Elmo Dance

Thank You Heberts for the Elmo present!  As you can tell, Ava is a big fan.  When Elmo comes on Seasame Street Ava goes and hugs her baby Elmo. 

Hop, Skip, and Jump Meetup

Ava loves pushing around the baby dolls

This is such a cool place to take kids because they have a variety of fun toddler friendly toys

She gets shy sometimes in big groups and uses her mommy leg shield

Toddler Dinner party

Ball Pit

Ball pit craziness with Ellijah

They were exhausted after jumping so much 

Hi Aiden!

Ava playing host

She loves the tea set 

Playing with Allyse

Great day to get her wiggles out!

Indoor activities

Ava was learning to draw this week.

These are Crayola's baby's first washable markers

She is concentrating

Look she is already drawing better than Momma

Momma's little artist

Is great with a spoon now!

as long as she likes the food....if she doesn't she throws the bowl.  Still working on table manners.

She even crosses her legs when she eats. What a priss!

She loves her hand puppet

Finally a reasonable day outside!

We went to our favorite Pizza Place in town- Y Not Pizza. (By the way- see how long Ava's hair has gotten in the front?! It is curly in the back and straw straight in the front)

Daddy and Ava deciding what to order (this girl LOVES pizza)

I want that Dada!

Ava LOVES the swings. She squeals through the whole thing. It is an instant pick me up if you are having a bad day.

"Dad you aren't pushing high enough!"

"Dad a little higher please"

Still has her baby face

starting to giggle

weeee

playing soccer

It is SO cute to see someone THIS small walking around.

She is a brave little girl

zoooooooooooooom!

Slide time

We have had cabin fever here with this awful weather lately. Last weekend we FINALLY got a mild enough day to take Ava to the park. We realize that Virginia Beach has TONS of things to do outside for kids but not inside. Thank goodness we have the meet up group during the week. Ava starts her little "onesies book club" group at the library this week. That will be an adventure that I will keep you posted on. 

Great News Always comes in 3s

First piece of good news:

Welcoming a new sister to the family-

Eric proposed to Paige!

Eric proposed to Paige on New Years Eve this year on a Mountain Top.  Great Job Eric! They plan on getting hitched in summer 2010. We are so happy for them. :)

Second Piece of Good News:

Greg is joining VFA 32- The Fighting Swordsmen....AKA we are staying at Oceana Naval Base for 3 more Years!

The Swordsmen's Logo

We are absolutely thrilled about Greg's orders. Greg will be a Weapons System Operator (WSO) in Super Hornet Jets.  We love living in VA Beach because we are in such short proximity to friends and family (the beach is an added bonus).  Greg will be doing "work ups" (practice for deployments) about every other month this year. He will be gone for about a month at a time.  He will be leaving to do his first deployment in November 2009 on the Harry Truman Carrier.  It will be a 7 month deployment and he will be home sometime in June. 

Third Piece of Great News:

We got the house! 

We put in an offer for a short sale house a month ago and finally heard today that the seller and the bank have accepted our first offer!  We are beyond excited.  Everything is still contingent on the home inspection but we are not as worried because the house is only 6 years old. Our home inspection is tomorrow. The house is on the border of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.  For the locals- it is about 7 minutes from the Greenbrier Mall area. It is in the Tarleton Oaks Community. I have attached pictures below. It is a 3 bedroom and 2.5 bath town home. We are so blessed with all of these good pieces of news this week. It is 1633 square feet (small but a heck of a lot bigger than our 11oo square foot apartment). It has a L shaped back yard. 

The front- It has a bay window (my favorite part)

Dining room area- Lots of light. Much better than the cave we live in now.

Fire place

Living room area

Kitchen

Master Bedroom. It has vaulted ceilings too which are not pictured here.

bathroom

2 pools in the community