Flour Baby

While I was rolling out the gingerbread this year, Ava took a knife to a bag of flour. Of course, Emily had to get in on the action. I rounded the table to find my baby sufficiently dusted.

New Year's Eve

It's hard to believe that last year on NYE I was just 10 days away from delivering baby Emily. One of our New Year's traditions is attending a party with our college friends. Obviously, last year, in my late state of pregnancy, I was not "allowed" to make the trip from Atlanta to Indiana. Now that we live closer and I am not pregnant, I was making it to the party come hell or high water. Our friends "Norm" and Steph are gracious enough to host every year and friends from as far away as San Diego make the trip to bring in the New Year with the old gang. The party seems to have gotten tamer now that many of us have entered into parenthood or just lived as a grown ups long enough for it to affect our eternal "party animal". It's fun to catch up and hear how everyone's life has changed in the last year. One thing that doesn't change about this party is that we always celebrate with a theme. Past year's themes have been "White Trash" New Year's(an excellent excuse to don my Hooters Racing tank top) and Rock Star New Years(I was Cher). This year was a little more thought provoking: Good vs. Evil. Hmmm. What to be? Super Man or Lex Luther. Batman or Catwoman? In the end I was good and evil.

Here is the host as Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. He was carrying a little seat and had money spilling out of his pockets.


My friend Amber and I being "good".


Mike's brother Dave and his sister Katie. If anyone reading this is confused...Purdue is good.


My sweetie and I on NYE. I puffy painted matching shirts with quotes about evil for Mike and I. I know, I'm too cool for school. Puffy paints. Geesh.


My good friend Michelle and I. Her husband wore "The Joker" shirt.


Some of my "evil" buddies. Moreno as evil incarnate...IU...ha ha. Me, my friend Brandon as "Chuck"(I've never seen that show) and my brother-in-law Drew as Osama bin Laden.


And what 2008 New Year's Eve party was complete without Rock Band? Though, I'm not sure that butchering lead vocals to American Woman at 4 am was the best way for me to begin my year. In this picture are the hostess Steph in the back (dressed as beer pong) my friend Jen, and my brother-in-law on drums.


I wish all of you the best in the new year!

I didn't have my camera out very much, so if any of my fellow party goers would like to share pics, send them my way and I'll add them on.

Christmas and Christmas and....more Christmas!

I've been so bad about updating lately. We just got back home from our Christmas vacation on Friday night. I immediately launched a war on clutter. I've been trying to organize and do laundry for the last few days. 1 closet down (and the playroom), 2 closets and a very messy 4 year old's room to go. Barbie's house does not get assembled until I can see the floor in there! That said, I'm taking a break and trying to look past the basket of laundry that needs to be folded on the family room floor so that I can bring you this little slide show of our Christmas.

We started Christmas the weekend before with the Bailey family Christmas. You'll see the pictures of the girls holding a stack o' cash in the slideshow. My grandpa always gives the Christmas money in "ones". Pretty exciting for the kiddos. With all of those bills they must be rich, right? Ava was dancing around the room waving her money. At 4, she gets the fact that money = buying power.

We returned to Ohio and had a really sweet Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with just the 4 of us. After the girls went to sleep Mike and I turned into elves and moved all of the furniture out of the playroom so that we could blow up an enormous bounce house. It's meant for outdoors, but the child in Mike could not resist that giant Christmas surprise. I have to say, it was totally worth it to see the surprise and pure joy on the girls' little faces.

Once we'd finished Christmas under out tree and packed up the cars, we took off for Christmas night back in Indiana with Mike's side of the family. Then on Saturday we were back up at my parent's for Christmas with my family. On Sunday we parted ways, Mike returned to Indy to be the Godfather for our nephew and the girls and I stayed at my parent's to attend my mom's side of the family Christmas. Mike headed back to work in Ohio Sunday night. On Tuesday the girls and I made it back down to Indy and Mike re-joined us on Wednesday, just in time for New Year's Eve. Craziness, right? Nope. Pretty normal for us and definitely worth it. It was so good to see everyone this year!

Of course, the girls were sufficiently spoiled. Ava made her own list this year(she dictated it to her secretary, that is) and the big items were a Baby Alive Doll, the Rose Petal Cottage, and a tire swing. You'll see all of the above in the montage below...so she made out just fine. All she wanted from Santa was her "favorite" bubble gum (individually wrapped Dubble Bubble) and grape soda. That made Santa's job pretty easy. Her stocking was filled with bubble gum and the fireplace lined with cans of grape soda. Ahh, the the simple things. And since Christmas really isn't about the gifts, I have to share my proudest moment. On Christmas Eve I was running my last errand and trying to hurry home to get ready for church. Ava yelled from the back seat, "I'm so excited for Jesus' birthday! I love the baby Jesus! Happy Birthday Jesus!" The girl gets it.

Hope all of you had a wonderful holiday! Enjoy the pictures:

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Ava's Christmas Program

You never can tell what a kid is going to do in front of an audience. Ava decided that it was a good time for personal hygiene. Obviously, I need to clean her ears. It may also help with the tone deaf condition. Ava did hit a pretty shrill and interesting note at one point in the song which prompted the parent behind me to laugh, "That one is yours, isn't it?"

The program was cute. Each class had a costume. Bells, Angels, Animals, Mary and Joseph and the shepherds. Obviously, Ava's class were the candles. I think the costume was a bit of a distraction. Her "flame" kept slipping off of her head.

The highlight of my night: As the processional of children paraded into the auditorium, Ava caught my eye and blew me a big kiss and proudly announced, "That's MY mommy!" I wish I could bottle moments like that up and let them out on those days when she is testing my patience.

Ava is the one with the microphone blocking her face. Sorry for the crappy filming. It's not my forte and it's difficult to watch the program and film at the same time. I get distracted, them I'm like, "Oh yeah, I'm filming. Keep it steady."

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Deck the Halls

On Saturday we began decorating for Christmas. Mike brought most of the Christmas decorations out and the girls and I started sorting through them, trying to decide where they will go in a different house. I must say that the 1980's peach carpeting and dark wood panelling do not provide the same lovely backdrop as the white trim and hardwood flooring from last year. That said, it is cozy and we're making the decor work. This year is especially fun because Ava is taking an active role in the decorating. Emily is even getting in on the action. Ava puts up an ornament and Emily takes it down. Ava puts up another ornament and Emily takes it down. And so on... While moving the furniture to create room for the tree, I heard Emily giggling and lots of rustling noises. She had climbed into one of the boxes and was unrolling ribbon. She looked so proud of herself when I came around the corner.

On Sunday we brought home the tree and started decorating it Sunday night. The decorating took longer than expected, so we ended up finishing the decorations on Monday morning. Now all that's left are the outdoor lights. Man this is a process! We might get all of the decorations up before Christmas...I hope.

Here are some of the pictures from the weekend decorating and a little clip of Ava hanging the stockings.

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Saturday Morning Breakfast

I think I've mentioned before that I love low key Saturday mornings. Here are the girls this morning having breakfast on their picnic table and watching 'toons.

Okay, so she really doesn't have enough hair for a pony tail. However, I am able to fashion the craziness that is my child's hair into a spike on her head that shouts to the world: I AM A GIRL! I long for the day when her hair grows long and lush enough to put it into braids and pigtails. But this will have to do for now. I'm tired of that old guy at Walmart calling my pink-clad baby girl "little fella".

Isn't she cute?

In other news...I finally got a "mamma" from her last week. And now she knows how to use it. Sometimes it's a sweet, like "Ahhh mamma" because she's happy to see me. But she uses it when she's ticked too. Like when I take something away from her or she wants something that I'm holding. Then she's screaming at me, "mamma mamma mamma!" She's repeating lots of other words now too. Nothing consistently, of course. If I want to show off her skills to someone, she won't speak on cue. But I know she can and that's what counts. : )