Silly Girls!

Here are just a few quick pictures for you! Moments like these, the little ones that just make us smile, add up to a whole lotta happiness and joy. When I think about all of these tiny, happy moments, I sometimes get angry that there are people who are willing to hurt children and take away their happiness and joy. Breaks my heart. We try very hard to soak in every silly thing they do, laugh at all of the not at all funny jokes and just not let life get in the way. Of course we fail many times but we try our best! The only thing our precious little gifts want is love and attention. I constantly pray that God will clear my mind of all the chaos that I create so that I can focus on providing my girls an abundance of love and attention.

Here's something that will make you laugh! Ava's bedtime prayers are sometimes sweet and sometimes hilarious! She is always so serious about it though so it is hard not to laugh. Last night, we failed miserably! Her prayer was, "God, help me grow up faster and help me stop picking boogers." I wish she never had to grow up at all! A three year old without a filter is good for many laughs.


Nora is a determined child!

Of course Ava couldn't be left out. Bless her heart...she's so attention starved!

It was a tight fit but Nora had the best time in the play stroller!

This was a fun and inexpensive (free) craft we did for Kindermusik. I hot glued two toilet paper rolls together after she covered them in aluminum foil. Then she decorated them. It is simple but has so many fun uses. Ava likes for me to line up our barstools and then pretend it is train and we are going different places like under the sea, on a safari or climbing a mountain. Then she uses her binoculars to spot things along the way.

Work day crafts

I wrote this Saturday but am just now adding pictures and posting. :)

I'm not quite sure if these fun do dad's are crafty or just earthy. Either way, we had a blast!! Kevin has been out of town for two weeks (home during the weekend) so we were so excited to spend the day with him. Ava found a pinecone on our walk Wednesday but she did not want to make anything with it until her Daddy came home. So, today was the day! She woke up talking about doing her "pinecone craft." First, we had to pack in some errands, Easter pictures with a skitish bunny and a short nap. The rest of the day was spent working in the yard. Ok...so Kevin did the working and we did the playing/supervising. That is what we do best!

These fun outside crafts definitely made our work day much more fun! I'm pretty sure these are things we all did in elementary school but it is still fun...even for us parents. Ava's giggle box went crazy after she covered Daddy's finger in bird seed and said she was going to feed him to the birds and "you're my bird feeder." She was laughing so hard her eyes were tearing. That made the mess well worth it.




We have a small garden that we really enjoy during the summer and is by far one of Ava's favorite things to do with her Daddy. Again, I supervise. Side note: my Mom says that when I would get dirty as a child, I would hold my arms out, whine/cry and demand to be changed. Some things never change. Ava planted onion, carrot and lettuce seeds in the egg carton's. She loves to watch plants sprout so this is right up her alley. Then, after they sprout, we will transfer them to the garden.

Nora's 1st Birthday Party - Feb. 21st

I'm sorry I'm so late in posting pictures of Nora's birthday party. We had family over after church for lunch. Thankfully, it warmed up some so the kids were able to play outside. They put some miles on the Barbie jeep. I love watching kids play and have a good time. It makes all of the details that I stress over seem so unimportant. Nora did so well! I expected her to be grumpy once she got tired but she handled it like a big girl. As you are about to see in the pictures, she got serious with the cake.

Nora's 1st Birthday - Feb. 19th

Nora's first birthday was on Friday, February 19th. It's tradition for us to spend our birthday's doing our favorite things. When Ava turned three, she chose things like going to the pet store, a Dew Drop hotdog and of course ice cream. It was hard to figure out what Nora's favorites are...so we turned to the expert. When we asked Ava what she thought Nora's favorite thing to do was, she said, "Eat bread." So, that is exactly what we did. Ava was beaming when we took her suggestion seriously. We started the day with a muffin top at Panera and then went to Malbis to the Build A Bear workshop. Nora was able to make her first animal while Ava gave hers, all of hers, a bath. We looked a tad silly carrying all of her bears + a few extra "friends" in but thankfully, we were the only ones there. Nora kept kissing the nose of her polar bear. Then we went to the pet store (sense Ava's influence??) and back to, where else, Panera (aka "The Orange House") for lunch. It went with the "she likes to eat bread" theme. We could live at Panera though. She celebrated the rest of the day with an extra long nap, lots of hugs, kisses and snuggle time.