Lilliput Homes...

On Wednesday, Ava and I went to Lilliput Homes (linked) with some of the Moms and kids from our DMoms group. We'd never been there, but had heard about it, and it sounded fun. The price is a little steep ($8), especially if you have more than one child, but after spending a few hours there... it's worth it! At least it is in moderation. In the winters here, when you can't get outside, and you just need a change of scenery, this could be a lifesaver.

We're planning another trip soon with Joshua and his Mom, and if all goes well, we might look into the month unlimited, which seems to be the best deal ($25/month). Since Joshua is going to be a big brother next month, I thought Lilliput might give his Mom and Dad something else to do with him... or he could go with us, and give Mom and Dad some time off with the new baby. We'll see...

Anyway, here are some pictures from our first experience.

Ava was thinking BIG from the very beginning

she loved the little stools

getting an early start on driving

one of the Lilliput buildings

Ava's favorite thing at Lilliput

I see you

WEEEEEEEEEE!

that was fun!

here I come!

Ready to head home and get some lunch

Sticker fun...

It's cold and snowy here, everyone knows that. So in an effort to try to find things for Ava to do, we introduced her to stickers. Actually she kind of did it herself. At Christmas she started pulling at any type of sticker (price tag, SKU, label, etc.) She even chewed on my lipstick trying to get the color name sticker off the bottom. Then after she pulled off every bit of the sticker on our Wii box, I decided it was time to go buy some real ones.

I'm at Walmart at least once if not twice a week so I started there. I was fortunate enough to find some stickers on clearance. Yes, they are High School Musical 3 stickers, but Ava doesn't know the difference. She just likes to put them on things and then rip them off again. (Ava also doesn't know Dora or any of the TV characters... we don't have TV and she doesn't pay attention to movies. She only knows Elmo from a few books we've been given. )

I tried to capture some of Ava's sticker fun. She was decorating Daddy's pants... guess they weren't pretty enough!

she likes to wear stickers too

we even tore off the sticky edging for her to play with...

again, she doesn't care, its sticky, thats all that matters!

one for me...

one for you...

Ava's masterpiece

Introducing...

Madelyn Grace Walker

Congratulations to Nate and Andrea Walker (blog linked to left)

on the birth of their Daughter Maddie who was born on

Saturday January 9th @ 5:12pm.

Maddie was 9lbs 1oz and was 21 inches long.

Maddie now joins a long list of baby girls among our friends...

looks like we need to add a few little boys!

Holidaze...

The past week or so has been a blur, as a lot of hoildays are. We spent 5 days traveling around WV trying to see everyone we could. Luckily, Ava slept pretty well at night, naps were another story.... thank goodness for the car!

pre-holiday smile... if only she knew what lay ahead

Christmas Eve 2009

On Christmas Eve we went to the 6pm service at Discovery and then headed home so Ava could have some play time before going to bed. We played downstairs, read some of Ava's favorite books, and then we all went upstairs to read the Night Before Christmas like we did last year.

Frogs & Friends... Ava loves to make the frogs croak.

Christmas morning we woke up early, as normal. Ava and I were downstairs before Nathan even woke up. I fixed breakfast, traditional sticky buns, and we waited on Daddy. Once it was time to open presents, Ava could have cared less about everything except the extra large box in the middle of the floor. It had been beside our tree for 2 weeks, and she never cared, but now, it was something to crawl on.

she also loved the candy cane in her stocking

Once she opened her extra large present, she was done...

it was time to play in the wagon, and that's what she did ALL day!

Ava with the scary baby doll.

Ava didn't have any baby dolls, so my Mom thought she'd get one for her. I still don't know why she got this specific doll, but after opening it, I about threw it out the window. The doll has a motion sensor and laughs when it senses movement.... which is all the time. It's arms also move up and down which makes it a bit more scary. Ava is terrified of this doll, yet at the same time intrigued. She cries whether it is on and scary, or off and not responding to her pushing its stomach. Go figure! Needless to say, the doll has been put away.

Saturday morning we traveled to Morgantown to see Nathan's family. After leaving there, the car was incredibly packed so we headed home.

Ava in the big rocker w/ Grandma

Ava with Uncle Todd & Jenna

(finally a picture of their faces!)

Tiger is 2x Ava's size, but she insists on carrying him and pouncing on him.

On Sunday we visited Vienna where we were able to see my Grandmother, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. We also had a nice visit with some of our Cowen friends at the camp Christmas party. I'm hoping to get back to camp this year, it's been two years since I've been there.

We then ventured to Charleston to see my Mom and Step-Dad. While there, we decided to take a little trip down to Scott Depot to visit my childhood best friend Tara (Ava's Aunt TT), and her husband Jason. We hadn't seen their new house, and let me tell you, its beautiful!

Tara wanted a picture of the three of us

Sarah & Tara...

...and as Tara put "can you believe at one point, people thought we were twins?" And they did! When we were little, we both had long blonde hair and looked quite a lot a like... didn't help we spent every waking minute (and some sleeping) together.

Ava waving by to Tara and Jason. She was so very sleepy

and refused to take her thumb out of her mouth.

We rounded out our WV tour with a stop in Bridgeport at my Dad's house. We have a lot of family, my Dad's side is HUGE, and we're all pretty close. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see my brothers, they were hunting. And the best part of the trip was that we forgot some of the presents and only had two for the boys... who weren't even there. This is the result of my scattered and overly stressed brain. We did enjoy our time with everyone else. And I think my sister Danielle really enjoyed her uninterruped time with Ava. Ava got a portable slide (cool!) and Danielle loved helping her go down it.

playing basketball with Daddy on the boys' new WVU hoop

By New Year's Eve we were so happy to be home. Traveling isn't the easiest with a toddler and so many places to go. But we spent Thursday morning relaxing and then headed over to the Spaniks for a few hours to hang out. Normally, we'd be with the Spaniks and Walkers, but Andrea is expecting their first baby any minute now (!) so they opted to hang out with family.

Ava and Hali haven't had much time together recently, we've all been so busy. And now that Hali is crawling, its much easier for them to play together.

Nathan trying to get Hali to smile

There was no way for me to get a picture of the girls playing. By the time I was ready to snap a picture, one of the two had already moved on. I understand the difficulty some of my friends have getting Christmas pictures of two+ kids. So we had a little photo shoot on the couch.

"here Hali, let me help you!" Hali kept trying to take her helmet off.

( a side note I figured Val would appreciate; Hali has a helmet to help her head develop and become less flat... and its working very very well!)

tea Hali?

New Years day brought more snow, and it hasn't stopped since. We got two more inches yesterday and at probably 2 today and its still coming down. Hopefully, if the tempature rises a little we'll get outside to play again.

Ava watching Daddy shovel the driveway

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Crazy Dino...

Ava loves to play next door with Joshua, "Josh" as she calls him. So right before Christmas we went over and shared presents and let the kids play for a bit.

sharing snacks

watching the crazy dino... Ava LOVES this thing, even though it's

quite annoying after you've heard it for 10 minutes... Joshua isn't as big a fan.


playing in Kristi's basket

And for your enjoyment... Ava and the Crazy Dino:

$5 Dinner Mom Cookbook Give Away...

I got this link from my friend Ashely M.

Over at $5 Dinners, Erin Chase is giving away 10 copies (!) of her new book every day for two weeks. Her book has over 200 recipes where every meal is made for five dollars or less. What!?!

I don't know about you, but I cook every night... 3 times a day if you count feeding myself and Ava. I was never a coupon clipper, but I've started doing it more recently, and now I am giddy when I find a good coupon. I've even started planning our weekly menu around my coupons. But sometimes there aren't good deals, and so I'm up for any type of idea that will help me keep our grocery bill down. This book seems to be a great answer.

Check out $5 Dinners and enter to win. Let's hope one of us wins!

Thanks Ashley!

Snow Day...

Our backyard treeline... and Na's shoulder :o)

We weren't expecting much snow this past weekend... didn't even think we'd see an inch, but we ended up with about 3-1/2" or so. Nothing grand, but enough to play in. It was then we realized Ava didn't have snow pants. So we dug out an old water resistant sweatsuit and layered her up as best as we could and headed out.

checking out the snow

waving to Joshua - "Josh" as Ava calls him

our Eskimo

the swing is even fun in the winter... she and Joshua couldn't get enough of it

After looking around, and online, I finally found a pair of snow bibs at Old Navy. There was only one 18-24mos pair, and I snatched them for about $10 and some change. I love Old Navy!

Now Ava is ready to head to WV and experience the snow there... hopefully there will be some left when we get there.