Merry Christmas!!!

This was the first year that Ava truly got the whole Christmas, it's Jesus' Birthday and Santa Claus comes and brings presents thing.  On Christmas Eve we made cookies for Santa and Reindeer food for the the Reindeer.  She set out a pile of her cookies and a glass of milk for Santa and sprinkled the reindeer food in the front yard.  The next morning when there were still 3 cookies left (one with a bite in it) and instead of being excited that Santa clearly ate a few of them  she said "Heeeyyy!!!  Santa didn't eat his cookies!"  I guess he was supposed to eat the entire pile of cookies.  Brynn's first Christmas was just precious and she actually got very into it, it's like she sort of got it too...  It was so special to see them enjoy Christmas together as sisters. 

The best gift of all... Gigi was actually able to fly in and spend Christmas with us!  Ava has spent every night up in Gigi's room in bed with Gigi watching Dumbo, The Lion King, "Willy Bonko", and Pigling Bland.  It is just so cute I can't stand it.  Some nights she's slept up there with Gigi, some nights she's come down here and snuggled up with us, but most nights she goes back in her bed and sleeps. 

We have so enjoyed this Christmas and I'm sad to see it go by so fast, here is a small sample of the many pictures we took (or should I say "I" took since I'm not in one single picture this year..grrr)

Come on Cole, get out of there and come play with me..

Playing with Cousin Cody

Santa came!

It was a pink princess kinda Christmas at our house..

Daddy, Gigi and Baby

At Meme's with Aunt Brenda and Cousin Lauren

My sweet Kennedee...

With her great grandfather- Pappa

Ballerina Girl

She has really been enjoying Ballet and Tap!

8 months old!

8 months old and officially mobile!  Last week was a very eventful week for Brynn.  She sprouted a new tooth (I actually think she has 3 coming in at once), turned 8 months old and started officially crawling.  She has been so happy with her newfound crawling skills and is into everything.  She specifically likes things that are dangerous like electrical cords and electrical sockets, night lights that are plugged in and their bulbs.  If there is something that she can choke on around she'll find it.  She's also already broken two of our candlesticks by knocking them over.  We have to keep a very close eye on her now that she can get around!  I think we are going to have to baby proof even more with her than we had to with Ava.  One thing that just melts my heart is when I came home today and she crawled over to me as fast as her little body could move, couldn't get there fast enough.  It was the sweetest thing ever.

She is also clapping to if you're happy and you know it and patty cake, waving hi and bye bye, and lots of talking "ga ga ga"

Ava hasn't been a fan of Brynn's new crawling skills because it means that Brynn can now get to her toys.  Even if it's Brynn's toy, Ava wants it.  We are working hard on sharing and taking turns, but Ava is VERY stubborn.  She takes things from Brynn and hides them under the bed or puts them up high where Brynn can't get to them.  It'll be things she hasn't played with in months and as soon as Brynn get's a hold of it, suddenly she wants it.  Today Brynn tried to play with Elmo and Ava took it from her and gave her a piece of trash and said "here Brynny you can play with this" then went and hid Elmo under the bed.  She also told me that she doesn't want to play with her because Brynn is "annoying" and that she doesn't want Brynn to walk or run, she wants her to stay a baby.

Look mom Brynn is married!

Now that Brynn is mobile, she and Ava actually play together. I love watching them too. Ava still likes putting things on Brynn. Today she said "look mom Brynn's married!"

Watching Randolph the Nosedeer

The girls and I got all cozied up in our Xmas Jammie's to watch Rudolph on tv the other night. I love these times with my sweet babies!

oh the things Ava says..

• Looking out the window for her elf "Henry" who was supposed to have arrived at our house: "I don't see his car out there so he must not be here yet" 
• At the dinner table:  Mommy I saw Randolph the Nosedeer today
• After being scolded by daddy:  Crying her little eyes out she says "I'm gonna go tell mommy that you aren't being nice to Ava and you're gonna be in trouble!"
• Every night when I put her to bed:  Mommy, come cuddle and let's talk about our day.
• Walking into Hobby Lobby and she see's the Nativity scene:  "Look Mom it's Jesus and God!!!"
• To a mommy at school who had just picked up her daughter Jacy.  Ava walks right up to her and says "I don't like Jacy because she's mean to Ava and she tee tees on the floor"--talk about mortified.  Apparently Jacy had a potty accident and also had hit Ava in the face that day and she wasn't going to put up with it.

She tells everyone that Brynn is her baby.  If she see's Brynn on a stroller ride at school the teachers say she yells "There's my baby!!!"

This week we signed Ava up for a Ballet and Tap class.  We thought we'd let her give it a try since she loves to dance so much.  She was so upset that she couldn't dance that day that they gave her a trophy to take home with her.  LOL.

33 weeks-Big Day

Today Brynn pulled herself to standing!  She was in her pack n play and suddenly I saw her staring back at me.  I was so proud of her.  Then this evening she got up on all fours and crawled forward a little bit.  She's suddenly very interested in being mobile.
34 weeks-Brynn can now:

• Pull herself to standing but not for long as she is still wobbly and her lil legs give out
• crawl a little bit
• pull herself to a sitting position from lying down
• wave bye bye
• get all around the house in her walker- forwards and backwards

She also now understands the relationships between objects; for example, the other day Ava wore her witch costume all day and Brynn was fascinated with the witch hat.  Later that evening we were sitting on the couch and Brynn lunged for the hat that was sitting next to me and plopped it in Ava's lap with a big squeal (like put this on!).

Here we go again...

When she wakes up from her nap she'll stay in her room and play and this is what she did yesterday.
She said "mommy I got all my books so we can read them"

Happy Thanksgiving!

This thanksgiving was so fabulous.  The food was great, visiting with family was great, and best of all Steve was there (and not hunting), Ava wasn't teething, I didn't have morning sickness and we had our sweet little Brynny to celebrate with us!  As a matter of fact we had 3 new babies this year! Big difference from last year. 

Ava spent most of her day trying to play football with the boys and having daddy hold the ball so she could run up and kick it. 


All 3 of the new babies Cody, Brynn and Cole



What a good lookin bunch
Trent INSISTED on sitting in the pink barbie car



Riding the Gator



Brynn's 1st Thanksgiving Meal :)

Steve had the week before Thanksgiving off and he was Mister Mom all week.  He did so fabulous and I am so very proud of him.  Even got both girls to nap at the same time.  Of course every day I got home they were both dressed like homeless children, but they were very happy homeless children!  Brynn and Ava love their daddy so much it just warms my heart!

So long strangers....

We have decided to make our blog private to only those we invite to view the blog.  I’ve been getting some unusual traffic to the blog and have decided it’s safer for the girls that our blog is available to only those we know. It creeps me out to think that total strangers are reading about my daily life.  I will be sending out an invitation in the next few weeks when it goes private.  If you would like to be included on that e-mail and still want to read the blog then comment on this post or send me an e-mail.   

I hope you still continue to follow the blog and all the wonderful happenings of our sweet (and sometimes just plain rotten) little girls!

Tis the season...

This morning Ava found the Toys r us ad in the paper and picked out a pink princess guitar that she says she wants for Christmas.  We told her that her elf would be here on Thanksgiving and would be watching her and reporting back to Santa if she's been good or not.  She said "oh okay!  I'm going to leave this magazine open like this so he can see Ava wants this guitar"

and yes she still refers to herself in the 3rd person...

What's new with Ava

Ava is a hoot as usual. She is really enjoying school and is even learning to write her name!  Each day her teacher shows me her progress.  Each day in class they do "the news" where they ask each child to tell them something about themselves and the teacher writes it down.  Then the child goes up and circles all the letters of the day in the sentence.  Each day I go check to see what Ava said that day.  Here is what she's said so far:

Mommy's going to pick Ava up after work
Daddy's taking Ava to Granddads house
Ava's riding on an airplane to go see my Gigi
Henry's coming to visit my house

One day they had to say what they were thankful for and Ava said "Daddy, Mommy and Brynn"
Another project was "how to make a Thanksgiving Turkey" and Ava's said "I will just buy it at the store"

She loves walking over to go get Brynn from her classroom and seeing all of the babies.  She knows them all by name and knows all of the teachers.  Of course when her and cousin Trent see eachother at school, they don't even speak.  They act like complete strangers, which cracks Court and I up.
Her latest thing is dressing up in princess costumes and telling us what all she's going to do when she gets bigger.  She thinks she is bigger already by the way.  But the things she's informed us she's going to do when she gets bigger are: open the door by herself, open the gate to the backyard by herself, walk across the street and go to work with Daddy.

"mommy's surprise" that she made me when she was supposed to be napping

Things she can do by herself now:
drink from a big girl cup
put on her own socks and shoes
put on her own panties and pants
take off her clothes
buckle herself in her carseat
get her own water from the fridge

My Chunky Monkey is 7 months old!

And she is the sweetest 7 month old on earth (but I'm not biased!).   She is now sucking down the bottles at school and scarfing down her solids.  I think she may be in the  middle of a growth spurt.  She still has no interest in working too hard to be mobile.  She is perfectly content laying on her belly and just spinning and rolling to get what she wants.  At this age Ava was was crawling and zooming around in her walker.  Brynn gets on all fours and pushes forward but gets frustrated. Of course she has more weight to hold up than Ava did and Ava doesn't let her crawl to get to anything.  Anytime Brynn wants something, Ava brings it right to her.

She is sleeping like a champ in her crib and as soon as she has her bath she knows it's bed time.  Most of the time she doesn't tolerate us putting her pajamas on because she is ready to get in bed.  Most nights she goes right in her crib and goes right to sleep. 

This is how she sleeps; she wakes up with hand prints
on her face

The teachers at school say she is doing very very well so all is good with our sweet little Brynny Boo!

She can hold her own bottle now too

Look mom, Brynn's a super hero!

Brynny Giggles

Girls playtime

Brynn's 1st Halloween

Ava really wanted to be a scary witch so she was the wicked witch of the west and Brynn was Glenda the good witch.  My sweet babies :)

Even Mommy got into the fun

Ava and her Besties Minnie and Mickey

Brynn lasted for about 45 minutes and she was ready for her beauty sleep

Ava never ceases to amaze me.  She says the funniest things and every day it's something new!

Last week as we walked to Brynn's classroom to pick her up for the afternoon she said "mommy are you thinkin what I'm thinkin?"  after chuckling that she actually just said that and wondering if she knew what it meant I said "I don't know what are you thinkin?"  She said "I'm thinkin I can't wait to see my baby sister!!!" 

One night while putting her to bed she said "mommy cover me up OTHERWISE I'll get cold"  Yes she actually used the word otherwise in the right context.

Yesterday Steve went to the football game with some buddies and when he returned she said "Daddy, I didn't REALIZE you were going to be gone so long"  Again she used the word realize in the correct context.

Mosquito's have been obsessed with Brynn and Ava said "mommy when that mosquito gets on my baby sister I'm going to tell him hey mosquito you don't bite my child!"

She's THREE years old, is this normal??  LOL

Brynn at 28-29 Weeks

My little twiddlebug is 100% sleeping in her own crib all night long!  7pm-7am, this morning until 8 a.m!  It was a much easier transition than with Ava, but I'm still very sad.  I do enjoy getting a good solid nights sleep though and I sure have missed sleeping on my stomach!  I love going in to get her in the morning and watching her smile really big when she see's me.

She is doing great at school and they say that she is happy all day long and has been doing much better with her bottles.  She doesn't even fuss when I leave, just sits down and plays.  She even has a little boyfriend in the class named Jackson.  He's an older man at 8 months old.  Ava just loves him and loves to go visit him every afternoon.  The teachers say that Brynn tries really hard to move to get to him and since she can't quite crawl after him she just rolls to him. It's too cute.

She also has a habit of pulling the other babies hair when they get near her and holding on with a death grip.  Steve says you can tell who Brynn's friends are because they all have huge bald spots. 

mommy's little baby doll

She is talking a lot now saying "gaga gaga" and I've noticed she loves cartoons.  She is very interested in toys now and gets giddy when Ava plays with her.  She still gets very happy and vocal when Ava is around.  You can sit her down on the floor with some toys and she'll entertain herself for quite a while.

My baby is all growns up

She is sleeping in her own bed now. While I'm so proud of her, I'm also very sad. Why does it feel like I'm banishing my baby to Iceland by merely putting her in her crib? She rolls over on her tummy right away and I check to make sure she's still breathing about every 2 1/2 minutes.

Dewberry Farms

Took our lil punkins to Dewberry to pick out our pumpkins. 

Ava "playing"

Not sure why but when Ava plays it consists of placing every loose item within reach in the same small space. I don't get it. When I asked her what she was doing she said "getting ready for work" or that she's "makin a party". The good news is she puts it all back when she's done.  She's very literal about it too because she will put it back EXACTLY where she found it, even it's not really where it belongs. 

Scarecrow Festival

Took the girls with me to the scarecrow festival. Sara and Wyatt went too and we met Meme, Brenda and Renee out there with all the cousins.   Ava calls it the vegetable.

Lauren and Ava on the train ride-Ava can't contain her excitement

The ride home was apparently getting old-both babies meltdown

Before my sister got there we were pretty stressed and frazzled
So Sara and I really needed these giant beers!

And the train is off

Playing with our cousin Kennedee

taking a break in the grass at the festival