Sidewalk Chalk

What Carli and Momma draw...

What Daddy draws...

Light Up Your Day

A Smile like this will do that to you!

Our Daily Reading Time...

Every morning after the girls are dressed, Carli instructs me to put Ava on the poof chair so she can ready to her. Usually, she will sit next to her and they "read" while I pick up a little. Monday morning, Carli disappeared for a bit after I got Ava situated and came back with an armful of blankets and Big Headed Baby. It took awhile to get everyone situated just right, but finally I was able to appease Carli with who got what blanket and who sat where...

And after I finally got the right book for Carli to read - it was story time at last!

OH - and yes, they are dressed a like, because when Carli wears her "ball" shirt, Ava has to wear hers too. Carli still fits in hers but I don't think I can squeeze Ava's in her Thing 2 onesie any longer.

Rockin' Babies

With two girls, it usually takes two to do the whole bedtime routine. We do the baths together and then while I get Ava lotioned, diapered and fed, Keith and Carli go and get her dressed for bed. Then Carli will come in and report on what is on her PJ's (my favorite is when she tells me there are dinosaurs), she'll kiss Ava goodnight and sometimes I get one too and then she and Keith go off to do their bedtime routine while I rock Ava to sleep. But Monday night, Keith had a double header softball game and had to leave before it was time for Carli to go to bed. So, we did the baths a little early and then Keith was off to conquer to softball field and that left us ladies to fend for ourselves. When Keith left, Carli was helping me rock Ava to sleep while she drank her milk...

I am happy to report that with Carli's help, Ava did go to sleep and then she and I went and read her books, said our prayers and sang our songs and she went to bed as well. Thankfully, bedtime was much more successful than nap time was that day!

Smith Family Annual Get Together

Every August, my Mom's side of the family gets together and catches up with each other. We all belong to W.B. and Ruth Smith. That's my Grandfather and Grandmother. And yes, Ava Ruth was named after my Grandmother. There are 4 girls and 1 boy that belong to my grandparents and from them there came 14 grandchildren, and from them came 6 great grandchildren...it's a pretty good gathering of folks! This is the side of our family that can sing. My Grandfather taught all the boys how to lead singing at church and most of us can sing...I say most, because I am not one of those that can sing! :) But I try my best!

This year, everyone was there minus three cousins - so it was a pretty good gathering! For Ava this was the first time to meet most of this side of the family, so she got lots of attention. Not sure she liked being the center of attention. She screamed at me a lot - so we camped out in the back of the house and got to enjoy listening to the singing, which was okay with me since I am not one who can sing! :) I got to enjoy the singing of others.

Here's Ava telling her Uncle Andy all about it...

Pa with two of his grandkids...they sure do love him!

Aunt SuAnne (Great-Aunt SuAnne to the girls) with Ava

Aunt SuAnne with both girls who were wearing matching outfits she had made them. They were super cute!

All the cousins - minus three girl cousins...so us girls weren't really that outnumbered.

This is our whole crew - not a bad looking bunch of folks! :)

It was a fun day - and good to see family we hadn't seen in a while.

Fun Filled Wkd

Saturday morning came bright and early, which worked to our advantage for once. We loaded up the girls, and all the gear they require and hit the road by 8:30 headed to the metroplex. We were going to end up the Smith Family get together, but made a stop to see Uncle Kevin in Fort Worth first. Uncle Kevin was super excited to have the girls come visit and Carli talked about going to see "Unc" Kevin all the way there.

Hitting the Road!

Ava was even bright-eyed and ready to go!

Carli stayed awake the whole drive, and at some point dropped her sun glasses. She did find Ms. Potato Head's glasses and hat and thought they did a pretty good job of blocking the sun!

Carli had fun visiting at Uncle Kevin's and I forgot to take pictures! Argh! I was busy trying to keep Ava happy and convincing Carli to go swimming!!

We headed out for the get together around noon and that is where we spent the rest of the afternoon (more on that tomorrow). After we were all visited out, it was time to hit the road again, but thankfully Grammy thought ahead and we headed only 10 minutes down the road to our hotel! Woohoo, no more driving for the day! We all got settled in and headed out to dinner at Cracker Barrel...

Carli loved these things! She actually used the tees as a fork to eat her corn later on...

They entertained Logan too!

We sure do love our Grammy!!

These two are a mess! Sitting outside at Cracker Barrel, cheesin'

Pa and Grammy with the grandkids

Carli and Ava in their matching outfits -
I forgot to try to get a good one of them together...forgetting seems to happen a lot lately.

Logan with Ava - they look so much alike! And I just love Logan's grin!

What was kind of neat was that Sunday morning we went to church out at Aledo where my parents got married and my grandparents had attended church while we were growing up. We had not been there in a long long time. We sit in the back, and would see ppl we recognized from visiting when we were kids. There was the couple that always sit behind my grandparents and he always gave us candy after service and there was the "crazy, happy" lady that always talked a lot and had a huge smile on her face...Mom and Dad recognized lots more ppl than I did but it was a bittersweet trip to go back and remember. The only part missing was sitting next to Grandmother and Grandfather listening to them sing. :) Good times.

After an amazing lunch at Babes...we headed home and back to reality! At least Logan is spending the week with Grammy and Pa, so Carli is looking forward to going to Alto this week and playing with him!!

Important Life Lessons

We are trying to teach Carli the important things in life. She loves to hear us sing "Bible" songs. She tells us to pray at the dinner table and says "Thank You" and "Please" most of the time. So, in our quest to teach these important things to our growing daughter, this lesson could not be left out...

How to Lick the Bowl

I think she learned the lesson very well!

Making Memories

There are just some pictures I don't get enough of and seeing my grandparents with my kids are some of those. Those pictures are simply priceless to me and I only wish that I could have had some with my Grandmother and Grandfather too. We are very lucky to have Grandma and Pawpaw around and so blessed that they are here to love on my girls.

My Pawpaw isn't who he once was with his memory, but you would never know that if you saw him playing with Carli. It makes my heart smile.

Carli is always into something at Grandma and Pawpaw's house. Grandma was trying so hard to get Carli to take a bit of the Key Lime Pie...


And Carli was trying so hard to get Grandma too take a bite too!

Splash Park

We recently discovered Tyler's Splash Park and Playground and have had so much fun! One day last week our small group all met out at the park to have a picnic dinner and let the kids play...

We helped David celebrate his birthday too! Kenzie is one of Carli's little buddies and Kori bailed me out more than once during my last month of pregnancy, and a few times since then too when it feels like my sanity has left me! :)

Carli really doesn't know what to think about the splash park. She likes to tell other ppl to run and play in it but has yet to get really bold herself. Kenzie, on the other hand, had an absolute blast! Leave it to the youngster to show the least amount of fear!

This is Riley, Carli's little buddy. Carli is getting to spend every Monday and Wednesday at Riley's house. He wasn't so sure of the water at first, but he got comfortable pretty fast.

Here's our fearless Kenzie!

Carli did this most of the night...directing traffic!

And these two just ignored her directions! Ha!

Allie came to play too, but she was more interested in the play ground and picking up after others! She's a cutie too! Next time maybe I'll manage to get to whole bunch together!

All in One Trip

I think Carli has watched me unload the groceries from the car one too many times...

Keeping Cool

Carli loves to be outside even though it is so stinkin' hot! She interprets the heat as a need to play in the water and I really can't argue with that logic. I was looking forward to having our backyard done so that Carli could play while Ava and I sit in the shade and watched. Carli got it in her head that her Daddy and I needed to help her play in the water the other day, so it became necessary to sit Ava up...

Ava didn't complain one bit!

Once again...we love to slide into the water!

Our new trick is to slide head first! Her Daddy was very proud!