Birthdays and Presents in Pampa

Enlarged portions of my mom's painting

My girls love their little cousin, Morgan.

Alyssa watching her nano bugs. Ashlyn, Alyssa, and Blaine got nano bugs and their "habitat" from my parents.

Ava playing with her remote control car.

We opened presents from my parents on Christmas Eve before we headed back to Amarillo for Christmas Eve at my Mema's. The girls loved their toys.

Ava kicking back

My Dad got a full head of hair for his birthday from Helen and Sam. He also got a new grand baby. And I got a new namesake. Adam and Robin had their first baby girl on the 23rd and named her Emily Noel.

This is a photo of the painting the girls and I did for my mom for Christmas. We call it a fairy tale story picture. I thought it turned out pretty cool.

Thanksgiving Visits

Blaine's brother and family came to visit the week of Thanksgiving. This is us at the Discovery Center playing cowboy and painting faces. We never got to see my family because we ended up getting sick. We sure missed visiting with them.

First Snow

My little tough girl

Ashlyn grabbed a hand full of snow to eat on the way back up.

Snow down the pants, burr.

Friday morning we woke up to this beautiful seen. Clumps of snow looked like feathers falling. We planned ahead this year so we already had sleds. This really was the first good sledding we got to do as a family. Blaine was off work and school wasn't cancelled so we were the first ones out at medi park. Ashlyn had fun but was a little whiny. Alyssa is a trooper. She loved sledding. She giggled each time down and ran back to the top as fast as she could. Ava doesn't like the cold, or sledding, or coats yet, so she rode down once with me then I held her and took pictures.

Halloween Goodies

My girls really enjoyed their Halloween treats. My cousin gave them fake nails which they wore for a whole 5 minutes. They couldn't do anything in them. It was pretty funny to watch.

Happy Halloween!

Ashlyn and Alyssa both wanted to Barbie Island Princesses which made it easy for me. Ava didn't want to dress up at all until we told her she couldn't trick-or-treat. She ended up being a "doctor" with stitches. She had stitches because she drew on herself with my eyeliner right before we left. Saturday was a perfect night for the trunk-or-treat at church we didn't even need jackets.

Sunday we had the Primary program at church. Ashlyn and Alyssa both did great. Ashlyn had her part and Alyssa's memorized. And Alyssa just needed a little prompting. I don't know why it's so heart warming to hear little children talk and sing, but it is. My parents, Mema, and Great Grandma came with us to church today to see them in their first primary program. Blaine's parents were there, too, but they're in our ward every Sunday. They get to help me every week with the girls. This Sunday they got to sit back and enjoy.

Sunday evening we met up with Coralynn and Adelie (our cousins). We treat-or-tricked at their neighbors. The first person we saw at the trunk-or-treat Saturday was our neighbor, Darla. Ava loves Darla, but not when she's dressed up like a witch with full makeup on. Ava screamed when she saw her and shook all over. Then Sunday at the first house (on of two) she treat-or-treated at, a man opened the door with a mask and cape on. She screamed again. The man took off the mask as fast as he could. She decided it was worth going up to get the treat after that. Her doctor bag got full.

It's Autumn Time

I don't think we have had a freeze yet, but it's starting to feel like autumn at least. This is about my favorite time of year. Perfect for playing outside, going for walks, and enjoying the parks.

Ashlyn posing with her jack-o-lantern. Alyssa and she scraped out their pumpkins without much help at all. Then they drew faces with washable markers for us to cut out. I had to edit the faces a little because they were pretty "intricate".

Autumn sticker art that Grandmama dropped off for them to do, since they all had strep throat.

Last Tuesday, we had our first blustery day in quite some time. We had winds averaging 30 mph with gust upwards of 50 mph. No need to rake. Just wait for the wind to do it for you.

My, How I've Grown!

Ava had her 2 year check up on October 18th. I knew she'd had a growth spurt, but I couldn't believe how much she'd grown. At 18 months she was 32 1/2 inches, now she is 35 3/4 inches. Double her height and she's supposed to be about 6 feet tall. I can't really believe that, but I do anticipate being the shortest one in my family in the not too distant future. Ava also weighs 29.4 pounds. Her height is in the 95 percentile and her weight is in the 75%. She's such a sweet "baby" girl.

My Baby's Two

Ava wanted to blow out the candles three times, so we did.

Excited about her new Disney Princess "CD" Player.

She wanted a kitty painted on her face even though her sisters got rainbows.

Daddy keeping his baby safe. She loved bouncing with him.

Ashlyn and Alyssa ran through the obstacle course like it was a race track. I couldn't even get a picture of them. Ava tried her best to do it by herself. She thinks she's so big. She was able to go through the ropes by herself.

Granddaddy helped her with the obstacles she couldn't do on her own.

Ava's favorite activity was riding the "wagon train" and the "cow train".

For Ava's second birthday we went to Maxwell's Pumpkin Farm. We never even made it to the maze or pumpkin patch. We had too much fun at the kid's activities. Ava loved feeding the goats and rabbits. She was quite the trooper.

Palo Duro Canyon Camping 10/6-10/8

The canyon flooded earlier this summer, and there's still a lot of sand in the creek bed. It was nice to walk on, but every now and then it was kind of creepy for Blaine and I because we would sink pretty deep in the mud underneath. At each of the water crossings there are culverts under the road for the water. They used to be mostly above the water, but now they are "deep" whirlpools surrounded by sand and mud. I dreamed that night that Ava walked into one of the whirlpools and was sucked under the road. I have bad dreams all the time, but even I considered that a nightmare. Blaine told me he dreamed Ava was eaten by a mountain lion the same night. We would hate for anything to happen to our "Little Munch".

Here are my three mountain goats. They are really good climbers, but you know the hardest thing is coming back down.

We're trying to get the most use we can out of our travel trailer! We spent a couple of nights down at Palo Duro Canyon last week. I "thought" we would get to enjoy Fall weather, but it was still Summer. We didn't even wear our jackets.

Cheerio Kabobs

This has to be the most tedious way to eat Cheerios.