Saturday, July 30, 2011

A couple of Jack things....

Jack was very excited about getting to have some "somersault" tonight at supper....applesauce.

He still says, "Please you may get me a drink?" instead of "Please may I have a drink?"

He gets up before me usually and goes in Ava's room, and they play together until I get up. I know I have it good! When I finally have to get up, he says to me, "Mommy, are you going to stay up all night and fix me some supper?" Me: Jack, you mean stay up all day and fix you some breakfast. We call it breakfast in the morning. Jack: I call it supper. Me: Okay

He's asking questions about God and Heaven lately since Grandma's funeral and maybe even a little before then. I love those talks. I hope and pray he sees God in me and wants Him for himself.

He wanted to play Mario Kart tonight and called it "Mama Mia". I guess they say that in the game. I just laugh at how he makes up names for things.

He still is a great big brother, much nicer to Ava than she is to him. HA She gets kind of annoyed when he gets in her way. So here we go with that whole phase. Each phase has pros and cons, I guess. I still remember the doctor telling me about Jack around this age. "The older he gets and the more his brain develops, the more annoying he will be." I thought that was pretty good....and true!

Jack is very nervous about thunderstorms because of a scary one last year in which we went to the basement. He said the other day, "Did you hear that kachowing?" I guess that means thunder.

We are working on a few things with Ava. Taking the bottle with formula and the pacifier away. It's going okay overall. I can't tell if she's more whiny because of that or if it's for another reason. But I know she's okay, so we're just working on it little by little. It's been nice to be home the last couple of days to work on things like that.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Ava's 1st Birthday Party

We had a full house for Ava's birthday! We were blessed to have Chris and his family here from Colorado. There were a total of 19 people in our house sitting around the table. Of course, we had to bring in an extra table from church and a bunch of chairs. Ava loved her party (at least we think she did). She definitely loved her cake and we have the pictures to prove it! She got some great outfits and some great toys to play with.

The birthday girl is ready for her party


The birthday crew


Here was the yummy cupcake pull-apart cupcake cake (try to say that three times fast!)


Someone is ready for that cake!


Forget about the cake! I want the frosting!!


The mess begins


Add a little bit more


And some more


She's finally done and is as happy as a clam and as messy as a pig


Eating the cake is so much more fun than the clean up


Having fun on one of her new toys


After the party, we had cousin Connor stay overnight so he and Jack could have a sleepover. They wanted to get dressed up in their superhero costumes and I just had to include this picture because of the face that Jack decided to make when I asked him to smile.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Family Time, Heat & a Big Birthday!

I want to start out by wishing our daughter a Happy 1st Birthday! We cannot believe that it has been a year since she was born! She is growing up so fast and reaching a lot of milestones and it is a lot of fun to have her around and watching her grow up. We won't actually have her birthday party until Friday, but we were able to get a free cake from Byerly's yesterday (her birthday) and share it with some family. One good thing is that we have more family around right now. The sad part about it is that Shannon's grandma passed away last week. She was 98 years old and had a wonderful life with a wonderful family. She was a faithful Christian servant and she will be missed. Shannon's brother, Chris, and his family traveled all the way from Colorado. He preached at the funeral and did a wonderful job. Shannon and her sisters and a couple of her cousins sang a couple songs and it was beautiful.

It is great to have the extra family around, but I feel bad for them coming in from out of town when it is so miserable here in Minnesota. We are going through a terrible heat wave. I walked out of the house on Sunday to walk to church and just about passed out! I thought at the time that this was about the worst humidity that I had ever felt and, sure enough, I found out later that the dew point for that day was tied for the worst in the Twin Cities' history. Of course we had to do a little better than that; so yesterday, the day of the funeral and Ava's birthday, we broke the record for the worst dew point in TC's history! I checked my phone at one point during the day and saw that the heat index was 122 degrees! And today is supposed to be about the same if not worse!! I told some relatives from Florida that they better fly back quickly to escape this Minnesota heat.

Ava with her cousin Caleb


Jack with his cousin Connor. These two are inseparable when they are together!


Ava having a fun time with her Byerly's cake

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Ava's Uh-Oh

So far, this is the best video we have of Ava saying uh-oh.

Monday, July 11, 2011

It's fun now that Ava understands more of what we are saying. She can nod and shake her head when we ask her questions. She chatters a lot! Getting more blonde hair with some curls. She points and talks about things. I don't really know what things, but it's still exciting. You just go along in the baby mode and kind of forget and then all of a sudden, she does all these new things and it's so exciting. I know I keep saying exciting, but it is!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

First words!

Today we established the fact that Ava is saying or trying to say uh oh. It comes out, "Uh Uh" but in a sing song-y way. And she is definitely trying to communicate more. She nods sometimes and sometimes shakes her head. I'm pretty sure she says hi. It comes out HAAAII again in a sing song-y way, but she does it when she sees us. She waves a lot more. Still says AH to get our attention along with some mamamamas and other consonant sounds. Very exciting!

Summer Fun!

Well, it is summer and we are trying to have some fun in the sun!

Here are Jack and Ava playing in/by a pool at a friend's house.


Here is Ava enjoying a nice piece of watermelon after an outdoor Sunday evening service.


Here is Jack playing in the fountains at the MN Zoo



Here is our family taking a break in the middle of a nice bike ride.

Friday, July 1, 2011

July!

Well happy July! Finally summer is here! We are looking forward to the 4th with family, Ava's first birthday on the 19th, and the fair season! Starting in with a bang with 90+ degree weather, but that's okay. Winter is still too strong of a memory for me to resent it! And thank the Lord for air conditioning!

We have been hitting the zoo every week and are hoping the government shutdown doesn't last too long. We love going there with our friends.

Ava is interacting more and more. Sometimes I could swear she says certain things like mama or hi or dada - she is probably mimicking us a little - but it's never enough to "count". She is crawling fast now and pulls herself up a lot. Her feet get so dirty outside that I decided to start having her wear shoes, and she doesn't appreciate it so far! I'm enjoying the development though. The older she gets, the easier it is for our family to do things together and to just enjoy each other. I love hearing her join us in playing or laughing.

We are practicing manners with Jack. We went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago with a very polite little boy (Wesley) who is just 2, and so I thought if he can do it, we should be doing a better job about it. So it is fun to hear Jack practicing how to say things. He has thanked me about 1000 times for a car I bought him the other day, but I haven't gotten tired of it yet!

Otherwise, that's about it. I'm just enjoying getting outside and being with the kids and getting together with family and friends. I have a few things on my to do list this summer, but I'm thinking about letting it all go and just enjoying my time to do other things. Winter will be here too soon, and there will be time enough for projects.