My 5 year old

Wow!  I can't believe my little Ava is 5!  Being 5 is a BIG deal.  It means:

Kindergarten

JUSTIN BIEBER

Disneyland

JUSTIN BIEBER

Staying up until 8:30pm (instead of 8pm)

and...JUSTIN BIEBER

Ava totally has BIEBER FEVER!!!

Ava is such a sweet girl.  She is always helping her sister (sometimes to much), she helps me around the house, she LOVES books, and of course she loves to color.

LOVE YOU AVA!!

All At Once

What a day!  First Valentine's Day (which means an awsome party at pre-school), then the wiggly tooth comes out!

So I'm the first to admit that I'm not "Mother of the Year!"  Case in point....

I thought I would be the awsome Mom that made beautiful Valentine's for her daughter's pre-school class AND I even made some for my co-workers....

I was pretty impressed with my self.  Ava's were similar, but with different paper.

So I pick Ava up from school and she tells me how everyone thought her valentine's were so wonderful.  Wow!  I actually did something right....right?

I pick Katie up from daycare and they hand me a bag of ALL her valentine's that the other kids gave her...huh?  Wait.  Oops!  I didn't make, buy, or even think about any valentine's for Katie!

Well...at least I had a few minutes of being the AWSOME Mom!

{see, I don't even have a picture of Katie with her bag of Valentine's}

THEN...

the wiggy tooth comes out (perhaps because I was aggressivly brushing Ava's teeth due to my mood from my epic failures that day)!  Yippee!  Her first tooth to come out.

Well....the tooth fairy misplaced our address.  So my little Princess was HIGHLY disappointed when she woke up the next morning!  Geeze!  What is wrong with me???  I blame it on the couch...it always makes me fall asleep when I sit on it.  At least I will have several more opportunities to practice this tooth fairy thing.

A Day of FUN!!!

So the day after Christmas Mike took us all to Gorgoza Park for some tubing.  It was cold, cold, cold, but fun, fun, fun!  Ava even went down the BIG slope TWICE!  Katie went down the itty bitty slope and loved it.  Such brave girls! I, on the other hand, screamed the whole way down!



Christmas Day 2011

Christmas morning was so much fun.  I loved seeing all the kids open their presents.  They had such genuine excitement.  I wish we could do this every year!

Christmas Eve 2011

 This Christmas we were fortunate to spend Christmas with my brother, Mike, and his family in Utah.  My sister, Michele, and her family were also there. 

Christmas Eve in Utah was AMAZING!  We all went to the Salt Lake Temple to look at the lights.  Although it was FREEZING it was absolutely beautiful and the girls were mesmerized by all the lights!



Katelyn turns ONE!!

My little Katie Bear turned ONE on 6/6/11...

I just love her SOOOO much!!

Colorado Trip

So what I have learned in the last several months is that if you blink, time will fly by! My little babies are growing up so fast. I wish kids came with a remote controller, so I could put them in slow motion...and maybe use the mute button every once in awhile.

In May, Paul and I took the girls and we met my brother and his family in Colorado for a mini vacation. Boy was that an adventure! We all had a great time...

{Ava & her cousin Austin}

They fed the ducks (and other creatures in the water)...

Some sucked their thumbs....

They played at the park...

We enjoyed ice cream SEVERAL times....

We went on a hike....

Yes, I forgot the baby carrier, so I carried her the whole way...

Mama needs a break. Perfect time for a family picture...

Awe! My handsome nephew & my beautiful daughter...

THEY climb to discover underground adventures...

All pooped out! What a trip!

Princess Ava

My little Princess is 4! She is so beautiful!

Before I Was A Mom

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Peed on.
Chewed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching
a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break intoa million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and a child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom.

Who could ask for anything more?

My babies...I'm so fortunate to have 2 beautiful baby girls. Who could ask for anything more?

{Katie, 10 mos}

I guess she wanted to go somewhere.

Katie: "I'll just get it myself!"


Awe...sisterly love!

Easter

Hoppy Easter!

Ava was so happy that Edgar the Easter bunny had stopped at our house. Although, I had heard that he had ALMOST forgot. What a disaster that would have been.

Katie didn't really care about any presents. She just wanted the stringy stuff. We'll tell Edgar that for next year.


After church, we went over to Auntie Connie's house for a Greek Easter Celebration!

Ava had a great time with Cousin Jordan.

Jordan and Ava were so exhausted from all the fun that they had to take a break. Life is rough when you are 4 and 6.

Awe...my Katie bear! I JUST LOVE HER!!

Daddy's Girls...well at least 2 out of 3 are cute!

4?? No way!

OMG! My baby is 4! I can't believe it! Why, why, why does time have to fly by so fast?

Ava had a Birthday Lunch with her best friend, Lindsay, and 2 of her cousins, Duncan & Grady. We had pizza and games at Peter Piper Pizza! Yippeee! Thanks to Paul and his obsession with games, the kids had lots of tickets to buy.....CRAP!

{Duncan, Lindsay, Ava, Grady}

Then we had a family dinner at Red Robin. Yes, Ava is still TERRIFIED of the Red Robin. We'll try again next year.

They tried....and they failed!!

My silly, silly girls. They tried to escape me one day, BUT...they failed. Nobody, but nobody gets away from me. Ha, ha, ha!!

{Ava: "Katie-I'll unlatch the gate and you crawl. Crawl as fast as you can and DON'T look back!"}

The Mission Call

Ugh...In February my parents decided that us kids could survive on our own, even though I assured them "we" could not! So they left on an 18 month mission in VERMONT! Burr!

(Ava & Katie with Gramma & Grampa Duncan...see, Katie was very upset about it too!)

(The Ashton boys...they look like they're OK, BUT deep down they are traumatized by the abandonment by their grandparents! True story!)

Katie learned how to crawl just after her Gramma & Grampa Duncan left her. See what you missed Gramma???

We miss you already!!!

Papou's Birthday!

In January we celebrated my Father-in-law's Birthday. We had a great dinner and Ava got to help her Auntie Connie make the birthday treat.

{Ava and Katelyn}

{Ava and Auntie Connie making Papou's birthday treat!}

{Mimi, Gramma Prentis, Katelyn and Ava}

{Ava helping her Papou blow out his candle}

OPA!!

Family Photos

I have met a another talented photographer. Her name is Jessica Downey. She offered to take pictures of our family and she did a great job!

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Ava enjoyed being Snow White...again!

Yes, I know. Miss Katelyn did not have a costume. I'll do better next year.

She did look darn cute in her orange tutu though.

For the last 2 years we have gone to my sister, Michele's, house for a Halloween party & trick or treating. This year we were not able to join in on that fun. Ava was very upset she wouldn't be trick or treating with her cousin Megan. She got over it once the candy started rolling in.

{Snow White and Miss Katie}

{ the best girls EVER}