what in the word?

so it's twenty twelve and i have no idea who pressed fast forward and made it the end of january already! (not complaining but wow, time is just FLYING BY these days!)

the mister finished his third semester of nursing school (woo hoo!).
we had a third birthday party.
duckie's great granny and ev came to spend christmas eve and morning with her.
we spent time with my family. new year's came and went.
daddy started his last semester of the nursing program (what?! double woo hoo!).
and now it's the end of january.

so sometime within the last few months, duckie officially morphed into a little girl. she is losing her baby-ness.
i'm pretty sure this happened overnight. she speaks in complete sentences, recalls memories, has an awesome sense of humor and is just a joy to be around. of course there are those things, that still remind me of how she is still quite little - even though to us, she is big! for instance, when she says "what in the word?" because she can't say her "rl" words yet. or "mommy, you want to twirrr? (twirl)" or on those special occasions where she stops her constant motion to sit in my lap for 10 minutes. ahh... that is my version of heaven on earth.

a quick snapshot my sister-in-law took of us over the break... this will go down as an all-time fave.

have a great weekend!

“i fwee!”

HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY DUCKIE!

hard to believe that 1095 days ago, you were taking your first breath, entering the world as our precious little angel. you are a constant blessing in our lives and bring so much joy to our family. just another daily reminder of how great our God is and how miraculous life truly is.

we celebrated your birthday last weekend! it was such a great day filled with family and friends! since you are loving penguins ever since we went to sea world and it has been quite cold outside, the winter wonderland was a perfect way to have fun with your holiday birthday!

you have the greatest personality. you are loving, silly, crafty, adventurous, determined, nurturing and affectionate. still the life of the party, you like to be the center of attention most of the time. you like to joke and call things by the wrong name, only to burst out in a hearty chuckle and squeal the right answer. you like to be swung in the air, spun around in circles and lately, you’ve especially enjoyed jumping jacks! there is never a dull moment when you’re around. 

you can work an iphone better than some adults. i’m in awe at how you quickly and intuitively you picked up the skills to navigate that thing. unlock the home screen, swipe from screen to screen, tap and expand folders, pull up your favorite you tube videos and more... i know you weren’t the only two year old who knew how to do that but it’s just fascinating to watch!

you are really into caring for your babies - you’ve been that way for the past year i would say but now, you have conversations with them, offer them something to eat, help them pretend eat and drink by placing goldfish in their hands and going through the motions to help emmie or bear get it in their mouth. the whole time you encourage them and praise them by saying, “oh-hah-oohhh... that’s a great job, emmie. good job, bear...”

anyway, you are one smart little lady and not to mention ADORABLE! basically, you are cuteness personified. you are sugar. you are spice. and every single thing about your being is one million percent nice.

thank you God for abundantly blessing our family.

ava, mommy and daddy love you to the moon and back.

happy birthday sweet angel girl.

um... have we met?

hey little super girl!

i had so much fun with you at the park the other day!!

you love to run, climb up the ladder, cruise down the slide, run back up the slide, climb up a different ladder,
run down the stairs, jump, swing from bars, pretend to cook food and hand it out at the window - all while giggling, squealing and constantly talking!! you are so hilarious!!

in memory

from apple.com

happy anniversary

celebrating six years of marriage to my amazing husband.

thank you for being committed to me, duckie, our future and most of all to God.

i would not be the person i am today without you by my side.

something blue

 oh i missed this little squirt this weekend!

look at that sweet little face admiring her blue raspberry tongue! haha!

it was her treat for going poo poo on the potty!
 can i get a “WOO WOO!!”

i was fortunate enough to attend a fabulous workshop with shannon phillips from imago vita photography.
it was so much fun and very informative!

my two favorite shots from the practice wedding shoot.

 both, straight from camera

earth to me...

Geez Louise... where in the world have I been??

I guess I’ve been gone awhile. So much has happened since my last post!
We took a family vacation to Sea World, the husband started back to school, Parenthood starts TONIGHT, I’m about to go to my next photography workshop this weekend!.... How am I going to cover all of this? Hmmm...

...I think I will close with a note to my sweet Duckie...

I know this sounds totally cliche but I cannot believe what a BIG GIRL you are!

You are constantly doing saying something new and I am constantly in awe of the natural gifts God has blessed you with. Daddy and I love to talk about all the amazing things you say and do. One of our favorite things is looking back at videos from a year ago and realizing how much you’ve changed.

You talk in complete sentences now. Even if the words are a little mixed up, you can hear something once and repeat it over and over. I love listening for what you will say next!

Playing with letters and spelling words is something you get really excited about.
Watching Word World and Super Why has you spelling too!
The first word I heard you spell was “b-o-x ... box!”
Next was “r-o-c-k-e-t ... rocket!”
This week, you said, “t-r-u-c-k ... truck!” And tonight you said, “h-o-u-s-e ... house!”
I know you know others like car and pig too but I haven’t seen you spell them out with your letters yet. 

You’re saying so many more things clearly now but there’s a few that are still perfectly imperfect:

Your cousin “Kim-bee” is now “Kim-buh-wee” - I gotta admit, I sorta like you saying it wrong.

op-ah-tus ... octopus

es-keh-woo kiss-eh ... eskimo kisses

poo-nahs ... pumas

Some of your recent hilarious expressions are:

That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

High fi! ... Up high! ... Down low! ... Ah-sye! ... Too slow!

Look Mommy! I uh kay-ga-woo!

You love pinning your blankie around your neck and running around the house calling yourself “Soopa Ava!” and then you get me and Daddy in the mix and we become the Supers! “Soopa Mommy and Soopa Daddy! ... to the rescue!” This routine can literally take 30 minutes alone. :)

You are a precious little angel. Our remarkable gift from God.
Your life is a daily reminder of how much God has done in our lives and how much He loves.
We are blessed to have you as our daughter.

I love you more every single day.

Mommy