We're Back!!!

These last few months have been crazy around here for us.  We left at the end of April to go to a rotation out in Oklahoma.  We flew into Texas though to stay with my parents for a few days to say goodbye to them before they left on their mission to Cape Verde (off the coast of Africa -- I wasn't sure how I felt about them getting called half way across the world for 2 long years but we have been able to skype with them quite a bit since they have been out there so it hasn't been as horrible as I thought it would be :) I love modern technology.) They are loving their mission and are speaking Portuguese which Dave was very excited about - my mom not as much but she is doing great and will learn it :).  It was fun to be able to spend some time with them before they left and to hit up our favorite Mexican Restaurant in Houston.

Ava & Ella love Mexican food too!  They left a pretty great mess for our poor waiter...

We were also able to get together with our wonderful friends, the Parkers.  We miss them! It was so fun being able to see them and meet little Luke!! We can't wait to see them again.

Here are the new missionaries!

From Houston we headed up to Dallas to visit my sister and her family for a few days.  Dave had already left for Tulsa so we were working our way to see him.

We said our goodbyes to mom and dad in Dallas..

See you in 2 years! We love you!

The girls and I stayed in Dallas with my sister and her family for 10 days.  It was basically chaos as she has 3 girls and having 5 children and 3 adults in a 3 bedroom house was a little crazy.  It was a fun adventure but I am pretty sure I didn't sleep very much and was a pretty grouchy and tired mom most of the time.  It is hard being out of your element at any age but it was still tons of fun and thanks Jessica and Rod for letting us stay with you. I took some pictures of their family.  They didn't turn out as great as I wanted and I forgot to charge my camera before we went so we had to cut it pretty short...

Of the 5 children these 2 were definitely the craziest and silliest! They are both little teasers and have a love-hate relationship which can be really funny except when you're sleep deprived and then it isn't as much.  They have a lot of fun together and are completely crazy!

We headed up to Tulsa for the last 2 weeks of Dave's rotation.  We had to make some fun there as I didn't know the area at all but it was fine and we still had a great time especially being together with Dave.

 Ava decided to try on Dave's shoes and walk around our apartment... She is so silly! And yes she does normally carry around that much stuff with her...

 The OK Aquarium was tons of fun!

 Ella LOVED it even though she doesn't look too impressed in this picture :)

 They could have stared through those glass windows all day looking at the sharks.  Supposedly it is the largest collection of bull sharks.  They were pretty creepy and I definitely would never want to see one this close without the glass...

 I love Ella's face in this picture.  She is so funny!

 She screamed when we left the shark exhibit she loved it that much!

 Ava on the other hand is really into turtles. She was really excited to see them.

 Here they are next to the alligator gar picture.  They had a real one there too and that is another thing I never want to see up close.

We loved the Aquarium! It was the highlight of Oklahoma!

 We love these 2 silly little girls!

 Here is the hospital Dave was at.  St Francis Children's Hospital.

We were happy to be home after a long month away but it has been crazy too.  We just got a new fridge since ours went out right before we left (a huge blessing it didn't happen while we were gone...).  We only had a mini fridge to use for the last 3 weeks (Thank you Fowlers for letting us borrow it!! You are our life savers!).  You never know how much you need a fridge until it is gone.  We are so happy to have a new one though and glad Sears gave it to us! It has been a big 2 weeks though with potty training Ava (which she has done awesome with!) and trying to get our little 16 1/2 month old little Ella to learn how to walk... We don't want her to go to nursery and not be able to defend herself.  She is such a tiny little girl.  She actually started taking a few steps yesterday so we are hopeful it will happen soon.  They are so fun and we love every stage and watching them grow up.  Although sometimes we wish we could just freeze them at the stage they are in because they are so fun and funny!

Birthdays, Black Eyes, And Easter

I never posted pictures of Ava's birthday party so here are a few.  She had a rainbow party (I told Dave that rainbows aren't gay when you are 3 - and they really aren't because I went a little crazy with it since it was such a fun theme).

 We had a few of Ava's little friends over and had such a fun time.

 Ella was sick on her birthday so she never got any cake. She screamed until she got some this time and loved every bite of it...

 I even made a rainbow cake.  You can be impressed with my mad skills even though it was very easy to do but it looked super cute I thought.

 

 Of course Ava loved opening presents...

She was so excited about her birthday and keeps wanting it to be her birthday everyday.  If only it was... Presents and cake everyday isn't a bad life! Friday was Dave's birthday though and Ava kept insisting that it was her birthday instead and wanted "Happy Birthday" to be sung to her.  She's crazy.  The only thing Dave got for his birthday though was a black eye :). J/K but he really did get one from church basketball (it's a rough sport and I always worry he is going to get hurt because those games get pretty intense and sure enough to celebrate his birthday he got an elbow to his face which was completely swollen and black and blue).  He got to spend his birthday with me though. What a lucky guy! :)

This weekend we were able to celebrate Easter.  We went to way too many Easter egg hunts and Ava's craziness lately has been due to the sugar overload... She would eat the candy from each egg before she went to find another one... Not the best strategy to get the most eggs but a great strategy when she knows mom and dad are going to take the candy from her after the hunt and ration it a little... Not much rationing happened.

We had a cousin egg hunt last night which was so fun.  Thanks Jen for hosting and planning that! It was so nice being able to spend time with family. 

 Here's Ava in action eating as she goes...

 What a nut!

And here's sweet little Ella searching for some eggs too. 

Enjoying Grandma and Grandpa time...

Here they are in their matching Easter dresses that Aunt Jenny got them :).  Thanks Jen they are so cute!

Don't be blinded by my super whiteness... Yikes! I could be a ghost. 

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and remembers the real reason we celebrate this time of year. We are grateful for our Savior and for His life, death and resurrection that can make it possible for each of us to return to our Heavenly Father someday as we follow Him and His example.  Just in case you need a reminder though check this out. Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday Ava!

Today our little girl turned 3 years old.  I can't believe it.  I swear I was just at the hospital giving birth to her and holding her in my arms for the first time.  She was so small and innocent and perfect... Sometimes I look at our two little girls and wonder where they came from. Of course I know where they came from but I just can't believe they are ours. I mean 4 years ago Dave and I weren't even engaged (In 4 days 4 years ago we would have been but not today).  A lot has happened over the last 4 years for us and I am so grateful.
Ava came into this world full of life and energy and stubborness.  I was sick all 9 months of pregnancy with her.  Her labor and delivery was awesome and super easy (especially compared to the pregnancy) but I never realized a newborn could be as stubborn and full of energy as she was.  She refused to eat until there was milk (she basically starved herself and ate from a syringe for 3 days until that came). She SCREAMED that she had to work for her food and was so impatient.  She had to be rocked to sleep every night and screamed until she was asleep.  She has 2 speeds on and off - there is no middle ground with her.  I never realized what a difficult baby she was until our calm Ella came along :).  So when you see Ava you will know that she came the way she is and it isn't completely our parenting that contributes to her behavior. Now don't get me wrong I would not change a thing about Ava.  She is the life of the party and super busy and fun to be around.  She has calmed down some but she still has 2 speeds and is super impatient and stubborn but she is also sweet (she is constantly telling people to give her a hug with her arms wide open and wanting to hold hands with everyone she meets) and fun and full of life and personality that you just can't help but love her.  All of these qualities will take her far in life once we learn how to channel that energy towards good things.
At age 3, Ava loves:
1) To dance - we have many of dance parties in our house.  Ava loves turning on music and telling everyone to dance.  It's so cute.
2) Hoarding toys - she has always done this but more so now that Ella plays with toys too.  The worst (well one of the worst) things I ever taught Ava was the whole toy trading thing with Ella.  We did this mainly when Ella was little and didn't care what she played with but Ava still thinks it applies and will "trade" Ella some fun toy for a piece of trash or a plastic bag or something totally lame.  Poor Ella. Ella doesn't take that anymore though and just starts screaming at Ava. So to resolve this Ava has decided on most days to hide toys from Ella or carry around as much as she possibly can so Ella doesn't even have a shot to play with it.  Ava on most days looks like a homeless child (that is because she screams when I try to touch her hair or just shakes her head around so I can't do anything to make her hair look decent - so the huge rat's nest in the back of her head is fairly common) but when she is toy hoarding she puts all of the toys in a little play shopping cart and walks around our house making her more resemblent (if that's even a word) of a homeless child.
3) Princesses - The princess dolls she got when she gave up her binky are still with her at all times.  They are the one toy that she has never forgotten about.
4) Treats - If she could live on sugar alone she would.  She gets that from me.  She begs for treats ALL day long and is sometimes successful at finding them and hiding them for a special moment when I am not looking.  I have found her several times sneaking some treat that I have no idea where or when she found it.  She is crazy.
5) Teasing her sister - It seems like nothing in life makes her more happy then picking on her little sister.  Although she HATES it when Ella teases her - that is always a pretty comical thing to watch though.  Ella for not walking yet is super fast and a pretty hilarious little teaser. When Ella grabs a princess and darts away before Ava even has a chance to realize what happened I cry with laughter. Ava's payback is coming in due time.

We love Ava so much and couldn't imagine life without her.  Our home would be boring without her craziness! She brings the party wherever she goes and we love her so much! Happy Birthday Ava! We love you so much!!

WICKED

So two weekends ago Dave and I went and saw the Broadway Wicked.  It was AWESOME!! I have never seen it before but it was so good and for anyone who hasn't seen it you totally should.  Dave really liked it too :).  It made me enjoy the whole story of the wizard of oz so much more.  Whoever came up with this story is very creative.  Go see it you won't be disappointed.  The picture was taken on our phone hence the blurriness.  Loved it!
In other news a few weeks ago Ella learned how to wave and say hi.  I love it when we are out and she will just start waving and saying hi to strangers and then they ooh and aww over her like we do :).  She is so precious and getting busier everyday...

Baby Elizabeth Ashby

So we have been teaching Ava her full name of Ava Elizabeth Ashby.  She doesn't quite get the concept of it being her name though.  So she will ask us what our names are and then she will say no you are Daddy Elizabeth Ashby or Mommy Elizabeth Ashby.  At dinner tonight Ava had a little baby doll that she was pretending to feed and Dave started asking Ava what her baby's name was.  The conversation went like this:
Dave: "Ava what is your baby's name? Should we give her a name like Charlotte?"
Ava: "No it is Baby Elizabeth Ashby!"
Lots of laughing took place after that.  She reminds me of my sister who named her animals "Red Bear" and "Blue Bear."  At least they are easy to remember.

I Love You Lots

Well since I posted about Ava being the queen of manipulation in our last post, her manipulation gets better everyday.  These past few days she has learned how to get herself out of trouble.  Now whenever she does something naughty and Dave and I get mad at her she comes up to us and looks up with those big, blue, puppy eyes and says, "I love you lots!"  How can you get mad after that - trust me sometimes you still can but it definitely makes her punishments smaller :).  She is growing up so fast...

"I need water"

So Ava is the queen of manipulation especially at bedtime/naptime or anything really that she is trying to get out of.  Normally when we lay her down for bed she starts telling us that she is hungry or needs water or needs her princesses or blankets or wants to read another story or needs to go potty on the toilet (the same one she refuses to sit on during the day but that is a subject for another post) but you get the idea.  Her mind just comes up with everything she can possibly think of to get out of the inevitable.  So I just went in there to give her a kiss goodnight and we layed her down 2 hours ago so she's sound asleep snoring and all (she is our little snorer which is pretty funny).  Before I walked in though Dave says be careful she is just going to ask you for water. So I walked in her room and she is snoring as usual, so I tuck her in and give her a kiss on the cheek.  After I kissed her she says (in her sleep), "I need water! Water!" and then she starts snoring again.  Even in her sleep she manipulates.  She is such a smart and funny little girl.