Birthdays, Grey Hair, & Craziness

 Our little Ella turned one last week.  I can't believe it's been a year since we took her home from the hospital.  We love her so much and she has brought so much joy to our family.  She is such a sweet little girl and is always so happy - except when she's hungry or Ava steals a toy from her.  She thinks she is such a big girl she pulls herself up onto everything but I don't think she will be walking anytime too soon but when she does she will be doing everything she can to keep up with her big sister.

 For her birthday we had a CinderELLA party for our little Cinderella.  When we went out to get her a gift we found a doll that was perfect and meant for her and this party :).  The doll was called "My First Birthday Party Baby Cinderella." We couldn't not get it and she loves it! She holds the doll and hugs it all day it is so sweet.

 She has been a little sick lately so her smile isn't as big as normal in this picture but she was so happy and excited for all her gifts.

Thank you for everyone who came and shared this special day with us!

A few days before Ella's birthday I had a birthday too and turned the big 

3-1! For my birthday I pulled out some grey hairs and took a nap and realized how old I'm getting :)

 On a side note, here is what Ava does during her supposed nap time...

Apparently sometimes naughtiness is exhausting too...

 I couldn't resist posting these pics of our sweet and silly little girls.

 She does this everytime you say, "where's Ella?" It is so cute.

We love these sweet and crazy little monkeys and couldn't imagine life without them.



Christmas Break

 I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we did.  Ava is at such a fun age and really got into it this year which made everything extra fun. It was also Ella's first Chrismas so that was special too.  Ava was so excited to see all the Christmas decorations and santa everywhere.  We went to a fun train park a few days before Christmas with the girlies and they had all kinds of dressed up characters around.  Ava really liked Elmo and kept talking about how she gave him her binkies.  It's kinda funny that she still talks about that.  She really loved those binkies.  Ella on the other hand doesn't care at all about hers and will only take it a bedtime and with a little struggle.  :)

 Ava really liked the train park and taking pictures in all the little trains around the park.

 You can't tell in this picture but there were lights all over the park and it looked so pretty.

 These two girls are growing up way too fast.  I can't believe little Ella will be a year old in a few weeks.

 The park was so fun and so crowded.  To get on the little train that took you around the park had a 2 hour wait so we just enjoyed walking around and waving at the train when it drove by.

 This little girl loves her Daddy!

 We also walked around the Temple to see the lights there.  It was so beautiful!

 Dave's parents joined us there and it was so fun.  Ava and Ella loved the lights and wanted to touch all of them.

 Christmas morning was so fun.  Ella loved figuring out her presents.

 And Ava loved the treats...

 And the infamous orange in the stocking.  Although she calls them "silly pumpkins." I have no idea where that came from but that is what she calls them :) she's a nut!

 What a sweetie!

 Ella loved opening the presents and Ava really enjoyed helping everyone open theirs too.

 I love them!!

 Ella loved her new laptop from Texas grandma and grandpa.  She especially loves opening and closing it and thinks it is so funny.

 Santa Claus brought a big suprise for the girls.  So big that it was attached to a string and outside.

 Ava was so excited to see the new swingset!

 These two could probably live on that swingset if we let them.

 It also came with a little playhouse that they love playing in too. 

 On Christmas evening we headed down to Queen Creek to meet up with all of Dave's family and open more presents.  Ava was in heaven!

 And little Ella was too!

 Ava thought it was a princess party and demanded wearing her new Cinderella dress from Texas Grandma and Grandpa out there.

 Ella loved the wrapping paper!

 Ava was so excited to get another dress up from her cousin and wanted to wear it right away!  She loves dressing up!

 A few days after Christmas we headed up to the snow with some of our family (Dave's sister and her family and his brother and family).  It was so fun and the kids loved the snow and sledding.

 It was actually really nice weather so we weren't totally freezing even in the thick snow.

It was Ella's first time in the snow and she wasn't too sure about it until she started eating it and then realized she loved it... :)

We had such a fun break! It was sad when it was over and back to work.  We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and is having a happy new year!!

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!