We're Back!

Well we made it back in one piece! We got home at 6am Saturday morning. The original plan was to leave NC Saturday around noon, but Ava was being so cranky our entire trip that we decided it would be better to drive during the night Friday night than to sit in a car with a crying baby for 11 hours. The drive up there went as good as it could go. We left FL around 8:30pm, Ava fell asleep almost immediately and she only woke up once, around 2am when we had to stop for gas. We made it to Nanny's at 7am and Ava was able to stay pretty much on her normal schedule. Tuesday at home she was so cranky, and she was cranky pretty much our whole time up there. I don't know what her deal was but she was so clingy and bad tempered. It was probably just the change of routine and the drive, and being in a new place. She has such a little temper, and it's really starting to show. She did sleep well up there though. That was the main thing I was worried about. She napped with me in bed most of the time, and she slept in her pack n play all night. We mostly just hung around Nanny's, but on Friday we took a drive to the gorge to get some pictures. Of course, our camera ran out of batteries as soon as we got there so I only took 2 pictures. We were expecting pretty cold weather since that's how it usually is, but this year was the warmest year I can remember. She looked so darn cute in her winter clothes though! I know I say this all the time but she is getting so big, she looks different everyday to me.
It was so nice to have this whole weekend off and just be able to hang out together. We never get a full weekend.Today we cleaned and put up our Christmas lights and a tree. Normally we would go buy a real tree, but last year I was pregnant and didn't feel like dragging all the Christmas stuff out. My Dad insisted that we have a tree, so we bought a fake one. This year I didn't want to put a big tree up because Ava would be all over it. She'd be pulling at the branches, pulling off ornaments, it would be a mess, so we bought a small 4' fake tree and put it on a table. It doesn't look that bad, and it's better than no tree at all. We also bought Ava the cutest Christmas dress. It is red velvet, and she's going to wear tights and little black patent leather mary janes. It is so cute!
I almost forgot to mention that Ava said her first real word while we were up in NC! She said "uh oh!" It sounds funny when she says it, but that is definitely what she's saying, and she would copy us when we said it. Of course, she said it a bunch of times that day and hasn't said it since. She also said "mamamamamama" up there a lot. It is so exciting.
I have a ton of pictures from up there and I would love to post so many of them but it takes a long time and a lot of space, so I'm just posting a few. I think I'm going to set up a flickr account so that people can view them all if they want. You might see one of these on a Christmas card soon!
Playing in the leaves!

She loved riding in this wagon



Ava & Lexi