Go, Go, Goers!

What a wonderful Christmas we had with my parents in Kansas City.  The weather, however, wasn't so wonderful.  We left MN last Tuesday night to try to beat "the storm of the century" by driving into Des Moines and spending the night there.  Actually, the travels down to KC were fine...it was while we were there and the way back that things got messy.  For once, we didn't have anywhere to go once we got to my parents, so the record snowfall that dumped on the KC area on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day didn't affect us.  Traveling home, though, was a different story.  The roads were slick with ice, covered with a layer of snow...Kansas and Missouri did an excellent job of plowing the roads, but Iowa failed.  Regardless, we made it home safely, and lost track counting cars in the ditch, rolled over, plowed over, etc. on the way home.  Fun! But, back to Christmas...this year's holiday with Ava was much different than last year's... This year, she ...

Poor little Ava...she had a great start to the week and then she got hit with some illness mid-week.  She has a tendancy to run high fevers, so it always seems worse than it really is.  Scott stayed with her on Wednesday and I stayed home with her on Thursday.  She had her 18-month appointment scheduled for Wednesday night, so it was convenient for her doctor to look her over and determine it was just a virus.  One bummer is that we need to go back to get her 18-month vaccines...since she had a fever, she couldn't get them at that time.  The clinic finally had the H1N1 vaccine in stock, so it looks like she will get it this year. I've learned a few things from Ava being sick this week: The Disney Channel has a lot of shows that are somehow related to each other.  Ava was watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the morning, and I never switched the channel to something else that afternoon.  Next thing I knew, Hannah Montana was performing on a cr...

Both Scott and I had incredibly busy weeks at work this past week.  Add to that the snow storm and the icy roads, and I spent several hours in the car commuting each day.  Yuck!  The good news is that on the technology front, all of our equipment is in our hands!  My new camera broke (I mean, c'mon...seriously? It wasn't even a month old) so I had to exchange it this past week...my laptop was delivered earlier in the week...and our new TV was picked up yesterday morning.  My Christmas wish this year is that we can make it through the holidays without some weird, technology issue. So all of this busy-ness, plus the hectic work schedules, and yucky commutes means that we didn't take a lot of pics of Ava this week.  Which may be a good thing...she was incredibly naughty at daycare, and I'm not sure if we would have been able to get a happy picture of her.  She was put in multiple time outs almost every day.  Not for biting anymore...oh no, she's mo...

Ava is fascinated with the Christmas tree!  I did put ornaments on the lower half of the tree (non-breakable), but I've had to relocate the most fascinating ones to a higher level, or someone else would do it for me!  Ava discovered a few trumpet ornaments that we have on the tree, and each night we have found her blowing in the mouthpiece part of the ornament.  I have NO idea where she got that from - we don't have any instruments in our house anymore! I love this...she's pointing to a picture of herself eating cake on her first birthday: And then she decided to read everything she could get her hands on: I caught her hiding by the Christmas tree one night (it's behind me) - so guilty! She's really started to notice my shoes...she eventually got these on both feet and was trying to walk with them! Happy girl! By the Christmas tree again! I made fudge today, and am going to attempt my mom's sugar cookie receipe tomorrow....

We've had a fun week!  After Mommy had her night out to see New Moon on Monday, and a happy hour with co-workers on Tuesday, it was all family, all the time!  My parents drove up from KC to share in the Thanksgiving dinner with Scott's family (mom's side.)  As an added bonus, we were also able to spend part of Thanksgiving evening with the Goers' family (Scott's dad's side), too.  Needless to say, we were all full and wiped out by bedtime.  It's such a blessing to be able to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas with my parents this year...that hasn't happened in a really long time - 15 years maybe?? We also managed to take our family picture for the Christmas card - of course it was FREEZING when we took it, so we weren't able to spend too long to get that "perfect" shot...but we're happy with the final results. Here are a few pictures from the past few days: Scott and I just finished putting up the tree...the lights, c...

I've been taking a lot of pictures this week, but not many of Ava...mostly they've been pictures of the dogs. I'm trying to capture an image of the three of them to use in our Christmas cards. Talk about difficult! I think I finally got one after three days of trying! One of Ava's favorite things to do is run into our bathroom, open one of the vanity drawers, and pull out my headbands. She managed to break my favorite black one, so I decided it was time for her to get her own collection. I found a set of five fabric covered bands that are perfect! Within the first five minutes of playing with them, the pink one was broken (of course it's the one that would match most of her clothes...sigh.) When we pick up the house at night, we've managed to find the headbands getting taken for a walk in the dolly stroller, hitching a ride in the pony's basket, and sometimes taking a drink from the dog's water bowl. That was the best $3 I've spent on her yet! ...

I finally have overcome my tech issues, and have downloaded my photos from Saturday afternoon's playdate with Dylan and Lisa (and a few new friends...)  Enjoy! The other little girl (Leah) that was there was immediately taken with Ava.  She did a great job keeping Ava entertained!  As soon as we got inside, Ava picked up a bear from lost & found and carried it around with her for a while. Dylan, Leah, Ava, the bear, and Leah's brother (I didn't catch his name) on the fire truck. Here's Ava's future prom date, Dylan, at the cash register in the grocery store - all the kids loved playing with the fake money!  Notice Ava carrying around the fabric softener bottle...is it too early to teach her how to do laundry?? This school bus was so cool - lots of neat gadgets to keep the kids busy. We almost had an interactive moment here between Dylan and Ava.  Almost. So close, yet...not quite playing together... Chalk + ...