Crazy Love Gamble-Style

 This is the girls Saturday morning, all ready for their date with daddy.   It was supposed to be just Norah and John, their first daddy/daughter date, as Ava has had many.  Every time John talked to Norah about it she would get all excited about going, and then she would say "Can we bring Ava too?"  He explained to her that it was a special thing for just the two of them and she said "That's great, but I want Ava to come with us."  Her hair is so long!  Ava pretty much thought this was the best news ever.  She loved the idea that Norah couldn't stand to go have fun without her.  Happier together, love them so much.

I love that I have this blog.  It is my best way to look back on what's happened, and it keeps all of our memories and photos in order, by date!  I'm so not that organized on my own so this is brilliant! Today, just for fun, we are going to take a look back.  Here are some photos from February of the year I started this blog, 2010:  We had just moved Grandpa into The Springs .  That's also about 40 lbs ago...  Little mini Ava & Colton were loving their new swimming hole.  Little miss already had reached princess status, much to my dismay.  Could she be cuter though, really?? And here's 3 years ago, February 2011:  We were just in the welcoming Norah into our lives stage.  She's about 3 weeks old in these next few pictures.  We liked to torture her from a very early age.  She was a bit skeptical, with good reason.  Tuning us all out worked well for her though.  I'm n...

Ava lost her second tooth towards the end of last week.  She didn't yank this one out, she let it hang there for days.  When she woke up it was gone.  After a quick search of her bed she was able to locate the tooth, much to her relief.    This was her right when she woke up, super excited.  Then off to school, couldn't wait to tell EVERYONE.  And then the next morning, super stoked about her glittery-triple-toned dollar bill!  Ava says that she has "the very nicest tooth fairy".   Oh and Norah has come to hide various objects under things through out our house, you know "for the tooth fairy to find."  Thanks Norah.  : )

I few days ago Ava announced "Mom!!! I have a wiggly tooth!!!" Maybe that should of been in all caps, because she was THAT EXCITED.  Her excitement has only grown since that moment, that moment when I doubted her and tried to wiggle it myself, and I still wasn't convinced.  It was barely loose, and I'm not a big fan of kids growing up too soon so I told her NO.  No losing teeth yet.  But she persisted.   This afternoon when I dropped her off at school she was obsessively playing with the tooth with her tongue.  It still didn't seem very loose.  I told her to be patient, it could take a week before it would fall out.   Well by the time I picked her up from school, 3 hours later, that tooth was not at all in the same spot.  I wasn't sure she was going to make it until the next day. Sure enough, while I was at yoga, John sends me this picture.  The girl decided that tooth had to go, so she yanked it out.  A...

Just looking through a few old pictures of Ava at Norah's current age, 2 years, 3 months. She seems so much older then I see Norah as, weird. Here's some of Norah too.   Norah has really surprised me with how similar her personality is to Ava's, for some reason I just expected them to be polar opposites, but they are not.  They both have that over the top charm and outgoing-ness that IS Ava. Norah is still her own person, definitely not as eager to please me as Ava was.  She can be a bit naughty & she thinks it's hysterical.  It's so fun looking back on these pictures, thankful that I have them up here where they are just a click away to reminisce over.   Love these girls!

 These kids are growing up so fast. Ava has been increasingly helpful with  the laundry.  She likes to fold towels & such.  She can put away all of her own clothes. Today Norah scooped up her own pile of  clothes after she heard me ask Ava to grab hers.  These kids are just so SMART.  I assumed that Ava would put her clothes away  and that I would find Norah's freshly folded clothes all over the floor of her room.  Later when I went  back there I found them all put away!  Ava helped  her Sister put them all in the right drawers!!  Norah can just sit & entertain herself, she thinks she is SO FUNNY.  But really?  She is.  It's 100% true.  Ava can feed herself her own grapefruit now, and even offer Norah bites.  They usually just  stood at my feet begging "Bite! Bite! Bite! Bite!" It's no way to enjoy a grapefruit!  Also, this new...