Christmas

We had 2 lovely little girls in pretty Christmas dresses

3 grown kids

Two goofy guys giving their sister a smooch

5 puppies (with 2 that were decked out for the day)

A horse

A few tears (joe had a couple sentimental gifts this year)

Smiles

Musical T-shirts (they actually worked, although you can’t actually play a “tune”)

A car that drives on a black marker track

And a couple photos of Sarah and Erin mid-sentence (sorry girls)

And best of all….no snow!

We had a great day and I hope everyone else did as well.

Hickory Hills Halloween

It was the Halloween weekend at Hickory Hills last weekend and it was a gorgeous weekend for it.  Craig, Sarah and the kids came out, and Matt & Erin and Ryleigh came for the weekend.

We had Tai as a horse with a jockey rider. He did okay with it, probably because he’s used to wearing cloths anyway, but he wasn’t too sure about all the other dogs so he didn’t get to stay out too late.

And we had the Mario Brothers Mario and Luigi, complete with Princess Peach, Toad and the Koopa (turtle). (you know that I had to look the names all up on the internet!)

And we had Matt as “Ranger Al”. Everyone thought it was cute. I don’t think Al thought it was quite so cute.

Erin dressed in a buck hat (to go along with Ranger Al) and Wally dressed up as a flower to go along with Ryleigh’s bee.

It was a fun day. Now we just have to wait a couple weeks to go to Joe & Lauren’s for the real Halloween (of course because no-one ever comes to our house……can’t imagine why?)

The Girls and The Snake

Ava has a friend, Ryleigh. She is Matt’s girlfriend Erin’s 19 month old daughter.

They are getting to the age that they play together MOST of the time pretty good, being only a few months apart.  Of course, they do get into the “mine” fight every now and then, but most of the time it’s pretty good.

Ava usually takes charge, and loves to hold hands with her. although it’s usually Ava holding onto to Ryleigh’s wrist.  But Ryleigh goes right along with it.

When they are together they do everything together.

Al found a garter snake and put it in a bucket to show the girls.

Of course they were separated by glass, so at first it wasn’t so bad.  They just watched it, and Ava tried to touch it when it put it’s head out of the bucket.

But then it came almost completely out of the bucket, and Ryleigh got scared (I would have been, too Ryleigh!). But it looked like Ava was saying “It’s ok, he won’t hurt you”. Then gave her a hug to make her feel better.

Then Ryleigh gave her a hug back, almost as if to say “thank you, Ava, I was so scared!”.

It was very cute. And always so interesting to wonder what is going on in their little minds.

Ava is Two!

We had Ava’s birthday party the same day as the baptism last weekend.  She received all kinds of fun gifts. I may be biased, but I think one of the best ones was the $7.00 card Al picked out for her to go along with our gift. It was a frog pop-up card that “sang” happy birthday in a frog’s voice. She loved it.

And what little girl can’t do without an AC/DC shirt? Thanks, Aunt Amy!

Although her mom says she’s going to be a cross county runner, she received a volleyball from the Thompson’s. Now Joe & I, Emily & Hailey will have to work to make sure she’s a volleyball player don’t you think?

She also really liked the baby stroller from Aunt Lauren & Uncle Joe.

And the tricycle and REALLY LOUD horn that Uncle Matt gave her

Aunt Jacque gave her a princess tent. After Craig got it put together, it was a hit with the girls…….

and with Joe…..

Joe also decided that the tractor was pretty fun

Ryleigh gave Ava a Bug Sprinkler with arms that sprayed water. Matt helped get it set up and we put both girls in their suits.  For some reason Matt had a hard time getting it set up because the sprinkler kept turning on and off.

And on and off…(sorry, baby). It was hot, you needed cooled off!

When it was finally set up, neither of the girls wanted to go into it. It was a super hot day, but they hadn’t really done the “sprinkler thing” before. Ryleigh REALLY didn’t like it after Matt sprinkled her!

They wanted to go into the water in the pond instead. They will get it figured out eventually I’m sure, but today wasn’t the day. 

It was a nice day for a birthday party.

TTFN

A Beautiful Day for a Baptism

Sarah and Craig had Ava and Trevor’s baptism yesterday.

I loved the idea that they wanted to have it by the lake. It was an especially appropriate place I thought. We’ve lived in the park for almost 20 years now, moving here when Sarah was only 8. It was her backyard growing up.

Sarah and Craig were married here in 2006.

Last year they helped celebrate Joe & Lauren’s wedding here.

And as the Reverend said……what better place to celebrate their baptism surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation? It was a hot & sunny day, but thankfully the clouds showed up just in time to shade us for a little while.

Sarah was given a pretty bead bracelet from her co-workers that Ava was going to wear, but it broke right away.  I remembered some keepsakes of mine that mom had recently given me, and gave Ava a bracelet that was given to me when I was a baby for her to wear.  It even matched her dress. :)

We went back to the house and had a great lunch that Sarah prepared. It was a great day.

We also celebrated Ava’s birthday, but there are too many pics & stories to add here….I will make that another installment for tomorrow.

Enjoy!