Whiskers

So, Ava and I were hanging out this morning and the sun was shinning through the windows....so, I laid down on the floor right where the sun was coming in to enjoy it's warmth. Ava came over and laid next to me and noticed something shimmering in the light.....

Ava: "Mommy, do you have hair right there?" (pointing to my upper lip).

Me: "Yeah, I have a little hair there."

Ava: "Mommy, you have whiskers!"

Guess it's time for a wax. :)


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Merry Christmas!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and super fun Christmas!! Ours was great!! We went to Bobbi's for Christmas Eve and woke up there Christmas morning. Ava got to open a trillion presents from Santa and Bobbi/Grandpa Mike!

Then we went over to Michee and Pop's for the rest of Christmas Day!! Ava had so many toys/presents to open on Christmas that she ran out of juice when only a few were left!!!

Here she is making her way through the presents....
A princess may not open her gifts without her tiara.... (thanks to Michee for that one)!
Today- Patrick and I didn't waste any time taking our tree and the other Christmas decorations down...including the Nativity scene. Well....Ava notice I had put that away and was very concerned and said, "Mommy- where did God and Baby Jesus go??" :) I mean- could she be any cuter?!! I had to explain that I'd take them out again next Christmas and she seemed to be okay with that!

I forgot my camera- so these are the only pictures I have as my dad was kind enough to take a few and email them to me!

Anyway, I hope everyone's Christmas was great!!! Enjoy the rest of the year!!

PS. Other exciting news....I got my braces off!! Yay!!!

Candy Sticks and Jingle Bells

SANTA'S COMING!

Ava's reaction when she heard Santa would be coming to her house. :)


Well...ok, not really, but isn't it cute? My mom had some Christmas pictures taken of all the kids (Ava, Keegan, and Emery) and this is just one of them. The photographer was great, her name is Amie and is the owner of Amie J Ledford Photography. She was so great...and patient!!

Coffee, anyone?!?

Ava spends her Friday's with Michee. I bring Ava to work with me on Friday morning, and Michee picks her up and they always go to "Bucky's" (Michee's abbreviation of Starbucks) for breakfast. Ava usually gets oatmeal and chocolate milk. My mom always sends a picture of Ava from her iPhone....this is the one I got today with a headline of, "We start 'em young!"

Great! A coffee drinking 2 year old. Just perfect! ;)


HAPPY FRIDAY!

Happy Thanksween

So, it's been a while since I've updated...so, since Halloween AND Thanksgiving have now passed, I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksween! Not very creative, I know. But I tried.

Anyways, things are great! Life, somehow, is still super busy- but I think that's just the way it is now. Patrick being in school makes it seem busier too...since he's not around nearly as much and I generally have Ava by myself. But, it's great and I'm enjoying things!!

We had the chance to head up north to Burt's Pumkin Farm about a week before Halloween. We went with Ian, Booj, the kids, Michee, and Pop!! We had a great time- here are Keegan and Ava checking out this pumpkin.
It was a great day- cold but very sunny. They had a hay ride there- that's what I liked the best. Ava kept saying, "LOOK, a pumpkin" every time we saw one- which was a LOT! It was real cute. :) Here we all are- one big happy family! :)
The kids watching the tractor hay ride go by!

Halloween was fun minus the really crappy weather. We trick or treated in Bobbi's neighborhood. Ava did great- she walked up like an ol' pro with her very over sized candy bag (since I forgot her cute little Hello Kitty one that Michee got her) and said, "Trick or Treat!" Very cute. :) Then after the 5th house, she said, "Ava all done, go open candy." So, I jumped right on that and said, "Ok, great!! All done!" (For all you people who think I deprived her of her Halloween experience, if the weather wasn't so terrible, I probably would have encouraged her a little more...but it was terrible and I was cold and wet! So, that sounded great to me)! So, we went inside and had a piece of candy then ate dinner. Never mentioned her candy again after that night! That left 4 pieces for Patrick and me!! ;) Bobbi's neighborhood had a little party before- here are some pictures!


Our very serious Little MermaidThanksgiving was great too! Both families got together at Patrick's parent's house. It was a beautiful, sunny day which made it all that much better! I don't have any Thanksgiving pictures this year. Admittedly, I've been super slack with the picture taking (which Patrick has loved!). And I've also been really bad with remembering/writing down the funny phrases that Ava has been saying these days. Every time she opens her mouth- it's either funny or cute. Well...almost every time. ;)

Ava is almost 28 months now, and she's doing great. I'll just post some pictures here today...and I'll try to remember some cute stories to add at another post. Enjoy!!

Ava imitates EVERYTHING we do and say- and here she is studying just like Daddy.

Her hair doesn't weigh quite enough to avoid looking semi-ridiculous with pigtails, but I thought it was cute anyway! I think her hair somewhat resembles Shrek here! :) What do you think?? Just hanging out at her keyboard that Uncle Pat gave her. She sure does love that thing.

LOVE this profile shot. And the ponytail is the CUTEST!!
She loves to lay all over Catcher and Salsa. Catcher is generally very tolerant of her craziness. :) A sweet shot of her on Halloween night.

Here she is zooming around on the new deck at the lakehouse!Keegan spent the weekend with us a few weeks ago, and they really had so much fun together.
This was so funny- Ava pulled her rocking chair up to the fire place (which was on), got a book, and sat there reading it. Did this all by herself- we just looked over and saw this!!!
I've got a really cute video to put up very soon...so, come back soon. I promise it wont take me another 2 months to post! Here are a few more pics of Ava during the past few months if you're interested!

Is this what it would be like with twins?

Well, our first night with two 2-year-olds went really well! They have been playing very well together! Bath time was great. Bed time was slightly less smooth. :) But it was still good.

Patrick read them the first book, but after that they didn't want to read the same book! So, Keegan eventually climbed down, brought me a different book, and plopped down in my lap for me to read. So, then, we had two story times going on at the same time- Patrick in the rocker and me on the floor. Oh well! It worked!

Then, after I got them settled and tucked in...I left the room and almost immediately, I could hear Keegan talking to Ava...saying, "Hi, Ava, hi." Over and over. :) Every now and then I'd hear a giggle from Ava. It was pretty cute. But about 45 minutes after I left the room, they both were sleeping like babies. :) So, not bad.

I could totally handle twins. ;)

Happy Fall

My mom has the wonderful opportunity to watch ALL THREE GRANDBABIES today! That's two 2 year olds and one 1 year old!!! I imagine she's pretty busy! ;)

It's not the best picture (sent from a phone), but here are Ava and Keegan playing in the leaves at Michee's house. Aren't they just so freakin' cute!!? Two little red heads. :)

This weekend, Ian and Booj are out of town, and we're keeping Keegan! Ava's gonna love constantly having someone around to play with! My biggest challenge? I think it will be the sleeping arrangement. Keegan isn't in a crib anymore, but Ava is. I think we're gonna have Keegan sleep on a little mattress on the floor in Ava's room. It's the only bedroom (other than ours) that has a door on it! (He loves to open ALL doors)! So, we'll see how that goes. If they keep each other up, I may give Patrick the boot and have Keegan with me.

Patrick has his finals coming up this week, so I'm planning on him being mostly MIA. So, I think it'll just be me and the kids. Yay!! I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll be exhausted by the end of the weekend, but right now, I'm ready! Thank goodness for the gorgeous weather!! We'll spend a lot of time at the park! Have a great weekend!!

PS. I promise, I'll post Halloween pictures soon...and an update!

Boo Gators!!

We're all getting ready for the big game this weekend against Florida!! Ava's ready too!!

GO DAWGS!!!

Ava 25 mos....well...almost 26 months! :)

So, I'm a huge blog slacker. I can't help it. I'm too busy for this thing anymore. Is anyone even still reading???

Ok, ok...well, so Ava is 25 months now...although, she's just about to be 26 months! Ooops! I know you're not supposed to do the whole "month" age thing past age 2...but I can't just say, "she's two" on every post for the next year!! So...I'm sticking with the months!

Anyway, we've had a super fun past couple of weeks. Although, things are CRAZY hectic. But, they're good...so I can't complain!

Ava's doing great! She's talking up a storm...in fact, I think she's finally starting to wear out her grand parents eardrums!! And her vocal chords! The child DOES NOT STOP TALKING!! Ever. Even random strangers out and about will comment on how much she just talks and talks and talks. Truly, my ears rarely get any peace. The very rare car ride sans child is about all I get! I guess it could be worse! We still haven't entered into the temper tantrum stage yet...although, I know SOMETHING is bound so come my way! Ava is a firecracker with an incredibly independent (and sometimes bossy!) personality! It can't just be all flowers and rainbows for too much longer! ;)

Ava's getting much more used to our new schedule...school included! She usually still cries a little either when I put her school clothes on in the morning and/or when we pull into the school parking lot saying, "no go to school." :( Even if she isn't crying when we get to her room, as soon as she sees it, she starts again. BUT, she usually stops crying even before I leave the room. She gets a report sent home with her everyday about what she did, what she ate, how she acted....and her favorite teacher, Ms. Kristen, has recently been writing things like, "Ava was very cheerful today!" I really love her teacher, and she seems to understand Ava's personality very well now. Ava talks about her all the time at home and even "God blesses" Ms. Kristen during our nightly prayers! So cute. One of her favorite parts of the day at school is music class...she really opens up in there and sings and dances away! On days that she doesn't have school...she KNOWS it! On Monday mornings, she'll say, "no Ava go to school on Monday! No mommy go to work on Monday!"

So, it's been raining a ton here...basically since we moved from Florida! So, we've had to be creative with inside play....or, a little puddle play where there's a break in the rain!But, on the rare ocassion that we've gotten some decent weather- we've hit the park several times. Ava really misses being able to be outside all the time. In Florida, we had a fenced in back yard that was just a step out the kitchen. She spent HOURS out there...almost daily! She hasn't gotten to do that much here..so, when we get to go to the park, she gets REALLY excited! Here are her and Keegan at the park together for the FIRST TIME EVER!!! It was just about to rain the entire time, but it held off! They had a great time together!!They've gotten to play together several more times at other various parks in the area. She loves going by herself, but she really loves it when she's got a buddy to play with! Here are some super sweet pics!
Keegan, wanna kiss?? :)They played in the mulch under the playground for like 30 minutes!


There was an charity softball event that Patrick played in (with my brothers Pat and Ian and a bunch of his baseball buddies from college), and we all went to the ballpark on Friday night. It was a blast! Ava had the best time! Can't wait 'til local ballparks are a part of our life on a regular basis (whether is be with one of my kids or Keegan)!! Here's Patrick and Ava having a blast!Patrick teaching Ava how to run the bases!
Patrick showing Ava how to run the bases!
Rounding third...almost home!!
Now what, mommy?After a forward roll. Loved playing in the grass!!
Sorry again for the delay...but that pretty much catches you up. Life is great! Here's more pictures of Ava at 25 months if you didn't get enough!! :)

SOLD!

Well....we sold our perfect little house in Florida.

I went down this past weekend to get the rest of our stuff moved out of the house. I flew down on Saturday, rented a moving van, and drove it back to Georgia on Sunday.

When I got there, I was reminded of one of the reasons I loved living there so much...the weather was awesome- hot and sunny- not a trace of rain! The house still looked like our house...when I went inside, I felt like I was home. It was a weird feeling because when I arrived there, I felt like I was going back home. I always used to say that I was "back home" when I got back to Georgia. Of course, I love Georgia. But, I really loved our life there, and I have so many wonderful memories.

So, farewell to our first home. We'll never forget you!

Bilingual Baby???

Isn't Dora great?! :)

Cantaloupe

A morning video for your viewing pleasure! :)

Sorry about the quality...I'm still getting the hang of this iMac!!

Mermaid Birthday Patry

Two birthday parties for the two year old! Her actual birthday was a Wednesday, so we just had a very casual dinner at Barb's house with my and Patrick's parents. Ava's "real" birthday party wasn't until Saturday, and I didn't want her to have nothing to open on her actual day, so I got her a few things. Well, I should have known!! Everything else did the same thing! She had TONS of stuff to open!

Bobbi made some cupcakes, and we sang Happy Birthday (which she now sings to herself almost daily)! She got lots of good stuff----the nosiest gift from Uncle Pat- a keyboard! Just wait 'til HE has kids! ;) I got her a few bracelets and a "princess skirt" (tutu) which she has renamed the "mermaid dress." I love it! So cute! Here she is swishing it around showing it off!


I also got her a necklace with a cupcake on it. I called it her birthday cupcake necklace, and she loved it! Here she is checking it out! I love this picture!The sweetest birthday smile in town!
Uncle Pat teaching Ava how to get ready to catch a ball!

YAY! We did it!
For her birthday party- I did another cupcake pull-away cake. I like them, cause you can make it whatever you want! I showed the lady a picture of her invitation, and she made this for us! Ava loved it!
Ava didn't really know what to think about that big 'ol cake in front of her with everyone singing!!But, she adjusted right away! She requested the "red one!" Then the blue one...then the pink one. Had to try them all! ;)
Enjoying a cupcake with Grandpa Mike!Cousin Keegan was so nice to bring this amazing blowup slide thing! They had such a fun time sliding and bouncing!!

One of Ava's big presents- from Grandpa Mike and Bobbi! A dollhouse! She loves this thing and was so sweet when she unwrapped it and realized what it was! She would play with this for hours in a day if she could!

Her other big gift- from Michee and Pop- a Wiggle Racer (which she calls her "wiggle race car"). The outfit was her Mermaid Dress she wore while she opened her presents! :)
Uncle Steve gave her a great present (and very appropriate in the baseball family)! It took her a few tries, (and Daddy had to help a little!) but she eventually it the ball! You can tell baseball is in Keegan's blood! He had NO problem figuring that out!!
Cousin Keegan was so nice to bring his new toy- this gigantic blow up climbing wall and slide!! Ava LOVED it and has not stopped talking about it since!!! She calls it the "sliding board," and keeps saying, "go on Keegan's sliding board again!!!"...followed by a giddy giggle! :) Here they are playing on the slide!!We had a great time! Ava has been singing Happy Birthday to herself ever since! Haha! :)