Best Friends Forever...at least I hope!

We see Brinley and Amy just about every day. I wouldn't have it any other way! I love this time that we get to share together and I love that the girls have truly become best friends.

Despite the fact that we see each other so much we haven't taken many pictures of the girls together until recently. You may recall their super cute popsicle and pink chair pictures but we also recently met up to play in the mall and have lunch.

This morning we went over to Amy and Brinley's house so the girls could play together in the baby pool and sprinklers, the first of many mornings like this I am sure!

We put the slide in the pool and the girls loved it!

After a picnic lunch, a popsicle, and some playtime inside we headed home and now my worn out munchkin is sleeping peacefully in her room. Ahhh!!!

We love you Brinley and Amy!!!

She's at it again

Vaune got such rave reviews from Amy over Ava's pictures that she asked her if she would take some of Brinley. Brinley is so photogenic, smiles on command, and will do what you ask her to do to get a great shot so Amy got some fabulous pictures of Brin! I came to watch Luke and Ava while they were taking pictures so Vaune took a few of Ava with her best buds. Beautiful kids + talented photographer= breathtaking pictures!! You have to go to my shutterfly site to see them though.

Memorial Day Weekend Fun

Our Memorial Day weekend was jam packed with fun activities! Papa and Gramielle came in town so we planned some fun outings to do with them and enjoy the beautiful weather.

On Saturday we went to the Ft. Worth Zoo

This baby monkey and it's mommy were my favorite

My little monkey had a great time pointing out all the animals. It had been a year since we had been to the zoo so she was a lot more interested.

We fed the birds and this white bird landed on her stick

On Sunday we went to the Arboretum. Ava got to ride in the hiking backpack again in preparation for our hiking trip with P & G in August. She loves that thing. Pretty sure I would too!

On Monday we went over to Alli and Greg's new house and Ava helped them plant flowers in their flower bed.

She had fun digging in the dirt with her shovels and pouring dirt on top of the flowers.

But the most fun was when Alli took out the hose...

These two have so much fun together!

Cute, cute, cute!!!!!!


Later that evening she helped us plant some flowers in our own yard. Well, maybe she just played in the dirt but she thought she was helping.

Love her!

Nothing makes me happier than doing things with her that I know she loves and makes her smile. Thanks Papa, Gramielle, Aunt Alli, and Greg for making this Memorial Day weekend so fun and memorable!

More pictures from our weekend on the Shutterfly site!

Accessorizing & Visit from Uncle Jim

Lately Ava has been way into wearing accessories such as her beads and mismatched mittens and water shoes. Nice look!

This one might be a framer for future reference although I am sure it is bound to get worse when she starts picking out her own clothes!

Macy gets the privilege of wearing the beads sometimes too!

This past weekend Uncle Jim was in town to go to a concert and stopped in to visit with is little niece and play in her kitchen.

Not always as quiet as she seems

Some of these videos are kind of long but I wanted to post them so you can see that yes Ava does talk (she gets asked that all the time because she is so shy) and she can belt out some killer songs! This girl cracks me up. Never a dull moment with her, especially when we are in the comfort of our own home.

On this video she wanted me to show her the screen on the camera so that she could see herself, hence the stares and shy faces, and then all of a sudden Daddy came home from work which I wasn't expecting so I got her usual reaction to him coming home on video. So adorable! She talks a mile a minute and tries to recount everything we did that day.

Singing a medley of her favorite hits- Amazing Love (learned at the kids program at church), Ring-Around-The-Rosie, ABC's, and Hosanna (another church song)

Demonstrating her drawing skills (straight lines, circles, and dots) and we have also been working on the concepts of "same" and "different".

Attempt at 2 year pictures

Last week my sweet friend Vaune, who has some mad picture taking skills, was kind of enough to take a few pictures of Ava since I am too cheap to pay a photographer for pictures every year. I was mostly there to help get her son Luke (as in Lukie, Ava's bf) to smile and look at the camera so she could get some 3 year pictures of him. The fact that she took some of Ava was an added bonus to our day. We didn't get as many great ones of Ava as we would have liked but that is simply do to the fact that she doesn't sit still for more than 2 seconds and she doesn't smile on command. Add her boyfriend Lukie, his baby sister Vivie, and some rain showers into the mix and all they wanted to do was play and be silly. Oh well! It was still fun and Vaune got a few cute shots of my sweetie pie. Thanks friend! My goal this summer is to take an online photography class and get better at this picture taking stuff. Vaune got me inspired!

The picture are on our shutterfly link.

My 3rd Mother's Day

I had a wonderful 3rd Mother's day with this precious little munchkin.

After church we went to brunch.

She must have known it was a special day for mom because she was all about giving me endless hugs. I told her that is all I needed for Mother's Day!

After naptime she presented me with a beautiful handmade card that her and Daddy created. Very beautiful and just might be my favorite card of all time (handmdade cards are Mikey's specialties and I treasure every single one)!

It definitely had a real flower and real grass taped on it. :)



I will never get tired of these moments!

Close up of the card from Ava

I'm pressing the flower so hopefully it will still look pretty for years to come.

I also got a card from Macy and Daddy, hehe

After I opened my cards (I asked for no gifts but time with my family) I made us some fruit smoothies and we went to the park to feed the ducks and geese.

This was the geese family we were feeding. The babies looked like they were going through their awkward "teenage" years but they were cute nonetheless. The momma goose was hissing and giving Mikey the evil eye so we didn't stick around too long.

If only I could get her to smile on command


For now I will just settle with the gaze off in the distance pictures (with Daddy's nose in the corner- oops)

There was a park near the pond with lots of shade, other than the swings, so we played till we were wiped out....and sweaty! It was a HOT day!

This is actually a look of excitement rather than terror. She insisted that Daddy jump with her.

Doing a little modeling


Did I mention it was also super windy?

We ended my fun Mother's Day with a walk around the neighborhood after dinner. Ava insisted on wearing her heels, carrying her purse, and pushing her baby in the stroller.

I had my doubts for awhile but I think I have a girly girl on my hands. Even when her hard plastic heels were rubbing blisters on her feet she did NOT want us to take them off or carry her....true woman! Guess she is already adopting the beauty over comfort philosophy.

Ava Marie, never in my dreams could I have imagined how wonderful a feeling, how great an honor, it would be to have you and be your mother. This precious time that I have with you at home and all the fond memories we are making will forever be in my heart. Thank you for all your sweet hugs, kisses, hand holds, and "Hi Momma's". These are the "I love you's" that I know you are showing me. I love YOU precious girl and I'm so very proud to be your momma.

For LOTS more pictures from our day check out the shutterfly site!