Our Birthday Princess

4 years ago today our sweet Ava was born! What a precious gift and answer to our prayers! Matt and I have had so much fun retelling the story of that day with her and she LOVES to hear all about it! Last night Matt used her dollhouse to re-create the day she was born, today we looked at her 1st year photo album and watched a few videos from her first year! I think I might have LOVED watching the videos just as much as she did! It makes me sad that I've already forgotten so many of those memories....I guess therefore all the more reason to refresh my memory each year by watching the videos:)

We had a few families over to celebrate...McDonald's Happy Meals were on the menu for the kids and of course cake. But the cake wasn't a hit with the birthday girl...she took one bite, made a funny face and said "I don't like it." What?? How can you not like your birthday cake?? But if the truth be told I'd rather have pie, or cheesecake or a brownie than cake...note to self for next year! What a fun few days to CELEBRATE Ava and who she is becoming!

The First Snowman of the Season

We finally (well, not we, but Matt and the kids) were able to get out to play in the snow a little bit! It was so cold for a while and then Coop had strep throat last week so they have been waiting patiently. We have a picture last year of Ava kissing the snowman they made so they decided to take one this year too. The eyes are blueberries, nose is celery and the mouth is carrots. There wasn't enough time for sled riding so hopefully that will happen over the break!

2 Dates in 1 Week

December 7th, 2002 - Matt and I were married! We celebrated 8 years this week! We went to dinner and had a blast thinking back on that special day and these last 8 years! We've literally gone around the world together and experienced the highs and lows of life - marriages of sweet friends, infertility, seeing college students come to know God, deaths of dear friends, a miscarriage, vacation adventures, precious gifts of children, deep friendships, celebrations of life and the list went on! We see God's hand in our falling in love and we are so thankful! That was the first date of the week for Matt!

The second was tonight...Matt asked Ava if she would like to go on a date with him and you should have seen her smile! I wish I had the video camera on....she lit up! (Side note...I teared up:) ) She ran upstairs and picked out a Christmasy dress, put on her black shoes that she loves and took off with her Daddy! They went to dinner and the best part I think for Ava...cheesecake! He took her picture here in front of a Christmas tree while they were out! Way to go Daddy!! Both of your girls felt so loved by you!

Leaves and Snow in One Week

This week we've raked and bagged TONS of leaves from our front yard AND we've played in the snow!!! One day we had light jackets on and the next heavy coats and hats!!

This year because of the economy our city wasn't able to come and pick up our leaves that we used to rake to the curb. So we had to rake them and take them over to the yard waste place where they take it and make it into free mulch for the community. Monday was a very warm day here so we made a day of it....the kids loved it, Matt worked HARD, and we all chipped in to bag all the leaves! We should of counted but all and all it was around 30 full bags! The next day came the rain and then the snow! Which meant time to put up the tree! Ava and Cooper are at such fun ages for this...(well, besides all the glass ornaments and potential for pulling over the tree:) They have had more fun with the empty boxes and tins that I put under the tree I'm beginning to think who needs the real thing!

Today brought more snow...I really do enjoy it....when it's just covering the ground and we are able to go about our normal day driving wherever we want. We debated on going to the Lebanon Horse Drawn Carriage Parade but decided at the last minute this morning to go for it.

The kids LOVED it! There were around 150 carriages pulled by all kinds of different horses...many of them dressed up for the occasion! I love this pic of Coop...this is what he did for each one...giddy as could be and waving his little hand. Side note - LOOK at this gettup! This snowsuit is from the 70's...you guessed it, it was Matt's!!! We couldn't resist:) He'll hate us when he gets older but it sure was fun today!

Hoping Once is Enough

This week was not what we had planned! Monday afternoon took us by surprise and kept on coming! I was ready to head out the door to go to aerobics and suddenly didn't feel so well.
I will spare you the details but I'm so thankful Matt was home because I began throwing up and throwing up some more...ugh! I laid in bed that night praying that this would be my one time of the stomach flu for the season...please Lord! Anyway, then Matt followed suit on Tuesday and then Cooper on Wednseday and oh so thankfully Ava did not follow!!

So this week needless to say we missed several nights of taking time to put leaves on our thanksgiving tree. The kids have looked forward to doing this every night after dinner. Even Cooper loves it although I'm not sure he really knows what I'm asking him each night as we write on his leaf:) It's been great for me to think about what I'm thankful for and how I want to give God praise! We love hearing what Ava says each day...some days it is the same as the day before but some days she really seems to put some thought into it.

After too much time inside this week.....there was TODAY! It was so sunny and warm!! We didn't miss out! We had a whole Saturday with NO plans! How often does that happen?? We really thought hard about going to the zoo because we love the zoo but that would cost money in which we are low on at the moment...so back to the drawing board....we went to one of the great parks in this area that we haven't explored yet....the Cox Arboretum.

These are some of the pics of the day! What a great way to end the week!

A big TREAT for Halloween!

What a great weekend! Our treat was having Nana and Papa, Aunt Ginny and cousins Hannah, Sam and Seth here! The kids had so much fun playing and laughing and especially trick or treating! We wish they lived closer so we could see them more often. We drove to Yellow Springs on Saturday and went to Young's Dairy to play a little.


We had an early dinner and headed out a little after 6. Cowboy Cooper really loved it! I didn't think he'd walk that whole time but he did bucket and all! Ballerina Ava (who refused to wear her tiara:) had a ball as well....except for some of the scary costumes she ran into. I have to say one house we were walking up to had a sweet older woman handing out candy and a 'grim reaper' kind of think next to her. He had a black sheet over him, scary head, etc. Ava saw it and her eyes got as big as saucers so her aunt Ginny and myself were reassuring her that it wasn't real...it was just a box with a sheet over it, etc. No sooner as we said that he stood up very slowing and started to move toward us!!! Now come on...that isn't helping with my 3 year old who doesn't do well with this stuff!!! I was holding Ava and Seth's hands and as soon as he did that we bolted out of there....there buckets were full enough they didn't need anymore! I have to admit it was scary!

Our neighbor was so thoughtful and brought over the biggest red apples for each of the kids as we started out for the night and he told us that the fire station always has candy for Halloween. So that was our first stop! How fun! This will be a tradition for us...they were grilling out, giving out hot dogs, lots of candy and letting the kids sit in the trucks! This is Seth the Spiderman taking a turn.

Nana, Papa, Aunt Ginny, Hannah, Sam and Seth...will you be our treat again next year? WE sure hope so!

Before Matt's family came we decided to take a turn at carving pumpkins. We hadn't done this as a family yet not knowing how the kids would do. But they loved it! They also loved decorating their own pumpkins with stickers, googly, eyes, pipe cleaners, whatever we could find!

Gymnastics

The last 8 weeks every Thursday night we've walked over to the Y for gymnastics. It has been so much fun! The kids have loved every minute of it! Ava is in the "big girl" class now. Parents cannot help her or be out on the floor with her. I wasn't sure how this would go over at first but she hasn't looked back once! She has loved walking on the beam, trying cartwheels, the trampoline! Ava's teacher has done an incredible job with the kids!

In Cooper's class either Matt or I have to be with him. Ava did this class last year...boy do they have different approaches:) He loves just moving, flopping, flipping, sliding, swinging, bouncing, rolling...you name it, he tries it.

We are so sad the class is over! We are tempted to start them back up again in a week...this or swimming???

Does This Have to Come to an End?

As I sit here now the rain is pouring down and there is a cold wind blowing... oh how I am going to miss these days we've had of absolutely gorgeous weather!! Here's a bit of what fun we've been having.....

Picking pumpkins and more pumpkins!!!

Bouncing in fun jump houses and running through hay tunnels and bouncing some more....

Picking raspberries....YUM!!

We don't want it to end yet!!!

Wait...I Should Know this by Now!

All I can say is EXPECTATIONS!!! Ahhh...they get me every time! Last Friday we had great weather....I don't know if I mentioned it but I LOVE LOVE this time of year and all the fun things that you can do outside! So, I got online and found a farm down in Lebanon where we could go apple picking!! I was so excited because we haven't done this as a family together...we just stick to the pumpkin picking. We pull up to the farm, get out and the first sign Matt sees says, "We apologize but the apple orchard is closed due to a bad crop of apples this season." What?!! I know to some...no big deal. Move on. But I was so sad!! Expectation dashed!
Thankfully, I was able to pull it together and have a fun evening still...picking pumpkins instead:)

Then on to Saturday...a new day! I was looking forward to a Mommy/Daughter day! We had a buy one get one free coupon for Disney Princess on Ice!! Perfect...or so I thought...or actually I wasn't thinking it all through when I bought the tickets. Long story short...I forgot that each Princess story has a Villian... and Ava is very sensitive to these things. Ava was scared...really scared! I won't go into all the details but ugh...I was mad! After waiting it out until intermission, I decided to go ahead and leave and now looking back so thankful I did. Expectations dashed! My emotions were on a roller coaster and I'm thankful God entered in to eventually bring me to a place of asking for forgiveness from my sweet Ava....the redemptive spot in the day - she looked at me, gave me a big hug and said, "I forgive you mama!" Lot's I'm learning about myself, about my kids and how God wants to change and grow me!

Time Away

Can you guess from the picture below where we got away? Those might be called hills by some and others would say for sure those are mountains....we went to the Smoky Mountains. Gatlinburg to be exact. One of our good friends was turning 40 so it was a great reason to get away with some friends and celebrate!

We always seem to talk about getting away with good friends but it rarely seems to happen probably for lots of reasons...one of which just being our season of life with young ones. But, thanks to our friend who picked a weekend, invited us, booked this AMAZING cabin...we actually did it!!! (THANKS too to our parents who loved on and took incredible delight in watching our kiddos:)

This cabin was incredible and a great price to top it off...because we went one weekend before the peek season it was so much cheaper! Anyway....3 stories, 3 big bedrooms all with wrap around porches, hot tub, full kitchen!! Definitely a keeper!We were really only there a short time but we were able to do so much plus relax and get rich time with friends!! The only bummer was the extra 2 hours in the car heading out of Gatlinburg sitting in traffic.....oops, next time we'll know everyone leaves Sunday morning at the same time! It was a great weekend and a good reminder that we need to do this more often!

A Schmattering of Things

You never know what you might find us doing these days! I actually love routine and a "normal" schedule in life but these days you won't find that here. Part of it because of the time of year...it's the fall and there are LOTS of fun things to do, it's the beginning of another school year (not for our kids because they're not in school yet) but for the athletes we have the privilege of getting to know at CSU,and we have only been in our house for a month....oh the list goes on.

One of the "new" things for the kids has been moving up a class at church. Cooper really had no clue although he now is in a room with lots more toys he likes. Ava on the other hand was nervous (she went from being downstairs to upstairs which is kind of scary for her). After several weeks she LOVES it. There is a lot more interaction and she went from a room of about 15 kids to a room of about 6! Here she is after church posing in her "coat of many colors" that she made....any thoughts on what to do with all these crafts????

We also have had tons of "projects" to do around the house. A few weeks ago we finally decided to paint the dreaded mud room. As you can see it's a very tall ceiling and of course the ceiling needed to be done too! Oh, and on top of that the texture is really rough...kind of stucco like..which is hard to paint! Thankfully it's finished! Now on to the next project....here's what our kitchen looked like today....

Matt worked hard last night pulling out the countertops and sink (thanks to a friend as well who came over to help when my muscles couldn't do the deed)! Anyway....I don't have an after picture but it is done...new countertops! It looks great..changed the whole look....of course it would when the old ones were a really bad shade of blue.

Don't worry we aren't all work and no play around here....we made it out to Young's Dairy on Saturday...they had a festival going on with all the fun and flair...oh and one of my favorites, pumpkin ice cream!! I didn't realize I uploaded the pic below but I'll just keep it here...the kids have really started to enjoy making cookies so we decided to make cookies one morning and send them to grandparents....you have to notice of course not just the aprons but the tutu's underneath:) Who knows what tomorrow has in store???

This one is for Matt!

Go Bears is a common saying around here these days!! Not just from my husband but from my sweet Ava!! Her daddy is loving it!

Here's a family photo shoot before the game on Sunday!! Yes, that is Ava in a bears shirt and just her tights...who needs pants?? Let's just say Coop wasn't really in the mood for any Bears schananagans!!

I was behind the camera taking these pics but some of you would be surprised that I too had on a bears shirt...that's right all 4 of us...OBNOXIOUS!! And even worse is we headed out after the game to Kohl's for a little shopping....all in navy and orange!! As I was paying, the man at the cash register says to me, "Go bears...they had a good one, huh?" Me.... "Um.....yeah..... well I have to be honest I didn't watch any of it but my husband did tell me it was a good game:)"

Here's to football season!!

Happy Birthday Matt and Cooper!!

I wasn't sure in the midst of our move if we'd be able to pull it off....but we did! We were able to have a dual birthday party to celebrate my boys!

Matt turned 39 on August 26th! We were able to have some friends over to celebrate that night with Matt's favorite....cheesecake! No, I wouldn't be so insane as to make it...Walmart has a pretty good cheesecake that has lots of variety. But, I did make it over to our local Cheesecake Factory and bought Matt a piece of his favorite...Adam's peanut butter cup!

Yes, that is a big birthday cake with candles on Matt's head:) It has been a tradition in our family to wear this birthday hat when it's your big day!

Cooper Paul Hardy was born on August 27th! What a joy he is to our lives! He has become very verbal and loves to repeat any word he hears you say. He loves to wrestle with Daddy, enjoys playing with anything that has wheels and can be heard calling out for his sister in which he says, "Fava, Fava!" He didn't get cheesecake but cupcakes with cars and dump trucks on them. They were so cute. I didn't think the cars on top tasted that good but he loved them.


Here's Coop with the hat! He blew and blew and blew and blew....and finally got a little help from mommy.

Here he is playing with one of his gifts....pure delight!