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Saturday, January 28, 2012

21 Questions to Ask Your Kid


I found this suggestion on Pinterest that you should ask your child these questions each year to see how their answers change, here is Ava's first go at it:


1.What is something Mommy always says to you?

 “Brush my teeth” 

2. What makes Mommy happy?
“Cleaning up the house”

3. What makes Mommy sad?
“That I don’t clean up the house”

4. How does Mommy make you laugh?
“By tickling me”

5. What was Mommy like as a child?
“Toys” (I think she thought I meant “what did mommy like as a child?”)

6. How old is Mommy?
“18” (nice)

7. How tall is Mommy?
“That tall!”

8. What is Mommy's favorite thing to do?
“Clean”

9. What does Mommy do when you're not around?
“Play with Norah”

10. If Mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
“Telling people who you are”

11. What is Mommy really good at?
“Tell things”

12. What is Mommy not very good at?
She couldn’t come up with anything!

13. What does Mommy do for her job?
 “Clean”

14. What is Mommy's favorite food?
“Oatmeal”

15. What makes you proud of Mommy?
“You hugging me”

16. If Mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
“Sarah”

17. What do you and Mommy do together?
“Cuddle”

18. How are you and Mommy the same?
“Your eyes are brown and mine are”

19. How are you and Mommy different?
“Our hair, yours is darker, mine is brighter”

20. How do you know Mommy loves you?
“Because you hug me and I hug Oreo too, because I love him”

21. Where is Mommy's favorite place to go?
“Red Robin” (um NO!)

It will be interesting to see how these answers change throughout the years.  I wonder what Norah has to say about all of this too : )

Friday, January 27, 2012

This Week

This week has been pretty good.  
I have got a lot done & managed to
get the kids out of the house a few
times to play.

We have even decided to give in to
Ava's strong social desire and enroll
her in preschool, albeit only 3 hours 
a week, she is still super excited!

I have been on a tear to get this house
organized!  Every last cupboard, drawer
and closet better watch out!  I'm coming
for you!!!!  My mission is to reduce our
"stuff" by at least 15%, I can almost 
taste the victory now!

I really haven't been taking any pictures
this week outside of crappy cell phone
ones but I will leave you with this,
because what is a post without photos?
Oh and by the way, Norah can say:
Dada, Kitty, Sit Down, This & several
other sounds that I think are words.
She has even said "Ava" twice now.  

But...Mama?  Not so much 
(ok maybe once forever ago)

MAMA!!!!  How frickin hard is that???
Who takes care of you child??

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Funny Things

 We've just been laying low over here,
not a lot going on.  Everyone is a little
sick but pretty much better now.
I figured I would take this opportunity
to write down a few funny things Ava
has said lately.

Ava "I REALLY like being naughty!"
Me: Why Ava?
Ava "Because it's SO FUN!! I can do what ever I want! And then you yell at me, well that's the part I don't really like, you yelling at me."

 Ava told me she is never going to talk to me.
"Ever again??" I asked
No, pretty soon I will talk to you. : )
Ava recently got in trouble for setting her bubble container on the couch, I was explaining to her that furniture is expensive and we need to take care of it, etc. She says "Mom I'm so so sorry!!! Really Mom, I'm so sorry!" I have my back turned to her and I say "That's ok Ava, I forgive you, I'm not mad anymore." She says "Your not mad anymore??" No. "Mom I was smiling while you were mad, the whole time."
Yesterday I was trying to feed Norah a bottle
while Ava climbed right on top of both of us,
that's what she does.

I said "Ava I really don't need two kids climbing
all over me!"

She looks at me for a minute then says,
"Well then you shouldn't of had a baby."

Monday, January 23, 2012

Come live vicariously through us, last chance.

So this is it, the last installment of our amazing trip
to Puerto Vallarta. 
She was LOVING the strawberry daiquiris!
On Wednesday Dad, Angi & I took a bus into
town for a local Art Walk.  It was really fun, we 
got both a lot of walking and a lot of art in.  : )
It felt a little brave as we scoured through the
narrow streets on what felt much like a 
scavenger hunt, looking for the next art gallery
on our map, in the dark.
 The next day Dad & Jessica went on a 3 hour 
zip line tour which I really should of gone on too.
They had a wonderful adventure and I am so glad
they got the opportunity to do it, together. 
Next time I must try it too, what a cool thing to do!  : )
In the mean time, John & I took the kids on the bus
back into town for our own little adventure.
It was a nice little family outing walking the water
front and checking out the parasailers and all the cool
statues along the beach.





We stopped at a few little restaurants along the way
to soak in the experience.  Sadly our little all inclusive
bracelets failed to work for us there, I kept joking that
I was going to wear this bracelet forever, trying to 
utilize it at home once our trip was over : )

 Back at the hotel we happily reunited with
our all-inclusive benefits. 
I'm usually not one to like buffets but this
place actually had a pretty amazing one. 
 Every morning you awoke to a delicious breakfast,
there with endless amounts of fruit and fresh squeezed 
juice, an omelet bar where they made you omelets to order,
these wonderful sauce covered chips that we couldn't get
enough of, hash browns, french toast, really you name it, 
they had it. 
 The dinner buffet was no different, endless 
choices and cooks ready to make anything you 
desired.  There were no less then hundreds of things
to choose from, they tended to do a different theme each
night so you were never stuck with the same old thing. 

Ava & I loved the dessert bar, ice cream with 
a million toppings.  They even had someone 
standing by ready to make bananas foster, a
liquor flamed banana saute.   
It was really quite lovely.
  If all that wasn't cool enough, they had tequila
tasting every night.  They would even leave a set 
of bottles just out on a table for you to help yourself.
I *might* of added some to my drink here and there : )
 We began talking to Ava about how we would soon 
be needing to go home.  She was sad, she so many 
times had said "can we stay here forever??"
 But in Ava fashion she looked on the bright side
and thought about the opportunity to chew bubble
gum on the plane again.  (It turned out that was less
of a draw when we actually had to leave)
I love this picture with all my heart.
 Could she be cuter?  It was such a blessing to be able
to spend extra time with this girl solo since Ava was
living it up over at auntie's.  Thank you Jessica for that
gift, it was really nice of you to take her in, it made 
our trip that much more vacation-y.  : )
 We took Dad & Angi out to dinner at Le Kliff in an 
attempt to thank them for taking us all on this wonderful,
magical vacation. 
 The place was beautifully situated right on a cliff
with amazing views all around. 

The dinner was wonderful!  Dad & Angi had actually been
here before but were eager to enjoy it a second time with us.



 Ava also got to try Shirley Temples, at home she
mostly has to stick to milk or water so this girl was
in heaven!
Check out this platter of deliciousness!  
 Creme brulee : )


 Such a silly goose!



Our one group shot!

This trip was really more then we could of ever asked for.
Wonderful resort, food, scenery, swimming, drinks, entertainment
& so much more. 

But the best part?

Sharing it all with the people you love.

We are so very blessed.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Vacay, bit by bit.

Each night we slept listening to the waves crashing on the beach,
it was heavenly.
 The next day we woke up early, to this smiling little face : )
We had a nice breakfast with our littlest while Ava slept in, 
this became our routine as Ava & Jessica like their sleep.








We went swimming of course! 



We also played on the cute little 
ocean front play ground,
Ava loved it there!

Norah thought it was pretty cool too!

The moon : )

The amazing people that made this all possible : )
Weeeeee!  (Or I see London, I see France...)
They had Karaoke, that is Jessica's thing
so we were all excited to watch her!
She did great, we failed to convince Dad to go up : (

We took a boat out to go snorkeling!!


The Night of the Iguana set : )




You nearly didn't need to snorkel, the fish were so viable right from the boat!
It was beautiful!
Best auntie ever!!
 
Our resort, from the water.




Happiness!!

How cute are they?

Love this!
And this!

Yum!!  This salad was awesome!
The resort really did have great food, this was one of my favorites!


So lush & tropical!!




There was at least some form of entertainment every night : )
There is still more to come, 
I wish I had a hundred stories to share but really
it mostly consisted of relaxing, swimming, eating
and just plain enjoying our family.

Pure perfection, more tomorrow : )