It's been too long

Well, lots has been happening at our house lately. I have survived another advising period at my job (it was very hectic!). We only have a week and a half left in the semester--WooHoo! I have been playing a lot of tennis, and drew has been training for his upcoming triathalons, bike rides and runs. He did his first big event of the year in January. He ran the Starkville Frostbite Half Marathon. He came in 3rd for his age group with a time of 1 : 33 : 44 (28th overall out of 252 runners). He did very well! Drew also did a 100-mile bike ride on the Natchez Trace this past Saturday. It is an annual event. He had a lot of fun. He finished the ride in just under 6 hours. Avi and I are very proud of him! He has several events coming up, and I'll let you know how he does!

Drew with his new Trek bike before the 100-mile ride on the Natchez Trace.

And now for what you all actually came to the site to see! Avi is just becoming a big girl right before our eyes. She is talking up a storm. She can say pretty say much anything she wants to say. This past week she really started saying her "s" sound very well. It is adorable. I love to hear her say "silly." I love to hear her talk...unless it is when she is being sassy and saying "no" to me! We had fun dying Easter eggs with Emily Adkerson and Jack Fountain. Avi wasn't as interested in the actual dying process as Emily and Jack. She found a tricycle to play on while they were dying eggs, and then she did some right at the end. I let her color on a couple of the eggs, and she thought that was fun! We also "borrowed" Jack's small slide that he has outgrown. Avi has LOVED playing on it at our house. As you can tell from the pictures, she has to work pretty hard to get up on the platform where she can slide, but she really enjoys playing on it. Thanks, Jack, for letting us borrow it! OH, and note her hair in the pictures on the slide...there was so much static that her hair was standing straight up!

Sliding down the slide.

Working SOO hard to get up on the platform!

Aren't the eggs colorful?!

Totting around on the tricycle while Emily and Jack dye eggs

Emily and Jack...too cute!

So much fun with the eggs!

Avi wearing daddy's boots! She thought she was too cool!

No, No!

Avi Grace really enjoys saying, "No, no!" these days. The other morning she was repeatedly throwing her food off of her high chair tray, and I pointed my finger at her and said, "No, no, Avi Grace." She pointed her finger right back at me and kept repeating, "No, no." As much as I tried not to, I couldn't help but laugh. So, when Drew got home that night, I let her show him what she had learned!! Too cute.

I also forgot to tell y'all that the week we got back from our San Francisco trip, Avi had some interesting days at daycare! I picked her up on that Wednesday after we got back, and she had an "incident" report that said she had scratched one of the little boy's face that day! The next day I picked her up, she had an "incident" report that said she had bitten one of the boys on the arm and then tried to bite another boy on the ear. Thankfully they caught her before she bit his ear, and they made her sit in time out and took her blanket away!! She and I had to have a little talk about biting and scratching at that point, needless to say! And, speaking of her blanket, we have always referred to it as her blankie, but she is now calling it boppy, so that is what her blanket is now officially known as, "boppy!" Anytime she gets upset or hurt, the first thing she says is, "boppy, boppy." It is sweet.

And, lastly, I am very thankful that she seems to be a pretty tough little girl. On Monday evening we were playing outside (enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather we have had since last Saturday), and I was trying to get the bubbles out for us. I couldn't get them open, so I told her I'd be right back ("bight back" as she likes to repeat). I ran inside to get the bubbles open and when I came back out, she was on the very top step of our back porch steps. I turned back around to let Drew open it completely, and the next thing I knew she had started tumbling down the stairs...all I could do was SCREAM loudly, which of course did nothing to help her. She slid down a few and then went heels over head and thankfully landed on her bottom at the bottom of the stairs. She cried hard for about a minute until we got boppy. THANK GOODNESS she did not hurt herself. She had a very minute scratch on her face, but otherwise she was good...WHEW, close call!

Let It Snow!

Sweet Pea outside in the snow!

Our house in the beautiful snow.

Avi Grace's tiny footprints in the snow.

We had SNOW this morning...and I do mean this morning! I woke up to a text from my sister, Abbi, telling me we had SNOW! It was still coming down when I looked outside, and it was beautiful. We had a light dusting last year, but I don't remember the last time we actually had snow, not ice, like this. It was fun while it lasted. By mid to late morning it was all melted :). This snow just reaffirmed what I already knew: I could not live somewhere that had snow and the cold air/wind that comes with snow all the time! We enjoyed our morning nonetheless. And, by the way, Avi Grace is feeling MUCH better today. We only stayed outside for about 5 minutes (it was way too cold for us!). Thanks for all of the well wishes. 

Battling the Flu :(

Avi Grace coloring at home

Well the week started out normally, but by Tuesday afternoon Avi Grace was sick. She threw up at school twice on Tuesday afternoon and since then she has been running a fever. I thought she must have some type of stomach bug, but I finally took her to the doctor this morning because she was running a 103.6 temperature. Turns out, she has the FLU. I knew the high temps weren't from a stomach bug, but I also didn't expect the flu, really. On the plus side, I guess she's probably halfway through with it now. 

Avi Grace has really been interested in using a pen or pencil these days. We decided that giving her a pen to color with wasn't the best idea ever. I've been meaning to buy her some colors, so while we were at the drug store this morning getting her tamiflu, I bought her some colors. She enjoyed coloring with the green color when we got home! Actually she REALLY wanted to go outside, even though it is raining a flood here today. Thankfully the colors distracted her. We almost had a meltdown over going outside :).

These pics from the bathtub were from 2 different bath time occasions. Here hair is getting pretty long (and wild), especially in the back, so we can now make a pretty good mohawk with the shampoo. The top picture in the tub makes me wonder what in the world we are in for when she gets older!! She's like, "mom, enough already!!"

Avi Grace is really growing. Most of her pants are getting too short, but we are trying to stretch her wardrobe through the next month or so until we have warmer weather! I can't bring myself to buy her more pants and long sleeves at this point in the winter.

As I type this, she is sleeping on the couch next to me. While she has been sick, she has refused to take a nap in her bed. It has been frustrating, but I guess she just wants her mommy. I'm just thankful she is taking a nap at this point!

Avi Grace is saying ALL kinds of words. She pretty much tries to say EVERYTHING we say. Our favorite words that she is trying to say now are helicopter (tetetopter) and belly button (belloo balloo). She rolls the ls in belly and it is hysterical. Drew gets her to say it just so he can hear it and laugh! It's pretty cute. She's communicating pretty well these days, though, I must say!

More California Pictures

Lance Armstrong (in the middle with the yellow and black Livestrong gear on) with several other cyclists in the Tour of California

We had a WONDERFUL time in California. I just can't say enough about how much fun we had and how beautiful the Pacific Ocean is. On the last full day of our trip, we went to Santa Cruz to see Stage 2 of the Tour of California. It was a lot of fun, and although it was raining when we woke up, thankfully the weather was nice before and during the race. We saw on the news later that night that Santa Cruz had a hail storm later that afternoon! Glad we missed that! And, although our glance of Lance was short-lived, it was fun to see him ride into the finish line!

This is Levi Leipheimer, the Tour of California leader and Lance Armstrong Astana team member.

A picture of the Pacific on the beautiful 17-mile drive at Pebble Beach.

Okay, I just got a kick out of this! We had driven North of San Francisco on this scenic route, and when we were trying to get back on the freeway, we came to this red light! It seriously was a 5-minute red light. Seemed like we sat there forever!

Yes, I got a little out of control with the pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is such an amazing structure. This isn't even half of the pictures I have of the bridge, but I thought I wouldn't bore you with all of them! Truly a sight to see!

For those of you looking for new pictures of Avi Grace, I promise I will post some of those soon too! She is a mess...talking up a storm!

Sunny San Francisco??

Drew and I have been in San Francisco since Thursday evening. We are having a wonderful time. Unfortunately, though, sunny San Francisco has turned out to be a fairly rainy San Francisco. On Friday we toured the Muirwoods Redwood forest (above picture). Thankfully the rain held off until we got back on the tour bus. Then we headed to Alcatrez where we met up with my friend Chris Bushby and a couple of her sweet friends.

This picture was taken outside Alcatrez. What a crazy place. It is so strange that there used to be a prison out on this island. Very strange. While we were touring Alcatrez, it started POURING DOWN RAIN. Thankfully the ferry was waiting on us when we came out!

Isn't this a magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge? I have MANY others, and I'll share more later, but I was dying to post some of our pics. Yesterday we went across the bridge and headed up this fabulous mountainside road where we got these awesome views of the city and the bridge! Very cool.

These last two pictures were taken today in Carmel. We are staying the night in Carmel tonight, and I have absolutely fallen IN LOVE with this place. I LOVE CARMEL!!!! I want to move here...those of you who know my husband are laughing your heads off right now because you know that will NEVER happen! The picture just above this one is of one of the greens at the Pebble Beach Golf Course (maybe 18th??), and this one is a picture of the shoreline just down from that in Carmel. I'm in heaven (minus the horrible rain and wind we endured today!)

Tomorrow we head up to Santa Cruz (passed through there today) to HOPEFULLY catch a glimpse of Lance Armstrong in Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California. Looking forward to that and praying for a break in the rain until the race is over. According to the radar, doesn't look like that prayer is going to be answered the way I want it to!!

More Christmas Pictures...FINALLY!

Avi got a huge stuffed dog for Christmas from her Mimi & Papa (my parents). I thought she would like it, but I had no idea how much she would like it! She LOVES that dog...as you can tell!

Avi enjoyed lying on her dog!

Still lying on her dog, but now with her head back!

Avi gave her dog many kisses. She is in a kissing phase right now. She kisses everything. She will open a book and kiss what is on the page. She also gives AWESOME kisses to people as well...no slobbering or anything, a very sweet puckered up kiss! Cory (Drew's brother) got one, if not the first, "real" kiss she gave. He was so excited, and it was very sweet!

Lying on her dog again!

Avi loves to ride Papa's "horse"... actually she loves to ride anyone's 

"horse!

Avi loves to stand on anything and do her penguin dance!

Avi was checking out her Mimi's Christmas tree.

Avi and her aunt Abbi.

Avi loves to look at the book about babies.

We finally got a shot of us together.

Avi loves to play the piano at Mimi and Papa's house.

Papa taught Avi to wink, and this is her version of a wink!! I love it!

Okay, so I know that I posted pictures a while back of Halloween, but I didn't have these from my mom's camera, so I thought these were cute and wanted to share them with you.

Look at my sweetheart!