A whirlwind week of vacation and cars

It seems like so long ago that we started our vacation. Our plans for this week off were to go to LA for Mike's sisters wedding and then relax. That is not exactly how it went. We were going to leave for LA last Friday morning at 3 am in hopes of getting Ava to sleep for a majority of the ride. That went out the window when Mike came home from work on Thursday and said, "do you want to leave for LA in an hour?" If you know anything about me, I am not spontaneous. I need to get my head ready for things, but out of my mouth came, "yes", so we finished the last minute packing and off we went. Ava feel asleep within minutes of getting in the car and slept for about an hour. It was good and bad. Since we were really prepared, I didn't have anything for dinner and because Ava slept, we didn't want to stop until she woke up, which put us having to wait to get to Quartzsite to eat (2 hours out of Phx). I was starving. We stopped for some McDonald's and off we went. It took Ava a while to fall back asleep, but eventually around 8:30, she fell asleep until we got there at 10 pm. I thought that we would get the pac 'n' play set up and put her down. WRONG! She immediately started crying as I was putting in the pac 'n' play. I guess I understand. She is my curious observer and needs to check everything out. It was a strange place and strange noises and a strange bed. So I got her up and let her see the house, say hi to everyone there and play for a bit. Finally about 11:30, Mike and I were exhausted and we all went to bed. It didn't go easy, but after about 15 minutes of telling her that it was ok and it was nite, nite time, she finally fell asleep. Because we threw a wrench in the plans, Susan and Troy had to sleep on an air mattress out in the living room as all the kids, except nancy, were staying at his mom's house Thursday night. That ended up being a good thing as Ava loved playing on the mattress. Below is the only pictures that I got on this vacation. They are of Ava and her cousin Marie-Claire.

Ava didn't know what to think about her. She mostly didn't like the fact that Marie-Claire had no problem taking something that Ava had in her hands. Being that Ava isn't around a lot of kids, she doesn't really know what to do when that happens. It was cute!.

So my camera... Before we left, I charged everything and not even thinking about it, I left the battery charger at home. As soon as I opened the camera the first day to take pictures, the low battery light came on. I didn't understand, but the more I thought about it, I realized that I just charged it about less than a week ago. The charge shouldn't go that fast, so I am guessing that it is time for a new camera :( That is just one more expense that we need, right?

On Friday was the rehearsal and dinner. We had a nice mexican dinner and headed home to bed as we were really tired from the late night the night before.

Saturday we decided to go and visit Mike's dad in his new house in Simi Valley. We hung out there for the afternoon and enjoyed a nice BBQ thanks to Mike's dad. Ava really enjoyed the stairs. If there are stairs in a house, that is where Ava is going to spend her time, as well as mommy and daddy. She thinks she is a big girl and she tries to walk down without holding on.

Sunday was the wedding. We had to go to get pictures taken at 3pm. The wedding started at 5pm and dinner was around 7:30pm. It was a beautiful ceremony and the bride was beautiful. Too bad I didn't have a camera to take one picture. I am hoping to get some pictures today, so I will post once I get some. When we went to get in the car to leave, the check engine light came on. Well, there went our plans for Monday. We had to find a dealership to bring it into because I didn't want to drive all the way home not knowing if we were going to make it. Since we had been there we had noticed a grumble in the front of the car at low speeds, so we kinda new something was wrong. So Monday, we took it to the dealership and $400 later for the diagnostic, they said that the all wheel drive gear was out and some hoses needed to be replaced. They assured us that we would be fine to drive home as the parts wouldn't be there until Tuesday. So we drove home and Mike took it to the dealership Wednesday morning. Yes indeed, it was the all wheel drive unit and some hoses as well as needing new brakes. The cost:$3200. Yikes. They said they also didn't know if the all wheel drive unit had affected the transmission and they wouldn't know that until they were in there to replace it. The cost to replace the transmission: $5500. Now you are talking about repairs that are more than the car is worth. It is 6 years old, we bought it new and has 172,000 miles on it. We have been talking about getting a new car for a while now as I am paranoid that our cars are getting old and not reliable with 2 babies in them. Mike LOVED his Volvo and did not want to give it up. If it were up to him, he would replace everything and drive it forever. The costs just kept adding up though. So, we decided not to fix it and buy a car. And that is just what we did. We bought a new 2010 Honda CRV EX-L.

I really love it. We did it through Costco pricing, so we feel like we got a really good deal and because it was the end of the month, they kept slashing the price to get us to buy on Thursday. That was find by us. I will drive this now and Mike will drive my Saab. I will be sad to part with her, but will be able to drive it on the weekends. Mike was really sad to get rid of the Volvo. He said it felt like a breakup. He couldn't talk about it the night we bought the car, but I think he is ok now. It was really sad. That is when I realized that I don't think I will ever be able to sell this house. Thinking about how hard it was to say good-bye to a car we had for 6 years, I don't think I will be able to say good-bye to the house that our kids were born in and will be growing up in.

A week of stuff

What have we been up to? Well, it all started on Thursday morning when Mike went golfing with his boss and some big wigs from his company. Crazy, right? It was supposed to be 112 degrees that day and Mike doesn't do well in the heat, but he managed to survive. He then headed to an appt in Glendale. On his way home, his car died!!!! It was almost rush hour and it was 112 degrees and he was sitting on the side of the freeway. AHHH! I was freaked out. This is my worst nightmare, well not exactly, but close. I had to stop Ava from eating dinner and rush in the car to go and get him. He thought that he ran out of gas, so I had to get him, get gas and bring him back. That didn't work. We had to get it towed. It was a dead battery coupled with being out of gas. Question: for someone who insists on having 4 big bins of emergency food and a 75 gallon thing of water stored away in case of an national disaster, how does he run out of gas being a sales man???? I don't know. I am just as perplexed as you. At least it didn't happen on our way to LA, which we are leaving for on Friday morning, bright and early (3am).

We went to a pool party on Saturday. It was equally as hot on Saturday. I thought the pool felt good, since it was so hot outside. If you weren't in the pool, though, you had to be inside. It was just too hot. I am ready for the summer to be over. I know that I have at least 2 more months of this heat and then at least it won't still be 100 degrees at night or like this morning, it was 95 degrees at 5am with a 35% humidity.
On Sunday, Ava was practicing her yoga. On one of her videos, they do yoga. If you ask her to do yoga, this is what you get.....

It's her downward dog and I can't remember the name of the first one. Daddy was doing it with her.

On Mike's golf outing, one of the bosses gave Mike a golf club (I should know which kind, but I don't) for working so hard. He was stoked and so was Ava to play with it.

I was afraid of her hurting something, but she did fine.

As I said, we are getting ready to go to LA on Friday. I am dreading the drive. It is 6 hours and Ava doesn't like to sit in her car seat. I am hoping she will sleep or at least be quiet for the first 3 hours. About 3 to 3 1/2 hours in there is a rest stop with a restaurant. We plan to stop and have breakfast and let her run around a bit and then get back on the road. That is when the fun will begin. I will probably have to sit in the back and read book after book after book after book. Can you see how enthused I am??? I am going to bring my portable DVD player and play her videos, which aren't long, but I am going to try. I don't know how she will do with them for 2 reasons. 1) she loves to dance to them, so I am afraid that she is going to get fussy to get out of her car seat and dance. 2) she loves to touch electronic devices and I think she is going to spend the time trying to and succeeding to push all the buttons. So we will see. Only time will tell. I have already started packing and was hoping to have most of it done this weekend, but know I will have last minute things to do on Wednesday and Thursday.

I finally had to suck it up and buy some maternity close this weekend. It was a matter of one week and things that used to fit, don't. I want to be comfortable and look presentable in LA, so I went to get some new things. I went through my old maternity clothes, but it was just that, old. I didn't have a lot of summer stuff. I think I wore a lot of dresses last summer. I know I wore a lot of long ones, which just don't seem appealing to me in this heat this year. I didn't want to just get the next size up in clothes, because then it doesn't fit in other areas and maternity pants are just so darn comfortable. I bought a couple of "grow with me/after me" shirts, as I like to call them. They work now, although about a month too big, but will also be nice after I give birth. Last time, I wore a lot of tight shirts to show off my belly, but after the baby is born, not so cute. So this time I am getting more prepared. There are not a lot of places to shop for pregnant woman. There is Motherhood maternity, Gap maternity and Target. Other than that, there is the destination maternity in Scottsdale, which is one big store of 3 stores put together. It has motherhood maternity, pea in a pod and one other. They have good stuff too, but some of it is really expensive. I like Gap the best and Target and Motherhood are good for basic tops.

Tour de France and 12 weeks along

Well, it's that time of the year, the Tour de France. It is my favorite time of the year. It is an odd obsession of mine. I don't ride bikes, but love to watch the tour and since this will be Lance Armstrong's last tour, it is even better this year than ever. He isn't doing so well this year. Bad day 3 on the cobblestones with a flat tire put him into 18th place, (over 3 mins behind the leader). The mountain stages started today and he moved up to 14th place, but lost some time. That's ok, there are still 2 more days in the Alps and then towards the end of the tour there will be 3 or 4 days in the Pyrenees. That is where he will have to make his move. Anyway, here is Ava one morning watching the Tour with me. She just sat down and put her arms behind her head and I had to get a picture....

Sleep has still been an issue for Ava. I have given up trying to figure it out. She had 3 nights that she slept all the way through the night and then woke up the next night for about an hour. I had to sleep on the floor for about 40 mins and keep telling her shhh, nite nite time. Eventually she settled and I snuck out. She woke 10 mins later and I went by her door, but didn't let her see me and said the same thing and she went right back down. Her daytime naps are about one hour and 15 mins except for today. Today she took 2 hour and 45 min nap!!!! I have never seen her do that. Mike just asked me if she is ok and I said that I heard movement about 15 mins ago. So I just give up. I am finding that putting her for her first nap earlier, when she is first showing signs of being tired helps. If I keep her up in hopes of tiring her and getting a longer nap, like yesterday, she takes a "snap" (short nap). Her usual is 1 1/2 hours.

Here is a picture of her mad face. I kept asking her to smile and she just wouldn't, but so cute!

Ava and daddy...

She is starting to say a lot more words or at least beginning of words. She says "uuuu" for up now. We are trying to get her to say words more vs just telling her what everything is. We are branching out on foods. We gave her broccoli the other day for the first time (probably because I don't like it, I never gave it to her) and she LOVED it. She really loves all green veggies. She is really enjoying meat too. We made meatballs last week and she loved it. I have been making her a lot of frozen lunches, Healthy choice, etc,.. for her and she loves the chicken in them and the veggies, but usually passes on the pasta. She loves rice and couscous. We went to Chipotle the other weekend and she had some rice, well, when you eat with your hands, she had what made it into her mouth, the rest ended up on the floor. I cleaned it up, because I think it is embarrassing when people's kids make a mess and they just leave it.

I hit 12 weeks on Friday. This pregnancy seems to be dragging on. Here is a picture of me..I have a Buddha belly for sure. I have been eating a lot this pregnancy. I pretty much eat every 2 hours. It seems to keep the nausea at bay and I just feel better. When I eat big meals, that is when I don't feel so good, so I try to eat small things all day long. I am taking advantage of this pregnancy in the sense of food as I know this will be the last time I will eat a lot of these foods. Back to healthy eating after baby #2. I usually have some sort of goodies around the house:) Besides being tired and moody, things are going well.

Play area at the Chandler Mall

Yesterday morning, I decided that I was going to get out with Ava in the morning. I thought it would be fun to play at the kids play area at the Chandler Mall. So we packed up and headed over there at 8am. When I got there, the maintenance crew was fixing the lights above it and it was CLOSED! I was so mad. I finally was feeling well enough to get out and do something with Ava. At first he said they wouldn't be done until 10 am in which I replied "are you serious, I just wanted to get out of the house and the heat". Then he said a half and hour. So we walked the upper level of the mall and then the lower level and when I got back, he said another half hour in which I replied, "dude, you're killing me." Another couple showed up with their grandchildren and they were upset too. So we walked another loop upstairs. Well, after an hour, we were finally able to get in. Ava had a blast. All the other kids started showing up around 9:15ish. She loved this butterfly below.

Then she would run to the ladybug and pat it's head and say "buuuuu", which is bug.

Last night Mike's sister Susan and her boyfriend Troy came over for our Friday night pizza and we ended up playing some domino's while Susan got in some auntie time and then played Apples to Apples. I bought that game over 5 years ago and had never played it and it was a blast. We played for 2 hours at which we were all tired and ended the night. Haven't had a game night in a while and it was a lot of fun.

My new stool!

I went to Target first thing this morning and found this stool in the $1 bin area. Since Ava loves little chairs to sit on, I figured she would love it and I know I will regret it later and she is getting smart enough to pick it up and put it somewhere to climb up onto something!!

Anyway, I brought it home and put it in the family room and she was so excited to sit on it. It is the cheap things that they love the best.Here she is sitting on it...

I don't really buy her a lot of "toys". I leave that to her gramme Baker. Every week she comes down, she always has something new. In fact, this weekend I am going to have to go through her toys and pull out some to bin up since all her bins are full.

She too is getting ready for the Tour de France to start on Saturday. See her with her LIVESTRONG band. I can't wait for it to start. I am excited to see how Lance Armstrong does as he is an old guy now. I have been following him on Twitter to see his comments and seems like he should do well, but there are a lot of good bicyclist out there this year, young ones at that.

I am getting ready for our trip to LA in the end of July. I know, it is still a month away, but I feel like there is so much to do to get ready for it. We are going to Mike's sister, Nancy's wedding. I bought Ava a dress online last week and am praying it will fit. The sizing was weird. For her chest and waist size, it suggested a small or 6 mos size. That just can't be. So i ordered the 18 month size and I am afraid it is going to be too big. I guess I will just get it taken in. It is brown with Champagne dots and a champage bow and flower around the waist. It is really cute. Now, I just have to find something. Here is the link to her dress. Not sure it will work, but I tried!!

http://www.flowergirldressshop.com/Brown-and-Champagne-Polka-Dot-Embroidered-Sleevele-p/swb973.htm

Yesterday I asked Ava for a kiss and she stopped what she was doing and came over and gave me a kiss. It was so sweet. I have been waiting for this day. She doesn't always do it. Usually she will just put her lips together and make a kiss sound, but not come over and actually give you a kiss. She will kiss her stuffed animals, just not people as much yet. These are the moments that make moments like yesterday morning worth it.

What happened yesterday morning, well, Ava woke up at 3:15 am and cried until about 5am. It was horrible. Nothing would settle her except for me rubbing her head and I can't do that for 30-45 mins until she goes back to sleep becuase she will then need it to sleep. Not sure why she woke. My mom and I think maybe she had a nightmare. Otherwise, I would think she would go back to sleep. As I have previously posted, her sleep has not been so great. Yesterday also, she only took an hour and a half nap so I tried to put her down for an afternoon nap and after crying for 30 mins, she finally fell asleep for 30 mins. I am ready to give up. I just want her to figure out her sleep before the baby comes, because the last thing I need is for the baby to be up and then finally go down and then Ava gets up. Talk about lack of sleep. I am going to need all the help I can get for as long as I can get it once the 2nd baby comes. So anyone interested in helping, we will have a single bed waiting for you. You can stay as long as you would like and help entertain Ava and cook and clean! Any takers??

The other day, Mike had Ava outside on the side of our house and he was watering his herbs. Next thing I know, this is what i see....

He had taken off her clothes and let her play in the water and dirt or mud. Off to the bath we went!