Long Time No See!

It's been awhile since I've posted last. My camera's autofocus on the lens has been broken since Ava's 1st birthday - in September! It is really hard to catch moving children when your camera doesn't focus fast enough to catch them. We finally replaced the lens and we tried it out on a rare nice day recently.

This was taken waaaaay back when Molly was still the same size as Max. Puppy Love!

Enjoying the sunshine!

She won't be this small much longer!

Bubbles!

This bubble machine is awesome!

"What is this?"

Best friends!

A New Bass!

Ever since we lost our boxer girl Hallie over a year ago, we've been missing a family member in the dog department. We visited shelter dogs, looked into boxer rescues, but in the end we knew a puppy was best for us. We searched and searched and was lucky enough to find a small breeder. Out of the 7 puppies, one stood out. Now without further ado…..meet Molly!

Molly is super sweet and a really great puppy! I don't know if it's just her or a boxer thing, but she is so obedient. We don't even have to use treats in training her. She follows us around, sitting at our feet, giving kisses, and snuggling. The kids LOVE her and she loves them! 

Ava is kind of obsessed with dog food. We have to watch her close - she will have her hands grabbing that food and shoving in her mouth so fast! 

Ava reading Molly a book.

I would have more pictures, but our camera's autofocus is still broken and it's really hard to capture moving dogs and kids without an autofocus. 

Max kind of ignored Molly when she first came home, but he quickly got over that. I have a feeling they are going to be best buds. Max and Molly love wrestling around, chewing on toys, and chasing each other in the yard. Hopefully I can capture on video Molly's "boxer bounce" when she goes after Max. It's so cute!

I kept trying to take pictures of the puppy and Ava wanted to help. Those eyes kill me! So cute!

Christmas Fun!

Christmas was so much fun this year! Bo totally knew what was going on. It's funny how much more exciting something is when kids are excited. Ava even got in on the fun and enjoyed it all. 

Coming down the stairs, ready to see under the tree! We had not one present under the tree until they were allowed to unwrap them. I didn't feel like rewrapping everything!

"Now where did those cookies and milk go to?"

We won't be able to get away with this when the kids are older, but we made them eat breakfast before presents!  

Stockings!

I love Bo's expression. He really likes his "Woody Buzz" nightlight.

This is probably one of Ava's favorites. They love the cheap stuff!

Ava was almost as excited as Bo was about his cowboy boots.

Bo riding "my bike". I need to get a picture of him riding his bike with the Spiderman mask on.
We also had so much fun with our families, but our camera's autofocus is broken so it makes it less than enjoyable to take it everywhere, so we didn't capture any pictures. 

Awesome Autumn!

I love, love, love fall and the weather has been pretty stellar! Sunday, Bo and I carved and decorated our pumpkins. David helped Bo use the little saw pumpkin knife to carve the big pumpkin. Next year I can see Bo being able to carve all by himself! 

Bo scooping out the pumpkin.

The finished products

Ava had fun watching the craving. 

Yesterday, we lived it up outside. Since Ava is walking and is getting around pretty good, we can all go outside and have fun! It was neat to see how you don't have to teach kids to jump in a pile of leaves. I raked some leaves up and both Bo and Ava flopped right into them. 

Bo flopping in the leaves

Ava's first time playing in the sandbox.

She loved it!

"I'm not eating sand! hehehe"

Just a'swinging!

I finally found a trick to get Bo to smile for pictures - tell him to say, "Hi" to Naomi Manthe. That gets him to smile every time!

It's Good to Be 1!

On Tuesday Ava turned one. So far, from 1-2 is my favorite age. They start doing all kinds of fun things and are interested everything, without the terrible two's tantrums. 

We started out birthday girl's day with a little morning lounging. 

Bo trying out Ava's sunglasses. 

Ava sneaking up the stairs. She saw me coming and gave me this look. I love it!

Good morning birthday girl!

Ava has been taking more and more steps every day. Last night she was almost walking across the living room!

Ava's smash cake

LASHES! 

 My camera's lens is broken, so it will only work in manual focus (which is really hard to shoot in). My uncle who is a professional photographer stepped in and took the rest of these great photographs. He was a lifesaver! 

Just starting to dig in

"This is pretty good!"

Shoveling it in

"Do you want some?"

Ava did a number on her cake

She couldn't wait until it was out of the box to ride it!

 We had a great time! Thank you to all of our family who helped us celebrate! 

A Jacket and A Budding Photographer

I've been obsessed with sewing lately and I found the CUTEST patterns, one of which was a motorcycle jacket for Bo. It wasn't too technically difficult but it was my first time cutting out and using a pattern (all by myself). I need to work on finishing, but I think for my first attempt it turned out pretty good! 

Front of jacket. I now know why the Amish don't use zippers - they don't like  sew them in! Just kidding! (kinda)

A lot of the work was the stitching details. 

Lounging in his jacket

It's good for riding a "cycle"

You can also laugh in it

And do some work

Ava watching brother's photo shoot

Long legs

 The next couple of photos were taken by Bo. In exchange for posing for photos, he got to take a few. He did a pretty good job!