Ava’s PlayPen

Two great friends of ours, are going to be departing for Dar es Salaam on thursday.  Chip and Matt are incredible men, and I am so excited to see how God uses them in Tanzania.  I serve along with 3 other great people in a College ministry.  God has been doing such exciting things, and I love each of these students as if they were family.  Ava has taken to them as well.  We had a time of dinner and prayer last night for Chip and Matt.  Ava loved every second of the attention she was getting.  We had a great time, ate a lot, and of course, took tons of pictures.  Here are some with Ava, and Phoenix.

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Wow, has it really been that long since my last post.  It has been a crazy 2 months as I have been spending quite some time working and getting things started for our trip to Costa Rica in January.  It has been really unfortunate, as the past 4 or 5 weeks, I have had to put in some late hours at work.  During this time, Ava has become pretty clingy to Amy, and I'm having to work pretty hard to get her to where she is buds with daddy again.  One thing she has really taken to is getting chased.  She absolutely loves being chased around the house.  It is so funny watching her little legs run around the house.  Ava also loves the animal noises.  She knows what sound a dog, cat, cow, duck, and pig makes.  The pig sound, sounds nothing like a pig would ever sound, but it is consistent every time.  Maybe she hears an oink differently?  We have also been eating ice cream quite a bit lately, and I'm proud to say she takes after her daddy in the ice cream dept.  We both absolutely love it.  We have an Amish Creamery down the road, and It is such a nice little ice cream shop.  The folks are so friendly, and they absolutely love Ava.  We go later at night, before we put Ava to bed, so there isn't as much traffic in the store.  A guy named Clint runs the place, he's a great guy...  Well, unfortunately, we don't have any pictures to throw on tonight, but I just wanted to make sure everyone knew we were doing fine, and that Ava's growing like a weed!!  Hopefully in the next couple weeks, work will be slowing down, and then it's vacation time!!!

Amy makes the absolute best homemade spaghetti and meat balls.  Last week, after two helpings, we found out that it just may be Ava's favorite meal.

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We had an excellent evening tonight, full of food, laughter, and fun.  We grilled up some flank steak for supper, and invited some family and great friends over for dinner.  The food turned out excellent, and there was quite a spread.  Jon and Melinda brought Phoenix, and Ava was loving every bit being around Elise and Phoenix.  We brought out Arrianne's video player, and played some ballet recitle video.  Ava was dancing around, spinning in circles.  This is her new thing, spinning.  She will spin until she get's dizzy and falls down.  Anyhow we played outside while the grill was getting warmed up, and ate, and then played and danced some more.  Even Phoenix caught dancing fever, after bieng totally consumed with the Jack in the Box.  We ended up playing some cards, and now relaxing a bit.  Here are some pictures:

Fourth of July Dinner

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On July 2, 1776 the Second Continental Congress approved a resolution presented by Richard Henry Lee declaring the Independence of the original thirteen colonies from the British Empire.  The colonies had been in brutal battle with the Most Powerful Empire in the world since 1775, suffering great loss of life and overcoming tremendous odds.  On July 4, 1776 a formal explanation of the July 2 vote, called the Declaration of Independence was adopted, marking the birth of the United States of America. There is no way of knowing for certain, but an estimated 50,000 fighting Americans lost their life in defense of this country.  They suffered bitter cold, insufficient supplies, disease, brutal betrayal, lack of pay, and seemingly insurmountable battle losses to cement the foundation of this country.  God Almighty was certainly at work in the creation of this Union.  In 1776, John Adams declared, "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore." Probably to John Adams disliking we now celebrate our independence on the 4th, not the 2nd. On July 3, 1777 they got around to thinking about a celebration, but it was too late to celebrate on the 2nd, so they threw a celebration on the 4th and we have been celebrating since...  Anyhow, As we look back to our roots today, lets bow our heads and remember, not the unfortunate politics that seem to shape Washington these days.  Instead, let's remember and thank God for his work in our deliverance, both from the tyranny of man, and most importantly, the deliverance from the tyranny of Sin through Jesus Christ.

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We woke up this morning, and took some pictures of Ava in her Independance Day outfit.  Unfortunately shortly after the first set of pictures, she fell and bumped her head on a corner.  So, some of the pictures show a big ol bump on her head.  We are excited, as we are having Amy's Grandparents, cousins, Jon and Melinda Perry, and other friends over tonight for dinner.  We will post some more pictures!!!  Happy Independence Day!!!

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Amy's cousins Arrianne and Elise are visiting on their way to the Detroit Michigan area to run Elise back home.  Elise has been staying at Arrianne's place in Miami.  It has been great to have them around, since we don't get to see them very often.  Arrianne was Maid of Honor over 3 years ago when we were married.

Ava absolutely loves Elise.  She follows her all over, and plays with her stuffed animals.  She just stares and takes in everything that Elise does.  It is cute.  We had a great day with them today, starting off going swimming at the Seminole Rec Center.  They've got such a nice pool, and it is usually not very packed.  Ava loves the water.  She had her first face first accident experience in the water today.  She was crawling in a shallow play part of the pool, and somehow slipped and went face first in about 5 inches of water.  It scared her just a bit, but she recovered quickly.  After the pool, we had Black Grouper sandwiches at Dockside Dave's.  Amy and I used to eat at Dockside Dave's quite a bit when we were dating.  After dinner, we ate some homemade ice cream at Candy Kitchen.  We absolutely love Candy Kitchen, and it is such a fun place to go...  That was about as much fun as Ava could handle, so we brought her home, and she went down easily...

We had a great day, and it was great to see Arrianne and Elise.  Here are some pool pictures

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It has been a crazy 4 weeks.  I have been bombarded with work the past 4 weeks, and as a result I haven't posted as often as I would like...  

However, in other news, Ava turned 14 Months old today.  I haven't posted on Ava's advancements or stories lately, but that is definitely not due to lack of events.  Nearly every day I am reminded of how blessed I am(**warning, this is going to be a long post**).  Ava is definitely growing, and it is so entertaining to watch.  Since she was little, I would come home and wrestle with her on the bed, blowing on her belly and knocking her over when she tries to sit up.  She absolutely loves it.  She has gotten to the point now when I come home, she runs to the door, and when I grab her to take her to the bedroom she screams and squirms with delight.  We wrestle for about 5 or 10 minutes, and if I put her on the floor too soon from the bed, she will stand by the bed and hold her hands up for me to throw her back on the bed and wrestle some more.  Truthfully, though, she is a mommy's girl for the rest of the night.  She absolutely adores Amy, and Amy is such a good mother.  I'm just fine with being the taxi service (bike peddler), the wrestling buddy, and the guy that chases her around the house playing hide and seek.

Ava is starting to get into drawers and cabinets, as well as the bathroom toilet.  I definately have to remember to put down the lid on the toilet, because if I don't Ava will be in it.  Back to the cabinets, Ava is particularly fond of the bathroom cabinet.  There is nothing extremely dangerous she can get into. so we don't mind it so much if she plays with the boxes, and stuff...Won't go any further...  Tonight I snapped this photo of her in caught in the act...

She is also waving and blowing kisses to the trashmen now.  Evidently yesterday, the trash men were picking up our trash while Amy was watching the Today Show with Ava, and Ava looked out the window.  She waved at the trash men and they waved back.  While the man was jumping back on the truck she blew them a kiss.  She is also hugging and kissing her high chair which she loves to push around the house.

Ava is can point to her ears, eyes, mouth, and nose when asked.  She loves to point at our eyes, nose, mouth, and ears as we tell her what she is pointing at.  She loves to say ball, momma, da da, and there.  This morning Amy was watching TLC's "John and Kate plus Eight" show (wishing she had 8 children to keep track of) and someone on the television said "Where's Mommy?".  Ava pointed to Amy and said "There!"

And Finally, a little bit more strange, Ava has been ramming her head into things.  Not like she's going full force to knock her self out, but she gets all excited and dances around and then walks up to the mirror and slams her forehead into the mirror.  She also likes to head butt the oven...  I know...  Ava absolutely loves dancing.  She gets so excited when music with a beat comes on, and starts dancing.  I can tell you first hand, She definitely has better moves than both her grandfathers.  Hopefully, I'll have a dancing video up later tonight...

Saturday, Amy gave me a father's day gift of our good friend Jon Perry mowing out lawn.  Jon has a lawn business called Turbo Lawn Care, and does an excellent job.  Because Jon mowed we were able to go to the pool, where we had an incredible time swimming.  I can't believe how fast Ava is growing...  Anyhow, Ava saw Jon mowing and wanted a ride, so he threw her on his lap and took the mower for a spin.

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Yesterday was my second ever Father's day.  It was really a pretty crazy day as we went to church, came home, sprayed for Ants that are taking over our house, tried to get Ava to sleep (she is thrown off kilter every Sunday because she doesn't sleep in the nursery), and getting ready for dinner at great grandpa and grandma Everett's house we were slammed.  At the end of the day I was flat beat.  However, we were able to get away and take my new bike and baby carrier for a maiden ride.  My Mom and Dad gave me an advance on my birthday money, and with it I bought a new bike, and a little pull behind trailer to pull Ava in...  I tell you what, that was quite a workout pulling her around the neighborhood.  The wind was blowing pretty decently on one street, and with that big square thing behind me, it was kind of like running while attached to a parachute.  I really enjoyed it, and I think Ava had a blast as well.  I had been looking forward to going on a ride as a family tonight, and was pretty bummed when I couldn't get off work in time to take a ride.  Here are some pictures of my new bike, and Ava's trailer.

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For the second year in a row, Ava and I write a happy father's day message to both grandpas.  Happy Fathers Day!

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