Crazy Few Weeks

I know I am such a slacker at this.  I know someday I really am going to regret not writing in here as much as I should because I forget so many fun things.  Maybe that should be my new years resolution.  A lot has happened the last few weeks though and I just haven't gotten around to sitting down and posting.  I guess I will start where I should have 2 months ago at Halloween.  We had a fun halloween with lots of activities.  This year we went with the theme of Cinderella (because of our little Ella).  Ella was Cinderella, Ava was the cat - whose name in the movie is sometimes very fitting to her... you can look that up if you don't know it's name :), Dave was Gus Gus, and I was the fairy godmother (who apparently looked like Lady Gaga because that was what I kept getting - that was insulting...). Anyways it was tons of fun and Ava loved trick or treating.  She just barely stopped asking me if we could do more trick or treating - she loves her treats (bad habit from her mother).

Right before Halloween Dave surprised me with a fun date to the Taylor Swift concert.  It was so fun and at the end she even got into a basket that carried her around the stadium and she went right next to us (the picture is kinda blurry). We got tickets from some...interesting people outside the stadium but we got a great deal so it was totally worth it. It was such a fun date and who doesn't love Taylor Swift?!?

For the first two weeks of November Dave had to work night shifts so I had Ava sleep in bed with me.  We both loved it.  One morning she woke me up by kissing me on the cheek.  It was so sweet.  She is such a sweet little girl.  Sometimes I have to remind myself of that on those days when she isn't as sweet.  Lately her favorite phrase is "Ava do/try it." She is trying to be miss independent and sometimes that is hard when she wants to do things she is just not ready to do.  She is such a funny little girl though and so fun to watch grow up.  I think she is ready to potty train although she really doesn't want much to do with it.  However after nap/quiet time lately I find her completely undressed with her diaper thrown in the trash and the wipes she used to wipe herself on the floor.  This is not always the greatest thing to walk into when she has gone #2 and has sat on the carpet with a not so thoroughly wiped bottom... or when she thinks the chair in her room is a toilet and it's filled with pee... or when there are little poop pellets scattered throughout her room... I am pretty sure it is time for her to go on the toilet.  The only problem is she refuses to do it or even try unless it is bedtime and she is trying to avoid sleeping.  But she is getting some underwear for Christmas so maybe that will change her mind. She is so funny and so much fun though.  She has a crazy obsession with holding things and lining her toys up.  She always has so we aren't too worried about it... Although I have looked into some things and everything just tells me we have a high energy child... Hmm really? I didn't need to read anything to figure that out.  Our lives would be so boring without her though since she really is the life of the party.

Ella is our calm and patient little girl.  However she does not let Ava get away with much.  I love watching them and how funny it is when Ava does something or takes something from Ella and Ella starts "screaming" at Ava.  It is so hilarious to watch and Ava then gets all nervous and gives her a hug and tells her it is ok or gives back whatever she has stolen.  I think Ella is doing a good job of teaching Ava to share and be nice because she has improved greatly the last little bit although we are still working on Ava.  Ella got her first tooth at about 8 1/2 months and thinks she is such a big girl.  She always wants to eat what Ava is eating and wants to do what Ava does too.  Sometimes I worry about that :).  She loves her big sister though and is following in her footsteps too by being super tiny.  She is in the 5th percentile for weight and 12th for height.  We make them small I guess.. Ella also loves climbing and pulling herself up on to things and teases her big sister relentlessly which I love - Ava needs a good tease every so often. She is a spitter and a hair puller too and thinks doing both of those things is hilarious.  We love her little laugh and smile.

 This Thanksgiving we hosted for the first time ever.  Dave and I cooked and everything suprisingly turned out delicious.  I was really nervous but making Thanksgiving dinner isn't as bad as I imagined.  We had Dave's parents, grandmas, and uncle over.  It was a small gathering but so fun to be with family. That morning we ran a 5K turkey trot with our ward so we felt more justified in the feast we would indulge in later that day.  It was a lot of fun to do as a family.

That night my sister in law and I did some fun black friday shopping.  We started at 930pm and got home about 3am.  We went to Walmart, Kohls, and Target and got some great deals, waited in monstrous lines, and witnessed a few brawls but made it out alive. 
After Thanksgiving we set up our Christmas decorations.  We are so excited for Christmas this year.  Ava is at such a fun age and gets so excited about all the decorations, the lights, Christmas trees, and Santa.  She sometimes comes up to me and tells me, "Mommy, I love Santa." It cracks me up.  We apparently need to be a little better at letting her know why we celebrate this time of year though. It is amazing how much she picks up on though because we don't really talk a lot about santa claus or anything but she has seen him around and did get her picture with him so I guess she just kinda put it together.  I love Christmas time and we are so excited to spend it together as a family. 

Last week we had the fun adventure of driving out to Utah to visit family and friends.  It was a long drive but the girls did great and it went pretty fast.  The drive home was another story as our girls both got sick in Utah and were sick of being in the car and I had a massive migraine and their screaming wasn't helping it.  So it was a long drive home but worth it to see people we love.  Our first stop was to my old roommate and wonderful friend, Andrea, who I wish I lived closer to.  She has 2 kids that are about 6 months older than Ava and Ella.  Ava and Afton were instant friends and loved playing together and so were Lincoln and Ella. It was so fun seeing them.  Then we headed up to see my brother and his family in Brigham City and my other brother in Salt Lake.  We love being with family and it was so fun to see them again.  Last time we were together was last Christmas so it was fun to see how much our little neices and nephew have grown.  We made gingerbread houses and watched lots of Christmas movies with them and it was so fun getting in the Christmas spirit. We also saw some of Dave's old roommates and their families up there at Derek's home.  We met up with Derek and Jean and their two cute little kids, Dan and Kristy and their little boy, Dave and Becca, and Mitch and Kelly and their new baby girl.  We had a lot of fun catching up with all our good friends and family and love our trips up to see them.  We hope we can contine to do so throughout the years to come.

We hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas season.  It is such a wonderful time of year to reflect on the many blessings we have been given and most importantly for the gift of our Savior.  We hope you all have a very merry Christmas!!

Bye Bye Binky

So last Sunday we said bye bye to Ava's binky.  Yes I know she is 2 1/2 but she loved that little thing so much that it was so hard to give it up.  She is doing awesome though.  It's amazing what a couple princess dolls can do.  On Sunday morning during breakfast I showed Ava the princess dolls and told her she could have them in exchange for her binky.  Previously that week there was an episode on Sesame Street about Elmo giving up his binky and how hard it was for him.  We don't watch Sesame Street too much anymore but randomly that day that was the show she chose to watch after her nap.  We colored an envelope and wrote Elmo's address and then I gave the binky to Ava and told her to put it in.  That was when she realized what was happening and had a little bit of a freak out moment and put the binky in her mouth and started sucking the life out of it.  I told her she had to choose the dolls or the binky.  She looked at both and then plopped the binky into the envelope.  I was really nervous she would not do well but she has been doing great! She occasionally asks for it but I remind her that we sent it to Elmo and he gave her some princess dolls and then she is fine.  Those princesses don't leave her side though. We are so proud of her and so glad she is becoming such a big girl!!
Another funny story about Ava that I have been meaning to write about.  Her favorite thing is to always ask "What's your name?" and her response used to always be "cake!" I don't know where that came from but she is now always coming up with crazy names when you ask her what her name is.
Today at breakfast I asked Ava what she wanted and she proceeded to ask Snow White (one of the aforementioned princess dolls) what she wanted.  So I played along and asked Snow White if she wanted cereal for breakfast and Ava held the doll in her hand and made her shake her head yes.  She did that through breakfast with every question I asked and I thought it was hilarious!
We love that crazy girl.  She is getting so big though!

We're Back..

 Ella turned 6 months old (2 months ago... Whoops).  We had a half birthday for her with a half cookie cake. Yummy. She loved putting her hands in it but wasn't happy when we all ate it in front of her.

 Our little family

 Ella LOVES eating and pretty much wants to eat all day... I don't know how she is so small. She is such a fun little girl!

 Best Friends

 Dave is loving his rotations! What a handsome man!

  I took some 7 month pictures of Ella

 She is such a sweet and happy baby.  She started crawling on Sept. 24th and loves that she can get where she wants to go and so she gets into everything.

We are so glad that she is ours

 She has an awesome mohawk too that we love.  You can kinda see it in this shot. Her hair only grows down the center and sticks straight up.

This little girl is crazy as ever and growing up so much. Dave and I look at each other all the time wondering when she grew up.  We love her so much and her fun little personality.

Our beautiful little princesses

 We love them so much

And they love each other.

TIME OUT

I am trying to be better at documenting the cute and funny things our girls do so this is probably the most I have ever posted in a week :). So Ava is really big into time outs these days - probably because she goes there fairly regularly. This morning she asked me to sit down and eat breakfast with her. I was trying to clean up the kitchen a little bit and was kind of ignoring her. After a few minutes she asked me again to sit down. Then when I didn't do it again she got out of her chair and grabbed me by the hand and told me, "Time out Mommy for not listening!" as she walked me to her time out room and put me in there and shut the door. Oh I love her! I probably deserved the time out too.

Funny Story

So I was feeding Ella yesterday and watching Ava play with her toys and this is what I hear her say:
"Bad choice Zoey (the name of all her dolls)! Time out!"
And then she walked her "Zoey" to the laundry room, where Ava has her time outs, and put the "Zoey" in there and shut the door.
I was laughing so hard. I sometimes just wish those time outs were a little more effective... when I picked Ava up from nursery on Sunday one of her leaders told me she was hitting a few kids in there. Any advice on how to help a kid not be such a bully?!?
Sometimes that little girl kills me! I apologize to all the little ones that Ava was not very nice to on Sunday. We really are trying to help her be soft and nice but sometimes our efforts are in vain...

Long Overdue

I know I am WAY past due on a blog but it has been a crazy month and everytime I sit down to post something happens that prevents me from doing it. Like right now Ella is SCREAMING herself to sleep. I have been up there to give her her binky 50 times and I have held her but nothing seems to be soothing her right now so as much as I hate hearing her cry I don't really know what else to do for her... And it is 10:30pm - She should have been asleep long ago. I just put her binky back in so we will see how long that lasts... hmm not long apparently. Poor little girl she is making her momma crazy.

This month has been pretty crazy! We spent a good chunk of time in Texas with my family (we even went to the Houston zoo and saw the adorable baby elephants you can see above) and then came back to AZ to be with Dave right before he took his big board exams. SOOO glad to have those done.

When did this little girl grow up??!? Seriously I can't believe how big she is to me. She is talking nonstop (well she has always done that but now I can understand her :)). When we were in TX I had to take Ava to the ER for a little dislocated elbow incident and the person helping us there said she sounded like she just inhaled a bunch of helium... I wasn't sure if that was a very nice comment but she is definitely nonstop and talks to everybody. It is crazy how much she picks up too - she is just a little sponge right now.
Some of my favorite things about Ava are:

1. She is a great snuggler - It took 2 years but she really likes to be close and be held especially when she is watching her favorite movie Toy Story.
2. She is slightly obsessive compulsive. She kind of always has been. This is a little girl that on her first day of life SCREAMED because she wanted milk and would refuse to nurse until it came. That was a rough few days... It took 3 people to get her to eat. Ever since she has been able to hold things she has. You rarely ever see that girl without something in her hands. A few months ago she went through a phase where she would get SO upset that she couldn't fit more things in her hands when she already had them filled. She still carries around as much as she can hold. I think it is pretty funny.
3. She loves to play. Her favorite game is when she yells, "I'm gonna get you!" and then runs away for you to chase her.
4. She is sweet (When she wants to be :)) She worries about people and always asks if they are ok. Sometimes she asks if you are ok so that you will ask if she is ok. She loves her sister too and when she isn't sitting on her and poking her eyes she pats her head and gives her kisses and even puts her binky in when she is sad and gets her a blanket.
5. She loves "more" of everything. I think that is her favorite word. If you do something funny or give her kisses or anything really she always wants more. She also comes up and asks for "one more treat" with her little finger showing me one. Unfortunately that one is not really one it is pretty indefinite.
6. She loves stories. We read a book called "llama, llama red pajama" every night at bed and afterwards she will "read" it to me. It is pretty cute.
This little girl is such a sweetheart! She loves her daddy and she loves smiling at everyone. She is typically a very happy little girl - disregard what I wrote about at the beginning of this entry :) That is not her typical self. Some of my favorite things I love about Ella are:

1. Like I already said she is always happy and smiling. When she gets upset most of the time if she just has someone to smile at she is fine. She has the sweetest little laugh too.
2. She currently has a love/hate relationship with things she can put in her mouth (aka toys, wipes case, blankets, etc.) she wants to hold everything she sees and gets so mad if she can't reach it or if she can't fit the whole object in her mouth. Once she is mobile I am going to have to keep a close eye on her.
3. She loves holding hands. It is so sweet.
4. She is so curious. She likes to see what is going on and especially likes knowing where her sister is (probably for protection although she thinks Ava is pretty hilarious)
5. She loves having her head rubbed. She has to have a blanket or pillow at the top of her head to sleep and she smothers her face in it. It scared me the first time but she can breath :)
6. She loves spitting, sucking her fingers (or toes - whichever she finds first) and smacking her lips. She produces so much slobber that her little outfits get soaking wet... Maybe that is how she cools herself off in this AZ heat.
I love them both so much and I am so grateful to have them! Someday we will get rid of that binky!! Curse you binky for ruining this adorable picture! She is pretty much obsessed with it although she has gotten much better at just using it at naptime and bedtime (and I take it to the store and to church because sometimes I love that little thing too).

I took some pictures of the girls the other week. This is our typical Ella. Oh how I love that smile!!

Stinkin' binky. Maybe someday I will get a shot without it. She wouldn't let me take a picture without it. I even tried bribing her with treats :) it didn't work...

We went and swam at the aquatic center close to our home and had a fun time. We spent most of the time in the lazy river. Ava got a little nervous in the kid area - I think it was a little too old for her and the kids in there were pretty wild. It was a lot of fun though.

Ava didn't care too much for the life jacket though.

This is how Ella spent her time there. What a sweetie!

She really liked it when daddy took her out and played with her too. We had a great time!

For the 4th we headed to Texas and enjoyed the awesome parade my home town put on. As you can see Ava had to hold as much stuff as she possibly could.

She was really worried about all that candy on the ground and felt like somebody needed to clean it up so she took that duty upon herself while she sang, "Clean up, clean up, everbody clean up." It was pretty hilarious.

So patriotic - she loved that little flag and waving it.

And she loved pointing out all the fun floats.

And snuggling Grandma and Uncle Paul

What is more American than a BBQ and swim party?!

We took Ella swimming for the first time out there too. She enjoyed it. We didn't have a suit for her so we had to make do. She loves her bath time so this was like a giant tub to her.

Ava loved playing with grandpa and feeding him pretend food. It reminded me of a time when my sister and I were playing with my dad in the pool and we made "pizza" with mildewed rocks and gave it to my dad to pretend to eat it and he really put it in his mouth :) Crazy dad!

The main reason we went out to TX though was to celebrate my dad's retirement. He worked 33 years at ExxonMobil and I am so grateful for him and for all that he did to provide for me and bless my life through his great service. I love you dad! Congratulatons again!

My whole family except one brother and his family came out to the big (and I mean Texas big :)) retirement dinner at The Taste of Texas restaurant. With a name like that the food has to be big right?!

There was a great turnout to celebrate! Some great praises were given to such a wonderful man!

Ava did pretty good too. It was a 3 hour event! Sometimes I love that stinkin' binky!

Like I said... "Texas Big" Mmmm delicious. We had an amazing steak too and more food than any person should consume in one sitting but hey it was a celebration right!?! Thanks Exxon for letting us gorge ourselves on your dollar.

We took some family pictures while we were out there too. I miss those trees... not so much the humidity.

What cuties!

Too bad Ava never smiled for any of our family shots. Oh well what do you do...

Ella loves that camera though!

What a cute little family we are :)

When we got back in town we took Ava to a fun park about 20 minutes north of us. We had a yummy snow cone there which I don't see any snow cone stands ever in AZ -this was my first time. In Texas my dad took us around trying to find the best snow cone stand... We tried 3 in one day (the day we left or we would have tried more). I love snow cones (shaved ice NOT crunchy!)

Poor Ella spends too much time in that little carseat. Good thing she is such a happy little girl!

Ava loves swinging on the bars!

Her shirt is a little small...I finally went through her drawers the other day to get rid of the 18 month size and yes I know she is almost 2 1/2...

We have been so busy lately and have been having so much fun... Until rotations started for Dave and I became a single mom... Not as much fun! But Dave is loving it and we are excited for this next phase of life in this crazy adventure of becoming a doctor.

Cute little cousins!