Selling a house is not fun...

Ok, keeping a house perfect every day is not fun. That's what we've been doing. Our house went on the market a week ago Friday, and we've had 9 showings, two no-shows (grr) and one open house. We have one really interested couple who has visited three times. We're hoping they make an offer this week so I can stop living in a unrealistically clean house.

I mean, I know that real people (us included) use things like coffee makers, toaster ovens, and dishracks every day so I don't know why we have to put them away, but I understand the "openness" feeling one's house has to have. It's just annoying! So wish us luck...

During yesterday's open house we went with our good friends Heather and Jeremy to visit our "hopefully soon to be" house just down the road. I'm not going to share all the pictures I took (of the entire house) because I don't want to jinx us. However, here are a few that give you a feel for the neighborhood. It's a Charleston style neighborhood and every house is a different color (some pretty wild like flamingo pink, lavendar, brick red, navy blue, etc.) The one we want is baby blue with black plantation shutters. It has a double porch as well as a screened in porch. The neighborhood has 9 acres of walking trails, a playground, and a really big clubhouse and pool. Boy, would I use that pool....

That first picture is my friend Heather and her daughter on the rocker on the upstairs porch. Such a nice view. All we need is a glass of "swate tay" and a good book :)


Ava played in the current owners' play room the whole time we walked around the house. New toys are always an adventure. Unfortunately, this will be our office (no playroom) if we move.

This is Ava walking towards the playground which is a just a 3-5 min walk from the house.

Ava and Sienna were very proud of the sticks they found.

More of the playground. It's very kid friendly.

We're finally home. Ava was pooped from all her playing, so we sat on the couch eating apple and letting her watch her favorite show "Pooh!"

Ava the Librarian

So we had a good weekend together. It rained and thunderstormed a LOT but that's a good thing because we're still in a severe drought. We spent most of the weekend keeping the house clean, as it went on the market Friday, and we've had a showing every single day! Keep your fingers crossed that someone likes it enough to make an offer. It's bittersweet, as we really like this home, it's just not for us. The neighborhood we want to move to a mile down the road is a lot more kid friendly. There is a clubhouse, large pool, playground, and nine acres of walking trails. As well, the house we hope to buy backs up into a forest preserve, so it will never be touched as it's declared "preserve" space already.

So Ava's favorite thing to do (still) is read books. We're not complaining - it's a great hobby, but this girl takes it to the extreme. I thank God every day that we've received so many books from our friends (especially the Hopes who know a good kid book when they see one - I guess I should give credit to their daughter Maddie). Ava's favorites right now are "Bad Dog, Marley!", "The Pokey Little Puppy", anything "Winnie the Pooh", anything "Curious George", and of course anything where you can lift the flap. She especially likes the lift the flap Dora the Explorer books the Hopes sent her last year.

I thought I'd take some pictures of the family reading, as we do this at least ten times a day (it feels like anyway.) Enjoy!

Ava "cheesing it up" for the camera.


Normal smile.


Reading her Disney book.



Looking for "mouse"

Where is "mouse?"

Turning the pages.

Daddy reading.

Independence Day 2008

We had a wonderful 4th July weekend. Friday we kicked off the festivities with breakfast at our favorite restaurant "Big Dog Cafe" in Waxhaw. Afterwards, we attended their hometown parade. It was like a Norman Rockwell painting... literally thousands of people decked out in red, white, and blue lined the streets of this little, historic town. Ava really liked it, but wasn't a fan of the firetruck sirens at all.

The rest of the day we just hung out as a family before heading to our friends Eli and Colleen's house for a cookout and fireworks. Ava enjoyed her new bubble gun, and was even intrigued by the sparklers we let her hold (assisted, of course.) We played bocce ball after dinner, then lit off our own fireworks before going to watch the neighborhood show which was pretty top notch!

Saturday and Sunday were spent house hunting, as we are thinking of moving to a more kid-friendly neighborhood (pool, club house, park, walking trails, etc.) Ava did really well both days and we enjoyed playing with all the toys in strangers' homes (she's addicted to any size/shape ball!)

Jim and Ava at the Waxhaw Parade

Ava caught a Tootsie Roll thrown from the County Republicans (go figure).


Playing with her new bubble gun at dinner at the Clarks.

Watching Daddy and Eli light sparklers from afar.

Ok, Mom, it's our turn!

Ava's concentrating on the flame really hard!

Ok, time for some bocce ball.

The fam.

Lighting fireworks in the driveway. Ava loved the little "poppers" that you throw.

Jim and Eli doing what they do best - blowing things up.

Fireworks from their neighborhood.

Grandparents Visit

So the grandparents are visiting from Indiana this week. Ava stayed home from daycare four days last week to be spoiled round the clock, watch too much TV, and read her favorite books over, and over, and over. She caught a cold/cough mid week, but other than that has been happy.

On Thursday night we took the entire family to a Charlotte Knights baseball game. It was a lot of fun! Almost better than the major leagues, as where else can you get seats right behind home plate for $10 and beer for $2? They are a farm team for the White Sox, so we had a little Chicago connection going on. Everyone had fun, but we kept Ava up until 10pm, which is two hours past her bedtime. Oops!

Friday Ava had her two year appointment at the pediatrician. She weighs 23.5 pounds (10th %) and is 33.5 inches tall (75th %). Can you guess whose genes she got? She is perfectly healthy and is progressing well with her development. She only had to get one vaccination, so that was nice.

Friday we also took a day trip to the Billy Graham Library here in Charlotte. It opened last year under great fanfare, with four living Presidents attending the opening ceremonies. Very much like a Presidential Library, the venue walks you through Billy Graham's life room by room. It's really amazing how much of an impact this one man has had on the entire world. It's a free exhibit, so I highly recommend it to anyone passing through Charlotte.

Our weekend has been a little bumpy, as Grandma had a really bad pain in her side that ended up requiring outpatient surgery yesterday. She's doing fine and is here at the house recovering before she and Grandpa head back to Indiana.

Today is Grandpa's 65th birthday, so we celebrated with yummy ice cream cake. Ava helped blow out the candles.

Father's Day

So I'm a little late getting around to this post... Father's Day was good. The weekend leading up to it was rough thanks to a new tooth Ava is acquiring, but what can you do. She had a high fever all Friday night and Saturday day. She was just miserable! By Sunday most of the pain wore off, so we took the whole family on a hike at Crowder's Mountain after going out to breakfast at Big Dog Cafe.

Jim took a few pictures of me and Ava hiking, but that was the only time the camera came out all weekend, so sorry to disappoint. We hiked for 90 minutes, of which the first 60 she enjoyed.

Afterwards we stopped by Smoothie King for Jim's favorite treat, which has turned out to be Ava's favorite too! We finished off the day with a homemade dinner of ribs, sweet potatoes, green beans, and cornbread. How Southern!

One of Ava's favorite new things to do after dinner is enjoy a popsicle. She dives right in and bites the top off, then gets this look on her face like "OMG it's so cold!" It's really cute. She thinks it's funny when the last chunk falls off the stick and onto the ground at the end.

Our girl is busy growing up these days. She's putting more words together and saying things like "milk please", "bye bye Dada", etc. She is still way into reading books, especially any that have flaps that she can lift up. She is starting to talk a lot about going to the bathroom. We got her a few potty training books and she loves to read them and point out what the characters are "doing". We're hoping it all rubs off sooner than later so we can stop supporting P&G so regularly with $30 boxes of diapers.

Ava's 2nd Birthday!

SATURDAY: It was HOT. We played in the driveway at 9am, and look how hot we already were.

We started off our relaxing family weekend by attending the Culver Club of Charlotte's summer event which was a get-together at an alumnus' home on Lake Norman. It was 102 Saturday, but luckily there was a really nice breeze the entire day on the lake. Ava LOVED the water and wanted to be in it at all times.

At first we started off just wading on the shore. Then we moved to the lifejackets and went in the deep parts. Ava and I swam all around past the docks, and she couldn't have had a better time. We also took her on a short boat ride where she was smiles the entire time. We got a really nice family picture at the cookout later in the day, so I was happy for that. We can't wait until next year's party.



SUNDAY: This is our family tradition started last year. On Ava's birthday at exactly 8:39am, we take her picture with the same clock. Big change from last year!

Sunday was Ava's 2nd birthday. We spent the afternoon at a neighbor's pool, then came in for some celebration. I made pizza for dinner, and Michelle made an ice cream cake for dessert. Ava had a "2" candle that she kept digging into the ice cream then licking off. Too funny!


We are simply awestruck that our little baby is already two years old. The time has gone by soooo quickly!

We opened gifts afterwards. This girl got some great loot! She got her very first baby doll (from Grammy and PopPop) and a baby Maclaren stroller from us.

Auntie got her a Jo-Jo's Circus doll and matching pajamas (Ava's #1 favorite TV show is Jo-Jo's Circus.) She got tons of cute clothes from Grandma & Grandpa Putsey, her godparents Jenny & Steve, and our good friends the Dennisons and Hopes. She got some matching hair bows with her outfit from the Dennison's and HAD to have them put in her hair immediately (she is 100% girl!) She also got a ton of books from the Hopes (she LOVES books), a Purdue Pete book from the Dennisons, a really nice kiddie tea set and picnic basket from our cousins the Grafs, and some arts+crafts projects as well.