Abilene Girls Weekend

Before Thanksgiving Ava and I went to Abilene to meet up with some of our dearest friends for a girls weekend at Amy and Brinley's house. These friends of ours hold a very special place in our heart and although most of them have moved away we are so grateful for weekends like this where we get to reconnect. What is so neat is that each of us had girls (and boys!) within a few years of each other so all the little girls have so much in common (can you say princesses and dress up?!) which makes for a great time when we are all together. Since the girls played so well together it gave us moms a chance to really spend some quality time together as well.

We arrived Friday night after the other girls had gone to bed so in the morning it was a happy reunion and they immediately started playing. 

I am very thankful that Rebekah, who actually knows what she is doing with her camera, took lots of pictures to document our weekend. They are priceless photos!

Amy was the hostess with the mostess and planned such a fun weekend for all of us. On Saturday morning, after a little bit of playing, we got the girls dressed in their matching dresses and bows and then headed to the donut shop (where there were lots of ooh's and ahh's over their cuteness!) and then to the Abilene Zoo!

Ava and Bekah 

We took a lot of pictures at the Zoo but how could you not when they are this cute?! 

Just one of many that will be framed in my house. I love love love every single one of these girls. 

The girls were ALL about posing for the camera (except for little Audrey) and they gave us lots of cute moments. 

As we were leaving they hopped on this cement block and started dancing to the music playing outside. Cutest street performers I have ever seen! 

Ava and I slept in Brinley's room so every morning when Ava woke up (at her usual 6:30 time!) she played quietly while we waited for the others to wake up. 

After nap time we stayed at the house and just let the girls play. We ordered pizza that night and had a dance party on the back porch. The girls wore princess dresses and danced to their hearts' content!

  

After bathtime, which made for another adorable photo op....

We got the girls in their pj's and watched the Nutcracker while eating cake and ice cream. (One of the main activities that we originally planned to do was take the girls to the Nutcracker but we got the dates wrong and the Nutcracker wasn't until the following weekend. We had something else in store for them though that I think was even better!)

Since we couldn't take the girls to the Nutcracker we got the girls dressed up in their prettiest duds and took them to The Sugar Plum Fairy Tea where they got to have a REAL tea party, meet all the ballerinas in the Nutcracker, and watch a mini performance from each of them. It worked out to be even better than taking them to the Nutcracker and they loved every minute.

Getting ready was super fun!

There were lots of giggles and twirling around in dresses as they admired each other :)

Miss Amy put a little makeup on each of them as the final touch

And then it was picture taking time...

My little angel 

How in the world am I going to choose which ones to frame in Ava's room?!

These girls know how to pose!!

Ava and I wore our matching red patent leather shoes. 

The girls got crowns as they arrived at the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea. They were in heaven with all the sweets and punch in real tea cups.  (Ava was SOOO tired at this point in the day, the tea wasn't until 4 on Sunday and there were no naps that day, but she quietly took it all in and I know she had a blast)

This was a weekend that I will never forget. These girls are forever friends and I am so grateful that we got to spend such a special girls only weekend together. Next time we have a mother daugther weekend like this we will have two more sweet little girls added to the group! Rebekah and I are both having girls! I wonder if our boys will ever plan a Father Son weekend??

Baby Girl

 We could not be more excited about having another sweet baby in our family! Initially we went back and forth about whether to have another one but after lots of prayer we knew that if this is God's will for our family then we were ready! Our love for Ava and Connor is more than we could ever have imagined and we can't wait to share that love with another one!

This is how we announced the news on instagram and facebook. 

First pictures of our little bundle at 8 weeks

 We waited to tell the kids until I was about 11 weeks. We bought them a Big Sister and Big Brother shirt and Mikey brought home cupcakes to celebrate. Ava understood completely and was so excited. She touched my belly and told me that she would take care of me when I was in the hospital with the baby. :) Connor...had no clue. He just wanted to eat the cupcake. 

 Whenever I ask him now where the baby is he pats my belly. They are going to be a great big sister and big brother. Twice now I have seen Connor put his hand on the back of another baby and just follow them around like he is taking care of them and Ava cannot wait to have another little girl in the house to share her love of princesses with. :)

We wanted to find out the gender of the baby in a fun way so we had the sono tech secretly write the gender on a card. We picked out an outfit for a baby girl and baby boy and took both to the register of the store along with the card and told the store clerk to look inside and use our debit card to buy the corresponding outfit and then put it in the box that I gave them. I stepped outside the store for a few minutes and then came back in to get the box. I wrapped it when I got home (and didn't peak of course!) and we took it with us to Corpus to open it up with family as we celebrated an early Christmas together. 

The video is a little dark but here we are opening the box!

It's a GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so surprised! I could have sworn we were having another boy. It was such a great way to find out and having my family there made it even more special. I am THRILLED to be a mommy to another girl. 

As part of my mom's Christmas present to everyone she hired a photographer to take pictures of the entire extended family. This is one that the photographer took of the 5 (smile) of us. 

 This is one of my two cutie pies that I took with my phone and it is my favorite even of the ones the photographer took.  

And to end this fun post I leave you with a few of the names that Ava and Daddy came up with for the baby. ;) Don't be surprised if you hear us call her Apple Pie. That is a nickname that is going to have to stick!