Mommy & Ava Time

Ava and I took a spur of the moment trip into North Pole for some mommy & Ava time. I was in the mood for something sweet (go figure) and the Santa Clause house sells homemade fudge. So off to the Santa Clause House we went while daddy watched little man back at home.

Before we left we received a package in the mail from Grandma Terri and Grandpa Dave. They sent us some new books and lots of clothes for Jason and Ava. Ava was so excited about the books that she grabbed as many as she could carry and brought them along for the ride into town. She sure LOVES reading!

We were hungry so we stopped at Taco Bell on the way and split a chicken quesadilla. Mmmm!

We stopped and visited Santa's Reindeer! 

Cheese! Or should I say "Fudge!".

Mmmmmmm! We picked out Candy Cane Fudge to share.

Santa was there today but Ava was too shy to go and see him. He saw her though and came over to say hi, give her 2 candy canes and wish her a Merry Christmas. Wish I had a picture! He even remembered us from our previous visit last year! After Santa talked to Ava she told me "he's not frightening". 

We walked around the store, looked at all the ornaments and did a little shopping. I bought Ava a shirt that says Alaskan Princess. She was the most interested in the pretty rocks they had, the ones you fill in those pull string bags, she wanted them so bad but she already has so many rocks everywhere. She is my rock collector! 

Look how big that Santa is! 

One more trip to see the reindeer and then we headed for home. 

We had so much fun hanging out just the two of us. Matt told me when we got back to the house that he wants to do something similar with her this weekend, he is invited to a wedding Saturday so he is going to take her with him *awe*. He asked me if she has any dresses. I love my Family! 

Click here to get some fun information about the Santa Clause House in North Pole, AK just 15 minutes from where we live! 

Ava turns 2 1/2

Ava turned 2 & 1/2 yesterday! I wanted to take some time to share with you all what Ava is up to now that she is 2 & 1/2 years old.

Here we go!

*She knows her ABC's! She can sing the Abc's by herself, she knows all the alphabet signs and she recognizes each letter in written form. We have even started to write out the letters and have Ava trace them, she is doing a great job!

*She can count to 11! She sometimes counts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11,10 but I think she does that just to see if we are really paying attention, a game her daddy accidentally taught her.

*Ava knows at least 100 signs in sign language! Last time I did an actual count there were over 60 and she has learned a lot since then so that is just a guesstimation. We continue to learn new signs and eventually would like to learn the whole language!

*She knows all her colors and the signs that go along with them.

*She recognizes her name in written form along with mom and dad.

*We have recently started learning the states. I bought her a united states place mat, she is rewarded with a treat or snack after she repeats back the state to me or says it from memory. So far she knows: Alaska, Washington, California, Oregon and New Mexico. We only just started about 2 weeks ago and I haven't been as consistent as I would like be (I was really sick last week) but even so she is still getting them down!

Click here to watch the first video 

Ava sings her ABC's 

The second half of the video is here

Ava signs

Just yesterday we had a play date with some new friends, Ava usually has a really hard time leaving my side but not yesterday. She is finally starting to come out of her shell around new people and yesterday she had a blast! I am so happy watching her learn and grow and become more and more independent, although when it comes time to pick out and put on a pair of shoes I start to wish she was a little less independent!

Ava is my little helper and Jason's second mom. She is an extra pair of eyes for me when we are out on walks or at home. Yesterday Jason's binki fell out of the stroller and I kept walking, for quite a ways, the whole time Ava was trying to tell me the binki fell so we were able to grab it. She comes running if Jason gets near the stairs, he LOVES to climb the stairs now and sometimes we don't get the gate up, She always tells me if he starts climbing away (don't worry I really am keeping my eyes on little man too!).

 Ava kissing instead of smelling the flower

Ava still loves her airplanes, wondering if one day she might decide to become a pilot! 

My silly little girl is so much like her daddy its hilarious sometimes. Quiet, reserved, goofy and a total dork! I know he loves hearing about how much she is like him and believe me it's true!

I cannot believe that in 6 more months my baby is going to be 3 years old! How is it that when you have little ones time seems to start speeding by? I just want everything to slow down so I can enjoy every minute with my babies. I know in just no time at all Ava will be having her first day of kindergarten and then she'll be a preteen, get her license, graduate high school, get married and before we know it she will be having her own little ones... *sigh* I don't want to miss out on a single precious minute!

I sure do love my sweet little baby girl!

A finished project!?

I finally hung the pictures on my tree!

Took a long time to find frames that I wanted (waited for them to go back on sale of course). Once I found the frames we had to get the prints I needed. Then the hard part, well what I thought was going to be the hard part, hanging the pictures. I switched out the only frame that would have needed two nails and all of sudden there was nothing hard about putting the frames up. I did it all by myself!

So glad to have this project checked off my to do list. I LOVE walking by my tree!

Jason turns 10 months!

My little guy continues to insist on growing! 10 months already, only 2 more months until my baby turns a year old. Catching myself already planning his birthday party. *sighs*

Look at those feet! He has the softest skin ever.

He usually sits in his highchair and eats whatever we are having at meal times, I love having everyone at the table eating together and obviously, he likes it too! 

I just LOVE this picture of him. "hi everyone!"

He is so mobile. We really have to keep an eye on him now, he is fast and able to get to pretty much wherever he wants to be. He recently decided he knows how to get up the stairs and he doesn't waste a second getting to the top. He is getting very near walking but it's almost like you can see him thinking while he is standing there then he just decides "nah, I'll just do this later.".

Climbing up the play structure to see where all the big kids play.

Love his blue eyes!

...and his smile.

Sitting in sissy's chair like a big boy!

Finally a good shot of his little teefers.

Eating all of mommies food, baby food just doesn't cut it, he IS a big boy.

Exploring at the Botanical Garden in Fairbanks. I love watching him find new things. I think right now water is probably his most favorite thing to play with. As soon as you turn the water on in the bath he comes a running, I mean a crawling! He splashes and splashes totally not caring that he is getting water in his mouth and eyes. He is a water baby just like his sister. 

I love this little boy more than I could describe! I am such a proud and blessed mommy. He is everything I could have ever wished for and more. I love how happy and good natured he is. Excited to watch him grow and learn... I just wouldn't mind if we could slow time down a bit, I want him to be my baby forever! 

The Alaska State Fair!

Started writing this post Monday and I am finally finding some time on Friday to come back and finish it. So let's travel back in time to last Sunday as the Foreman Family heads to the State Fair! 

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I heard that the temperatures back home were pretty extreme. I gotta say I think we have adjusted pretty well to our cooler temps up here and I don't know if the Foreman family would have survived your 100 + temps!

Here in AK yesterday our weather was having a hard time making up its mind (like it does pretty much everyday) I dressed the kids and I for rain and cold temperatures but it ended up being pretty sunny and actually warm, especially in long sleeves, skinny jeans and my winter boots!

The parking was insane! I think everyone in Fairbanks made it to the fair yesterday. We managed to finally find a parking spot in the fair grounds lot but it was probably the furthest spot and one of the very last ones available. We arrived at the fair around 1:45, that was after looking for a parking spot for about 15-20 minutes.

We started with the animals, pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks! Ava LOVED looking at all the animals. I almost got her to touch one of the pigs but even I was too scared to touch one, those piggies were BIG. Ava went into the petting Zoo twice, she was in love with the chickens, she held one for a long time and was sad when we had to give him him back. She asked to go in for a third time but I told her we had to share with all the other little kids.

I know she doesn't look very happy here but I swear she was! She just wore this very serious looking face and held onto that little chicken, she actually hardly even looked at him but she loved him. Daddy showed her how to pet him and they explored all his parts, beak, feet and feathers. I told Ava it was okay to say good bye because one day (hopefully soon) we will have our own little chickens. 

Next was Ava's first pony ride! She was so excited until the lady came round to help her get on the pony, I went ahead and sat her down anyway and the instant she was in the saddle she settled down. She had a blast! I told her one day that daddy is going to buy us a horse of our own. 

Click on the link below to see our home video of 

Ava's first pony ride!

We enjoyed some yummy fair food, french fries and an elephant ear being at the top of my yummy list. I liked walking through the expo area and looking at what all the different vendors had to offer. We ran into a lot of people we know (I am beginning to realize I know more people than I think). Ava was mesmerized by a small roller coaster, we wanted to take her on it but the cost of the rides were pretty outrageous... it could be we are just a little spoiled from our real theme park, Busch Gardens back in VA and our year long pass. Maybe next year!  

The last place we checked out was their plant/garden area. It was fun seeing all the different things people grow here in the summer and how many of those (mainly) veggies we have growing in our garden. 

It was such a fun day. I have always loved going to the fair and I look forward to all of our future yearly trips! 

A little Stay-cation

Yesterday (Thursday) was a busy day for the Foreman family. Our vacation to Anchorage being cancelled we found other ways to have fun. We started off our day parked in front of the flight line where we watched the jets take off and land. Ava LOVES watching the planes. They were so loud and very low, made for an exciting first activity!

Click on the link below to watch our home video of the Jets taking off

Watching the Jets

After that we made our way into town (Fairbanks). We still needed to get Jason's birth certificate so we ran over and finally got that taken care! Feels nice to have that checked off our to do list!

From there we decided we were hungry. There is a new restaurant in town called Shoegun (cannot for the life of me remember what the place is called), or something like that, it is a Hibachi place. Matt had taken the kids (all by himself) out to eat there before and they both loved it so we decided to go again. The people there were so nice and helpful and our cook was very entertaining. Ava loved the fire and both the kids loved the food. Jason ate almost ALL my rice! 

A friend suggested we check out the Botanical garden over at the college so that is where we headed. I am so glad we went, it got to be close to 80 degrees with blue sky's. All the beautiful flowers with plenty of room for Ava for run made it the perfect place for us to be. 

Ava wanted to kiss the flower instead of smell it

Click here for a home video

Where are we?

Hanging pumpkins! 

Finally a family picture

And something we never do, a picture of just Matt and I... well sort of. 

Click here for another video

Garden tunnel

A perfect first day of our stay-cation. 

Thank you to all our friends out there for your suggestions! Looking forward to the rest of the time we have together as a family this weekend.