West Virginia, Mountain Mama...

We headed to WV over the weekend to visit the Button side of the family. It's been far too long since we've seen everyone! I'm starting to get a little nervous about our long trip to MD for vacation in a few weeks. I really need to be planning out some car activities to keep the kids happy. Ava does okay, but Carter hits a wall after about 1.5 hours and wants nothing more than to get out of that seat! He'll just have to get over it, I guess :).

Here's some pics from the trip:

Uncle Chris with Mark and the kids.

Ava & Aunt Susan

Uncle Paul with the Ava & Chloe
Poppy with his girls.

Neena & Ava

Carter and cake.

I had one of Aunt Lori and Carter, but she had her tongue sticking out and I thought she may not want that published for public viewing (to be fair, Carter started it).

We really should do this more than once a year!

Carter is 1!

Carter turned 1 on July 3. That year went by quickly! He also took his first steps on his birthday and has been taking some here and there ever since. When I picked him up from the nursery on Sunday after church, several of the ladies were telling me I had to stop him - walking means moving up to the next nursery and they don't want to lose him because he is always good for lots of snuggling.

My parents, my brother and his family, and our good friends came over for a cookout on the 4th to celebrate his birthday. While he wasn't afraid to touch his cake (like Ava was on her 1st birthday), he took a few bites and was done. No messy baby pics for us!

That evening, Ava got to see fireworks... WAY past her bedtime. The park down the road from our house hosts fireworks every year, and every other year, she's slept right through them, but this year, some of the tests they sent up woke her up and scared her, so she sat with her Pap for a while watching tv and then we decided to walk down to the park so she could see what the big booms were.

The next day, we headed to the zoo. Ava's favorite things were the train (she didn't need to ride it for excitement... simply hearing that it was coming and waving to everyone riding was a blast for her!) and the goats. They let you get in the pen with the goats and she was not shy at all. I think she would have enjoyed Young's Jersey Dairy equally as much.

It was a somewhat tiring weekend, but good. Now we're all fighting with runny noses, though. This weekend, we'll be heading down to visit Mark's side of the family. We haven't been for a LONG time, so we can't wait!

Spring!

Here's Ava looking for an airplane - she had a little trouble blocking the sun AND seeing the plane at the same time.

Then we have the assembly of Ava & Carter's new swingset. Ava got to "help," but Carter only got to watch.

He got to enjoy it later, though!

And here's what happens when kids are forced to take pictures. I love it! Ava continues to act more grown up all the time and amazes me every day with how smart she is - I definitely think we're going to be in for trouble.

Carter just started standing on his own this past weekend, and I'm guessing he'll be walking soon, although he's such a fast little crawler, he may stick with that for a while! He does love to walk behind things. He also continues to be affectionate, and hugs & kisses on stuffed animals as well as us from time to time. There's a face on that pillow he's attacking.

This face

How can you not love this face? Poor guy gets kissed on all day long.

Mark and I have been busy - I keep waiting for things to settle down, but I guess that won't happen for years to come. He is helping at a new Chipotle and was working long hours and long weeks. His schedule is a little more normal now, for which I'm thankful. For 2 weeks, Ava went 4 days without seeing her Daddy. It was hard on both of them (and me!). I've been busy working part time for a friend who has an eBay business. I was only shipping items, but have taken over pretty much the whole operation except for packaging items. Things are slowing down significantly for the summer months, though. It has been a blessing to have a way to earn some money working from home.

Carter is crawling all over and into everything. The bad part is he is VERY quiet! So, we have to keep an eye on him constantly. He like to crawl under things and climb over things. One day he crawled under a little table we'd gotten for him and Ava and got stuck under a chair, but he kept on crawling taking the chair with him... right toward the kitty dishes - the water dish is far too tempting.

Just last week, he learned how to sign, "more" after several weeks of me attempting to teach him and basically giving up. (I don't want to compare kids, but Ava picked up her first sign in one day! I was beginning to think he might never "get it.") I have it on video, but need to find the right cable to download it to the computer.

Ava is so happy that we can play outside! She even asks if we can go out and play in the rain - we keep telling her it's not quite warm enough for that, yet. We got a "Finding Nemo" book from the library about a month ago and she LOVES it. Has it memorized, sleeps with it, recites lines from it randomly... it will be a sad day when we can no longer renew it, but I have been looking at it on eBay, so I may go ahead and get her a copy. She also love Cinderella and talks about being a princess and wearing pretty dresses and dancing. It's especially fun to see her act out scenes with her dolls and stuffed animals. Sometimes she tells me she's Cinderella. If Mark is there, he, of course, is the Prince. When he isn't, I get to be the Prince. She continues to make us laugh all the time.

Even on the days they make us crazy, we couldn't imagine life without them!

Crawling and Easter!

Carter is officially crawling. Over the weekend, he has perfected the army crawl and can get from one side of the room to the other... much too quickly for my liking! Of course, his favorite things to get into are whatever Ava happens to be playing with at the moment. The other day he managed to crawl over and get himself squeezed behind Ava's "house." And, boy was he impressed with himself.

Here's Ava in her Easter dress. Gotta love the posing... at least we got her to stand still. Once the dress was on, all she wanted to do was twirl.

Deja vu

I posted a picture of Ava in one of my old Easter dresses a few days ago. Well, my mom also sent another dress of mine - I remember thinking this dress was super fancy and wanting to wear it often. Ava wanted to wear it when she saw it, and after she put it on, I told her she looked as pretty as a princess, to which she responded that she needed a crown. I found her flower headband, which seemed to appease her and I asked if I could take her picture. She's always willing to have her picture taken! So, here she is:


After she went to bed that night, I went looking for a picture of me wearing the dress, and found this:


I couldn't believe we were both posing the same way! Too funny!

Spring Snow!

This past weekend we got over a foot of snow! A friend was telling me that around this time last year, she remembered working outisde - she should remember correctly as she was 9 months pregnant at the time.

We had fun playing, but are now definitely ready for spring! While Carter napped, Mark, Ava and I went outside. Mark and I shoveled while Ava played and then our neighbor came over with his 4-wheeler with snow blade attached to help Mark while I caught up with his wife. We hadn't talked to them for a while, so it was nice! Then we came in for some hot chocolate and watched the snow continue to fall.

Ava is talking non-stop these days. She loves to color and sing and run. I can't believe the things she comes up with. One day she wanted me to turn on my cell phone so she could see the screensaver, but I told her the battery was dead. A minute later, she brings me the tv remote and says, "This has batteries!" She misses nothing and it's especially funny to hear her repeat some of the things we say on a regular basis.

My mom sent me an Easter dress I wore when I was Ava's age. The only problem is I was apparently much shorter than Ava! Our birthdays are only 2 weeks apart, but I don't think I could take her out in this dress! Here's me in the dress as well. I'm surprised at just how much more hair I have at that age than Ava does. (Don't you just love her fake smile??)


Carter is still rolling like a madman, which means he's also spitting up like a madman. Since he never stays on the blanket I put down, our carpet is full of spots in a wide variety of colors. Yuck. He likes to stand, now, and here's a shot of him standing with no assistance! And a second one because he's just so cute!


The snow is almost gone now and we look forward to warmer weather and outdoor pictures. On a side note, this weekend my parents will be celebrating 40 years of marriage! We love both sets of parents so much and are so grateful for them.