Four Rowes and a Boo

Happy Birthday Austin!

2012-01-13T19:47:00.001-08:00

OH, I have NO words to describe how I feel about my one year old boy, can’t fathom loving this little boy one ounce more because I think my heart would pop!

Here is one of his favorite expressions with his little puckered lips. Look likes a little karate kid!

I feel like he grew out of his “babiness” in the blink of an eye. In the past two weeks he started walking, sleeping in his big boy crib, and finally got that second tooth on top. Cherishing as much as I can each day and knowing that it only gets better, God is GOOD! What a blessing!

Ava’s Day

2012-01-13T19:46:00.001-08:00

Last weekend was a Ditty, Paps, Gina and Ava mini vaca! We had planned on going to San Antonio to the Riverwalk but Baylor was super sick and was at the vet for five days so needless to say I didn’t want to leave her (Y’all know how crazy I am over that dog) She is on the mend now. Instead we drove out the the Oasis and Ditty and Paps took us to one of the new restaurants which was a super great BBQ place.

Then we topped off the day with a cupcake from Hey Cupake. After all these years of living here this was my first time to try one, and it was so yummy! I had to giggle because Ava ate most of the icing off Ditty’s and left her with just the cake part. Ditty said “I thought I was going to lose a finger!!” when she saw that wide open mouth coming towards her hand holding the cupcake!

Once we got back to Ditty and Pap’s house, Paps taught Ava how to ride her big girl bike! We all kept joking that our vacation was so close to home, but seriously how awesome is that to live in a place where you drive about thirty minutes away and feel like you are truly on a vacation!

It was a super sunny gorgeous day, BUT look at that lake, so low!

Lunch time, looks like those two people love that girl!

Here are Paps and Ava. I’m off this week to get a helmet! I had tried to teach to ride her bike Ava but she wasn’t so sure of things. It took Paps two minutes and she was off! They are outdoor buddies. One of Ava’s favorite things to do with Paps is go on nature walks. They take Ava’s bug kit and always come back with grass hoppers. Ava loves her critters!

Started off with helping Ava steer…..

Down to one hand for support……

And she’s off!

Piano Lessons

2012-01-12T20:03:00.001-08:00

Oh piano lessons, let me tell you I am so thrilled that Ditty is teaching Ava! Here they are at her last lesson, learning right hand/left hand, and finger numbers. Ditty is having a spring recital and the goal is to have Ava play something on those keys! So I think Ditty’s hands look angelic in this picture huh with the gold halo! Ha, still trying to figure out camera settings, pictures are a little hazy but Ditty and Ava are my Angels so it is sure fitting! In the picture below Ditty was showing Ava how to play her first notes on the black keys. Instead of playing three black keys Ava busted out singing her ABC’S and let her little fingers dance up and down that keyboard in her own little way.

Ava sure loves Ditty, it is all over this sweet expression.

Check out little man in the background, future student?

Right hand, left hand.

Ta-Da! What a great lesson, thanks Ditty! (Ditty has the patience of a saint!) Watching the lesson was a little like watching the hog tying race at the rodeo, that girl was all over the place! Ditty was so sweet and calm and just kept directing her attention back to being focused again. Thank you Ditty!

Little boy loves his music too! He usually bops his little body to songs or waves his left hand in the air.

My Baylor Boys

2012-01-06T21:50:00.001-08:00

One toothed wonder

2012-01-06T21:40:00.001-08:00

We are still giggly over Austin’s one tooth on top, it’s been there for over a month and the other is still MIA. He looks like a sweet little jack-o-lantern with his one toothed smile! Here he is crunching away on his banana puff, yum!

Sissy loves her baby

2012-01-06T20:07:00.001-08:00

I find so much joy in watch Ava “mommy” Austin. She is so attentive to his needs and loves to make him laugh, melts my heart!

Austin’s one year photos

2012-01-05T07:49:00.001-08:00

Oh my, I can’t believe Austin is going to be one in a week!! Where does time go? Greg and I are having a DIY year (thanks pinterest, ha!) Anyways instead of taking Austin somewhere to get pictures, Greg and I decided that we would attempt to take them ourselves. This Monday we went up to Baylor’s campus and the Waco Zoo, what better place to get pics? I get a funny nostalgic feeling at so many places at on Baylor’s campus. Love the school for so many reasons, but of course most of all because that is where Greg and I met in eleven years ago, at 18 and 19 years old, babies huh! I am eternally grateful that God lead me to Baylor and Greg!

So here are the pictures, I had to take some on the infamous Baylor swings. I spent many peaceful moments there praying, studying, and spending time with Greg on campus walks. A simple swing with so many good memories! So here are the kiddos! We had only planned to get pictures of Austin because I am such a nut sometimes about “perfect” pictures and Ava’s hair was crazy that day, so windy and she of course was running around campus having a great time. End up though that she just looked SO ADORABLE in her new vest that Dee-Dah made for Christmas and she was all giggles because Greg was playing a tickle game with her. I was so glad I got these joyful smiles on camera, better to remember her as the spunky little girl she is than in a picture studio with perfectly done up hair!

If Austin decides to go to Baylor I think he should include this in his application letter ha!

Biggest smile of the day was for Ava in picture below. She was singing “clap your hands all ye people!”

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-30T13:06:00.001-08:00

We are so very THANKFUL for the gift of Jesus this Christmas. I am also feeling doubly blessed this year as I am beyond grateful for my two precious children. I remember the first Christmas after I had Ava feeling first hand the love of a parent for my child and having an even deeper thankfulness to the Lord for giving the gift of Jesus to us. As I held Austin at the Christmas Eve service this year singing Away in a Manger I again felt overwhelmed that God gave his precious son for me.

Sweet baby girl opening gifts

Santa brought Ava Rapunzel hair extensions… hilarious! She refused to take them out for two days!

I wanted Ava to be able to celebrate the birth of Jesus in a tangible way so we had a little party for him. We made a cake and headed over to see Ditty and Paps. Ava had practiced singing happy birthday Jesus all month!

Away in a manger,
No crib for His bed
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head

The stars in the bright sky
Looked down where He lay
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay

The cattle are lowing
The poor Baby wakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes

I love Thee, Lord Jesus
Look down from the sky
And stay by my side,
'Til morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus,
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me I pray

Bless all the dear children
In Thy tender care
And take us to heaven
To live with Thee there

Look who’s ONE!

2011-12-30T12:22:00.001-08:00

Nope, not Uncle Scott! But wanted to first wish Scott Happy Birthday. We celebrated with a cookout on the 22nd!

So, LABBY turned one this month! Uncle Brad had a birthday party for her while we were in Fulshear complete with gifts, party favors and cake!

The little girls helped Jessica and I make this doggie birthday cake from alpo and mashed potatoes

The party guests Willow, Manna, and Baylor

Boo with her party favor!

Thank heaven for little girls

2011-12-30T11:32:00.001-08:00

Talk about FUN, these cousins were all giggles, hugs, and play at Christmas. Ava woke up the first morning and squealed, “I hear my cousins I’m gonna go find them!” and bounced out of bed with a huge smile on her face. It reminded me of how excited I always as a little girl when my cousins came to visit!

Ava just had a blast playing with cousin Laura. I couldn’t get over how fast time flies, Laura was Austin’s age when I started dating Greg and now she is so grown up, such a beautiful and sweet young lady.

Gramma Rowe, Ava, and Emmy

The whole gang

The Boys

2011-12-30T10:52:00.001-08:00

Wow, sitting down to start posts from Christmas and don’t know where to start so many pictures! So here are the first two posts of many to come. Lincoln and Austin are just months apart so thrilled to have a little boy cousin!

Aunt Jessica and her sweet boy!

Getting tickles from Uncle Scott

Loving this moment with my nephew and baby boy!

All smiles for K-Bob!

We were so thrilled to see Gramma Rowe this Christmas!

Hey Uncle Paul!

Lincoln stylin’ in Ava’s sparkly headband ha!

Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to work we go!

2011-12-30T10:49:00.001-08:00

Aunt Sarah is the coolest! She invited us to come to Texas Children’s hospital where she is a child life specialist and help her make Christmas stockings and sort donated toys for the children in her care. The girls had a blast packing up all the toys and it was a great experience to have Ava learn about serving others. Thanks Aunt Sarah!

Happy helpers

I so enjoyed watching the girl cousins play together, Ava hasn’t stopped asking about Emmy and Hayden since our visit, so precious!

Sarah gave us a tour of Texas Children’s it is amazing! I wish I would have taken more pictures, there is a children’s mural on almost every wall. Here the girls are memorized by the distraction stations in the MRI room.

Aunt Sarah took the girls to the mock operating room for kids. The girls were fascinated, so cool!

Hooray for a wonderful time!

Karo and the Kids

2011-12-29T14:43:00.001-08:00

So blessed! Look at all these sweet children!! Love you Karo!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see? Check out that Brown Bear quilt that Karo made!

The Girls!

Austin’s first Christmas

2011-12-29T14:07:00.001-08:00

Baby it’s cold outside

2011-12-29T13:37:00.001-08:00

Picture from first week of December, brrr baby! Daddy’s little snuggle bugs

BLFL’s Best Labs for Life

2011-12-29T13:20:00.001-08:00

Looks who’s back together again?!?! I’m singing the 70’s song “Reunited and it feels so good” right now, be glad you are reading this post and not hearing my cheesy song first hand! Here are the Lab Cousins, Baylor and Labby! This is the first of many posts from Christmas week. Uncle Brad and Ava wore those labs out running after balls and a bit vice versa too I guess on Ava’s behalf! And yes, I totally made my dog a scarf for Christmas!

Look Twins!

Watching the fun…. Austin loves Boo, in fact “boo” was his second word in his thus far little four word vocabulary, right behind “mama” and in two weeks before “dada” Someone loves our Baylor boo!

Brad’s beautiful pup Labby Labster Rowe

The Christmas Card that never was……

2011-12-29T12:34:00.001-08:00

Okay friends and family I totally goofed on the Christmas cards this year.. ahhh! We had been running around like nutty people (as I’m sure everyone else had been the weeks leading up until Christmas.) Long story short, I had planned to take an angelic picture of the kids in the front of the tree. I had two days before leaving town for Christmas so thought I could get the picture Sunday night and then make a card the next day, in the mail by Monday before Christmas and good to go or so I planned. I got the kids dressed in their Sunday best and here is the gist of the Christmas photos…..

Ava was crazed, love my wild child! And poor little man, just not having it. (Check out my mess in the background, yikes!)

I’m taking the Christmas picture day after Thanksgiving next year

At least I got one smile! Wishing you all a belated Merry Christmas!

Ava’s first recital

2011-12-28T08:50:00.001-08:00

The day has come! Ava is now taking lessons from the best piano teacher you will ever find! Seriously, I know I may seem biased because Ditty is my mom but she is crazy talented and her students over the years have loved her so much. She cares so deeply about all her students and has a way to makes music a part of who you are, goes way deeper than just piano theory… her passion and love of music is down right contagious! Ditty was actually my first piano teacher too. Okay I could go on all day but lets get to some pictures! Ava started taking just in time for the Christmas recital, Ava and Ditty did Jingle Bells as a duet, Ava sang and played bells to the beat with Ditty on the piano. (Ava has tossed her headband and dress shoes and they were mia at the time, ha)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-30T14:55:00.001-08:00

This year Greg smoked a turkey, he did a great job because it was super yummy! Here is a picture of daddy’s other turkey (one of his many nick-names for Ava) Check out this bubble dress, made by Dee-Dah, LOVE it!

Way to go Greg, smoked turkey turned out perfectly!

I think Ava’s main objective in helping me cook is getting the privilege of licking the bowls! She was a wonderful helper.

Austin’s FIRST thanksgiving!

Here “we” are last Thanksgiving- including Austin who was still cookin’- what a difference a year can make!

Baylor was never far behind whoever had the turkey! Paps gave her a few little pieces, how could someone resist that sweet hopeful face?!

Every Thanksgiving growing up we had decorated turkey cookies from Roselyn Bakery or Taylor bakery in Indiana. This year I decided to make the cookies myself, can’t get them from Indy, and they turned out just terribly! I tried a combo of buttercream and royal icing and it was way too thick to use in my decorating bags. I had already colored and bagged the 7 different colors of icing and didn’t want to remix it one by one to thin it out. I also ran out of brown icing so I put a layer of Nutella on as icing too, hmmmm. Ava had fun and that was ALL that mattered!

Ditty made the best apple pie I’ve ever had, she put a praline topping on it and it was “G”- Double-“O”- “D” good!

So precious…..

We got most of the Christmas decorating done over the weekend. Ava make me giggle because she was in her own little world stringing the lights on the tree. She made up a song about Jesus decorating a tree, sound familiar to Jesus loves me?

“Yes Jesus put up the “Wights”

Singing away….

Love my girl!!

I am not a fair-weather fan

2011-11-23T12:14:00.001-08:00

So we are Colt’s fans true and true and we wear our blue and white proudly! I coached Ava a bit on how to defend her team before school one morning, here’s our pregame (or should I say pre-school day) speech:

Go Colts!

“Be Aggressive, BE BE Aggressive!!” Okay, maybe not to the point of growling…. hmmmm…..

Santa Clause is coming to town..

2011-11-23T08:30:00.001-08:00

….. in November! Yep, we totally jumped on the opportunity to see Santa when he came to the Domain for the Christmas tree lighting this weekend. It was perfect… five minutes in line and Santa spent a TON of time with the kids. Ava seemed a little shy but definitely looked pleased to hang out with Santa.

“Kit Kats and Rio”

Boots never go out of style!

Here’s what happened when I stepped back, classic Santa picture, Ahhhh!

I especially love this picture, even Santa blinks sometimes!

And done, at least for Austin…. mad cry turned into a whimper, aww baby… Ava’s still smiling at least!

So I’ve started snapping away without warning and I’ve found that I’m capturing the sweetest expressions. Ditty and Paps took Ava to see Santa for the very first time last year so of course they had scouted out Santa this year too.

Ava never passes up an opportunity to dance!

One out for four with eyes open I’ll take it, I LOOOOOOOVE my family!

Making a Christmas craft with Daddy….

Sack of potatoes over Daddy’s shoulder!

I love telling Ava to “pose” because it is rarely dainty, love the silliness!

Austin’s surgery

2011-11-22T14:55:00.001-08:00

Last week was Austin’s orchidopexy surgery, big ol’ word huh? He did great, bless his sweet heart. Here is his playing before the surgery.

Before they took him back the anesthesiologist gave Austin a “baby valium” so he wouldn’t be upset when I had to hand him over. Here he is trying to smile. Okay, admittedly so we were bad parents at this point because we got the giggles a few times at his expense. We took videos of him in baby la-la land, he was smacking his lips and making slurred slow “Da-Daaa-Daaa’s.” A few times he tried to clap his hands and totally missed. A little laughter ended up to be good thing to ease our nerves a bit while waiting.

“Baby Valium” working for sure….

The surgery went great, one of the nurses actually called my cell phone from the operating room half way through the 90 minute surgery to let me know that things were going really well. It was absolutely the best feeling to be able to hold him while he was waking up.

I was amazed at how quickly he recovered. I had to hold him back from moving around a ton, even the same evening as the surgery. His pain medication did make him super sleepy though so I spent the majority of the week snuggling his sleepy self, which I absolutely cherished.

Praise God for a successful surgery and thank you everyone who was praying for us!

Thank you too so much Karo, who came in town to spend the day with Ava. They had a wonderful time. Karo let Ava pick anywhere she wanted to go and do anything she wanted to do that day! Ava chose the McDonald’s across the street where daddy takes her to play on daddy dates and she had an ice cream with mini M&M’s! She also wanted to snuggle and sing with Karo most of the day. Out of all the places to chose from Karo’s lap was Ava’s first pick, I love it! Here is a picture of Karo and Ava (a blast from the past, when Karo was here to take care of us right after Austin was born because Greg was in Vegas on a work trip)

The book of the week was Eric Carle’s Brown Bear and check out the quilt on the floor, it is a Karo Creation with all the Brown Bear animals!

Ava Claire LOVES her Karo!

A Thanksgiving Feast

2011-11-22T14:49:00.001-08:00

Here is another reason I just love Ava’s mother’s day out, they include parents in all the celebrations ! Greg and I attended her Thanksgiving Dinner. The kids had turkey and all the fixin’s. I snapped this picture at chapel when she first saw her daddy show up, so was so happy!

Greg and I had a good laugh at Ava’s top 5 things to be thankful for. (Karo, check out number 1!) Greg said he was just glad to make the list behind bananas!

Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat

2011-10-31T19:50:00.001-07:00

Our beloved little monkey was back for this Halloween. Ava a.k.a. George trick-o-treated with a “little”man in the the yellow hat. Specifically she was George from the original Curious George book where in the end of the story he takes off flying with balloons over the city.

Tried so hard to get a picture of them together

Austin wasn’t feeling the hat so much tonight, much more fun to play with than to wear.

Snow White and Winnie

2011-10-22T17:03:00.001-07:00

Off to our friend Deegan’s third birthday party and it is a costume party! I was thrilled to bring back the Winnie the Pooh costume, so cuddly! Ava painted and carved a pumpkin but spent most of her time decorating cookies, fun fun!

“Clap your hands all ye people!”

2011-10-19T16:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Austin started clapping along when we sing. He usually bounces around and waves his right arm in the air when Ava and I are are singing. Love his sweet clapping though. Bear with the silly baby singing voice!

This is the day that the Lord has made!

Last night Austin was cracking up playing with Sissy. When he is really excited about something he has such a squeaky laugh. Here is is giggling each time Ava pushes the little car his way.

Squeaky squeal

Ava’s rainbow dress

2011-10-19T14:45:00.001-07:00

So I just had to post pictures of Ava’s latest Karo dress. It is SUPER fun, love it! Ava cracks me up because the first time she wore it she started dancing (jumping and stomping) through the house. Thanks so much Karo!

Aren’t these pictures of the cousins so precious? This was the first cousin dress from Karo, so cute!

Ava, Hayden and Emmy. Love you cousins!

Sir smiles a lot

2011-10-19T14:27:00.001-07:00

Check out those two little teeth on bottom. Love his baby hands with those sweet dimples!

Someone LOVES school

2011-10-18T09:50:00.001-07:00

No more tears at drop off, in fact here she is running to the car to head off to mother’s day out!

Here are some of Mrs. Stewart’s pictures. She was so sweet and made Ava a birthday crown.

I baked cupcake shaped cookies for Ava’s class. Ava came home wild as ever totally hyped up on sugar. My cookie cutter was huge and as fun as all the icing looked, not the best decision for little ones. Oops!! I felt sorry for the other parents with crazed kiddos!

Here is Ava playing on ooey gooey day. I just love that her teacher posts pictures for the parents.

Ava’s not so fun birthday trip

2011-10-18T09:32:00.001-07:00

On Ava’s birthday, Sunday, the day after her party we had a trip to the ER…. BOO! We were able to keep the jump house for a few days and were having the best time Sunday bouncing away. Poor sweetie dislocated her elbow on the bounce house slide Sunday night. The ER was packed and it took two and a half hours to get the joint back in place. Funny how we were in the same hospital where Ava was born three years later to date.

It just broke our hearts to see baby girl so worried and hurting. Here we are waiting for the doctor, ER was so busy that night that we got moved from our room to the hallway. Ava loves hearing about when she was born at Scott and White. The story goes something like this and she asks me to tell it to her every night before she goes to bed. She lays so very still with her lovie snuggled to her face, eyes twinkling, and listens so sweetly. “God decided that it was time for you to come out of mommy’s tummy so we went to the hospital. When mommy first saw you she kissed you on your forehead like this (I kiss her) and said ‘I love her!’ The first time you cried that night mommy picked you up and kissed you again and told you that I will always take care of you. You are my most beautiful baby girl.” So even though she was hurting with her elbow, she was fascinated that we were back at the hospital where she was born. We pass the hospital almost daily because it is less than a mile from our house at the back entrance of our neighborhood and she points and yells “MOM that’s were I’m born!”

Here are some happier pictures from earlier that day.

A Curious Cake

2011-10-16T13:28:00.001-07:00

This Curious George cake was oh so fun to make. George and the balloons are made from modeling chocolate. The bottom tier was layered vanilla and chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and middle tier vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream. I couldn’t bring myself to buy fondant because would have been pretty expensive for cake this big so I made marshmallow fondant again. It tastes much better than traditional fondant but doesn’t look as smooth and doesn’t roll out as thin. All in all, I had a good time “caking.” I did learn some lessons (had to redo bottom tier, 4 more additional hours of baking ..boo, won’t say how it ended up in four pieces!) The best part of this cake was that Ava was thrilled. She couldn’t have curious george fly over her birthday party. Okay sad, she totally has mentioned to me a few times “Mom, Curious George did NOT fly over my party!” But at least he was on her cake!

And I have a new hobby that I like equally as much as caking, cookie decorating! And yes, that sentence merits an exclamation mark from my cheesy self . I found a template for a curious George mask online and was able to resize and print is to use as a template to cut the George shape. The balloon cookies were super easy to make, I just thinned out the icing and flooded the cookie. The cookie dough and icing recipes are from karenscookies.net. She also posts lots of tutorials on cookie decorating that I found super helpful. I liked her dough recipe because it was strong enough to hold the cookie on the stick, didn’t rise too much when baked so the decorating surface was flat and it still tasted good too.

I set up a cookie decorating table for the party because I figured if I had such a great time decorating, the kids would like it too.

Birthday Girl

2011-10-16T13:26:00.001-07:00

Can’t believe it, baby girl is THREE! Here she is with her little grin during her happy birthday song. She was so thrilled on party day. She walked in that morning from spending the night at Ditty’s, saw all the decorations and squealed “Is THIS my BIRTHDAY PARTY?” I loved the sweet moment too while we all sang to her, she looked so pleased with this reserved little smile. We loved celebrating with our wonderful friends and family!

I am so going to get it when Austin looks back at these pictures… but every Curious George party needs a man in the yellow hat!

Opening presents!!

yum cake!

Ava and Austin

2011-10-16T10:28:00.001-07:00

Time for more pictures. Here are Ava’s 3 year and Austin’s 9 month pictures.

Little man sure lives up to his nickname in this picture. This shirt has a story, when I found out I was pregnant with Ava I wrapped up this little blue polo for Greg to open to tell him that we had a baby on the way. Ended up baby GIRL didn’t need a polo shirt, good thing we saved it for baby number two!

I think he looks like Greg with this sweet face…

This picture of Ava at four months is one of Ditty’s favorites so we tried to get a similar picture of Austin to frame by Ava’s at Ditty’s house.

OUT-TAKES

And now my favorite pictures, the ones that aren’t so picture perfect. The goal was to have Ava stand and pose on the block, apparently not as much fun as jumping off of it.

photographer: “Ava put your hands on your hips, stand still and smile.” Well, she did put her hands on her hips….

And below, the picture that never was…… We tried for a long time to get two smiles and a still baby!

Ava smiling, check!

Austin almost smiling, check check!

Last attempt, FAIL!

Case of the giggles and snorts

You say What??!!

Cubbies

2011-10-01T08:46:00.001-07:00

I had to take a picture of Austin’s outfit today and give a shout out to our Uncle Jim! We are wearing the blue and red proudly. Isn’t he the cutest little cubs fan?! Love it!

Chocolate George

2011-09-29T22:52:00.001-07:00

Tonight I made Ava’s cake topper from modeling chocolate. I was trying to get a head start on her birthday cake. Modeling chocolate is supposed to keep up to a week and seriously I don’t think anyone would want to eat George anyways (he has a support wire running through him and I’m kind of oddly attached to this personified little fella after spending all night with him) I did not find modeling chocolate super easy to work with, contrary to what I’ve heard (but then again I’m “hearing” all my caking things from the cake boss show…hmmm, really realistic Gina!) I’d never used it before and I kept botching my batches but finally got it the right consistency. So here’s my best attempt. Next week I am making the modeling chocolate balloons and hopefully George and his balloons will top the cake well and look like he is floating up off the top.

I’m thinking he will be safe on the top shelf on my pantry until next week, but Ava is a fearless climber so hopefully she won’t notice him hanging out up there. Oops just realized I need to cover him up in plastic don’t want him to crack. More caking to come….

Little Man

2011-09-26T15:17:00.001-07:00

Here is today’s picture of “little man” as Karo so appropriately nicknamed him. As a newborn he did look like a little man, full comb over and all, and the name stuck, ha! Love you little man!

The napping house

2011-09-25T14:31:00.001-07:00

Ava, Austin, Greg and Boo all taking a Sunday afternoon nap. Something so precious about a sleeping baby…..

Paps and Pups

2011-09-24T17:21:00.001-07:00

So Pappaw’s name has changed once more. Ava started calling him Paps a few months ago and it stuck. Greg started calling them Paps and PUPS, so thus Ava is now Pups when she is with her Paps! Right now they are playing grocery shopping in Ava’s room, I just went in to play with them and she said “Mom, you can’t be in here, just Paps.” Okay little lady, so thought I’d come blog about the pair!

P.S. Ditty said she thought Pappaw to Paps was cute as long as she didn’t become Ditty to DITZ!

My lil’ fish lips

2011-09-24T14:21:00.001-07:00

Austin loves his cheerios and you can hear him smacking his little lips from a mile away.

Sissy

2011-09-24T14:13:00.001-07:00

It would be an understatement to say that Austin likes Ava because He ADORES her… follows her on all fours now and responds to her in a unique way. He laughs at her non-stop, just a smile from her makes him squeal. Ava has been so great at helping too, thrills me to see this super caring side of her. She says that Austin is “HER” baby.

Our new morning routine. After Ava’s bath she feeds Austin breakfast while I make hers.

Ava is soon to follow almost every time when I put him in his pack and play. Austin was totally fine in this picture, looks like she is about to sit on his head but no foul play she was able to climb and land on one leg. For the record though (I was a little freaked out by this picture) she now asks me to lift her instead of blindly hurdling herself in on an unsuspecting Austin.

And she has been my helper for vacuuming. The shop vac is her favorite chore, seriously asks me if she can use it a few times a day and goes after all my crumbs. That’s Daddy’s girl!

This is my favorite NO NO that I happened to get a picture of. I mean with all this doting I have to post at least one little stinker picture. At least a few times a month she turns the computer off and we have re-run the set up. Anyways I was getting a picture of Boo kissing Greg and while we were distracted here is little sneaky fingers turning it off… UH oh!

Mrs. Stewarts pictures

2011-09-14T15:11:00.001-07:00

We have school day pics!! Ava’s teacher keep us posted with weekly pictures on her classroom forum. Our school’s policy is not to post pictures of the other children so I’ve cropped out her cute little classmates.

The one legged crawl

2011-09-13T18:27:00.001-07:00

Baby boy is on the move… well kind of!

This is randomness at it’s best, but such is my life and I love it! I thought Austin’s crawl was funny, he now propels himself forward with his left leg, it’s the skateboard crawl. No matter where I put him in the house he bolts to Boo’s water bowl.

Ava was so excited because her party invitations just came in the mail today. Here’s the translation of the jabbering in the background:

“This is my card” (brings me invitation) for decorations! Cause I’m going to eat cake and he’s going to fly over to my birthday party with ba-balloons. YES, Curious George with ice cream!” (I so love that she calls balloons “ba-balloons” that we haven’t corrected her and I’ll be sad the day she figures it out)

I have the sketch of her birthday cake on the fridge and seems Ava thinks this is truly going to happen, that Curious George is going to fly over her house on balloons!

Jumpstreet

2011-09-13T17:53:00.001-07:00

This trampoline place is one of our new favorite finds, Ava just goes nuts. She loves jumping with her Daddy!

Time for another summersault

Hey good lookin’ what you got cookin’

2011-09-13T17:36:00.001-07:00

So in efforts to keep Ava from turning the top of her kitchen into a prime place to relax in her blue chair and read (totally made me nervous she was going to tumble off) we turned it perpendicular to the wall. Now she has decided it is “Ava’s Café.” She has been keeping her baby dolls, Austin, and her daddy well feed.

I took this picture this morning and for some reason made me pause and realize how grown up she is looking these days!

A Happy Weekend

2011-09-11T21:34:00.001-07:00

This was a wonderful weekend because Uncle Brad came to visit and we also got to celebrate Grandparent’s Day! Brad came to town Thursday night and Ava was his little shadow the entire time, she just loved playing with her Uncle Brad! Check out that Texas Size donut! Ava exclaimed on seeing it “that is a BIG HUGE donut!” For sure baby girl.

Yesterday we got to go out to the houseboat to see Karo and K-Bob! Austin had some great laughs with Karo and lots of smiles for his Karo and K-Bob. He had a great LONG nap with K-Bob yesterday afternoon, such a sweet snuggle bug. Ava’s favorite game to play with her grandparents is the "boatie boat” game, whoever utters those playful words gets a giant tickle! And what better place to play the “boatie boat” game than the houseboat!?

Ava had a blast swimming. She did not swim per say but instead RAN through the water. Her life jacket held her straight up and she just pumped those little legs a million miles and hour. She did the slide once and would have stayed in that water all day… she loved it!

On the way home, one tired girl.

Of course grandparents day wouldn’t have been complete without seeing Ditty and Pappaw that night. Unfortunately our playtime got cut short without a picture today. Ava wasn’t doing too well, she’s feeling okay now though, sweet baby. We did get a round of indoor golf Ava style…we had our cute little clubs and were trying to have Ava yell “FOUR!” Instead she would yell upon hitting the ball “Four, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN!” Austin was all giggles too playing with Pappaw and Ditty. I’m so thankful on days like today and everyday that they moved to Texas.

So here’s our latest Ditty and Pappaw picture. Thought I’d post all three to get a shot of each person’s smile (looks like Austin is getting kisses in the first picture!) Ava’s the smile winner, three for three!

WE LOVE you Karo, Ditty, K-Bob and Pappaw and are so very thankful for you all.

HAPPY GRANDPARENTS DAY!!!

The Sneaky Jelly Beans

2011-09-07T15:26:00.001-07:00

Ava is on my lap now and I was just showing her the videos from my new post today. She looked at me and asked “Mommy are those sneaky jelly beans?”

Back to School

2011-09-07T13:34:00.001-07:00

Here we are on our way, I was trying to get her all pumped up about drop off. We were talking about how exciting it was that she has a new teacher in a new big kid classroom. She was saying that she “probably will make some new friends” and “my mommy will always come get me.” I love her little self pep talks.

Right before we dropped her off, apparently something is way more interesting than mom with the camera

Ava’s new teacher Mrs. Stewart! All the classrooms have an animal mascot and Ava is in the Elephant room. Mrs. Stewart calls the kids her “eager elephants,” cute!

No tears when I left, here’s the last picture I snapped on my way out the door….

Ava was still napping when I came to pick her up and I had the hardest time getting her to wake up. She is a heavy sleeper like her daddy for sure. Mrs. Stewart said she did a great job most of the day. She got a little weepy at nap time but all in all it was a WONDERFUL first day and she was worn out!

Thought I’d do a little interview:

“My First Day”

I asked Ava if she would sing the Ally Bally song if it was for Aunt Carol (Aunt Carol taught us this adorable song) Not only did I get a big YES but she said that she wanted to sing it twice! Someone LOVES her Aunt Carol!

A slow Ally Bally song

A little more like chipper cheer

Ava’s self portrait

2011-09-07T12:07:00.001-07:00

This week’s memory verse for school is “God made me” so I asked Ava to draw a picture of herself. She was so proud of her Ava face, “mom I drew it all by my own!” My favorite part is the neck, she draws all necks straight up through the faces and out the top of the heads.

Boo loves her baby

2011-09-07T11:53:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, churns your stomach a little if you look at Boo as a “dog”.. but in our house it is just another KISS!! He was totally laughing!

Baby boy is on the move…

2011-09-05T08:53:00.001-07:00

Wow, seems like I just posted about baby girl being on the move, where do the days go? Last night Pappaw and Austin were playing on the floor and he just took off crawling. Time to baby proof the house again!

I decided to take today’s pictures right after bath time, most days the kids have two baths because we love messy fun at our house. Ava is usually “decorated” in chalk, markers, food – she is my sou chef and helps cook every meal and snack. So here’s to squeaky clean kiddos. (I had to cut this hug off because it was getting progressively tighter and Ava’s smile was turning into a mischievous giggle, Austin seemed to think it was funny… )

“I Love you a bushel and a peck and a HUG AROUND THE NECK!”

And here’s to working on hugging around the chest and not around the neck!

Kisses for mommy

2011-09-04T15:07:00.001-07:00

Ava’s curious cake

2011-09-04T14:05:00.001-07:00

Okay, so a month away and I’m getting SO excited about Ava’s birthday cake! I did the first sketch today (had to transplant my George onto a drawing of larger cake because my in my first picture he way too big for the cake) One of our favorite George stories is when he flies away with the balloons. My plan is to do the balloons out of rice crispy treats covered in fondant on floral wires and to make george out of modeling chocolate. We will see. I don’t know how I’m going to decorate the cake part yet but it should be fun!

Top 10 reasons why Baylor Boo is the best …..

2011-09-02T23:36:00.001-07:00

10. Boo is Ava’s only official vet patient which means LOTS of shots…..

9. Let’s Ava “dress” her, or at least try put on her collar (I fixed it right after the picture)

8. Let’s mommy dress her

7. Is a friend to all, both big and small

6. She smiles when she’s happy

5. knows how to spoon, snuggle and hold hands. Whenever you are upset she literally hugs you.

4. Lets the kids use her as a jungle gym (Ava learned to pull up to stand by grabbing Boo)

3. Plays with Ava, case in point we needed a Pooh Bear for our story time this day

2. She loves the water like her daddy

1. She has welcomed two babies into the family and loves her Ava and Austin

She is just the BEST despite all the slobber, toy snatching, and barking during naptime, I wouldn’t trade her in for anything! She is so patient with the kids and just loves to be loved by her family.

(once again feel a tinge of guilt for the lengthy tribute to our “dog,” maybe I should have done a top ten for the kids or Greg!?) ha!

BAYLOR BOO WE LOVE YOU CRAZY GIRL!

Silly Goose

2011-09-02T22:11:00.001-07:00

Daddy always calls Ava his “goose” because she is a silly goose for sure. This is the second time we found her in this situation…..

I’d like to see how she gets her chair and a book up there on her own in a matter of two to three minutes unattended. And I DO dress my child, problem is she is talented at undressing and much prefers her birthday suit. I love my silly GOOSE!

Here’s our nakey baby #2, airing out at bit to help to get rid of that diaper rash, he doesn’t seem to mind!

Another day another picture….

2011-09-02T16:22:00.001-07:00

Every day at meal time I snap a few pictures of little man, just can’t get enough of his sweet baby face, he’s growing up so fast!

Meet the teacher

2011-09-02T16:13:00.001-07:00

Ava’s mother’s day out fall session starts next week and yesterday she got to meet her teacher and see her new classroom. I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of Ava with her teacher but here are a few pictures before we left. Ava was really excited. Oh, her teacher’s name is Mrs. Stewart but if you ask Ava what it is you will get “Mrs. Student.” Glad we still have a few more days to get this one down.

Spinning in her dress between her posed pictures.

Daddy and Austin came to school too!

Shakin’ it! This girl loves to dance! When I asked her “Ava who taught you how to dance like that?” She told me that the Chipettes from Alvin and the Chipmunks did… oops on me, probably should have a waited a few more years for that movie!

More to come next week on Ava’s first day in her new class!

Growing up too fast

2011-08-28T17:59:00.001-07:00

Oh, does Austin sure have my heart, along with my baby girl too! He is as sweet as they come, loves to laugh and snuggle. And of course his favorite person is “sissy” no one can make him giggle like she can.

Baylor Bear BBQ

2011-08-28T17:51:00.001-07:00

Greg entered his first BBQ competition this summer. He entered in brisket, ribs, and chicken.

Disclaimer alert!! Posting of this picture is per Greg’s request… I am actually a bit on the crazy side and don’t eat red meat because I think cows and pigs are just too cute. BUT, I will support Greg in all his BBQ endeavors, just may never actually try his brisket and ribs. I am VERY proud of him and his new hobby, I like seeing him so excited about cooking, who knew?! AND he now cooks my favorite meal, smoked chicken enchiladas, yum!

The cook-off also had a little carnival for the kids too.

New York!!!!!!!!

2011-08-28T16:36:00.001-07:00

Greg surprised me with a trip to New York for my 30th birthday. I have an admittedly unhealthy obsession with the cake boss show and so Greg took me to Carlo’s bakery in Hobokon, New Jersey… AHH, Best day ever!!

A buddy cut out will suffice, I was thrilled!

My birthday cake from CARLO’S BAKERY!!

We stayed at The W hotel, fun fun. Little man came with us and he was a great little traveler for the most part

Central Park

Austin’s first plane ride was great for the first leg he slept and slept… second flight was a different story. I have never apologized for a crying baby to as many people as I did that day.

All in all, GREAT trip and wonderful birthday!!!

(P.S. BIG thanks to Aunt Sarah, Ditty and Pappaw for taking care of Ava!)

Strike a pose

2011-08-28T16:13:00.001-07:00

Summer sniffles……

2011-08-28T16:07:00.001-07:00

4th of July parade

2011-08-28T15:55:00.001-07:00

Ava’s mother’s day out program had a little parade for the parents. Ava is easy to spot, the doing her own thing, oh baby girl you are so silly….

Baby’s First trip to the pool

2011-08-28T15:45:00.001-07:00

Greg and I both swam with the kids so no pool pictures, but Austin loved splashing in the water. Ava was fearless and made sure that her head went all the way under the water every time she jumped in and came up laughing.

Someone really likes bananas

2011-08-28T15:41:00.001-07:00

All by “my own”

2011-08-28T15:34:00.001-07:00

So I let Ava dress herself and here is what we got…. Ava Bono….

Look mommy I dressed myself all “by my own!”

Rockin’ out in true Bono two year old style

The flying squirrel

2011-08-28T15:24:00.001-07:00

Dancin’ yeah

2011-08-28T15:12:00.001-07:00

My blogging buddy

2011-06-24T20:21:00.001-07:00

Sea World

2011-06-24T20:04:00.001-07:00

We had the best family weekend at Sea World! It was a HOT Texas day, highest point of the day was 100 degrees but we still had a great sweaty time. Austin was a trooper, I rigged a little fan to blow on his face in the stroller and Ava was her usual energetic self and didn’t let a little heat stop her!

We made the very end of the Shamu show right as he did his final spins and waved bye with his tail.

Here is the rigged fan, Austin’s eyes were as big a saucers staring at that fan… whoa!

I love his exasperated look in this picture

Daddy and Ava love games and rides. Ava went on her first rollercoaster! Greg said she looked a little shocked on the first lap around the track but loved the second one. They are the fourth car back.

Lunch break, chocolate pudding with sprinkles for dessert.

Tired little lady…..

Superhero day!

2011-06-24T19:48:00.001-07:00

This past Thursday was Superhero Day at school and Ava got to dress up as her favorite superhero! Of course we dressed up as Buzz Lightyear (totally wore our Buzz pajamas). The character’s signature line from the movie is “To infinity and beyond” and somehow that has turned into Ava saying “Buzz Lightyear to the rescummme!” She was excited to wear her jammies to school and had a good car ride there. She is precious, she was optimistically reassuring herself from the backseat “I’m not going to cry, you will always come get me, I’m a BIG girl.” As we walked down the hall to her classroom she was truly trying to hold it together whimpering “I’m not going to cry mommy,” so brave. She did end up crying when I left but her teacher said she does pretty well during the day. On Tuesday Ms. Linda (we have a new teacher) said that about 30 minutes before pickup time Ava got her backpack and lunchbox out of her cubby and stood by the door waiting for me with a big smile and proudly announcing “My mommy will ALWAYS come get me, she is coming to get me from school.” The funny part is as eager as she is to leave she raves about school all the way home. She tells me all about her friends “Kafrine” (Katherine) and Ty and sings me the new songs from that day. All in all it is still hard to drop her off but I think it is a good thing for her to socialize with the other kiddos. The summer session is over at the end of July and she will start up the mother’s day out fall program on Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:00-2:00 in September so this is a good way to get acclimated. Love my sweet girl!

And the cake craze continues…

2011-06-15T07:47:00.001-07:00

YAY! I got to make another cake!! Here is the Gerber Daisy Cake that I made for Sarah’s Birthday (Gerber daisies are one of Sarah’s favorite flowers.) I made the flowers out of gum paste and that was way fun to do. Gum paste doesn’t have much flavor though so though so they looked better than they tasted!

I rolled the fondant a lot thinner this time and it smoothed on so much easier, plus the cake wasn’t crazy heavy. I ended up not using the purple flowers, they were supposed to go in the cake pot that ended up collapsing.

This is the cake pot that was supposed to sit on the green striped bottom layer, it collapsed when I tried to fix the loose fondant on the bottom after stacking it. I set it on the table and left the room and came back to a half eaten cake and a comatosed Boo Bear. It was FOUR layers of chocolate, so glad Baylor was okay!

I really wanted to have the daisies coming out of a cake pot with Oreo cookie dirt. I was bummed that the pot didn’t work but the bottom layer turned out to be plenty because it was so rich. A thick layer of chocolate buttercream and mini chocolate chips between two chocolate cakes covered in marshmallow fondant equals one rich piece of cake!

Happy Birthday Aunt Sarah!!

2011-06-14T20:23:00.001-07:00

We L-O-V-E our Aunt Sarah or as Ava had named her last year, Aunt “RaRa.” She goes back and forth now between the two. Sarah had her twenty-seventh birthday out at the houseboat on Lake Travis this weekend. Ava’s highlight of the month was swimming and floating on the raft with her Auntie. She has gone on and on since Saturday, “Mommy, I was NOT a little bit scared because Aunt Sarah held me on the raft, I’m a BIG girl to swim with Aunt RaRa!” And Aunt Sarah brought Ava a toy story coloring book which Ava tells me so proudly when she gets it out “Aunt SARAH gave me this Woody and this Buzz!” We had so much fun with you Aunt Sarah and love you so VERY MUCH!

Spinach Shock

2011-06-12T23:06:00.001-07:00

I’m in spinach heaven! I get such a sense of satisfaction when my kids are covered in the dark green stuff. Ava still loves spinach to this day and will eat it raw or cooked. I think she had Kale or Spinach at least 4-5 times a week as a baby. Today was Austin’s first time to eat spinach and rice. Poor little guy he is just so compliant, he didn’t cry but had the “seriously mom?!?” look on his sweet face as I shoveled in each bite (which as you can see a LOT got spit out along the way) Spinach is clearly not his fav food….

All done and time for a bath, now that’s something to smile about!

Little Miss Sticky Fingers

2011-06-12T23:05:00.001-07:00

Last week after denying Ava’s request for a second cookie, I watched from just outside the kitchen (unbeknownst to her of course) as she scaled the pantry shelves and snatched daddy’s cookies off a high shelf. She grabbed the ENTIRE bag , bolted to our room, opened my closet door and then hid behind my clothes. Because I knew she must have been getting a huge thrill of pulling off this cookie heist I gave her a few minutes to enjoy her victory while I grabbed my camera….

THEN a day later Greg opened the pantry door to this…..

She had pulled in the chair from the breakfast table and made herself quite comfy with her box of crackers. I still can’t figure out how she could see in that dark pantry, AND we even have a child lock on the door handle, a lot of good that does for our little Houdini.

BLFL’s BEST LABS FOR LIFE!!!

2011-06-12T20:15:00.001-07:00

Boo’s new BFF is Labby Rowe, Brad’s new pup! She is the most beautiful little puppy ever and I am just crazy over my labby niece! She has an adorable, playful doggie disposition and is so very soft and snuggly! I was beyond thrilled when Labby and Brad came to visit this weekend, in fact I wouldn’t let them leave without setting up another trip to Austin, so guess who’s coming back in two weeks?! Boo and I will be counting the days!

Boo and Labby were the best play pals and wore each other out! Their favorite game was keep away with Austin’s stuffed toys. I so loved seeing a smile on Boo’s face again! Yes, I promise she does in fact smile, kinda crazy! We miss you sweet Labby and Uncle Brad, can’t wait to see you soon!

Back to School

2011-06-09T22:51:00.001-07:00

I will definitely have to do a post about Ava’s first week, but for now I only have a few pictures because I am oh so tired and off to bed. Today was Spirit Day and of course Ava wore her Baylor shirt! Each time we put it on her she yells “Sic’em Bears!” Here is her smiley self before leaving the house… looking much happier than Tuesday’s pictures!

First day of School!

2011-06-07T09:50:00.001-07:00

Oh my, what a morning! We enrolled Ava in a summer mother’s day out program and today was the FIRST day! After lots of research and waiting lists, hoping for a spot in a fall program we were thrilled when we got in for both the summer and fall mother’s day out program at First Baptist Georgetown. It is two days a week from 9:00-2:00. One of our best buddies, Caden, has been going to this mother’s day out and just loves it. I was thrilled to have a recommendation from trusted friend and I just loved the school and people at the church when I checked it out myself. Granted I was super excited for Ava to have some great play time with other kids AND I can’t lie and say that I wasn’t looking forward to having some one-on-one Austin time and several hours to be super productive. (Present example that I am blogging during the day not at 2 a.m., does that count as super productive? Not scrubbing the floors or anything…hmmm) Anyways I was pretty gung-ho about the whole thing until last night when started to pack her lunch and it hit me that I wouldn’t be eating lunch with her! I knew this of course but I felt it standing in my kitchen over her little lunch box… and then washing her nap mat, we always pray and sing before nap and I give her three kisses for “I Love You.” I was about to cry putting her goldfish in a little princess snack trap in her lunch box. She always has a cute moment after her first goldfish- smiles with a delightful little “mmmm" The two year old sitting by her at the snack table isn’t going to appreciate that moment! Okay, so by this point I knew I needed a bit of a reality check and I married the right guy for that! He is the calm to my crazy. Of course Greg reassured me that this was a good thing and it was going to be okay.

So here we go, today is the day. I’ve been hyping school up all week and she has been beyond excited. We’ve practiced our teacher’s name dozens of times, talked about nap time, lunch time, and how I will always come pick her up. She’s told me a few times this week “I’m going to make new friends” and “I’m going to only be a little bit shy with Miss Faris because you (mommy) will ALWAYS come get me!!!” Almost every day for the past month “Am I going to school today?” and when we pull up somewhere new on errands she squeaks “Mommy is this my new school!?”

Drumroll…..Here is our first picture before we left the house for our first day of school. I handed Ava her lunch box and said “smile!” CLICK-

“I’m staying home mommy” as she threw her lunch across the room. Okay, time to talk about how fun school is going to be one more time

Ditty came over this morning which was a huge help because she stayed in the car with Austin while I took Ava to her classroom, and I mean if Ditty is coming along this must be something really special, right Ava?

Ava hopped out of the car. I think she was feeling better about things…love that posed pirate face!

We make it in the building with no fuss.. Take three for a good picture . Still a little unsure about this school thing… (P.S. Thank Aunt Carol for our cute lunch box!)

I LOVED meeting her teacher this morning. We had emailed prior to today about Ava’s peanut allergy. Yep, no peanut butter and jellies allowed in that room. Sorry parents! Ms. Faris was so very sweet and had the warmest smile. Ava did have a hard time saying bye and I held back a few tears. Though when I went back to peek on her after a few minutes she had stopped crying.

Firsts are hard, even firsts for exciting things like this. When I was expressing to my mom on the way there that I was a little worried, you know hoping kids will be nice to her… hoping she doesn’t run out of water and not tell the teacher and and is thirsty or something, my mom said “welcome to the next twenty-nine years of your life!” HA! I just love my mom! So I know I will be having many more times where I have to trust others with MY baby…. so grateful that Ava is God’s girl and I am not doing this alone! Phew and Amen!

Okay it is almost 11:30. Wonder what Ava is doing? Usually on Tuesdays I have bible study, we are doing Beth Moore’s Breaking Free. This morning was a bit too nutty so I missed today. I guess I’m off to play a bit with Austin, clean up, and workout (almost five months post partum, but better late than never!)

Last week when Ava was running around the house making bigger messes than the mess of a house I was trying to clean up at that moment I yelled to Greg “AHHH, I can’t wait until mother’s day out starts next week!” Now my song is “I can’t wait until 2:00 when I get to pick up my baby girl!”

Ava and Austin

2011-06-05T12:07:00.001-07:00

We finally took Ava and Austin to get their first pictures together. Admittedly so I get way too worked up about pictures. I am just crazy about my sweeties and I never want to forget one sweet detail of their little faces. I am always wanting the perfectly posed picture (of a two year old and baby, seriously Gina!). I really wanted one of Austin and Ava together, hugging and smiling. Every time we tried to put Austin on her lap she said “he’s tooooo heavy” and pushed him off. Even sitting them side by side she would not smile with him in her picture! The one thing that did work was putting him in a basket, Ava thought that was pretty funny, so here are our baby Moses pictures

Notice the absence of the pirate smile! When we told Ava to smile we did get the “arrr” smile so instead Greg and I took turns dancing behind the camera to make her truly smile.

I’m NOT smiling

I took some pictures of Austin that evening. The fence isn’t so lovely but I wanted to some of his sweet baby cheeks without the bright studio light.

It’s a caketastrophe!

2011-05-31T21:02:00.001-07:00

I finally get to use my word for real!! I made a royal mess making my second cake. I had so much fun in the process though! Joy Guinn (Trey and Julee’s little beauty) had her first birthday party today and knowing that I have a new obsession I got to make the cake! I was thrilled because I wanted to make cake #2 and now I had a reason. The party was a fiesta theme so this cake was BRIGHT. OH wait, before I post pictures from my cake photo shoot, totally took way too many pics of my cake, here is the caketastrophe.

I’m not proud of my mess I “had” a reason for this powdered sugar storm. (by the way the air in my house still tastes sweet that stuff is everywhere even after the clean up) Let me preface by saying I enjoyed making this cake SO much and learned a lot….but I did have a minor caketastrophe – word of the week ding, ding,ding! I made my fondant Friday night and let it rest overnight. When I went to put it on my cakes yesterday evening it cracked so I had to quickly peel it off the cakes, re-ice the cakes, let them chill again and then I tried to save my fondant for the next few hours. I kneaded it over and over, added water and tried to re-cover the cakes, then when that didn’t work added powdered sugar bc I had made it too pasty, back and forth with this dry then sticky goo. At 12:00 a.m. I gave up on that batch and Greg went to the store and I made and dyed new fondant. I finished the cake this morning at ten til 6:00 I had to get up at 8:00 so I was so happy that I finished. Thus the mess, it was a 4:00 a.m. sifting powdered sugar mad rush to finish the cake. ( I was making royal icing for the piping) I’m sure I looked comical running around like a crazy lady over cake. Here is the finished cake. The middle layer is HUGE, not traditional, I planned it to be really tall but not quite so big. I topped the cake with fondant spirals at the party location so they wouldn’t damage the cake in the car.

I just added these new ones from the Guinn’s camera. They are such sweet friends to support my cake craze by taking tons of fun pictures for me!

Here’s the smash cake…..

AND here is what takes the cake (AHH the cheesy phrases are out of control today) The pictures of JOY, such a BEAUTIFUL, happy little girl!

a few pictures of the cake in the making…. The glaze of vanilla and eatable shimmer just applied to the dots-

The top layer was key lime cake with key lime buttercream, middle tier was vanilla with vanilla buttercream, and bottom was chocolate with chocolate buttercream. I made marshmallow fondant but with the food coloring I still think it tastes funky, fun to decorate with though.

And finally the after pictures of my house. Let me just say that I have the SWEETEST dad in the the world!! When I came home today this is what I walked in to……

My dad spent hours scrubbing a crisco-ed sugared paste off my furniture and floors…. and thanks to him… TA DA….

I have cake number three all planned out. Here is my sketch of my mom’s chocolate cake I am going to make for her birthday.

I’m so excited to make red gum paste and fondant roses and chocolate fondant. I doubt the finished product is going to look anything like what I have in my head but it is fun to dream.

P.S. feel a little guilty that my longest post in a year is about cake… hehe……

Baby Boy’s first trip to church!

2011-05-23T00:26:00.001-07:00

I have to preface that I know I’m a crazed mom about germs (I think Ava’s bout with the whooping cough when she was a baby made me overly cautious) I’ve pretty much quarantined myself and the kiddos in the house until Austin’s four month vaccinations. SO happy that flu season is over and he has four months under his belt meaning we are BACK at our Sunday morning church service that we have missed so much! Austin was in a serious mood this morning but I still had to snap a few pictures before leaving.

I couldn’t steal enough sweet kisses from my precious sleepy boy this morning.

My first Cake

2011-05-22T23:52:00.001-07:00

Last week I got an urge to make a cake, random, anyways I thought I should try one and see how I liked it, I mean it looks fun on all the cake shows on t.v. right? SO my verdict on cake making.. I LOVED IT!! I had a great time making this cake. I researched how to make fondant cakes online first and thanks to YouTube I felt like I could try one. I decided to make my first cake an “AVA” cake in her pink and green colors. I had a few minor mishaps, cracked fondant on the top loop of the bow because I didn’t let it dry long enough before assembling and a back loop cracked off when I put the bow on top which I’ll fix tomorrow. I had a minor “caketastrophy” when baking the cakes because I overfilled the pans, oops… actually wasn’t really a big deal I just wanted to use my cheesy word that I kept throwing out all weekend to make Greg give me the “seriously Gina?” look, I love that look ha! The cake is a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream icing between the cake part and the fondant. Fondant is fun to work with but doesn’t taste so great, I’m going to try different recipes and hopefully find a good one. I’m also hoping to take some cake decorating classes for my birthday or Christmas present this year.

(Hint hint Greg )

Goin’ to the Zoo…Zoo…Zoo

2011-05-21T22:38:00.001-07:00

Ava loved the Zoo and we had fun with the questions and statements that a two year old had about the animals so we were sure to remember them. Here is Ava’s take on the zoo…..

When seeing the Lion: “Can I feed him?!?”

We did not walk around the zoo, we RAN around the zoo, too much excitement for one day!

When meeting the Orangutan: “Let him out, open that gate” (Aww, that was a bit sad to me because he did look like he didn’t like being there)

Hugging a lizard….

A STATUE of a lizard of course!

Ava’s favorite zoo animals were the Meerkats. When we walked away from their exhibit she motioned the Meerkats and yelled back to them “Come on guys!”

When seeing the elephants Ava shouted “Can I go in there? PUT me in there with them!” Which of course was a big N-O and lead to this pout face…….

Look how cute Ava’s dress is!!! Karo made it for Ava and it is one of our favorites to wear, we call it our Monkey Dress. (had to show a picture of the back too)

Tubby

2011-05-21T21:16:00.001-07:00

Nope, not talking about myself these days, (I’m totally laughing so you can too!) I’m referring to my yellow tubby where I had my first baths and Ava and and Austin have both bathed in… apparently I loved my tubby and my kids do too!

Newborn Gina

Austin almost 4 months

Monkey… aka Ava Claire

2011-05-21T21:06:00.001-07:00

Ava loves when we call her our silly monkey and she sure is a silly girl. Here is what I found when she was supposed to be sitting on the potty (Ditty has a basket of soaps and lotions on the top of the toilet). When Ditty and I walked in she squeaked “want a little bit of lotion Ditty?” and held out one little finger.

And the best way to get a girl clean is…….Ready, set, JUMP!

and a Boo too….

2011-05-21T14:37:00.001-07:00

Boo the Lovie theif - Baylor loves Ava’s lovie as much as Ava does, it has had lots of trips through the washer. Aunt Jessica made the lovie for Ava when she was born and it is Ava’s favorite comfort item, we always have lovie hunt before bedtime.