There's a first time for everything

I know you are thinking from the title of this post this is surely about Ava and while it is, it is about a first time for myself. This weekend our class activity with our Bible class was camping. My friends, this was the first time in my life that I have ever been camping. I know some of you are thinking spoiled brat but honestly I love air conditioning and electricity and a bathroom within a few feet of my bed, call me crazy but those are things I enjoy in life! I simply went out of peer pressure and it was fun. So, the reason for no blogging lately is I have been making list after list of things for this two night trip. Below you can see the car packed to the top and I promise everything in here was a necessity - we just happen to require a lot more things than most people there that had two or three kids! (And, all meals were provided so there is no food in this car!)



Below was our crib for the weekend. We found this jewel at Sam's for $75, what a deal. I mean if I was going to do this, I wanted space and I had space. In fact, we had the second biggest tent of anyone there, it so kindly became known as the Taj Mahal seeing as how every tent around us that was much smaller than ours held families with two and three kids and we had one but c'mon people I had a pack -n -play.



Ava did great! This was her means of transportation around the campground, she had so much fun.



There was a playground right by our campsites so that was entertaining here she is with her Daddy going down the slide she could have done that all day I think.



And of course no camping trip is complete without her mother's friends feeding her full of cheese puffs and covering herself in orange that then took like 10 wipes to get off of our face and hands. This was probably the only thing she sat down and ate, the rest of the time if her eyes were open she was on the move because she might miss something if she fell asleep and we wouldn't want that now would we.



Overall, I would say we survived our first camping trip and we will definitely make sure this is an annual thing. I can definitely appreciate that people enjoy camping. Is it going to be the next family vacation - I am afraid not seeing as how I looked at Ava as we were both in the shower and I am trying to not let her slip off the handicap bench and a butterfly decided to join in on the fun as well as a few other small creatures I just said next time we are on a vacation I think it will be at a hotel!!!!!

Thanks to Alisha for a wonderful first time experience in the world of camping. You did a great job of planning the trip and the meals were awesome.

American Girl in the making

Honestly, I can't believe my 14 month child has already been to the American Girl store, this wasn't planned for a few years down the road but this was a special occasion. The sweet girl with Ava is Jessica she and her family are missionaries in England. They were in the states for a visit and she has a doll so while her parents were taking care of business in Houston my mom took her to the American Girl store so of course Ava got to go. When we got Ava's stroller out of the car Jessica asked if this was her push chair. I was like sure we call it a stroller but push chair makes sense too.


I can't believe they have so much stuff for dolls, it was insane but so much fun. The pic below is of Jessica and her doll Kirsten. I know, I know bad pic but we were seated by a window. If you haven't been to this store before your doll gets to sit with you at the Bistro and has her own doll sized menu.


And here is a pic of Ava with the doll the Bistro kindly let us borrow. In this picture Ava is demonstrating some of her aggressive affection. She is obsessed with dolls with blinky eyes (she has one at home) and all she wants to do is poke their eyes out. I try to work on this by saying Oh, sweet baby. Well, a few weeks ago someone was holding a real baby and I said Oh, sweet baby and Ava poked his eye. So, warning to mom with newborns and if Ava is in sight !!!!

Of course, no dining experience is complete without a milkshake!


All in all the trip was a success Jessica ended up with some outfits for her doll. The best part about it was listening to Jessica tell her mom about the whole experience in her English accent. It was so sweet and funny at the same time.

The little sickie

Well folks, we had our first ear infection at the Hamrick house. I must say I am pretty happy with the fact that it took exactly fourteen months to get our first ear infection. But we didn't just get one we went all out for the first time we had double ear infections. It is always nice when the doctor looks in the ear she had not been messing with at all and says wow this one is really infected and I am like great I wasn't even concerned with that ear.

Normally, the pic below looks about how Ava is 95% of the time - extremely excited or just slightly spastic - take your pick.




This is how she looked yesterday evening. Poor little thing. So, what does one do when she is sick watch The Wiggles all day long!!! I think Mom, Dad, Gree and Grandpa (my mom and dad) could have gone insane and now can quote The Wiggles we have seen it so much.



I will say thank goodness for drugs because this is how I found the precious one this morning and the best thing about the picture is she is in her own bed and had been for 12 hours straight - let's just say we spent plenty of bonding time in the recliner the night before. I know you are thinking "Good night - how many blankets must one child have?" We have three blankies we sleep with at night, I know excessive is your first thought and while it is she sleeps great so who cares. I do however only allow one small blankie out in public - I would say I only allow that so people don't think we are over the top or anything but I just refuse to carry anything else. Ever since I entered the realms of motherhood I feel like a pack mule so one is all I can sanely handle keeping up with!!!!!

You know you always want things you don't have, I have always received comments on how much hair she has and how they wish their children had that much hair. What is funny is that when she was a baby I loved her hair, however, with all this hair came a few draw backs. I LOVE big bows, but when Ava was a baby the headbands never worked for her they slid off all the time and she just didn't look as cute as the baby's without hair looked so I had to wait a little while before I could use big bows. Another draw back was that haircuts had to start early for this one. I started just doing a few trims at age six months because when you are looking like this

it is just time my friends that you need a little trim and I felt like I could save a few bucks and do it myself. Well, lately I have had several questions mainly from family members about when I was going to take her to get a real hair cut and I just can't imagine why they were asking because she woke up every morning looking like this


I mean if that isn't beauty in the making. We had to clip that stuff back the minute she woke up because she couldn't even see to eat her breakfast. So, on August 29th Ava received her first haircut at Cool Cuts. Now, I know there are those out there thinking wow you paid too much for that but I am here to tell you I would have paid more for the hair cut to go as smoothly as it did - here are some pics...





The finished product!!!! I will admit it was time for some shaping and layering that is just above my haircutting techniques. It does look good and we can still have our little pony on top of our head with a big bow. Overall, she did fantastic she thought she was pretty cool driving that taxi all while watching The Wiggles, could life get any better

Here I go....

Well, I have taken the plunge and decided to start a blog after being a blogstalker for 2 years now. For those of you that I have not seen since college - just a little catch up I got married to Heath and we have been married for almost 5 years. So, I am no longer JB or JamiBrown (for those that didn't know me in college people called me Jami Brown both first and last as if that was my first name).

As you can see below within the last year we had Miss Ava. So, since I didn't start a blog when my child was born - you can go back and see what she looked like at each month of her life for the past 12 months. Ava is a funny little girl and as time progresses I will fill you in on her and other various thoughts that I have.