Cookies!!!!

They are done, we ended up with 134, we are making 60 favors with two cookies each so we did good!

They are all bagged and I just have to add the little favor tag I made with Ava picture on it tomorrow.

Off to bed I am exhausted!

It Was One Of Those Days...

Why you ask?
*Matt is closing, which always makes for a long day by myself
*Ava is sick now too and getting 4 teeth, 2 of which are molars
*Logan decided to poop in his pants...just a little bit and then was stubborn enough about not wanting to go poop to sit on the potty for an hour before finally giving in and pooping. There was much crying and yelling...so annoyed right now, so not like him, but ever so often we have this problem not sure what the cause is, probably with all the changes with school, but who knows.
*I feel like I am going to get a cold, but I shall not let myself until Sunday
*The house is a mess and I have no motivation to clean it because the party isn't here so why bother...
*My contact still didn't come, I have no contacts at all right now and my glasses have been missing since the week I came home from the hospital after having Ava...yea I know I should just go get another pair. The eye strain is driving me nuts

On the bright side, Matt's library finally got Dexter in so once he gets home we get to start on season 4, love me some Dexter and wine tonight :<)

Arrgg!

After much hemming and hawing over Ava's Halloween costume, I finally settled on a way cute pirate princess costume I found on-line at Walmart. Of course when I went to buy it, it was out of stock already and everywhere else on-line I found it, it was $20+ and only $14 at Walmart. Luckily the website said both of the Walmarts by me had it, what it didn't say is they didn't have the infant sized only toddler. So I ran to Walmart tonight and quickly realized there were no 18-24 months in the stores, took out a 2T and decided it looked pretty darn tiny and the hat would barely fit my big headed kid, so I bought it figuring costumes seem to always run small, and if we had to we could hem up the skirt part. And guess what? Yep the 2T pretty much fits perfect. It's a little big in the neck but that's it, arms fit great and the hat *just* fits.

Here is a Halloween pre-view of our Lil' Pirate

Laying Low

We stayed home from gymnastics today, although Logan was not happy about it, but he needs to get better and gymnastics is not going to help that, plus I want him to go to school tomorrow, no fever so far and the cough doesn't seem to be getting as bad, so hopefully it will be quick one.

Ran out to do the balloon order at the party store after dinner and get the favors for the kids. My awesome hubby recorded House for me and now I am jumping into my pjs and watching house and hoping I don't get sick, I can feel it, but I refuse to let it get me...

Just Wonderful...

Logan is freaking sick again! Same thing as last time, runny nose and cough uggg!!! No fever yet let's hope it stays that way. He was only healthy for like a week, I hope this is just him being exposed to kids more now that he is in school 3 days a week plus gymnastics. I hope we stay relatively healthy this time, with the birthday party this weekend it couldn't happen at a worse time. Hopefully it won't be as bad since he just had it a few weeks ago and hopefully my Dad won't re catch it, he is still on breathing treatments from pneumonia. I love fall, but cold and flu season is really stressful for me between the kids and my dad and I am not looking forward to it one bit.

My Little Mommy

Ava is such a little Mommy, since day one she has always been so lovey and nurturing to her dolls and us of course! She helps my clean and she loves carrying around keys and purses. I find it pretty wild the way boys and girls on hard wired differently (not that Ava doesn't love playing with Logan's cars and trains). It is so cool having one of each and seeing first hand all that wonderful stuff I learned in my psychology classes about childhood development...new I would do something with my psychology degree....





Yep she's all girl!

Running Around!

Spent a good portion of the day in the car, taking and dropping off Logan from MDO and then once Matt got home I power shopped for all the food for Ava's party next weekend, at various stores and I am exhausted now. I got pretty much everything, other than the things I have to wait until next weekend for (veggie trays, etc.). Tomorrow I have to head back out and shop for us we are way low on the food front and then I have a bunch of running around to do for little stuff for the party, favors and all that stuff. We are going to start on Wednesday with making the cookie dough, that has to chill overnight and then on Thursday God willing we are going to get all the adult favor's done (#1 cookies with pink frosting in clear bags with a favor tag attached), I did the same thing for Logan's 1st birthday, but I had the baker make the cookies and I just bagged them, but Matt insisted we could do it and it would be cheaper, so he is in charge of those for the most part LOL!

Friday my Mom is coming over for cake construction and of course there is all the dips and snacky stuff we have to prepare...so glad big first birthday bashes only happen once per kid haha!

and of course then we have a week off and then it's Logan Mario party...

Ava's 1st Pony Tail...

Well pretty much...


LOL!

Early Birthday Celebration!

As I mentioned before my grandparents are up from Arkansas to attend my great aunts funeral. So we went over to my moms today (Matt was off today which was nice) and we got see them and Logan and Ava got to see their great-grandparents. Since they won't be able to make it up again for Ava's party, they brought her birthday presents with and Ava got to have an early birthday celebration with her great-grandparents. I know they loved being able to see her open her gifts and see her excitement. We had a nice dinner and visit with them, wish we saw them more often, hopefully they will be back up this summer, but I think we are going to take a trip down there in the spring (as long as Ava doesn't continue her car seat protest once we flip her seat...finger crossed!)

Here are some pictures from out visit!

Hmmm...

Logan did not want to go to school today, very unusual for him as he usually is the one running into the classroom without a glance at me. I think it might have something to do with him finding a new love for Matt's Lego Batman Wii game, but I am not sure. It's the third week of preschool and now I have the crying child being taken from my arms.

I stayed in the hall out of sight for a bit and he stopped crying pretty fast, I would have went and looked in the two way mirror on the door, but the other side was still opened with kids being dropped off and I didn't want him to see me, so I just left.

Of course mommy brain goes right to thinking something bad happened to him while at preschool and he doesn't want to go back, I was so anxious to pick him up today.

And of course when I got there they were lining up to go play outside at the playground, Logan saw me and the first words out of this mouth where, "Mommy I had fun today!" and then he walked with his class out to the playground where I picked him up after letting him play some. On the way home he told me all the fun stuff he did, he had music class today, had goldfish and apple juice for snack and then played in the bike room, read Rainbow Fish and made a rainbow fish and he had a special surprise for me which was a pretty red heart he colored for me.

Yep Lego Batman playing before school, probably not a good idea....note to self.

We Have A New Word!

Ava said her first non-mama, dada, baba, uh-oh, word today and it was...DOG!

We were at the gym for Logan's gymnastics class and then have a dog that is always in the office (the gym owners I believe) and Ava was walking around while Logan was in class and she saw the dog, pointed to him and said DOG!

It was so cute, I kinda thought she was starting to say it last time she was saw my grandma's dog, but this time it was clear as day.

She is also starting to say duck, so different this time with Logan being speech delayed it's so wild for her to have all these words already not even a year old! I know old hat for many, but new and exciting for us!

It's That Time...

that glorious time when we start weaning off of formula!!! We now have whole milk back in the house and have started weaning out the formula. Ava took one bottle today of all cow's milk and it didn't even phase here (that girl will eat or drink anything) which I didn't think it would, our kids are not picky. So we will drop a formula bottle a day until we are done. I am still pumping but am also weaning that as well. I am not only pumping every other night so she gets what ever I pump dumped into her milk/formula (usually a couple of ounces) so by her birthday I should be able to stop cold turkey and not be too engorged. I am so proud to have made it this far, it's been hard since she gave up nursing and I switched to pumping only, and I think the breast pump is the only baby gear item that I won't be all sad to pack away, I am very ready to be done!

Lazy Saturday

Not much going on here today, Matt was at work all day and it was cruddy out so we just stayed in and played, today. I got some party planning done and some cleaning done so the day wasn't a complete waste. Hubby and I are going to go watch some more Breaking Bad (we started watching it when it first came out and then the writer's strike hit and we lost track of it, so we are watching the DVD's now to get back into it) and popcorn is done so I must go!

Me Time!

Had a lovely evening at the mall with my sister and mom tonight. Had the best burger at Red Robin (the one they are advertising right now with the spinach artichoke dip on it...yummo!) and we got to shop around a bit, I had to pick up a birthday present at the gamers store for DH's nephew who's party we were suppose to go to tomorrow, but we were just informed that they have all had the flu the past two weeks and SIL is still not feeling well so we are not going, to risky with the little kids and my Dad is still dealing with pneumonia from our last round of colds. So now we have a free day tomorrow, Matt has to work all weekend so I am sure we won't be doing anything great.

In other news, my grandparents who live in Arkansas are coming up, my Grandpa's sister passed away yesterday very unexpectedly, so they are coming up for the funeral. Looking forward to seeing them, although I now this now means they won't make it up for Ava's birthday party, but this is just as good, only off by a couple of weeks...and yes I am still in denial on that one.

It's-A-Me!

Mario!

Yes Logan has Mario fever, but both myself and Matt are Mario lovers, so I guess it was inevitable.

We ordered and picked up and sent out Logan's birthday invitations, yes Mario is the theme this year



And Logan's Halloween costume happen to come today as well. Can you guess?



Logan really wants Daddy to dress up as Luigi, good thing I found these costumes in Adult size...

Preschool Picnic!

We had an all school picnic at Logan's preschool today. We had a lot of fun and since Matt was closing tonight, he was able to join us. We had a nice lunch on our blanket and then Logan had a last playing on the playground and eating some popcorn. Ava had fun going down the slides, that girl loves herself a slide, she tries to climb back up the second she gets to the end. Logan is excited to go back to school tomorrow, on Tuesday he got to see the "bike room" for the time and now he can't wait to go back and ride his motorcycle again haha! They had music class on Tuesday and tomorrow he will have his first gym/nutrition class.

On a totally different topic, one of the moms from my mommy board posted this article about miscarriage grief and I thought it was a great read, especially for anyone who has suffered a miscarriage. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/unresolved-miscarriage-grief-lead-parental-anxiety/story?id=9283581&page=3

I could really relate to a lot of it, and especially when it talks about what it does to future pregnancies, I could have written that part myself. I know I am not alone when I remember Peanut every August, heck my mom suffered her first miscarriage 27 years ago on Thanksgiving, and she told me after I lost peanut that every Thanksgiving she remembers losing that baby, even though it has been 20+ years, she said it gets easier, but you never forget. Anyway just want to pass it along, maybe it will help someone going through this or that has gone through it.

Just Because It's Quiet...

Doesn't mean they are up to no good :<)



How cute are they? This was right before Ava's nap (normally that girl wouldn't be laying down watching T.V. to save her life) and I was loading the dishwasher and realized it was way to quite in the other room, imagine my surprise when I found my beauties sharing a lovely brother, sister moment over some Dinosaur Train...

That's My Girl!

Ava received a My Little Pony this last Christmas and it's been sitting on her dresser and she has been playing with it during diaper changes. It's a pink one with balloons on it, I think the name is Pinky?

Now that Ava is older she likes playing around with it a little more as well as with one of my old My Little Pony's (a blue one, don't remember it's name) and she carries them around and cuddles them.

I use to LOVE My Little Pony's when I was younger (and for those that grew up in the 80's don't the new Pony's look weird to you?) and it's so cute to see Ava playing with something that I did.

Here she is the other day, she kept putting them in the cabinet where we keep a bunch of Logan's trucks and cars LOL, watch out brother, sister is on the move and moving in!

Happy Grandparents Day!

Happy Grandparents Day to all of the grandparents in our life (and that's a lot luckily!)

We had a nice Sunday afternoon and dinner at my Mom's house today. The kids played and we played some boccie ball and new favorite of my Mom. We had a nice time and the kids were passed out by the time we got home so we got them right to bed which was nice.

Very busy week ahead and I hope Logan is feeling better for all of it and we get some good sleep in!

Off to bed!

I Just Want To Sleep...

Poor Logan still is coughing a lot at night, keeping us all up and add to that Ava and her four molars coming in right now and you can imagine the fun we have been having here at night. I think Logan might have caught another cold, as his nose started running again...gotta love germy school time.

Not much going on today, Matt had to go get a new tire and I ran some errands and finished up getting the centerpieces for the tables for Ava's party done. I am pretty much done with her party now except for all the baking we have to do. I am getting excited for her party though, can't believe my little girl is almost a year old!

Back To MDO!

Oh how I have missed MDO...LOL! Preschool is great but it's only until 11:30, and yes we could pay for him to do lunch bunch and afternoon enrichment classes, but it's too much in every sense, but that one day a week where he is at MDO until 1:45pm is gold. This is his last year at MDO and I just love it there and the teachers, so I will be sending Ava next year when she is two (she could start after she tuns 1 but I am not ready for that).

I really owe the turn around in Logan's social skills and speech to starting him in MDO and it was just what he needed.

Logan was bummed that his buddy wasn't there (his bff in class is one of the teachers kids and she just had a baby so won't be back for a few months) but he made do and had a great day. It was so nice out they headed outside after lunch and when Ava and I got there to pick him up they were reading their story under a big tree, so cute!

Logan was tired tonight though, first full day back in school wore him out!

Next week we have a full schedule should be interesting tweaking nap times and such and getting us all out the door on time.

1st Official First Day Of Preschool

Well almost...

Today Logan had preschool for a whopping hour. They split the kids by their last names, the first half gong from 9:15-10:15 and then the second group which included Logan went from 10:30-11:30. He went in with no problem, he just wanted to get back to that Thomas train table. Since he only had to go for an hour, Ava and I headed to the library and I finally got a card, we have only lived here 3 years, but always used Matt's, so I got my own. Ava played with some other babies up in the kids area with some puzzles. The other mother's were impressed with Ava's walking abilities (another baby there was also 11 months) seeing how she just turned 11 months. We picked out some board books and watched the fish and then it was time to pick up Logan. I am sure she enjoyed the time with Mommy all to herself.

We picked up Logan and his teacher said he did great. On the ride home Logan informed me that they sang the alphabet song, read a story about a raccoon and he played trains. I knew he would be fine at preschool, thanks to being in MDO since he was two and he really loves going to school and he was very ready for it (and so was mama). Can't wait to see how next week goes when he has two full days of preschool, gymnastics (he was off Monday for Labor Day) and MDO. I am envisioning easier bedtimes...I hope!

Happy 11 Months Ava!!!

I can not believe that Ava is going to be a year old next month, this year went WAY to fast!


And happy 11 months of breastfeeding to me!! One more month to go and I will have met my one year goal...I also can't believe that, it hasn't been easy that is for sure!

1st Day Of Preschool!

Logan had his first day of preschool today! Today was a short day, where the parents come with and we meet the teachers go over paperwork hand in paperwork, explore the classroom and the school and meet some of the other kids. Logan was a little shy, but he had fun playing with train table and actually way quite upset that we had to leave so soon, he told us to leave. There were some tears shed when we had to leave, go figure, probably the only kid who cried because he had to LEAVE school! After school we headed to the zoo and we had a blast! It was so nice out (very windy though) and the zoo was dead, it was so nice not having to deal with the crowds. The kids had a blast, Ava loved seeing all the animals and loved walking around in the goat pen in the childrens zoo. Ava really liked watching the monkey's too. Logan was our map holder and he directed us where to go all day. We had a nice lunch and played at the park there too. Of course my camera died while we were at the zoo, but we got some pictures at least!