why!? Good thing it was from the $store.

We counted down the days

Christmas morning we were at home, and it was wonderful!

Ava waited patiently for Daddy to get up... but after waiting for 2 hours, I told her to go wake him up.

Ace loved his presents too

the only thing she asked for, a marble maze

Lightening McQueen!!! or as Ava says "Yighting FaQeen!"

Ava and Daddy opening their movies/ video games

silly face

"vroom vroom"

all the excitement wore her out

building with Daddy

Since we didn't get to Charleston, Mimi & PawPaw came to us.

Thus begins the never ending presents...

the giant stocking... and it was overflowing with presents!

I was forced into it, and was laughing at the fact it wouldn't go past my hips (not that it was funny!)

finally a decent picture... it was a total accident

playing around with Daddy... not the shorts.

We got down to Morgantown to see Nathan's side of the family right before Christmas... forgetting the camera, this is the only picture I got with my phone.

Grampa Fred (Dad), Grammy (Amy) and the kids came up to see us on New Years Day. It was nice to have them all here for a short period of time. We got to hang out and go to dinner. Ava loves when Grampa Fred stops by, and she talks for days afterwards about riding the horses. She'll get to do that this spring.

Ava got a tent from them, and she loved it... and forced Andrew to play in it with her. He's the only one that could fit!

************************

Now just some random pictures:

not even sure how to describe this one.

Lambie going for a ride; Ava in undies & boots...

oh the life of a 3 year old.

Ava loves reading

Ava had to go to work with me one day, she wasn't feeling well. We turned it into a Disney marathon day. Ava spent the day in a bean bag chair behind my desk watching movie after movie. I was planning on leaving early, until I turned around and realized Ava was asleep.

Ava has begun dressing herself... and I'm not quite sure what I think of her style...

shorts under everything.

Lately my tom-boy has been obsessed with skirts. I guess it's kind of like the her desire to wear shorts over everything, but just a skirt. So I made her a skirt she can play in and sure enough she wanted to wear it to school with lime green leggings and a hot pink shirt. She looked like a LifeSaver!

With Daddy in school, sometimes Ava has to join me in the band... she's great with the shakers.