Weekend Fun with Papa, Nana, and Friends

Last weekend we drove to San Antonio to spend some time with Papa and Nana and to visit some special friends. It was the perfect weekend and we all enjoyed every minute of it.

There was so much for Ava to do at Papa and Nana's! This girl was in heaven! (Nana has another granddaughter so their house is stocked with fun girl toys)

She played with the giant dollhouse and made a new kitty friend (the newest animal on Papa and Nana's "farm")

She got to pet Dotty the chicken who lets you hold her

She rode a tricycle

These are my dad and Shirley's chickens who just roam around in the yard with the dogs and cats. Hilarious to watch, especially when all the roosters start crowing at one time!

Papa pushed her in the swing

She rode in the coupe car

Did some gardening in the dirt

Of course she had to get some coloring in with her new friend


Saturday night while Papa and Nana watched Ava, Mikey and I met up with some of our good friends to celebrate Kristen and Scott's upcoming wedding. The couples shower was so much fun and it was great to get to catch up with friends without having to worry about our kids. (I didnt bring my camera so unfortunately I dont have any pictures from our night)

On Sunday morning we sadly said goodbye to Papa and Nana and went over to The Reynolds' house to meet their new baby girl, Hannah. She is just as adorable and sweet as I thought she would be!

So happy for my bestie Paige! Isn't Hannah precious with all that hair!?

The Isaacsons and Burkharts also joined us to meet the newest addition to the Reynolds family. I am glad we got to see their faces again and get all of our kids together to play, something that we very rarely get to do. I absolutely hate that we all live in different towns and we dont get to watch each other's kids grow up. It makes me really appreciate mornings like this that we get to spend together watching our kids play together.

We let the kids play outside for as long as we could stand the heat.

Big brother Ray giving me his cute new smile. :)

Bekah, rocking her pink tutu bathing suit, is recently potty trained and went poo poo in the potty while we were there so we celebrated with a group hug! Yay for Bekah! What a big girl!

We couldn't leave without a group shot. I absolutely love each and every one of these kids!

(Alex, Bekah, Ray, Ava, Ellie, Hannah)

Not the most lady like pose from my child but at least she is smiling. I think the rest of them were stunned by Ava's daddy waddling around in front of them like a chicken to get them to smile.

*More pics from our weekend on the Shutterfly site!

It's the Ava Marie Clubhouse

Yesterday we spent most of the day at the house so that I could unpack from our trip to San Antonio (post coming soon) and do laundry. It was the perfect day for a tent in the kitchen, or clubhouse as Ava called it, so that my little munchkin would be entertained.

She brought way too many toys in her clubhouse (whoa there Barbie!) and she even gathered all the picture frames she could find to decorate her space. :)

There was still plenty of room for Macy though. I love my sweet girls! I could just kiss their faces all day!

Gigi and Bpop sent a special package last week filled with new boxes of bandaids so I thought this was a good day to let her play with them. Our legs were covered in them!

Kay Kay and Bri also sent her this pretty dress from their trip to Florida. I think you can tell from the picture how much she liked it!

Sometimes lazy days like these are some of our most fun!

A Walk Down Memory Lane- Summer 2010

I was looking back at videos of Ava this time last year and couldn't help but repost a couple of videos of her. I could watch these videos for hours.

This one is proof that she has loved coloring from such an early age. Click here for the Video

Here is one with some of her first words

And this final one is from a few weeks ago on one of our walks just for comparison of how much she has grown in the past year.

Please Pray

I am numb and just heartbroken for this sweet family who lost their precious baby yesterday to brain cancer. I have been praying for him along with Callie, Amy's friend's daughter who also has brain cancer, for weeks now. I have no words to describe my emotions. My friend Jennie wrote a beautiful post about this precious baby and his family that is more than I can write at this moment. I dont know this family but I know how bad they must be hurting....losing your child is something that I cannot even bare to think about and I am absolutely grief stricken for them.

Please pray for the Sikes Family. That our Heavenly Father would comfort them and surround them with His love during this difficult time and that their story will minister to the hearts of others and draw them closer to our God.

Please also pray for 2 year old Callie who is also battling brain cancer. Pray that God would heal her tiny body and free her from cancer and that He would bring comfort and peace to her parents. Please perform your miracle oh Lord!


I feel absolutely helpless for these families but I know the one thing that I (we) can do is pray. Will you join me?

Stickers

Anytime we take Ava to church or to the YMCA they always put her name tag sticker on her back. No surprise there however lately she thinks that all stickers, which also include address labels, belong on our back and hers (and Macy). It is really funny until you get stopped in the store because you have address labels stuck to your back and sometimes your butt. Thanks Ava!

And I swear she doesnt run around every day without pants on! For some reason recently all of our pictures of her at home have been of her pantless.

Big Day for Our Big Girl

Yesterday was a big day for Miss Ava! She got her new school backpack and lunchbox in the mail and couldn't wait to put it on {and fill it with all sorts of playfood from her kitchen beforehand}. She walked around so proudly and looked like such a big girl. {tear...}

She definitely looks like she is going to school but we were just going to run an errand and she insisted on wearing it to the car.

And yes it's a little big....but I ordered the size up from the typical preschool backpack because the preschool size is so tiny and I wanted her to be able to use this one for awhile. Plus it holds her matching lunchbox and any papers she may have from school perfectly. I love it when Pottery Barn has sales!

The biggest excitement though was last night when she FINALLY went tee tee in the potty!!! Woohoo!

I have been asking her for months now if she wants to try and go on the potty and she has not been the least bit interested....until I finally bribed her with candy! Why didnt I try this sooner? She sat on her potty several times after I told her I would give her candy if she went but still no luck. It was better than not trying though so I was pleased. Right before bathtime I asked her if she wanted to try now that daddy was home and she said yes and actually went!!! It was very exciting and she was very proud of herself!

{You may have been asking yourself why her potty is in the kitchen??!! Not your typical place to go potty but I wanted to have it nearby us during the day so that if she felt the urge to go then it would be close by. We will not be keeping it here for the record. Talk about unsanitary!}

Getting her candy, smarties to be exact. I was surprised that she didnt throw a fit and want more after only eating 4 but she knew she would get more next time she went potty. We are by no means ready for full potty training just yet but I am so proud of her for making this first step. I want her to become a little more comfortable and familiar with going on the potty before we really get serious about it.

Congrats my sweet BIG girl!! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!

Our Little Nurse

I have mentioned before Ava's obssession with bandaids. The other day she found some boo boo's on mommy and daddy that she thought needed some attention. Click here to watch. (youtube was being difficult so I had to include the link rather than actual video)