Last month of school

A few weeks ago Andrew had his last share day at school. He loves his special day and it always makes getting up early and out the door for school so much easier. He brought his huge cement truck which he calls his "incement" to show his friends. He was really excited about it.

Leading everyone in the Pledge Allegiance.

I know this picture is blurry, but it's the only one I had of him with his truck.

The next week he had his 1st school music performance. It just happened to land on Nate's 30th birthday. It was pretty adorable though. Andrew had been practicing his songs at home all the time. Here is him singing one of the songs:

5.17.2011

I love that he is singing a song that I used to sing when I was little.

When I showed this to his teacher, she cried. She thought it was the sweetest thing :)

At his actual performance he barely sang at all. He stood up there, did a few of the motions, but for the most part barely moved his lips. I think he was a little overwhelmed by all of the kids (it was his class as well as 2 preschool 4 classes and 3 kindergarden classes), it being dark so he couldn't see the audience and the huge audience. He did see me at one point during the performance and waved and perked up a bit.

This is how he looked for most of the performance...hands crossed and a sober face.

He did do a few of the motions :)

His last day of school was last Thursday, June 2nd. We spent the morning at the park with all of his classmates and teachers. Unfortunately it was freezing out and sprinkled a bit. Andrew still had a ton of fun and ran around playing chase with the boys, playing in the sand, and splashing in the puddles.

Andrew with his teacher Mrs. Shearer in his classroom and his other teacher Mrs. Jensen at the park. He made both of them cards and was really excited to give them to them.

Andrew with some of his school friends.

Playing chase with his friend Noah Hendrickson.

Andrew with his 2 teachers and most of his classmates.

After school, Nate and I took him to lunch, just the 3 of us. Ava stayed at my mom's...we wanted to make it a special day for Andrew. We told him he could pick where he wanted to eat and he said "poltle" which mean Chipotle. When we went there the line was out the door so we asked him if he wanted to go to Panera (which is across the street) and he said yes. We had a fun lunch celebrating the end of Andrew's 1st year of school. Can't believe how big my little boy is getting!

Really behind

I know that I'm really behind on blogging. For the few people that read this, I'm sorry. I hope to be back to it soon! I have TONS to catch up on.

Sick

We've had lots of sickness in our house the past week and a half. It started with Andrew last week having a cold/fever/ear infection and then onto Ava. She has been the sickest I've ever seen her with a fever of 102.7 while on tylenol. She cried all night on Sunday night so I took her to the doctor on Monday. Her lungs & ears looked good, but her throat was really red. I suspected she had a soar throat because every time she coughed, she cried. They tested her for strep throat but it came back negative. There was nothing we could do but give her tylenol & motrin. She slept most of Monday and when she was awake she either cried or sat completely still on my lap. It was so unlike her. By the end of Monday night she was moving around a bit and smiling but still not feeling great. She is still sick and I'm hoping she'll be better for her 1 year/family pictures on Friday.

Butterfly Birthday

I knew I wanted to do a butterfly themed party for a long time and started working on all of my ideas for awhile. As soon as I found the plates and napkins I got some inspiration. The colors were hot pink, light pink & orange. I wanted to create the invites & party circles on my own but didn't know how to do it. So I asked my photographer and she ended up making them for me! The turned out absolutely adorable!

The party was at 4:30 so we served a light dinner of chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, fruit, artichoke dip and 3 different salads. For dessert we had cake, butterfly sugar cookies, chocolate covered strawberries and candy. I made most everything for the party and had lots of fun doing it. Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but I really do love working on crafts and loved making all of the butterfly banners and picture banner for the party.

We had Ava's birthday party on her birthday. Unfortunately the little girl was sick and cried on and off during her party. She wanted mommy and clung to me for most of the party. She was a trooper and we still had a great time with all of our family. Unfortunately none of our friends were able to make it, but we still had a house full of guests! Ava didn't care much for her cake which surprised most of us since she loves food. She didn't even try to eat it. I gave her a bit of frosting on my finger and she ate it, but didn't try to eat more. She did enjoy everyone singing happy birthday to her. Andrew pretty much opened all of her gifts for her. She got a lot of clothes which Andrew didn't care about, but when she got toys, he got really excited. I think he thinks they were for him. Ava was pretty tired so she didn't care much about the presents.

This picture really sums up the day. Poor thing just didn't feel good and didn't take a good afternoon nap which made for a cranky baby. She went to bed before the party was even over.

Since I didn't get a chance to wrap her gifts before her party, we decided to wait and give her her presents the next day. Once again, she didn't really care to open the gifts and Andrew did most of the unwrapping.

She got a few small toys from us, but her big gift was a kitchen! I've been eyeing this Pottery Barn kitchen for awhile and really wanted it for Ava. Luckily, we had a friend who was selling hers for practically brand new at an amazing price!

The kids are LOVING it and play with it all the time.

Since she didn't feel good on her birthday and didn't have anything to do with the cake, we thought we'd try again the day after her birthday. She loved it!

Happy 1st Birthday my sweet Ava. We ♥ you!

Happy Birthday Ava

I really can't believe that my baby girl is 1. Where did the time go! It really was one of the fastest years of my life. She is such a blessing and I'm so thankful that God gave us such a sweet and sassy momma's girl. Her little personality is really starting to come through and we are noticing how independent she is. She loves to crawl all around the house and play by herself. She does love attention though and really enjoys putting on a show and making everyone laugh. She is quite the ham. Her little belly laugh is the best! She is still such a mamma's girl, but is starting to go to other people now. She thinks daddy is pretty funny and loves trying to get his attention. She really likes men. She adores her brother and always wants to play with whatever he is playing with. She really likes to eat, but prefers bread, puffs & blueberries over any other food. She is becoming kind of a picky eater. She still naps twice a day and nurses in the morning at night. She loves to get into the dog food and is constantly pulling herself up to a standing position. She loves music and always dances when it comes on. She can clap, wave, do so big & patty cake and give kisses. She is the perfect little girl and we love her so much!

Week in review

Last week was crazy in our house. Andrew was kinda sick on Sunday but by Monday he had a fever and terrible cold. He felt better on Tuesday and went to school. I thought the sickness was over so he went to soccer on Wednesday but half way though he started coughing a lot and said he didn't feel good. We left soccer and went to my mom's house. We weren't able to go home since Nate and a friend were demoing our kitchen in preparation for new counter tops (yea!). Ava's birthday party was only 3 days away and I was running around trying to get errands run while Andrew was sick at my mom's and Nate was working on the house. My husband loves to do a huge project in the house before we host parties. I try to not let it stress me out :) (pictures to come of my brand new kitchen & bathroom soon) The counter tops were installed on Thursday so we spent another day at my mom's house. Andrew and I made cookies and I ran more errands. We weren't able to use our kitchen until Friday. Unfortunately Thursday night we didn't sleep much. Andrew was up most of the night screaming that his ear hurt. So Friday morning we went to the doctor and found out he had an ear infection, his first ever. He got medicine and seems to be doing lots better. Now Ava is sick though and we are still not getting any sleep! It was a crazy week leading up to Ava's 1st birthday, but I love my new countertops and so glad we got them done. Really hope the weather clears up soon so it will dry up all of these cold germs!

Bath time in Pama's big bathtub! Ava's 1st time taking a bath in a real bath, not just the little tubs. She liked it but slipped around a lot.

Making cookies with Andrew for Ava's birthday party.

This was Andrew's 1st time really helping me out in the kitchen and he did great. He was such a good helper.

Mother's Day music

Here's a few videos from Mother's Day of Andrew singing in Tiny Tunes. I love how he wouldn't take his eyes off of us and how he blew me a kiss at the end....so cute!