A Christmas Painting Adventure

On Wednesday of last week, I watched Kenzie and Hayden while their Momma had to visit the dentist. I was adventurous and decided to let the girls paint some Christmas Trees. Actually, my status that day on Facebook was:

Brave? Why yes I am! A 3 year old, a 2 year old and an 18 month old painting Christmas trees while a 2 month old and I supervise...yeah, stupid may be a better word for it!

But I should have had more faith in the girls. They did really well and had a lot of fun! Ava wasn't so sure about me sticking her hand in paint but she let me help her with her hand print Christmas tree and was quickly done!

She'd rather hang out with Hayden! Who, by the way, is one laid back little fellow!

Both Carli and Kenzie were very serious little painters, but they take more of the abstract view of painting. I was impressed that Carli didn't freak over getting her hands in the paint! But each hand had to have it's own color!


Kenzie is much more at throwing caution to the wind and diving into projects! She painted her tree with intense concentration. At one point she even told me to stop asking her questions, she was working! She did a really good job and didn't get a lick of paint on anything but her hands, arms and paper. I was impressed!

One things for sure though, once they were finished, they were done and deserted ship!

Here is their finished artwork, maybe I'll start taking pictures of their artwork for an album rather than trying to keep up with all the originals...

Carli

Kenzie

Ava

Ice Cream? Yes, Please!

Carli has become a picky eater, much more so now that she likes to assert her opinion. And like the wonderful parents that we are, we resort to bribing a little occasionally just for the small victory of getting a little decent food down her! The other night we were eating at the Jalapeno Tree and Carli knew they had free ice cream. She held up her end of the bargain for the most part so she got to enjoy an ice cream cone before we left for home. Like the wonderful big sister that she is, she offered to share with Ava...

Keith and his girls. Ava was not happy here b/c she wanted to hold the ice cream cone...

Her Daddy of coarse obliged!

Carli at 3 Years Old

Carli turned 3 on October 1. Two months later, I finally am posting her stats. Oops. Actually in my defense, Keith filed and the pediatricians paper ended up in a random file. But I couldn't complain, b/c, well - Keith filed! :)

At 3 years old, Carli's imagination has really started to fly. She loves to watch Dora and Diego. She still loves Minnie Mouse as well. She is really into playing games on her daddy's phone and nook. Her favorite stuffed animals (froggy and piggy) sleep with her every night and occasionally make a special trip with us out of the house. As of the day she turned 3, Carli has been without her paci and has accepted that she is too big for one like a champ. We were prepared for a long battle so this was a nice surprise! She is an amazing big sister and loves Ava so much. Carli is very opinionated and knows what she wants. She loves to wear "princess" dresses. Her two favorites must be washed and worn at least once a week. She lets me know if I haven't gotten the laundry done in time. It is a battle to get her to wear regular pj's now, because princesses must wear night gowns to bed. We have been officially potty trained for a few months, much to the relief of her momma. Our big girl will start half day preschool in January for two days a week. She is so excited, her Momma isn't so sure! :) Carli is loving having her cousin Logan so close and enjoys playing with him often. Wow...3 years old already!!

Carli's 3 Year Stats:

38.75 inches (85%)
32.2 lbs (64%)

My Princesses

Carli's Princess Twirl

Ava can yell cheese and run...and thus most of her pictures are blurry!

Princess Carli

Little Princess Ava - the one and only decent shot

My new favorite picture

Thanksgiving in Rockwall

Saturday we headed up to Rockwall to celebrate Thanksgiving with Keith's extended family. The cousins on this side of the family are a little older than Carli but after about an hour she warmed up and played hard all day! Cousin Logan and Isabella have a trampoline in their backyard. The girls thought it was the best thing ever created! Perhaps we should visit more often!

Carli almost got air under her!

Just one step at a time! Ava giggled the whole time she was on the trampoline!

Giggling non stop!

The little kid table with only half the kids!
Ava, Isabella, Cadence and Carli

The stairs were a big hit for Ava! She played on them half the day!

Oh Carli...

I think Carli's favorite part of the day was getting to stay at a hotel with Naggy and Pappy. She has a fascination with hotels for some reason. She was very excited. She even had a sleep over in Naggy and Pappy's room. Turns out Keith and I sent the wrong kid over for a sleep over since Ava was up and ready for the day at 3 am. :) We enjoyed church with Aunt Sarah, Uncle Robert, Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Barry and a good visit after. We even managed to randomly find a really awesome little puppy (half yorkie, quarter shihtzu and quarter maltese) for Uncle Charles. And he was free!! Naggy was pretty excited to find such an amazing little dog so unexpectedly. Carli will be disappointed when the puppy isn't there at Christmas!

It was a great Thanksgiving week! We all really enjoyed the time with our families! Can't wait for Christmas!

King Thanksgiving/Christmas 2011

Every other year we celebrate Christmas with my extended family at Thanksgiving. The grown ups do a White Elephant gift and the young kids get to open gifts from everyone. We had a good time visiting and catching up. Carli and Ava really enjoyed playing with their cousins. Ava pretty much attached herself to Allison the whole day. It was really cute. Neither girl got a nap so it was no surprise that they were asleep before we even left the driveway to head home!

Getting there is half the fun, right? The girls had a good time "playing" with each other and holding hands on the way to Fairfield.

Carli was really excited about her gifts! She got a mixer and coffee maker for her kitchen, a tutu, some books and a Minnie Mouse countdown till Christmas!

Ava got a tutu, books and a new baby doll (which she LOVES). She had a blast with the boxes too!

Grammy and Pa sporting the princess tiaras that the girls got for Christmas.

Carli enjoying one of several "turkeys."

I didn't get as many pictures as I normally do, but can you blame me? I was visiting and enjoying myself since Allison, Jake and Logan had the girls entertained for most of the day! :)

Our Thanksgiving Cookies

I've fallen on the pinterest wagon and for the most part I keep the addiction under control. It has been a huge inspiration for ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had two family get togethers this year for Thanksgiving and Carli and I decided we would make cookies for both.

First we were going to make the cutest little turkey's ever, but despite all the reviews, this is not a friendly activity for a 3 year old! So Momma made a few of those and Carli helped me make the Pilgrim hats. She loved it! And did a great job throwing the marshmallows in the chocolate...

She may have eaten a few marshmallows...like six, and then I lost count.

While Carli LOVED making the hats, I think she enjoyed eating the turkey's the most.

Our cookies....we made a lot and had a lot leftover, but that's okay. What a fun memory Carli and I made in the process of creating them!

Ava at 18 mths

Ava Ruth turned 18 mths old on November 14. The time has simply flown by! She is such a little character and smiles all the time! What an amazing gift and blessing she is to our family.

We love you Ava-Boo!

18 month Stats:

31.25 inches (39%)
22 lbs 14 oz (28%)
Head: 18.5 inch (63%)

**Ava had quite the growth spurt in the last three months! She went from being in the 8th and 7th percentile to close to the top third! She gained 3 lbs and grew 2.25 inches! We are finally in the 12 mth clothes. :)

**Ava is still smaller than Carli was at this age. She is catching up though! She's only 3/4 inches shorter and less than 2 lbs lighter. Another growth spurt and she just might catch up! :)

Growing Way to Fast!!

Every once in a while when we are early on Sunday mornings, I like to attempt to take the girls picture. Key word here is ATTEMPT! But last week, the girls were in a cheesin' kind of mood just didn't want to stand! Hey - I'll take what I can get!

A true smile - kind of...

Woohoo!! A miracle!! Sweet girls!

Such a happy kiddo!

Did you do a double take? Yep, this isn't Ava any more - this was Carli in the same outfit!

We Are Such Morning People...

Actually, Ava wakes up laughing...the rest of us not so much!

We Took Christmas Pictures....

...last weekend and the girls did really well! Every year Grammy has the grand kids pictures taken, and this year we were all on top of the game and got them done in time to perhaps even have Christmas cards! Yes, miracles do exist!

Here is a sneak peak at the girls outfits...

The dresses were actually gifts from Ms. Jamie. They had purple flowers on them, so we switched the flowers out with red ones. I bought them red tights and black boots at Babies R Us. I actually spent the money and bought the bows b/c I didn't have time to make them this year. They will wear those bows a lot! :) We topped off the outfit with a black necklace and put red feathers on their boots!

We think the photographer got some good shots of all three kids and we have our fingers crossed that she got one with all three of the kids together! The important thing is that at least this year, all three kids would sit together for the same picture - last year they would have none of that!