Happy Day

Our baby girl isn't such a baby anymore. She turned two at 8:45 this morning. (We toasted, of course, as is tradition, but we didn't manage to get a photo of that. Our hands were otherwise occupied.)

Just after Ava woke up this morning, we gathered for early morning birthday present opening. She was pretty excited to see the gift Daddy had made for her.

Grammie and Grandad Renfro were here to help us celebrate and they showed up with two big sets of fun. I have a feeling we'll be playing dress-up for days and days and days in our house.

A couple hours later, we kicked off a celebration of this exciting event at a nearby park. We hosted a ladybug picnic for some family friends and some of Ava's school friends. We were so glad so many sweet people were able to join us for some playground time and lunch. After the kiddos got all played out, we ate lunch and then cupcakes and ice cream.

Ava was a pro at blowing out her candle and loved having everyone sing happy birthday to her.

Judging by her frosting-smeared face, she also loved her cupcake.

Happy birthday, dear sweet girl. Your mommy and daddy love you so.

TPS Friends (with new babies!)

On their way through town to the airport, our TPS friends, stopped by to share some dinner and playtime before their big airplane adventure.

This was the first time two of these new babies had been met and enjoyed by the whole group. Hard to believe how big all these kiddos are getting.

Every time we have a get-together like this, I find myself yearning for a big 07B reunion. All my Bond girls, the MOTOs and kiddos in one place...just like they belong. Florida girls, want to come visit us yet? We'll save space for you at the table. :-)

The ABC's

Here's Ava singing (most of) her ABCs. :-)

Where We've Been

Two years ago today, our little Peanut was due to arrive. Of course, Ava had other plans and took her time arriving in this world. My, how time flies.

Speaking of time flying, someday, we're going to have to post a doozy of a post all about the last three weeks and all that we've had going on. We've taken lots of pictures to share and we always say "Oh, quick! Take a picture! We need to blog that!" But, between doing the things worth blogging and all the other not-so-bloggable things, we've just run out of time.

So, until we get around to posting all the fun pictures and videos of the last couple of weeks, here's a little run-down of what we're looking forward to in the next couple of weeks.

~Ava's turning two! That's right, we blinked and two years went by. Our baby girl is now a walking, talking, big girl sleeping, changing daycare rooms, ready-to-potty-train big girl. She's grown up so much and we're just as proud of her as we could be. We'll be celebrating with friends and family at a park for a ladybug picnic. Very excited!

~Thanksgiving! We're cooking up some yummy deliciousness to share with friends and family at our house. We love this holiday and are so glad to be hosting!

~Matt and I have been married for five (5!!) years. Holy buckets! We're grateful my parents and brother will be here to babysit Ava while we hit the town. This will be our first anniversary date in three years...2 out of 5 isn't bad, I guess. :-)

~Fall 2009 semester ends December 11. And not a moment too soon. One more semester and I'll get to walk that graduation stage in May. Really looking forward to just working full-time rather than doing the work/school thing. Ah, sanity.

More soon, friends. (With pictures!) Have a great week!

Air Power!

We braved the wind and cold to take Ava to the Nellis airshow. She loved seeing all the airplanes and, when we let her "pet" the jets, she would say "Nice jet. Nice jet." :-)

We didn't make it all the way through to the Thunderbirds, but we had a fun time. Hopefully, it will be a little less windy when we go next year!

Karaoke - Little Einstein Style

Ava's singing debut...the theme from Little Einsteins.

While Ava's heard this song plenty at home and in the car, evidently they play it over and over for her at school because she puts on such a show.

Fair warning: Ava's almost two. Just ignore the nasty bossiness of the first 20 seconds. I don't know how to edit the movies so that they come out all sunshine & roses. :-)

Happy Halloween!

We've had a busy day Halloween-ing around here. We started with pumpkin coloring and carving this morning and ended with a fairly successful trick-or-treating outing. This year was Ava's first time for trick-or-treating, but she did the dressing up thing last year.

First, Daddy carved while Ava colored our pumpkin.

Later, Ava prepared for the night's festivities by practicing her monster walk.

For trick-or-treating, Ava dressed up as Minnie Mouse.

We started with a visit to the Hoffmans and then went to several houses on our block to gather some treats. Ava wasn't real sure what was going on at the first house, but by the second bowl of candy, she was a pro.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

White Family Camp-In

We had such a nice time visiting San Antonio to celebrate Poppie's 93rd birthday at the White Family Camp-in. The lodge was beautiful, the weather was gorgeous and the fun was flowing freely.

White Family Camping tradition...Jack Daniels + Fire.

We took about 300 pictures during our trip, so I'm going to let a few of them do the talking. :-)

Ava experienced her first hero-worship during camp-in.

Elizabeth was a great sport and spent a lot of time playing with Ava.

Barbara and Judy took charge of teaching Ava life-skills. "Eat dessert first!"

Quiet moments with Poppie & Mahgie.

After opening confetti poppers at the official birthday celebration.

After 5 years of work, Matt finally delivered the family's 8mm movie collection on DVD.

The world was Ava's oyster on this trip. She spent all day outside for two days.

Needless to say, she was exhausted at the end of it!

We found a chameleon in the grass on the second morning.

Ava let him crawl all over her and then, once we released him, spent most of the rest of the morning looking for him.

I love this photo. I took it.

I hope I have half the sense of humor and a quarter of the spunk Poppie does when I'm 93.

I'm grateful to be a part of his family.

Not to get too sappy, but isn't this just what it's all about?

Thanks for the fun, White Family! Happy Birthday, Poppie!!

Not Quite Two

So, here it is the end of October and Halloween is looming large this weekend. Of course, the other thing looming large, the thing we don't think of as often, is Ava's second birthday. Invitations are motoring their way across town and across the country, but it seems like we ought to take a pause and think about who our little girl is at not quite two. Conceivably, she'll be an entirely different person once we leap across that yawning chasm.

So, at 23 months....

~Ava is speaking in short sentences.

*"More yogurt please, Mommy."

* "No, no Janice school."

*"No, no diaper change."

* "Ok, Libby? Ok? Sorry, Libby, sorry." (By the way, Matt & I are sorry, too, Libby.)

~Our smart girl is going pee in the potty about once a day. Her reward is toilet paper to wipe with. Useful and economical!

~Ava has a constant wardrobe of yoga pants, t-shirt, sunglasses, and backward hat. Oh, and Mommy's heels.

~Ava's been sleeping in a big girl bed for three weeks. We sneaked in there tonight to get some pictures. Where's Ava?

~Ava's becoming a bit of a TV freak. Her favorite shows are Sesame Street, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Word World, and Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. Chitty-Chitty, especially.

~The girlie loves her computers but she's also becoming quite the little parrot. No kidding, it's monkey see, monkey do around these parts. In this case, Daddy-monkey played some Lock-On, so Ava-monkey tried it too.

~We've been taking Ava to UNLV volleyball games on Saturday afternoons and she loves them. When we turn toward campus, she shouts "Go Rebels!"

~So, in the spirit of Halloween...Ava says "Boo!"

Just One

Because she's pretty and because it's been a while and because I have to go to sleep, here's just one shot of our lovely, not-quite-two girl.