Audrey - 4 months

Our little baby is growing up fast. She had her four month appointment last week and seems to be developing just perfectly. She was in the 75th % across the board (head, weight, height) which didn't surprise us. This girl doesn't miss a meal! I love my chunky girl!

Happy Birthday, Ava!

Words cannot express how dumbfounded I am that my sweet baby girl is already turning three. Where did the time go? She's now three going on 25, I swear. From wearing my high heels at every chance to putting on all her necklaces and rings at once and telling us she got married today, our baby is officially growing up. She is the sweetest little girl I've ever met. I absolutely love being her Mommy and Jim eats up every minute he spends with her. She is definitely daddy's girl.

We started off the day with our family tradition of taking her picture at the exact time she was born: 8:39am. Ava then trotted off to school before being picked up early at 2:30 by Mommy so she could spend the afternoon at the pool. After that, of course, came the cake and presents. We're having her kiddy birthday party on Saturday, so tonight was our fun, intimate family party with the four of us.

Speaking of birthdays, would you believe that in our family we have SIX birthdays to remember just for the month of June? It gets a little crazy. As well, one of my best friend's daughter is exactly one year (less one day) to Ava, so we'll just go with the lucky number SEVEN for the number of birthdays I have to prepare for each year. I'm not complaining though; I love buying cards and shipping things. They don't always make it on time, but I do my best. Anyone who knows me will tell you that the mail coming each day is one of my favorite things. I'm just a big fan of mail, both receiving and sending :) I'm happy to keep the failing USPS in business just one more day if they can make it.

So in one full swoop I'll say "Happy Birthday Grandma Vaca, Audrey Dennison, Ava, Grandma Putsey, Cousin Nicholas, Cousin Ian, and Grandpa Putsey."

Yea for the self timer on cameras!

Sum, Sum, Summertime!

Wow, summer's off to a busy but fun start! So busy and fun that I haven't had a minute of time to do any blogging. Actually, work's been busy lately so that has also left limited time for extra curricular activities like blogging.

Ava decided pants were optional then found Mommy's shoes.

Smiley baby!

Pool time with Daddy

and Mommy

and Audrey

How did we go three years in a neighborhood with no pool?

Miss Independent in her Ariel ring

Jump, Jump, Jump

Gymboree fun

Gymboree party

So photogenic!

Let's see... we've been up to a lot. For one, everyone in Ava's class as school turns three around the same time of the year, so we've been going to a lot of birthday parties. Last weekend was Gymboree, this weekend was McDonald's Play Place, and next weekend, of course, is Ava's party here at our house. She's been loving every minute of them and especially enjoyed jumping around at Gymboree.

We've also been spending a lot of time at our neighborhood pool. Ava (and Mommy) LOVE going swimming. Ava's progressed by leaps and bounds from last summer. Now she is not fearful of the water at all, can swim all by herself with her innertube on, and doesn't cry if she accidentally goes under. She's been making a lot of friends at the pool as well, as everyone seems to have cooler toys than her so she enjoys playing with them :) We are trying to maximize our pool time this year since every weekend is a three day weekend.

Audrey continues to do really well. She's around 15 pounds and is all smiles. I've seriously never known a happier, more smily baby in my life. She's also a giggler which is a lot of fun. Ava loves to try and make her laugh and is talking to her all the time. We overhear her repeating the things she's heard us say to Audrey like "Hello, beautiful. Aren't you precious?" It's a hoot. Audrey's getting a lot of strength in her legs and likes to "stand" on our laps from time to time. Tuesday is her 4 month doc visit, so we're excited to talk about milestones with our doctor and find out all the fun things going on with our sweet baby. Head over heels, I tell ya...

Jim's been keeping busy with work. He has been traveling up to NJ lately and goes again this week. Besides my day job, photography season is in full swing. We actually just returned from a good friend's wedding in Scranton, PA this weekend. It was a ton of fun and we enjoyed milling around the infamous "Office" town. We even stumbled upon the PA Paper Mill and took our pictures in front of it. Those of you who are fans will instantly recognize it.

Can you believe our baby is three today? I'll blog more on that later. For now I'm just going to sit here and sulk. They grow up too fast!

Week 'O Bad Luck

So last weekend my sister got married outside Knoxville, TN. (Yay!) Wedding was gorgeous, weather was gorgeous, etc. It was great to see our cousins and my parents. We had a great time. This has nothing to do with the bad luck... but it did start right before the reception when Audrey took a tumble out of her stroller (long story) and we had to take her to the University of Tennessee Medical Center as a precaution. She was totally fine, just shaken up a bit. The good part of this story was that a pediatric surgeon from Wisconsin was with us when it happened and therefore checked her out on the spot. Needless to say, we pretty much missed the entire reception as a result, but we hear Ava had a fabulous time dancing with her cousin Alyssa on the dancefloor most of the night :)

Jim feeding Audrey at the ER while we waited for the doc.

So we came home Sunday, got settled back in, etc. My next round of bad luck happened Wednesday (ok, it's really stupidity but whatever) when I decided to take Bogey for a run while I rollerbladed. I decided a month ago it would be a lot more efficient to work out the dogs on rollerblades rather than at my 9 minute mile jogging pace. So, I bought myself some spiffy new blades that are super fast. I've been taking them for about 3 weeks now with no problems. Jim always warned me to wear the knee and elbow pads because he knows I can't stop, but I didn't listen. On Wednesday, I didn't even make it to the end of the street and I bit it.... HARD. I won't post pictures (you can thank me later) but I basically skinned up my right knee pretty good and received some really nice roadburn clear from my wrist to my elbow on the right arm. Fun times. It hurt so bad I immediately popped a 800mg Ibuprofin leftover from childbirth and had a nice big glass of wine. Today is Monday, and I'm entering the itching phase....

Last but not least, this of course was Memorial Day weekend. We had a great time just hanging out as a family, really we did, but it rained the entire weekend (minus about two hours at Ava's friend's birthday party - see pic).

Jim had the itch all weekend to go hike up Crowders Mountain because we haven't done it in almost a year. Today we said "let's go for it!" We hiked all the way to the top, but on the way down it started to POUR. It didn't stop, so we just had to bite the bullet and hike in the rain. It was comical: two dogs, a toddler, a baby, and us walking through the mud and puddles together. Of course, the girls were in their carriers, so they only got soaked (not muddy.) Audrey smiled the whole time and just looked up at the sky. Ava wasn't so enthusiastic about it. As soon as we made it to our car, the clouds parted and the sun came out. Go figure. We'll never forget today's hike. I would post a picture of we six drowned rats, but I brought a camera with no memory card in it.

Big Weekend!

What a wonderful weekend we had. Friday was my first "Fun Mommy Day" with Ava. We spent the entire morning shopping (mostly grocery) and Ava was really good. She spotted every single item that had a Disney Princess or Pooh on it, but luckily didn't ask me to buy them all for her. Instead she'd say "I have (insert name) at home, Mommy", and I'm like "yes you do! thank God!" I did get her a box of Dora band-aids that completely made her day, and that was worth the $1.88 price tag.

Saturday was a lot of fun. We went out for donuts for breakfast, then set out to make a final decision on a double stroller. Ava happily test drove them all for us. After going to Babies R Us, REI, and USA Baby, we decided on the Baby Jogger City Mini Double (thank you, Kristin! You were right all along.) It was between that and the double BOB, but the latter was very big and clunky and didn't lock up when folded which was a deal breaker for me. Oh, and for all my Charlotte mommy friends... I'd never been to USA Baby because I wrongly assumed it was a crappy store given it's somewhat hoodish location... boy was I wrong! Get your bootie in there if you haven't been before. SO cute!

Grammy and PopPop arrived mid day which made Ava very happy! We were also happy to see them. They gravitated to Audrey like a dog to water on a hot day of course, and she gave them the big smiles they were looking for. After resting a bit we headed over to the pool for opening day. It was nice and crowded and we had a ton of fun in the water. Ava was way more carefree in the water than last year which was great to see. No fear! We will have so much fun all summer over there. To top off the day we went to the Colombian restaurant for dinner where we enjoyed yummy cuisine. My favorite is still the fried plantains... delicious!

Mother's Day was great. I awoke to flowers and a very nice gift from my girls (which Ava opened for me): a gift card to Coach! Michelle was just at the outlet yesterday and said the sales are great along with some super cute designs right now, so I must head there soon. Anyway, we went to church, then joined Campo and Maryann for a brunch at Village Bistro. After Ava's nap in the afternoon we went to the strawberry patch. This was our second year, and it was even better the second time around. Ava had so much fun picking and eating the strawberries. They added a growth chart statue which excites me, as every year I'll get to see my girls grow!

At the fountain in Ballantyne Village before Mother's Day brunch

Grammy and PopPop with their Carolina girls

Strawberry pickin' time!

Watch me grow!

Audrey hamming it up for the grandparents

Golf, Smiles, and the Zoo!

It's been a busy 48 hours. Jim and I took Friday off and enjoyed a yummy IHOP breakfast before heading to Quail Hollow for the PGA tournament. This is our 4th year going and we love going on Friday. Usually we just sit on the 7th green and let the players come to us. This year we followed Camilo for a few holes, sat on 7 for the morning, but then decided to go follow Tiger once he teed off at 12:50. We stayed through five then decided we were ready to bolt. Once we got home we decided to give Ava her new clubs. She was pretty excited; probably because they're pink. We took her across the street to the park to learn how to swing them. They're about a year or two too big for her, but she'll get the hang of it.









Saturday was as fun (and tiring) as Friday. Our neighborhood had its annual garage sale which I had to take advantage of. I got some great stuff for the girls and a few fun things for me too. I love garage sailing! Afterwards we loaded up the car and took the girls for their first trip to the zoo. We went to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC. Ava was so excited to see all of the animals. She was especially excited to see monkeys, lions, and giraffes. She also enjoyed taking a pony ride, complete with her pink jockey helmet. We plan on taking her to the Georgia Aquarium later this summer. We know she will love that, as she was looking for Nemo the entire time we were at the zoo.

Ava amused by the chickens

Ava and Daddy in the farm animal barn. She did get to see a real cow, however.

Feeding the goat!

With Simba from the Lion King (or so she thought)

Pony time!

Feeding a toucan

She enjoyed the elephants a lot!

Last but not least, how about those smiles? Audrey is such a happy baby. She loves it when you talk to her, and she usually talks back. She loves to smile. I absolutely melt at these pictures. As always, the full album from the weekend's events are available to view on our family website.