Blog Buffet...

Ok....warning....this is very random! I just downloaded pics off of my camera from this past week and found some cute ones I had to share. I know I JUST posted a half second ago, but I had to let the Grandparents see these! The problem is that I don't have time to write something cute about them. We are leaving in the morning to go to my mom's house in MO to visit my brother, sister in law and their kids who have been in Africa for four years! They have never even met my two kids (although they have seen plenty of pics)! I am soooo excited to see them! I have tons to get done before then. Pray that the kids do good on the trip. This will be the first time we drive the whole way in one day! We might be crazy. Anyway...here are some pics from last Friday's playday, our visit with Vanessa and Shane, and other randomness!

Her eyes are closed in this next pic because that's what she does when we ask for her "very biggest smile"
This is my friend Vanessa, that I used to work with. She and her husband Shane came over for dinner last weekend. It was really fun visiting with them...I hate that they are moving. Don't leave us!!!

She's stinkin up my cave!

This morning after breakfast Alec was building a "cave" in the sofa cusions. This is a common occurance...I think he is trying to get away from Ava who is usually pulling his hair, pounding on him, or stealing one of his hot wheels cars. Anyway...Ava found him in his "cave" and let herself in without being invited. Alec quickly retreated saying "I had to get out...she's stinkin up my cave!" (apparently she needed a diaper change). After that I was in the kitchen doing the dishes, and I heard squeals of joy coming from both kids. I yelled "What's going on?" Alec said "Nothing...I'm just pulling Ava around the floor on the blanket". I replied, "OK...just be gentle"...after thinking for a second I thought... how is a three year old going to be "gently" pulling a toddler around? So, I ran in to check it out. I snapped a few pics and then I gave Alec a spin around the floor. Of course he had to grab the WHITE blanket to drag around on the dirty floor!



An alternative way of cleaning the floors maybe???

Eriik's Sourdough...

So....Eriik promised that when we moved into our new house with the new kitchen that he would start cooking every once in a while. This was kind of exciting news since the last time he had cooked for me was the night he proposed! He is a man of his word and he decided that he wanted to carry on a tradition from his childhood in Wyoming. His Grandma Hazel made Sourdough pancakes every single morning the summer that he was working out on their ranch (age 14). Sourdough pancakes are quite a complicated process (to me anyway). It invloves something called a "starter" (flour, yeast, and water) that you keep "growing" for years (this sounded gross to me...but it's how you get the sour in the sourdough). We were told some people even name their starter, and the longer a starter exsists, the better it gets. So anyway, since we have lived in our new home Eriik has gotten up early five or six times to make us these wonderful pancakes. Alec especially loves them...and he loves it when his Daddy lets him flip the pancakes. He makes them every Saturday, while we jam out to Christian music on the radio. I think it's great that my hubby wants to carry on this Wyoming tradition with our family.




Love the face Ava!

Cruisin!

Last night we let Alec drive Ava in his Jeep. Up until now she had been content just sitting in a stationary vehicle, so this was the first time we let Alec loose at the wheel with his baby sister. Anyway...there are no injuries to report, so all went well. At one point he put his arm around her and said "Ava, your my husband" then he thought for a minute...laughed and said "no..I'm the husband, girls are the wives....right?" Not sure what sparked that comment...maybe he associates driving a girl around as a "husbandly" thing to do. Eriik was playing police officer and putting up pretend stop lights..Alec broke "the law" a couple times. Eriik told Alec that he better start obeying the law or his car was going to have to be impounded! Alec said "Daddy...please don't pound on my car!"

A fresh new look!

So...I finally got a new look to my blog! I have been wanting to change the layout for a long time now...mainly so my brother and sister in law (Shawn and Steph)won't think I'm a "copy cat" for having the same layout as them! Yesterday when I was hanging out with our local blogging expert Meredith, she gave me a tutorial. Thanks Meredith!!!

She walks and talks...

So, Ava is walking and talking all the time now! She is at a really fun stage and we are enjoying it. She is now preferring to walk over crawling and getting around pretty fast. It's so cute to see such a tiny little girl walking all around the house...Alec was such a huge baby when he started walking.
I think even more than the walking I love the talking. She has over 35 words that she uses now...and even says a few two word phrases!!! I won't bore you with the whole list, but some of her words and phrases include: puppy, "What's that?", "all done", "cracker please", car, "my bear", baby, ball, up, ducky, juice, door, outside...the list goes on and on. She calls me Mom Mom, Eriik is Daddeeeee, and Alec is Aleee. Of coarse I've tried to capture her talking on video, with no luck...it's got to be on her terms...no talking on demand for her!

Lot's of hot air!!!

So, we went to the Balloon Glow last night, and had a great time. The last time we had gone was when I was still working and pregnant with Alec, and they put me to work at the Cessna airplane exhibit (they always made the young admissions workers do it). So, last night my old boss was at the Cessna...it was great to see him and catch up a little.
Anyway, Alec liked getting to sit in the airplane, but Ava didn't want to have anything to do with it.

Ava was being a little grumpy here....not too crazy about the heat I guess. It was about 95 degrees and pretty humid!

Sweet smiles with her daddy!

Doesn't he look like an angel here!


At first we sat on a blanket to watch the glow show, and then towards the end we gathered all our stuff up to walk amongst all the balloons, it was really beautiful! Alec reached out to grab one of the balloons as it was deflating, and he thought that was just the coolest thing ever!

My little fishies...

Well...today was a good day in the pool. We had Alec's private lesson first, and he did great...he was gliding under water by pushing himself off the steps, and they started working more on kicking today. He had tons of fun and had a smile on his face pracically the whole time. She was pretty impressed with how attentive he is, and said that she has hardly ever seen a child his age stay under water for so long. She kept having to say "come up come up!" I think he's going to be a scuba diver like his daddy. Here are pics of Alec's lesson.





Alec's buddy "Little Lion" came with his mom, little sister, and cousin to water babies. Alec always love's playing with him. I like that the instructor used them as "helpers". She had Alec be an example of how to do the sit dive, and "Little Lion" got to hold the hoop for the babies to "swim" under.

Ava loved her water babies class today! I was afraid we were waisting our money since I had been spending a majority of all the other lessons trying to keep her from crying. But today she was laughing and smiling (up till the very end when we had "the popsicle incident"...I won't go into all the details, but boy does she have drama!) Anyway...it was a lot of fun today and I am very greatful to "Mommy Lion" and "Cheetah" for taking the video and pictures...you guys rock!

Video of Alec and Ava doing a sit dive:

A house becoming a home...

We have now lived in our new home for one month, and I just realized that a lot of you haven't seen it yet. I thougtht I would post a few pics that I have. I still have some finishing touches to do in all of the rooms (pictures to hang here and there), but for the most part we are completely moved in. We are really loving the new house...it still doesn't quite feel like home yet...not sure what is going to make it click over. I think it's experiences and time that make a house feel more like home. Our last home held soo many wonderful memories...Eriik bought that home when we first started dating and he then proposed to me in the living room, we brought home both of our babies to that home....many fun times playing in the back yard. So, it is a little sad to leave that chapter, but we are very greatful for a bigger home with more room to spread out and grow our family. I thought we were going to miss our huge back yard, but Alec and Ava LOVE this yard, and actually like to go outside even more than the last home (I think because we now have a covered porch area so the sun isn't beating down on them) We are very comfortable here and lovin every minute of it, it just hasn't quite sunk in that we get to stay!

She's unpredictable!

There is one thing that I have learned about my sweet Ava, and that is the fact that she is anything but predictable. You simply can not peg her. As soon as I say "she's this" or "she'll do that"...she does her best to prove me wrong. Take today's "water babies" class for instance. I had told a few people "She is going to LOVE IT!" I had reason to believe this since she loves her bath, loves the kiddie pool, and when we went swiming in the big pool this weekend she did great, and seemed really happy. WELL....Alec had his private lesson first, and (being the compliant, easy going child he is) did everything he was told with a smile on his face the entire time...HE LOVED IT! Ava on the other hand did great for five minutes and then decided she was done...she wanted out and nothing...I mean nothing was going to change her mind! I would set her on the side of the pool and she would be fine...I then would try to bring her back in the water and she would scream her little head off. If you have ever heard an "Ava scream" you know what I'm talking about....this is no meek little cry. She's got Drama! But there I go trying to peg her again! She could end up being the most laid back child in the world for all I know! She's just unpredictable...but sooooo cute, and I love her just the way she is!

The 4th of July weekend was a blast!

We had a really great weekend. Eriik had Thursday and Friday off work, so on Thursday we went to a water park that is an hour down the road. I only got a few pics at the water park before my camera batery ran down. I wish I would have gotten a pic of the kids castle which had water slides running down all around it. Alec loved it! There was a baby section with sprinklers that Ava loved. Unfortunatly Eriik and I didn't get to take advantage of the big slides because we were too busy watching the kids, but it was still a really great day! I did get a nasty sun burn because as usual I wanted "just a little sun"...well, I got more than enough for the whole summer!





For the fourth we went to a cookout at our friends house. They had quite a few people over, with lots of kids. We really had a great time, and Eriik regressed back to being a 13 year old as he usually does when he gets to blow things up. Since they live out in the country everyone brought firworks and we had a little fireworks display of our own. This was our second year to spend the fourth of July with them, and it's becoming a fun tradition!

On Saturday, I got to have a much needed no kids allowed lunch at Olive Garden with a few girlfriends....it was great. Then I came home grabbed Eriik and the kids and we ran over to a friends house to swim. I didn't get pics there because I forgot my camera. So...it was a busy, but very fun weekend!

Random summer fun....

Alec and Ava really have been playing well together lately...it's so cute to watch them interact. She follows him around the house and hugs him every chance she gets! He is really sweet and patient with her too...when she steals a toy of his he just goes and gets one of her toys and "trades" back. There is nothing Ava will not climb in or on these days. I'm always finding her in a basket, on a shelf, on the bathroom sink (she climbs Alec's step stool)....she's always exploring.








































All that climbing makes her very sleepy! She gets so exausted even the hard wood floors look comfy!

















The Kiddos have been having tons of fun out in the kiddy pool and on the swing set. When we are home this is where they are spending all their time. Ava will climb up the slide and then slide back down on her tummy. It's a really steep slide too...she fears nothing!














Don't you just love Alec's hair in this photo!