Last Swim of the Year!

63 degrees outside temperature
91 degrees pool temperature
4 yr old little girl super stoked her Daddy spiked the pool temp so she could enjoy the pool one last time.

Look what came in the mail today!

A fellow Shanghai family has experienced something no family should. And through their strong faith and family bonds, The Murphy family turned their story into a book. I follow their blog  and have even emailed with Lisa Murphy. There is also a blog dedicated to the book, so please feel free to check it out!  While I know many tears will be shed while I read this, I cannot wait to get started!!

May God Bless you Lisa, Jimmy, Madi, and Charlie!!

A Couple More Pictures

Here a couple of pics taken of my sweet little Ava Kate including the sleeping one!! How precious is she?

Love this girl!!!

Sara and Eric's Wedding

Saturday 9/22/2012 was the date of my best friend and her dashing groom's wedding! I was a bridesmaid and Ava was the flower girl. What an AMAZING week of festivites. Ava did fantastic at the wedding considering that literally 10 minutes before the ceremony she was falling asleep all snuggled into her dress. Someone got a picture of it and I hope I get a copy of it!! Sara was absolutely stunning...I loved her dress!!!

But it is now Sunday night and we are all exhausted. John is sound asleep, I'm fighting to stay awake, and Ava is a big crab!! I believe that Ava and I will be in bed fairly early tonight...:) But anyhow, here are some pictures from the festivities. (warning, picture overload)

Jolie's Baby Shower

Last Sunday, we traveled to Westlake to attend our niece's baby shower. Jolie is due in November and soooo cute pregnant!!

All of her loot!

Bragging moment...Here is the diaper cake I made...

The cake and the punch

And Ava was reunited for a few hours with Hannah!

We cannot wait to meet the baby!! Best wishes on a continued health pregnany and a safe delivery. We love you, Jolie!!

The Chore Chart

My apologies upfront...I simply could not get this picture to post to the blog correctly...

Recently I created a chore chart for little Miss Ava Kate. Not so much chores, as responsiblites. It's pretty basic, but the deal was...you fill up the chart and I'll take you to Chuck E Cheese.

The responsibilites are:
Brushing her teeth before bed
Putting her dinner plate in the sink
Get dressed in the morning
Pick up your toys every night
Bonus: Eat vegetables/use good manners

Well, it's filled and I have to go to Chuck E Cheese. But look at all the good things she did!! So proud! We'll continue to use this. She is already trying to scam extra stickers because she put her plate AND her fork in the sink. Sorry, girlfriend, that counts as one...:)

Wine and Cheese Night

Last night we celebrated Sara's upcoming nuptials with a wine and cheese themed personal shower. We had to much fun to sit around and chat and laugh! If there is one thing about this upcoming wedding is we have shared SO MANY LAUGHS!!! I swear that's all we do when were together! I love all this extra time we've been spending together! Here is a picture from the group last night.

Cheerleading

We signed Ava up to me a Genoa Comet Mini Cheerleader! I want to keep her active and this ties right in with her gymnastics. They will cheer at a football game and have a couple of competitions. She is so excited!! Tuesday was her first practice and she did awesome! She kept jumping around the house all night yelling "We Sparkle"!

I'm sure I'll many more pictures to share as the season goes on!!