christmas-time is here!!

i am so excited to announce that "for the moment"...i'm putting my "painting me happy" hat back on for some christmas creations!!!!

these footprint plaques would make a precious gift for grandparents...or a keepsake for mommy & daddy!!!!

i am going to take the first 30 orders and guarantee that those will be ready to roll for holiday gifts...so HURRY and get your name on the list!!!! all others will be taken in order and filled as time allows!

please email me at mere877@yahoo.com if you are interested...and i will make arrangements to get your little one's footprints!

i just love everything about this time of year and look forward to what new memories this holiday will bring! hopefully, i'll be seeing YOU soon!!!!

merry, merry christmas!!!!

under construction...

***looks like the "holiday facelift" proved to be too much...but at least we got a facelift!!! still trying to work out some kinks...but we're getting there!!!!

as you can tell...we've suffered some M.a.J.o.R problems w hen trying to give our blog a holiday facelift!!!!! hopefully, the engineer in the family can solve this problem asap because it's driving me crazy...and i'm not savvy enough to fix it myself!!! :(

our recent birthday girl...

in her birthday suit!!!!

just doesn't get much cuter than this!

just pure, clean love...

got milk?

ava does!!!!

hard...

how can something as easy as taking down a portable crib seem so hard? i mean it's just taking up space in my bedroom...and ava hasn't slept in there for months...

but it's not just the act of taking down the bed...

it's what it represents.

it represents the fact that my baby is not as much of a baby anymore. that time is marching on.

ava, at the ripe age of 13 months, is walking now, has recently cut four teeth at once (three being on the top), is repeating words like "bye", "hi", & "mama", eats like a horse yet is hovering around 17 pounds, will pat herself when i say "love the baby", gives "sugar" by blowing kisses, loves baby dolls & bath time, is in a big girl car seat (still facing backwards of course), has weaned herself for the most part (which has me weepy inside)...and just generally blows me away moment by moment.

yes, it's gonna be hard to take down this crib...but i look forward to the day when she crawls into bed with us just like her older sisters do to cuddle...

i love being their mommy so much...it hurts...and that means it's gonna be hard sometimes...even when it looks so easy.

her birthday

one month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months...which sounds somewhat better than ONE YEAR!

this is just classic...

there are few words that should be used here...i find this utterly hilarious...

this sums up quite a few of our "posed photo sessions"...but as evidenced by the vast majority of my posts...i don't give up easily...

i'm not sure they'll thank me for these years from now...

but at least they'll have proof that i had patience...

i sure do love these goofy, nose pickin', fussy babies of mine...more than life itself.

2 out of my 3 pumpkins

ava and i picked up maddie from school the other day and decided to swing by the st. luke's pumpkin patch for a few minutes before we needed to go get ella!!!! i just happened to have my camera in my car because i had been to mrs. sumlin'sbirthday celebration that morning!!! perfecto!!!

maddie had a blast running around and rearranging tiny little pumpkins...and avahad a blast sucking on as many pumpkins as possible!!!! ewww!!

it was a fun time...and it's neat to see maddie in her role of "big sister" when ella is not around! she's really funny and LOVES to dote on ava! she's at such a precious stage...well, all three of them are really...but on this particular day...i just loved spending time with two out of my three pumpkins...

getting her bowl on...

ella was beyond the moon excited to get to go to jack eli's birthday party on friday afternoon...and an added bonus that she didn't even know she would love was getting to bowl!!!!! she and lots of little friends from kindergarten bowled, and bowled, and bowled!!!!! they were so sweet about cheering each other on and taking turns...it was such a fun, fun party...and we appreciated getting to go!

i'm pretty sure that we found something that the price family will be doing together very soon...especially if ella has anything to do with it!!!

teacher feature...

drop off...

this year at the carnival...i decided to bid on the "teacher feature" for ella's class! i'm not usually a bidder...and i can usually make a guarantee that i won't win...but this year...

I DID!

ella was so excited because that meant she was going to get to spend an evening BY HERSELF with her special teacher!!! each of the k-5 teachers could meet one of their students up at the activity center at school to make pizza together, decorate aprons, and eat!!!! my little girl was on cloud nine!!!

she was smiling so big when i dropped her off...and that big smile was still there when i came to pick her up! of course, she didn't want the evening to end!

thanks, mrs. hight for spending some time with our girl...it is a memory that i know she will hold onto forever...

pick up...

ella's creation...