HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

First, Happy Halloween!! We had a great, fun night that flew by and was over before we knew it!

Seconly, so sorry for the lack of updates lately! For all y'all know- Bella is still eating mush, not walking, not babbling, and not being the suuuuuuper sweet little thang that she is. :) She is a love. And such a happy girl. So, I will try to do better...like I always say! Haha.

So, as you can see, we had a little duckie and a ladybug! Bella wore the same costume that Ava had when she was one- I loved it so much the first time, I had to see it again!

And, little Ava. Who's not so little anymore, right?! She wanted to be a ladybug and it was perfect for her! Not to mention really easy for me, too!! She just looks so grown up to me in this picture!

I mean, come ON with those stripped stocking and feet!!! Cute, Cute, Cute!!!

Any of you with more than one child will understand when I tell you that this was the best picture of the two of them together that I could get!
Ava is such a wonderful listener and was doing just as I asked, but then there's Bella! She literally CANNOT sit still for more than about 1.5 seconds! By the time I placed her where I wanted, ran back a few feet, and tried to take the picture, she was already up and long gone! Like this!
Ava was so patient and very politely asked if she could "go play with [her] friends now?" This was literally the last time I saw Ava until she was done trick or treating- not on purpose, though. One of the neighbors made a little hay ride and drove all the cul-de-sac kids to the back of the neighborhood and dropped them off and they trick or treated from the back to the front....which made it twice as fast as last year! So, she waved bye, and hopped on the hay ride and that was that.

Had I not taken so many pictures of Belly, then I may have made it out to meet her (which was my plan all along- take Bella to a few houses then meet Ava while Bella slept). Weeeeeell- I guess I took too many pictures...but it was kinda nice focusing on Bella for a while. She never gets all the attention! Here she is having a bit of Aunt Sarah's pizza!


She loves to back up to little places to sit, and the stairs are one of her favorite spots. Cute, huh?!
FINALLY, we finished pictures and started out for Bella's first trick or treat experience! She was so ready to go!
She was pointing to everyone's decorations and telling Daddy all about them!The first house. She had no idea what to do! Patrick has to coach her!

She was a little intrigued and finally accepted some candy from Mrs. Lynn!
She made it to 3 houses this year and got a ride in the beer wagon. See, most of you would think wagons are primarily for transporting children, but not at our house. We use it for beer. Luckily, you can't see my Prosecco wine bottle wrapped in a dish towel. :) Necessities, people, necessities!

Well, that's about it for this year!! By the time Bella went up to bed, I was going back out to meet Ava....and guess who was ringing the doorbell for some candy. Oh well! It was a great, fun night! I hope y'all had a blast!!!

Ava's Birthday (so...I'm a little behind)!

So, Ava turned FOUR ....uh...a month ago. We celebrated at Michee and Pop's with yet another Mermaid themed (Ava's choice!) pool party. But, this time we had a slip-n-slide, which was the absolute HIGHLIGHT for Ava! She was all ready to go with her goggles in place!

It took her several tries before she would actually get a running start and slide down...at first she would run up to the slip-n-slide, lay nicely on her belly, and think that was going to get her to the bottom. But, eventually....she got it!

Went down, RAN back up! Went down, RAN back up! Went down, RAN back up! Loved it!
Two of her favorite people- her best friend neighbor Josh (who was the only non-family friend who came. We try to keep it simple with family only for birthdays. But, they are moving soon- which we are very sad about) and cousin Keegan going side by side!


So much fun!
Kyle was such a good sport!

Sweet Belly enjoyed the pool party, too! Just love her...

Her mermaid stuff...
Cupcake tradition

Listening to us sing...

Super excited to get to lick the candles!

Mama and big girl...check out that huge grin!!

She had a great birthday weekend! Her actual birthday fell on a Friday, and Patrick and I had some of our best friends over to celebrate on her actual day- pizza, salad, and a cupcake for Ava. She got to have a little grown up party and open her presents from us. She thought she was the coolest kid around.


And she was right. :)


So, there you have it! A little update. There are many more things to update for both girls (milestones, vacations, school, etc), but like I always say, I really want to start updating more often...with smaller posts. It's easier for me and easier to read, too! Ugh....if only I didn't have to sleep....

Thanks for reading! I'll update much sooner next time...I PROMISE!

Happy Birthday Belly!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BELLA!!!

I cannot believe it's been a year since that day. That day that was way too early. But, just look at her now. She is absolute perfection.

I find myself thinking that I'm actually sad that Bella is already one year old. I really don't know how that happened! I remember so much from Ava's first year, so many little, tiny, small memories. But this past year- I swear it was a blur! But just as I start to think of how sad I am that the time has flown by, I look at her, and I am so thankful. She was scary early. She spent the first month of her life in a little plastic box with a feeding tube leading to her stomach. Slooooooowly gaining weight so she could some home to her momma.

And now.....she eats spaghetti like a champ.

She stands up all by herself.
She adores her big sister.

She embraces her Southern roots ;) (Looks like she's ready to shoot a squirrel here! Not that Bella could ever shoot a squirrel)!

She smiles real BIG!

She eats a sherbet ice cream cone from the bottom!

She stands up tall and can take 5 steps all by herself!

And she makes her momma SO proud. Lump-in-your-throat kind of proud. She is a fighter and is such a strong girl. Today, I thanked God that I have a wonderful, healthy, incredibly happy, red-headed ONE YEAR OLD baby girl.....and she's all mine.

And she is perfect. Happy Birthday, Bella. We could not be more blessed.

Summertime!!!

Ok, people. I have videos out the wazoo, but I can't for the life of me EVER FIGURE OUT how to do them on the Mac! I'll get there...but you'll have to settle for more pics for now.

The videos are really cute, though, so hopefully I can get some up and running!!!

BIG NEWS this past week! Bella is 11 months old now (wow!!!) and is weighing in at right around 19 pounds! In the past week she

1) Crawled

2) Clapped

3) Pulled herself up in her crib!!!

Wowzers! For real, this baby is on the move, and she is crazy busy and into everything!!! Time to baby proof.
We're officially in summer now! Ava had her last day of school at the end of May. She wont be returning back since she'll be starting PRE-K (yikes!!) this fall at her new school!!! Ahhhhh!!! How did this happen?? We have LOVED the school that she's been in. It only goes through Kindergarten, though, and we wanted to start her in the school she'll be attending from here on out starting with Pre-K. But, let me tell you, I cried like a baby (you know, that ugly cry cause you're trying to talk and cry at the same time?!) when I dropped her off for the last time and told her teachers and everyone else how much I appreciate the extra effort they put forth to expose the kids to as much as possible. And they have always been so loving- especially at the beginning (which you can recall here) when she and I both would be in tears each time I had to bring her to school. I'll never forget her very first teacher, Ms. Kristin, who just took her in and completely gave her extra TLC. It made Ava's adjustment period so much easier. And now, 2 years later, Ava LOVES school, her teachers, her friends, her experiences, and she is WELL prepared for Pre-K. So, to reminice, here's Ava on her first day of school 2 years ago in 2009!
And here's her last day of school, 2 years later. Such a big girl. I'm so proud of her.
Here are her fabulous teachers!!! Her teachers this past year, Ms. Liz and Ms. G:
Some of her classmates:
I also visited at lunchtime on her last day to snap a few more pics. They have always been taught such wonderful manners- they all wait to eat until everyone is at the table. :)

And, of course, we had to get one last hug from the original Ms. Kristin:
She's had wonderful teachers from the start, and they have left some very big shoes to fill!!!


So, this summer, we're all home- Bella, Ava, myself, and Illanka. Illanka takes care of Ava and Bella when I'm working and also helps to keep me sane during the rest of the week as well (ie: watches the girls while I go to the grocery store, the gym, errands, etc)! We're having fun just hanging out, going to the pool, and enjoying the lazy days of summer.

All ready to head to the pool:

Bella gets so excited clapping these days!
And, of course, there's always noise, talking, singing, reading, asking questions, yelling, imitating Bella's noises, etc coming from Ava. (Anyone who has ever tried to talk to me on the phone when she is around can attest to that)! Here, you can see we are enjoying her drumming/singing concert. ;)

Just caught the tail end of Bella's crawling here:
We've been having a great summer so far. I can't believe how quickly everything is flying by already!!! For those of you following Patrick, he finished his board exams (yay, yay, double yay!!) and has started his monthly rotations. For 4 of the next 12 months, he'll be away on rotations (but, he'll usually be able to be back on weekends)! He's 2 weeks into his first one and is doing great (as I knew he would) but is very busy!!! This one happens to be away, so we don't see him during the week, but he does manage to make it home on the weekends. We miss him during the week, but, honestly, they seriously FLY BY, and the weekends are here before we know it! I also get a lot of help from Illanka! It'll be nice to have him on a local rotation in July, though!

I'll be taking a vacation from work the first week in July, so I'm looking forward to that! Usually, we'd make our way to Kiawah during that time, but we're gonna wait until the end of the summer to head that way this year. Can't wait for that!!! (But, I don't want to wish my summer away, so I'll wait patiently)!

Well, I think that's about it!! Things are busy, but totally great actually. I am enjoying life and the girls. I'm pretty damn lucky.

Oh yeah....HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to Patrick and my Dad! We had a great time at Michee's house for the day!!! Love y'all!!!

**UPDATE** We weren't able to see Grandpa Mike on Father's Day and I forgot to mention him in the Father's Day shout out! Sorry Grandpa Mike! You know we love you!!!