Moments from the last 3 weeks

Catch up time on the blog! It got pretty crazy around here in the days leading up till April 15th, so I only have pictures from the last 2 weeks. But we have some funny and sweet moments!

Moment #1:
Ava was not listening and Brent had given her enough chances. He started counting down for a time out. "Five...four.." As soon as he said "five," Ava gave him a huge grin and said "fives!" and gave him a high 5.  I think she distracted us out of a time-out.

Moment #2:
Sometimes we have a cat roaming our yard and Ava loves to watch it out the window. One day the cat was sneaking around looking for food. I asked Ava, "what is the cat going to eat?" and she answered so matter-of-factly, "fries."

Moment #3
When we play at the park Ava loves to sit at the picnic benches and pretend to eat food. One day I brought some goldfish and oranges to the park and thought I would surprise her with having real food that day. She was sooooo excited! I love being a mom to a two year old because you just do simple things and they think you are the coolest :)

As we were eating the oranges, we had this conversation:
Me: Ava, this is called a picnic.
Ava: Mmmmmm!
Me: A picnic is when you eat outside.
Ava: Oh! Fake laughs.

Moment #4:
Ava and I were at the grocery store when we saw a lady in a motorized cart have something fall out of her cart. I saw her as she was struggling to figure out how to manage to get out and pick it up. So I called out to her that I would grab it. I set Ava down and put the thing back in her cart and the lady was so appreciative. I told her it was no problem and picked Ava up and we walked off. Ava looked up at me and said "help?" And I said yeah, did we help the lady? And she said "yeah!!" I don't always realize how much Ava watches me and understands what I say and do. Having a little mimi-me that watches me and mimics me really helps me want to be a good example for her.

OK, on to some pictures from activities of the last couple weeks.
We went as a family to see Monkey Kingdom. Ava could not stop talking about it afterwards. Doing monkey sounds, and talking about the mama, dada, and baby monkey. I liked it. Brent says it wasn't his favorite of the Disney nature documentaries. He can give you a more in-depth review if you ask him :)

After the movie we went to Chick Fil-A and Ava had a blast playing in the play place. We could not get her to leave. It was a fun family date!

For one of Brent's classes he had to read a book. He has been listening to the book on CD and one day he had a few hours left to finish it. So he took Ava on a loooooong walk. He walked all the way to Best Buy! I couldn't believe it (4.6 miles according to my phone). Ava took a nap for part of the time and was really good for the rest of the time.

Then they went to the mall where she played and he listened to his book. Once they were done I drove to pick them up. We had recently been given this jogging stroller from our neighbors so Brent and I didn't know how to fold it down to put it in the car! We were standing there in the parking lot trying everything and there was a guy in the car next to us just watching us, haha. I got an idea to google it. So I found a youtube video of a lady showing you how to fold down this brand of stroller. I watched it for like one minute then told Brent, you gotta open these clips! Easy-peasy, we got it in the car and the guy next to us could stop staring. Saved by google!

The many faces of Ava as she eats her yogurt:

The rose bush in our front yard:

Cute Sunday dress. (We had to put her on the kitchen table so she wouldn't run away)

Last Sunday Ava was in her terrible twos like no other. I was saying bye to Rita at the door for like 10 seconds. No really, TEN seconds. And she did this:

She was just getting in to so many things that day! While I was trying to get some cookies in the oven she climbed in the pantry and dropped a can on her toe and it started bleeding. She was just a crazy girl. Oh and she stole one of the cookies off the counter as they were cooling. She totally would have gotten away with it except for she exclaimed "mmm! cookie!"

We were big spenders and bought a new recliner for our bedroom! I've been wanting one for years so we bought this fancy leather one at a furniture close-out sale.

Brent, the miracle worker somehow got this HUGE recliner that doesn't come apart down our narrow hallway and through our super narrow bedroom door. It was crazy. He worked and worked and  somehow maneuvered it just right and got it wedged through the door way. Then he slightly reclined it and got it the rest of the way through. He rearranged our room so we have a little reading corner. I'm so happy!

Some friends in the ward invited us to go to a play place in a Baptist church about 30 mins from here. It's $1 to get in and they have so many toys for kids to play with, a jump castle, etc. Ava was in toddler heaven. She loved the grocery store area.

And she chose this in the dress-up area. It was making me laugh so much.

A video:

She also wanted to be a beautiful batman girl.

Last night Brent went with his friends and professor to a screening of a documentary in Dallas. The subject of the documentary, an actor, was there and they had Q&A with him and then Brent got his signature.

He had lots of fun with is film friends.

We have been having TONS and TONS of rain like 5 or 6 times a week here. Sooooo many Texas thunderstorms. Here's a video- you can't quite tell just how hard it was raining but it reminded me of when we lived in the Philippines.

Visit from the Cowleys

I'm behind blogging, but two weeks ago we had Bob, Tammy, and Marcie come visit us! We had so much fun with them and we were so happy to have company!

Marcie flew in first, on Tuesday night, and Brent & Ava went to get her while I worked. They went to Brent's favorite restaurant, Steak n' Shake.

The next day I had to work so the the three of them went to explore Dallas. They first went and found the graves of Bonnie & Clyde, who are from here.

Then they went to the 6th floor museum, which is where JFK was shot from.

The x on the street in the background marks the spot where he was shot :(

Then they picked up Bob and Tammy that evening from the airport.

On Thursday we went to library time, then to Texas Woman's University to see an exhibit on female pilots during WWII. The grounds at the university were so pretty. It's so green this time of year!

After we went to a yummy restaurant we like downtown Denton for briquet burgers. Then it was time to drop off Brent for his class. We got to see Brent's campus, which sadly, isn't as pretty as Texas Woman's University. But still fun to see where Brent goes to class! The rest of us came home and relaxed and watched movies (except for Bob who weeded our yard!)

On Friday we were going to have a babysitter watch Ava while the rest of us went to downtown Fort Worth. That fell through so we rearranged things and Ava got to do a little easter egg hunt with the kids in our ward at the park. Here's a video of her trying to figure out what you do in an egg hunt:

We drove down to Fort Worth and we first went to a money factory- where they print bills! There are only two places in the US where they print bills, Fort Worth & DC. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to bring cell phones or cameras in so I don't have any pictures. But it was a really cool tour and we learned lots of interesting facts about money. We saw sheets and sheets being printed and cut, each stack of sheets of $20s, I think it was, worth about $800k. 

Next we went to downtown Fort Worth to another one of our favorite restaurants for some Texas BBQ. Then we went to a Thomas Kinkade gallery and explored downtown a bit. I think Fort Worth is so pretty! 

Then all of a sudden I remembered that the cattle drive at the stockyards was at 4:00 and not 4:30, so we hurried and got in our cars and rushed over, following the maps in our phones.  We arrived at about 3:58 pm and our phones led us right up to the street where the cattle walk down. We didn't have time to park so we just watched from our cars- all 10 seconds of it! Hahaha, now we have seen the cattle drive! 

I took this on the way home from Fort Worth. We've had so much rain this spring, it's so green here!

On Friday night we went to the Square and we got ice cream at an old fashioned ice cream shop.

On Saturday morning, Marcie had to go home, sadly. The rest of the weekend Ava kept asking for "Issy." We had another egg hunt with our HOA at the park, and this time Ava knew what to do. There were a TON of eggs all in the grass and she had lots of fun.

She did not like the freaky looking Easter Bunny though. Can you blame her? Hahaha.

Brent's parents helped us with all sorts of random projects we've been saving up such as getting Brent's bike ready to ride, changing the lightbulbs in our kitchen, etc. In the afternoon we went to Grapevine and walked around. Then we went to Bass Pro, where Ava got a little shooting lesson from Grandpa ;)

That evening we went to Bren'ts favorite fast-food here, Chicken Express. He was excited to show Bob because he thinks it's better than KFC ;) (I do too!) Then the boys went to Priesthood at our stake center with our friend Chris in his fancy Pontiac. But first Chris gave Ava an Easter basket, which was so nice:

Tammy and I came home with Ava and we watched a funny old movie that cracked me up. Sunday was Easter and we listened to conference and Ava had a THIRD egg hunt in our house. She opened up beautiful dresses from both grandmas and had fun modeling them. She got so spoiled!

We had a delicious turkey diner and it was so nice to have family around for the holiday! That was our fun week. Thanks to Bob, Tammy, and Marcie for coming out here! And for all the work you did on our house and yard. We were lucky to have you!

We are stressed over here

Let's keep this blog real. This week was hard for me. Nothing serious, just one of those blah weeks you are glad to get behind you. This week was filled with too much work, stress, sickness, home-sickness, and a little bit of fun too, luckily. 

Here's my mini-me who's observed me working and wants to imitate me. Also she is getting really good at anticipating when a break is over, or when I'm about to start work. She runs and actually beats me into the room so that I can't shut her out. It is so cute to see her booking it to my room when I tell Brent something like "ok, I better get back to work."

Ava is really loving the days when she goes to the babysitter, which makes it a lot easier for me to send her off in the mornings. She has started galloping around the house, jumping up and down, and yelling "bye!!! play!!" because she is so excited to go. Her babysitter has sent me some really cute pictures this week:

On Friday night we got a babysitter and went to our ward party. It was Texas themed, so we had a bbq dinner and then we had individuals from the ward perform dance numbers. We had a really fun time and love our ward! (We so live in Texas- the centerpieces were cowboy boots. Love it!)

On Saturday evening I went with my neighbor Rita to the women's conference. She is the one that was baptized 3 months ago and I love seeing the gospel from her point of view. She is just so amazed with everything and the occasional "hallelujah" comes out during meetings. The conference was the perfect pick-me-up to the end of the week.

Today Ava was sick so we didn't get to go to nursery. She was so disappointed that she didn't get to play with her friends so I took her to the park by our house- more like she pulled me to the park! I love holding hands with my little girl :)

This is completely random but I find it kind of amusing. One of the girls I visit teach is really into cats. Especially hairless cats. Like really into them. She raises them, takes them to cat shows, etc. Well today when we went, one of her cats had had 6 kittens 1 day ago. Tiny hairless kittens!!!

Ava has decided that our shed is a great stage. And her favorite song to perform is "If You're Happy and You Know It." Today I checked on her in the backyard and she was doing it all by herself up there. Haha I can't wait to get her into dance classes. Here's a little performance to end this post:

Spring Break!

Poor Brent, for his Spring Break he got to stay home and watch Ava for me while I worked :( Is busy season over yet?? I can't wait until I'm working 20 hours a week. We had one nice weather day where Ava could go out and enjoy her water table.

On Thursday, my day off, we decided to do something fun. We went to the aquarium in Grapevine. It was a perfect time to go because Ava is still very much in love with the Little Mermaid. She was so excited to go see fish!

See the shark swimming over Ava's head?

The shark tunnel

Aaaahh!!

I think the jelly fish were my favorite. They had a light shining in the tank that made them seem to be changing colors.

We got to pet star fish and also see an unfertilized shark egg.

We also liked watching the sea horses get fed.

After the aquarium we went to a 50s diner by our house for shakes and "bies" (fries).  Ava is so obsessed with fries lately.

That night (Thursday) we watched "Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day." I don't know why but I thought it was so funny. I was laughing my head off the whole time. Brent was cringing the whole movie and it was stressing him out. Which was making me laugh harder.

Since I worked a crazy lot on one of my audits my boss told me and Brent to go to dinner and a movie and send him the check. So I chose to see the movie Cinderella, and go to Outback. We went on Friday afternoon and I loved the movie! Brent thought it was forgettable, in case you were wondering. Brent wanted to bring Ava along and she did pretty good. As soon as it was over she asked for more horses. She liked that part.

(That is drool! Ava is still drooling. Oh my gosh).

Afterwards, at Outback, Ava was pretty cute for part of the time and pretty crazy for the rest of the time. I told Brent I'm getting a babysitter next time so we can have a real date! Because, you can't have a real date when your toddler does this:

And sometimes she tries to steal your man:

And forget the romantic car ride home:

On Saturday after our chores and homework, we went to meet our friend Chris at an old-fashioned ice cream shop in downtown Denton. Denton is pretty small, so their downtown is just basically one block, called "the Square," which kind of reminds me of the "plazas" in South America. It's pretty ugly if you ask me, but we took a picture in front of one of the pretty places:

The ice cream shop:

Side note from this week: Brent introduced Ava to Peter Pan and he helps her fly around our living room during the appropriate moments. She yells "fly! fly! wahooo!" as they go. It's so cute! Yesterday Ava was being a little naughty (can we say that yet Tammy, now that she's 2? Haha!). She was getting into everything and being super busy. So Brent said, "Ava, this isn't going to fly. If you don't behave you're going to your bed." And Ava just perked up and said "fly???"

This is girl is crazy about her daddy! Here's a video of them that's so cute but for some reason silent. Also you should know that Ava's sign of affection is tickling, so when she does "ticka-ticka-ticka" on his face you know she's really loving on him.