Birthday Post ... Two Months Later

Ava has been six for two whole months. Maybe it's taken me this long to get use to the fact, or maybe it's just that my confounded computer is still broken. Or maybe, just maybe, it's a little bit of both.

Well, our girl celebrated her sixth birthday for pretty close to the entire month of March. Some might say that's overkill, I say, when you have a daughter as awesome as ours, it's deserved :)

We kicked off the festivities during Spring Break with Ava's "friend" birthday party. Since her birthday is St. Patrick's Day, we went with a rainbow theme this year. I even found the perfect material for making her dress (which she actually helped "design"). Several of her closest girlies came over to play games and do makeovers. Another mom and I did nails, but the girls took the liberty of doing each other's makeup. The results were... interesting... but let me tell you, these girls felt extra fancy strutting around in their makeup. Ava is really fortunate to have made some wonderful friends at school (two were missing from the party) and I was extremely impressed that over the course of a two-hour-party they all played together wonderfully. No tears, no hurt feelings, no one being left out. It was really sweet to watch.

The following weekend, the whole family came over on Ava's actual birthday. Early in the day, our little family and my parents went to see "The Lorax." There's something about a movie theater that is so magical to children. We had planned to go to the zoo, but the weather was a little unpredictable, Ava was obviously disappointed, but her reaction to my suggestion of a movie erased any prior sadness. Really, you would have thought I was taking her to Disneyland. Anywho, after the movie, cousins started showing

 Konrad the Goon

up which is when the real party begins. We made homemade pizza, played, opened presents and ate Oreo cake. You know, standard birthday goings-on. But, as we all sat in that room I was overcome with a feeling of gratitude. I am so grateful to be back home, in the same city as almost all of our family, and within just a few hours of the rest. The fact that we are always together to celebrate birthdays, holidays and just plain old days is such a blessing. We've been away
 for several years and have missed out on a lot. It's just neat that my kids will now always have their cousins at their birthdays. That might seem like a silly thing to get all emotional about, but to me, it's special.




 The following weekend, Ava received more presents from neighbors and a friend who missed her party. Really, it seemed like it would never end. But, alas it did. Another birthday has come and gone and we are on our way to number seven. Ava is still ever the sweetheart. She's tender and so motherly (much to her little brother's chagrin). She tries so hard to do what is right and recognizes immediately when she doesn't. She is quick to apologize and quick to forgive. I love throughout the day how she shares little tidbits from school, tells me stories about things that happened or how she's feeling. Our relationship has grown over the past year and while I am sometimes sad to see her grow up so quickly, I look forward to our relationship developing and maturing. I just don't know how much I look forward to our little girl developing and maturing. She's gonna be a stunner. Andy's already scared and a few moms in Ava's kindergarten class have already claimed her for their sons. Ava, of course, is not interested and still firmly believes all boys EXCEPT those related to her have cooties. I will never tell her otherwise.

What a Drag

This blog post is way overdue. This is pretty much how I will begin all future blog posts until my computer is fixed. I am writing this post from our super old desktop. It gets the job done, it just takes it a lifetime to do so. But, I shouldn't complain. Since the demise of my laptop I've gotten a lot more done around the house and pinned a lot less on Pinterest.

Ava entered her first ever science fair back in February. It was a schoolwide event and our little miss placed SECOND in her category (which was the largest of all the categories!). For her project, she wanted to determine which type of paper airplanes flies the farthest. After much research online, she chose three very different planes. She threw each plane 10 times, measured and recorded the distance then analyzed her results. She learned all about "drag" while preparing for her project and took it into consideration when coming up with her hypothesis. She was disappointed that her hypothesis was incorrect (mine was too) but was excited to research her results.

Ava was one of only three kindergarteners who entered the science fair (it's not mandatory) and was the only one to place. She dropped her project off the morning of the science fair for judging. That evening, the science fair was open to the public and the judges decisions were revealed. I was the first to notice the red second place ribbon on her project (everyone got green participation ribbons) and excitedly pointed it out to Ava, who had no idea what it meant. When I explained to her that the red represents second place she was shocked, then immediately ran to tell Daddy and G-Pa (who had come up from Phoenix). I think Andy was the most proud of all. He's always assumed that Ava would take after me and lean more toward the English and writing disciplines. Now, he has a glimmer of hope that maybe she'll be a scientist or math nerd like her daddy.

We're so proud of our girl and the hard work she put into her first-ever science fair project. Here's to many more1

Spring???

Ava and Andy are supposed to be back at school and work today after a weeklong Spring Break. SUPPOSED TO BE. Instead, on this day before the official start of spring, they are home for a snow day. That's right, SNOW DAY! It was 71 degrees here Friday, today's high is supposed to be 37. In the past two days we've gotten well over a foot of snow. Crazy! Crazy, but so fun! After church yesterday, our little family bundled up and went outside for some good ol' fashioned snow fun: we had snowball fights (just for the record, my dear sweet husband TAGGED me in the face with a 90-mile fast ball... just throwing that out there), made snow angels, ate snow and, of course, built a snowman who we lovingly named Lute (Wildcats understand).

Eden ate some snow and generally looked around in wonderment (or she was just frozen that way) before going in the nice warm house for a nap while the rest of us played outside until our noses could no longer handle the cold.

We're heading over to Grandma and Grandpa's today to sled down their big hill. Better take advantage because before we know it, summer will be here!

Snapshots

 The kids are always stealing my camera. I can't tell you how many times I turn it on only to find 50 new pictures of someone's little feet or eyes. But they're not all random...

Jax's self-portrait

 Jax took this one of Ava...

 ...and this one of her wiggling her loose tooth

Not sure who snapped this one, but it's from a little person's perspective nonetheless

  mmmm.... cereal milk

 I took this one at the kids' request

Jax snapped this one of his beautiful big sister!

 Jax and Eden through Ava's eyes

 Courtesy of Ava

While I'm always surprised to find pictures I didn't take on my camera. I can't help but take the time to look at each one, not only because there are some real gems in there, but it's fun to see things through my kids' eyes.

Little Scooter

Our sweet Eden adores her big brother and sister. She watches their every move and smiles as soon as they enter a room. She giggles when they play and does her best to involve herself (if she's close enough). I think she may be getting tired of her lack of mobility preventing her from being a part of the fun because she has taught herself to scoot to her desired locale. She gets up on all fours and rocks, trying so hard to crawl, but she's still not there. So scooting it is. For about a month she mainly moved in reverse, which always led to a fun game of "Where's Eden?" I'd put her on the floor, walk out of the room briefly and come back to find her in a completely different spot. As entertaining as this was to me, it frustrated our baby girl. So, she's learned to scoot forward and sideways and now her big brother and sister, who have been so anxious for Eden to crawl, are getting just a small taste of what life is going to be like when she's fully mobile. She is into EVERYTHING! She has a special fondness for paper, which she first attacks then drools on until it's a big mushy clump. It's pretty gross. She also prefers Jax's monster trucks to more girl offerings, much to Ava's chagrin.

 Push ups!

I remember when Ava was a baby, being so excited for her to move. With Jax, I was excited, but didn't mind any delays. But to be honest, this time around I'm a little less anxious. I'm not sure I'm ready for three mobile kids! It's not the actual moving, it's the constantly having to make sure Barbie shoes, puzzle pieces and crayons are off the floor or at least out of baby's reach. That'll be a full-time job in itself!

But, on the other hand, I am looking forward to Eden really being able to include herself in all the fun things her older siblings do.

Boys Night Out

Monster Jam comes around once a year and it's a must for Jax. This year though, rather than dragging the girls along, Andy and Jax enjoyed a guys night out with most of the Kleinman boys. These kids are OBSESSED with monster trucks!

Our little dude would have enjoyed any trucks, but he was especially excited that his favorite, Sonuva Digger was on the lineup. He and I even made him a special Sonuva-Digger shirt the day before.

Andy says Jax could barely contain himself for most of the show, his excitement was just bursting out of his body! The boys got home around 1 am. Jax was asleep when Andy brought him in, but as soon as he heard my voice the little dude popped right up to tell me how "really awesome" his night was and to show me the new monster truck DVD Daddy bought him (which he slept with).

I love that Andy and Jax got to have this special time together and I think a new Guys Night tradition may have been started. If nothing else, this night only strengthened Jax's desire to grow up and become a monster truck driver.

Catch Up

Now that we live back home and close to family, I find I don't blog nearly as often as I once did. So, now I'm playing catch-up. So much has happened in the past month or so, much of which needs it's own post. That will come. Eventually. For now, here's a glimpse of what's happenin'.

The little dude is a Sunbeam! What?! In our church, the January after a child turns three he/she moves out of Nursery and graduates to the Sunbeam Sunday School class. It's kinda a big deal. Our little guy isn't the biggest fan of church. Well,  it's more the sitting he isn't fond of. But, he's been so excited to move into Primary (the children's Sunday School program) that Andy and I have noticed a huge improvement in his behavior at church. Not that he was bad, just impatient... and bored... and that can sometimes lead to him running toward the front of the chapel, giggling and taunting Daddy... while the bishop is talking. But, no more. Not our little guy. He tries so hard to be reverent during sacrament, loves to say the prayer in Sunbeams and comes home ready to tell us what he learned or what scripture story they read.

Our teeny baby is now six months old and has been introduced to the wonderful world of solid foods. There's not a fruit or vegetable this girl has met that she hasn't liked. I've been working on sign language with her, to help her tell me when she's hungry or wants more, but she hasn't quite caught on yet and much prefers to yell at me when I'm not shoveling her food into her mouth fast enough.

And our big kindergarten girl was named Kid of Character for her class this week (it's like student of the week). Each week, all the teachers in the school choose one child from their class who has exhibited one of six character pillars (trustworthiness, fairness, respect, responsibility, caring and citizenship). There's a bulletin board near the front of the school that displays pictures of each of the kids of character and the character they exhibited. Ava's teacher said she couldn't choose just one for Ava so next to Ava's picture it read: "Ava couldn't choose just one character pillar to be good at. She's good at all of them! Way to go Ava!" She was so excited when she saw that and thanked her teacher. It makes my heart swell with happiness to know that the things we strive to teach her at home, and the things we see her often exhibit in our home, she carries with her at school too. We're so proud of our sweet girl!