Ava cracks me up with some of the things she says or does lately.
I think I've seen it all, now. Ava, just like every other three year-old, LOVES ketchup. I've heard of people putting ketchup on eggs, on potato chips, but never APPLES. Yesterday she had an apple after dinner. I looked over and saw bite-marks all over her apple, with a nice coating of ketchup on it. No, it didn't fall into the pile o' ketchup on her plate, she kept dipping the apple in the ketchup for each and every bite. Eww. :-)
On the way into church on Sunday morning, after passing by a man outside church going the opposite direction, Ava says "That man has no hair." Doug replied saying "Sure he does, he has lots of hair on the back and the sides." She then added, "Yeah, just not on the top." Luckily we were out of earshot...
One of the teacher's at Ava's day care has recently taken to wearing a wig. (Wow, I would think that would be torture in this GA heat...) She is from Nigeria, I think. When Doug was dropping the kids off at school today, Ava said (while fortunately in the confines of our mini van) "look at Miss ____'s hair, it's crazy." Doug mentioned that we shouldn't ever mention anything like that to her, though.
By these comments, you probably think we sit around talking about people's physical appearance all day. Not the case! I think this stems from us bringing attention to Ava or Liam's hair after they wake up from a nap... we'll often say that Liam has "crazy hair". It's all in good fun, but obviously we need to pull the reigns back a little bit!
Yesterday at (Publix) grocery store, an older grocery store employee (a man) helped us to our van with our grocery bags. (A service Publix provides free of charge). I was carrying Liam, so the man pushed the cart in which Ava was sitting. After Ava, Liam and I were in the van, Ava said "why does that man have wrinkles on his face?" Plain as day. Her brain amazes me... I had to explain that that is what happen to everybody as we get older... wrinkles appear on our face. She responded with "But Mommy and Ava don't have wrinkles on our face." I had to respond with "Well, not yet." But secretly I was thinking THAT'S my girl! :-)
Peace, love and hair peace,
Doug, Shelly, Ava and Liam
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Since Daddy's Been Home...
Now that Doug is home more during the day, I thought I would share a few pictures of the fun he and the kids have together.
We're all thankful for this time he has to connect with the kids so much.
We're all thankful for this time he has to connect with the kids so much.
Peace, love and "Daddy-airplane rides",
Doug, Shelly, Ava and Liam
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
About a week ago, I read the book "I Love You More Than Rainbows" to Ava at bedtime. I think it's my favorite book I've read to her, yet. One page mentions catching the snow on your tongue, and letting the rain fall on your face. When we read those pages, Ava said "I want to do that!" I told her that the next time it rained, we would see if she could catch some rain.
Saturday we went out for ice cream. Just as we pulled into our sub-division, it started to downpour. It was raining so hard, we couldn't help but just watch it from our garage for a few minutes. I asked Ava if she wanted to try to catch some rain. She giddily agreed. So, with her shoes off anyway (this is the way she rolls... During any ride around town, the shoes come off of her and Liam both. Ugh!), she gingerly inched her way out into the rain. Before we knew it, she was jumping through puddles and splashing around. It was so fun to watch how genuinely happy she was at that moment, splashing around.
Doug, Liam and I stayed in the garage and watched her having such fun.
When we got back into the house 15 minutes later, she said "Thank you Mommy for letting me play in the rain." :-) Good times.
Catching rain...
Mid-jump. She looks suspended!
Doug and Liam in the garage...
A happy girl...
Peace, love and puddle-jumpers,
Saturday we went out for ice cream. Just as we pulled into our sub-division, it started to downpour. It was raining so hard, we couldn't help but just watch it from our garage for a few minutes. I asked Ava if she wanted to try to catch some rain. She giddily agreed. So, with her shoes off anyway (this is the way she rolls... During any ride around town, the shoes come off of her and Liam both. Ugh!), she gingerly inched her way out into the rain. Before we knew it, she was jumping through puddles and splashing around. It was so fun to watch how genuinely happy she was at that moment, splashing around.
Doug, Liam and I stayed in the garage and watched her having such fun.
When we got back into the house 15 minutes later, she said "Thank you Mommy for letting me play in the rain." :-) Good times.
Catching rain...
Mid-jump. She looks suspended!
Doug and Liam in the garage...
A happy girl...
Peace, love and puddle-jumpers,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Old-Fashioned Pictures
These pictures were taken in early May.
I joke that these are pretty authentic Civil War era pictures, as Liam looks like he is missing a hand in one of them.
I guess as an assistant of Robert E. Lee, you're bound to lose a hand to a shot from a cannonball sooner or later. ;-)
Peace, love and gunpowder,
Shelly, Doug, Ava Lou and Soldier Liam
I joke that these are pretty authentic Civil War era pictures, as Liam looks like he is missing a hand in one of them.
I guess as an assistant of Robert E. Lee, you're bound to lose a hand to a shot from a cannonball sooner or later. ;-)
Peace, love and gunpowder,
Shelly, Doug, Ava Lou and Soldier Liam
Liam is 11 Months
Liam is 11 months old!
I apologize for the garbled-look of this post. I am having some serious html coding issues. I need to research why it doesn't register when I try to hit "return" to space these entries properly...
WARNING – WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!
He continues to be our bee-charmer. He somehow knows exactly how to melt Mommy’s heart!
Right now he’s really vocal, trying to make his point to whoever will hear him. :0) He and Ava get into their cackling fits, where I have no idea what is so funny that they laugh that hysterically. I love to see how much they love each other. (Note to self: Refer to this post when they’re screaming at each other in the back seat of the mini van on road trips five years from now…)
He loves to play peek-a-boo. I crawl on the floor and back around the corners of the trunk in our living room (we use as a coffee table). He crawls after me so fast that I barely have time to back up and hide. He laughs the entire time. He has a little machine-gun rapid-fire laugh. It’s entirely too funny to hear. I need to catch it on video and put it on the blog.
Well I'm a monkey's uncle! :-) I couldn't pass up adding this picture. Hilarious! :)
Lately he has started clapping. He used to say “guh” if he wanted more of something, but I’m working on trying to teach him the sign for “more”. He ends up clapping, but it’s a step in the right direction. :0)
Liam is a big boy. He’s only a few lbs away from his sister, but I think he stretched up again lately. The doctor, at his nine month appointment, mentioned that we could start facing him forward in his car seat, because he is developmentally like a one year-old. When I see other babies that were born around his timeframe, I have to chuckle because Liam is SO. MUCH. BIGGER! Not that it is good or bad, it just IS. :-)
He is walking everywhere. He seldom loses his balance now and is getting FAST! He actually walked down the hallway at church on Sunday by himself, without holding onto my hand.
He is such a social creature. He does enjoy smiling at other people but will be shy at first and turn away from them, only to look right back at them while he smiles.
Sweet boy
He has three (and a half) teeth on top, with three on the bottom. Doug and I crack up, saying that he looks like he belongs in Monster’s Inc. (the cartoon movie) with three evenly spaced teeth on top.
Liam is a good sleeper. He goes down every night about 7:30 – 7:45 a.m. and sleeps until at least 7 a.m. every day.
He is on to “big people food” now. Loves green beans. Loves blueberries, oatmeal with spiced apples, holds a special place in his heart for his bottles (and still giggles whenever he knows one is on order). He got really picky about a week ago, chewing things up but spitting them out immediately. It was pretty frustrating. I think it might be a texture-thing. But as you can see, he’s not starving…
We took him to an allergist on Monday. They said he has a pretty sensitive respiratory system. He just always seemed to be congested. The doctors mentioned that he has been in once almost every month (or every two months) for congestion-related issues. They seem to prescribe steroids, etc, and kind of chastised me for not giving him the steroid more frequently. Knowing there is a link between Type 1 Diabetes and steroids, I really tend to shy away from wanting to give him steroids. Not that I want him to be sick, but I do want his body to be able to heal itself, and I at least want to give it a chance to heal itself (within reason, of course).
He also has REALLY BAD eczema. I found that eczema can often be caused by food allergies, thus the visit to the allergist. The allergist mentioned that the allergy medicine he prescribed for Liam will hopefully clear up the eczema and the congestion. I’m praying that it does. I just hate to treat the symptoms (with steroids and/or overmedicating) and not deal with the problem itself. So he’ll go back in 6-8 weeks to be assessed again and see if there have been improvements.
Sib love
More sib love...
Wanting to stand up for the monthly rocking chair shot... I promise I had just changed his diaper, although it doesn't look that way. :-)
For the month of June, we took the kids out of day care. It just didn’t seem to make sense to send them to school and incur added expenses when Doug is home and can watch them while I work. Talk about a role reversal! So far it has really worked out well. I do have to banish myself to the basement so that I can get work done while the kids roam free upstairs.
It was hard to pick the kids up on the last day of day care. Being that we don’t have family in the immediate area, they are our family of sorts. They threw a party for Ava on the last day, sent her off with a gift bag full of princess toys, etc, and some things for Liam, as well. Ava’s teacher made a little scrapbook full of pictures of the kids / teachers so Ava could remember the fun times they had together. When Doug went with the kids to pick-up the scrapbook yesterday, the day care director of the school pulled him aside and said they want to offer the kids a “scholarship” to come in two days a week, free of charge to us, through the remainder of the summer (through August 31st). Wow, talk about God working. This day care has been nothing but a blessing in our lives. That will give Doug the much-needed time to further search for a job and / or go on any interviews.
Speaking of, it’s been “slim-pickins” as far as jobs available down here. Please keep Doug in your prayers. We are “financially fine” with my paycheck if the kids aren’t in day care, fortunately. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Flywheel”, you’ll know that God doesn’t make these things happen coincidentally! (“Flywheel” is a movie that a church in Albany, GA did for their own local area. The message in the movie is powerful, although the budget for the movie was only $20,000, and it is on Amazon’s top sellers list now.) So it is during times like these that we realize how much God truly provides to us, for us. Amazing!
Monkey toes: Liam has his mama's monkey toes. I know this picture is blurry, but I just had to include it... His big toes look ike opposable thumbs! ;-) I think he could palm (or should I say "foot") a basketball with those things!
I was laughing while taking these pictures. "Attack of the 40-foot baby!!!!" Panic in the streets!
He loves to see what things will fit in different receptacles... Here he is pushing Ava's magic wand into her dollhouse windows.
Yep, my arm fits here...
Great picture for blackmail when he is - oh, about 17?
I know I’m mentioning a lot here, but I also wanted to mention this. Most of Doug’s potential work opportunities are coming through his network of friends / co-workers. He found a place about 40 minutes away (through an old college friend) that does medical office / dental office build-outs. They are a growing company and needed an architect to “stamp” their drawings. Because Doug is an R.A. (Registered Architect), he can do so. Doug met with them, showed them his portfolio and they let him know they would call him when they had any work for him. He drafted a sheet for the pricing he would charge to them. His numbers were lower than other architects charge who work with that company, from what I hear.
So Doug got his first call on Monday, asking him to look at 5 sheets of drawings and stamp them. He offered a certain dollar amount, but the guy came back (think fad Sunset Tan crazy-haired owner from the t.v. show) and told Doug he thinks he can pay Doug a higher dollar amount than what Doug asked for. So through that transaction, I think this guy knows that Doug is fair and not going to short-change him. This could eventually lead to Doug doing the actual drawings for projects (and then stamping them)…which could lead to more money / opportunity for him.
I apologize for the garbled-look of this post. I am having some serious html coding issues. I need to research why it doesn't register when I try to hit "return" to space these entries properly...
WARNING – WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD!
He continues to be our bee-charmer. He somehow knows exactly how to melt Mommy’s heart!
Right now he’s really vocal, trying to make his point to whoever will hear him. :0) He and Ava get into their cackling fits, where I have no idea what is so funny that they laugh that hysterically. I love to see how much they love each other. (Note to self: Refer to this post when they’re screaming at each other in the back seat of the mini van on road trips five years from now…)
He loves to play peek-a-boo. I crawl on the floor and back around the corners of the trunk in our living room (we use as a coffee table). He crawls after me so fast that I barely have time to back up and hide. He laughs the entire time. He has a little machine-gun rapid-fire laugh. It’s entirely too funny to hear. I need to catch it on video and put it on the blog.
Well I'm a monkey's uncle! :-) I couldn't pass up adding this picture. Hilarious! :)
Lately he has started clapping. He used to say “guh” if he wanted more of something, but I’m working on trying to teach him the sign for “more”. He ends up clapping, but it’s a step in the right direction. :0)
Liam is a big boy. He’s only a few lbs away from his sister, but I think he stretched up again lately. The doctor, at his nine month appointment, mentioned that we could start facing him forward in his car seat, because he is developmentally like a one year-old. When I see other babies that were born around his timeframe, I have to chuckle because Liam is SO. MUCH. BIGGER! Not that it is good or bad, it just IS. :-)
He is walking everywhere. He seldom loses his balance now and is getting FAST! He actually walked down the hallway at church on Sunday by himself, without holding onto my hand.
He is such a social creature. He does enjoy smiling at other people but will be shy at first and turn away from them, only to look right back at them while he smiles.
Sweet boy
He has three (and a half) teeth on top, with three on the bottom. Doug and I crack up, saying that he looks like he belongs in Monster’s Inc. (the cartoon movie) with three evenly spaced teeth on top.
Liam is a good sleeper. He goes down every night about 7:30 – 7:45 a.m. and sleeps until at least 7 a.m. every day.
He is on to “big people food” now. Loves green beans. Loves blueberries, oatmeal with spiced apples, holds a special place in his heart for his bottles (and still giggles whenever he knows one is on order). He got really picky about a week ago, chewing things up but spitting them out immediately. It was pretty frustrating. I think it might be a texture-thing. But as you can see, he’s not starving…
We took him to an allergist on Monday. They said he has a pretty sensitive respiratory system. He just always seemed to be congested. The doctors mentioned that he has been in once almost every month (or every two months) for congestion-related issues. They seem to prescribe steroids, etc, and kind of chastised me for not giving him the steroid more frequently. Knowing there is a link between Type 1 Diabetes and steroids, I really tend to shy away from wanting to give him steroids. Not that I want him to be sick, but I do want his body to be able to heal itself, and I at least want to give it a chance to heal itself (within reason, of course).
He also has REALLY BAD eczema. I found that eczema can often be caused by food allergies, thus the visit to the allergist. The allergist mentioned that the allergy medicine he prescribed for Liam will hopefully clear up the eczema and the congestion. I’m praying that it does. I just hate to treat the symptoms (with steroids and/or overmedicating) and not deal with the problem itself. So he’ll go back in 6-8 weeks to be assessed again and see if there have been improvements.
Sib love
More sib love...
Wanting to stand up for the monthly rocking chair shot... I promise I had just changed his diaper, although it doesn't look that way. :-)
For the month of June, we took the kids out of day care. It just didn’t seem to make sense to send them to school and incur added expenses when Doug is home and can watch them while I work. Talk about a role reversal! So far it has really worked out well. I do have to banish myself to the basement so that I can get work done while the kids roam free upstairs.
It was hard to pick the kids up on the last day of day care. Being that we don’t have family in the immediate area, they are our family of sorts. They threw a party for Ava on the last day, sent her off with a gift bag full of princess toys, etc, and some things for Liam, as well. Ava’s teacher made a little scrapbook full of pictures of the kids / teachers so Ava could remember the fun times they had together. When Doug went with the kids to pick-up the scrapbook yesterday, the day care director of the school pulled him aside and said they want to offer the kids a “scholarship” to come in two days a week, free of charge to us, through the remainder of the summer (through August 31st). Wow, talk about God working. This day care has been nothing but a blessing in our lives. That will give Doug the much-needed time to further search for a job and / or go on any interviews.
Speaking of, it’s been “slim-pickins” as far as jobs available down here. Please keep Doug in your prayers. We are “financially fine” with my paycheck if the kids aren’t in day care, fortunately. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Flywheel”, you’ll know that God doesn’t make these things happen coincidentally! (“Flywheel” is a movie that a church in Albany, GA did for their own local area. The message in the movie is powerful, although the budget for the movie was only $20,000, and it is on Amazon’s top sellers list now.) So it is during times like these that we realize how much God truly provides to us, for us. Amazing!
I love baby feet! Here is a picture of Liam's big ole sweet foot:
Monkey toes: Liam has his mama's monkey toes. I know this picture is blurry, but I just had to include it... His big toes look ike opposable thumbs! ;-) I think he could palm (or should I say "foot") a basketball with those things!
I was laughing while taking these pictures. "Attack of the 40-foot baby!!!!" Panic in the streets!
He loves to see what things will fit in different receptacles... Here he is pushing Ava's magic wand into her dollhouse windows.
Yep, my arm fits here...
Great picture for blackmail when he is - oh, about 17?
I know I’m mentioning a lot here, but I also wanted to mention this. Most of Doug’s potential work opportunities are coming through his network of friends / co-workers. He found a place about 40 minutes away (through an old college friend) that does medical office / dental office build-outs. They are a growing company and needed an architect to “stamp” their drawings. Because Doug is an R.A. (Registered Architect), he can do so. Doug met with them, showed them his portfolio and they let him know they would call him when they had any work for him. He drafted a sheet for the pricing he would charge to them. His numbers were lower than other architects charge who work with that company, from what I hear.
So Doug got his first call on Monday, asking him to look at 5 sheets of drawings and stamp them. He offered a certain dollar amount, but the guy came back (think fad Sunset Tan crazy-haired owner from the t.v. show) and told Doug he thinks he can pay Doug a higher dollar amount than what Doug asked for. So through that transaction, I think this guy knows that Doug is fair and not going to short-change him. This could eventually lead to Doug doing the actual drawings for projects (and then stamping them)…which could lead to more money / opportunity for him.
Keep this opportunity in your prayers. And Doug is on my insurance, dental, etc., so we haven’t had any hiccups as far as that is concerned. Oddly enough, we realized about a year ago that the best deal for insurance was with my employer, and Doug switched insurance companies to be covered under my policy. Looking back, it’s hard to think now that all of those things were coincidences…
We pray that this message finds all of you well, or as they put it at the Waffle House, “is everybody fat and happy?”
Peace, love and Liam-garble :-),
Doug, Shelly, “Ava Lou” and “Liam-ski”
We pray that this message finds all of you well, or as they put it at the Waffle House, “is everybody fat and happy?”
Peace, love and Liam-garble :-),
Doug, Shelly, “Ava Lou” and “Liam-ski”
Monday, June 01, 2009
Memorial Day at the Beach in Destin: 2009
Each Memorial Day weekend, we try to get away to the beach. It has become a tradition to meet up with Andy and Kathy Flanigan. We started this fun tradition pre-kids. We’ve since increased our party attendants by four little ones: Will Flanigan, Ava, Sophie Flanigan and Liam.
I love how happy Liam looks in this picture, with his big sister taking care of him:
You can see Liam's choppers in this picture, if you look closely:
Kiddos, 2009:
This year we rented a beach house in the Maravilla sub-division, in the eastern area of Destin. We had a great time! Andy and Doug are both without jobs right now, so this vacation was much needed. Andy found out he was losing his job the day before Doug found out, actually. Andy and Kathy are now starting off on a new adventure, during which Andy will do home renovations full-time and work for himself / themselves. We know they’ll both do very well in this venture!
Flanigans
Flanigans
Andy and Kathy were originally planning on looking at real estate a week before Memorial Day (before learning that Andy was losing his job), so they had booked the beach house for the whole week leading up to Memorial Day. We were planning on arriving on Friday night and staying three nights. Andy and Kathy offered to let us come early, considering that we were no longer bound by Doug’s work schedule. So, we got footloose and carefree and decided to leave town early on Tuesday instead of Friday. We really needed the get-away and enjoyed our time with their family.
It rained most days we were there, but it always cleared up enough for us to get to either the pool or hit the beach every day at least once. Somehow in Florida the rain storms never last too long!
Ava was a little apprehensive of the waves at first, this year. Somewhere around Friday, though, she really learned to appreciate the waves. By Saturday we couldn’t tear her away from the waves! I was really glad to see that she was enjoying the ocean. She loved to jump over each wave as it rolled into shore. She even picked up a few creatures that Kathy found in seashells. :-)
Liam’s first experience at the ocean was spent in a stroller and covered with a blanket. I think he slept the entire time he was there! His next outing to the ocean was spent playing in the sand, and putting a sand shovel in his mouth. He liked to splash in a nice-sized puddle of water (on the beach but about 50 feet from the waves) and touch the sand.
A sidenote: Liam has really started to walk fast! He seldom crawls anymore, and prefers to walk wherever he goes. Lately he is becoming so much more vocal, too. When he wants something from you, he will say “Guh!”. He continues to be Mr. Easy-To-Please and seems so content.
Thanks, as always, to the Flanigans for a fun and memorable Memorial Day weekend!
Peace, love and castles in the sand,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam
Ava was a little apprehensive of the waves at first, this year. Somewhere around Friday, though, she really learned to appreciate the waves. By Saturday we couldn’t tear her away from the waves! I was really glad to see that she was enjoying the ocean. She loved to jump over each wave as it rolled into shore. She even picked up a few creatures that Kathy found in seashells. :-)
Liam’s first experience at the ocean was spent in a stroller and covered with a blanket. I think he slept the entire time he was there! His next outing to the ocean was spent playing in the sand, and putting a sand shovel in his mouth. He liked to splash in a nice-sized puddle of water (on the beach but about 50 feet from the waves) and touch the sand.
A sidenote: Liam has really started to walk fast! He seldom crawls anymore, and prefers to walk wherever he goes. Lately he is becoming so much more vocal, too. When he wants something from you, he will say “Guh!”. He continues to be Mr. Easy-To-Please and seems so content.
Thanks, as always, to the Flanigans for a fun and memorable Memorial Day weekend!
Peace, love and castles in the sand,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam
More pictures:
I love how happy Liam looks in this picture, with his big sister taking care of him:
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