Photoapocalypse

In Nursery they have all the kid's pictures up.  I had to laugh when I saw Brielle's picture.  She is giving a dirty look to whoever was behind the camera.  One of the sisters in the nursery said they took multiple pictures of her at various times that day and every one was the same.  Her face is the same here:

 

Maybe some of us are just born under an angry star!

As Ava's birthday neared, the week of Thanksgiving turned into Ava's birthday week.  I kept telling her you get a day, not a whole week.  But still she'd say things like, "Mom it's the day before my birthday, do you want to make me cry?"  At school they celebrated the four birthdays all clustered around Thanksgiving.  Ava came home asking me if I had run into Nathaniel, Matheo and Seth's moms when I was in the hospital having her.  Funny girl. 

Thanksgiving day, all dressed up and ready to go to Uncle Dan's house for the festivities.  We celebrated Ava's birthday with the whole family.  Those pictures are still stuck in Brig's dropbox folder and I am just technically challenged enough not to know how to import them to iphoto.  Maybe one day I'll post them. 

The next day, Black Friday her actual birthday she decided she wanted to take the birthday money Grandma and Grandpa had given her and go to the Disney Store to spend it.  City Creek was packed.  It was beautiful though. 

 Ava wearing the leopard hat Uncle Darren's family gave to her for her birthday.  She loves it!

If you enjoy not being shoulder to shoulder with people surrounded on all sides by smiling Disney characters do not, I repeat do not go to the Disney Store on Black Friday.  It was a new kind of Hell for me.  I started feeling like there wasn't enough air for the crush of bodies in that place.  It didn't seem to bother Ava.  We ate at the food court, played in the dinosaur playland there and hat hot cocoa and sat on Santa's lap.  It was a successful night and I hope Ava had a great birthday.  I love her so much. 

Goofing around into Smith's the day after the stomach flu knocked Ava into her "worst day ever" as she put it. 

As some of you may or may not have known my Dad had a mini-stroke a few months ago.  The doctors found a small hole in his heart that he apparently had been born with.  Last week he had an operation at the VA hospital to repair it.  I got to spend time with he and mom that night.  I brought a pair of reindeer antlers for laughs.  He was doing well.  I love him so much and am grateful he is my father.  He's doing good now and feeling pent up in typical Dan Cooper style. 

I pinky promised Ava I would take her swimming and per our binding air-tight agreement I was behooved to take her and her sister to the Fairmont Aquatic Center.  I tried to get her to do it sometime this week when her father was home but the tears were intense. 

 The girls had a lot of fun.  I played crocodile and chased Ava around the pool.  She loved it. 

A random day at our house.  Ava put on lipstick and these glasses and came out of her room telling me she looked like Taylor Swiffer. 

 "We are never, never, never getting back together!"

Ava's favorite lyric of the whole song is when Taylor is talking. "So he called me up again last night.  He's like I still love you and I'm like this is exhausting.  We are never getting back together.  Like ever."

 Really feeling the music here. 

This is for my parents.  They bought Brielle some kitty jammies a while back and then gave me money to find a matching pair for Ava.  She isn't thrilled here.  She didn't want to have her picture taken. 

Here is another pair.  Thanks Gram and Grandpa!  Look at the little volcano in the background.  She's about to explode. 

Brielle bursting into tears because Ava didn't want to share the limelight.  What a diva.  Life's so hard when you're young and fabulous.