Playing in the Leaves

So this past weekend, Miss Ava wanted to rake up some leaves and jump in a pile of them. She must have heard about this fall fun activity at school and could barely wait to try it out for herself. So on Sunday - we played in some leaves :)







As you can see, a good time was had by all involved :)

In other news -- Ava had the swine flu vaccination on Monday. She did a very good job and so far is not showing any side effects whatsoever. I am thrilled I was able to get her a shot when they first became available in the area -- with her immune system issues and the asthma, I just didn't want to take a chance.

We have a busy day tomorrow. Ava has her Halloween party at school and then tomorrow evening is Wheeling's Trick or Treat. Originally I was kind of miffed at them holding Trick or Treat on Thursday since Halloween fell on a Saturday. But considering the weather report for the next few days I am absolutely thrilled it's tomorrow. Should be a beautiful fall evening and PERFECT for begging for candy from total strangers :)


We got Booed! last night :) Not in a "we suck" kind of way - but as a fun little game in the neighborhood. We now get to Boo 3 more of our neighbors, so the girls and I will be doing that this evening. I already have plenty of treats sitting around the house - so watch out if you live in our neighborhood - you might get Booed! :)

A good blogger - I am not!

So...I have to be the worst blogger on the planet, right? I think between just life in general and ttrying to keep my profiles updated everywhere on the net - this poor blog has always ended up as an afterthought. Well - I do intend to keep this up more often (how many times have I said that!) So here is an update for those who are still interested!

After my blog post about our vacation in May, I was informed that due to current economic conditions, I was going to be let go from Ogden Newspapers. As a privately held company, they have no regulatory requirement to have an auditor on staff. My position was considered to be "frosting" if you will, and thus - I was out. Thankfully, through my hard work in building a strong professional network, I was able to explore an opportunity with a compant in the Gaming Industry. I am now the Senior Internal Auditor for MTR Gaming, Inc. They are publicly traded and own Mountaineer Casino in Chester, WV (where I am based) as well as Presque Isle Downs in Erie, and Scioto Downs in Columbus, OH. I am very happy with how things worked out and it's just another lesson in having faith.

So with that out of the way - let's update you on what you really want to hear about - the kiddos!!!

Ella - Turned one on June 12th. I cannot believe for the life of me that my little sweet baby girl is one. One!!! She's an unbelievable blessing to us and is so full of energy and happiness. She's been walking now for awhile, but really has gotten her feet under her and is FAST! :) She's also a climber and we regularly find her on top of things that you would never a million years think she could climb on top of. She even can climb our flight of stairs! She's a talker, much like her mama and big sister and says all kinds of words now - though it's still mostly babble. My personal favorite is "Wow". She could say that all day and I would never get tired of hearing it. She also loves to give hugs and kisses and says "awwww" right before she's about to give you some love ;)


Ava - Will be turning 4 this month. This is also unbelievable to me. Where on earth did my little baby go? She's such a little girl now and amazes me every day just being herself :) She's started a new pre-school...sadly her former school closed its doors in June, so she's at a new school, but with the teachers she would have had at the other school :) She is in the summer program right now, but officially - her first Day of Pre-Kindergarten (actually through the County School System) is on Monday August, 31st. Tough day for Mommy!! She's having a Cinderella Party for her birthday at Recreation Station in Washington,PA. We are all busy planning that and she is really SO excited. I love how excited she is!

Other than that - we are all doing well. Phil's been working hard at the Post Office as usual and attempting to keep up with the yard. He is eagerly anticipating football season just around the corner :)

I will leave you with some pictures:

Ava as a flower girl in June







Ava and Ella at a picnic in June



Ella and Daddy on her 1st Birthday:



Ella at her Bday Party

Vacation, Vacation!

So we’re back from Florida. We had an amazing time! It rained, literally, every.single.day we were down there, but we were able to still do a lot have a lot of fun despite the rain. We loved our resort, and the girls had a lot of fun playing in the pools and playing mini-golf. We also got to go to Disney for two days and Universal Studios for a day and had a blast at both. Ava LOVED the Magic Kingdom, and we can’t wait to take her back (hopefully it’s a little drier next time). We got to go to the beach and visit with my dad. I miss him, as he lives in central Florida and we don’t get to visit with each other that much. I think he had a good time with the girls though and we had a lot of fun with him!

My Ella Bella Boo got her 2nd tooth when we were down there. Amazingly she wasn’t too terrible fussy with it. Its her top front tooth on the left side. Ava was sweet as sugar most of the time we were down there, despite the boo boo that she got chasing birds at Disney World. She talked about the boo boo all week and I am sure she will be talking about it for weeks to come! Ha ha

I think that is it for us for us for now. I leave you with a few pictures. If you are on Facebook, I posted an entire album there.

Long Time, No Blog

Hey everyone! I am SO sorry that I have been behind in catching up here. I think everyone understands between life with a baby and toddler, you tend to be a bit scatterbrained and the unfortunate result is that my blog has been neglected. Hopefully many of you have been keeping up with us on Facebook. I do try and get up-to-date pictures on there. It's not that great for a real update though - so I fully intend to keep this updated from now on :) Keep in my mind I wrote "intend" for a reason! ha ha

So what's up in our world.....

Miss Ava is 3 1/2 going on 13. She is sassy and hysterical all at the same time. You never, and I mean NEVER know what is going to come out of her mouth next. She doesn't miss a thing and has a real desire to educate herself. We've heard from countless friends, families, and strangers how smart she is, and we tend to agree. She is ours, after all :) She will be starting a new school soon. Her former school is unfortunately closing its doors (makes me SO sad) so we are starting her at Easter Seals here in Wheeling. She will be in daycare over the summer, and then will begin the Universal Pre-K Program through Ohio County Schools in the fall. My baby is growing up. I can't even believe it....

Miss Ella (or Ella Bella Boo as we call her) turned 11 months old on Monday. To say that I am in denial is an understatement. I refuse to accept that my little baby is almost 1. But of course, no amount of my denial will stop the inevetable and my littlest monkey will turn 1 on June 12th. She has had so many milestones recently: she took her first steps a few weeks ago within days of getting her first tooth (bottom left). She still prefers the crawl to walking (and why wouldn't she - she is FAST!) and she is totally a climber. Climbs on anything and everything. She should be getting another tooth any day now (top left). She claps now when she's excited and has the cutest little wave when you tell her "hi" or "bye". She can say mama, dada, and "hi". She's the sweetest little thing and we can't remember life without her!

As for what else is going on - Phil and I staying busy with work and general summer maintenance around the house. We recently got a Jacuzzi hot tub, and are working on getting the lanscaping done around it. I will definately post pictures here when the project is all done.


We are leaving for vacation TOMORROW!!! We are heading to Florida and are visiting Summer Bay Resort. We desperately need the vacation and are looking forward to visiting the beach and disney, etc. Ava is PSYCHED about it and has been counting down the days since January. We have a 1 BR condo, and it looks SUPER nice on the website, so let's hope its the same in person! Oh - and keep your fingers crossed the kids sleep ok while we are gone :)

That's enough to catch you up for now. Thanks for sticking with us and come back soon. I will me posting more