Happy Memorial Day!

Matt is officially on vacation and we are up in the Dells at the Wilderness Resort water park hotel having a blast! My sister cam up with us to help with the kids, so Matt and I could have some fun too (the last two times we have been at water park hotels I was pregnant with each of the kids!).
Anyway here are some pictures from today!

Fun At The Zoo & A New Car!

We had a very fun day at the zoo with the kids and my mom, it was perfect weather and it wasn't too crowded, and Logan did great with using the potty while we were there, not that I thought it would be a problem but it was something new we haven't done since he was potty trained back in January, but he's a pro, so no problems there. We have a membership now to the zoo so I am sure we will be going a lot this summer. I think Logan is a good age to do the dolphin show, but they are redoing that area and it won't be open until the end of the month again, so I know once that is open we will check it out. It was Ava's second trip to the zoo, the first thought she was 2 months old and it was during Holiday Magic and she was all bundled up and covered up, so really this was the first time she got to see some animals and what not.







So we were all exhausted when we got home, we had dinner and then decided to go look at these two mini vans we saw on line and long, long story short we drove home in my new (to me, it's a 2006) Toyota Sienna XLE! We ended up trading in my Explorer, and while we probably should have sold it on our own, I am glad to just be done with it, I really hate car shopping, and it's even worse with two kids in tow, but the sales guy was actually very patient and accommodating while we tried to navigate buying this car with two crabby kids with us. I really wanted this particular van and it was in our price range and it was a year newer than most others in our price range and it was an XLE (all the bells and whistles) and it's still under warranty and only had one previous owner. Given all that we knew if we didn't go today we wouldn't be able to get down there (it was and hour from where we are, south of Chicago) until sometime next week and we were worried about losing out on it, so we just went with the kids. Other than Logan melting down when he realized we were not going to go home in mommy's old car, they were pretty good. We didn't get home until 11pm, but I got the car that I really wanted and now we can travel in comfort this summer and we now have a much safer ride for the kiddo's and that's the most important thing!
Here is my new ride!


I will have to read the manual on this puppy though, there are so many options and buttons on this car, the tried to go over them with me but again dealing with the kids I don't remember everything he told me LOL!

All By Herself...

We were outside this weekend working in the yard and getting stuff ready for our garage sale next weekend and Ava was inside napping (Grandpa was in the house with her) and we had the video monitor on and I went over to look at it when I heard her making noise and she was really close to the camera, Matt thought she was standing, but when I went up to get her I found her sitting like this just looking up at me all proud of herself!

Logan Discovers Wii Fit

Logan finally took an interest in the Wii Fit when he found the balance board under the couch the other day. I showed him how to use it and he being the little smarty pants he is, has picked it up pretty fast. Here is a video of his second time playing the hula hoop game, sorry it's not right side up, I did it from my camera, not thinking that I couldn't flip the image like on pictures...whoops!

Ava And The Backwards Crawl

Ava is trying so hard to crawl, right now she can manage getting on all fours but then she can only go backwards, which gets her very mad. Sometimes she launches herself forward, kind of like a seal or something but I have only seen her do that in the crib. She is pulling herself up on anything she can, but sometimes she just lets go so I have to stay by her, she also tries to cruise while standing up...yikes I think we are going to have an early walker, I know she wants to keep up with her brother.

Here you can see her backwards progression LOL!




And she ended up stuck under the couch LOL!

Congrats!

To Matt's brother on his marriage yesterday! We wish you both a lifetime of happiness together! Enjoy!!
Much Love, Matt, Brandi, Logan & Ava

Happy Belated 7 Months Ava!

If you can believe it, Ava turned 7 months on Saturday!!! Time is moving way to fast! She is becoming more and more mobile now and she is working on crawling really hard! No check-up this month so we Wii weighed her and she was 20.6 lbs...no wonder she is so hard to carry around in the infant seat these days, good thing we got the one that goes up to 30lbs and 37 inches! We haven't measured her length yet so I will add that in once we do that.

Here is our 7 month old beauty!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all our Family and Friends and a big Happy Mother's Day to our Moms!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day today. Matt and Logan made me breakfast in bed and the kids got me Glee on DVD! Matt got me all the flowers for outside, but we had already picked those up and started planting. Matt took care of the kids so I got to go out and do some shopping in peace! While Ava napped, Matt fixed up our back garden and got it ready for planting. We went over to my Grandma's for dinner, which was very yummy. While we were over there Ava got up on all fours and started rocking back and forth...it won't be long now! We headed home and my Mom came out to help be construct a Mrs. Pots in the back garden. My Mom has one in her garden and so does my Grandma. It turned out really cute, now we just have to get some flowers in and some ground cover and mulch and that garden will be done. So all in all it was a great day spent with my loves! I could not be more blessed to have my two beautiful babies and a husband who loves me to the ends of the earth, love you all and thank you for making me feel special.

Here is Mrs. Pots, I still have to play with her legs a bit and I am suppose to get moss balls to glue in for her hands.

Ava Pulled Up To Standing!!

I can't believe she did this already, not even 7 months old yet! I had stood her up to her activity table and she was playing and then Logan wanted me to put new batteries in his Zhu-Zhu Pet so I sat Ava down in front of the table and went into the kitchen to take are of the batteries. Of course she starts screaming because I left her and to my surprise when I walked back in the living room there she was standing up in front of her activity table screaming LOL! I was so shocked I ran to get my camera and just as I got back in the room she lost her balance and fell, but I caught her doing it later at least. I was so not ready for that! Now I have to start being more careful and get corner protectors on the sharp edges and of course lower her crib mattress. What happened to our little newborn?

Our 6 Month Old Beauty!

Once again our friend Lance captured our sweet baby girl, looking as beautiful as can be. It was hard to narrow down a few to share they were all spectacular! Logan had his camera there while we were getting pictures done, so he was helping of course and we got some pictures of our handsome 3 year and 6 month old as well!