Ava had such a blast she went from animal to animal. Big or small it didn't matter she checked out their teeth, their noses,eyes, quality of coat and even tried to sit on a few for a ride!! It was hilarious! You would of thought she was some kind of Doogie Howser animal examiner! I was so glad she enjoyed the animals....a little too much she was heart broken to leave! Daddy isn't our back yard big enough for some goats and llamas? HAHA

She was so excited! I've been telling her about it for a week now!

She actually does a pretty good job of not spilling it either!

DEAN IS AMAZING

Have I mentioned in the last 48 hours how amazing my husband is?? I love that man! He never ceases to amaze me with his love!

Dean is AMAZING!

He has worked so hard this week and week-end. Not on his boat not on his guns, four wheeler, lours, rods, or reels. But on our home. I think someone slipped him an energy bar at work on Thursday because he has been non-stop Mr. Fixer upper! He re-painted almost all the walls, spackled nail holes, went through his closet and cleaned out all his old stuff, cleaned and organized the garage, cleaned out the store room, cleaned the back patio, edged the front and back yard mowed both took me to have seafood....then to really top things off cooked dinner tonight too. WOW. Once again DEAN IS AMAZING!

I have always known and made sure to tell him how much he is a wonderful husband and now Dad. But after a weekend like that I feel like shouting it from the roof tops! "DEAN IS AMAZING"
Thank-you so much Dean for ALL your hard work! The house and yard look great!

Big Big news....Ava went on her first adventure with her Aunt Kim!! (WITHOUT MOMMA or DADDY)

Tonight was Hunters 5Th birthday party at one of those bounce houses. Well as I mentioned last week Dean and I have started a Foundations class at church and we did not want to miss class,on the other hand I was dying for Ava to be able to attend Hunters party at the extremely fun place.
I asked Kim if she would mind taking Ava...it seemed like no big deal at first but as the days grew closer for Ava to go I was wanting so bad to chicken out and take Ava to church with us! "She has fun there too I'm thinking." Have I lost my mind sending my baby out in the world with out my momma wings to protect her....heart palpation ...sweat....fear...anxiety is all setting in at this point!
When Ava woke from her nap I asked her "Ava do you want to go to Hunter's party?" and with a wide open smile she nodded her head with pure excitement!!!! So then I thought I will write on a piece of paper church /party and have Ava pick a piece....what luck...she picked PARTY. Great no backing out of this now!
Kim shows up to get Ava and I admit my FEAR! She tells me her feelings won't be hurt if Ava doesn't go. It's no big deal.
Deep breath.... sigh, no she needs to go and see her cousins! She loves being around them! I remember how much I couldn't wait to go see my Daddy when I was little because I knew I would get to be with all my cousins and I loved that so much! I want the same for her. Family is so important to me and experiences are necessary for development and relationships. JUSTIFIED .
Dean and I head to church. Ava and Aunt Kim head to the party.
"Please Lord have your mightiest Angels watch over our family and keep our baby safe" tear tear.
After class one of the little ladies that watches Ava asked "where is Ava?" I told her she was at a party with her family. She says"oh good you and Dean go have fun and get a bite to eat" are you kidding me I was ready to burn rubber to the bounce house !
We didn't. We opted to have a very nice well deserved Dean and Chante' dinner adult dinner! It was fabulous too! I even tried to not talk about Ava too much!

Party Animal Ava came home around 9ish! I had to run outside to greet her when I heard the car pull up. Ava had a blast of course and Kim said she was very good the entire time! Thank-you Lord for all your blessings! Thank-you Kim for doing that for us! I loved growing up and hanging out with my Aunts! Still do!

THAT WAS A BIG FIRST FOR ME!!!

Her poor legs and hand were eat up with bites. Inside for a bath , some cortisone and a little benadryl won't hurt anything either!
She is such a tough little trooper. Once again if it isn't one thing it's another!

Dean and Joshua were outside doing lawn work and the babies were fascinated!

Congratulations Michael,Kelli,Branson,Bryce and Reese!

Good Morning Sweet baby!
We are going to go visit Dr. Garbarino today! "clap clap" from Ava! She is defiantly my child she loves to go go go, whether it's the Dr.'s office or Disney World she is all about it!

They weighed Ava and she is holding steady at 24lbs.....I promise that child eats and eats some more! It's all that running around she does....her Momma needs to get on that plan! Run Momma! Run!
Dr. Garbarino checked Ava out and dismissed the runny nose,cough,ear tugging as viral so I hope we don't find our way back in a few days! Good News too she said her ears looked FABULOUS again! Yeah!! After Ava's Dr. visit we scooped up Rachel and headed to a favorite lunch spot in Pearland The Pear Tree tea room for a perfect little lunch. We always enjoy spending time with Rachel! Then.....Ava got the chance to also spend the day with her oldest cousin (Joshua) she had a blast hanging out...outside and just being around him !

For my birthday I asked Dean if we could touch -up all our paint imperfections that have occurred over the last three years...well he got right to it! Drop cloths rolled out, paint buckets everywhere,decorations down and he took care of all scuffs, scratches and little finger markings! Viola looks so much better! Thank-you Dean! Talk about timely...my birthday is over a month away!

If anyone knows me you know I do not like for my home to look "BROKE-IN" Thank-goodness Dean feels the same way!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRAVIS!!
I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!
YOU MEAN SO MUCH TO ME!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUNTER! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOUR ALREADY 5

Ava's snotty nose isn't looking so good! Today she was a crank-pot off and on with a very nasty cough and a raspy voice. I made an appointment for her Dr. in the morning to make sure it's just viral. Please don't let this get to her ears....

Deans eye looks like he got poked with a hot nail and of course still a little sore. We are hilarious with our eye issues.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYAN!!!

Today poor Dean had to have his first surgery....of all places...his left eye. He had an over- growth of tissue that has been there quite a while. Every doctor he sees ask him why he hasn't taken care of it. Well this was the year. The tissue has started to cause some miner issues drying of the eye,irritation,and so forth so Dean decided to have it removed. Ava ,Nicholas and I dropped him off at 1:30 thinking this would be an in and out quick deal. After cruising the great area of south east Houston 3 hours later he was done. Dean walks out as green as Ava's crayons with a cup of water in one hand and the look of pain all over his face. He said he was fine until he looked in the mirror and saw the completely blood-shot eye ball then he just had to get out of there. Those who know Dean know he does not handle medical facilities very well if at all! Home to sleep it off! All of us!
Stephen picked up Nicholas. I had him since 6 am. Ava and Dean went down for a nap so heck I will too! I love naps!
Dean wakes feeling much better but of course still looking quite blood-shot. Ava wakes ready for her spaghetti and "abacados" avocados.

While waiting for Dean to get out of his appointment today I took the kids over to watch the planes taking off and coming in. Ava waits with such anticipation on her face...."pane pane" yes baby here comes the planes! She is such a joy to interact with!

Hope this dosn't back fire on me! I got Ava some bathtub crayons since she is so in to coloring right now. She of course enjoyed them let's just hope I can get her to understand you only get to color on the bathtub walls....uummm good thing we have a good connection for paint! We love you Daddy!

Baptism February 22,2009

7:00am Dean and I wake to Ava crying.....this is a rare morning occurrence. UH - OH Ava has watery eyes a runny nose and sneezing away.We know where this usually leads to.(Ear Infections) Oh man she has been so healthy! Get out the saline nose drops let's try to nip this in the bud!

Dean and Johnathan headed south to the coast to get a few bites in. And of course they did even with the not so ideal fishing weather......windy,windy, windy. I guess when you know what your doing you can catch fish in any situation! I know Ava and I never have to worry about going hungry. Dean can fish like a pro and hunt like a ....um Hunter. Ha Ha

Today was a very exciting day for my little 8 year old cousin Mikayla. She decided to accept Jesus as her Lord and Savior! Tear Tear! She was Baptised by Pastor Tom Allen at Crosspoint Fellowship. He is the same Pastor who Baptised me as well. I'm very proud of her!

Ava and I were going to head to Galveston after the Baptism (The weather was amazing...blue blue skies and sunny as all get out) There was a pet parade starting at 1 and I thought she would really enjoy that,but Church kept us till 12:30 and I'm not a speedy driver. Instead we had the chance to hang out with Mikayla and Emma. Later that afternoon Anthony had a scrimmage game so we headed back into Pearland for that.
I took Ava's pink car so she could play in it. All the little girls took turns pushing her around until they discovered the sand pile! Oh what fun! My child "Sally Sandy Pants" had a ball! She played and played and played. Dean said he may make her a sand pit at home. (He just thinks I vacuum a lot now) I don't mind at all she had a blast!

When we got back home it was still sunny so we played in the front yard some more. I love days like this!
What a Fun Sunday!
Ava is so sleepy! Inside for dinner, bath...play a little more then our precious angel fell asleep sitting up on the couch watching Willy Wonka with Momma on her left Daddy on her right.
Oh we love our child ! She touches our heart more and more every day! Goodnight Sweet Ava!

Today was my post-op visit to my amazing eye Dr.

Dr.Lisa Thomas OD,PA 713-436-6005

She seemed quite pleased to see my eye in such better condition. Last time she saw me my face was swollen and my eye looked like an oozing green mess! Good news Dr. Thomas said I was 95% healed . One area still looks a little irritated so I need to keep up with the eye scrubs,antibiotics, and warm compresses till I'm 100%. No problem!

Ava has really gotten into drawing (scribbling) on paper. That is her new favorite thing to do, and she will do it for awhile. Each time I give her a piece of paper and a pen I always write her name on the paper and say the letters of her name out loud as I do it. Today she copied me as I said "A...V...A..." So I had Dean do the same with her so he could hear her say the letter with him! She can't write it of course....but she sure can say the letters. "A..V..A.." Oh my she is getting so big!

Tonight Dean and I started our new class at Church. It is called Foundations (Building Habits for Spiritual Growth)It will run for 6 weeks. We are excited to grow and learn more and more in our Faith each week! For Ava that means she is in her class from 4:30 till 7:20 ish. They said she did good tonight got really hungry around 6(that's normal). Good thing we packed her a big lunch/dinner. Once she ate they told me that she was as happy as can be again!

We were suppose to go over Aunt Barbara Jeans and Uncle Ricky's after church for Bryan's Premier party for his T.V. show Amazing Raise. Unfortunately the weather got really cold and wet and after Ava's long day she was so tired . Sorry Bryan! Hope y'all had a blast! Congrats and Happy Birthday!

Home in time to hang out a little. Ava was so ready for her bath and bed!

Today was mine and Ava's first time to host play-group! What fun we had! I enjoyed having it here at home because I was actually able to listen and hold a full conversation without having to check on little miss busy body every second! We had a nice turn-out too.(7 babies 5 Mommas) The weather couldn't have been better. We were able to feed all the babies on the back patio.....half way picnic style. Bell enjoyed that....she spotted every dropping and even snagged a few treats from the babies! Bad Bell she has no table manners!

Ava has been in a great mood all day. I think she really enjoyed sharing all her stuff with her friends!And like me really enjoys company!
We have a bath-tub routine that we always sing "It's clean-up time" and make sure we say good-bye to every duck,frog,alligator,boat,and shampoo too. Well tonight Ava decided she wanted to give a kiss to ALL her tub toys! I haven't counted them but I can bet she has at least 25 different items in there! She didn't miss one and the ducks and frogs got extra smooches!
What a sweetheart!
After bath time and all her kisses.... diaper,lotion, P.J.'s and book time. The kisses didn't stop at the tub! She kissed every baby on every page and even threw in quite a few for me! Dean heard all the kissing going on so he came over on the action and got his fair share as well! We love when she is in such a sweet loving mood! It's not rare but not super often either!

Hope everyone has a great week-end we have another pretty full one!

The infamous Sandwich Maker! I have made Ava a fan!

What a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Wow it was so pretty outside!

We had Nicholas again today so after breakfast and naps we headed out back on the patio and soaked up the amazing blue skies! Ava would stay outside forever if we let her! That child enjoys being outside playing so much! A lot of times when we are inside she has her little chair Uncle Ricky made her in front of the window just talking and gazing out! Probably saying " I can't wait to get out there!"
Ava must of really enjoyed her hot sandwich I made her yesterday....because for lunch she got into the cabinet where the sandwich maker is and pulled it out. She always gets in that cabinet and has never pulled it out before. (grilled cheese it is sweet baby)...yes and groups.

Travis came over to see us tonight so Ava wanted to show off her singing skills for him.....oh boy did she aaaaaaahhhhhh oooooohhhhh aaaahhhhh. We just laugh. She defiantly loves to be the center of attention!

My eye is healed! Finally ! Yeah. I go back to the Dr. for my post-op so hope fully everything has healed to her standards! For such a little thing I sure did let it have control of my life! I'm so dramatic.

Last night Ava had been playing in her room quietly for a long time.(Dean and I were watching American Idol) So you know that thought you get...oh no what is she up to? I slowly walk back to her room to see and I walk into club Ava. She has stuff scadderd all over the place, her kiddie song CD playing and there she was minding her own business dancing like a dancing machine! I ran to get the camera and did get some of it on video, but I haven't yet mastered how to upload video's yet! She is so funny. I'm not too sure where she picked up these dance moves but they are nothing like I have ever seen before! !

Does anyone else besides us still own The Sandwich Maker? I absolutely love my sandwich maker!(Got one in 7Th grade & sandwiches haven't been the same since) For those of you that are not too sure what I'm talking about it is basically a mini grill for your sandwiches! A slice of bread with a little butter lots of turkey mound of sliced cheese another slice of bread with butter place the sandwich into the grill,close the top... 30 seconds later a little slice of heaven! YUMMY. You have a hot grilled melted sandwich!
I introduced Ava and she was really fond of the hot sandwich as well! She kept pointing "mo mo more Momma." along with her "groups".

My babysitting got a little interesting today.We have half-way converted our formal dining room into a sea of toys. Ava and Nicholas normally enjoy playing and playing and playing in there. Today if I left Nicholas' sight poor baby would scream as if he was being poked with a hot iron....as soon as i would return to hold him he would crack-up and babble away to me~hum (I sense a game here) so later I tried to walk into the kitchen to get Ava her fruit and Ava followed close by. Nicholas screamed like being poked again . Ava looked at me then looked at Nicholas and started screaming too! I think they formed a coalition against me to just scream so I would hold them both all day! So that is basically all we did Nicholas made a dent in my lap and Ava would come and go as she needed some love. I have plenty to give! I didn't get much accomplished but I got lots of love!
See the crazy thing is ...if that would have been just Ava screaming like that I would of let her scream,but being that Nicholas isn't mine I feel so guilty. So I give in and hold him.
Tonight when I was cleaning up the kitchen Ava was upset and caring on so I gave in to her and the rewards were priceless. I just sat on the kitchen floor and said "what you know Momma needs a hug, you want to give ME some love?"...and she did just that Ava hugged my neck and patted my back right there on the kitchen floor! Then she was fine. Wow favors returned! I think sometimes we just need to stop what we are doing and love our little ones! I'm so glad I can take the time to stop and give out loves!
Dean may get dinner a little later than normal or the clothes may sit in the dryer, but I will lay my head on my pillow at night knowing my baby feels loved!
(Plus I get this crazy cleaning energy around 10:30ish PM. Ava is asleep Dean is too so Momma gets the house taken care of!) Dean always jokes and says someone came in the middle of the night and cleaned! He figured out it was me one night when he woke up at 11 something and there i was vacuuming like a fool. ha ha

Oh yeah...Stye update pretty much completly clear. The far left corner is still a little open but a week and a half later I can say I'm back to normal. No make-up still but I have a clear eye!

Oh no Carters is having a big big sale and I have coupons this could = trouble!
Come on Ava we will just run in and see what they have...ha ha an hour or so later,oh my goodness let's get out of here Daddy is going to kill me! Little girl clothes are so hard to resist!

We also made our every other month Sam's Club visit to stock up on diapers and wipes! You defiantly get your moneys worth! 172 diapers for 38.00 . The first 9 months I was buying them from WAL-MART at 56 diapers for 22.00 I'll let you do the math.

We were missing Meme so we made a pit-stop off at her house for a "quick visit"...5 hours later.

Mikayla and Emma will be over for the week-end so I decided I wanted to clean/organize their room and closet. Well anyone who knows me knows I love to clean and organize so I got a little crazy doing that! Oh well Ava and Meme had a fun visit hanging out on the patio blowing blowing blowing bubbles! That is Ava's favorite word right now" BUBBLES BUBBLES BUBBLES." She is also really into grapes right now but calls them"groups" "groups" "pease"

We finally headed home and had a great evening together. Got to go to bed early and get ready for lil Nicholas' arrival in the morning! We have him the rest of the week and we can't wait!

Dean headed back to Lake Calcasieu,LA with some friends to
catch the big ones. Of course they were successful. To see the smile on our child's face when her Daddy walks through the door is priceless!! Especially after a long weekend of him being away! She loves her Momma but her Daddy wins her heart over and over!
Ava, Aunt Sandy
and I enjoyed our girls weekend together. Dinner at Emily's,strolling the isles
of Target ,Church and yes another baby shower. It wouldn't be a
normal weekend without our baby showers! Ava is getting really
good at these parties.

Aunt Sandy bought Ava a baby doll at our Target excursion. This is not your normal baby doll . She moves as she drinks her bottle,burbs, sleeps and snores. Ava thinks that is the coolest thing ever. That baby is her baby. Ava loves that little girl like I love her. It is so sweet to see her loving and caring for HER baby!
Potty update Ava went on her potty again by her request! I'm so proud of her!

Good news I think Ava has a strong desire to go #2 on the potty! The last few times she has had to go she bends over points and pulls at her diaper then directs me to her potty! I take her diaper off put her on the potty and she does her business! YEAH Ava! Now as far as tee teeing she likes her diaper?? Thats ok I'm just excited she understands how this potty thing works!

Day: 5 The Stye Gone Arye!
This will all clear soon right??

Happy Early Valentines Day Ava. Look at The pretty Tulips Daddy sent us. Smell em do they smell pretty?

Let's eat some breakfast we need to head back to the stinking Dr.a new Dr.hat knows whats going on for Mommas eye. Let's hope we can get this ugly thing cleared up!

I had to go to a different Dr. today an amazing Optometrist. If anyone wants/needs a great eye Dr.

Dr.Lisa Thomas OD,PA is the DR!!! 713-436-6005
2802 Business Center Drive Suite #114
Pearland Texas 77584

Dr. Thomas and her staff were so through,gentle,amazing,sweet,helpful,kind all of the above!! They let Ava and Nicholas watch Barney!(Big Brownie Points)
Her office was clean , beautiful and full of great paint colors! I'm so glad I was referd to her!

I not only have multiply styes but I have (sub-ocular bacterial infection.) YEAH what fun more antibiotics, more eye scrubs, more eye drops, and more cash-ola! At this point I just want to get this under control! Basically the infection has spread to my cheek hence the massive swelling in my face. The styes have multiplied across my lower eye lid causing all my follicles to become infected. Wow I'm full of exciting news!

Ava and Nicholas were great for me at the amazing Dr's office. Thank-you guys! The Dr said while she was draining my infections Ava kept a close eye on her with her eyebrows crinkled up as if to be telling her....DON"T YOU HURT MY MOMMA! She didn't at all...well when she had to pluck out some eye lashes that did bring tears to my eyes!