Christmas 2012

Ava had "the best Christmas ever" - that's a direct quote.  We spent the holidays in St. Cloud this year and had a couple fun filled days of seeing family and of course opening presents.  Ava had to leave Santa a note at our house since we weren't going to be here to let him know she was at her Grandma's.  She was so worried that Santa wouldn't know where we were but Santa did bring her one gift to her Grandma's and left her a note letting Ava know her gifts were waiting for her at home.  Once she heard that she was ready to open more gifts on Christmas Day :)  I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked as I was watching Ava's eye light up with every gift and the pure magic in her eyes was all I could watch!  Love her to pieces!

Santa 2012

 

Happy Halloween

Duluth

 

 Audrey

 William watching the magician (his face was priceless)

 

Our best attempt at a group photo (these are always the best)



 

Ava's first face painting

 

 

 

Last weekend the Skaudis family invited us to meet them in Duluth to take a train ride to a secret pumpkin patch.  We were so excited to see them!  The train ride was a blast, secret pumpkin patch wasn't so secret :) but the kids had fun getting to pick out their very own pumpkin to take back with us on the train.  We had a delicious lunch with them at Blackwoods, where the moms were able to catch up and then we parted ways.  After lunch the fog had burned off and since Ava had never been down by the Lakewalk we ventured down as a family to see what mama loves the most about Duluth.  A big ship was even leaving the harbor while we were down there.  Love, love, love it up there!  Thanks for planning our visit Skaudis family! 

Weekend with the Skaudis Family

We spent a beautiful weekend up north with the Skaudis family.  They were so generous to open their house to us for a couple of days and let us relax and enjoy the lake and fed us VERY well.  As I always say, wish we lived closer so we could see each other more often!  The kids couldn't get along any better and it's always so good to catch up with my good, good friend Amanda.  Thanks again Amanda, Darin, William, Audrey & Nora!

Ava Turns 4!

Where Have We Been????

For the past 2 months we have been keeping very busy improving the curb appeal of our house.  We started this landscaping 5 years ago when we first moved in and we are almost completely finished.  As you can see in the one picture there is a little work in process in the one area (where the plants are still in pots).  This is Jon's project for the weekend.  We are very pleased with the landscaping and our "new" deck (aka re-stained).  And since you haven't seen Ava for awhile I made her stand in every picture :)