Tyler

We thought Tyler was going to be our calm child, and he was for a while. As he gets older and more active, we see that we may have another monkey on our hands!

He can't walk yet, but he can do this!

I think he might have climbed that gate earlier than Ava did. I also found him once sitting on a dinning room chair!

He climbed on this turtle all by himself.

He does really well walking with the walker. You can't really tell in this video, but it's all I have.

Below is his attempt of walking unassisted. He was cracking me up with the "trust fall." He doesn't quite get the idea.
The second half of this video is just a small clip of my fun crazy life with two kids...and my attempt to keep them from hurting each other!

Not a very good video, but it's the audio I love.

Love

31

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN!

Justin turned 31 on January 12th. 

His big birthday gift is that he will be spending three days in Florida with his brother.

On his actually birthday, he opened four gifts. His favorite treats.

Ava helped decorate the entry way.

She also helped put sprinkles on his door. 

You can tell where she could reach. :)

Happy Birthday Justin! 

You are the best husband and father! 

We love you!

the things she says

I've been trying to write down all of the funny things Ava says. 

Here are a few recent conversations.

Ava and Tyler were playing with toys in the living room, and I was in the kitchen. Ava asked for a lollipop. I told her she could have one if she picked up the living room. She started singing the clean up song and the next thing I know she carries Tyler to her room, sets him down and closes the door. I asked, "What are you doing to Tyler?" She smiled, "I cleaned him up!!"

One evening Ava asked me, "You hungry Mom?" Me: "No. I'm okay." A few minutes later.... Ava asked, "You want some ice cream Mom?" Translation: "I want some ice cream, but I might have a better chance of getting some if I can convince you that you want some too!" :) She's too cute. And yes, we gave her ice cream.

While sitting on the couch together, Ava licked her foot and then looked at me and said, "Want some?"

When I said no she said, "Just a little bit?"

She cracks me up daily! I love her so much! 

Here is a photo we took on Thanksgiving Day that I forgot to post. I LOVE fall colors!! 

Merry Christmas!!

Technically I should say, "Happy New Year!" today, but here is our Christmas Post.

Christmas Eve PJs

Ava didn't want to wear her pajamas, but we convinced her to wear them long enough for the picture.

 Santa came to our house!

Lesson learned: Don't wait until Christmas Eve to wrap all of the presents. It took me two hours. Justin (supervising from the couch) originally wanted me to wrap everything individually. At midnight he changed his mind and said, "Let's just get it done!"

We weren't sure how Ava would react. Would she tear open the presents before waking us up? She ended up crawling into bed with us. We had to remind her that she walked by a ton of presents on the way into our room.

Tyler mostly ate wrapping paper and choked on it.

Happy about her new bike helmet.

Ava opened EVERY present! When I tried to have Justin open his present from me, she took it from him and said, "I show you how to open it Daddy!"

Before ripping open a present, Ava at least asked, "What name is this one?" (translation: "Who is this one for?")

Tyler got dinosaurs, trucks and tractors.

Ava got tons of princess stuff (Thanks to Grandma Hawes!), her (fake) snake, helmet, and lots of purple things.

It snowed on Christmas Eve, the first snow of the year, but not enough to make a snowman. We made a paper snowman and stayed nice and warm inside!

Snow the day after Christmas. 

As a family gift, we got a sports set: basketball, golf and baseball. Our long entrance makes for a great batting cage / basketball court.