My Petite Little Girl!

Ava is small. She out eats Carli two times over, but still she is so small! Can't really argue with facts. But I don't think it really registered just how small she is until we dressed her for church this morning...

This is Carli in one of my favorite outfits at 8 months...

Carli in the same outfit at 6 months...

And at 14 1/2 months, I finally got to dress Ava in this cute outfit!

She loves it so much, she blows kisses! XOXOXOXO!!

And here are my two girls together - not a half bad picture!

Amarillo - Day Two

Our second full day in Amarillo began well. We got up and headed to church! I was sure that Ava would be fine during Bible Class since her teacher was Naggy and Ms. Robin. I wasn't so sure how Carli would do b/c she usually gets very clingy in new situations. They handled her really well and instead of the teachers coming over to try to pry Carli off my leg, they sent over a couple of older (4-5 year olds) to ask Carli to come play. They were persistent and Carli finally gave into peer pressure and I snuck out!



By all accounts by girls did really well in Sunday School. Service was a whole other issue. Carli did fine. She is to that stage now where you can give her a box of crayons and a coloring book and she's quiet, and still! Ava not so much. I finally took her out to change her diaper and I walked the back of the church building until she finally gave up the ghost and went to sleep, during the invitation song. Sweet baby...ha!

We had a nice surprise when Uncle Barry and Aunt Carolyn met us at church and came to lunch with us. Ava slept through most of lunch but Carli and Aunt Carolyn had a grand time playing games on her phone.


Being the sweet, innocent children that they were, my children did not beg for money from both Naggy and Aunt Carolyn in order to ride the little rides outside of the restaurant and they absolutely did not do this multiple times until all the quarters where used. And their Mother did not finally step in and tell the girls that was enough when Uncle Barry and Pappy came out of the restaurant and they begged for more money to ride more rides. Nope, that did not happen!


Don't you just LOVE the girls dresses? Grammy made them and put the final touches on them just before we left for Amarillo. I have yet to get a good picture with the girls together and I so badly wanted to get one with the girls dressed in their new gear. We tried enticing the girls to water Naggy's plants in order to get them in the same vicinity of one another!

That didn't hold Ava's attention very long - but we got some cute pictures of Carli!

And every once in a while I sneak in on a picture just so everyone knows that I do exist! :)

In constant motion - that pretty much sums up Carli and Ava!

Carli LOVES to give Ava kisses and hugs - Ava LOVES her space! ha!

One of the highlights of the day for Carli was getting to take a ride in Pappy's jeep! Ava wanted to go too, but Momma convinced her to stay at the house. Quite honestly, I'm not sure this didn't happen on a different day, but it did happen and Carli LOVED it! :)

I LOVE this picture! :)

This is pretty much how Carli looked during the entire ride!

Keith and I also got to go visit with some good friends Zane and Shawna Oliver. We got to meet sweet Baby Seton for the first time. Zane and Shawna are an amazing couple and I love just watching Shawna talk about her sweet little boy. Her face just lights up with pure joy and pride! If you have a minute, go check out their blog: Life with the Olivers. They have overcome so much in the last six months and you will be inspired, touched and amazed!

Amarillo Trip - Day One

We headed out to Amarillo last Friday night, actually I guess it was two Friday's ago - where did the time go?! This was Ava's second plane ride, Carli acted like it was old hat. We are very fortunate to have Uncle Danny help us drive out to the airport and keep our car at his house so we didn't have to pay parking. Makes getting into the airport a breeze!

We flew Southwest and thankfully we were not delayed and got to Amarillo on time - which was 10:30 pm! :)

Carli colored the whole way...it was serious stuff!

Ava slept the whole way - the benedryl helped! Neither complained about their ears so we were very relieved.

The girls did really well sleeping that night. They had their own room across the hall from Keith and I. Naggy and Pappy were so excited to see them, I mean us! :) But it was so late, there was no time for play. We had to get to bed so we could make a very important breakfast date in the morning...

Donut Stop! Donut Stop is a must go whenever we go to Amarillo. Keith LOVES it and if you ever talk to anybody from Amarillo odds are they love the Donut Stop. The big ticket item is a Cherry Donut. I say it is okay - Keith says it is heaven on earth! ha!

We meet some family for breakfast and the kids had a blast!

Carli and her second cousin Alexis. Alexis is three, she and Carli became fast friends!

Carli taking a HUGE bite from her Cherry, I mean Strawberry, Donut. Carli insisted that hers was a strawberry donut.

Not to be left out of tradition, Ava took her first bite of Cherry Donut - she prefers cake donuts. :)

Four generations - Grandpa Herb, Keith with Ava and Pappy with Carli.

After breakfast, we let Ava have a morning nap and Carli ate up her alone time with Naggy and Pappy. Once Ava woke up, it was off to the swimming pool!

A very rare feat, got all three of them smiling!!

A huge thanks to Mrs. Jeri for letting us crash her pool and home for a couple hours. We all had a blast!

Afternoon naps were a must for all. After dinner, we headed out to the mall to Build a Bear - only it wasn't Build a Bear, but something similar. Ava really got into the whole stuffing process... Carli built a pink princess pig. She insisted it all be pink...yes, go ahead and laugh. My daughter loves pink. It was inevitable.

Ava "built" a Monkey, which she found absolutely hilarious when Naggy made it talk to her on the way home! Our first full day in Amarillo was an absolute blast! The girls slept like little worn out angels all night and I'm pretty sure all the "big" kids did too!

Our Magic Bean Stalk

We got home from Amarillo to find that the two beans that Carli had planted at VBS had sprouted. One was in full sprout when we got home and the other started breaking ground this morning. They were in a small little plastic drinking cup which was really neat because Carli could see the roots and we had a nice little chat about how roots work. Carli was exciting because she remembered planting them at VBS. So in an effort to not kill our new little plant, we made a trip to the store to get some real planters so we could give them some room to grow.

Carli had a blast painting her planter. She really has taken to painting and coloring these days. She worked for a good 30 minutes on her pot...

Ava is 14 months old - don't expect much. I was asking for a disaster with Ava in the room and an open bottle of paint. Thankfully we just got paint on Ava, Carli, myself and the table. No paint got on the dogs, the carpet, or the pot. Ava thought she wanted to paint but then mistook the paintbrush for a spoon and I quickly put an end to that...

Ava is a determined little girl and when she wants to do something it is very difficult to dissuade her from doing it. But alas the good Lord blessed me today and the screaming lasted only a couple of minutes before her new game of trying to balance the paint bottles in a spoon grabbed her attention for a while.

And then a game of "can Ava really fit into this tiny little space without making sister mad" began...it lasted long enough for a picture before both girls had a melt down...

Carli was a very intent little painter - but she likes to have company when she paints. So I had to paint a lot too but that was okay considering Ava couldn't necessarily paint her own pot!

Finally the pots were done and it was nap time - I was a happy camper! After nap time and Daddy getting home, it was time for the big transplant...

Carli did an amazing job of filling the pots and watering the dirt. My soil has got to be about 4 years old, so it was a bit dry!

We put the "baby" bean in Ava's pot and the larger one in Carli's.

Thankfully our new pots drain so Carli can't drown them!

With three dogs and the Texas heat, we didn't risk leaving our new little friends outside. Instead they have a new home on the kitchen table and at every meal we have the opportunity to talk about how much they have grown and that God has helped them grow, etc. Hopefully we can keep them alive for awhile!

And yes, I a still sorting pictures from Amarillo - three different cameras and tons of pictures - it is looking like three different post!

What does 14 months bring you....

How about our first tooth?! Yep, while we were in Amarillo Ava's first tooth finally decided to pop through. It is her bottom left front tooth. If wise tells hold true, that may mean we have a lefy on our hands!

Guess Where We've Been...

We ran...

...We Played...

...And Got LOTS of Lovin'!!

That's right, we made a trip to Amarillo last weekend and had lots of fun! We have lots of pictures to sort through before we can update the blog. Until then, perhaps the above will suffice!

VBS

This week the Hays' family stepped out of their comfort zones and dove head first into experiencing VBS. Carli was not quite old enough for the 3 year old criteria, so we sweet talked Ms. Marla into letting Carli and her friend Allie come if Keith and I would help out in their group.

Shiloh Road tried a new concept this year and instead of dividing the kids out into different age groups, they combined all the age groups into 12 Tribes. Each group had a range in ages from 5th grade down to 3 years old. Our little group had nine kids in it and 3 were under three. It took four adults to manage them all! :)

Every night we came home exhausted, but it was a good kind of exhausted. Carli had a wonderful time and her little friend Allie did too. We were glad to participate and experience VBS this year!

Carli at the "Synagogue" painting her little money box.

Carli at the petting zoo with our good friend Tiffany. Tiffany was an amazing help on the last night of VBS since our main "Leader" couldn't be there. I am not a teacher by nature so I was bit stressed about being in charge. Tiffany took over and did an amazing job! I went back to my post of herding our little tribe!

Carli tried to feed the catfish grass. She was quite pleased with herself!

I LOVE this picture! Allie was not so sure about things every night when her Momma dropped her off. It took her about 30 minutes to warm up and then she really enjoyed herself. I tried to take a picture on my phone every night and send it to her Momma so she would know all was well. This picture was right after Allie finished making her bracelet.

Two little friends working together.

Our two smallest little Tribe members standing on the pew so they could see. We may have an interesting time come Sunday morning and they get in trouble for standing on the pews!

The whole tribe - we had an average of 8 girls and one little boy every night.

The Food Market gave the kids snacks every night and they consisted of items that Jesus would have eaten as a kid. Carli would point to stuff and tell me that was gross. My favorite part was when a little girl asked if Jesus really ate this stuff (pointing to lentils) and when told yes, she replied, "Couldn't he have preformed a miracle and make it taste better?"

Our friend Avery came by one night to visit the market with our group. The three girls worked hard on coloring their bookmarks that are being sent to kids in Peru.

Allie actually took this picture of Carli at "Mary's House." Maybe I need to hire Allie to take more pictures of Carli for me!

A HUGE thanks to Grammy for coming on Monday night and watching Ava at home so she could go to bed at a decent time. Ava loved her one on one time with Grammy! And we must say thanks to Ms. Patty and Kayla for watching Ava the other three nights in the nursery. VBS was quite the experience...I am glad we participated...but I was happy to stay home on Thursday night and put the girls to bed by 8! :)