Ava Update

Hi all,

Just an update on our almost-15-month old today. She is growing like crazy now! She says "Mama, Papa, wuff-wuff, hi, bye-bye, oo-oo ah-ah (monkey sound), no, no, no, no and more no. She says it all the time!

She has taken up to about 6 steps at a time, but she's still pretty cautious about it. She has, however, 3 dance moves now, so I'm hoping that she starts walking more in the next few weeks so she can bust them out at the weddings we are going to!

My other favorite things she is doing now is giving hugs upon request. And she will pat your back (or her stuffed animals) when she hugs you. She will also follow simple directions to hand us things, or put things in a container. It's so fun to realize that she understands so much of what we say.

This is a picture of her post-ponytail hair Snuggle time with Papa

Working on her "new" computer (our old laptop. She loves pounding on it!)

Trying on her bike helmet. She loved it! :0)

The NUMBERED Cottage

Whew!

It's been a long time! Long story short, I'm starting a small business, so projects and blogging (and lawn mowing as you will soon see) have been on hold. BUT I'm really excited about this post, because although the exterior of our house could use a lot of work, we did an upgrade this past month that really makes a big impact on our "curb appeal".

Behold: The "before" front of our house: (creepy stalkers and burglars note that we don't have anything of interest in our house, so ignore the house number). Note the sticker house numbers. For Christmas I asked for these FABULOUS house numbers. They can be found at Home Depot, but interestingly not at their website. It's like a wonderful insiders secret!

Mr. Wonderful did all of the work to put these up. I will tell you that he used some caulk-type stuff to secure the numbers, and then used the tape to hold them in place until it set. I got to enjoy the job of scraping off the ancient sticker numbers that were on our door frame. Let me tell you that Goo Gone did not really work on these suckers. Mostly just elbow grease and some scrapes in the paint on the metal door frame.

Much prettier! I love how modern and clean the numbers look. And much more readable. I would also love to paint the front steps and then paint the house number on the front steps too. Mr. Wonderful says we should worry about the exterior NEXT summer. He's probably right!

Also I changed out the flowers in my wreath to match the ones in the coffeepot on the front steps. Less cluttery that way, I think.