1st day of School

Katy started pre-school on on September 7th at Genoa Baptist in Galena. This girl LOVES it and she acts like she has been going to school all her life. I'm very happy the transition went well and no tears were involved. The only one that cried (and still cries) is Ava. She gets upset when we drop Katy off and she has to leave the classroom. Ava doesn't understand why she can't go in as well and play with all of the neat toys in the classroom.

So 3 days a week its just me and Ava in the mornings and it has been great. I rarely get one on one time with Ava and I forgot what its like to have an only child. We run errands, get dinner started and just play together.






Katy and Marcus - he lives next door and they are buddies!

Lets brush some teeth!!!!!!

Ava is now 15 months old and she has 8 teeth. At this moment, she is working on 4 more. These new ones are molars and have popped through the gum but haven't completely worked themselves out yet. The unfortunate thing for her is that they come in 4's. She doesn't just get a tooth here and there. Since she was 9 months old, about every 3 months she teethes and its major and it's 4 at a time!

I always know that it's coming because she gets a runny nose, she won't let me put her down (all day) and at night a demon comes and posses her body! This is no joke! Two nights ago, she woke up screaming at the top of her lungs and when I went to pick her up and soothe the pain, she kicked, pinched and scratched me. When I look back on the evening it makes me laugh but at the time it was not funny...this girl was ticked off and I don't blame her. Then wouldn't you know that Todd and I misplaced the Orajel and it took almost 20 minutes (in the middle of the night in the dark) to find it. Once I fought my finger into the demon's mouth (in which she tried to bite me) all was well and she wanted to go back to bed. Here are some pictures of her back to her normal self and taking care of her pearly whites!!

Splash Pad Fun

What an awesome Summer it has been!! I've enjoyed taking the girls to play outside and our latest outing was to a Splash Pad in Powell. It's fun and FREE, my kind of place!

Grandma Sandy joined us although I'm sad to say I don't have any pictures of her. It's probably because she was off enjoying the water with the girls and didn't stop moving for me to capture her!!



Ava, as usual, enjoying her lunch!!

Katy's New Adventure - Cheerleading

The studio where Katy has taken tumbling and tap & ballet over the past year has a great competitive cheer leading team. She was interested and we went to the try outs and she fell in love! So after some discussion, Todd and I agreed it would be worth trying it out for a year. It was a tough decision, but for a four year old it was a large time and financial commitment. She made the Tiny Team and she starts this Fall.

This past week there was a Cheer Summer Camp and this girl had a ball! It was SUPER HOT (the studio currently doesn't have AC) but that didn't phase her and she put her heart and soul into each practice. It was 4 evenings and lasted 2 1/2 hours each and she didn't complain once. In fact, every night she couldn't wait to go back the next evening!! Here is a little video from their performance on the last night of camp.

13 Months

Here are both my girls at 13 months (in one of my favorite outfits)! It's hard to believe Ava is 13 months and almost harder to believe that Miss Katy is 4 years old now. Time flies and it's amazing how much those two make me so incerdibly happy (and exhausted!).

Katy - March 2008



Ava - June 2011

Happy Birthday Uncle Chris!

Many years ago, when I was single and kid-less, I instituted a tradition of visiting my brother at the firehouse to celebrate his birthday! This was for two reasons...one was to embarrass him and make him acknowledge his birthday! The other was purely selfish...to hang out with all of his cute fireman friends!! 10 years later and it's something I've never missed and it's even more of tradition now that the kids are involved!! We ALL look forward to our luncheon and visit with Violet Township, Station 592!



Cousin David and the girls!

A day at the Zoo!

We went on a field trip to the zoo a few Friday's ago and had a blast. The weather was awesome and most of the animals were up and out to play!

















Katy was so excited to ride the carousel.


She rode the horse all by herself!


Ava really thought it was fun to watch Katy go around and around!

Ava's 1st Birthday Party

Ava's party was a few weeks ago and the theme was "Over the Rainbow"! I had a FUN time putting together decorations and just enjoying the preparation for this party!! It was an amazing day with beautiful weather and we had many guests from out of town that normally don't get to come to our family events which was fabulous! Here are a few highlights from the day...

Our birthday girl (this outfit reminds me of Rainbow Brite from my childhood)!



Big Sissy


















This cake was baked by Todd and me. It was 6 layers...Todd baked 3 layers, I baked the other 3 layers, Todd iced the entire thing and I decorated it. It was a labor of LOVE!




Isn't the inside gorgeous?!