Birthday pics

We did cupcakes for Ava tonight. Like Aiden on his first birthday, she was very hesitant at first! She didn't want anything to do with it until Chuck pretty much shoved it in her mouth and she realized it tasted good, lol. After that, she ate most of it! Aiden had started eating his before we even started singing:) I'll post the video tomorrow, but here is a slideshow of the pics. Aiden helped me make the cupcakes, notice how he inches closer and closer to them until he is sneaking a taste:)

Happy Birthday Ava!

Just a quick post this morning with some pics and a short video. I can hardly believe my little baby is 1 year old today! She's currently throwing pieces of banana on the ground from her high chair and blowing raspberries at me. What a cutie:)



I took these pics and this short video this morning before Aiden woke up. Isn't the birthday girl adorable?

One year ago today...

One year ago today, I was anxiously awaiting the birth of my little girl. I was HUGE, and ready to be done being pregnant! I was nervous, because I didn't know what life with two kids so young would be like. I was excited, to see her face and meet my little girl. I can hardly believe that tomorrow morning she'll be one year old. Time flew by so fast and yet it was so easy to get caught in the day-to-day challenges of being a mother.



Aiden saw this picture and informed me, "Mommy, that was when Ava was inside your belly, and then she came out of your heiny and was BORN! Happy birthday to Ava!" I had to laugh, because I've never explained how babies are born to him. This was the logical conclusion he reached since he knows that whatever goes into your belly eventually comes out of your heiny. He cracks me up!

Poor Ava

Ava had a check-up scheduled for Friday, but I knew I needed to take her back in today, and sure enough: another double ear infection. We're trying a different antibiotic again, but Chuck and I managed to wrangle a dose down her and then she promptly threw it up everywhere, so it wasn't too successful:(

The pediatrician sent a referral in to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist to talk about getting tubes in Ava's ears. At this point, I'm all for it if it will bring me back my sweet smiley girl! We'll keep you all updated, I'm sure her appt. won't be until after the New Year.

Zoo trip!

We decided to head up to the Atlanta Zoo today to make the most of this balmy December weather. The kids had a good time and were pretty well behaved (Aiden even used a public restroom for the first time and did really well with potty training today!) We ran into major trouble on the trip home though with the holiday traffic--what usually takes us an hour ended up taking three! Yikes. The kids were troopers through it all though.

Here is a slideshow of the pics I took today. Aiden had a fun time posing with all of the animal statues at the zoo! His only disappointment was the Komodo dragon because, as he said, "Mommy, that's not a dragon, that's a lizard or somethin' like that." Lol.

A Christmas kiss:)

Sorry--this is my third post today!

Just a little clip of Ava "kissing." She learned how to do this yesterday and has been practicing every time I ask her to give me a kiss. I love how she really thinks that she is doing the smooch sound at the end, even though she's not even close, lol. (She's feeling better now that she's had some Motrin and a nap!)

Christmas video

Well, after looking through all of the video from this morning, it turns out we didn't take nearly as much as we thought! It always seems to happen that way. Here is a little montage of clips that I put together--it has been majorly compressed to fit into blog format, so I hope the quality is ok. Apologetically, there is virtually NO footage of Ava. She has been in a really sour mood this morning and we suspect that her ears might be bothering her...AGAIN. Poor girl is not having a very good Christmas.

I will have to try to get more footage of the kids playing this afternoon!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We've had a nice relaxing morning and the kids have opened all of their presents:) Aiden was very excited and Ava loved the wrapping paper and bows, lol. She was already back down for a nap by 8:30am, all that unwrapping really tuckered her out!

Rather than post a million pics on the blog, I am going to post a link to my Picasa web album, so you can view them all there instead. I have a lot of video to upload, but that will have to wait until naptime I think!

We hope that everyone else is having a wonderful Christmas!

Here is the link to the photos!
http://picasaweb.google.com/beaspoon/Christmas2008?feat=directlink
(The picture of the two photo frames shows that I got Ava's frame for Christmas, so now I have a frame for each of my babies! I love them so much!)

O Christmas Tree...

I don't think I posted this yet. This was the Christmas present that Aiden made for us at school. Isn't it so sweet? I almost don't believe it is his actual handprints, because I've never seen him sit still enough to possibly get this many clean prints in a row! We just love it:) (VNBC stands for Vineville North Baptist Church)

Video

Just a cute little clip to share with you this morning. The video skips a bit in the middle for some reason (I think we just need to get some new tapes), but you can still hear that Aiden tells me his "snowman" is named Frosty, lol. And Ava showing off her waving skills:) She is also correctly signing "all done" now, which is nice!

When I was a kid, we always called the day before Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve Eve. So Merry Christmas Eve Eve everyone! We're so excited for Thursday! (we'll post lots of pics and videos, I promise!)

Videos!

A few new pictures and two new videos. Any video of Aiden inevitably ends with him realizing that I have the camcorder out and then trying to see himself and ruining the shot, lol. Here he is doing his best to wish everyone a merry Christmas!

Then a video of Ava laughing:) When Aiden was a baby he thought it was hilarious whenever I fake-sneezed. Ava apparently thinks fake sneezing is child's play and instead, fake vomiting is hilarious to her, lol. So every time I say the word, "Blech!" she laughs like a maniac. Too funny. (Please ignore the fact that she isn't dressed. She woke up from her nap covered in sweat, so I was letting her cool off!)

But first a few pics of Ava being cute, playing with her instruments. Look at all the scars on her forehead from recent tumbles, poor girl! No wonder she doesn't want to try walking anymore. She absolutely refuses now, she will collapse in a heap if you even try to let go of her.

Thank you Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Dave!

With Aunt Lizzie's permission, we gave the kids her and Uncle Dave's Christmas present a few days early...a new sand table! Aiden absolutely loves it! He helped Chuck put it together ("Daddy, let me get my drill too!") and is busy burying all of his construction trucks in the sand:) Thank you Liz and Dave!!! What a great present and I know the kids will get a lot of use out of it for years to come. (So will my vacuum, but that's my own fault since I decided it would be ok to set it up on the porch! Lol).

And a bonus pic of Ava enjoying her dinner. She loves shredded cheese and every time Aiden sees her eating cheese he says, "That's one CHEESY baby!" So funny! (She's not actually drinking from this cup. She won't drink from any cup, she just chews on the spout. But I keep hoping one of these days she'll suck on the spout on accident and figure it out and we can ditch the bottles!)

Photo Friday

Just a few misc. pictures. It is sunny and warm here, but I know it is snowing a lot where most of you live!

Not the best picture of me, but the kids were being very snuggly:)

Ava waving!

A video of Ava's newest trick! She learned to wave hi and bye last Friday, but she is very selective about it, lol. She will wave to any animal, all cashiers and strangers, but ask her to wave to ME and forget about it:)

She also sort of says "kiki" for kitty cat, if you listen closely. Not sure I'll be counting that one as a word in the baby book yet, but she's definitely trying! She tries out new sounds and babbles constantly, all day long (as long as I remember to take her binky away from her!)

Photos with Santa

Yesterday afternoon we took the kids to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops. They have a setup that, in my opinion, is even better than the mall with one BIG bonus: it's TOTALLY FREE! The actual pics with Santa didn't turn out that great (very grainy photos), but I got some cute pics of the kids playing in the fake snow:) Santa asked if we wanted a picture of Ava by herself with him, and she was not impressed! It is a memorable photo, to say the least!

Photo Friday

Just a quick pic of the day. I took this yesterday and I think it captures Ava in a nutshell. She was having fun cruising around her room, but she had to have her binky and her Pinky Bear, lol.

Scrapblog calendar

Well, I had worked for hours on some scrapblogs to do a calendar as a Christmas present for my sister this year, only to find out that Scrapblogs downloaded as jpegs do not have high enough resolution to be photo gifts :( I am still not sure why, so if anyone can think of a reason, let me know!

At any rate, I thought some of them were cute and I didn't want them to go to waste, so I thought I would share them. Here they are, in order, cover first. Enjoy!

Misc.

Just a misc. post on a dreary Wednesday morning. It is very warm here, but drizzling and rainy and about to get cold for the rest of the week. Bummer.

Ava has another double ear infection, poor girl. She's on a new antibiotic now though that tastes a lot better and she's taking very well, so hopefully it clears up quickly because she has been such a grump--and I can't blame her! I remember having so many ear infections as a child and it makes me want to cry for her because I still remember how much they hurt.

Ava also got her third tooth! Her first top tooth, and it's mate is not far behind. So it looks like she will just have 4 teeth by her first birthday. I can't believe it is coming up so soon. She still seems like so much of a baby to me. She started pointing this week though, and has even pointed at the Christmas tree a few times and said "tee!" for tree! She can also point to Zoe or Bailey when I ask her where her kitty cat is. Smart girl :)

Aiden is adjusting to getting back on schedule and going to school. He will have a long Christmas break coming up soon though (we are going to potty train him then, cross your fingers for quick success!).

Here is a pic of the kids and my parents from our trip (great pic!) and also one of our tree which we put up last weekend (and Zoe enjoying the Christmas pillows, lol).

Happy Wednesday!

Aiden's school pictures

We got Aiden's school pictures back today! Isn't he cute? This is his class photo also, 9 boys and 3 girls. I think only one kid is smiling, lol.

We're back!

We are HOME! We finally arrived yesterday afternoon around 1:30 in the afternoon. It was a long trip, but so wonderful to see all of our family and some of our friends. Unfortunately, Aiden came down with bronchitis once we got to Ohio, so we had to cancel plans with most of Chuck's friends because Aiden was contagious. I hope we get to see them the next time we are in town!

Here are some of the pics from our trip. Mom & Dad, I know you have more pics of you with the kids, could you e-mail them to me? Also, I know that Jackie, you took some pics at your house. Would you also e-mail them to me? Thanks so much!

The pics are backwards in order, so the most recent ones are first. As you can see it was COLD for most of the trip! The kids did great though, and Aiden was even requesting to wear his hat by the end of the trip:)