A little early Christmas Cheer...

This afternoon we decided to put up our Christmas tree, with Miss Ava being almost 2 1/2 years old it was so fun because this year she finally is starting to "get" all the Santa, Christmas tee "stuff." She walked in the house Friday after I put some of our decorations up and said "Oh Mama...Christmas is HERE!" Sooo sweet. After we put the tree up I decided to go through a HUGE bag in her closet of all the clothes that no longer fit and bag them by size to store (yes, I am well aware I should have done this AS she grew out of them but no, I waited 2 years) Needless to say, putting things AWAY with a 2 yr old awake is not the brightest idea. She took everything OUT as I tried to put it up. One thing she found was her old Halloween costume. She was seeming to get quite a few Holidays and celebrations confused in the below video. LISTEN CAREFULLY, she gives you a special TOOT TOOT message to Santa toward the end.

***REMEMBER to scroll to the bottom & PAUSE the blog music then press play on the video player with your computer volume up HIGH she's talking quiet telling Santa what she wants for Christmas***

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FIRST UP...the ornaments and tree decor!
For those that know my husband...ya know we HAVE to have golf shoe ornaments. They are like teeny-tiny real golf shoes! Spikes and all! (Yes, that's a LOT of glitter covering my ottoman)Sweet baby helping. She was SO cute and hung the little ornament in her hand ON the tip of one of the light bulbs. So cute! I turned to grab my camera (of course) and take a pic of it but before I could it fell and broke. You know those dang "balls" are sooo fragile and basically POP when they hit the ground. I felt so bad for her, she was so upset (for like 5 seconds) about that dang gold ball. *No worries though, Mommy broke two more of the BIG ones a few minutes later!
Sweet helper!
The finished product...well for tonight anyway! I always stare at it, change things, move them and I KNOW my child will be "exploring" it for the next month as well :o)
Nothin' like an ill-fitting, year old, HALLOWEEN costume while checkin' out the Christmas tree!
Merry Christmas/Boo from our house to yours!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble...

Happy Turkey Day to all from The Kennedy's!

I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with lots of fun, family, food, laughter and love!

I am so Thankful for a healthy family and a beautiful daughter that fills our hearts with joy every day!

A bike, a trailer, an out-of-shape mommy, and a PURSE...

With the weather so gorgeous these days Ava & I have been taking advantage of it with some bike rides. I L.O.V.E. my vintage beach cruiser I must say! When we ride through the neighborhood people are always stopping to look and ask about it. It's 100% girly and I adore it. What I don't adore? No gears and Austin hills. My legs desperately need to get stronger or Ava needs to run behind and PUSH :o) I seriously have a burning chest and shaky legs by the time I return home...how sad is that? It's all worth it though because she loves the rides.

Here I was trying to teach her how to "pump" her legs and lean back to get higher...

LOVE when she does this! She's hung from this bar since she was teeny tiny and it still cracks me up every time for some reason. She just looks hilarious swinging there. It's a mom thing.

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Before we left this last time she had to pack her purse. This is a new thing. The other day on a quick Target run, she had to get her purse "like Mommy" and loads it with the most random things...

Hunting & Fishing...in the LIVING room???

Bryan took Ava to Cabela's recently and they come home with this?! He is sooo excited. It's a "tent" with an attached chair for hunting. Pops up and there you go, instant "blind" then folds into a small carrying case when you're done. You can sit alone in the woods for hours waiting in the cold for your next duck or turkey (or whatever it is they hunt), in this teeny-tiny pop-up chair tent...None of this sounds the least bit fun to me but he is thrilled about it and Ava thought it was super fun to climb in! :o) It's a guy thing.

While at Cabela's they also replaced the infamous fishing pole that is now resting peacefully on the bottom of the Bay in Rockport, TX. Bryan said there were about 50 kids poles to choose from and he told Ava she could have any one she wanted. There were one's that lit up and played music but nope...she wanted the EXACT same one as she had before. She couldn't wait to bring it home and show me. She's casting it all the time in the house and can't wait to use it at one of the ponds at Bammy & Papa's farm.

SIDE NOTE: Yes, my child does wear pants, I promise! Just seems like a lot of pics lately are without...but we do dress her properly (well, most of the time!)

PT Update

It's been a while since I've updated the blog...stay tuned this week, there will be several!

First up: Potty Training! I am sooo proud to report that Little Miss is in panties all day, pull-ups during her nap (50% of the time wakes DRY) and a diaper at night time. We're sooo proud of our girl! From the first time we started taking her to school in panties she hasn't had an accident! All of a sudden she just sort of "got it" It's so neat, we'll look over and there she is, sitting going tee tee, then pulls her pants up and continues to play. She tells me in the car if she has to go, so we've had to make some car rides a bit longer finding restrooms (YUCK!) the only "down-side" to no more diapers. She was dry all the way home from Houston this week (2.5 hours) though the last 5 minutes really had to go! I ordered these fantastic potty seat covers online from www.onestepahead.com and they rock! They're huge & cover all areas so her little hands don't touch the nasty seat. They are earth-friendly too which is nice to know. I'm not loving the whole public restroom deal but it's great to not have so many diapers to change!

So as of 2 years almost 5 months that's the stats of my angel's potty time...next update will hopefully include dry naps!
Go Ava girl!

My cup runeth over...

*Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page and PAUSE the music player before pressing play on the video so you can hear what she's saying.

ABC's

"God is great, God is good, let us thank you for...our food! Amen."

Twinkle, Twinkle...Jesus Loves Me...

Ok, so this is her trying to sing in a DEEP voice the song "Have Patience" off a Christian CD we listen to in the car...then later she tries to sing it regular...then she just looses interest. :o)

Ava Humor

Today I was in the office trying to catch up on some wedding work for this weekend (Ava's out of school today) & she was next to me on the floor putting diapers on ALL of her animals. It was so sweet her singing and talking to them. After a minute I stopped to REALLY listen and she was saying "Ok, ok there there kitty. Just concentrate and relax. There you go...good kitty" hee hee!

CONCENTRATE and VERY INTERESTING are her latest fav's! We crack up every time she says them since it's such big words for a little girl!

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Last night at dinner we were finishing up and Ava started singing "Jesus Loves Me" (I HAVE to get it on video, absolutely precious). As she was singing she all of a sudden stopped and (dramatically of course) goes "WAIT. I gotta put my finger up my nose!" Nice. I'm sure Jesus didn't mind a quick pause to "pick" We were both laughing so hard we were crying so of course Ava was cracking up too.

She's had a cold recently so she tends to have that finger workin' the nose quite often. We ignore it A LOT but also explain that using a tissue is better. She had no concept of that and thinks the finger is a hoot. Bryan had just gently taken her hand and put it down from "pickin'" right before she started to sing...then that comment came out.

Ohhhh from the mouths of Babes.

Not a drop...

So we've had an interesting few weeks since I got back from Cabo. A few days after I returned, I got sick. Then a few days after my girl then started coughing, then lost her voice & two nights ago woke up crying (the girl NEVER wakes up, ever...unless in pain/sick but even then...very rare). I went in and she was congested so I gave her some meds. Few hours later she was crying again, when I went in she mumbled "Mommy, it hurts""What hurts baby?" "My ears mama, they hurt" Yes, we've all been there as moms...not what you want to hear but KNOW it's coming. This is the first time she's been able to verbalize her ailment to me. Usually it's me guessing what's wrong. Soo long story short, wen,t to the Pedi yesterday morning, said both were very infected. Little A just sat there talking to Dr. R, being so good letting her poke and prod. We got meds for the ears and have had two full days of no school (since she was running a temp) and lots and lots of snuggles, TV, arts & crafts, hide-n-seek etc...

Point of my story and reason for the title of this post is that I debated scrapping the "potty training" protocol (pull-ups or panties only during the day & diaper ONLY at bedtime) because she was so sick I felt like just letting her have a diaper and lay around as much as she wanted...but then the level-headed person I am (sometimes) came out and reminded me how silly that would be. We've been working so hard and Ava's been doing GREAT why stop for two days and have to start over? I'm SO glad I kept up with the the good thing we had going! Ava has done GREAT the last two days and today NOT A DROP was anywhere but in the potty! She had a TINY bit in her pull-up after her two and a half hour nap but basically nothing. We even went and ran errands for an hour and a half, she came home DRY. We watch Sophie on Thursday's and they play hard so potty time is way on the back burner. She went TWICE while Sophie was here! No accidents. I'm so proud of her! We're doing it baby! She holds it much longer also vs sitting every 10 minutes ALL day. *The only issue we're having to tackle with all this is that Little Miss will NOT under any circumstances, go #2 in the potty. Not at all. We've tried everything. She runs and "hides" then tells me right after she goes in her pull-up but won't do the potty. I'm sure this is common, but now it's been two days of not going, and man oh man..let me tell you...she needs to go! Holy cow! I won't go further then saying, I hope she figures it out soon, poor thing (and poor mommy needs a gas mask!!)

For those that have kids that have gone through this potty training fun, you get it. Those that are going through it right now you totally get it too....those that have no kids, newborns or grown kids...you stopped reading after the first sentence.

:o)

11.4.08

I voted today.

Yes, this is a day, an election, that I want Ava to be able to read about. This is such a historic time in our Nation and though I had many questions back and forth on what I was going to do; I am so glad I voted. We are blessed in this country to be able to cast a vote for what we want as individuals and personally, as a woman. I want Ava to always know she has a voice, she is allowed to choose her destiny and in this case (in 16 short years) she will be able to vote for who SHE believes in, what her heart and mind tell her & guide her to do. I received an email a month or so ago from a colleague talking about how she was strongly considering not voting because she was so split on the two candidates. I know there were MANY of us in the same situation with the same doubts regarding both candidates or their VP's in one way or the other. Then she received an email from someone reminding her what the woman before us fought so hard for...the right to vote. The right to have a voice. I am thankful to live in a country where we all do have a chance to help decide what our futures hold no matter our race, sex, religion etc...and though I waited and didn't do early voting and considered not "bothering" today because I had a full plate with work and other items I deemed "more important" I went and did it! Can I tell you, I felt so proud afterwards and so proud to be an American! And...I was a bit embarrassed that I groaned "I don't want to wait in long lines"...uhhmmm yeah, NO lines. At all. Walked in, voted, walked out in less than 7 minutes.

Ava Hope, I want you to always remember your voice is important and worthy of being heard! Take advantage of all opportunities given to you even if they aren't the easiest or you aren't 100% sure. Being silent and not doing anything is worse then going with your gut and doing what you believe in!

Here's to The New President...yet to be named as I type this...and an exciting 4 years to come!
*UPDATE* Barack Obama has been elected as the 44th President of the United States. History was made today Miss Ava. He is the FIRST ever black President. Had John McCain won, his Vice President Sarah Palin, would have been the first ever female Vice President. This was an extremely poignant day in history that when you are older, you will read & study about in school. We lived through it together and one day you will realize the magnitude of the Nation's decision that happened tonight.

Proud to be an American.

Meeeoooowww! Happy Halloween!!!

What a fun Halloween we had this year! And ohhh what a difference a year makes! Last year Little Miss was 16 months old and had fun but didn't entirely "get" the whole Halloween deal:

HALLOWEEN 2007

And the year before that, October 2006 she was just a TINY little 4 month old tootsie! SEE BELOW:

HALLOWEEN 2006

Now onto THIS Halloween 2008. Ava really started to understand a bit of the fun holiday known as Halloween and we had a few Disney books that helped :o) She was adorable and the weather made the entire day even better!

Here's our girl Halloween morning, though I couldn't quite get her to look at the camera. She was so excited daddy was taking her to school so she was more focused on getting in his "big" truck! They had a great time that day in her class. They did "Fall Celebrations" (Halloween scares some of these little one's so they focus more on the season :o) They painted pumpkins and Gourdes and tried Pumpkin and Apple Butter. Yummm!

When we got home we decided to decorate her "baby" pumpkins while we waited for daddy to carve our big Pumpkin

Mouthful of crackers!!! Cheese!

And pretzels...

Yeah! Daddy's home, time to get down to business on this big guy!

Right before we got underway, Ava ran to the back door and insisted she had her "knife" too so she could help daddy out

Eeeeewww! I forgot how strange the pumpkin center feels, but Ohhh how I love the smell. Childhood memories come rushing back and I love it!

Pardon the bottomless child, still doing as much "potty time" at home in between naps as we can so it's panties (or nothin') a lot these days inside!

And he's off to work on the face!

Ava decides she can do a little decorating herself

While Daddy finishes the carving, Ava and I separate the seeds from the other stuff so we can clean them & bake them in the oven...Yum, so good!

The finished product! Not bad for 30 min before it was time to trick-or-treat!

Mommy trying to put whiskers on a VERY squirmy kitty cat with her liquid eyeliner

Yes, I am well aware it sort of looks like she has a goatee, that's ok. She looked adorable anyway.

Ava & Miss Sophie (cave girl) ready to hit the streets!

Well...we have a few minutes to ride in the Barney car. How appropriate with her get-up???!

Soooo something that would happen to me. Look at the darn tail! She had no clue.

I think Bryan's lovely sales trailer really MAKES the picture one for the mantle :o)

Our next door neighbors "small" Halloween vampire. Ava loved it. Sophie...not so much.

Our new neighbors right next door are SO fun. They have two little girls as well and Ava ADORES older kids. Right when they came outside Ava said "Hey big girl, you hold my hand" And what do ya know, they did! The entire time we were trick or treating! It was so funny, Ava went to the door but made sure Bryan and I were close then when it opened she said "Trick or Treating!" Totally didn't get to drop the "ing" Love it.

Part of her goods

She got sooo excited over pumpkin shaped pretzels, of course I LOVED that since I could hear her little voice getting scratchy like Mommy's throughout the night. But don't worry, she had many licks of lolipops, bites of junior mints, drinks of Capri Sun and nibbles on M&M's!

These are our neighbors three houses down...the dogs looked like little pigs and snorted just like them too!

Ava and her new big girl friends that live right next door!

Another year gone by....Happy Halloween to all!