Ava the sneek

So Char and I decided to go out with a few of our really close friends the Garcia's, for a "date" but mostly I think this is an excuse to go out and run errands with out having to take kids and then stopping for dinner through the process, either or, it's always fun. So we get back to our house, and cross our fingers hoping that the babysitter report goes ok, and we find out mostly yes it went ok, although according to our babysitter, at one point in time Ava and her friend Grayson snuck off to my bedroom and proceeded to chow down on Chocolate. I have to admit this was probably my daughters fault since I am not even sure if Grason is two yet, although I'm sure he didn't mind, because he loves eating as much as Ava does. Anyways, I better keep her under wraps. only three and already sneaking off to the bedroom with boys. and they seem so innocent. By the way Grayson still had chocolate on his face when we got him out of bed to take him home. Here are the two in jail back when we went camping earlier this summer.

Thought on Christmas

I know not everyone who reads this shares my beliefs, so hopefully you will just bear with me here. This time of year we read stories about the coming forth of Christ into this world. And it's at that time that us parents try to wrap our minds around just what Joseph and Mary must have been feeling when they learned that they would be raising the only begotten son. Well, this year I think I finally figured it out. No my children aren't angels, but for some reason each time I really look deep into their eyes, I realize these beautiful girls, and little boy aren't mine, but the Son and daughters of our Heavenly Father. And I look into my self, knowing my flaws, my weaknesses my shortcomings, and I tell myself "Who am I to lead and guide and raise these kids so they can reach their fullest and eternal potential?" And then I become comforted, because not only are my children, children of our Heavenly Father, but so am I. And you know what, even though I know I'm not perfect, and the rest of you know you aren't perfect, I believe we carry the traits of our Heavenly Father and Mother, Just like my kids have a little of Char and I in them, and with those traits, just maybe I'll do them justice and help lead them home. So as I sit here I wonder maybe Joseph learned that eternal truth, and maybe it was with that knowledge that he too was able to realize that even with his weaknesses, he could in fact help raise the Son of God .

Our First Winter Snow

Snow is not a common thing in Western Oregon, but like all children mine were very excited to wake up to a world covered in white and an announcement that school was canceled for the day. They immediately began to ask when they could go out and play in the snow and me, being a mean old mom made them wait until 10am. To qualify my decision, this was a rare weather situation. Most of the snow that makes it to the floor of the Willamette Valley has a very short life. It usually warms up rather quickly and the snow is gone but I knew that the high for today was a frigid 30 degrees and that the snow was going to be around for a least a day. Plus a snow day means that I don't have to be on a schedule either and I could take it easy. But as 10am rolled around all three were out the door into the cold and they had a blast (until they realized how stinking cold 30 degrees is when you add humidity and wind chill into the mix :)).

How do you like that nose, and yes she kept licking her upper lip until I made her come in and blow her nose. Yuck.

Natalie kept tasting the snow, as always, she is our little adventurer. As you can see she even made a snow cake.
The snow adventure ended when Lexie would not stop throwing snow at Natalie. Most people would think that a snow ball fight is a perfectly wonderful thing to do on a snow day but when your little sisters gloves are so coated with snow that she is incapable of returning fire there isn't a real fight. It ends up being torture and it gets all big sisters in trouble.

Ava turns 3

I know that today is December 9th and that I am really behind on this post but at least I am getting to it.
On December 1st our little Ava turned 3. She is getting so big and I marvel at how thoughtful and helpful she can be. She was so excited for it to be her birthday and she would walk around the house singing "happy birtday to Aba, happy birtday to Aba". "Aba is how Ava says her name." She loved her princess crown cake and was very excited to try and help me put the skittles on it. We had a few friends over to celebrate and she loved getting to be the center of attention. Happy Birthday Sweetie.

This is just a fun picture of Ava. She feel asleep in the middle of dinner with all of us around her. We were having Thanksgiving left overs, maybe the turkey and gravy pushed her over the edge.