And the stockings were hung...

Every year, I seem to think that this is the BEST Christmas ever! This year did not disappoint in any way. It was definitly the best Christmas we have ever had for many reasons.

Ava was super excited about the impending arrival of Christmas this year. We started counting down to Christmas with the help of an Advent wreath and chocolate filled Advent calendars for each of the girls. Mia fell in LOVE with the "choc-it" in her calendar and asked for it any time she was near the fridge (this is where we kept the calendars)

Ava and I started a new tradition of making chocolate chip cookies from scratch for Santa on Christmas Eve. We had a wonderful time baking together and the cookies turned out great!

We continued a tradition established a few two years ago by going to our friends, the Todds, for our third annual Christmas Eve celebration at their home after mass.

Afterwards, we came home and lit the fireplace. The girls opened one gift each, we put cookies our for Santa and then got ready for a long winter's nap.

Well...this is just the tip of the iceburg. More to come later!

Happy to do!

Late last week, Mia began singing her very own special version of "Happy Birthday". It was the sweetest birthday present she could give her mommy! Here is a video of the cuteness:

Chubby Little Snowman....

Tuesday Mia and I went to Ava's school to watch her Christmas Program. It was too adorable to watch the three year olds "sing" the Christmas songs that they had been working on all month. Here are a couple of pictures and a low quality video of the program:

Christmas Cuties...

We had "professional" photos taken of the girls the other day in their Christmas dresses. We thought that we would share some of our favorites with you guys! Have a very Merry Christmas!!

Turkey Time!!

We had the most wonderful Thanksgiving this year! Ava and I spent some quality time togethe on Wednesday cooking for our Thanksgiving feast. Peter's parents drove in on Thursday from AL and stayed with us over the Thanksgiving weekend. The girls were in heaven being spoiled by their Nonnie and Poppa and I must say that really I enjoyed the break as well ;)! Here are some of our pictures. Enjoy!

Hooray for Mia!

The other day our sweet little Mia finally decided that she would take the plunge and walk around without holding our hands!!! She has been perfectly capable of doing so for about a month now, but chose not to walk on her own. Here is a video clip from last night of her precious and wobbly steps across our kitchen.

Puppy Love...

OK...so, Jake is not really a puppy anymore, but Ava sure does love him! I am sure that Mia will too love him one day just as much as she loves playing in his bed. Here are a few pictures of Ava and Jake.


P.S. We didn't really let Ava walk Jake (he would have pulled her around the block)!

Toothy Grin....

Lately, Mia's smile has evolved into the most precious, toothy, grin. I have been trying to catch this on camera for a few days, but have been having a difficult time. Here are a couple of my attempts. Hope her little smile brings a smile to your face!!

It is November....

The other night when Peter got home from work Ava said, "Daddy, take a picture of me and Baby Lovey so Aunt Lara will know that it is November." I think that she had been talking about the new month in school and it was on her mind. I am not sure what exactly about this picture says "November", but it is a cute one none the less!

Begging to go to school....

So, Miss Ava has completed her first week of four days at school and I think that she loves it! She was whining to go to school this morning and is packing her backpack with "stuff for school" as I type. If only this attitude would continue throughout her high school years....Oh well!
Here is the proof of her class photo:

You can see in this photo how happy she is to be there!

As promised...

Here are the many fall photos that we have taken this month (Fun fall days, Pumkin Festival, halloween etc..!). Hope that you all enjoy them!

Mister Pumpkin...

We hope that every one had a very happy halloween! The girls had a fun time dressing up and trick-or-treating. Trust me there will be many fall / halloween photos to follow, but for now I would like to share a video of Ava's halloween song that she learned at school and a photo of our very happy jack o'lantern. Enjoy!

Like father, like daughter...

When Mia was born we just couldn't figure out who she looked like. Sometimes it is still tough to tell, but in this picture I think she looks just like her daddy!

I think someone was...

I think someone was....TIRED very, very TIRED! I heard some snoring coming from our couch the other afternoon and this is what I found:




Ava fell asleep standing up! I thought that Ava was just teasing with me, but she was not. She was sound asleep. I wish that I could fall asleep that easily!

Dancing Queen...

Although Mia has not officially taken to walking (it could be any day now!), she has devised her own form of "dancing". Here is a little video clip of Mia making some moves to the ABC song!

Bedtime Boot Camp!

About a two weeks ago after an extremely trying night of two to three awakenings, I decided that something had to be done NOW to fix this problem! Hence the idea of "Bedtime Boot Camp" was born.

You see, Ava used to be the best sleeper (yes, I'm talking about my THREE year old!), but something went terribly wrong at the end of June....Let me give you a little bit of history. At this time, Mia was becoming quite mobile and requiring a lot more attention and we had just returned from a family trip to Michigan where I laid down with Ava so that she could fall asleep in a strange room. It was after this trip that Ava started requiring someone (meaning Mommy) to lay down with her EVERY night to fall asleep. I am quite sure that this became part of her nightly routine because she really wanted some alone time with me and that I also felt very guilty about her need for one-on-one attention. This is how the downward spiral began. I became Ava's "security blanket" that she needed to fall asleep and as she stirred during the night, she would realize that I was no longer in her room and would wake up crying for me. Ava's crying would then wake up Mia and so on and so forth.

Ava successfully completed "Bedtime Boot Camp" by filling up her sleep chart with stars. She had the opportunity to earn up to three stars per night, one for going to bed on time, one for falling asleep alone and one for staying asleep all night long. Her reward was that she could go shopping with Mommy for a surprise of HER choice. What was her choice? Check out the photos below:

It was the best $.65 that I have spent in a long time!

A few fall photos...

Here are some photos of the girls that I took in our back yard last week. I know what you're thinking...fall? Well, welcome to Texas my friends! We are still easily hitting 80+ degrees if not higher. We're hoping for some true fall weather in time for halloween! Hope you enjoy our "fall" photos.