The Fighter's

Seems just like yesterday they handed my tiny Ava Grace to me for the first time - full head of dark black hair, alert as could be...I was overwhelmed with joy holding her for the first time, a bit nervous worrying about how I was going to live up to the expectations of motherhood. Today my baby is five.  5 years old?? . I cannot believe it.  Looking back on the past five years...part of me is a bit sad wondering where the time has gone.  How is it that my little tiny fuzzy head has grown into my beautiful, beautiful little girl...so, so quickly?  I pick Ava up now and she's more than half my height!  Mostly though I'm thankful for all that she is becoming. For her smile, her wit, for the joy she brings to this house and to others.  For the example and order she tries to instill in her younger sisters (and often her mom:-)).  Ava has a kindness in her, a genuineness about her and a quiet but strong confidence that I pray will last her all the days of her life.  She is so l

Every year for the past nine years, a group of my favorite girls and I have been getting together during the holiday season for a "cookie" party.  The first few years we actually all brought ingredients and made the cookies from scratch at the party...while drinking wine and pigging out on food.  After realizing how disastrous this could be (kitchen's a mess, recipes not quite right, etc.), we decided to just bring already made cookies and trade.  That lasted for about five years.  Present day...we barely even bring cookies to the "cookie party" any more.  These days we are focusing more on eating, wine, trading gifts (we each have Secret Santa's throughout the year and do a final gift and "reveal" at the party), chatting and laughing.  Call us lazy.  I call us wiser with age:-) This year Sue was the hostess with the mostest (complete with themed food and signs - see below). It was SO great to relax with these girls. I look forward to every get

This hung on the wall in my room growing up...and I love that it now hangs in Ava & Kate's bedroom.  I thank God each and every day for my three little girls...

With sprinkles and her pancakes.  Or else you may return to find this.... We changed out pancakes so we weren't on sugar overload...but I had to snap a pic.  Oh how I love my Ava Bean and her love for sprinkles:-)

I love watching my girls process information and use their imaginations...a few favorite conversations from today.... The girls and I were reading a story about Creation from a little kid's Bible before dinner...and I asked them if they had to set a fishbowl up for fish, what would they put in it?  Ava:  "rocks, seaweed, a little castle, fish."  - hers what you would expect when it comes to fishbowls. Katelyn's answer..."Butterflies".  :-)  Love it! Then later at dinner...Ava asked me..."mom...if there's only one God, how can He fit into every one's heart?"  I told her that He is a big God and just like He had the power to create the earth - He has the ability to fit into every one's heart.  I don't know if she quite grasped the answer (it's even hard for me sometimes!)...but I love that she's thinking:-) And now for Livvy Lou...she can't hold a conversation yet like her bigger sisters...but when her sisters 

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” - Charles Swindoll