Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Disney Tea Cups
~look at all those girls~

wonder if Cathi will add to those girls...
or finally have a boy...
we'll know November 4!

Mom and one of her best friends, Dawn

~Sisters~

My super sweet mom turned 56 yesterday!! She is such a great mom and has become a great friend! She helps me so much by keeping the girls while I work one of the days a week and while she's at my house, she's always cleaning something. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mom/Nonee!! We love you!!!

Disney

Well, I have so many pictures I want to share, but for now, I'll just add my favorites. We had such a great time!! These are actually from the second day we went. My Dad has the pictures from the first day and I can't wait to post those. Ellie knows Jeff and I are taking the girls in October and she asks every day if it's time to go back yet!

milk

So, Ellie and I were laying in my bed last night and she was almost asleep. She rolled over and said, Mommy, do you still feed Ava milk from your boobies?" I told her no, that Ava was too big to do that, so she drinks milk from a cup now. Then I explained that I used to feed her that way, too. She got quiet for a minute and said, "How does God put milk in mommie's boobies anyway?"

I love it that she knows that only God can do a thing like that!

The girls and I are headed to FL tomorrow to be with my parents, my brother, and his 2 girls, so I'll post pictures and stories when we get back.

giggle boxes

My girls can make each other laugh better than anybody! I can stand on my head and not get a reaction like they can from each other. It's so funny!! I got Ellie a kazoo - and Ava can play it better than I can! :-)

My poor girls - they have been such troopers! I took Ellie to the dr. yesterday because she had complained of her ear hurting, then when she woke up yesterday, her eyes were goopy and there was fluid coming out of her ear that she said was hurting the night before. And, both of them had red eyes and runny noses. I thought it was just a cold, since everyone around here has a cold. While I was there, the dr. checked Ava too and they both have ear infections in both ears and Ellie's ear was hurting so badly because it ruptured. I am going to buy an at-home otoscope!! They are only $15 and it comes with a guide that explains the ear and what ear infections look like. I'm afraid we're on our way to tubes Ava's ears and again in Ellie's.

Ellie's first day of "School"

First day of school goodie bag, full of candy, pencils, and tracing books.

Ellie started Mother's Morning Out again on Tuesday(she went last year for a little while), but this year she's in the 4 and 5 year old class and it is run much more like a preschool class. She was SO nervous. Bless her heart - she just cried when I was getting ready to leave. AND it took her 2 hours to fall asleep the night before. Once I left, she was fine and she loved it and was ready to go back - she just has a hard time with things that are new, especially when someone she's very close to can't go with her. She has another Ellie and an Ava in her class.

Today, both girls went to MMO. Ava is only going on Thursdays, because I just want her to be around other babies her age - and her class is all girls, with another Ava. I had no idea we picked such popular names?!?

Ava is a pro at eating - especially cookies!

My mom made the girls matching "Belle" princess dresses. They had to try them on to hem the bottoms, but they both love them! Ellie has never been much in to princesses, but she loves this dress! We're heading to FL and will go to Disney next week with my parents, my brother, and his 2 girls, then Jeff and I are taking our girls again in October. I'll post pictures of the finished products soon!

comparing pictures

Ellie in her birthday dress. I don't remember the exact date, but she was 11 months'ish - I don't think it was actually on her birthday. She wasn't walking then, so we don't have any pictures of her alone - we were holding her in all of them. :-)
(Plus, she was an only child at the time!!)

Ava at 11 months in Ellie's first birthday dress. They look so different?!?

just for fun

Don't pay attention to Ava's messy spaghetti face...just her cute, big girl teeth!

Is Ellie really still 3? 'Cause she doesn't look like it in this picture. :-)

Early mornings on the front porch.

Ellie is typically afraid of animals, but she loves our neighbor's cat, whose name is "Big Butt"!! Ava loves ANY animal, but she and Big Butt have this bond - he runs from other little kids, but he'll let her pull his tail, pull hair out, pat on him (harder than she should, but she doesn't understand to be easy yet.) It's pretty cute!

Ellie was so cold in the pool, but we're trying to get in a few last swim days before it really is too cold.

Yard Sales: I love them! I got all of these items for Ava for $10!!!
THEN, the lady boxed everything up that she didn't sell and brought those to me. I have some good neighbors!!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture of my sweet girls!

"If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain that would be. Standing outside with my mouth open wide. Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah. If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain that would be."
A favorite song in our house - especially at bath time.

Ava LOVES dogs! She'll say, "doh" over and over again any time she sees one.

11 months

Loving the Barbie Jeep!
Ava is finally big enough to understand that she has to sit to ride and Ellie drives her all around.
Hours of entertainment!

I know, this picture is upside down again, but this is actually the angle that I took it.
Ava sleeps like a frog and I love it!

Ava's new way to nap!
We walk around the block and she is out by the time we're half-way around.

How appropriate - a butterfly smelling the flowers!
This was one of our yard-sale finds.

Sweet girls!! I can't believe my babies are almost 1 and 4!!

wasting time

I am the queen of it! I'm not sure how to keep myself motivated. I try to make my to-do list at night, but I get overwhelmed in the mornings with trying to juggle so many things. Plus, I'm sick right now, which slows me down even more. Anyway, I want to always strive to be better, to do more, to learn something new...and in trying to do so, I sometimes miss what just comes naturally. Maybe one day I'll find that balance.

this week

*Ava is officially weined from her bottle that she loved so much. She's still mad at us!

*Ava has 4 teeth - 2 on top, 2 on bottom

*Ellie starts Mother's Morning Out Sept. 2

*Ellie starts her dance and tumbling class Sept. 8

*I am taking an adult tap class this year! :-)

*Our pool has been too cold to swim in because the weather was so nice.

*Ava LOVES animals! especially smaller ones - horses are overwhelming to her.

*I started Dates with Daddy Fridays this week where Jeff is in charge of doing something special with the girls. He took them to the park, out for pizza, and to the pet store. They had a blast!

*Old Navy is supposed to have a big sale on jeans today - $7 for kid's! We're going to check it out.

*I have been selling several new things for baby gifts - check out www.sunshineandsweetpeas.blogspot.com - but I still need to add pictures.

*The girls and I are going to Disney twice in the next couple of months - once with my parents and brother, and once on our family vacation with Jeff.

*I finally found shoes for both of the girls - Nike's for Ava and Puma's for Ellie. It took a while! Ava's foot is fat and she hates wearing shoes, but I found some great ones that are easy to get her foot in, she doesn't trip on them, they have a sole but it's really flexible, they velcro so she doesn't try to untie them, and she doesn't mind them being on her feet. We had to get some good ones so she can walk at Disney. She is little miss independent and wants to walk 24/7 now.

*Ellie has started a therapeutic listening program to help with auditory processing. Loud things are not her friend.

Okay, enough updates for now. I'm sure I'll write more again soon.

just stuff

Dates with Daddy Fridays

My mom was trying out Ellie's new headphones for her therapeutic listening program.

My birthday party - my friend Kim came later, but everyone else made the picture.

walkin' around the neighborhood

My Dad and me. I don't take many pictures with him, so he's not on here much...but here he is!

Funny Stories from our growing girls

Ellie loves to play hide and seek! She plays with all of her friends and begs us to play with her, too. It's so funny to watch her, but last night was the best. It was just us - Ava was asleep, so Jeff and I were doing stuff around the house and I was in the office/laundry room. Ellie asked if I could get her a stool...then she climbed up on the dryer and told me not to look. She asked me if I would move her stool and close the doors, but to look the other way while I was doing it. Once the doors were closed, she said, "Okay, now come find me!" I guess she thinks that if I can't see her, I don't know where she is! :-)

Ava loves to walk. She is so happy since she is completely mobile and can get all over the house by herself. She's so proud of herself. This morning, Jeff was brushing his teeth and he just took her to the bathroom with him. She kept getting in to the cabinets and the trash can and he kept telling her no. She finally got frustrated and just walked herself into the living room. He found her in the middle of a bunch of toys, just playing by herself! This is her with her cherry butt, playing with our babysitter.

Great day!

We had the best day today! Some of our close friends from when we lived in TX are now overseas and we miss them terribly!! They have been home visiting this summer and we were able to work it out to meet them today. We drove to St. Louis and went to the zoo and just had the best time - and it was relaxing, too! It was funny because we had 4 kids - and one of them was a 2-year-old boy. You would think tantrum city, along with a 10-month-old (Ava) who would probably get tired of being there...wrong! All of the kids were amazingly good and seemed to have the best time! I will post pictures soon.

update from the Hughes'

VBS Carnival Hayride

Ava LOVES her baby. She carries one everywhere she goes - and always with her left hand. She eats with her left hand, too!

Oops - this picture is sideways, but it's okay. Just another picture at the VBS carnival. One funny story from that night: Ellie was doing an inflatable obstacle course and I was trying to watch for her to take a picture, plus holding Ava. Ava wanted down, so I put her down and just held her hand...well, she found a cord and picked it up. It was so loose that it came unplugged before I could even get it out of her hand. An older man who was "helping" with the carnival snatched it from her and in a very ugly tone of voice, got in her face and said, "You just cost a lot of kids their happiness!" I was hot! First of all, do you really think she did that on purpose?? Secondly, as a representative of that church, he didn't approach the situation very Christian-like. And lastly, it did absolutely nothing. It would have taken a long time for the air to come out of one of those things enough for anyone to notice.

Ellie looks like my clone, especially in this picture...does Ava look like Jeff??

Ellie enjoying a snow cone at the carnival. It was hot, but it was a fun night!

brave girl!

My nieces have been here visiting this week and one is just about 9 months older than Ellie. She was so brave in the pool today!!!

Office Work

I finally bought a few things to organize our office. I love how it turned out, especially with the pictures on the wall. I have been reluctant to put pictures on the walls because I didn't want lots of holes in the walls, but the office was the perfect place to put them. I actually want to add more pictures to the wall on the left and we need to work on a few more things, but I'm very pleased with how the office looks now.

This was the office before. Embarrassing, I know. It was one of our catch-all rooms, but hopefully not anymore!

Dancin' Machine

Ava has learned to dance! She does this EVERY time she hears music! It's so funny!

Blessings

As you may know, I often pray that my girls will be a blessing to other people. We had the best time tonight - we went out to dinner with some good friends of ours who live in our neighborhood. They actually have 5 kids, but 3 of them were away visiting family. Our kids spend a ton of time together and have so much fun. Anyway, as we were eating, I saw this elderly lady who kept watching Ava and waving at her and she just seemed like the happiest lady. I wasn't surprised she was watching Ava, though, since she's such a ham and she looks for people who are looking at her so she can put on a show. Long story short, the lady came up as she was leaving and said, "All of my children live 10 hours away, I have grandchildren and even a couple of great-grandchildren, and my baby is 44. I love kids and I always pray that I will be blessed by children and your kids were my angels today." She told our kids thank you for smiling at her, told them how beautiful they were....she just went on and on and was the sweetest lady. As she walked away, she said, "God bless you!" I just melted. I cried right there at the table in the middle of Texas Roadhouse. Our kids were a blessing to her, but what a blessing it was for me to hear that from her!!

Like a Pro

Ava is now walking (almost) like a pro! She still tumbles sometimes, as you'll see in the video, but she will just take off and walk across the room, even turning to go the other way sometimes. She LOVES Ellie and tries to call her "Sissy", but it comes out like "Diddy", which is also how she says "kitty", but she sure does try. Ellie is great at reminding Ava to use her signs that she knows and trying to get her to say words. Dog is probably her favorite word to say and she just leaves the "g" sound off the end. Right now, Ellie is obsessed with who is the monkey in the middle and who is first, second, last...

Happy 4th of July!!

Another neighborhood project - but the oldest girl ended up doing all the work.

Our little firecracker

One silly girl!

Happy 4th of July, everyone!!
Happy Birthday to my aunt Tishie, too! We're so glad she's celebrating another birthday!