Ava's Suggestion...

Ava's in the market for a baby. If any of you have one she could borrow for a while, please let me know! Yesterday we're sitting in church waiting for Sacrament Meeting to start and she comes at me with this awesome suggestion...

"Mom, when we get another baby we should name it Ube (youb)"

Hmmmm. Okay.... we'll keep that in mind.

Elsa's Amazing Transformation

Elsa was just sent to the naughty seat for not listening to her mom. I wasn't watching her while she was "sitting" there and I called her over to me when her time was up. I didn't notice until I was taking her to the potty, the amazing transformation that had taken place on the naughty seat....
Ava looked over and said, "She looks like George!" after Curious George, the monkey. She looked more like a duck to me. What do you think? Either way, I was busting up laughing!

No Smoking Please

Today we were in the car driving to dance and I hear this sudden gasp from the back seat. Ava cries out, "Mom, that girl is smoking in her car! That is so unhealthy for our world and it makes our lives so dirty!"

That's my girl! One of my top pet peeves is second hand smoke! It was definitely one of the hardest things to deal with in NYC!

In the meantime, Ava is adding a little dirty to her own world with a cinna-stache. After a nice healthy helping of cinnamon toast, this is what she walks away with....

Elsa Walks a Mile in My Shoes, While Ava Hits the Naughty Seat

WARNING: YOU"RE PROBABLY GOING TO HAVE TO ENLARGE THESE PICTURES TO APPRECIATE THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION. IMAGES BELOW MAY BE TOO GRAPHIC FOR SOME MOMS!

Today when I went to get Ava up from her nap, this is what I found.......

This is not a piece of paper... these are Ava's bed sheets...
Leggings soaking in Spray'n Wash

The culprit? A Hello Kitty pen masquerading as nail polish......

It's a pretty awesome pen, and I'm sure it's really great to write with. My only request is that it only writes on paper! The thing that stinks the most about this incident is that the leggings were new and I just washed her bedding YESTERDAY! Ava got a long lecture and served 4 minutes on the naughty seat, after which she was sent straight to the bath. (Yah, like that's a punishment... she loves the bath! In fact she's in there singing right now.)

Meanwhile, Elsa wanders over to me and says, "Mom, I didn't do any naughty sings (things)!" Maybe it did help for her to tromp around in my Uggs for a while yesterday!

Ballerina Ava

My sweet little Ava girl went to her first ballet class yesterday. She wore her blue leotard that she picked out herself and "ballerina hair" or a bun. She was so excited to go! Of course Elsa had to get dressed up for the occasion too. The best part about it is that Ava wants her to be a part of the whole experience. She wanted to have Elsa wear a bun, but Elsa was terrified of the bobby pins, so she settled for a ponytail. The teacher, Miss Vanessa, takes it pretty seriously and Ava really likes her. Ava learned 1st position, 2nd position, plie, tendu, passe, echappe, sache. The girls were both so excited to see Daddy walk in to watch the class! It was fun for Jared to see where all his hard-earned money is going and Ava loved having him there watching her. After class I told her that she did a great job. She said to me, "Mom, did you watch me do a great job?!" I think we're in for a good experience!

Crymary and Nursery

Ava was so excited to start going to "Crymary" this year! To the rest of the children, it's Primary... On Valentines Day, February 14th, Ava gave the scripture in Crymary. She memorized John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, might not perish but have everlasting life."

I was a little worried that she might not do it once she got up in front of the crowd, but she was so excited about the mocrophone that she stood right up there and said her scripture perfectly. Way to go Ava!!!

Here is Baby Elsa, on her way to Nursery all alone. She has had Ava in there with her from day one. She started off okay, but has since decided that Nursery is not for her. She has already helped me teach one Reliefe Society lesson. I'm kind of hoping it was the first and last time, but it's not looking good. If we even say the word "Nursery" she starts to cry!

Ava's 4 Year Old Photo Shoot

This year I decided that I would do Ava's portrait myself, since my favorite photographer is moving and booked solid. I feel like every time I have taken her to Target portrait studio I always want to tell the photographer, "Take it now! Now!" because I know the facial expressions that I love! So, I figured, I have access to the beach, a great setting, and I can take 2000 pictures if I have to in order to get a good one. So, I gave it my best effort. Luckily, Ava is pretty adorable, so I came away with more than one great pic. Here are some of my favorites...I love this one because Ava chose the pose herself.

Updates Once a Year...

I love that my last post is my girls in their Easter dresses last year. I love that I couldn't even remember what my last post was! We had a great Easter this year! The girls were so excited about it that every day for a month they woke up and asked, "What day is it? Is it Easter day?" A quick summary of our weekend...

Friday night: Daddy/Daughter and Mommy/Daughter Dates

Jared took Elsa shopping for Easter candy while I took Ava to get a leotard for her first dance class on Monday. We went to Target while they went to Ralphs. I got a call from Elsa going bananas that she was shopping for Easter Candy with Dad. She was yelling about all the different kinds of candy she was finding and truly could not have been more excited! In the mean time, Ava picked a new blue leotard for herself and scored a bag of mini-Oreos for dinner. The Oreos were definitely the highlight of her night. We met back at home to find that Jared and Elsa had spent a mere $30 on candy and picked up a sweet claymation movie about the Easter bunny! That will go down in history as Elsa's favorite Daddy/Daughter Date! Who says you can't buy love???

Saturday: Baseball/Priesthood/Boys!

We drove down to Anaheim to meet up with my brother-in-law, 3 of my nephews and their cousin. My nephew Nick is playing in a baseball tournement. The classic quote from that trip was from Ava. Jameson was teasing her with her water bottle saying, "Im gonna get you wet!" Ava's reply... "Why?" Clearly not used to the teasing of a brother... Then the boys came up our way, went for a tour of Beverly Hills and Bel Aire then took off to Priesthood session. The girls and I colored 2 dozen eggs. This took all of 5 minutes. They were pretty quick about it. My favorite was that Elsa dyed all of hers green, her favorite color. She had a huge pile of green eggs of varying shades and intensity.

Then I got the girls ready to go play with Jackson while the adults...sort of... went out to dinner. Elsa gave me her new act about how she was too sick to go over and that she was going to miss me so much! She always says, "I'm going to cwy and cwy!" She did start our cwying, but she got over it and had a great time. The boys and I all went over to Santa Monica where we rode the ferris wheel and the roller coaster... the slowest and funniest roller coaster in the world! Then we watched a creepy acrobatic group on the Promenade and ate at Johnny Rockets.

Sunday: EASTER!

After tucking the girls in bed a midnight, we set up the Easter egg hunt. We figured the girls would've been tired enough to give us til 7:00 or 7:30. 6:30am we hear a pitter patter and rustling sounds. Jared yells out, "Elsa! Get back in bed!" Sure Dad, she'll just leave all the candy and hop back into bed! The Easter Egg "hunt" was hilarious! It was more of a gather than a hunt. Here's the outcome...

Ava gathered all the eggs, while Elsa gathered all the candy...$30 worth!

The Girls got Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in their baskets. After watching the movies Ava was pretending to be Woody and Elsa has been following her around calling her Poody or Pudy. It is the funniest thing to hear he say that!

Then Todd and the boys came up and had brunch and watched Conference with us.

At 4:00 we got together with a bunch of our friends for an Easter dinner and egg hunt. We have such awesome friends and neighbors! The kids love having one more chance to look for more eggs.