Fun Outings

Last week Ava and I met up with some close friends and went to the Ft. Worth Zoo. This was Ava's second time to go to the zoo and she seemed to enjoy it so much more now that she is a little older. We had a lot of fun, despite the ridiculous crowds, and I am glad we got to go with our sweet friends.

Christy with her girls Kate & Kara, Rebekah with Henry & Margaret, Ava and I, Amy & Brinley

Eatin some snacks to hold us over till lunch


Pointing to fish

Playing in the dirt (this might have been the highlight for her)

Kara and Ava looking at the elephants

Christy is one of my friends from high school. She is an amazing friend and mother and since she is a veteran mommy, she is pregnant with her third, I have gone to her with lots of advice.

The kids loved playing on this ant hill type thing (Kate's in the background. It's the best picture I could get of the them)

Ava loved the Meerkats too


To celebrate my birthday with the family the three of us, along with Alli and Greg, went to the Horse Track on Saturday to see some horse races. It was dollar day at the races so everybody and their mother was there. We brought a couple blankets and enjoyed just being outside to enjoy the pretty weather.

That evening my sweet husband made me a birthday cake and The Wolters came over for pizza, cake, and game playing. Alli and Greg were there too and I enjoyed every bit of the day!

I was very impressed with Mikey's cake making skills. He even floured the cake pans before putting the batter in.

13 Months Old

(The video below now works. Sorry, I'm new to youtube)

I'm 13 months old!

Miss Ava is a toddler now, WOW, so I decided that from now on her month pictures would be taken in her pink chair minus Bubbles the bear (at least for this picture. He might make a reappearance another month).

Dear Ava,

Well, you have officially entered the world of toddlerhood! It's hard to believe that we were just celebrating your first birthday a month ago. Since then I feel like you have matured so much. One of the biggest changes to our lives is that we are completely done with nursing. Since you never liked drinking from a bottle I have nursed you almost every meal of your life until now. I would say that is a huge accomplishment for you and I. I am sad that we no longer have that special time together. I hope you will still find time in your busy day to just stop and snuggle with me.

Daddy took this picture of us after I nursed you for the last time and you fell asleep afterward as you almost always would do. I know you wont care much about this picture but your sentimental mommy will.

You have done such a good job at making the transition to drinking milk from your sippy cup. As always you have adjusted to change very well and you have already shown me, through crawling, walking and now drinking on your own, that if you put your mind to something you can do it. That's a life lesson that I hope you will always carry with you.

Another big milestone for you is that you have been dismissed from ECI. Your torticollis has improved so much and since you are so active it is almost impossible for Ms. Kena to work with you anymore. Your neck will completely straighten with time but I am so proud of how tolerant you have been with us over the past 10 months and we are very happy with how far you have come. Ms. Kena and mommy will remain friends so I know you will get to see her more. We do miss her already though!

Over the past month I have noticed you copying more of our behaviors. For example you like to brush your hair, put keys in the door, bathe yourself, and the other day you found a qtip on the floor and put it in your ear. You are like a sponge and learning something new everyday. It is so fun to watch you start to figure things out.

One your new favorite activities is to color at your table that daddy and I bought you for your birthday. I am pretty sure you are right handed but on occasion you will color with your left hand or both! You like to try and put the crayons in your mouth so I am trying to teach you that that is a no no.

This past month you have started babbling a lot more. You still don't say any real words yet, other than mama and dadda which you used to say, but you will go on and on with your babble like you are having a conversation with us. It is so cute and I even got a video of you telling me a story the other day complete with hand gestures and all.

You continue to sign for when you want to eat and when you are all done. Another thing you now do is if you want Macy or anyone else to come to you you pat your tummy as if to say "come here". You obviously have picked that up from me when we are outside and I pat my leg for Macy to come inside.

Your bathtime has been moved to the tub in the guest bathroom and you love bathtime even more in there. It's so cute to watch you play peekabo, with the colander I threw in as a bath toy, and watch you bathe yourself and splash in the water. The other day Macy was drinking from the bathwater and with a big smile on your face you decided to copy her and drink the water too. It was really funny at the time but now I am having to teach you to not put your face in the water. We'll wait for swim lessons for that.

"Where's Ava?"

"Peekaboo!"

Ava, my life just couldn't be any more sweeter now that you are in it. I can't wait to see how much you will change next month. Being your mommy and staying home with you has been a dream come true. Mommy loves you more than Macy loves squirrels. :)

Here are a few more pictures from this past month. (I am going to start doing slideshows every couple months from now on ;)




Love her in pigtails!!! They look like little antennas!



She figured out how to use her snack trap so now I always make sure to bring it to when we run errands so that it can buy me some more time.


She found an old paci and likes to walk around with it in her mouth and be silly.


Aunt Alli bought her a tunnel to play in!


Bringing Macy her toys in the backyard

Another dinner date with Lukie before Supper Club

Sandbox playdate with Luke

Product Review: Airbrush Legs

I have told many people about this amazing product already but as I was using it this morning I thought I needed to write a post about it because it is just that good!! It is called Airbrush Legs by Sally Hansen and it gives your legs the perfect fake tan in an instant. It is a trick passed down from my sister Alli who used to dance for the Spurs Silver Dancers. The girls would put this all over their bodies, not just their legs, so that they were nice and tan for game days. Now that I am starting to care a little more about my skin my tanning days are over and I dont want to spend money on a real airbrush tan. This product not only gives your leg a pretty glow but it also hides any imperfections like spider veins or scars. It is like makeup for your legs really. You can apply as little or as much as you want depending on how dark you want your legs to be. I just put one thin coat on and it is the perfect shade. I use the deep glow but if you are really fair you might want to try the medium glow which is shade lighter. The only downfall to this product is that you have to apply it pretty quickly as it dries fast and it comes off each time you shower so you have to reapply whenever you want tan legs again. It's the perfect product to use now when you start to break out your summer clothes but don't quite have the tan legs to wear them confidently. I bought mine at Target but I am sure it is sold in most drugstores as well. I found it by the Sally Hansen beauty products on the shelf underneath the nail polish. Go get ya some!!

My First Sewing Project

Mikey's mom gave me an early birthday present a couple of weeks ago, my very first sewing machine!! I love it! Since I have no clue what to do with a sewing machine Amy came over for some sewing 101. She showed me how to make an adorable onesie adorned with ruffles and a matching flower clip for my little girl. I had so much fun and can't wait for more projects. I already have a few in mind!

Look Mimi, I'm sewing!! I knew I'd make you proud. ;)

My first project!
Amy had a similar one on Brinley the other day and I had to have one for Ava.

This morning I was feeling crafty again so I made this flower clip for Ava. Love it!

Last Music Class

On Wednesday we had our last Tiny Tots N Tunes music class. The toddler class was combined with ours and guests were invited so there were a lot more people than we were used to but still very fun. When we first started attending music class I didnt think Ava really enjoyed it but as I started to sing the songs from class she seemed to become more interested each time we went. I could tell she was listening and soaking up something from class despite the fact that I felt like I was just chasing her around and keeping her from getting in diaper bags and strollers. Two of Ava's favorite things from class are the shakers and bells and lucky for us we got to take some home with us! I am sad that class is over but we will always have the memories of Ava's first music class with our friends from our playgroup.
(Since I didn't bring my camera I stole these pictures off of Amy and Leanne's blog. There is a video at the end of Leanne's post with Ava shaking the bells for those who are interested.)

Brinley, Ava, and Madison shaking the bells

Ava and Brinley on the parachute

Notice my little toddler in the top left corner doing a meet and greet with all the new people. She walked around the circle of people almost the entire class.

Miss Holly ended music class by reading Brown Bear Brown Bear just like the very first music class. We know this one well so Ava actually stayed put the entire story.

Bubbles! :)

The playgroup with Miss Holly, the babies' first teacher

Road trip to see friends

Last Tuesday Amy and I loaded up the girls and took a road trip to Houston to see The Burkharts. We wanted to be with Jenny and Bekah to help them celebrate Bekah's 1st birthday party. Ava and I have never traveled anywhere without Mikey but having Amy and Brinley as traveling buddies helped ease my concerns completely. Brinley is an expert traveler but Ava hasn't traveled during waking hours in a long time. She surprisingly did very well on the trip there and did ok on the way back home too. I had to sit in the back seat and entertain the girls (well mostly Ava) the second half of the way home and we even had to make a pit stop at a random trucker's gas station outside of Dallas so that we could feed the girls (trust me, we were out of options and desperate!). That is a post in itself but let's just say the girls were the hit of the Carl's Jr. (that was attatched to the trucker stop) and they were flirting it up with everyone in sight as they sat in their matching travel highchairs we brought with us. We looked so out of place but laughed almost the entire time at the obsurdity of the entire situation! Anyways, back to our trip. The 2 days that we were in Houston were some of the most fun I have had in awhile. I am so grateful for such great friends like Amy and Jenny and the fact that we have girls so close in age has made us even closer. We enjoyed feeding the girls, bathing them, and taking walks to the park. I love those times when it is just Ava and I but they are way more fun when you have other mommies and babies to share them with. Jenny planned an adorable puppy themed party for Bekah's party and I am glad Amy and I were there to help her pull it all together. The party was a huge success and I am so glad we made the trip for it. :)

Here are some pictures from the trip

This is Bekah's crab walk. She is getting closer to walking... (love this bootie shot!)

It wouldn't be a trip to The Burkharts if we didn't have a crib picture with the girls. I mean, how cute are they, seriously?

3 little angels

Going on a walk to the park!

Swinging

Ava loved playing in the dirt. She would pick it up and then let it drop out of her fingers or she would throw it up so it landed on her hat. Good thing I dressed her in white that day. ;)

Best Buds layin in the clovers (mine doesn't look too happy)

Now she's happy. "I want to play in the sticks not lay in the boring grass!")

You bet she loved playing in Bekah's sandbox. I might need to invest in one of those.

Silly face

Rub a dub dub three babies in the tub

(nice placement of the foam letter by Bekah and Ava dont you think?)

Zack's mom, Nora, built this amazing doghouse out of cardboard for the kids to play in at the party. Amy made these adorable dog ears for the kids to wear for picture taking.

My little puppy loved the doghouse so much she thought she might take a little snooze. (this is her new thing. She will be playing and then suddenly stop and lay down on the floor)

Bekah enjoying her birthday cupcake!! This was actually her second party, first being with her family around Easter time, so she had already discovered the greatness of chocolate frosting and she dove right in this time.

Ava's second cake tasting

I asked Ava where Charlie, Bekah's dog, was and she looked out the back door and flipped her hands up like "I don't know". This is another new thing she does when she can't find something. Cuteness!

Mommy and her little puppy

Best friends