Gardening

After a long, cold, and very rainy winter the weather has finally turned springlike. The past few weeks have been a joy to get outside and play with the munchkin. We've been enjoying swinging in the hammock and letting Ava play in the yard.

Below Ava is helping me not float away.

While visiting Nana for the memorial tree planting, Gail did a bunch of work in the flower beds trimming dead branches, weeding, etc. Ava and I came outside to help pull up weeds and sample the flavor of the dirt. Mom wasn't impressed with my parenting skills...


After sampling the dirt, we noticed Gail was using the most wonderful contraption for carting compost (and babies!) to the back. Good times ensued.

I don't know what's happening, but I love it!

She looks so studious! :-)

Whatcha know good?

For all y'all Yankees, that means: "What have you been up to?" in Southern speak.
Well, Ava has been all over the place. We've been to Douglas, Atlanta, and South Georgia all in the past month. We've been traveling fools. We stayed with Jeremy's folks for a spell around when the Olympics started. It was so much fun hanging out with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Nathan. We tried catfish and potato salad for the first time.

Nom, nom, nom. Delicious! Definitely a southern girl!

Here's Ava standing up and playing with some sort of gizmo.

Playing in the yard is fun!

Tree Planting Memorial

Folks my Dad worked with in the Forest Service all pitched in and donated enough money to purchase 25 trees for a Trees Atlanta project. They're 10 gallon trees and I didn't realize that they're over a $100 each. (Wow! The Forest Service is awesome! Thanks guys. I know you loved my Dad - and he loved you too.) What an amazing memorial! I couldn't help but get choked up several times because it meant so much and was such an appropriate memorial for my Dad.
So on March 13, our family and as many Forest Service folks that could make it, along with the Trees Atlanta volunteers, as well as some students from the local school all converged on Centennial Elementary School in downtown Atlanta to plant them an amazing grove of trees. There are white oaks, overcupped oaks, persimmons, maples, hickories... more that I can remember! Luckily all these folks were here and we were able to get them all planted in three hours on an early spring morning.

I'm glad so many kids were there. My Dad loved to teach kids about trees. You can bet my tree projects rocked back in school.

Ava and Jeremy listen to instructions.

I place one of many bags of my Dad's compost at the foot of each tree. Now each one's got a little Daddy love in it.

(Jeremy is hijacking the text henceforth.)
Gail had to do most of the heavy lifting and digging for her crew.

Gaby and Nana discussing what to do next.

Bo and Randi went around and sprinkled some of Don's compost on each tree.

Good job Bo Bo!

Growing and Snowing

At the beginning of February we entered two of my father's succulent pots into the Southeastern Flower Show which took place in Atlanta. It was a big ordeal to get the genus and species of each plant properly figured out and identified with a labeling system(although in proper Daddy fashion he had maps of the pots made in a binder which helped immensely). Then the pots had to be groomed before we left which entailed removing any dead leaves and some persistent maple seeds which were tangled into the pots (also Daddy). Then we loaded them up with the help of Mom's neighbor and hauled them carefully to the Cobb Galleria where they were groomed some more before submission.

Well, all the hard work payed off. I'm not sure if Daddy would have planned on entering two plants but I'm glad we did because his were the only two submissions in his category (three or more species of succulents in one container). Therefore, and I can still imagine him laughing at this, we won first and second place! Here's the blue ribbon winner.
I think more people didn't enter this year because the show was uncertain for half the year if they would be able to afford putting it on. Last year there were at least 6 submissions. Even more exciting though was the trophy we were awarded for Best Collection in Show (there were at least 5 or six collections). Apparently there's an awards ceremony later in the spring so we'll let you know when we go how that goes.
Here are some of the judges comments, which surprised me because several of the other blue ribbon winners still had some critiques included.
And here's our little flower! She loved looking at all the plants and kids attending.

Ava's developing a healthy appetite for vegetables these days. She really prefers feeding herself and I love when she accompanies her eating with what sounds like her saying "This is delicious." Nom, nom, nom. She loves butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, and here she is trying out the heirloom "Preacher beans", green beans which have been in the Tarver family for four generations.

As most of you know, we had a snowstorm down here a couple weeks ago and we really enjoyed taking Ava out on a hike to take in her first substantial snowfall. Ava even tried eating some snow and seemed intrigued by the feel of it.
The dogs enjoyed it as well.






And here's Ava with her cousin Bo at BBQ on President's day. Nom, nom, nom, more green beans!

Let's Play!

Bathtime is awesome! She loves to look in the mirror.
Blaahhh!

With one of her favorite furry playmates.

Frequently we put our foot in our mouth. Mmm...tasty. Makes bathing, dressing and diapering tricky.
Playing the xylophone. We love musical instruments! May be there will finally be a person in both sides of the family with musical talent? Next up... BONGOS!
With our friend Miles. He's the coolest. He's our role model on crawling.



Bellybuttons are great fun! Especially when they're Daddy's!


Bathtime with Grandma. Let's see how much water we can get out of the sink!

To Eat or Not to Eat Solid Foods

The two photos that follow were pretty much the sequence which took place whenever we tried to feed Ava solid food since she was about 6 months old until 8 and a half months old. Hilarious faces! And she'd shake her head and body too when she'd do it for added effect.

But lately she seems to be warming up to some foods more. Really, it seems like she just wants to feed herself. We still have some coordination issues you know...just like her Dad. Favorite foods are currently butternut squash, applesauce with rice cereal, and graham crackers. She's tried mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes too and prefers the deluxe version with some butter. And of course, she'd like to try everything Mom is eating. She's actually had several spoonfuls of various soup broths I've eaten lately. Yum, yum. After a while though, as Jeremy says "I'm done face painting!"

And here's Ava visiting a local landmark in Athens. The Varsity. Good thing she's not eating those kinds of foods yet. Mom really wouldn't like to mess with the likes of the following diaper.

Keeping Warm

As we possibly prepare for another round of snow flurries *fingers crossed*, here are pictures from the coldest time of the year so far around these parts. Ava and I walked up to the mailbox when the front of a very light snowfall came through.

Look at the marvelous little snowflakes! I've never seen them actually look like snowflakes before.
Here's Ava sporting Mom and Dad's souvenir hat from New Zealand mid-bounce.
And here are our four and three-legged critters keeping the gravity bill down by our new woodstove. Awww.