Happy Easter!

I love this time of year, spring has arrived, the weather is warming up and the resurrection gives me the feeling of promise and hope! I love that as our kiddos get older, they understand more and more what this special day is really all about!

Like always, we colored Easter eggs.  Last year, Bennett was still to little but this year he was very intrigued by the whole process.

My pretty girl, is an old pro!

Right before he tossed the cup into the air!

Easter morning arrived very early!  The Easter bunny came and left some goodies for Ava and Bennett. We then got ready and rushed to Buckhead Church for an amazing Easter service.

                                    

 Bennett was tuckered out after Waumba land!

 After church we headed to Aunt Katie and Uncle Adam's for an Easter brunch.

My sweet family!

 My pretty little lady had tons of fun hunting eggs!

 Pop giving BB a hand at finding the eggs.

 Bubbles...nothing sweeter than a baby boy in his jon jon, white knee socks and white shoes!

 Oh...Aunt Katie was 40 weeks on Easter!  She was sooo ready for sweet Landen to arrive!

 Chocolate and BB...don't mix!

 Ava and her cousin sweet Kinsley!  Ava thinks she is "so cute"!

 Brotherly love!  Sweet Ava is such a good sport and such a great big sister!

 

First Haircut

Well, I knew it was coming the day my sweet boy would get his haircut.  What can I say, he was blessed with beautiful hair so why in the world would I want to cut it!  Who cares that on several occasions (3 times in one day) someone said what a pretty little girl. So it was getting to shaggy so we headed to Pigtails and Crewcuts for another first!

He was such a good boy, no tears, no screaming he just sat there still and wondered why mama was about to cry.

 My sweet little man!

 Check out the new "do"!  Such a handsome boy and still some curls in the back to make me smile!

Growing Up...

Yes, they are.  It's a fact of life I know, but trust me when I say that I am fighting it with everything I have.  Don't get me wrong, I and so very thankful and my heart rejoices in the fact that I have two healthy, smart, thriving children.  But forgive me, if I'm having a "hard" time watching them grow up too fast.

Now...to discuss my sweet girl.  You see, this picture below is the VERY last picture of her with ALL of her baby teeth.  We noticed she had a loose tooth about a month ago, but figured we had a little more time. (Or at least I was praying we did).  The morning of the big event, I noticed her gum below her tooth was pretty red so in my gut I knew it wouldn't be long.

 I remember her first tooth, like it was yesterday.  We waited and waited for it's arrival.  She drooled, drooled and drooled some more, and just before her very first birthday that sweet little tooth made it's grand entrance.  No more toothless grin.

Well tonight, not long after Nick came home from work.  Ava comes running in with more excitement than I have ever seen....it happened.  She showed daddy, he touched the tooth, it fell out.  I put on a "brave" face for my sweet girl (because I didn't want to ruin her moment), grabbed my camera and started taking pictures

 Seriously so excited she couldn't stand it and so very proud of this "right" of passage.  Me...I wanted to cry.  Just another part of growing up I guess. First comes kindergarten, next losing teeth.

 Regardless of how I feel, this is such a special moment we will never forget.  She left the tooth fairy her sweet baby tooth along with a 8 sentence note which ended with her asking the tooth fairy to sign her name.  Lucky girl woke up to $5 and Fiona the Fairy's fancy signature.

So thankful for this sweet face and know that more momentous hard moments are on their way...wouldn't change any of it for the world.

February

Sigh...another month into 2011.  February was full of blessings! 

On the 28th we celebrated our 7th Anniversary!  We look like babies below, and it's hard to believe we've been together for almost 11 years and married for 7.  So many wonderful memories, and couldn't have asked for a a better man to spend my life with.  I love him with all my heart and feel truly blessed to call him my husband.  We have been through the ringer these past 18 months, but made it through in one piece and know that God has wonderful plans and things ahead for us in our future.

I am also blessed to have such great friends.  Our kids love to play together and we like to play together as well.  Once a month Lacey, Brandy and myself, have a dessert get together.  This month we signed up for a private cake decorating class at Bliss Bakery.  5 hours and 3 cakes later we had created our own mini zebra cakes.  We had so much fun and can't wait to see where our March dessert date takes us!

Speaking of dessert...  Give him chocolate cake and he will eat it!  This is what is left of our Superbowl football cake.

So sweet...I am sure he was about to do something naughty, but who can get mad with a devil grin like this?

We are also blessed that we are able to send Ava to such a wonderful school.  We love everything about her school, and enjoy all the wonderful activities she gets to participate in.  This month they had their sock hop.  The had hula hoop and bubble gum blowing contests, made ice cream floats, danced their hearts out, did the limbo, had a photo booth and the list goes on.

Ava had the most fun hula hooping.

Dancing with her friend Maggie

We were also blessed to finally have some warm sunny weather in February!  We had several park days and so much fun playing outside in the warm sunshine!

Oh, and can't forget about a life changing blessing!  While in Canada snow skiing, Chris proposed to Julie!  She said yes!  Couldn't have chosen a more perfect girl if I had too and so very excited for both of them.

He is 18months!

Well by the time I am actually writing this he is already 20 months.  Only 4 short months until he is two...blah!  Can't believe it is all I can say.

We went for our appointment and unlike his usual attitude at the doctor, he sat patiently in the kiddie chair.

 Big boy!  He weighed 28lbs 8oz (60 percentile) and was 34" tall (75th percentile).  He continues to be great eater.  He loves spicy food, all fruits and veggies.  Not a fan of mac-n-cheese or noodles.

He received his DTAP and his second dose of the flu shot.  He was suppose to have his MMR since we opted to push it back to his 18month appointment.  However, since he had to have the 2nd dose of his flu we decided not to combine those two vaccines and wait until his 2yr to get his MMR.  This made mama happy!

 Well life with this 18month old is quite different than my previous experience with Ava.  He is my snuggle bug, lovey dovey, sweet meat one moment.  Then my rough-n-tumble, demanding, wild thing.  He is all BOY!  When he is good he is the definition of good, but when he is naughty wow you better watch out.

Here he is standing on the oven drawer trying to get a "nack" (snack) off the counter when I already told him no.

 This boy is smart!  I was so worried because 1) he's a boy, 2) he is the second child that he wouldn't talk as well or as early as Ava.  Well wrong again about this one.  We have another talker on our hands.  He says up to 8 word sentences, words like dinosaur (he can even identify a picture of aT-Rex and a Tri-ceratops).  He is not afraid to tell you what he wants and will repeat his demands until you oblige.

 Best shot with the traditional sign...no staying still for this boy!

 Thought he was funny with my camera lens cap.

 Clearly not happy here.  He has had a horrible time with cutting the last two molars and his central incisors (eye teeth). He pretty much has not slept through he night since the last week of November.  They are almost in so we'll be glad to get back to normal. Thank goodness he is still taking 2 naps though.

 Better now :)  For those of you wondering, he has not had his first haircut...only a tiny trim of the "bangs".  He'll get it cut soon enough and right now I'm getting all I can of his beautiful wavy hair.

 Uh oh...better watch out!  Looks like someone is about to get kicked, hit, head butted or bit.  Yes I am not proud, that I have one of "those kids" on my hands.  He doesn't do it to other children (other than Ava)  and plays really well with other kids. For whatever reason he just feels the need to do these things to me, Nick or Ava.  What can I say other than he is a typical impulsive boy.

Well that's my BB.  Wouldn't trade him for the world and so blessed to have this sweet loving wild thing keeping me on my toes!

January...

First of all, Happy New Year!  I really hate only updating our blog monthly, but I have to accept that is just the way it is right now.  January was a fun but strange month.  Our new year was great, low key...but not complaining.  Ava went back to school for 4 days then a HUGE ice/snowstorm came.  We got about 3 inches of snow topped with about 2-3 inches of ice.  We didn't thaw out for a solid week and schools were out for 5 days.  We had fun attempting to play outside, but the ground was solid from the ice and didn't make for much fun.

They had fun driving the gator they got for Christmas around the yard.

My sweet BB wasn't too sure about the cold, but he eventually decided it was better than being cooped up inside.

Ava as usual just makes the best of the situation and has fun!

Happy now that he is swinging.

Kind of out of order, but you can tell how thrilled he was to be outside...even though he was still in the garage.

Pretty upset here.  Maybe it was because he was wearing Ava's hand-me-down pink snow bibs.

Finally a warm day and a sweet picture of my Ava girl.

Towards the end of he month, Ava had her Father/Daughter Dance at school.  I was on the dance committee so I was one of the lucky moms that actually got to "work" the dance and sneak in some pictures.

 The whole dance might have been one of the sweetest things I have ever seen.  Over a hundred grown men danced the night away (fast & slow) without any hesitation.  Nick was such a good sport and well... we all know he wasn't given the gift of rhythm.

 Two of my loves and what a special memory.

 Poor girl was starting to fight a virus.  She really started to feel bad at the end, and ended up running a high fever for the next few days.

So far 2011 has gotten off to a pretty great start, and we look forward to a year full of many great more memories.