Oh What a Day!

Ok, today has been the most comical day full of irony and mishaps and it's only 12:45pm! I just have to write it down so I don't forget it.
It all started last night when we put Ava to bed. Today was pajama day at school, so I thought, "how great! What a time saver for the morning because Ava will already be dressed when she wakes up!" I did hesitate though for a moment because normally she can be a bit messy eating breakfast, and I didn't want her to get her pj's dirty in the morning. BUT I decided to take the easy way out and put her to bed in her new pj's that she would wear to school the next day (todaY).
WELL, at 5:30 this morning, I hear Ava and Bobby in our bathroom with the bath tub water running. Before I even crawled out of bed (clearly, I was zonked out considering I didn't hear anything until they made it to the bath!), I thought, "oh noo...." Sure enough, Ava had an accident last night- of course it was her first one in like 3 months- and so her pj's and sheets needed to be changed. I would like to say that it was Ava who was so upset about her wet pj's, but really it was me! She looked soo cute in them and they were so warm and cozy, so I decided to run downstairs and throw them in the wash before school. The other ironic part of this story is that up until the LAST time I changed the sheets, I always put a towel down under she sheets just in case of an accident so it won't soak through to the mattress (I really need to get one of those plastic sheets). But since she had not had an accident in so long, I decided not to put a towel down when I changed her sheets last week, and OF COURSE, that backfired!
So we finally make it back to bed...well sorta. By that time, we all were pretty much awake. Despite being up so early, the kids and I somehow managed to be late taking Ava to school, which means I have to unload everyone and check her in at the office AND walk her to her classroom. Now normally I am still in my pj's with slippers on when I take Ava to school bc the school is so close. Well THANK GOODNESS I got dressed today! All I kept thinking when I was checking Ava in was, "Thank you Jesus that I put my tennis shoes on today!!" LOL
After we take Ava to school, Lucas and I drive to Bobby's office to say hello. On our way there, I pick up my phone to call my friend Deb from work because she is letting me borrow a sweater for our Ugly sweater Christmas party tomorrow night! Bummed, I realize that I cannot find her number under my recent calls. I tried asking a friend from work, but she didn't have her number. So then I ended up calling the hospital and asking my charge nurse for her number, which I hated having to do because I know they are soo busy in the mornings. As I dialed her number, it popped in my phone as a saved number. UGH! I had it the whole time!!
Now that we are home, I am stricken with a case of LOST things...yesterday I made an ornament for my mom for Christmas, and I think someone in our house who is under 3 ft tall, took it and hid it somewhere! He recently has a love for putting things in our trash can, so I have a feeling it's in our dumpster outside right now since I just took the trash out....And there is NO WAY I am digging for it in there!! This culprit of mine also LOVES our tv remote, so much so that we have taken the batteries out of one of our remotes as a "decoy" with buttons that he thinks is real! hahaha. That being said, I accidentally left the real remote within his reach earlier this morning, and now it is GONE. Nowhere to be found (probably also in the trash...). This is a bummer because I was excited to watch 19 Kids and counting while the kids napped, and I caught up on laundry! But since it's the Comcast remote that is missing, I can't access our DVR :( so Sad!!
Let's see...I think there was something else funny that happened, but I think that's all my brain can remember at one time! Hahaha. So glad that Bobby and I are going out on a date tonight! I need a brain refresher!
Well before I go, I will share something precious that Ava has been doing lately. Every morning when she wakes up, she runs downstairs and pulls up a chair to get closer to our nativity set. She says good morning to all the wise men and animals and spends a few minutes talking to Mary, with such things like, "Mary, I need to pray for more snow. Do you ask Santa for more snow?" And then she always asks me where baby Jesus is. I remind her that baby Jesus is still in Mary's tummy and that he will be born on Christmas day. She gets really excited because she will say, "MOM! Mary has a baby peanut just like you?!?!" Ohh, how I love my Ava!
Merry Christmas!

The Annual Dave Ramsey Christmas Party- Such a FUN night!!

Our best friends Branden and Lauri O'Neil

The First snow of the year! Our house looks so pretty at night- Bobby did a great job on our lights!

Our Christmas Angels :)

Making cookies with our favorite buddy Steph at the Breakfast with Santa at our church


The Annual downtown Franklin Christmas parade. The kids LOVED it and so did I!!

Breakfast with Santa!

This past Saturday, we took the kids to our church for Breakfast with Santa. They both loved it! I thought for sure Lucas was NOT going to be a fan of the big bearded stranger all dressed in red, but he didn't care at all! There was a photographer present who I am so grateful for because she captured some cute pics of our kiddos.

Click here to view these pictures larger

FALL-ing in LOVE!!!!

As I am sure most of you do, we LOVE fall! I couldn't be happier while playing outside with Ava and Lucas in the evenings when Bobby gets home from work, going to lots of fall festivals, inviting friends over for campfires in our backyard, leaving our windows open as much as possible, and of course taking lots of pictures to remember it all by!
This fall weather has also been a wonderful remedy to the early weeks of my pregnancy. Fresh air and sunshine make me feel soo good!
Lucas is now 16mos old and Ava is 3 going on 16....
A few things about Lucas are that he LOVES (and I mean, LOVES) balls- he actually is impressing us in his ability to dribble a soccer ball around in our backyard. It's crazy. LOL, as I type this, Lucas just came up to me carrying a football, saying (in his most deep boy voice possible) "Ball, ball, ball!" He also loves remote controls and of course cell phones. We finally just took the batteries out of one of our remotes so he could play with it without changing the channel!
Ava is a doll, the most loving, challenging, maternal spit fire!~ hahaha. She really enjoys going to her new preschool where she is a peer model. She is mixed in a classroom with children with special needs, and she serves as a typically developing 3 yr old to demonstrate 3yr old behaviors. There are 8 children in her classroom- 4 peer models and 4 with special needs- most of which are mild autism. Bobby and I are honored that she gets to be a part of this program and interact with kids that she wouldn't normally get to interact with. They are her friends, and we love that.










This is the new game Bobby has created with the kids....they throw a ball up the stairs and then giggle hysterically while they watch it bounce all the way back down...it's the little things! :)

New Beginnings!

Well, as most of my posts start out....where do I begin?? The month of September has been so amazing for our family! The first week of September was spent moving into our new home. We love it. Everyday I wake up amazed that God allowed us to find this house that we now call our home. As is our style, we have already had 1 party, 2 cookouts, a garage sale, and lots of visitors! Finally a home to share with our friends and family. God is good.
And well, of course, it didn't take us long to find something to do with all the extra space...we found out last week that we are expecting baby #3!!!! A surprise? Maybe. A moment of great joy? No doubt!! So Bobby and I have decided that God is amazingly good at math because so far, all our babies are going to be exactly 23 months apart. I am due at the end of May, Lucas turns 2 in June, Ava turns 4 in July. Sounds pretty great to me!
Here are a few pics of September so far:

http://www.pbs.org/parents/craftapparent/

I am feeling a little crafty lately, so I am using my blog as a place to remember all the fun crafts I want to try one day!


http://www.pbs.org/parents/craftapparent/


http://sistersstuff.blogspot.com/2009/10/diaper-wipe-case-tutorialand-some-of.html

Birthday Blessings

What a wonderful birthday I had this year! I never intended to blog about my birthday, but after so many blessings came my way, I just had to share. First of all, I love Bobby so much. Not only did he give me the most romantic, heart felt, tender birthday card, but he put a tremendous amount of love into making me a birthday cake! I think he was trying to surprise me because on Monday night (the night before my bday), he needed to go to the grocery store, but wouldn't tell me what he needed to buy. I guess what he didn't expect was for Ava to leak the surprise, because after he left, she said, "Ohh Mommy, me and Daddy are making you a cake tonight!" Hahaha. Gotta love it.
When he got back from the store, I left to go meet my group of girlfriends in downtown Franklin. So wow, where do I begin about how grateful I am for the amazing friends we have made here in Franklin. It's a group of about 10 of us and each month, we all get together for a girls' night to celebrate whoever has a bday in that particular month. I was the only August birthday, so of course I picked to go to Sweet CeCe's for frozen yogurt! Another special tradition we have started is a "Spiritual bouquet" (I included a picture below). How it works is one of the girls volunteers to arrange a bouquet of flowers and then she emails everyone (except the birthday girl) asking for them to reply back with a prayer/special sacrifice/note about what they love about that person. Each response is printed up on a small piece of paper and then they are attached to each stem of the flowers. So on Monday night, I received a beautiful spiritual bouquet filled with love from my girlfriends! It was so special to me and I will treasure it forever (well, the notes at least...the flowers won't last that long!!)
Prior to going out that night, I had worked out at the gym and while exercising, I felt inspired by this idea to write each of my girlfriends a personal note expressing my gratefulness for their friendship and example in my life, and to give it to them that night at the party. These women inspire me so much in our vocations as wives and mothers. Each note was a little different, but here is what most of them said,
For my birthday this year, I have spent alot of time reflecting on the many blessings God has given me in my life. Something I find myself saying over and over again is how grateful I am for our amazing group of Catholic women that we have here in Franklin. I could never ask for a better group of friends to encourage and inspire me in our vocations as wives and mothers.
When Victoria died so soon after we moved here, I just couldn't understand why God had pulled me away from my family. But in all His loving wisdom, He knew I would be lifted up and immensely loved by our friends-our FAMILY- here. Please know that I will be praying for you and thanking God for our friendship on my birthday this year!



On Tuesday, my actual birthday, Bobby made us all breakfast (YUMMY), and then the kids and I went to Mass at St.Philip. It was so nice to start our day in prayer. After Mass, our dear friend Laura took Ava, Lucas, and I to Starbucks for a delicious coffee and a few pastries (Thank you Laura!!). For Lunch, we took sandwiches to the office and had lunch with Bobby. Taking the kids to the office to eat lunch with Bobby is one of my favorite things to do. It makes me feel so happy to see him instead of having to wait a full 8 hours! And finally that night for dinner, we went to Chuy's with our great friends the Kerseys. It was DELICIOUS and FREE (thanks to my girlfriends who gave me a gift certificate the night before! AND to our sweet sitter who graciously volunteered to babysit for free when she realized it was my birthday! You rock!!)





(Can you tell we are getting ready to move??? Boxes are stacked EVERYWHERE!! Our poor kitchen table is also the desk,office, puzzle table, and catch all!)
Overall, this year was one of my most memorable birthdays to date. Why? LOVE and GRATITUDE. It was a day filled with love as is every day, but God especially placed on my heart a spirit of gratefulness for the many blessings He has given me in my family and my friends.

Birthday Party Luau!

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Ava and Lucas' birthdays with a big luau party at our pool. We had a blast! Gotta love the Dollar Tree because ALL our decorations came from there! MY favorite was the fruit bouquet that I made after my friend Lindsey inspired me! I also felt very Martha Stewart-ish when many a nap time was spent handpainting sand buckets for all the kids for their take home gifts! 22 in all! We are blessed by wonderful friends. Our friendships here in Franklin is definitely at the top of my list why I love living here!