The little princess turns one.....

Ava Marie had her 1st birthday party yesterday.....and what a crazy year it has been......

at 3 days old when we had to take you back to the hospital you were helpless and I was terrified....look at you now......

you're almost walking and starting to do things on your own.....

like make a big mess when my back is turned.....



or pull some pita bread out of the drawer for an afternoon snack.....

and even help me with chores...

When I wake up in the morning to noises in your room, no matter how tired I am I will try to hop out of bed before Dad just so I can be the first one to see this face waiting for me....

With one look you have your father wrapped around your little finger.....

and you have this "oh so gentle" way of letting your cousins know that you are in-charge

The love that you and your brother have for each other makes me the happiest mommy around!

So happy birthday to my sweet little princess....

May your next year be filled with as much laughter and love as you bring to my life everyday!!

Baby Logan meets Mr. Potato Head

So the thing I love most about having kids is that it is almost guaranteed that when you plan a day full of activities....they will both nap for 3 hours!!! Today for example we had a fun playdate planned with their cousin Logan.....Tyler fell asleep right when his auntie pulled into the driveway and then Ava was awake to play for about an hour before she fell asleep too.  So, it was me and Auntie Dawnie left to play with baby Logan.....and so we introduced her to Mr. Potato Head (and because I didn't have two kids hanging on me I actually got pictures of it).  It started with a sweet introduction....

followed by a more formal, prom-like picture....

and then it was all down hill from there as Logan soon showed Mr. Potato Head who was boss!!

WHO'S YOUR DADDY MR. POTATO HEAD!!

And so being the good auntie I am I thought her father should feel like he was there the moment his daughter fell in love with a toy man....the things we do to our kids just to amuse ourselves.....Logan, you're the best!!

Saved by the indoor playground and "sick" Uncle Kyle

 So I haven't posted in a while but I feel like the month of January swallowed this family whole and we are just getting back onto our feet.....if there's one thing I've learned about sick kids it's that every kid feels better after a popsicle....

 my adivise to all new mom's is to buy some and just keep them in your freezer for that "oh my god there are boogers everywhere because you think it's okay to wipe your nose on anything will you please just sit still" moment.....oh yeah, and they actually make "slow melting" popsicles so if your kid gets a little confused as to which end they should be eating, all won't be lost.....

Well today we decided to get out and go to the playground....the indoor playground....because there's so much snow on the ground you can't even see the slide at our local playground......and luckily for us Uncle Kyle had to stay home from work because he was very sick, so it was off to Natick to meet Auntie and Uncle.....

Let me tell you that Uncle Kyle......at 6'2" and we'll just say around how ever much a person that tall weighs....he fit right in.  Tyler could finally talk to him at eye level from the top of the tree house, and Uncle Kyle even went up there with Ava, although he couldn't stand inside....

You might be wondering....where is Logan?? Oh she was hanging out with mom and Auntie on the pirate ship, in her ridiculously cute pink sweater (oh, and by the way I was informed that she slept through the night for the first time last night, which is probably why her father had so much energy today)

and don't worry....she wasn't left out of the fun, because no daughter of Dawn's was going to miss out on going down the slide....she was so fast in fact that this is the best picture that her mother could get...

....and then there was Ava showing the big girls how to climb the rock wall....

all in all a very fun day which ended with both my kids falling asleep in the car, a successful tranfer of my son from "car napping" into "bed napping", my daughter waiting to do #2 until the moment we walked into the door.....and a call from Meme sounding so sad because she wasn't invited!! Don't worry Meme, we'll take you next time......

There is a God....and he lives across the street!!

So I've been complaining since our last storm that our snowblower is broken....and that we've been shoveling....and when I woke up this morning and saw more than a foot of snow on the ground I said to my husband, "well we only really have one good shovel so why don't you start, and then I'll come out later...."  So while Ava and I sat around.....

Dad went out to start the shoveling....along with all the other neighbors who were out their using SNOWBLOWERS!!! That's when I decided to send Tyler out with a shovel in hopes that someone would show pitty on us and offer to help shovel us out.....

well, shoveling soon turned into playing, which turned into building huge igloos and like any good father should, Joe stopped shoveling all together to play with little man!!  Just when I thought all hope was lost and was feeling really terrible that Tyler came in with frosbite on his hands....

I heard a familiar sound outside and looked out the window to find that our neighbor had come to our rescue....and instead of "thanking God"......I was thanking "Scott" for lending a helping hand to a neighbor in need......and then I said "Joe you should really go out there and help him!!" (sometimes being the mommy pays off, hahaha!)

Good thing Ava has 3 Godparents!!

Ava had her christening yesterday and being an almost 11 month old that's wearing 18-24 month old clothing it was your typical christening......first of all when the priest would say her name, she would actually turn and look at him as if to say "I know you are talking about me."......second,  she was actually able to take communion, even the priest was like "can she eat this??" and Ava was like "hey buddy, it's 12:30 and past my lunch time, I'll eat anything"....third, weighing in at  22lbs 13oz and 30 inches long for her 9 month appointment (which was on 12/9/10 so I can only imagine what she weighs now!!) it was a good thing we had 3 godparents so no one person had to hold her the whole time.  All in all it was a fun filled busy day and we were happy to have our families there to support us....the day was so busy in fact that we didn't take any of our own pictures....so I have to just share a few with this link to my snapfish album.....enjoy!!! 

http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3087897012/a=91212074_91212074/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Snow Storm 2011 and Kevin Bacon??

So I've been trying to grow out Tyler's hair because I'm remembering how cute it was when he was little....but it seems to be just growing up and out.....which is why we have started calling him Kevin Bacon....and of course Joe takes it to the next level teaching him to say "lets dance!!!"

LETS DANCE!!

Today Tyler went out into his first blizzard and loved it....it helped that Dad made him an igloo to hide from the wind!! 

And to thank Dad for all the shoveling and playing out in the snow, Tyler gives him a body slam.....



which they have been practicing inside...under careful supervision of little miss Ava!!

Although I used to hate these New England snow days when we are locked inside with now where to go....I think I might just start to love them....with the never ending entertainment of Tyler and Ava and Dad home on a snow day.....it doesn't get much better!!



A long day......

Today I had a very long day with my toddler....an hour of trying to get him to take a nap after wearing myself out bringing both of them to swim class was ended when I went to check on him and he said "I got a big poop mom..." As I was winding down after putting him to bed tonight I was playing around on our laptop and discovered an old video of him.  It made me laugh outloud.....and watch it over and over again....he's only 2 and already I'm saying "I can't believe he was that small."  For those of you who don't know Tyler's first word was something like "Dodyn" which he used to refer to Dad and dogs......enjoy and know that yes, he still likes nectarines this much!!