Ava's School Recitals

Time for some catch up!!

Ava has had two performances this December where her class and the other 4 year old class sings.

The first one was during a mass at her school's church. She got dressed in her chapel shirt and off we went. They had the kids sit in the front to the right of the main area and they didn't sing until the end of the mass. Ava sat patiently the entire time. When it was time to sing, she did awesome. I didn't know how it would go. This was the first time that she would sing in front of a bunch of people that she didn't know. She only started singing at school this year. It was so amazing to watch her. We took some pictures while getting ready.


There she is!! She doesn't look too happy. Turns out, she wasn't. That night she started complaining that she didn't feel well and it went down hill from there.

Her next recital was her Christmas program. This was on Dec 18th and was AWESOME!! Ava almost didn't make it because she was still sick, but we stayed home from and she felt well enough to go. They sang about 10 Christmas songs and Ava was front and center and she sang so loud and did GREAT!! I was a proud mama. Her Auntie Jackie and Uncle Nick were able to come and watch her too!







I have videos of every song and they are so awesome. Seriously though, I can not be more proud of her!! She did amazing. She sings again in a couple of weeks and then has a Spring program.

Long Overdue

Wow! This past month flew by. Let's do a little catch up since Halloween.

This past month we finally got Noah potty trained, except for the night time. It was a rough road, but we got there in the end. We had a good week to week and a half where he kept pooping in his underwear. I was at my wits end cleaning said poopy underwear all day long. We did everything to get him to stop, no TV in the morning, made him stand in the laundry room, no dessert and nothing was working. He finally one day just decided to do it and we haven't gone back since. He actually loves to do it and talk about how big it is and how it comes out. Kids are funny! He is currently napping without a diaper too. The night one is just tough and I am not in the mood to wake up and change bedding, so for now, he can wear his diaper.

Ava is still loving school . She had a Thanksgiving Party at the end of November where the 4 year olds sang. It was too darn cute.


Thanksgiving was awesome! My Dad and Patty came into town for the week. They got to spend a day at our house playing with the kids. Ava was in full on craft mode that day, so Nana helped her with them.


Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.


Baby Sam and Grammy

Noah thought he would start by himself

Ava with Uncle Brian watching her first movie, ELF!

Love this picture. This is the kids with their only living great grandparents!!

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my sister had her son baptized.  Mike and I are the godparents. It was a very nice and short ceremony.

Halloween 2013

Can't believe Halloween has come and gone. Christmas will be here before I know it and then, Boom, another year done! Geez! Time does go fast.

Anyway, I feel like Halloween kinda came fast too! Ours started with a Halloween Party at Ava's school the Friday before Halloween. She was so excited to get dressed up.

I just love this picture!! Noah is wearing underwear in this picture.

That weekend, we had Susan and Troy over and we carved our pumpkins. Well, Mike and the kids did.

They are looking at the inside of the pumpkin.

These next couple of pictures are my favorite. Mike drew Ava's face on the pumpkin and Ava didn't like it so she started to cry. (Is it bad that I found it a bit humorous?!?!)

The crocodile tears are starting... and next is the pouting..

Apparently Mike found it funny too! And still pouting...

Then she got a towel to wipe it off and start again.


The final product.

A one eyed googly (Mike's signature face) and Ava's sorta offset heart pumpkin.


Then came Halloween. We went to Brian and Melissa's House to Trick-or-Treat. Ava was a fairy and Noah was a Ring Bearer. I didn't want to spend money on getting Noah a costume that he would potentially not wear, so we just recycled his costume from Susan and Troy's wedding. Here is Ava. Isn't she sooo cute!



The only good picture I got of the two of them.

Ava, Baby Sam and Noah

All the kids. This is as good as it gets. Noah wouldn't let go of Mike's hand, Alex is in half his costume because he was pissed and said his costume didn't look good and you can kinda see Sophie in the background, she is the black figure with 2 red eyes!!!

We had such a good time. We let the kids eat a bunch of candy and they haven't had any since and haven't even asked for it. But, they were cranky the next day from all the sugar. We detoxed and will give them some candy here and there!!

Noah's Potty Training

Somehow Noah started potty training. I say that because I didn't have it planned out. One day, we just started putting his big boy pants on and he started going potty in the potty and we never stopped. I am shocked at how easy it has gone, but then again, sometimes with this boy, he just surprises me. I would say we are about a 1/3 of the way done. He still wears a diaper to sleep and is having poopy problems. Some days he wants his diaper and some days he doesn't for sleeping. He is doing better about waking up dry. We are also not poopy trained. That is a hard one for many kids and it is really killing him. Yes Noah, when you are older and reading this, we are talking about your poops. (Which also happen to be your favorite thing to say- poopy) Anyway, he usually goes 2-4 times a day and in the last week, it has only been twice. Once in his diaper and once in the potty (I got a picture too and I show it to him often! Ha!). I know it is hurting him. Last night, he was up for about an hour or so just crying and complaining that his tummy hurt. Finally, he told Mike he had to go pee pee. Once he did, he was fine. So I guess we are getting closer to night training. Now he still won't go in the "big Potty" and that will be another challenge, but I will take it one at a time.

So proud of him so far! Let's keep our fingers crossed that all the fruit and water and fruit juice will just force him to go!!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday, we went to a Pumpkin Patch. We didn't go last year because the only one we knew about is so far away. This year we found a small one that was fairly close by and I am so glad we did. It was perfect. Ava had a blast. She wanted to go from one thing to another.

First she went on this big bouncy "pillow"


and Noah and Mike watched on the sidelines.


They had a small area with some animals that we walked around to see. They had a big slide, swings, a spider web to play in and a train.



There was a corn maize too, but we only went in far enough to see some corn and head back out!






Ava and I on the train ride

Mike and Noah on the train. Not sure how Mike fit in, but he did. Noah was not so sure about the whole thing.

My favorite picture!!

Fun Times. We left with 2 pumpkins to carve next weekend and a day of memories!

Weekend in Prescott 10/5-10/6

So I guess this is a bit late, but better late than never. We went up to Prescott the first weekend in October to celebrate my Grandma's birthday. We went up Saturday morning this time because we didn't want to deal with Noah's sleeping problems more than one night.Ha! That kid!!!

Anyway, we headed up and it was COLD. Much colder than we are used to here, but it was a nice change from the Phoenix heat.  The kids played, we relaxed and then it was nap time. Noah melted down. Surprise, surprise and Ava started searching for Bobo. Ummm, mommy where is Bobo? Umm, Ava, didn't you bring him in the car this morning like I asked you to? Ummm, I don't know. Yeah, that happened. The biggest mommy fail of all time, we left Bobo at home. Fortunately, there was a teddy bear that she was playing with that day and we told her stories of how Bobo was at home partying and watching the house for us.
Everyone came over to the house that afternoon and we enjoyed a nice dinner and cake.

Baby Sam. Jac and Nick made the trek to Prescott

Grandma and Grandpa

Enjoying some breakfast and Ava doing her signature pose. Turning away when I ask her to smile.

Noah's signature pose.

We left Prescott and when we got home, Bobo was on the family room floor, passed out. Must have had some party!!

A Long Over Due Blog Post of What's Up!!

Ok, Since it has been loooong overdue for a post, I am going to put it all in one, so buckle up and here we go!!

Let's start with Ava.

She is still loving school. In fact, she told me last week when I told her that she was off this week for Fall break that she wanted to go to school. She said "she loves school". Mission accomplished. I have been making Tuesday's and Thursday's as boring as I can, so she would want to go to school, because in the beginning that was not the case.

She has made some good friends that she actually plays with this year. Last year, she would play by herself and now she has a couple of friends that she plays with and that say Hi to her when we come into the playground yard. It is pretty refreshing and nice to see.

She had her first evaluation for this year and she got "G" on everything. (G=Good Job, W=Working on skill). I was impressed. Usually it is the social things she has to work on, but not this year. The teacher always has good things to say about her.

She had her first presentation of the year. Each kid does an "all about me" poster and is in charge of one letter of the alphabet. Ava was the "G" girl and we presented last week.

Her poster!!

In case you can't see it, it says:
I am 4 years old
My favorite animal is a Bunny
My favorite color is Pink
My favorite food is a BLT sandwich
The first oval is a picture of her.
To the right it is a picture of her family (she drew us as well)
The beach is her favorite place. (We put some stickers and a pic of her at the beach)
To the right of that it says I want to be a Veterinarian when I grow up
My favorite thing to do is Play at the park
To the right of that says If I have one wish it would be for baby peeps in my backyard.

Ava has learned to swing on the swings all on her own. Last year, every morning at the school playground she would have me push her and we would practice. I think a week of so before school started this year, she was able to do it on her own. She loves to swing really high!

Ava loves to draw. If we leave the crayons and some paper on the table, she will frequently go up there and draw, write letters or color a picture. The other day she came home from school with a picture she had drawn and I asked her about something on there and she told me it was a picture of Mike. I asked what the red was above his eyes and she said "his eyebrows". Made me laugh.

She is getting really good at drawing people, but she also likes to draw trees and anything around her. I love it. She is really creative.
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Noah... ahh where to begin. He is our strong willed boy who loves to snuggle.


We are definitely in the terrible twos. He is very stubborn and doesn't like to be told no. But then again, what kid does. He will put his head down and walk off to his room if he doesn't get what he wants.

He is still waking up here and there at night time, but it is not every night, like it was in the beginning. But, he is fighting his naps. There have been a couple of times that he didn't go down only to fall asleep later in the day. He has been waking up early lately. That part has been no fun. I am talking 4:45-5:00am. He DOES NOT like waiting for the monkey and will scream at the top of his lungs. I have resorted to turning his light on and telling him he can play until the monkey opens his eyes. It doesn't always work, but I just don't want him waking up Ava.

He is still such a picky eater. He needs to eat because I don't think he has gained a pound yet this year. He would rather snack. I have to make a meal and tell him that is it until the next meal or he won't eat. Usually by the end of the day he likes to snack to make up for what he didn't eat during the day. I am trying to get him a more balanced diet. He would live off of fruit and applesauce if I let him.

We have hit that time of the year that I hate, sandbox weather. Noah LOVES the sandbox. He would live in there if we let him. With the sandbox comes sand EVERYWHERE. It is in the bathtub, the sheets, the floor, everywhere.


I did a half day of potty training Noah last week. We had gone to Target and got him his big boy underwear and all the treats to get started (we were supposed to start today, but he is sick and that is never a good time to do it). So we put a pair of his underwear on and I showed him how it all worked on one of his stuffed animals and then gave him a juice box. 45 mins later he went potty in the potty. All morning he kept going in to go potty, no accidents. I thought, wow, that was easy, but around nap time, he kept asking for his diaper. I did put him in one for nap time and after his nap, I asked if he wanted his big boy underwear and he said No. I didn't want to push it. A couple of days later, I did  it again, but didn't really focus on it and it was accident after accident. Oh well, I know he is ready, but he is really going to have to be all or nothing with the diapers. Only problem is that he is not ready for sleep time yet. He just may take a while to get through this. I might try again at the end of the week if he is feeling better or just wait until he is better and then go for it.  This is my least favorite part of kids, the dreaded potty training.