A visit from friends!

We had some friends come to dinner tonight! It's always so fun when the Brooks come over to our house! Their little boy Logan and Ava just love each other! He is actually the first (and only) boy Ava ever kissed! She was 16 months old when that happened! We met the Brooks at the very Christmas party that Ava and Logan smooched each other! They also have a little girl, Natty. She is about 4 or 5 months younger than Reese.

Pajama day!!

Ava had pajama day at preschool today!! She has been looking forward to this since I told her it was coming (about 3 weeks ago!) Every day... "Is it pajama day yet?" Here is her pajama day pajamas!! Ava loves monsters!! These pajamas seemed fitting, kinda Valentines, but a monster!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!!

Rafael turned 35 today!! WOW!! He is now officially in his -mid- 30's!! Despite my attempt to get a rise out of him by saying that, he feels quite comfortable about his age! :) I am IN LOVE with the increasing number of little gray hairs that are poking through his facial hair and side burns. Something about it is incredibly SEXY!!! I just love every ounce of his soul (and facial hair)!!!
Rafael took the entire week off of work for his Birthday. It was so amazing. I was reminded (again), why we need to hit lotto so he can retire at 35 and be home all day everyday with us!!
We didn't really have any plans, but knew we wanted to take the kiddos to do something fun. We saw this place online called trampoline nation. It's an entire building that is ALL trampolines! It looked like SO much fun! We showed Ava some pictures. She was super excited about going, so that was the plan. At some point the "Super Mall" was brought up. Ava LOVES the Super Mall. They have a huge carousel and lots of little coin rides and candy machines. Ava quickly changed her mind that she would rather go there. SO... we spent most of the day just hanging out, and headed to the Super Mall in the afternoon. We had about 5 or 6 rides on the carousel and TONS of rides on the kiddy rides around the mall. We did a little shopping. Rafael got some new pants! We finished it off with some french fries from the food court and 1 more carousel ride before heading home.
I made an awesome dinner of top sirloin steak with a homemade brandy peppercorn sauce, shrimp sauteed in butter and garlic, mashed potatoes, and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. YUM!! I am going to insert a story here... I am not much of a hard alcohol drinker. Ava and I went to the grocery store and found out that the only brandy I could buy was in a huge bottle (we needed about 3 ounces). From there we went to the liquor store. It felt so weird walking in a place like that with a 4 year old!! I had to wait in line to ask the cashier where the little shots of brandy were. I told her it was for cooking, so she showed me the best one. I felt the need to tell her I was cooking with it, so she didn't think I was some deadbeat Mom buying shots for the road...HAHA!
ANYWAYS... while I was cooking the sauce at home, Raf decided I should follow the recipe to the "T" and light the brandy on fire while it was in the pan evaporating. AWESOME!!! Super chefs in our house!! It was fun with lots of exciting screaming from my part!!
Rafael got LOTS of clothes for his Birthday!! He needed them so bad, and he got some really cute stuff!!! I found an E.T. movie shirt at the Gap while shopping with my Mom and Sister. Ava LOVES E.T. so that's what she gave Daddy. She was SO excited for him to put in on!!! :)

 Of course, the candles had to be relighted for another go with help!!

Back to the library!

Ava and I made a trip back to the library. Mostly because we forgot to get Ava's FAVORITE book "Gargonzola", but also because Mommy wanted to read up on some black and white photography tips! Ava was such a sport! We visited the kids section first, and then headed up stairs for some grown up reads. She was equipped with a few of her favorite books, so she managed to entertain herself! I snapped a few pictures of our adventure. It's not very often that I get one on one time with either of my girls! This was so fun!!! I love how much Ava loves the library. They have cool toys and puzzles to entertain kids, but Ava spends most of her time filling our "library bag" with books she wants!

 I talked Ava in to putting on my glasses for a second. It didn't last long.... "I can't see anything!!!"

 Ava found a friend...

Mischief!!

When Grandma came to babysit a few nights back we took out Ava's old mattress. Grandma was *supposed* to sleep in our bed while Rafael and I slept on the mattress. She ended up sleeping on the couch, so the mattress never got used. We left it out for a few days for some free bed jumping!! It also worked quite well for family movie time. Can you imagine all four of us on this twin mattress?! It was actually pretty comfortable!! :)

BEST Daddy EVER!!!

Ok, so my kids seriously...have SUCH an awesome Daddy! This used to be so much easier for Rafael when Ava was smaller. She is now almost 36 pounds! It's quite hard on Daddy's arms and back to throw her this high, yet she loves it so much...he still does it. I LOVE HIM!!!!

Date night!!

YAY!! Rafael's boss at work set up a night for all the supervisors and their wives to go bowling!! Everything was paid for! It was so fun!! We hung out with a few of Rafael's co workers and his boss and their wives. I just LOVE all these people SO much! I know most of them from when I worked at Comcast. SUCH a great group of people!!
Grandma came to babysit. She took a picture of us before we headed out the door. Reese knew we were leaving and was hanging on to Mommy!! Don't go!! They love their Grandma and had lots of fun with her!! We had planned to be out late, so Grandma stayed the night. Ava was SO excited that Grandma was coming for a sleepover!!
Funny story while bowling... on our first game there were 6 of us. Somehow, I totally blew everyone out of the water!! HAHA!! I don't pride myself on my bowling skills AT ALL, but somehow got lucky that game with a few strikes right in a row!! Rafael however, was not so lucky. He split the crotch of his jeans on his second turn!!! OH NO!!! He tried to hide it and told me he was just going to sit the rest of the night out so no one would notice. WHAT???!!! NO WAY! We just got there! Luckily, the mall was literally across the street. Rafael's boss's wife and I headed over to the mall on a quest for new pants. Everyone wanted to know why we were leaving, so the beans had to be spilled about Rafael's tear. He was the laughing stock until we brought new pants back, poor guy!!
What a great night! We had so much fun!!! Thank you Grandma for coming to babysit!!!!! :)

Library day!!

The library seems to be our most favorite place to go!! Ava and Reese LOVE it and Ava gets so excited when the 3 weeks lapses and it's time to go return our books and get more! We usually leave with at least 20 books each visit. It's so fun, and gives us new bed time stories to read almost every night! Our library here in Puyallup has a whole room sectioned off just for kids. All kids books, toys to play with, stuffed animals, puzzles and games. It's great!!