So I've been away from the blog for a minute or three, but have about an Avett nap's worth of time to try and catch things up around here.  Fair warning, this might be long and will likely be all over the road, but it won't be as hard-hitting as my last entry.

Four is the new three:
Most importantly, and by now I think most of you already know this, buuuuuuut we're expanding, and the dudes are taking over!

We're beyond excited, and normally oscillate somewhere between trying to prepare and trying not to freak out/be overwhelmed/wonder how to get 4 people ready and out the door every morning.  Between now and June, we've got to do a ton of prep work for #2, not least of which is finding a name for this stinker (a challenge last time to say the least).  And name #2 needs to live up to the awesomeness of name #1, so Bob or Billy just ain't gonna cut it.  Think happy thoughts for us, we have work to do...

Avett keeps a'growin' and a'changin':
Avett's just a shade under a year and a half old.  The cool, calm, and collected (usually) nature of this little man continues to amaze me.  He's walking, and he's finally started making some words instead of just grunts, which has let us quickly realize that the kid is a southern gentleman already.  I don't think Ruth Ann or I have much of an accent, but you wouldn't know it by listening to Avett.  Two of his go-to words right now are "bite" (food not others) and "bye" (accompanied by a wave), and both are said with a drawl suitable to an old timey man from South Carolina.  Pretty funny, but I'm not sure where it comes from unless he watches Honey Boo Boo reruns at my folks' house.  Speaking of my parents' house/best daycare on the planet, he has a really good friend over there.  Jackson's quite the patient pup, I just wish ours put up with these kinds of adorable shenanigans better than they do (which is to say, they don't.  At all.).

Going Viral, maybe:
Have you heard about the Harlem Shake yet?  If not, a quick YouTube search is the best way to explain it, but you will quickly lose 2 hours of your life in 30 second chunks if you do.  This is one of those weird internet things that makes no sense and has just caught fire over the last week or two, to the tune of over 44 million views of a bunch of different interpretations.  In an attempt to bring some fun to work, we decided to create our own version in the office, then challenged our other US offices to do their own.  They're all out of the SilkRoad YouTube channel and are all pretty great.  Give ours a watch right here, and help spread the word - we need to take home the bragging rights for the most popular clip.

Merlefest:
It's no secret that Team Timmons is a fan of the Avett Brothers.  They are playing at Merlefest this year, and for it to be such a great festival, I'm sad to say I've never been.  That will change this year, and I can't wait.  Here are a couple clips to help explain my excitement level.

TAB on LNJF nearly makes my head E-X-P-L-O-D-E

Try to watch this entire clip without smiling:

Speaking of twang...
I started taking banjo lessons!  Two weeks in and I must say that I'm pretty good.  That is, if your expectations are really low and don't mind hearing the same, simple stuff over and over.  I'm enjoying it so far and have really been able to see some progress already (I'm not sure that RA would say that she's HEARING a lot of progress just yet, though).  The sappy sucker in me really wants to learn to play so I can play with and/or help teach my boys to play (yes, I need a few years head start on them).  Best believe I'll be learning Rainbow Connection, Froggie Went a-Courtin', and of course Dueling Banjos.

The Quintessential "First Song", complete with what RA refers to as metal witch nails, aka, finger picks


Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in someone else's bin:
Quick story, but strange enough to mention here.  A little while back, we got curbside recycling at the casa.  Even though we had to pay extra for it, we were mega excited, seeing as how we'd been collecting and hauling our recyclables away ourselves since we've lived at said casa.  A couple weeks back, our pickup was delayed by a day but I forgot and rolled the cart up anyway.  When I got home and opened the lid to check it, it was still full.  But it wasn't our stuff.  Someone in the 'hood is piggybacking on our recycling cart and dumping their stuff on pickup day.  I'm enough of a hippie to think that's kind of OK (save the Earth and all), but it's weird.  I gave the stink eye to the entire cul de sac just in case anyone was looking on.

Climb on the Vine:
Most of you know I'm a tech nerd and love a good app.  I really, really like Vine, and I wish some of you loyal readers would too!  It's new and somewhat slow to take off, but you can kind of think of it as Twitter and Instagram's lovechild, but for video.  You get 6 seconds for your video.  That's it.  Think animated gif.  Think looping video.  The app is very slick, and let's you easily record multiple quick shots in that 6 seconds, so creative people can really have a blast.  My creative bone is just so-so, but here are a couple of the things I've done so far.  Get your Vine on and find me, it's superduperfuntimes!

Stop motion beer smiley:


See what I did there? loop:


Mad Skillz Animated Loop: