happy fourth!!!

oh yes. my blogging just got skilled. prepare yourselves accordingly.
let freedom ring!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from april's iPhone

easter : 2010

the saturday before easter sunday, we went down to visit my sister & spend the day with her!

to our surprise, when we got to her apartment, the easter bunny had already paid her a visit!!

she told ava that the easter bunny had been to her house in the night & that she could hear him hopping around - so ava needed to look & see if he had left anything behind...

so she looked under & behind everything she could - & he had indeed left some things behind!!

ashes then told her 'i even heard him getting in my refrigerator last night! i hope he didn't eat all my ice cream!' so off ava went to check the fridge/freezer...

and sure enough - he had left something in there, too!

she was pretty excited to say the least - haha!

i love her expression in this pic!!

why yes, he left her not only a 'piggy' silver ornament, but also a five dollar bill...

obviously he is not the same easter bunny that visits ava at home ;)

gigi, ashes & ava going over all the loot the easter bunny left at ashes' house!

consisting of yum-yum's & money. 

clearly - the easter bunny knows tutu very well ;)

love these two so much!

best. auntie. ever.

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after we got home that night, ava discovered she had another easter basket waiting on her!

ninner & papa t.v. had to get her some goodies, too!!

she loves her cowgirl book the most ;)

in fact, so much - that she now has pink cowgirl boots, a pink cowgirl hat & a pink rope!

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and that brings us to easter morning ::

somedays she wakes up a little like her momma ;) -

but she was still excited to see that the easter bunny had left her a basket out in the yard!

after she opened up her goodies, it was time to get ready for church!

is she not just the cutest thing?!

she wore her pearl necklace & bracelet for the first time!!

after services, we headed over to mimi's to eat & hunt eggs with the cousins...

and of course open another basket!

emily was 'too old' to hunt eggs this year, so it was just ava & matt - ava loved searching for them & throwing them in her basket! however, she did ask for a little help when her basket got too heavy - ha!

ava & dad : easter 2010

(both had their eyes open! yay!!)

after mimi's we headed over to gigi's...

where she opened basket #4 ;)

this girl seriously loves her some wizard of oz!

and she also got her first taste of  some play 'make-up' ;)

needless to say we all had a fabulous easter & enjoyed spending it with our families!

valentine's day 2010

this past valentine's day {oh yes, i'm just beginning to play KETCHUP} we invited a few of ava's friends over for a 'queen of hearts' party!

of course, we started things off right & had some lunch first ;)

pizza, fruit, juice, goldfish - the basics were covered

love this pic of sweet kaden, but i put it on here so you could see a little of the decor i had - i forgot to take pics of it the day of!

after the kids ate, we let them all go play while us ladies 'lunched'.

i am so thankful to have a such a good group of ladies that are always such fun to be with ;)

after we were done gabbing 'lunching' we let the kids decorate some cupcakes!

tutu : future bakerette

ava's final creation! i honestly didn't think she had enough sprinkles on it, but hey - it wasn't my cupcake...

after we decorated and ate the cupcakes, we had a little valentine exchange!

what a wonderful kind of chaos!!!

carden, rylie, ava, molly, kaden, corenne, owen, and ella claire

'queen of hearts' valentine's day party : 2010

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and we can't leave out ava's first school valentine's day party!! they had a small party during their regular 'snack time' and got to decorate cookies & have fruit, cheese cubes, & punch :)

she said that she didn't like the icing, so that's why there's only a little bit on it ;)

i asked for a dna test to make sure we were related...

this is ava's dear little friend abbie - they played so well together all year!

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and last, but not least - dad had to get her a little something, too!!

some purple tulips, tinker belle candies, and valentine's m&m's - he loves that girl!!

and... just a little RANDOM APRIL FACT ::

on our first valentine's day were were together, d. showed up at my house at 5:30am with hardee's breakfast, his sr. shirt {at my request}, a pink crystal angel {to represent me, no less - bahahah!}, and a dozen purple tulips with three hot pink roses.

it was quite obvious i was head over heels for him since i did not have a conniption fit when i was awoken out of a deep slumber around 5:30am.... ;)

{south mountain christmas 2009}

Christmas Day after we kicked it at our house for a little while, we headed up to South Mountain to Pop & Ninner's house!

Of course, we had a delicious spread to munch on -- but then it was on to the presents!

We do Christmas in Ninner's basement, in fact - the tree stays up all. year. long. - sooo much easier on the 'clean up' process - ha!

 

Here's Tutu tearing into one of her presents!

 

D.Might just looked cute in this one and he had his eyes open - so I threw it in there ;)

 

Still working on that present...

 

Ashes & D. - he almost had his eyes closed... almost.

 

Ava & Seth came up with their own game to play.

Ava was throwing Goldfish crackers into Seth's mouth from across the room!

It was quite entertaining :)

 

Um - how many people can say they have a honest-to-goodness-true Cowboy for a Grandpa?!

We can - Papa TP is stylin' in his new hat!!

Ava couldn't leave Hannah out!

She had to take her the present she got her - a new ball to play with :)

Hannah even sent a present to Stella, too - so sweet!

 

Two peas in a pod.

After we wrapped up the celebration at Ninner's house, we took a little drive downtown to see Nanoo!

She was sound asleep when we got there -

{she will kill me if she knew I posted these pics of her}!

 

: 4 Generations :

Maria {Nanoo}, Eddie {PopPop}, Me & Ava

 

Ava was sooo sweet trying to wake her up!

 

She decided to go ahead and take her to dinner whether she was awake or not!

Well, if you know my family at all - you know we don't play around when it comes to food.

Look who woke up just in the nick of time...

 

April, Ava & Nanoo

 

Ava helping Nanoo unwrap her present from us!

I love the look on Nanoo's face while she's looking at Ava in this picture - it makes my heart smile :)

 

Nanoo with her presents!

 

Giving her good-bye sugars!

Nanoo got sick right after Ava was born.

This was Ava's first time getting to meet her.

By the way she acted, you would have thought she saw Nanoo every day!

She was just loving on her & teasing her, giving her sugars

& telling her 'I love you, Nanoo!'

Nanoo of course, didn't say much during our visit, but hearing her tell Ava 'I love you, too.' just melted my heart.

After visiting with Nanoo, we headed out to Uncle Ron's {my Great-Uncle, Papa TP's brother} house to meet up with some more of our extended family!

Ava was so excited that there were kids there to play with & I think I saw her twice the whole time we were there, ha! She was running up & down all the stairs, playing in the playrooms & riding in the elevator! I'm surprised we coaxed her into the truck to go home - she was having a blast!

 

Ava & her Papa T.V.

Ava & Sam {cousin, Uncle Ron's son}

They played so well together, it was so sweet!

We had a wonderful time up on South Mountain, as always.

It's always so refreshing to breathe in that mountain air -

and even more refreshing to be around our wild-and-crazy-sometimes-dramatic-always-loving family.

Someone Came to Town...

...and in anticipation of Mr. S.C.'s arrival, someone left out a little treat for him!

 Santa sent word that he had eaten PLENTY of cookies & wanted something a little different this year -- luckily for him, there is always a box of brownie mix at the Mathis house!

Ava left Santa some Chewy Fudge Brownies with powdered sugar on top and a big 'ole mug of milk!

She also left some carrots for Rudolph :)

She was F.U.L.L. of questions this year!

'How will Santa come down the chimney to get the presents in here?'

'How will he get back on the roof?'

'Are you sure he'll take these carrots to Rudolph?!'

But she did go to bed & fell fast asleep after we read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' :)

 Here she is coming into the Living Room on Christmas morning!

I absolutely LOVE that she still has her 'Chicken Hair' {as we call it} - haha!

She was sooo excited to see what Santa left for her :)

She only asked for 2 things this year {after days & days of me taking her to the store to pick things out to put on her list - all she wanted was a new pink kitchen & a baby doll center} & this was the look on her face when she saw the Baby Doll Center all gussied up & waiting for her!

Precious...

 Loving her Princess flashlight - uses it daily.

 Loving her Little Mermaid blanket & her new watch!

  Ava & Daddy - Christmas Morning - 2009

{notice the gumball machine in the background - also used daily}

 

 Ava & Mommy - Christmas Morning - 2009

{Yes! I got a windshield cleaner & I love it!}

 She is all about her some Ring Pop suckers!

 Putting her new Little People Castle together - it's what Daddy's do best!

What a wonderful way to spend Christmas Morning - just the three of us, some Cinamon Rolls, & playing with new toys!

Oh - and Stella was there, too, of course!

Christmas Eve Ava asked me if she could write another letter to Santa real quick because she needed to ask for one more thing & here is what she told me to write:

'Dear Santa,

Stella has been good, too.

Please bring her a toy so that I can play with her.

Like a stick thingy & a ball.

Thank you, Santa!

Love, Ava'

Is that not the sweetest thing?!?!

We are so blessed!