Happy Halloween!

Here's our little monkey and banana
(if you can't tell, Ava has on a yellow outfit with a blue "sticker" that says Chiquita!)

I have decided that being a mom is hard work - ALL the time! Even when we're playing. I absolutely love it, but for all of you who think I've got it all together, you're so wrong!! I try to find joy in even the hard times, though, because I know how fast time flies!!! I also know that we are not promised tomorrow, so even when I am about to pull my hair out, I know that I am blessed with two wonderful girls who I love with all my heart!

The hardest right now is when the girls have trouble sleeping at night (I need my beauty sleep - or something like that). Ellie finds any excuse to come get in our bed - she's "freezing cold" or she's scared - not of anything in particular, though. Ava must be cutting teeth because she's kind of had a rough week, but last night, she was too busy wanting to play duck, duck, goose! She would almost be back asleep and I would be rocking her...when all of a sudden, she would smack me on the forehead and said, "Duh" (aka duck)!! It was so hard not to laugh and tell her it was time to go night night - it was at about 1:30 this morning!!

Ellie has become a pro at Mancala. She wants to play the "ball game". I taught her earlier this week after Ava went to bed and we have played every night since...and she has beat me every night, fair and square!!

Ava is amazed by bubbles right now. She has never really cared much for them, but loves them now!

Hope everyone has a great Halloween!

sunshine and sweetpeas

I have updated my gift and photography blog if anyone is interested.

sunshineandsweetpeas.blogspot.com

funny sayings

Ellie is hillarious right now. She tries to talk like such a big girl and will say something, then correct herself! Tonight, she said, " Mom, Ava was borned so lots of weeks ago. I mean, she was born a lot of weeks ago." It was cute. I can't believe she'll be 4 Saturday. Time flies.

Ava is signing lots of words now - more, please, all done, thank you, potty (only instead of the sign for restroom, it looks like the sign for milk - but she does it every time I ask if she went potty), and eat. She says, "Day doo" for thank you and "duh" for done. "a-nuh-nuh" is another and she hates to have a dirty diaper - she'll pull at it and say "a-nuh-nuh dih-dih", believe it or not!!! Hopefully that means she'll potty train easy.

I could post a thousand pictures...

but I'll stick with just a few for now.
We had a blast in FL! This was our last hoo-rah at Sea World

watching the light parade at Disney

visiting some of my dad's family - gramma and grampa

playin' on the beach

I promise to post more pictures soon.

Atlanta

Erica and Ellie - playing with their babies! :-)

Rob and Jeff

Christina showing me that we had to take our shoes off in the Hindu temple
- even in the bathroom?!?

International Food Market - squid, octopus, eels...

Tyler and Ava playing

We had such a good time visiting the McQueary's! We hadn't seen them in a while and for whatever reason, we just click with them. Their kids are so well behaved - I didn't get a picture of Natalie, which stinks, but we had a great time with her, too!

busy, busy, busy

We went to Indy for the State Convention

My mom made the cutest pillowcase dresses!!
The girls wore them to Mother's Morning Out.

My nieces spent the night - they don't get to come very often.
They were laughing at me turning around and saying, "Sweet Nibblets!"

Then we went to Atlanta. Our friends, the McQueary's, live there and I got to hang out with Christina while Jeff was at the conference. This was at a Muslim temple. We didn't get to go inside, but it was beautiful from the outside.

THEN, we found a Hindu temple - and we got to view a ceremony!! It was beautiful and seemed very peaceful - and the people were very welcoming.

I'll post more pictures soon...