Dressing herself. And moving furniture, too.

This girl of ours... I shake my head and laugh at her a zillion times a day. (The other zillion times a day that I'm shaking my head it isn't followed with a laugh...) She is so full of energy and soooo full of opinions. In these two pictures you get a glimpse of two incidents in a morning full of Ava expressing her opinion. First, she had to let me know that she was adamently opposed to wearing shorts. Or a skirt. Or pants. Just "melmo swimsuit" over her diaper. "Melmo swimsuit" is actually her Elmo underwear. Does she realize that they are underwear? No. Because she's 2 1/2 and not yet potty trained. She just loves Elmo and sees no reason why he needs to be covered up by shorts. And she has no problem wearing him right over her diaper, defeating the purpose of underwear.

The second thing was she had to haul four of her chairs up from the basement. I could hear her grunt her way up the stairs carrying them one at a time through the house and into the living room. After chair number 4 was in place, she came to me and tugged on my hand until I'd go with her downstairs. She needed some help moving the table. :) I obliged her, how could I resist? She grabbed a bathtowel and spread it over the table herself to finish the job.

Double stroller?

We do have a double stroller. This is not it. But Michaela likes being in the front so she can see and apparently Ava likes the basket underneath. You don't think I'd get any odd looks pushing them around this way, do you? It sure is smaller and easier to get around than our double stroller... Might have to try it. ;)

My early morning scare

No, it was not seeing my daughter covered in black eye makeup that gave me a fright. I couldn't find her! I thought that she was asleep in her bed upstairs. First thing in the morning she usually comes and climbs in bed with me. Somedays she does go downstairs first but I hear the door slam at the bottom of the stairs if that happens. I guess I didn't hear it today. It was 8:15 and I thought it was odd that she was still sleeping so I went to check on her. Not in her bed. Not in the guest bed. Not in my room. Panicking a little, I ran downstairs. Not in the living room. Or Kitchen. Not in Grandma's room. Bathroom? With my heart in my throat now I ran and opened the bathroom door. "Hi Mom!" There is my girl. Safe. And sound? Uh, sort of. She had all of grandma's makeup out and on the floor. Foundation lid off and foundation on her forehead cheeks. Mascara on her eyelashes and cheeks. What a mess!!

Our First Family Vacation

In June we took our first family vacation. We went out to the Black Hills for my cousin Lindsay's wedding and camped at Sylvan Lake Campground near Custer, SD. Sorry that I'm so late in posting these but better late than never, right? :) Here's Michaela and her daddy by Sylvan Lake.

We passed a buffalo while driving through Custer State Park. It was so close we could have reached out and touched the gigantic beast! We settled for just smelling it. Phewee!!


We had a party on Friday night out at the cabin, sort of a pre-wedding bash for all
the guests. Malory, Ethan, & Ava hiked up to check out the waterfall on Uncle Danny's land. The last picture here is us on the side of the road. A picture taken to commemorate our first family vacation. We pulled our little camper out with our Subaru and had a great trip!

Naptime Fun A.K.A. Ava Destroys the Nursery

Time for a nap so up to the nursery we go. Sit down on the bed with mommy, baby, and Ava and read a few stories. The stories are done and its time to settle down. Night night, Ava Reese! 10 minutes later, what's that thumping noise? Up the stairs to check on Ava and find her bouncing on her bed. Settle down, Ava. It's time for your nap. 20 minutes later, what's that noise? She's still not sleeping?? Up the stairs to find our toddler dismantling picture frames in her room. Out go the picture frames (apparently she's opposed to home decor, we're still missing a very large section of wallpaper from a previous nap in that room...). Go to sleep, Ava. 10 minutes later and she's still thumping around in there. I decide it's time to give up on the nap and get her out before she destroys the room entirely. Up the stairs I go and open the door. I'm too late. The room is demolished. Everything that was on the dresser and bookcases is now on the floor. Everything, that is, except for the toddler. She's sitting naked on top of the bookcase. I don't have a picture to prove it but you all know this girl, I'm sure you can envision the scene yourself.