Thank you

for all the awesome comments (and emails and phone calls!) about Jemma's (big) news. How cool to have a record of all the excitement for this little peanut! And since my blog is my main form of record keeping these days, I have to write the reactions of our little monkeys.

Ed wanted to tell Ava right away (he's terrible with secrets as evidenced by the fact that he told Paula and Joe the night we found out--and I wasn't even there! Paula called and hollered so loud I didn't know what had happened!) but we waited a month till after the ultrasound. Ava is the most amazing sister and one of the things I was most excited about was giving her the chance to be a sister again. She was of course thrilled and is the family's most trusted secret-keeper, although this was very hard for her and I was glad we didn't tell too early. I caught her more than once rolling the word "pregnant" around in her mouth and she said she just liked saying it to herself! We waited to tell Jack till we were on our way to tell my family (Jack, another not great secret-keeper). In the car, we told him we had an exciting secret and he yelled, "don't tell me! I hate secrets!" That wasn't quite what we had expected and it took almost the whole trip to convince him he wanted to know. But his reaction was absolutely priceless--the biggest, sweetest jaw-dropped smile I have ever seen (and he has big sweet smile already!). His eyes were even smiling and he kicked his little feet in the air. Amazing.

I can say this...this is one anticipated little gift.

Jemma has some news....

Party Weekend!

Ava's birthday celebration kicked off Friday when she took treats for her school party:

Then on Saturday we had a breakfast party for her with eleven little giggly girls in their pj's.

Ava helped get ready for the party.

Waffles with strawberries and whip cream!

The girls!

Happy 7!

Then she got dressed up and headed over to Madison's birthday party for some more fun!
I picked her up there and took her out to lunch (where she said this is the best day ever!) and then we headed home to open her presents:

Then my mom picked her up and they went shopping to pick out more presents!
Then home for a quick break before heading out to celebrate the three cousins' birthdays:

Then on Sunday we went to a movie for Will's birthday and then down to Ed's parents to celebrate there:

A pink fishing pole!

Whew! What a weekend!

Happy Birthday Ava!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Ava Blythe.

Here is what I wrote about Ava last year and it is so true, I'm posting it again!

The thing about Ava is that she is a lot like me so I just get her and she's a lot like Ed so I just really like her. I like to take her out and I like to keep her in. She is a cozy, funny friend:

She is thoughtful and has such a real empathy for others.

She is a quick thinker and is always looking for ways to be helpful.

She has a generous spirit. She is genuinely happy for others and it keeps her content.

She is immensely patient with her brother...it amazes me!

She can be a stubborn little cookie but she never has a temper...she just doesn't get angry.

She wakes up every morning with a cheery face and talking to her (or really just listening to her) is the best way to start the day!

We love you!!

How is it even possible??

To make a mess this big between breakfast and nap?

Shopping day with Ava

Ava had a four day weekend so we headed to Spokane to shop. We ended up getting tons of stuff for her and hardly anything for me! She is a great shopping buddy--she loves to ride in the car (we took Ed's pickup so she could ride upfront with me), she loves shopping and she even likes trying stuff on.

Lunch at Red Robin.

On the way home she finally ran out of things to talk about (that never happens) so she read her book for a bit.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cheers!

Lovin' all the valentines.

We'll take pretty much any reason to celebrate and Valentine's Day is especially sweet for the kids. Ava worked hard on cards and pictures for everybody and setting the breakfast table just right and keeping all kinds of secrets!

Cheap thrills.

A car got pulled over right across the street from us and the kids were thrilled! So exciting to see someone get a ticket! Although I think Jack was a little disappointed they didn't get hauled off to jail.

Sisters.

They're starting to play together! Ava will take Jem in her room and shut the door and she loves it!
You can't tell, but Jemma is madly shaking her head at me here--a trick she thinks is hilarious when I tell her to come and then Ava walked in and:

she ran right to her!

Makin' Valentines

Here's Ava getting ready for her Valentine party at school--lots of time spent picking just the right card for each kid!

I asked Jack what Valentine's Day is and he said it's when you make hearts for people you love. Then he started listing all the people he loves and as he ran through our family, he got to Paula and said, "I don't berry love Paula because she has a ring on her toe" (this has stressed him out for quite awhile) and then he grinned and says, "actually I love her anyway!" and after listing everyone he knows, I said that's a lot of people to love and he said, "I know! But I think they love me too!"

Laughing at Jack...

our favorite thing to do!

Superbowl Yum.

I love football (I've mentioned this before, I know) and it's really my favorite way to spend a Sunday afternoon. But since my teams are rarely actually in the superbowl, I love the big game for a whole 'nother reason...the junk food! It's the only party of the year that you can get away with serving straight junk as long as it comes with a dip!

Ava and I started digging in early--she loved the onion dip (my fave) and wondered why we don't have it more often....the empty bowl a couple hours later answered that one!
A pre-game nap (for Ed at least!)

This is what I found when I got up this morning:

Ava.

Ava's been growing up and older and cruising through first grade and she is such a good buddy that I sometimes forget she's just a kid! Thank goodness our first school-kid is bright and organized....I'm hoping that by the time Jack gets to first grade we have some sort of schoolwork plan in place because I'm pretty sure he's not going to do his homework without prompting, study on his own, and remind us when things are due! Weeks ago, Ava brought home a huge sheet of spelling words for the spelling bee--I of course paid it little attention until I found out the other kids have been practicing up for the big day (talk about a seriously bad mom) so I sat down with Ava and went through the words and she only missed 13 (out of 210! and some of them are really hard!) I kept saying, "how do you know these??" And she just laughed and rolled her eyes. So anyway now the spelling bee is tomorrow and I figured we'd cram this afternoon (which is really my preferred method of studying!) but Ava, who does not have a competitive bone in her body, said, "wouldn't you rather just snuggle and talk about our day?" To which I said, "Yes! I would."

Also, so I don't forget, she started art lessons yesterday, which was very exciting! She even wore her favorite boots and red bead necklace to spice up her uniform since the lessons were right after school. Ava loves art--she is always working on something or other in her room (I should really post a picture sometime of the sheer volume of her goods that I throw away every week). But I do keep some!

Here's one she painted when she was four that I have in the kitchen:

And here's one of her little doodles that I like because it shows her attention to detail (see the tongue at the right?):

She's a funny girl!

Looking for Jemma?

You'll find her here, in Ava's room, playing with her dollhouse. I've considered moving the dollhouse to Jemma's room but I'm pretty sure that it will lose most of its appeal once it's out of her big sister's room! Sisters!