1st Day of Pre-K

Today was Ava's first day back at school.  She looks so grown up and I can't believe she will be in Kindergarten next year..not sure I am ready.  This year is kind of sad as this marks the final (and 4th year) at her current school.  Thankfully Ryan will most likely go here when he is old enough b/c this school has been so good to us and we really like it.

 Posing with her new Hello Kitty lunchkit.

And her is Ava sitting on the bench outside school.  These are from the past 4 years
Pre-K 2011

 3's Class 2011

 2's Class 2009

 Toddler Class 2008

My how time flies!

Smoothie Time

While visiting Pablo last weekend, he made us some fruit smoothies.  So when we got back we decided to buy some fruit and do the same thing here since it is a nice healthy snack for all of us.

Darren & Ava making the smoothies.

I love that photo only because Ava is doing exactly what Darren does a lot of the time I take photos...making a silly face. I think maybe he does this every time I try to take a photo of him and I think it might be rubbing off on little Darren Jr. 

 Ava thought the blender was too loud...but she liked that I was taking pictures.

Bye Houston, Hello Conroe Again!

Saturday morning we left Pablo's house...

 and Ryan and I headed to see Rosemary and baby Ashlen again. This time we did a short playdate at their house.  It's always fun catching up with Rose and I love seeing the kiddos together since they are only 3 months apart.  It helps me remember what is coming up next with Ryan when I see Ashlen.  Although I must say for a 7  month old, she is already crawling, pulling up on stuff and so close to wanting to walk...crazy!  Ashlen is super cute and does this funny hop thing while sitting. 

Then after our short visit, we headed back to Conroe to go hang out with Granny & Pops.  We got ice cream and went out to eat.

Pops & Ryan

 And this next series is what happens these days when I pull the camera out.  "Mom take pictures of me!" Followed by a series of poses....not quite sure where she picked up the different poses but sometimes she will lay on the floor and do some poses and it is weird. And maybe borderline inappropriate.  Seriously no clue.

And a shot of the kiddos with the grandparents.



To Conroe, to Houston

We headed down to see the grandparents and some friends this weekend.  First stop was Conroe for one night.  Ava always enjoys Granny reading her bedtime stories. 

Late Friday morning, Ryan & I headed to Houston for a quick visit (under 2 hours) to see Michelle and her boys AJ & Jack. Been awhile since I've seen them and sadly the only photo I took was of the AMAZING knit cat that Michelle is making for Ryan.  She showed it to me even though it is not done.  I am really impressed and it is super cute already so can't wait to see it when she is done. 

 Then Friday afternoon, we headed over to Pablo's house where Darren & Ava met up with us.  Ava wanted to paint in Pablo's studio so that's what she got to do.  I said that Ava would love to have a room like this in our house (where you don't have to clean up too much of the mess, you can get paint on the floors and walls etc.) and my dad responded with "I bet her Mom would like a room in her house like this."  Yes, Dad you are correct...I would LOVE to have a room like this.  Fun! Btw Ava is only her undies while she paints because 1) she did not have any clothes that I wanted to get paint on and 2) she just loves to be naked.

 Choosing paint colors and mixing some together to get purple.

 The artist at work. She told Pable she wanted to be an artist when she grows up.  This is of course in addition to her wanting to be a balloon girl, face painter, party planner, and many other things.

 The finished painting.  Great thing about painting at Pablo's is that there are a ton of canvases around and you can always paint over any of them if you feel like it. 

Then after painting (if that was not enough) we made a quick trip to Palace Bowling lanes in Bellaire where I used to spend many a summer bowling.  It was weird to go there as I have not been there in maybe 10 yrs or more and upon walking in, I noticed it smells exactly the same.

Anyways, a quick shot of Ava being tickled by Dad.  I bowled a horrible game but both Dad & Darren didn't do so bad.

Kids

Ava & Ryan face to face

 Ryan enjoying laying on his tummy.

Playing with Photoshop Elements

Alright I am going to bore some of you with this post but thought I'd show you how much fun I am having with PE.  Still learning how to use it but in addition to my new blog headers, I have been working on fixing photos.

My friend sent me the photos from my March baby shower just the other day and I came across this photo of me, mom and my sisters and decided to play around with it.  See it's a pretty decent photo of the 4 of us EXCEPT Cortney has her eyes closed. There was another photo of us taken in the same spot but I didn't like it as much (even though everyone had their eyes open in it).  So what's a girl to do? 

I stole C's eyes from the other shot and put them in this one.  Voila! Good photo now.  Darren, of course, says that this photo is not real...but how great is it that you can do this so you can get the pefect photo...I envision doing this with some of the big family photos we take since it is hard to get everyone looking their best all in the same shot.  Yes, it's not real but still cool to make a photo this way.

Jinxing Myself

I am completely jinxing myself right now writing this but whatever.  Excited because Ryan slept through the whole night again...woo hoo!  And this time Ava actually slept until almost 7 so that was nice.

We are headed out of town this weekend so we'll see if this lasts.  For all I know, Ryan will wake up tonight but once again, I'll take whatever I can get.  I just keep telling myself that with babies you never know if they will sleep through the night regularly since you have teething, growth spurts etc.  Trying to remind myself so I won't be too disappointed if he decides to start waking up again.  Unlike with Ava, I think this time I can do the whole cry it out earlier...already was way easier at nap time than it was when Ava was a baby.

And for reading this you get a reward of 2 new photos of the kids (my wordy posts seem sad without some kind of picture).

In Other News...

If you can't tell that I got Photoshop Elements for my birthday...just take a look at the new blog header on this blog as well as my project blog.  Still learning to use it but having fun playing around and actually being able to do something with graphics.  Thank goodness there are a lot of good tutorials online for how to use PSE as well as where to get free patterns, textures, fonts online to use in your blog.

Do we like the new headers?  I do!

Through the Night

Last night was the 1st time Ryan slept all the way through the night...and with no work from me (no cry it out, etc.)!  Now, I am not dumb enough to think that this will now be the norm (b/c it usually does not work that way) and honestly I think last night could have been due to the shots Ryan got at the doctor's office.  He was a bit tired/grumpy yesterday afternoon. Whatever the reason, I'll take it!

However, just because he slept through the night does not mean that I did...had to go check on him 2 times to make sure he was breathing.   But I was up for a minute or two each time so no big deal.   I feel like a 1st time parent again -- all that SIDS talk always makes me get out of bed to make sure things are alright.

Let's see if we can keep this going...because I am so ready for a full night's sleep!  Much harder this time around especially when Ava keeps waking me up in the 6 o'clock hour to snuggle (think she wants to make sure she gets some alone time with me -- too bad she never falls asleep again).  That and it's kind of hard to nap when you are watching 2 kids...not a good idea.  So more sleep would be welcome. 

Thanks Ryan for at least 1 night of really good sleep.  Because even though Ava woke me up at 5:45 today (ouch!), I actually was not too tired for once.  Although maybe you should ask me at 3 this afternoon if I feel the same.

4 Month Stats

 Ryan had his 4 month appt today so here are his current stats:

24 3/4 in long (25%), 13 lbs 10.5 oz (20%) and his head is 17.5 inches (>98%) -- he definitely has my head!!

And just for comparison sake here are Ava's 4 month stats:

23 in long (25%) and 12 lbs 10.5 ozs (30%). Pretty sure her head was in the 98th percentile too.

So Ryan is slightly bigger...by 1 lb and almost 2 inches.

Here is Ryan at 4 months...

 And Ava at 4 months.  Definitely related ...some big mouths & heads on these kids. Ha!

Updated...Finally!

Sorry for all the blog delays...I've been a bit lazy.  Pretty much up to date but I still have some videos to upload so will hopefully be posting those soon. 1st new post is July 29th.

Be sure to check out my project blog too since I made something super cute yesterday!!  http://www.mokru.blogspot.com/

Rolling Update

Ok so it has been a week since Ryan started rolling over and I swear the kid just loves it..more so in the morning when he will spend a large amount of time on his stomach hanging out.  And he is getting WAY better at rolling back to his back when he gets tired.  My favorite 2 things about him rolling are 1) when he grabs his shirt while lying on his back and makes it look like he is using his shirt to roll himself over and 2) when he is on his stomach, the way his legs move all crazy and it looks like he is trying to swim or crawl...I say swim b/c his feet are not on the floor and just kind of move around in the air.

Also, people have told me he looks like Darren and I usually don't see it (especially when looking at him in person)...I think he looks like Ava (which of course everyone also said looked like Darren) BUT after I took this picture, I looked at it and was like, yep, there's Darren.  I think it's the eyes and the way he kind of squints when he smiles.  Too cute (on both Darren & Ryan).

And yes, my boy is a big drooler...makes his lips nice and shiny!!

32 and 4 months

Yep...the big day...I'm 32 now.  Nothing special about turning 32.

Except....you daugther decorates your house in pink streamers, picks out pink earrings and a pink watch for you, gets a Tinkerbell card for you, some fun bouncy balloons and stickers & sticky hands for party favors.  Oh and Darren might have helped with all that too.  Way to make a girl feel special & loved.  :)

I also got yummy cupcakes and got to go get my Mother's Day massage!!

 Ava especially loves streamers as you may recall for Ryan's birthday.  After decorating the house with them, she decided to decorate herself with them too.

 Oh and this little guy is officially 4 months old.  Won't know his stats until the dr appt next week but here's a shot of him in one of his fave new hangouts...the excersaucer.  Time is flying by!

Birthday Bowling

I am a nerd.  I LOVE bowling...so so much.  Still have my bowling ball from when I was a kid and wish that it was the right weight so I could still use it.  Sigh!

Anyways, now that Ava is older and her cousins are too, we have kind of decided that it would be nice to start a birthday tradition ...going bowling.  Ava first bowled last year and absolutely loved it so it was a great way to beat the 107 degree heat around here.  So me, my fam, Gabe, Lyndon & their fam and my mom all met up a day early for some bowling and good food at Dart Bowl (seriously they have great food!!)

The girls all ready to bowl, Sawyer, Ava & Lexie..the little stair steps.  Can't wait until next month when Cortney & fam move here so it will be 4 little girls & the 2 boys.

 Ryan stayed entertained by Me-Mommy...she wanted to bowl but her hand was hurting so she was still nice enough to come celebrate and she helped out by watching Ryan.

 Ava & Gabe bowling

 Awkward photo of me bowling...I do walk weird when I bowl you know.

 Group shot!!  Sawyer is always coming over to Ryan to play...she loves babies!  Too bad she is not old enough to babysit. Ha!

Rolling

It's official...after a week or so of doing this:

Ryan is now rolling from his back to his stomach.  Quite entertaining really. He started doing this on the 4th (Thurs) and by Friday was rolling all around the rug.  He gets stuck on his stomach sometimes (which he does not always like) but when you put him on back, he rolls right back over again.  Watch out world!!

This was actually somewhat surprising to me as I think Ava was closer to 6 or 7 months before she really started doing this (think that is maybe kind of on the late end).  She did it once early on but she did not like it so she waited several months before doing it again.  I knew Ryan was going to be a crazy active kid....in utero he was quite the mover.

Sleepy Boy

I snuck in Ryan's room in the morning to snap this photo (surprisingly I did not wake him up).  I just love how he unswaddles his arms these days..sleeping babies are always so cute.