SNOW!!!

It snowed this morning! I took Luke and Ava out to enjoy it. It is the first time Ava has been out in it.

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

I love these kiddos and they love each other! Wish we lived closer to each other!

Cutie Patootie's

Just 2 cousins brushing their teeth, playing with blush brushes in the bathroom....

O Christmas Tree

Cookies for Santa

The kids are all tucked in waiting for Santa. Luke and I spotted him flying in his sled in the sky outside so he was sure to close his eyes tight, right away so Santa could come to the house. All 6 kids are firm believers so there is a lot of excitement and anticipation in the house tonight. They left lots of cookies for Santa out, along with milk and carrots for the reindeer. I was putting Miss Sydney to bed but heard that Ava was trying to eat all of the cookies and carrots herself so poor Santa got her leftovers. My sweet niece, Madie told me she was going to dream about me tonight =) That comment made my Christmas Eve. If only we lived closer...

What a magical Christmas this is already. So happy and blessed to have everyone here at our house this year but missing Tammy and Pop Pop. I know they are watching from above ♥

The girls' well child visits...

Today Ava had her 2 year well child visit and Sydney had her 6 month visit. Ava weighs 25 lb 12 oz. (40th%) and is 36 inches tall (95th%.) The Doctor is not too worried about her weight since she eats so well but wants me to fatten up her up with some whole milk for a while. She had a shot and did not even cry... she even watched the needle go in. Maybe she was so brave because she knew a Dora sticker was coming. Sydney did great! She is following in the footsteps of her Sister and brother with weight and height percentiles. She weighs 16 lbs 4 oz. (55th%) and is 27 inches tall (90th%.) I will post the 3 kiddos side by side at 6 months when Miss Sydney is officially 6 months on the 30th.

Everyone has arrived!

Everyone is here, safe and sound. All kids, except Ben and Abbey are in bed and have been since about 7:30. Not too bad! The kids are already having so much fun together... I can't wait to take some pictures tomorrow. Luke, Ava, Maddie and Olivia were all in the tub together tonight. They all get along so well. Such sweet kids, I love them all so much.

Christmas Card 2010

50% of the reason I spend so much time putting together a Christmas Card for our family is so Luke, Ava and Sydney will see it and enjoy looking at how they have grown over the years. It definitely goes in their baby books, as do their Birthday invitations and announcements. I LOVE all holidays... birthdays included! I have such fond memories of my childhood and especially Christmas time.... going to my Nana Fufu's and seeing all of my little cousins and also spending time at my Aunt Dede and Uncle Ray's with our older cousins. I treasure the time my Nana Betty lived with us growing up and we were lucky and still are to have her with us for all of the holidays. I miss her dearly and can't wait to see her when we go back to St. Louis.

Nana Lass, Uncle Len, Abbey, Ben, Olivia and Maddie arrive tomorrow and we will all be together this year celebrating. I am so fortunate for that. I love being a such a great part of creating special memories that my children will always think of for many years to come.

Santa Visit

This Santa picture makes me so happy. The kids are in LOVE with Santa this year. Baby Sydney was asleep when I handed her to Santa so she is not her usual smiley self but she did real good with him. We were so busy getting the kids dressed in the morning and getting out the door ASAP, that we forgot to put Luke's shoes on. We realized it when we got to the Mall.... oops. He got some fuzzy new crocs out of it. What a great day we had. When the girls napped in the afternoon, Steve, Luke and I watched "A Christmas Story." Luke's favorite part was when Ralphy's brother stuck his face in the plate and made Piggy noises. He doesn't laugh out loud at many things, but he did when he saw that part. Ava named her 3 random dolls tonight. Ava is the little one in the pink, and she named the TY one Ava as well, the yellow one's name is Booby's. Haha. Tomrorow is cookie making day before Len, Nana and the kiddos come on Tuesday. Yay!!!

Sydney Bean

Thanks to Daddy, her new nickname is Sydney Bean.... I love it and laughed real hard when I heard him call her that! Yes, like a Kidney Bean...

I can breathe again....

Lately things have become much easier for Steve and I. Sydney is a lot more content and she will play with her toys up to 20 minutes at a time. Then when she is bored, we move onto another activity. She sleeps in her crib now for about 4-5 hours during the night. She is eating pears and prunes 3 times a day and that seems to be a good combo for her. Luke seems to be coming out of his "trying three's" and is becoming more independent. He has been sleeping in his bed all through out the night again, thankfully and just today he said "Luke wants to stay in bed and not go upstairs." Ahhhhh... I can breathe again :)

Ava's Birthday Bash!

Party favors... ornaments and the brightest most fun lollipops I could find.

What a great day we had... both Saturday and Sunday. Pop Pop flew in from St. Louis to be here for Ava's birthday and we had such a great time! He was such a great help to me in the kitchen and helped keep the kiddos occupied while I prepared for the party. I feel so thankful to have such great friends here in Seattle, I really can't say that enough. What used to be just a handful of kids a couple year ago has grown to over a dozen kids. It is so much fun to have that many kiddos at one time and watch them all interact. I love knowing that they are all growing up together and it does make me sad to know that we could move away from all of this in a year or so. It makes it hard to leave and sometimes I think it could be the reason we decide to stay here longer, if we do.

Sunday, Pop Pop picked up donuts for all of us and we enjoyed them while we watched Ava open the presents... and football was on in the background, it was fantasy football day. Luke was excited for Ava to open the presents and she let him open one up and help with all of the others. At night, I made a fillet Mignon roast and we sand happy birthday a few more times while Ava tried to blow out the candle in her pumpkin banana bread. It was nice to be able to play with her and all of her new toys. She got a Baby Boy Sam (just like her Stella doll) so now she has 2 babies. Luke picked that out of a pile of gifts to give her, from himself. She got her own baby ergo, a Maclaren stroller, a snuggle sack for Stella, a cookie serving tray, some dress up clothes and shoes, a jewelry box to decorate, Disney Princess crafts, Little Pony magnets, a big coloring book, markers, a big wheel, and the list goes on. It was a great weekend and I can't believe we are going to be opening MORE gifts for Christmas in another couple weeks. Happy Birthday Ava!

My Blog Intro Pic

I retired my old blog pic last week and want to document it.

Happy 2nd Birthday Ava Lynn

No photos on tonight's post, just words for my sweet baby girl, Ava on her 2nd Birthday. I have always been a person who really likes to celebrate birthdays because it is a celebration of life. I have always extended my own birthday to a whole week of celebration... Steve always used to make fun of me but now he does the same. We really only do it for each other, it is not like I go around telling everyone it is my birthday week... and it is kind of a joke, unless of course I am wanting a back massage from Steve... I really use it for that purpose. Anyway, I intend to make my children's birthdays extra special every year! Each are such a miracle and I truly believe that God chose these exact children for me.

It was 2 years ago today that I had Ava at 3:10am. It was an easy labor, almost identical to the birth of Luke, except she came quicker. The labor was easier than the pregnancy. She popped out in 3 contractions and was a lot smaller than I thought she felt in my belly. I thought she was going to be huge but she was 6lb 7oz. She has grown like a weed ever since and is so healthy. She is such a great eater... loves food that usually adults like only like sushi, hummus, hot pepper cheese, bell peppers, the list goes on. Ava is way more nuturing than I was as a child. I always loved stuffed animals but wasn't really a doll person. She loves her dolls, Baby Stella is her favorite! Baby Stella comes everywhere with us... everywhere... she will not leave the house without her. Because of this, she gets regular baths in the washing machine. During the 30 minute cycle, Ava sits on the dryer and insists I keep opening the washing machine lid to check on her. I can't wait to get the kind of washer that has a window on the front. Ava loves her binky... but not for too much longer, the binky fairy is going to come soon. I am not looking forward to this, she is such a great sleeper with it and I don't want that to end. She does this thing that I totally love... When she has lost her Stella, or lovey bunny, binky, or whatever... she starts to panic and looks for it calling out it's name. When she finds it she makes this nervous laugh of relief when she finds it. I know that isn't a big deal but it is a quirk and I love quirks... I love her laugh and her distinct little voice that I can not explain in words. Ava loves to color, do puzzles, play with her dress up dolls, care for her babies and pretty much imitate everything I do. She is a lovable kiddo and it doesn't take long for her to warm up and trust friends and relatives. She asks for hugs often and gives plenty of kisses. She loves to sing and her favorite characters are Dora and Hello Kitty. She knows what she wants but is easy going about it. The other day when we were shopping in Trader Joe's, she had her own little kid shopping cart while my cart was full because Sydney was in it. The carts there are just way too small. Anyway, I needed to put food in her cart because I didn't have enough room. The only thing she let me put in there were clif bars. She does love her bars, but I thought it was funny that she would not let me put her beloved grapes, yogurt, juice, etc. in there. Luckily, I had her binky in my pocket and I negotiated with her... if I gave her her binky, would she let me put my groceries in her cart.... she agreed to this. I try to only give her her binky for naps or bedtime. Ava has a few nicknames.... Avabee came around first, Chase nicknamed her VaVa and Luke of course calls her Sissy 99.9% of the time. She loves to sing and can almost say all of her ABC's. She can count to 3.

At her birthday party last night she sang Happy Birthday along with everyone else. She amazed me... I was scared she might get overwhelmed with all of the people there (about 30 or so) even though they are our closest friends, but she handled all of the attention so well. I actually missed her during the party becase I was cooking and doing party things and didn't get to spend a lot of time with her. I made up for that today. Her best friend is her brother and she has been nothing but sweet to her baby sister since she was born. I know this may change when Sydney starts taking all of her toys but she is so genuinely in love with her. I love to watch her nurture Sydney and Stella. I am so proud of the person she has become and I can not wait to continue to watch her grow and amaze me. Happy Birthday Baby Girl, Mommy loves you so much.

New Potty Record!!!

Luke went the WHOLE afternoon (11:45am- 7pm) without wetting his pants! He looks so old in this picture I took of him today, I can't believe it.

A little bit of Christmas...

Steve did such a great job on the lights this year! The kids love all of the lights and decorations. They are going to be so sad when it all has to be taken down. Ava's favorite ornament is a "Hello Kitty" ornament that Grammy and Pop Pop bought her last year... she just loves it! Luke has a few favorites. I need to take pictures of them. My sister and I used to love to take out all of the ornaments every year. I have such great memories of so many of them and it never hurts to capture pictures so the kids will always remember them, especially in case one breaks.

It's coooold outside

It was so cold on Saturday but it didn't keep us from going outside, especially since the sun was out. I love bringing my camera outside especially when the kiddos are all bundled up.

Watching kids play

I love the way Ava is pretend playing already. She cracks me up. For the last few weeks she has been telling me that Stella pooped and then she gets one of her own diapers out from the cabinet and uses a real wipe or two (if I let her) on Stella and then puts the "dirty" wipe in the diaper, just like Mom does :) Today, she was reenacting what we did this morning. Luke, Sydney, Ava and I went outside. We all had our strollers... Sydney was in mine, Stella was in Ava's and B was in Luke's. It was cold outside so of course Sydney was bundled up in her a really warm one piece outfit I have for her. Anyway, we strolled around for about an hour. So tonight when we were just hanging out, she got Stella all bundled up (in Sydney's sleep sack which happens to look just like her fuzzy outdoor one piece I had her in this morning) and put her in her stroller. She walked around the kitchen saying, "Mama, it's cold" and then she would point to Stella and she kept repeating herself doing it over and over. She started saying this week, "Mama look" to get my attention. I love how different girls are than boys. I think girls pretend play sooner than boys. Well, at least in my experience they do. Luke has been so funny too. They play off of each other and get ideas from each other. Luke was shopping in the kitchen today, of course buying all of the real food from the pantry and he filled up their whole kiddie kitchen with canned soup, juice boxes and pureed pumpkin. He was so mad when I took my food back. Luke likes to play with my Christmas nutcrackers... I have these miniature ones that he likes to line up like soldiers. He took out his Nerf gun and started shooting them down with darts one by one. Such a boy thing to do, I love it! Both he and Ava make me laugh, I love seeing how their minds work.

My characters...

My little characters... obsessed with their sunglasses and Luke's jersey's. It took some convincing for Luke to let Ava wear his Illionois jersey. Ava wants everything her brother has and does everything he does. And then other times she is completely original and independent. They are so funny the way they get on top of this basket filled with electronics and check themselves out. Luke does it whenever he puts on his Batman costume and he just stands there and poses. Ava can barely see herself... has to stand on her tip toes.

Mommy and Daddy love

We just can't get enough of her! She is so lovable and is getting so content... finally, to just be held and played with. I have been waiting for this for the past 5 months so I am just eating it right up!!!