She's on the move...

Ava has been scooting/rolling/getting around the house for a while now, but in the past few weeks, she's started really crawling and is much faster. I've already had to pull multiple little toys out of her mouth, so I was hoping she would go straight to walking but no such luck! Ava is loving her new-found freedom, and her new favorite game is to pull on daddy's speaker wires or open the fireplace doors!

In addition to moving, she's been "talking" more and more clearly and says, "Mama" a lot, since she's gotten a bit of separation anxiety. She's usually pretty quiet in a group, but I've noticed that when we're at church now (or somewhere else where it's relatively quiet), she gets pretty loud and starts screeching and talking. I guess she figures it's the one time she can actually hear her own voice, since the other girls drown her out during the day! She is still the sweetest baby, and so easy-going most of the time. Perfect addition to our family!

And of course, since Elle saw me taking pictures, she wanted to get in on them, but it's tough to get Ava to stay still at this point!

So here's my first baby (when did she get so big?!?!):

And of course, we also needed a twirl...

Look at her sweet, little hands...such a cutie!

Pardon the excessive amount of pictures...Elle's first recital!

Elle had her ballet/tap recital yesterday, and we were so proud of her. She got right up on stage and danced her whole routine; she wasn't shy at all! Her class did a tap dance ("Teach me How to Shimmy"), and they got a lot of cheering from the crowd, since it was in the midst of slower ballet dances, and her whole class really got into it. Both Elle and Lauren loved watching all the other dances as well, so I definitely think more dance classes are in our future. Kyle's mom came in town to see the recital, and Elle was so excited to have her Mimi there to watch.

When I asked Elle last night what her favorite part of the day was, she replied that it was getting her ballet trophy (all the dancers in the recital got one). I wondered why she didn't say dancing on stage, but she said she liked that too. She just liked getting the trophy more. Who knew that's all it took to impress her?!? She told me, "Mommy, I'm going to put this trophy right on the dresser in my room, so Lauren can see it!" There might be some dancing competition in our future as well between the sisters!

Anyway, here's the youtube video of Elle's dress rehearsal (we couldn't video tape during the actual recital), and excuse the camera jerks at certain points; I was holding Ava and she kept managing to get a hold of the camera strap!

Cleaning out my phone...again...and some stories...

Elle was so cute about Mother's Day this year. I guess she really understood because of a project they did at school, so all week, she was planning what toy she would give me on Mother's Day. Then yesterday, she painted me a special picture, and all day to today, she was telling me "Happy Mother's Day!" She also said, "Mommy, it's your special day today, so you get to decide what we do all day...do you want to go to the park?!?" So funny!

Earlier in the week, when both Lauren and Ava were napping and I was on the phone, Elle told me I had to stay in the other room because she was getting a surprise ready. When she finally brought me in the playroom, she had gotten her princess table and chairs out of the closet, set them up, put a blanket over the table for the tablecloth, and set the table with pretend food, tea cups, etc. I told her that she had done such a lovely job and I loved it. Elle's reply was, "You know why I did it, Mommy? Because I wanted to do something special just for you because I love you!" How sweet is that?!?! It's moments like those that let me know every effort I put into doing special, little things for my girls is more than worth it. I hope Elle will always want to do special things for other just because she loves them! Elle joined me for a pedicure this afternoon and we stopped in Old Navy afterwards, and my sweet girl insisted on coloring this whole picture before we left:

And here's Lauren doing what she does best! Yesterday evening, we went outside to ride bikes, and Lauren tried to come out with no shoes on, so I told her she had to go back inside and couldn't come play until she had shoes. This is what she came out with (she was pretty proud of herself! And she ran up and down the driveway like those were her shoes!):

We have had a lot of rain this past month, so much so, that many areas of the city are flooded. Last week, I hosted a going-away party for a friend who is moving to Nashville, and it of course, started raining during the party. But as it ended and everyone started to leave, there was the most beautiful double rainbow across the sky. It was still raining though, so by the time I got my phone out to take a picture it had faded, but the girls were really excited, running up and down the sidewalk, asking if we could go find the treasure at the end!

Elle has insisted on picking out her own clothes lately, and some days, it's not a fight I'm willing to have, so I let her wear what she wants. I had to snap a picture this day because the pink and white striped shorts with the red, too-short leggings underneath were just too much!

And here's my baby girl taking her first ride on my back...she loved it!

A few more recent conversations/happenings:

--A conversation with Elle the other day, after a play-date with her friend, Kyle, "Kyle and I are going to get married because we love each other!" (This was on the way to dinner and her daddy was about to have a heart attack...the teenage years are going to be fun around our house!!).

--The next morning in the car again, Elle said, "Mommy, I'm going to laugh when daddy walks me down the aisle at my wedding. Are you going to be there too, Mommy? Because I'm going to be really sad because I'm going to miss you when I get married. And will you bring Gracie and Ava to my wedding because I think they might be a little nervous about me getting married." She is the sweetest! And when did she get old enough to know about getting married and weddings?!?

--A bird made a nest on our front porch and after one of the bad storms, the nest fell to the ground and eggs smashed on the porch. Elle said, "Mommy, did the baby birds die?" And after I explained that they did, she said, "Well, I got an idea...you can go to the store and get some new eggs to put in the nest!"

--During breakfast last week, Lauren said, "Mmmm Mommy, this is soo yummy! Thanks for making it for me!" And now she tells me that at most every meal...love that kid!