Living Up the Weekends

I recently read a stat that a child has 936 weekends until they turn 18 years old.  That struck a cord with me.  In a quick glance that seems like a lot but that means that I don't even get 1000 weekends with my sweet girls before they will graduate and most likely fly the coop.  That also means that we've already spent approximately 200 of those weekends.  Weekends with my girls will be gone in a blink of an eye.  When that happens and I'm looking back I want my mind and photo albums to be filled with memories.  I am not about living with regrets.  It's not about spending money or traveling (both of which I love to do ;)); it's about spending time together, playing together, talking together, building trust with each other, encouraging each other, loving on one another.  This life is hard.
No matter what my girls' days look like and how hard they are I want them to always remember 2 things:  1. That Jesus Christ loves them and only wants the best for them and  2.  That Mama and Baba love them every much.  

It seems like every time we turn around, I'm getting a news alert that something else terrible has happened in this world.  There are many days that I wish I could put my girls in a protective bubble and keep them protected from this crazy world.  I want so badly to be able to protect them from every bad thing.  But at the same time there are so many beautiful things in this world today AND my girls are beautiful and the world definitely needs more people like them.  I pray daily; sometimes every minute for my girls' safety in this crazy world.  I pray that my family will be a light for this world that needs Jesus so badly.  I pray that we as a nation will learn to love each other and not hate so much.  And I pray that we not waste a minute and enjoy each other while we have the chance.

My precious family hanging out this weekend on the pedestrian bridge.  Love them so much!!
      

Let it Snow...in July??

I was working the overnight shift earlier this week.  I texted Matt around 11pm to ask him how his evening went.  His only reply was a picture...

My only response was "what the hell?!!" and then I called to see what in the world was happening with him in charge!  

So the story goes that Matt was on the treadmill and was coming up to check on the girls every mile or so.  When he came up at the last check he opened the basement door and thought something was on fire.  Smoke seemed to be filling the room.  He was searching quickly to see where it was coming from but quickly calmed down when he heard both girls saying, "we're so sorry"...and then he saw the open ash bucket.  Yep, that's right...that is all ash thrown about my family room.  Matt finally got the story out of them that went something like this; we were playing Frozen and needed snow.  Ava later filled us in that "when you throw the ashes into the fan it really looks like snow"!!  

Now as frustrated as we both were after hours of cleaning I cannot fault their imaginations.  Matt and I have definitely been laughing about the situation but not telling the girls we're laughing.  Needless to say the ash bucket has been moved to the garage!  Never a dull moment at our house!

Celebrating 4th of July!

I love the 4th of July!  Friends, family, BBQ, desserts, laughs, games, fireworks!!  I mean what's not to like?!!  

We did fireworks twice this year.  Once on Saturday night at home and once on Sunday night after the College World Series home run derby.  Ava loves fireworks and can't get enough of them, Ella likes them as long as they aren't too loud and scary.  

"That wasn't too loud!  Those (pointing up the street) are too loud!"  She said this over and over in the sweetest little voice for all the fireworks that were Ella approved :)

Baba let Ava help light fireworks this year.  Mama was okay with this because it was just a smoke bomb.  Ava was so proud and Baba loved every moment of it!

We went to the Ralston 4th of July Parade on the actual day.  We had fun hanging out together watching the passers by and the girls had a blast gathering their weight in candy!

Happy 4th of July!  So thankful for this country and for the men and women who fight for our freedom!  God Bless America!!

Happy 5th Birthday Ava Girl!

I have no idea how I have a 5 year old already!  How does time go so quickly and more importantly how do you slow it down??!!  We celebrated with a full weekend of activities.

Friday night was our evening just the 4 of us.  We opened gifts and then went out to dinner.  We asked the birthday girl what she wanted for her dinner and she asked for one of her favorite things...custard buns!  I love custard buns too but I was also very thankful that she didn't pick Red Robin as I suspected she would.

 Custard Buns!!  Yummy!!

Ava and her special friends at the restaurant who made her an impromptu birthday cake.  She is one loved little girl.  

 Her cake made of brown and white rice and carrot strips, dumplings, and rangoon.  Love this!  So special!

On Saturday, we started with a friends and ended the day with a family and friends party.  The weather did not cooperate.  We had planned a beach themed party complete with bounce house, pool, and slip n slide.  However the weather was 68 and rainy all day!  I woke up and laid in bed wondering how to salvage the party but when I got up and went down stairs my mom had already found a page worth of indoor games for kids birthdays.  God bless her!!

Since last August all Ava has wanted was to have her friends from Fullerton over to her house.  I couldn't wait to see her face as all her friends showed up for her birthday party.  I believe we ended up with 11 kids from 3-5pm.  We did end up getting the bounce house set up in the drive way after a lot of hassle.   We also played games including pin the tail on the dolphin, ball throw, and relay races.  The kids ended up having a great time and Ava was so excited!!  Her smile made all the extra stress worth every minute.

 "I'm so excited!!"

  
 We finished off her birthday bash with dinner and fireworks with family, neighbors, and friends.  All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate our Ava Girl!