We're in FLORIDA!!!

We're here! And it's warm and sunny!!

It was a long drive, but Ava did great!! She would go for about 2 hours and then needed to let loose. I don't have many pictures of the trip down, but here is one way she kept herself occupied.


Here are a few quotes from the trip thus far:

"Ava, don't eat your toes!"
"Ava, hand Mama your booger!"
"It's ok, Ava. We'll be there in 10 hours! Haha!!"

Stay tuned...we're heading to the beach!!

Love,
Sara

Ava's First Pedi!

Well, kind of...

Mama had a pedicure appointment and I took Ava along so they could paint her toes. So cute!!


We let her pick out the color. She picked a shimmery pink color!


Look at those piggies!!


So stinkin' adorable!!

Just a couple more days and we are Florida bound!! Mostly packed, house sitter in place...it's Florida time!!

Love,
S.

Easter Is In The Air, Part 2

My mom and I both gave up pop for Lent. It was actually really hard for me! I don't drink caffeine, so I was really limited on what I could drink. It was mostly just milk and water. But I did it!!! And at midnight on April 24th, we cracked open a bottle of Caffeine Free Diet Coke. Ahhh....


And the only reason we were still up is because we were playing euchre with my aunt and her friend. That was ALOT of fun!!

Saturday night, John had a poker party at our house. Uncle George and Cousin Will came up early and Ava had a blast playing with Will!

Ava woke up about 6:30 Easter morning. She ran into the living room like normal and then stopped dead in her tracks. It was sooo funny!! Here she is checking out her loot. I want to apologize ahead of time for the way I look. I don't wake up pretty!!

We got ready for church afterwards. Here is Ava's pretty Easter dress, even though it's not the one I originally planned. But she refused it and wanted to wear this one. Already fighting me on clothes and she's only 2!!!

And it took about 20 minutes and a promise of alot of treats to talk her out of wearing these with her dress!!

After church, we had my family over for dinner. We had a houseful and it was sooo much fun!!!
Ava wanted to eat with Mo Mo (aka Morgan)

Not sure why but Ava put Livi in time out. What did you do, Liv??

After dinner, we had an Easter egg hunt for the girls. It only took about 20 seconds, but it was sooo cute!

Loving her chocolate!!

We had a great first Easter with Ava! And now the countdown begins for her first trip to Florida and the beach!! Stay tuned!!

Love,

S.

Easter Is In The Air!! Part I

It's Easter Time!! And the our first Easter of a family of 3! We've been busy and haven't even gotten to Easter yet!!

But first and foremost....RIP Elmo and Dorothy Houghtaling. We spent a great 5 days together. Ava will surely miss you. (can you believe they didn't even last a week?????)

Friday was Ava's Easter party at school. So, of course I tried to be mother of the year and make her a cool treat. It didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped, but they were still super cute!!!

We started out with coconut "grass"







Made some yummy cupcakes









Had a 2 year old who preferred keeping the cupcake papers on her head

And I am the most uncreative person ever. I always google ideas and sometimes I can't necessarily make things look right. So....I started frosting the cupcakes and I got about 5 of them done and I had to call in reinforcements. So, luckily my sweet neighbor, Kelly came over and finished frosting them for me. Can you tell which ones are hers and which one are mine? Haha!!
I did finish decorating them and here is the final product...

Here is the dress that Ava wore to school for her party. Of course, she wouldn't pose for a picture. But this is the best I could do!

Friday night was the Easter egg coloring party. My mom and Emily came over to join in the fun. All went well until Ava stuck her entire left hand in the blue dye. We soaked it in vinegar afterwards and it got most of it off.

Saturday morning we joined Heather and Ella, Patrick, Katie, and Roz, and Gina and Madi. We went to Country Tree Lane Farms. It was a farm. It smelled and was extremely muddy because of all of the rain we had recently. Ava really enjoyed herself! We went on a hayride, fed baby goats, hunted for Easter eggs, and had breakfast! Ava really LOVED feeding the baby goats. We went back to it 3 times!!!

Stay tuned for Part 2 -- We had an AMAZING Easter!

Love,

S.

I Love You Like Crazy Cakes

I read this book to Ava last night at bedtime. Or let me rephrase that...I cried this book to Ava last night. We received this book from friends over a year ago, right after we received our referral. I started to look at it at the time and couldn't read it because I started to cry. I never read the whole book. Unti last night. I pulled it out and read it to her. I feel like it was the story of the last year of my life all rolled up into this child book. It's a story about a mama who adopts a little girl from China. And there is so much love!!!

And as I cried through the book and read it to my sweet little angel, she did the one thing that made it that much more emotional. She reached through the slats of her guardrail and grabbed my hand. When I looked at her, she had this big smile on her face. It's like she knew. I love her so much!!

Have a great day!!

S.

Bubbles!!!

Ava loves BUBBLES!! I mean...LOVES them! All she wants to do is play with bubbles and actually refused dinner last night and laid on the floor crying "I ant bubbles". Once we put her in her chair and gave them to her, she was a super happy girl!!

My mom and Emily came over last night for dinner and stayed to help with Ava's bath. Here is Aunt Emily after giving her niece a tubby...

And would like to introduce you to the newest members of the family. Please meet.....

Elmo and Dorothy Houghtaling!!

Ava's class has a goldfish and she loves to feed it. So we decided to get her a couple of them. She loves them and keeps running to her room yelling "fishies!!" I'm sure they will die before the weekend, but the were only 28 cents. Haha!!

We are preparing for vacation and I have never been more ready. I'm sooooo COLD!! And grumpy. This is my least favorite weather. For real. I would rather have snow. Hope you're staying warm!!

Love,

S.