Toothless at last!

On the way home from Tyler today, we stopped at a Whataburger to eat lunch and Elle said her tooth was bothering her. Lo and behold, it was REALLY lose! This little fact had just slipped right by all of us for who knows how long! But all the sudden her bottom middle tooth was really loose. She was giddy with excitement! So we told her to just keep wiggling it and messing with it and it should come out pretty soon. Fast forward a few hours and we had all been on tooth-watch all stinking afternoon. It was the only topic of conversation and we must have looked at her mouth about every 7 seconds to see how it's "looser." The evening began wearing on, and she was beginning to get a little anxious and worked up over the tooth. She was afraid of possible pain, but wanted so bad for it to be out! So after sending Ava off to start getting a bath, I asked her if she would be mad if I just pretended to check her tooth, but really pulled it. You could tell that's what she wanted me to do, but she didn't want to say yes because she was afraid of the possible pain. She said she didn't really want me to do that, but you could tell she really did. So I had her come sit by me and just gently took it and pulled hard once and POP! it was out! We both screamed and rolled around on the floor screaming about how excited we both were. Shawn and Ava came running and all of us celebrated together with a big group hug and lots of cheering and screaming and laughing and hugging! I could tell Elle was so relieved and then the excitement set in. I think she got about 5 years older mentally after that tooth was gone. She looks so stinkin cute missing her tooth! We are all very excited to FINALLY be able to put that tooth fairy pillow out and see what the tooth is worth. I will say that she said to me that she doesn't think the tooth fairy is real, which I was surprised to hear her say. She never came right out and asked it she was real, but just stated her thoughts. I just let her come to her own conclusions :) So, we officially have added another chapter in the book of grown ups...we pulled our "baby's" baby tooth! Now if we can just get the tooth fairy to give that tooth to Levi....

***late addition...a quote from Elle last night "This is the bestest day of my life!"

Twisting and turning...but too scared...

It was really lose and she thought it was so funny how it moved all around.

IT'S OUT!!!!


Pretty new smile


Tooth fairy pillow waiting to be filled...

Gobble and Wobble

We headed to Tyler this year for Thanksgiving. We were going to stay home, but as it got closer and closer we just couldn't stand the thought of not seeing all of our family and not taking a little trip. We had a really good time and got to finally experience some nice cold weather about half way through Thanksgiving day.

Ava was helping Grandma make her coconut pie...it was a big hit!

Levi and Gramme checking out the Black Friday ads.

Great-Grandchild #17 I believe!-Shawn's grandmother. This was their first time to meet. I am kicking myself now because he also met my grandmother for the first time and I FORGOT TO GET A PICTURE! Arrrgghhh!

Daddy feeding Levi Thanksgiving dinner. He had carrot and applesauce.

Little tubby turkey
The background fabric was the table cover for one of the tables. I told my grandmother I wanted it one day and she gave it to me right there! I LOVE this background!
Our precious family...they mean more to me than anything else on earth! THIS is what I'm thankful for.
What it all started with. I think that except for 1 or 2 years at the most, we have been going as a couple to Thanksgiving at my grandmothers house for 13 years.

This picture cracks me up. My sister had the cutest idea to make a turkey hand prints for my kids so that's what we did. We were all three cracking up at how hard it was to paint Levi's fingers and get his wet little hand to be flat on paper. His was the hardest but it turned out the cutest. This may be a new tradition!

The sign of a great uncle...all the kids are hanging off of some part of your body at all times!

Back at Gramme's house, the girls were very excited to help her put her Christmas village up and make it snow. We had fun while we were there, but as always, there's no place like home and we are all so glad to be back!

Dear Santa

I'm about to post word for word what Ava wrote in her letter to Santa. And if you're wondering why we are doing it so early, it's because she won't stop talking about all the things she wants so we needed to clear some head space for her. So the first little bit, I wrote for her and then when the listing starts...it's all her.

Dear Santa,

My name is Ava and I'm four years old. I think I have been good..so good that I thought of lots of things you can bring me. Here's my list:

1. Twinkle Toes

2. New motorcycle

3. New pink, orange, green, yellow, brown, and white papers

4. New baby doll what has rollerskates

5. froggy that hangs down like a puppet

6. New blanket where it has dots on it

7. pink tape

8. a fake bird

9. a chair like momma's chair

10. a real computer like momma's and a mouse

11. new paint

12. a craft room

13. a real telephone so I can call Nana and Poppy and Wara (Laura)

14. a real clock that rings

15. teddy bear

16. fake ladybug that crawls

17. a hammer like daddy's to bang screws in

18. the book Too Purplely

19. a green camera

20. more headbands

21. Purple scissors

That's all I want. Oh wait...I have one more thing...a lot, a lot, a lot of gum!

Love, Ava

She would have kept going but I told her I thought that was a good start. She comes by this so honestly. When I was little I would write front and back on a piece of notebook paper in extreme detail, each and every single thing I wanted. Oh and to the grandparents....please use her amazon wish list and not this one to buy things from! A fake bird?? That girl cracks me up!

Here's to long Christmas lists!

Round Two

Just about every fall our family takes a picture to send out with our Christmas card. So last week, I began pulling out everyone's clothes and trying to find things that worked together. Actually, we all worked around Levi's sweater because I L O V E it and had to have pictures of it to last forever. Anyway, Sunday after church we headed to a field near our house. To say that the photo shoot was a disaster would be an understatement. It was just downright bad. So, on Monday after reading over the Fruit of the Spirit and doing a few other things like, #1 bringing extra Kleenex for Ava, #2 wearing flat shoes, #3 bringing more chew toys for Levi, #4 bringing candy to bribe children, and #5 a more patient attitude, I was ready for round 2. We did MUCH better yesterday and even though I'm not totally in love with most of the outcomes, we at least got something. I am realizing now with a 3rd child, that we may have to actually really PAY someone to take our pictures if I want them to turn out good. That is really hard for me to do because I can't seem to find anyone who's work I really like, but who doesn't cost more than $700 (no joke!). Anyway, we got some pretty decent pictures and it's done!....at least until the Spring.

7 months old

My baby boy is 7 months old. I think I'm finally settling into the whole getting older/growing up thing with him. It has taken me 7 months to not mourn every single day of him headed away from babyhood. He is as cute as can be and I am soaking up everything! I mean literally, he is slobbering like crazy and I'm trying to soak it all up. No teeth though but we are on tooth watch at the house. Also no words yet. I am working SUPER hard on Mama, but I think he's holding out on me. He likes to stick his tongue out and blow out especially during church. He takes two naps that are about 2 hours long each and sleeps all night. He loves to be outside and can mostly sit up on his own. I measured and weighed him yesterday and he is almost exactly what he was at the 6 month check up which amazes me because he is eating a lot of food now so I don't know how he hasn't gained an ounce or an inch! Oh well, I said I didn't want him to grow up fast.

It's official...

The Christmas season can officially begin. There is Peppermint Ghiradelli Squares in my freezer. What fun object signifies the season for you???

The Costumes

Witchy Woman

Here kitty kitty kitty

Gnome, Sweet Gnome

I sure do love these creatures!

Can I just say that I love that altogether I spent about $2.50 on all of the stuff needed. Awesome! Here's a quick video of Ava testing out her witchy voice...she's got a lot of promise!

Trick or Treat 3 of 3

Yes, that's right, in the span of one week, we went trick or treating three times. As we were going from house to house last night and Shawn and I were talking, I said "Yeah, I think I'm pretty much done with Halloween now. Three times of getting everyone dressed up and pictures, all in one week is enough for me!" But as you know, I love candy, so I was willing to sacrifice to get it for free! We had a marvelous time and the kids looked GREAT!!! Altogether this year, costumes cost $2.50.

All the kids that wanted to from church, got dressed up after service and we headed to the next street over.

Some people really got into it. I love love love this street. I've told Shawn that if we ever move in Gtown, I must live on this street. The houses are old and amazing and the whole street LOVES Halloween!

Shawn brought Levi in the house after the night and I went to get him out and this is what I found. A sad sad kitty.

Checking out the goods. I am horrified to say that they summed the night up by saying, "Mommy, we didn't get enough candy did we? We didn't fill the whole pumpkin up." I am a bad mother.

Disgusting Dinner

Before I get to the actual costume post, I wanted to do one only about our dinner last night. I love love love doing "theme" food. I have a huge section of my dessert recipe book dedicated entirely to odd looking holiday themed food. Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year we decided to eat dinner before church Sunday night so that the kids wouldn't need food right after church. We couldn't be bothered with feeding them after church when we had free candy to get! Priorities people! Anyway, here's the pics from last night's dinner.

Witches fingers(this was actually dessert)

Swamp Dip

Worm Juice (worms in the icecubes too!)


Mummy Dogs

They kept saying I was making it all up when I'd tell them what we were having for dinner and even at one point earlier in the day, Ava was crying and saying she wasn't hungry because she really thought we were having all those things. They kept joking and acting like I was making it all up until I put the witches fingers on the table. All the sudden they seemed a little more somber...maybe mom isn't joking? Lest you start saving for their psychiatrists, they did warm up very quickly to the fingers and each of them ate them and loved them. (but at least I fooled them for a minute!)

Dinner is served, my pretties.....