Water Works

This morning, we attended a birthday party for one of Ava's friends, Ethan. Ethan turned 2 and had an awesome water party in his back yard. Sprinklers, pools, mud, wet grass... it was every kid's dream! 

As per usual, Ava enjoyed splashing in the pool. She also loved watching all of the big kids play and splash around her.

After the pool, she was on to the sprinkler. At the end of the party, I think I was just as wet as Ava was. One problem, she was the only one with a bathing suit. 

And finally, the swing. Ava was a big fan of this crowd pleaser!

She even got a special push from the birthday boy himself.

Hope you and your family are enjoying the summer and finding ways to keep cool!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today, July 23rd, 2010, Matt and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary. We have had plenty of changes in our lives over the past five years. Two things though, that have not changed are our love for the Lord and our love for each other. If anything, our love for the Lord and each other have only grown over the years.

To celebrate our anniversary, we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Pasta. If you live in Greensboro and haven't been, you've got to go! We had our rehearsal dinner at Cafe Pasta the night before our wedding, so it will always hold a special place in our hearts. Below is a picture of us at Cafe Pasta on the night of our rehearsal dinner back in 2005. Oh how young we look!

After dinner, Matt drove us to the parking lot of the church where we got married, Eller Memorial Baptist Church. After parking the car, our conversation went something like this:

Matt: Can you believe it's been 5 years since we got married here?

Melissa: I know!

Matt: Do you want to go inside?

Melissa: What?!?

You see, Matt grew up in this church. He spent 27 years of his life attending this church. Many of his family members and friends are still members at Eller... So swiping a key from his grandfather was a pretty easy task to accomplish. We walked in and everything felt, smelled and looked exactly like we pictured it would. The only difference this time around was that the air conditioning was not on. If you can believe it, the temperature outside actually felt cool to us when we left. Anyway, here is a shot of the church from the balcony. 

Let's play a little game of "Then & Now."

Then: Here we are at the moment of, "I now pronounce you husband and wife... you may kiss your bride."

Now: So the pulpit was in the way, but you get the idea.

Then: One of my favorite pictures of us after the ceremony.

Now: I'm sure it was entertaining to watch me rig up the camera and run into position before it took the picture.

Then: Right before we walked in to our reception at Forest Oaks Country Club. I miss my dress.

Now: All I can do is smile. I'll swap my dress for that little munchkin anyday!

We also took a few minutes to take some vantage point shots while in the church. Goofy, I know. But what do you expect from such a goofy couple? This is similar to how Matt remembers me walking down the aisle on our wedding day.

And this is how I remember Matt's face as I was walking down the aisle and for the majority of the ceremony. This is what we both lovingly call, The Wedding Face. Matt claims he was so overwhelmed with emotion, this was the only facial expression he could muster up. I have our wedding video to prove it if anyone is interested! :)

We had such a wonderful time celebrating our 5 years of marriage. We found ourselves looking at the clock and asking each other if we could remember what we were doing at that exact time, 5 years ago. It was fun to try and remember. Happy Anniversary, Matt. You're the love of my life!

Shake It Like A Polaroid Picture

It has taken a few attempts to document Ava's latest party trick, but here it is... She waves goodbye and hello! Just in the past week, she has started waving her arm along with me and Matt when we say 'hi' and 'bye bye.' Sure, she probably doesn't know that she is mastering a social skill, but she is waving, nonetheless. 

At this point, her wave is nothing graceful. She doesn't have the homecoming parade wave down just yet. Instead, her wave consists of shaking her left arm rapidly in front of her. Fine motor skills are so overrated. It has been hard to get a picture that truly shows the wave. If you look at the following three pictures back and forth, really fast, you might get the general idea.

Does the fact that Ava's mouth is always wide open in all of her pictures mean I am going to have a loud mouth on my hands in the future? I guess only time will tell.

We enjoyed a visit from my dad, Opa, this week. He drove out to our house to spend the day with us. This was probably one of the first visits my dad has had with Ava where he got to hold her, play with her and spend time with her 100% of the time. I think he was amazed to see how quickly she is growing and how much she can do!

I love this next picture. Many of you might think Ava has a sad look on her face, but I assure you, she is not sad. This is her 'observant/I don't think I know you' face. It is also the face she expresses during our nightly family prayer time. As soon as Matt starts praying, Ava gets serious and she stares at his face with a look of such love and admiration. It melts my heart, every night. 

Her serious/observant moments are few and far between. Typically, our little goober looks more like this throughout the day... Yup, with her mouth wide open!

A Little Bit of This & That

Last Sunday, our church held a huge picnic at a local park. It was great! Great food. Great friends. Great fun. We enjoyed spending time with our Life Journey Group, which is our church's way of saying, 'Sunday School Class.' Ava got to spend some time with her friend Izzy. Izzy was sweet as could be as she lovingly tried to play with Ava. Ava was not as sweet as could be as she swatted Izzy on the head. Oh boy. Do we have a future bully on our hands?

Ava continues to be a tummy sleeper. I don't mind that she sleeps on her stomach. It's smashing her face into the mattress that I have a problem with. She always manages to place her hands directly under her nose while she lays face down in her crib. I will even sneak into her room and attempt to turn her head to the side. As soon as she feels my hands on her face, she rapidly lifts her head in the air (eyes still shut), and kicks her feet quite forcefully into the mattress. I think that is her way of saying, "Leave me alone and let me SLEEP!" It doesn't matter if I am successful in turning her head or not. Either way, in less than 2 minutes, she is face down again. The picture below, which Matt thinks looks like something from that creepy movie "The Ring," is actually an image from Ava's video monitor.

Ava still loves her exersaucer. Her legs are so long, the exersaucer is currently set at the highest setting possible. I am not looking forward to the day when Ava no longer fits in this toy. First of all, because she loves it so much and secondly, because I am going to have to find something else for her to do when I need to get cleaned up!

Two nights this past week we were blessed with some much needed rain! Ava, being the outdoorsy girl she is, enjoyed playing in the rain. Here she is, hair wet, shirt speckled... post-rain dance.

Matt's sister, Auntie Erin, sent Ava some really adorable outfits this past week. You see, Erin has 2 very handsome boys, so she rarely gets to buy any clothes that fit into the pink/polka-dot/paisley category. We took some pictures of Ava wearing one of her new outfits so Erin could see the fruits of her shopping labor.

In case you can't see it clearly, this shirt says "Glam Girl" in glittery letters, accompanied by a shiny pair of pink sunglasses. We thought that adding a pair of real sunglasses would enhance Ava's cuteness factor. I may have a slightly biased opinion, but I think on a scale of 1-10, her cuteness factor is about 100.

Oh, and Erin, anytime you have an itch to buy cute, girly clothes, I am sure Ava will be happy to model them for you! :) Thanks again!

Eat Mor Chikin

Here is a brief overview of our evening tonight:

The phone rings, Matt picks up, and his long time friend is on the other line.

Matt: Hey man.

Chris: Have you heard, that if you dress up like a cow today at Chick-fil-A, you get a free meal?

Matt: Nope, had not heard that.

Chris: Well guess what... I managed to find 2 full-body cow outfits. I am going to wear one, and you're the first person I thought of to wear the other one.

Matt: I have never been as insulted and flattered at the same time as I am right now. And heck yes, I will do it.

Chris: See you at the Friendly Chick-Fil-A at 6!

...And the rest was history...

Ava wasn't quite sure what to think of her dad. She kept sporting a, "Dad, you're soooooo embarrassing" look on her face. I have a feeling this won't be the last time Ava will be embarrassed by her dad (or me for that matter).

Once we were inside, Ava got over her embarrassment and moved on to playing with the jingle-bells attached to daddy's cow head. I however, was slightly embarrassed when I realized that Matt and his friend, Chris, were the only 2 people over 5 years of age who were dressed like cows. 

Like Ava, I got over my embarrassment and even threw on a cow hat myself when I realized it would bring our dinner bill for the night to a whopping $0! Now that's what I'm talking about! Look at Ava's poor face. I think she is trying to say, "Do I really have to go home with these two whackos?" 

Ava eventually warmed up to the whole cow costume thing and wore the hat herself.

Unfortunately, Chris' wife, Nikki, had to leave dinner early. Matt, Ava and I got to spend some time catching up with Chris though, and his cutie patootie daugther, Marin. Chris and Nikki are expecting their second child in January! Yay! Another playmate for Ava!

Would you believe me if I told you this next picture is part of Matt's P90X workout? Well, it's not. First of all, I would never let Matt use Ava as a weight for the P90X videos and secondly... Matt still won't let me take a picture of him working out. This is just one of Ava's latest party tricks. She enjoys balancing in the air, supported only by dad's hand.

The Princess & The Pea(s)

Lately, Ava has been mastering the art of eating table foods. Her food of choice tonight (well, my choice, really) was peas. It is funny and sad all at the same time when watching her try to feed herself. Typically, one of three things happens when Ava tries to get food from the table to her mouth.

1. She grabs the pea with her chubby little fingers and manages to make a fist around it. Out of sight, out of mind. Once the food 'disappears,' she is on to something else.

2. She finally manages to get the food into her grasp where she can see it. She moves her hand toward her mouth, and the food falls into the depths of her high chair... never to be seen again.

3. She gets the food into her mouth. Success!

Usually, there is a whole lot of scenario 1 and 2 before Ava makes it to scenario 3. She's learning and we are oh so proud of our baby girl!

Table foods have become a very regular part of her diet nowadays. Her current list includes: bread, chicken, hamburger meat, peas, carrots, green beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, pickles, cheerios, black olives, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, pancakes, toast... plus bits and pieces of anything else mommy and daddy are having for lunch and dinner. 

Actually, table foods really do seem to be her food(s) of choice at the moment. Ava has at least 2 more teeth that are currently breaking through her gums. I think that eating from a spoon is quite painful for her right now. She'd rather skip the hard plastic spoon entering her mouth and head straight for the squishy peas. Can't say that I blame her!

First Fourth

Ava, Matt, Fergie and I enjoyed a packed, fun-filled 4th of July weekend. I have plenty of pictures and stories to share, so let's get (fire) crackin'. Ha ha. Lame, I know.

Ava, Fergie and I had an early start to the holiday weekend when we went to my parent's house on Thursday. Our main reason for going to Fuquay was of course, to visit Oma and Opa. Why not do our visiting while sitting pool-side? That's exactly what we did. Oma bought a little pool float for Ava to use when we come to visit.

I think she liked it.

We also got to spend some time with Uncle Ryan and Kayla. My bro even attempted to feed Ava her lunch. The 3 seconds it took to take this photo was about as long as Ryan spent with the spoon in his hand. Ava was in one of her, "I'm not gonna touch that mush unless it is WARM" moods. Thank goodness for microwaves!

Our trip with my parents may have been short, but our time was well spent. Thanks for letting us visit!

After coming home and unpacking Friday afternoon, our little family of three headed to one of our favorite places to eat, Villa Italian. Since the weather was perfect for outside dining, we took advantage of it! The lighting was beautiful and I took a few shots of Ava after we finished our meal. Here are a few of my favorites:

This past Saturday, Ava turned SEVEN MONTHS OLD! Where has the time gone? Matt and I can't believe she is already on the 'back end' of her first year of life. She is now closer to her first birthday than to the first day of her life. If you have followed our blog at all, you're an old pro at this by now. Here are two pictures from Ava's 7 month photo shoot. That bear is looking smaller and smaller each month!

Good grief. Look at how long she is!

In a previous blog post, you may remember me mentioning that Fergie is flirting with the idea of doggie suicide. Well, thanks to her brainless mom and dad, she was almost killed Saturday afternoon. Here's what happened:

Matt and I decided to take Ava and Fergie on a run in the park. The distance of this particular run was about twice as long as the runs I normally go on every morning. The weather was hot. The pavement was hotter. We didn't have any water for the dog. Problem #1.

After our run, we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the park. Then, Matt and I had the brilliant idea to take Fergie to Lake Brandt to go swimming! We knew Fergie would love the water, and we figured Ava would get a kick out of watching Fergie splash around too. So, off we went. Ava in her stroller. Fergie on her leash. Walking, walking, walking. Matt and I had forgotten that the walk to Lake Brandt was quite a distance. The weather was getting hotter. The pavement continued to bake anything that touched it, dog paws included. Still no water for the dog. Problem #2.

We finally made it to the lake and Fergie drank the water for what seemed like an eternity. 

The picture below is a little cove that Matt and I found a few years ago. We always stop here to let Fergie go swimming and play fetch. Not today...

After Fergie drank half of the lake, we made one attempt to play fetch with our beloved dog. Matt threw a stick with his perfectly sculpted P90X arm and Fergie bounded into the lake after it. She quickly retrieved it and started swimming for the shore. See the stick? See the dog? Problem #3. About 10 feet before Fergie got back to us, she left the stick in the water as a protest from any further exercise for the day.

After realizing that our time at the Lake was over, we started to head back to the car. Did I mention that heading back required us to yet again, walk and walk and walk in blistering temperatures, on blistering pavement and without a drop of water for Fergie. Problem #4. 

We finally made it to the car. What a glorious sight! Could there possibly be a problem with this scenario? Oh, yes. Our car has cloth seats. We had a wet, stinky dog. Cloth seats + wet, stinky dog = not good. What did we do? One of us drove Ava home in the car while the other walked the poor dog home. Everyone, say it with me, "In hot weather, on hot pavement, without any water." Problem #5. 

After 5 hours of being outside, we finally made it home. Unfortunately, Fergie was not able to walk later on that evening. I think it was a combination of burnt paws and sore muscles. So there you have it folks, we almost killed our dog. I am happy to report that she is back to normal and doing fine! (For anyone wondering, Ava did not have to endure the same torture that Fergie did. Ava cruised along in the shade of her stroller. Her chubby feet never touched the pavement, and she had an ice cold sippy cup in her hands the entire time.)

Dinner on Saturday evening was spent outside once again. Gotta love silly family moments. 

Before bedtime, Ava enjoyed playing a few rounds of peek-a-boo with dad from behind the arm of one of our chairs. 

Now on to the main event, the 4th of July! Our Sunday started by attending a Patriotic Service at church. It was amazing. Not a dry eye in the worship center, mine included. The service was the perfect combination of praise and worship and reminding all of us that freedom is never free!

Sunday afternoon and evening was spent grilling out and hanging out with great friends. Ava enjoyed a wagon ride around the yard with friend, Tucker. 

You better watch out. Ava's got her eye on you! :)

After dinner, we headed out for Ava's first encounter with fireworks! We weren't sure how Ava was going to react to highly explosive pyrotechnics. Believe it or not, she did just fine. I'm sure being cuddled up in Mimi's arms helped to put Ava's mind at ease.

Ok, I'll try to wrap this up quickly. My fingers are getting tired of typing and I'm sure your eyes are getting tired of reading, if you even made it this far! :)

I was thrilled to find out that Matt did not have to go to work on Monday! We decided to spend the day pool-side again, with some wonderful friends. 

Ava got to borrow a friend's high-tech pool float. Yet again, she liked it. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that Ava loves the water.

On Monday evening, we had a belated 4th of July cookout at Mimi and Poppy's house. Gammy got to join us for the festivities as well. 

We hope that you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend as well!