Discipline

Lately Ava has been getting into all the things that she knows she shouldn't. It has been trying and it has been a work of Jesus in my heart to make me more patient. But needless to say we have been having to do more spanking of her little hand and time outs. And it breaks my heart. Ava really hates time out. She screams and screams. Yesterday I was working on some Christmas projects on my computer. I left the room for a moment and when I came back in this is what I found. Ava's face looks as if her hand has been found in the cookie jar. So I had to capture the moment. Then sadly she was disciplined. Please pray for our little girls heart to be one of sweetness and obedience and me to be consistent and patient with her. 

Diaper Head!

David was playing with Ava the other night and they kept placing the diaper on her head. She thought it was so fun!

Then Ava had the great idea of carrying the diaper around for the rest of the evening. Ava loves to have fun. She is a lot like her Mommy and Daddy in that way!

Decorating!

On Friday we decorated the house for Christmas. It was a nice day. We began the morning with a yummy breakfast. David and I had our coffee. Then we began the decorating. 

I must say this years decorating was much easier than last years. Last year it was a two day endeavor where we decorated between Ava's cries. This year Ava had a great time playing with the beads and getting into the paper that covered the decorations. 

Ava REALLY likes the beads. Since the tree has been up she keeps trying to pull them off the tree. It makes the tree look unbalanced but I guess that's what happens when you have a one year old. 

Taking down our fall decorations.

Daddy and Ava watching our annual tradition of Elf.

Pulling ornaments off the tree. This is gonna be a long month!

Ava loves this step ladder. Anytime it's out she climbs up and down it. She gets very excited about it!

13 months

My baby turned 13 months today. She is seeming so big these days. She started to take lots of steps on Thanksgiving and she seems to be getting more confident because she is taking lots of steps since then. I don't think it will be too much longer until she is a full fledged walker. She has started to say "all done" and "uh oh". She waves bye bye. Although it's usually after the people that have been trying to get her to wave have already left. :) Ava loves to dance and climb! When she hears music she will shake that little bod. With Ava, no surface is safe. She will try to climb onto it. I love this little girl and the sweet outgoing person that she is becoming! 

So beautiful.

Silly girl!

This girl loves her puppy!

Cousins

Today Lauren and the kiddos visited us at Nana's house. The kids had so much fun playing together. 

Nana reading to the girls.

Posing for the camera. Not sure if Ava's smiling or grimacing.

Now these are smiles!

Thanksgiving

This year we spent thanksgiving at my mom's house. We began the day by watching the parade. When Ava went down for her nap I helped mom with the cooking. Granny came over in the afternoon and we ate some yummy turkey! 

Ava and Daddy having a blast!

Anticipating turkey.

Having her first taste of turkey. She really liked it and all the special side dishes that comes with the holiday.

Playing.

Little girl walking down the hallway (with some help). I love how chubby she looks in this picture!

Ava was very amused by this whistle. She kept handing it to us so we would blow into it.

Ava found the water fascinating.

Ava brushing her teeth. She eventually needed some help to actually clean her teeth.

Daddy's Hat

Ava either really likes hats or really doesn't like her Daddy in them because every time she sees him in one she feels the need to try to take it off his head. And then she plays with it.

Love Bug Birthday

I call Ava my love bug, so we went with a lady bug theme for her party. Or as it shall be remembered as the invasion of the lady bug! I worked really hard on making all of these construction paper lady bugs so I wanted to show off my hard work! :)

If you look really closely all of these pictures have a little lady bug on them.

Andrew was SO cute. Waiting to dig into one of these cupcakes!

Our family of 3. 

Crazy that it's only been a year since we've been able to say that.

Pretty birthday girl!

These girls are too cute!

The girls were fascinated with the balloons.

Ready for some cupcakes!

And then I remembered, OH NO a bib!!! I quickly took the cupcake away from her to preserve her cute dress and we presumed cupcake consuming after she had her bib in place. Whoops! :)

Ava was really unsure of this cupcake business. She ate some of the icing, but when I tried to give her some cake she wailed!

We had to corral her over to the presents. We had her attention for a moment but for the rest of the gifts it was tough keeping her involved. :)

I gave her the hanger so she would maybe be preoccupied in hopes that she'd stay by the presents. (This is what I do in stores when we are out shopping to try to keep her from being fussy.)

As you can plainly see, I have given up and am opening gifts without her. :)

The lady bug was a hit. All the kiddos loved it. Thank you to Ben and Matt who were very inventive in their gift giving.

Andrew was very excited about his favor!

Baby Hugs.

Could this be any more precious???

(Other than the fact that I'm spotting them in the background :) )

Ava's party was a blast! So thankful for everyone who drove into Plano to celebrate! It was such a blessing to us to have all of you with us.