Bad Durkheim

Last weekend, Bryce had Sunday off work so we decided to go to Bad Durkheim after church. We left at around 4pm and took two of Bryce's work friends with us. We had a lot of fun and Ava was great the whole time. Bad Durkheim wine fest is the largest wine fest in the world and draws more than 600,000 visitors each year. It is HUGE! We spent 4 hours there and I don't think we covered the whole thing.

Biggest iron skillet I have ever seen!

Ava road on her first ride!!

I think I had more fun than she did! ;)

Best. Dad. EVER!!

This picture was taken back in 2010 when we went to the festival for the first time. You can read about our first experience here . It is HUGE!!! 

Ava is 11 months old!

I am way behind on blogging! I even forgot to take Ava's 11 month pictures yesterday...I think its because I am in denial... How can it possibly be that she is going to be 1 YEAR OLD in a month? It blows my mind. People say "It's time for another one". But really, I just want MY Ava to be little again and stay little forever. I know its selfish to say I don't want to love another one but I want to just love Ava and spoil her. Don't get me wrong, I do want more kids but right now, I am content with just loving my little girl and giving her all my love. Well, most of my love anyway...Bryce get a little bit of it, too! ;)

Back on subject..

Ava, you are 11 months old!!! Am I really typing those words? It makes me want to cry!!

Is she not the cutest? I just die!

At your WIC appointment a couple of weeks ago, you weighed 15 pounds 4 ounces and were 26 1/2 inches long. (Both >5%)

You still wear 6 month clothes and some 9 month. Unfortunately, you weren't able to wear many of your cute summer clothes because they were either too big or it was just too cold. It never got above 90 degrees this summer and it usually stayed in the 70s most days.

You wear a size 1 shoe and sometimes a size 2 depending on the brand. Your feet are finally growing! We just moved you to a size 3 diaper since we ran out of size 2. They are still a little big but they still work! :)

You nurse 4 times a day and eat at every meal. Not much has changed since last month. You still eat oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast, cut up lunch meat, a veggie, cheese, bread, and a fruit for lunch, and a jar of a meat and veggie and cut up fruit for dinner.

You go to bed at 8pm and wake up anywhere between 8am and 9am. You still take 2 naps a day that are two hours each.

You are a talker and you talk from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. You haven't said any new words yet but we are working on it.

You have 4 teeth now!

This is how most of the pictures turned out. Its impossible to keep this girl still for a picture. I was bribing her with cheerios (hence the cheerio in her mouth).

You are cruisin' so fast now.  You can walk across furniture and stand on your own for about 10-15 seconds. I kind of got you to take your first step yesterday but I am not counting it as a step. I was helping you walk and then I let go and you took another step then lowered yourself back to the ground.

You are so scared of dogs. I have no idea what the deal is. You used to like dogs but all of the sudden, you have become scared of them. I hope you get over this real fast because your daddy wants a dog when we get back to the states.

She is done!

We got you a tooth brush a few days ago and its your new favorite chew toy.

You love to "read" books by yourself. You flip the pages and move your finger along the words and pictures and make sounds like you are "reading". Its too cute.

You are the FUNNIEST baby I have ever met! And I am not the only one that says that.

You love giving your toys and your bunny kisses.

You are a genius!!  You get that from your daddy. This morning, your daddy was using the controls to change the channel on the tv and you would look at the controls and back at the tv and you had another controller in your hand and you would push the buttons then look at the tv. It was like you knew what you were doing.

You get SO excited when daddy is around. When I get you out of bed in the mornings, you immediately call for Dada. You LOVE to wrestle with him on our bed. When Bryce gets his uniform on, you immediate start waving your hand and saying Dada. You know its time for him to go to work.

Lately, you have been chocking yourself on purpose. You will stick your fingers down your throat to choke yourself. I don't know WHY you do this!! I have had to thump your little hand a few times but you will just look at me and giggle. Crazy girl! I guess I don't have strong enough fingers!!

You are great at playing by yourself. You could play for hours on the floor by yourself if we let you!

One last good one.

These last 11 months have been a JOY!!! I don't know what we ever did without you, Ava Drew. It makes me SO sad when I think about you growing up! I want to keep you little FOREVER!! But I am also excited to see you grow and explore new things. We love you Ava Drew!!!!

Wine Fest, Flea Market, and Vitamix

Bryce had Thursday and Friday off so we went to a Wine Festival on Friday in a small town about 45 minutes away. It was very small but really fun. I had the BEST wine cocktail ever!!! I am not a big wine drinker but man, it was delicious!

Silly girl already ripped her bow off! She did great at the festival! She always does great around a bunch of people. She was waving and smiling at everyone that passed by!

We got there a little early before a lot of people got there. Before we left, there were a ton of people there.

This was our food! Mine was a pepperoni pizza...or so I thought. This pizza had real peppers on it. Not sure what kind. It wasn't that bad though. Bryce got a piece of garlic toast! It was SO good! We split our food!

This is how they serve wine at wine festivals.

 Going back a day..on Thursday.. we were out and about so we stopped by the BX to look around. There was a lady there giving a presentation over the Vitamix blender. Have you heard of it? It isn't JUST a blender. It can make ice cream, soup...yes, soup!, baby food, peanut butter, crushed ice, smoothies (seriously, the best smoothies), salsa...anything!! We were convinced to get one. I had been looking for a blender for awhile but didn't want to get one that wasn't good. I have a friend that has a Vitamix and she loves it so I already had my eye on it.. the thing holding me back? The price. It has a HIGH price tag!! WAY more than I would EVER pay! Well, we got $100 off the blender from the sales add and our military card. So, we were convinced...

Was it worth it? I can't tell yet. We have used it about 10 times since we bought it and it has only been 2 days. I have made ice cream, smoothies, and chicken salad. I plan on making my own peanut butter soon! So far...I LOVE IT!!!!


Today, there were several Flea Markets going on around the area and I found a few things! I have been looking for a walking toy for Ava for awhile but haven't found one for a reasonable price. This one is in good shape and was only 7 euro. Ava loves it!

I also scored these little shoes. They are brand new and I have had a really hard time finding good shoes that are small enough for Ava. She still wears a size 1 and its hard to find shoes she can walk in that are that small.

I have had a thing for baskets lately. The small one was free from the Airman's attic and the big one was only 3 euro at the Flea Market. (The Airman's attic is a store on base where people donate items and Airman can go and take anything they want for free. Airman are the young-ins in the Air Force...aka poor ones!! ha!) And yes, these are in my bathtub (classy, right?)...you never know how dirty a basket is until you start to clean it.

Watermark

I have a small blog. Why would I worry about someone stealing my pictures and using them as their own?

I never thought it would happen to me. Well, apparently I was wrong. It did happen to me. Some of my Paris pictures were stolen. They were put on someone else's blog and they used them as their own. 

It may sound like I am selfish...caring about people taking my pictures. What if Ava's pictures were stolen and someone tried to display them as their own child?? That is what I worry about. So? I will now watermark all of my photos. 

I know, I know...it kind of ruins the picture. But if it saves me from having some pictures of Ava stolen, I will do it. 

Ava is 10 months old!

Ava you are 10 months old! Only two more months until your first birthday! I need to start planning!

Its impossible to keep you still for a picture these days.

As of two weeks ago, you weigh 14 pounds 2 ounces (0%) and you are 26 inches long (4%). Head circumference is 43 cm. 

You wear 6/6-9 month clothing and some 9 month stuff. You haven't been able to wear most of your cute 9 month summer clothes because they are all still a little big and it isn't warm enough to wear them! :( You wear a size 2 diaper and a size 1 shoe.

You nurse 4 times a day and eat at every meal. For breakfast, you have oatmeal with strawberries. For lunch, you usually have turkey, bread with peanut butter on it, cheese, a veggie and fruit. For dinner, I try to give you something that I have fixed along with bread, cheese, veggie and fruit. You are now an independent eater. You don't like me feeding you baby food anymore. You are a pro at the sippy cup! You can also drink from a straw. 

You are a great sleeper. You go to bed at 8pm and wake up at 9am. You take two naps a day. They range from 45 minutes to 2 hours each. 

You can wave hi and bye bye, clap your hands, open and close doors, turn pages in books (you have been doing this for several months). You can say hi, bye-bye, ma-ma, da-da, and okay (sounds like "ah keyy"). You understand commands like "come here" and "no no". 

You are walking along the furniture now and can stand alone for a few seconds but as soon as you realize you are doing it, you lower yourself down to the floor slowly. 

You LOVE books and will choose to look at books over playing with toys any day! You flip the pages and try to talk so it looks like you are actually trying to read the book. Its so cute!! You love giving your stuffed animals kisses but you refuse to give your mommy and daddy kisses...

You still don't have much hair but we are hoping it will start to really come in soon! You finally got your first tooth this month!! You have been really fussy the past couple of days so I wouldn't be surprised if another one decided to pop out soon.

You never stop moving! You are constantly crawling, standing, or pulling up on things. We constantly have to keep an eye on you because you are always getting into things you aren't supposed to.

Here you are at 1,5, and 10 months old.

We love you so much Ava and can't imagine our lives without you. You have been a joy and we love you more than you will ever know!!!

London 2012: Part 4

This is my last post for our London trip... I know you must be sad! ha!

Our last full day in London was one of my favorites. We took a train to the Windsor Castle. More than 500 people live and work in the Windsor Castle. That makes it the largest inhabited castle in the world. The Windsor Castle is a venue for hosting state visits and the Queen stays there over the weekends. We were there on a Sunday so the Queen was there when we were. Unfortunately we didn't get to see her but it was neat knowing she was there. 




Photo Credit: wikipedia 

This is the view of the whole castle. It is like a small city. It is HUGE!

One thing I loved about the castle is that it wasn't really old looking. Most of the castles we have been to haven't been lived in for century's. This one was very clean and looked fairly new... even though it wasn't.

We got to take a tour of the castle. Our first tour was of Queen Mary's Doll House. The Doll House was made in the 1920's and completed in 1924. The Doll House was given to Queen Mary as a gift from family. Artists and craftsmen contributed to the doll house. The plates in the dining room were made of real silver and the crowns were made of real diamonds. The pictures were all hand painted by artists. The house is over 3 feet tall. It was amazing!

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

After we saw the doll house, we visited a picture gallery of the queen in celebration of the Jubilee.

Then, we got to see the castle. We saw the dining room, meeting room (where the queen meets people), and a few other rooms. It was really neat!! No pictures were allowed inside the castle.

Cutest. Town. Ever!

This is where the Queen was!

This is the chapel and the Queen attended earlier that morning and if we would have gotten their earlier, we could have attended church with her!

We just had to get another picture with the guard.

After we left the Windsor Castle, we headed to Wimbledon to see the tennis courts and where the Olympics will be held. We walked around the entire town twice trying to find this thing. Finally we figured it out and got there and figured out it was closed. Oh well. It was neat to see it from the outside.

This little girl was eating up all the attention she was getting on the train.

After Wimbledon, we headed to a music exhibit where people could play all different kinds of instruments. This was Bryce's idea. He is the musician in the family. It was fun though. It took us forever to find a place to eat and we finally settled on Jimmy's World Grill. It was a buffet on crack. They had everything you could imagine. Just like any buffet, it wasn't that impressive. The dessert was good...that's about it.

After we ate, we headed back to our hotel to get packed up to leave early the next morning. On our way home, Bryce wanted to go to another castle that was about 30 minutes away. The castle was on the Rhine River and it was beautiful.

This little girl was so tired from our long trip.

 Beautiful drive to the castle!

Beautiful, right?

The Rhine River

This big girl was SO glad to be home!