Grandma's Birthday Weekend

Grandma and Grandpa Piraino (James' parents) came down for the weekend. Saturday was Grandma's 60th birthday and we hope we made it special!!! Ava and Sam loved seeing them so much and were sad when they left this morning!! We had such a great time.

Ava trying on Grandma's glasses - I think this is a good look!!

Sam is almost there - he mainly scoots, but he is definitely motivated to move around!!

Playtime with Grandpa!

Grandma's Birthday Dinner at the country club-

and cake afterwards!

Sam is checking out Grandpa.

Happy Birthday Ann and we can't wait for the next visit.

It all happened....

One year ago today!

My last day at school and Ava's last day with Aunt Erica. Erica was sad and I was overjoyed! After making the drive to Dardanelle and missing Ava so much every day, I was so thankful for that last day!! And now another year has gone by way too fast. I LOVE staying home with these kids every day, but I can honestly say that I had no idea how hard it was going to be and that every once in a while I would want to go to work for a break!!

That same day, the school gave me a baby shower. Look at that cute Sam belly!!

Update

I have done a terrible job lately with keeping up with my blog. I am sorry to all three of my followers!! We have stayed busy, but haven't done anything terribly exciting. We bought a condo in Hot Springs (which I guess you could say is exciting), but I have the daunting task of furnishing it. For some people that would be fun, but not for me. One of the things I wish in life is that I had an eye to decorate. I DON'T!!!! I can't see how things go together and so I get totally stressed out just thinking about it. James and I took the kids furniture shopping yesterday (not my best idea ever) and I had at least four meltdowns in the store not to mention the kids. Ava found a princess bed and I literally had to drag her out of the store yelling "AVA PRINCESS." Anyway, we found all of our furniture and so now we just need to go put it all together.

The first picture is of the front of our building and the second picture is the view from the balcony.

It really is nice, but our main purpose is renting the place out and making money, as James keeps reminding me!!! Yeah right! I will have more pictures to come.

The kids are wonderful. Sam has really been a handful lately and I think that just may be his personality. He is so darn LOUD!!! Ava does not want any attention drawn to her; I am afraid Sam may be just the opposite! He is not crawling yet, but he is so frustrated because he wants to move around. He gets on all fours and then dives for something face first into the ground!!

I tried all morning to get a picture of Sam's cute little bottom teeth and this is the best I could do. You can't see them very well, but take my word for it - they are too cute!

Sam will sit for a long time and play with this basketball outside!

Ava has been in princess mode for a little while now. I am afraid that she may be carrying it a little too far! I did buy Cinderella and we had a movie night this weekend - she was just mesmerized and thinks she is Cinderella now. She is definitely talking up a storm! What we hear the most:

Ava dood it (unless she doesn't want to - then it is Mommy dood it)

No Sam- that is Ava's

Good job Mommy - Ava is proud (any time I do anything like open the door for her - she says this)

This is not a great picture, but I thought she looked cute in this little outfit.

I hope everyone (all three of you) had a great Memorial Day Weekend!!

Princess for a Night

The local Chick-fil-A in Conway held its annual princess night this week. Ava was so looking forward to it and it didn't disappoint! They had a tea party, hair and makeup, crafts and carriage rides. The little girls also got to see all of the Disney princesses. Sam also enjoyed it. I strapped him to my chest and he had a great time talking (yelling) to all the little girls. Ava cried for a good 20 minutes when we left and the first thing she did this morning - put on her princess dress!!!


Princess Tea Party - Cinderella came in and read the girls a story. Ava could have cared less; she only cared about that cookie!!

Ava really liked getting the hair and makeup. Of course, I told them to go as neutral as possible, so you couldn't even tell she had makeup on, but she kept saying, "Ava beautiful." (which sounds like aahvah bootiful)

Princesses Blakely and Ava

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

We hope you have a great day and we hope to see you soon!!

Grandma, Ava and Grandpa - August 2007

Grandpa and Sam - September 2008

Swim Lessons

This is a little late, but Ava started swim lessons last week. She now has two lessons under her belt and it is AWFUL!!!! She has screamed through both lessons (and I mean screamed). It is all I can do to not jump in there and get her. It amazes me because she is so mild mannered and even if she doesn't like something she will hold herself together in front of other people. Not this time around!! This is my first experience with other parents looking at me like, "What is wrong with your kid?" Bless her little heart. The instructor even came to me after the lesson and asked if I would stay out in the waiting room!! And even though it is heartbreaking to watch - she is learning how to find the steps and the side of the pool (things I think she really needs to know with a pool in the backyard), so we are going to keep at it!!

Colorado Bound

We had a farewell dinner for my little brother, Jacob, on Tuesday night. He just graduated from U of A and and is moving to Boulder. My brothers are such a constant reminder to me of how fast my kids are going to grow up. It seems like I just graduated college and they were little. Even though I am sad that he is moving, I am so excited for all of the opportunities in front of him and I know both Erica and I feel blessed to have all of them in our lives!!

Jacob with all of his nieces and nephews

The 5 of us - Conner, me, Jacob, Erica and Jordan

Ava was so happy to see Haven!!

Jacob with my two - Ava is going through a serious stage right now. She will NOT smile for the camera!! It is driving me stinking crazy!!

Good luck Jacob - and we will be planning a trip to Boulder soon!!

Mother's Day Weekend

We spent the weekend at the lake in Hot Springs. It rained (of course), but we still spent some time outside and the kids really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the part of not having to cook!! As much as James works, quality time with just the four of us was the best gift I could have asked for!

Ava loved to look out the windows and watch birds - she could have done that for hours!!!

I think Mother's Day is one of the best days and I love being a mom, more than that I love being Ava and Sam's mom!!

Sneak Peek

I just wanted to share a couple pictures from our recent photo shoots. Sam had his 6 month pictures taken and then a week later we had Easter pictures taken. I am not sending these two to anyone so I wanted to share here.

Get Caught Reading

May is Get Caught Reading Month. As much as I love to read, I hope that James and I raise two readers as well. Ava is definitely well on her way. She would let me read books to her ALL day!! I wanted to share a few of her faves!!


I happen to think this is such a cute book, and as much as I read it I really don't get tired of it.

She LOVES these little Dora books. She has about 10 of them and we both could probably recite them by heart. She can even count in Spanish - we have read them so much.

We have to read this every night before bed - she really likes to look for the little mouse!!

This is the cutest little book with fun illustrations that Ava can relate to. One of the lines - Little brothers are shouty, pouty, messy and mad - she thinks is so funny. The book ends by saying - But most of all a little brother is your best friend - I love my little brother. She gives Sam a hug every time - very cute!!

Happy reading everyone!!

Ava

Ava is starting to do some funny things lately and I happened to catch some of them this week!! First of all, I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but she is becoming increasingly obsessed with everything princess. Grandma and Grandpa gave her some princess dress up for Christmas and until recently she was not that interested (other than to dress up Sam), but now every day she MUST wear the dress and shoes!! It is really funny because she walks around in those shoes like she owns the place!

Lately, after she lays down for a nap I hear her talking in her room. Yesterday I carefully peeked in and saw her reading her baby a story. She was very animated too - it was so cute. When I went in to her room to check on her later I guess she had fallen asleep reading the story. This just melts me!!

This baby's name is Baby Lady - I don't know where she came up with that. And all of her dolls must be naked - no clothes allowed!

She does not throw many fits, but they are good ones when she does. Now when she is really mad, she lays face down on the floor and yells "NIGHT NIGHT" - like that is really going to upset me. She will stay there too for a long time. I took this picture yesterday after she had been on the floor for about 4-5 minutes.

And finally, while Sam was taking his afternoon nap yesterday we went out to the yard and pulled the petals off of our petunias. Ava had a blast and I took some good pictures