Aves and Al

I've been taking lots of pictures of the girls lately. They are getting so big and are starting to look so much older to me. They are so much fun too. Allie is learning so many new things, like colors, counting and her ABC's. Ava, thanks to her friend Jackson, has started learning how to count to 100 by 10's. She's doing great. She knows how to write her name and she's learning how to write the rest of the alphabet as well. I love raising these beautiful girls. They are such a joy to be around.


Getting ready for the cold!

This is how I picture Allie looking as a teenager!

This too!

Lunch time!

Princess Mania

We visited our friend Holly's house last week and her daughter Lizzy probably has every princess dress you can think of. Ava was in Heaven! The girls had a lot of fun getting into the costumes! (these were taken with my phone so they're not the best quality!)

30 blessed years

Ugh, I'm 30 today. I can't believe it. I don't know what's so wierd about it. I know it's not old by any means. Maybe it's like my friend Katie say, I'm just not a kid anymore, even though I still feel like one. Anyway, I've been reflecting a little about the last 30 and I have been realizing more and more how truly blessed I have been throughout my life. God has been so good to me.

We had a small party last night that included a road rally! Katie and I put it all together and I think that everyone had a great time. When all the teams returned, we played the "celebrity" game, which was hilarious! It's been a great weekend with family and friends.

Beef, it's what's for dinner

My friend Kelly's family buys a 1/4 cow every year from a farm up near West Branch. The cows are pasture fed, hormone and steroid free, and not mass produced like most beef farms in the US, so they're treated humanely. For $330 you get around a year's supply of healthy beef and you're helping to support a local Michigan farm. I LOVE IT! So we decided that we would do it this year. We got our supply yesterday and I think we need a deep freeze. There's about 65 lbs of ground beef, packaged in separate 1 lb wraps, lots of steaks, and some roasts. We had to send some of it down to my parents because it wouldn't all fit in our freezer! Can't wait to start cooking with it!

Ava's first dental visit!

Ava had her first cleaning today. She did such a great job! Dr. McDonald said that her teeth look very healthy and to keep up the good working brushing and flossing!

Ava actually thought that the cleaning tickled and she couldn't stop giggling!

Hey mama

Anytime Allie wants someone's attention, she says "hey" and then the name. So all day I hear "hey mama." It's super cute. I caught her saying it here. She even says it when she doesn't really have anything to tell you!

More construction

Mike is such a talented carpenter. I really am very blessed to have such an amazing, hard working husband. He does such great work. We are in the middle of another project at our house. Mike's adding a bathroom in the basement. He had to bust up some concrete and dig a hole for the plumbing. The girls considered it their own personal sandbox. They had a lot of fun helping daddy. I'll post more pictures as the framing gets underway.

January 25

Well I hope this picture doesn't gross you out. I just had to post how huge I am! And I still have over a month to go. I seriously don't know how much more room this baby is gonna have in there! She's constantly kicking and moving. It's such a cool feeling (except when she kicks my bladder really hard and I almost wet myself, that's not quite so fun). Another cool thing is that she's always getting the hiccups. It's so amazing and such a miracle that a real person is growing inside of me. God truly is remarkable.

Happy Thanksgiving

I can't even begin to express how grateful I am for my family this year. We almost lost Mike this past weekend from carbon monoxide poisoning. He was using a gas powered saw in the basement with little ventilation and God managed to get him upstairs before he passed out. If he had passed out seconds earlier, he wouldn't be here. I have been reflecting a lot these past few days about how precious life is, and how short it is. We never know when it will be our time. I'm so thankful to God that it was not Mike's time and that he gets to spend more time here with our family. I couldn't imagine my life without him.

This experience also helped me to realize that I can't hold on too tightly to this world. We were not given a letter at birth promising that life would be great and wonderful. Instead we were given a book that tells us to rejoice in our sufferings, that this world is not our home, that we have something far greater to look forward to, and that with God, we can get through anything. I pray that this Thanksgiving my family would really be thankful for the precious gift we are given in Jesus. How amazing that we have hope even in death.

They need a little more practice!

We love our girls

Getting so big!

Leaf jumpers

With the move to a new house, came a lot of raking. We had no trees in our other yard. Our new house has a ton of trees. Just imagine how much we would have had to rake if we hadn't taken down 8 trees at the beginning of the summer! But the girls did have fun jumping in the giant leaf piles. And bonfires are always fun too! Operation "take down the rest of the trees" starts in the spring!

Allie and Ava antics

Running girl

Allie's new obsession is the treadmill. She loves turning it on. Thankfully she can't reach the bottons to get it going... yet!

Dress up time

Allie has recently started getting into dressing up with Ava. Ava usually picks out her outfits for her!

Pumpkin Carving

We had a lot of fun at our friends Dave and Jodi's house carving pumpkins. There were lots of kids for the girls to play with and they had a blast!

Ava didn't like sticking her hand in there.

The final products!

At home on our porch.

Halloween

Maybe it's because I'm 7 months pregnant and super uncomfortable, or maybe it's because it was really cold, but for whatever the reason, I just wasn't as into Halloween this year. Allie wore a really cute Dumbo costume and Ava kept insisting that she wanted to be a princess again, so we borrowed one of Anika's dresses. The girls did have a lot of fun and we did get too much candy. Maybe next year I'll get more into it with three little ones to dress up!


Batman Everet and Kitty cat Anika

Princess and Dumbo

The whole group

Spiderman Braden, these two were the slow ones!

Allie's hood wouldn't stay up!

Out of order

My camera has not been working:-( I had my mom take pictures of the girls on Halloween so as soon as I get her memory card, I will do some uploading. Mike and I might get a new camera for Christmas too. So until then, my posts may be limited.