Chillin' in WA

Ava and I have been chillin' here (look at picture below) for the past 7 days. Even my sister was able to fly out to help celebrate my mom's birthday!

Even though a great time was had by all, it is always nice to be back home. Ava was so surprised at the airport when she saw her daddy that she was completely speechless (a first for Ava). The only thing that escaped her lips was a gigantic grin that seriously went from ear to ear. Josh was just as excited to see us as well. He was even sweet enough to bring us flowers. I think he's excited to not have to eat leftover pizza anymore!


Of course I have loads of pictures to weed through. But that will have to wait until the laundry, unpacking, grocery shopping and a much needed shower have all taken place!

The many cute sides of Ava

"Cheese"

You can never post too many pictures of this cute little girl. By the way, Ava's eye color is still up in the air. Pretty much every type of eye color has combined forces to make a unique color all her own.

"Mom, can I please see your super snazzy camera?"

The photo shoot took a total 180. Which is usually the case which this wee one.

Little Miss Bookworm

I bet all you moms can agree that little kids LOVE books. A day does not go by when we don't read every single book at least 2-3 times each. Which is no easy feat considering the amount of books Ava has. So while I'm getting ready in the morning, I put Ava in her room for some alone play time. Without fail, I will come back to find Ava surrounded by all her books and "reading". Nothing makes a mom's heart jump for joy than seeing her little babe reading on her own.

How can this child see her book?! Nor rain, or snow, or extremely long hair will stop this girl from reading.


Which reminds me, Ava has her first appt. to get her haircut (more like a trim) in a week and a half. I was totally excited to take Ava in, until I was watching John & Kate Plus 8 on TLC. Kate was talking about how sad it was to see her babies get their 1st haircut because you're cutting of the hair they were born with. So now I'm pretty sad to see her baby hair gone. She's growing up so fast!

Looks almost good enough to eat

I attended a baby shower the other weekend. I asked the mom to be what she was in need of and she smartly answered, "Diapers." I received a diaper cake at my baby shower and LOVED it, so I decided to give it a try. So here is my first ever diaper cake!

Little David

For a few months our household was divided...between David Cook or David Archuleta. But now that the show has been over for months, does it really matter who actually won? I saw the video for Little David's new song today. I must admit, I was bopping around to the song. Pretty good for his first release. But hey, I might be a little bias because of the whole Mormon thing. What do you think?



Update: I just discovered that David Cook has a new song out too. Click below to play it.

Who do you think has the better song? Can I be a fan of both songs?

Wicked

A few night ago I saw a commercial advertising that the musical Wicked was coming to town! Josh had won a $100 coupon in a Xbox competition at work, and I had been holding on to it for the past 3 years waiting for the perfect excuse. We rushed down to the local ticketmaster to make sure we bought tickets the day they went on sale. I would of bought them online, but something about my coupon being so old that they only accepted them at the actual ticketmaster booth...but they still accepted it :) Come Feb. 2009 you'll most definitely be seeing a blog about the whole ordeal!

Fun in the big city

On Friday we decided it would be fun to take the Bart into the city. Josh's boss was super nice and let him have the day off! That's one of the perks when your husband works for himself. Not that he can do that all the time though!

Here's everybody at the platform waiting for the Bart train. I found Ava's sunglasses on sale on one of our many shopping trips that week. I couldn't resist.


Shelby was really excited to ride the Bart. As long as your destination is near the Bart stops, it is actually pretty nice not having to worry about traffic and parking.


Ava, of course had the best seat on the whole train.


We decided to go visit the Asian Art Museum. They were having a special exhibit of the Ming Dynasty. So we thought it would be fun to check it out. I have never seen so many Buddhas in my entire life! It's amazing just how much detail went into every piece. But after the 90th Buddah, I was more interested in the room full of Jade :) The jewelry was really pretty.


Sorry in advance for the blurry pics to follow. They don't allow you to use your flash in the museum. Something about the pieces being really old...blah blah :)

Here's a question for you, why do they make museum not acoustically sound and then expect you to be quiet? Tall ceilings, wooden floors, huge rooms...makes for a fun place for a little girl who likes hearing her own voice. Here is a picture of Ava before we brought out the binky to solve the loud talking issue.


Halfway through the 2nd floor, all the chattering stopped and she fell fast asleep. I'm so glad Shelby suggested us bringing the stroller that reclined.


How could you go into the city and not going shopping? Especially since there is a 5 story Nordstroms! I couldn't even get all of the floors in the picture. But you get the idea. We walked down to the 3 story Old Navy, they were having a huge baby sale with everything 40% off, but they were closed because of a power shortage? Personally, the excuse seemed a little sketchy to me because all their lights were on inside.


Welp, those are the last pics of our visit with Shelby. We had such a great time having her visit! Now whenever Ava sees a picture of Nana, she gets the biggest smile and waves. It's super cute!

The Little Farm

One of the days while Shelby was visiting we decided to head over to Berkeley. No, we didn't join in with the supporters of the tree sitters, but we headed over to Tilden Regional Park to go to the The Little Farm.

Our first stop were the bird cages.


By far, this was Ava's favorite part of the farm. She couldn't get enough of staring at the chickens, geese, and turkeys. I couldn't even break her concentration to get a picture!


There was a handful of animals that you could go watch and feed. And the best part is that it is entirely free! I'd pick the farm over the zoo any day!


The farm allows you to either feed the animals celery or lettuce. We learned pretty quickly that the cows were not a fan of eating celery. So we'll have to make a mental note to bring lettuce next time for them. So Ava, being the sweet little girl she is, didn't want the celery to go to waste and took it upon herself to chow down on the celery.


The other animals were not as picky as the cows. Here is Shelby making a quick friend with a sheep at the farm. Ava actually cried out in terror the first time the sheep tried taking the piece of celery from Shelby. But once she realized that the sheep wasn't going to bite off Shelby's hand, she was a little bit more relaxed. But she was still very cautious around the bigger animals.


The goats were actually fighting each other for the celery. If you look closely you can see one of the goats bitting the other goat's ear.


The farm was a great way to spend the morning. It you live in the area I totally recommend taking your little tykes there. There is even a playground and picnic tables outside of the farm.