Love it

Today as we were driving to VBS Jackson says to me, "Mommy Jesus came to take Grandma Libby home". I love her presence every where, it makes me smile.

Summer Fun

Who knew summer would be so busy!! Jackson did his second week of VBS this week. He has done 4 weeks of swim lessons every day and will now go to twice a week. He starts a two week camp at his school next week as well. Ava and I go to the gym every day and Thursday we go to The Little Gym (another plug for gift cards there for her bday :)). I am going on a girls trip to The Woodland's Resort this week end with 10 awesome girls!! WHOO HOO!! Daddy will be left behind with both kids alone. Pray for him, ok just kidding!! He will do great!

On another note I have something else to talk about. Jackson has had so much fun at VBS the past two weeks. I mean really fun! He has been singing about Jesus and so excited to learn about him too. He told me today, "Mommy I love this church can we come here". We currently go to Saint Batholomew and are Catholic (for our friends who don't know). Jackson never wants to go and it is so boring for him (even for me a lot of times). Switching faiths is not an option. I love our church and our priest. I have a strong emotional attachment to our church since this is where I went through RCIA, Greg and I got married there, and Jackson was baptized there as well. Not to mention I love the priest. The only thing is they have NOTHING for the small children of the parish. The do have children's liturgy once they are 4, but I have gone with Jackson and it is so boring! I mean kids like to sing, dance, color, and have fun learning. Why can't they do that while they learn about faith and Jesus?? I am praying for the right decision as we have tried to switch to Epiphany before. It is more contemporary and I LOVE that. They have so much for the kids!! It is just large and hard to feel at home. We are really going to have to work to make it a home church should we decide to do this. Maybe that is what God is calling us to do, work harder and put more into our faith. I know I have been slacking. My other dilemma is my husband. He likes the more traditional church. I feel like we need to do what is best for our family as a whole. I want my kids to love church and have fun learning the faith, but I want my husband to be happy too. Anyway just needed to vent, hear some other perspectives, and ask that you think of us as we try and make the decision.

Milestone's

Sweet Ava Bear is getting big. Yesterday she decided to finally pull herself up on her own. After she did it once she was unstoppable. She pulls up on everything she sees. She also broke her second tooth right next to the first one on the bottom. Ava is getting so much hair as you can see. She is really starting to look like a big girl. I am in a bit of denial that her birthday is coming up. I planned Jackson's when he was 6 months old! I finally started today to plan hers today. This little girl melts my heart!

Kids

I promised pictures from Ava's first day of Little Gym and I forgot my camera! My friend Brandi and I went with our babies. It was priceless to see Ava's little face. She loved it!! She laughed and smiled the whole entire time. She was so excited!! The teacher said she has a natural toe point which means she is going to be a dance ;). She also was already hanging from the bar. I am so excited about many years of Little Gym, gymnastics, and dancing!!
Jackson is doing so good at swimming. He did private lessons last year and was swimming. We took the fall off and he was so nervous to get back in the water. After only two weeks with Mr Rudy he is doing great! He is floating on his own and learning to use his arms when he swims. I am going to keep him in 2 more weeks straight before switching to once a week. It is an expense, but to watch him make so much progress is awesome. He is is confident and so proud of himself. Priceless!! I plan on starting Ava in Mom and me swim classes next month :).
So hint hint Little Gym gift cards or gift cards to Houston Swim Club would be a great birthday gift for Ava since we are asking NO toys. We are blessed with so many wonderful friends that give our kids toys. If our family and friends both continued we could open a toy store. They have so much as it is.
The summer is off to a great start!

10 months

Long time no post!! Ava is going to be 10 months old this week. I can not believe 2 more months and she will be a year old. She is the most loveable, precious, sweet natured baby. Everyone that meets her falls in love with her. She loves to here me sing to her, loves her big brother, and loves going to the YMCA every morning. She and I are starting Mommy and me classes at Little Gym on Thursday. She really loves music so I am so excited to do this with her. She finally got a tooth about 2 weeks ago!! I can’t believe it took 9.5 months to get her first tooth (check out Jackson at 9.5 months with all his teeth). She still can’t crawl, but manages to get around by doing the army crawl. She also can pull herself up to her knees. She so completes our family. I know I say this all the time, but she is such a blessing.

Jackson is all boy!! I worried about him for awhile, but no need to worry. He is the typical whiny three year old. He has done a total 180 since having his tonsils out. He went from sleeping 13-14 hours at night to 11. He used to sleep 3-4 hours for a nap and now naps maybe every other day. He used to tell me he was ready and crawl in bed. Now he fights it every step of the way. He really is over all a good boy, just needs constant reminders of how to act lol. He starts Vacation Bible School next week, 2 weeks of Camp at his school after that, then another Vacation Bible School, then another two week camp, and finally the last week of July we go to the beach. He only goes until 12:00 every day and I am at the gym. The YMCA is so packed during the summer I am glad he will have his own fun things to do.

I am learning to sew. I took my first sewing class with 3 friends and really enjoyed it. My Mother in law bought me a sewing machine and I am bound and determined to learn to sew. It will be a long process I am sure since I don’t have much spare time. Life just keeps getting busier. My days seem like a couple hours and months seem like only weeks. I am trying to enjoy every minute of my babies being small while it lasts. I am missing my Grandma like crazy. It kills me to think about the fact that she is gone. I guess that is one good thing about life being so busy, it keeps me from staying down. I don’t think I could have handled her loss her at any other time in my life. She was here for a purpose and I truly believe part of that was to make sure I was ok.

Greg and I got a night out with several of our good friends and had a blast! We are in the process of trying to hire a baby sitter so we can get out once every other week. We need it! It is nice to reconnect.

Check back for pictures of Ava’s first day at “gymnastics”. Hamiltonhomeof4.blogspot.com