Let it Snow!

Today the snow started coming down in big chunky flakes so Ava and I decided to go play in it! She loved it until she fell down and she didn't like the cold on her hands at all! But before she had a chance to topple over I got some good shots of her.

Home for the Holiday

The holidays have really come and gone fast this year. Thanksgiving was an amazing mix of the families and an awesome turnout of 28 people. It could not have been more fun to see everyone and eat till we all were stuffed! I think I was a tad bit overboard on the menu because everyone ended up taking leftovers for the rest of the weekend as well as have leftovers for dinner that night. Then Christmas came and we did it all over again!

There were a few mishaps along the way, but we pulled off an amazing Christmas. Hayden, Chris and Jackson ended up staying home and coming to Brownwood because the weather up north was not letting them fly to Chicago. Then Heather and the boys ended up on the road for 8 hours instead of 3 because of ice, I cut my finger open, Grandma set her purse/Mimi's china cabinet on fire, Mimi burned her arm on the over rack, I hit Grandma in the face a few times, Grandma burned her fingers, I burned my hand but we made it alive!

Ava had a blast playing with all her new toys and spending time with her cousins. Santa brought her a kitchen for Christmas which she absolutely loves! She is already mixing things up and feeding Chris and I. I already can't wait till next year to see what she is doing then.

She has started feeding herself with a spoon, or trying to at least. She has already got the "I do it mine own self" attitude her Aunt Hayde had. She wants to be a big girl already! She is talking up a storm and always wants to call her Mimi or Daddy on the phone. Yesterday I was wanting to get a snack from the kitchen so I said to Ava "Do you know what mommy wants?" and she said "Daddy!" She is one smart cookie.

Chores and Duties

Ava was assigned her first chore around the house! She absolutely loves checking the mail. Everyday when Chris gets home she's ready to go. She will run to the front door and wait for him to come hold her hand so she can walk out to the mail box. She is so excited when there is mail in there and will bring them all straight back to me. I let her have the junk mail and flyers to read through, but she loves the journey more than anything.

Halloween Big Style

As promised in our last blog here are the pictures of the adult costumes. Enjoy!

Spider Sprout

Well October has come and gone with the wind. Texas Tech played some lousy football and we had a fantastic Halloween party! Hayden and Chris came down with Jackson to celebrate the fun weekend and he was possibly the cutest dinosaur ever in the whole wide world! I mean he was definitely the show stopper! Hayden and Chris dressed up as tourists with their matching attire from Hawaii, which I heard Chris insisted on buying. Mimi and Papa Keith were Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf. Owen came as the cutest pumpkin in the patch! Aubrey was a sweet bumble bee, Tyler was a mighty firefighter, and we can't forget Baby Trenton was an adorable little tiger. The kids won the contest by far but you have to admit Chris and I were pretty creative. Chris was a "stick in the mud" and I was a "babysitter." Pictures of the kids are below and pictures of the adults will soon follow.

Also, the 2nd photographer posted her preview of the wedding! Check them out! http://kandicerayphotography.blogspot.com/2009/11/chris-and-becky-autumn-wedding.html

Pumpkin Munchkin

We took Ava to the pumpkin patch in preparation for Halloween next week. They were so nice they gave her a little baby pumpkin to take home with her and she carried it around the whole time we were there. We had already bought pumpkins to carve but we spotted another golden egg in the bunch and couldn't resist. It is a monster of a pumpkin weighing in at more than 30 pounds! I can't wait to carve a giant Double-T in it so all our Texas neighbors can see. Ava will of course get another Ava pumpkin, but there is one more I'm not quite sure what to do with. Guess it will have to be a surprise. I also went out and bought candy to give away to all the Trick-or-Treaters and let's just say I hope we have lots of them because I went a little overboard.

Also awhile back we took Ava to the Brownwood Reunion and for those of you who don't know it's much like a fair. Fair food, fair rides, concerts, games and lots of vendor booths. One thing in particular they have, which I have personally never heard of, is the corn boxes. Very much like a sand box but with lots of dried corn instead. Ava was not a fan this year, but next year I think she will be swimming in it!

October already?!

The time has flown by and so many things have happened since our last blog! After getting Aunt Hayden and Uncle Chris moved down to Texas we were in a hurry to put Hayden to work on the wedding. There was shopping and creative madness for the last 2 weeks before the wedding and then it came. The wedding of the year! It was perfect and everything turned out better than imagined. It will take Chris awhile to get used to his new bling, but he hasn't taken it off since the day I put it on him. AVA however has not been allowed to have hers since then! Her wedding locket will be stored safely in my jewelry drawer until she is old enough to appreciate it and understand its meaning a little better. She did get to taste test it and said it was pretty good silver.

After the wedding when we came home there were boxes of presents and wedding decor everywhere! You better believe Ava was the first to jump at unpacking them and putting things together. You might be surprised that most everything she found in the boxes was a toy of some sort. (At least she thought so) One of them actually was for Sprouty, it came from Chris's boss and his wife (Scott and Terry). She even got to help her daddy put it together and that was probably more fun than trying to ride it. It's a John Deer Tractor tricycle which for now she just pushes around and walks behind, but sooner or later I can see her chasing her daddy through the yard fast as lightening!


Then just for fun here are some random riding in the car pictures since we have been doing plenty of that these past few weeks. I will also add pictures from the wedding as soon as I get them, but for now get a preview from the photographers at http://www.jacquelinereitzphotography.com/weddings/.