A Breath of Fresh Air!

We took a little vacation to visit Eriik's side of the family in NM and CO at the end of July.  It was so refreshing to leave the oppressive TX heat!  It was well worth the long drive in a mini van with three small children!  We went to Nanny and Poppy's time share in Pagosa Springs, CO which is just a couple hours from their house.  We had been their two other times, once when Alec was 6 months old, and a couple years ago in January to ski.  This time we ventured out on a couple of hikes that lead us to beautiful waterfalls and scenery.  The best part was that with all this hiking we never broke a sweat...I  never even noticed any heat...it got down into the 50's one day, and the highs were in the low 80's!  Loved it...Addy didn't sleep that great a few of the nights, but other than that it was an all around great trip.  It was so good to relax and hang out with fam, playing bad mitten, hoarse shoes, ladder golf, swimming, hiking.  We also spent a couple days at his parents house in NM and they have a pool which the kids loved.  Alec surprised us all by walking up to the diving board turning around and doing a perfect backwards dive...and then he did it over and over again!  He said he just wanted to give it a try :)

 We took Addy in for her 6th month well check right before the trip and she was 93rd% in height, 74th in weight!

 Checkin out her GG Pa

 Playin a little ladder golf

 We got to celebrate Poppy's 60th Birthday party!

 This was taken in the back yard of the condo we stayed in.

  Back at Nanny and Poppy's...the classic family picture :)

A Jefferson 4th of July!

We decided to spend the 4th of July in Jefferson this year along with some friends from church.  I was a little hesitant at first because I was afraid it would be too hot and that we wouldn't be able to stay out late for the fireworks because of Addy, but I am glad we went.  The weather ended up being great...it was cloudy, but never rained and Addison ended up taking a little nap and then stayed up through the fireworks which were at 9:45 PM!  It was a really quaint, old fashioned, hometown celebration, including a decorated bike parade, pie auction, face painting, bands playing...it was nice.  We checked out some of the shops like the old general store and ate ice cream cones from there.  The fireworks were great and really loud...which Addison didn't appreciate so much.  At first she just blinked her eyes with every loud bang and then she started bawling.  I held one ear to my chest and covered the other and she came very close to falling asleep.  Alec and Ava seemed to love it all.  Alec participated in the bike decorating parade which was fun.  I think we might do it again!  I just realized there is not one "smiling picture" of Addison in this post!  Oh well...see the post below this one for some smiles :)

Please excuce the rediculously huge bow on Addison's head...I was just making her more patriotic :)

:)

Addison and Susanna!

Our friends the Webbs

Eriik with Addison when the fireworks first started...before the tears

Swim Lessons and smiles!

June was a busy month, we had Ava's birthday party, mom visiting VBS, saying goodbye to our dear friends the Vances :(  who are now ministering in Brazil.  Alec and Ava had swim lessons the last two weeks of June and they did great!  I had them take four days of lesson with Carla at the beginning of the month also since she moves real fast and is good at getting kids comfortable.  Last year Ava could barely hold her head above the water in the shallow end of the pool so she only got as far as blowing bubbles and putting her head under water.  This year she is a little fish swimming and floating with no fear...although she still stands on her tippy toes in the shallow end!  She told us the first week that there was WAY too much water in the pool at swim lessons and that they are going to have to take some out!  But she got over that real quick and got on with swimming.  Carla got the kids jumping in the deep end and swimming and Phyllis fine tuned everything and taught them lots of different strokes, diving and safety skills.     

I also wanted to put in some pics of Addison at five months (Im a little behind on blogging and trying to catch up...she's actually 6 months now!)  At five months she started army crawling and is not content with staying in one place for very long...she's always after something.  She started eating rice cereal when she had just turned 5 months...which she hated at first, but with a little applesauce or bannana mixed in she's ok with it.  She is a sweet little thing, a little more serious and contemplative than Ava was for sure.  She loves to be snuggled, but is very active and is always kicking her little feet with excitement.  We figured out that she definatly has her Daddy's eyes (but blue like mine)...when she gets her brows furrowed with the look of concern...she looks JUST like him!

 Addison age 5 months!

The kids wanted her to play with them in Alec's tent...she looks slightly afraid!

Always chewing on something....trying to get those teeth.

Ava and Kate took lessons together this year.

 This one cracked me up because I was trying to get Ava to look at me for the pic and Kate reached over and pulled her face up while still smiling at the camera.

 This was during the safety part of swim lessons.

 Holding hands while swimming doesn't work so well!

This is how I often find Ava...hair a mess, with a crown and wearing a princess dress.  She loves her doll house she got this past Christmas!  Notice the Star Wars legos in the doll house...Alec and Ava like to play with them in the doll house.

Ava's four!!!

Ava turned four on Wednesday June 1st and we had her birthday party that very day.  We had just bought a small above ground pool, so we decided to have a pool party.  She has been facinated with Mermaids lately so I thought The Little Mermaid and swimming was a good combo.  We invited 9 of her little friends from preschool and church.  I am so thrilled that my mom was able to come from MO and be with us for Ava's birthday.  Everyone seemed to have a great time!

Ava is still our little spunky, funny one, but I have noticed an extra sweetness in her lately. She is such a good big sister to Addison.  She is ALL OVER her all the time, but I keep reminding myself that that is just the way she shows love.  She is very affectionate and lovable. She says the most hilarious things all the time, and I seriously need to start writing them down!    She is still really into dress up and I always am finding her with different crowns, dresses, and TuTu's on.  She is taking gymnastics (she calls it "binastics") and desperatly wants to take ballet...so we might switch to that in the fall.  She is very imaginative and makes up songs, singing them all the time around the house.  She isn't one to just go along with what everyone else is doing, but like to think of her OWN way to do it.  She adds the Ava pazazz!  She is such a little ray of sunshine in our family and we all love her very much. 

Ava loves striking poses.

Graduations, Ceremonies, and Accomplishments

Well, the end of May had A LOT going on! Alec graduated from Kindergarten and had his little performance which was really cute. I have to say that I was a little surprised by how emotional I felt during his graduation. It's silly, but I was thinking "wow...he will never be a Kindergartner again...he's going to be a first grader and that just seems too old for my baby boy" Anyway...he had a great year, and he loved his teacher Mrs. Ferrell. she was great!

Alec also tested and passed his green belt testing in Tae Kwon Do. He has been in it since he was only three years old! He started with his little preschool buddies and they are all in it together still! Now when I see the little white belt kids it's so hard for me to believe that that was how little Alec was when he started. A week after these pics were taken with his instructor Mr. Hitt he pulled out his second upper front tooth while at Tae Kwon Do. The assistant instrucor Mr. Lee said that he would pay Alec a dollar if he would pull it out (since it was dangling) so Alec immediatly did. So now he has quite the Jack O Lantern smile.

Alec and Ava both had their Awana ceremony. They really enjoy going to Awana every Sunday during the school year. Eriik and I have our small group over to the house while they are at Awana which works out great. Alec is so fast at memorizing his verses, but most importantly is that the verses began to sink into his heart and he asked the Lord to come into his life and forgive him of his sins in May! He had been asking lots of questions and he had said the prayer before, but it wasn't till now that it really sunk in for him. He was praying before bed with Eriik, and he just said the prayer on his own. Very exciting!

We also had the opportunity to dedicate Addison to the Lord at church while my mom was visiting from Missouri! Kelly and Sydney were able to come for the weekend to celebrate Memorial Day and Addison's dedication too! We pray that she will grow to know and serve the Lord and love Him with all her heart. We pray that she will love God and love people...that simple.

Here are some pics.

Alec and Mrs. Ferrell

Ava was just a little excited about her Cubbies award :)

Alec up to bat!

Check out that cute little Sand Gnat!

I just had to throw this in because it's my favorite pic of all three of them. It was taken when Addy was about four months old.

Alec and Mr. Hitt after his belt testing....he's now a green belt...the pics of the belt ceremony are still on my Iphone.

Mr. Hitt always gets him laughing

Addison's dedication