The holiday's past so quickly this year but they were the best ever! Thanksgiving was great spending it with a mish-mash of friends in town without their families. The Graham's hosted once again and Jody tried his hand (successfully) at a deep fried turkey. Everyone else brought the fine accoutrements expected with a great Thanksgiving meal. All was very yummy and the evening was very special.
An unexpected trip to Lewiston for my Grandfather's memorial was a sad occassion but a wonderful opportunity to spend time with the Melhouse side of our family. My Dad and Amber made the trip too and we had some good time to remember the most amazing man. Along with the sadness of the trip, we had some fun with Aunt Lise, Uncle Tom and our cousins Stephanie & Heather and their family members and friends.
Christmas was extra special this year... the best I can remember. Amber came into town early and we spent the week planning Christmas dinner, finishing Christmas shopping and basically just hanging out together with little Ava. It was a great bonding time for Amber and Ava and it warmed my heart to see it. Dad came into town and then Rob the next day and the gang was complete! We completed a puzzle, played games, ate, laughed and basically had a wonderful family Christmas together.
The New Year is here and we brought it in with style. Joe & Amy hosted a fancy affair at Summergrove complete with a sushi station and more food than could be consumed. Amy loaded the chardonnay buckets with Sonoma Coutrer and everyone brought their favorite bottle of champagne for the midnight toast. There were some very special bottles opened that night! The DJ played all of our favorites and everyone was in rare form to celebrate which meant the dancing began right after dinner and did not stop until 1:30. Great fun was had by all - we even had the ever-amazing-to-watch performance from Jody Graham of his take on "Billie Jean". He added the white glove this year and had us all in tears.
Ava is talking up a storm... new words come from her mouth every day now. She is literally become a little parrot, trying out any words that come from anyone's mouth. Time to becareful of or vocabulary!

Quick update! Ava's school photos did not come out well at all... very disappointing. We did however purchase a sheet so we can add one to her baby book as her first school photo for embarrassing moments later in life.

Destin was a blast - the Graham's, Churi's & Guerra's all headed down on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon and spent a lovely few days on the Pantoon boat with cocktails galore and yummy food. Our "out" night was a success too: we hired a Nanny for the 4 kids and headed to the best sushi place I know, consumed massive amounts of sushi and sake and japanese beer. There happend to be a girl with a guitar and a mic downstairs in front of a ping pong table so we all decided in our drunken stupor that we would have our hand at it. A small tournament formed and I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember who won. We then headed out to sea and sang and some lit up some cigars. It was a proper drunken stupor.

Halloween was fun - Ava was the cutest little fairy (even though she wouldn't wear half of her costume!) and she had a blast. She wore her outfit for about 3 days and one could tell she thought she was something special once the wings and the tu-tu went on. She hit 5 houses and came back with 1/2 a pumpkin full of candy... people are apparently suckers for baby fairies. Ken and I have a ton of candy to dip into if the need should arise.

Fall is officially here - overnight I swear. It was hot, leaves green, it got cold, leaves stayed green and then one day it got warm again, the breeze blew hard and the leaves had turned and were falling. Our backyard is covered in pretty yellow and red leaves that Ava loves to run around in. She is fascinated by leaves and when you ask here where they come from she points up and says "teee"!

Ken's Mom is coming into town next week for his birthday and for Joe's YMCA Volunteer of the year dinner. We'll be making an authentic mexican chili sauce for enchiladas on Saturday night to celebrate Ken's birthday. He'll like that. I'm going to attempt a key lime pie in honor of my husband's favorite dessert and call that his birthday cake. I'll also be making some ceviche to start the evening with... ah, memories of Puerta Vallarta.

A funny thing happend... Ken's brother Wayne who lives in Colorado hit a hole in one last month during a tournament and won a car!! That never happends! Congratulations to Wayne and thank you. Ken and I decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Wayne decided he would not be keeping the vehicle (2007 Tahoe), so Ken and I bought it. Ken flew out to CO on a Wednesday night, spent Thursday with Wayne playing golf & tennis, watched Sophie play volleyball, had dinner with the whole family and left first thing Friday morning to start his trek home. He arrived in Newnan at 6:00 pm Saturday night. Impressive huh? He was on a mission to get home to his family and did so in record time. Thanks Kenny for making the trip all alone, we missed you.
Now that the car is here, we are spending a lot of time figuring out what all the buttons are for! This vehicle is loaded with fun stuff. It's got a lot of chrome which makes it kind of pimped out but also makes it a bit more of a fun car too. Nothing I would have picked out but wow, we are so happy with it. It's very luxurious inside and has everything Ava needs too. Namely, a DVD. "TV!" is what Ava says when we get in the car. Before we ever turned the thing on she was pointing and yelling. We've managed to otherwise occupy her so she really has only watched a show once and have pretty much set the rule that she will not be allowed to watch it when we are local, only when we are traveling or driving into Atlanta, if needed. All that said, we are very happy with our new car and now have the task of figuring out which vehicle to get rid of - the Pathfinder or Ken's Dodge Ram. We'll decide this week.

The Friday Ken was away in CO was kind of fun. Jody Graham took me out on a "date" since Miranda was also out of town. Jason & Jennifer Jordan joined us too. We started out for a nice sushi dinner. From there things got a little out of hand. Anyone who knows Jody, understands how what I'm about to tell you came about. While Jody was busy trying to hurt himself with spicy tuna, he came up with the "Newnan Nations Tour". We decided that this would be a type of "Pub Crawl" up Hwy 34 (Bullsboro) in Newnan. We would stop at a different ethnic restaurant bar for each drink. So we packed up from our Japanese stop and headed out for Mexico at La Parilla, our new favorite spot. After a great Margarita and some live music, we reluctanly left and went to Italy ... at the Olive Garden. Don't laugh, we live in Newnan. Amber of course calls while we are stopped here and proceeds to laugh at us... all deserving of course and there are no hard feelings. Our next stop was TGI Friday's (just opened that week) which of course represents the good 'Ol USA. At this point everyone had drank at least 3 or 4 different types of drinks within a 2 mile radius. The belly was not too happy. We decided the last stop on 34 would be Locos to represent the "down south" people. While at Locos there was a DJ playing the old 80's favorites. Jennifer and I of course could not control the desire to sing to these songs at the top of our lungs and then came the final great idea for the night. Karaoke. Scary. Off to Lenny's we went... Everyone had a turn singing and we were home by 2:30ish. The entire evening was fun, crazy and hugely entertaining.

The whole gang is heading to Destin next weekend. The weather should be great and the fun is guaranteed. Hopefully we'll get some cute photos of the kids too. Ava loves it there. She's all about being near and in water at any given time.

She has started saying "Owdie" meaning Rowdy and calls for him when she wakes up. It's really very cute. She strings together a combination of 6-7 words at a time and repeats these 3 or 4 phrases when she is in her crib. Ken and I have yet to translate but we can't wait for that day to come.

Ava's school took school photos a couple of weeks ago so we are eagerly waiting for those to come home. I can't imagine taking photos of 30 some odd one year olds, one at a time! She wore the pretty dress Aunt Amber bought for her last Easter. It may be the last time she'll be able to wear it but she looked so precious.

More next week after Destin I hope...

Hello and welcome to my first blog! My sister Amber suggested I give this a try in an effort to keep family & friends updated (as much as possible) on Ava and her progress. We'll give it a try! Although short on time most days, I'll do my best to jot down new and amazing things Ava does, any exciting news with Ken or me and anything else fun that pops into my mind.

First I must say that the weather in Newnan is FABULOUS right now! The summer humidity is finally gone and the cool fall weather is starting to appear. I've had jeans on for the last two days without any over-heating and that is well, just wonderful. Ava on the other hand is still wearing summer wear with sweaters. I over estimated her growth spurts and have a ton of 2T stuff but it's all still too big for her this year. We are headed out later to see about some pants for the girl! If anyone has any 12-18month winter hand-me-downs, please feel free to pass them along! :0)

Ava has pretty much hit her growth plateau says Dr. Carter. At this age they become so active that any weight they put on is gone right away. She went from calm, quiet baby to energetic, talkative toddler overnight. 16 months old and she is saying "nana" (banana), ball, juice, snack and "Oh No!". The adults have caught on the last one and there are many households in Newnan who exlaim the frase often. She also has a library of animal noises that we practice often. She knows most of her body parts and can point to them when asked.

We are so lucky to have such a good kid. Uncle Jody calls her the "golden child" due to her good habits. She sleeps very well (and always has), she eats very well and she is so smart. She eats all veggies & fruits, tofu, chicken, cheese, sandwiches (in her own special way), eggs, turkey sausage and the list goes on and on. She just gave up the bottle and did so with no problems. Ava plays with oversize legos, piles blocks, colors with crayons and special markers, she knows her shape toys and she loves to dance and act out songs.

That's it for my first blog for now. I'll update more later!