Meeting Uncle Jesse

DJ surprised me and bought tickets to a book signing event with John Stamos, aka Uncle Jesse from Full House. My little girl dreams came true when I finally got to meet Uncle Jesse! We got to listen to his interview about his memoir and then got to meet him for a quick picture. It was awesome!

Catching Up

As usual, life has gotten in the way of me keeping up with the blog. If I’m honest, if it were not for having the blog books printed each year, I would just completely give up on the blog after all we’ve had going on the past few months (more to come). But, I love having the books to look back on our years and actually have the pictures printed instead of just on the computer. So, I am going to slowly work on catching up to present day on the blog. I’ll start with a couple random pictures of the girls.

First up, Zoe got to meet Vanessa Brantley Newton, an author and illustrator for several books we love. Zoe said Vanessa’s daughter is named Zoe so she asked if she could give Zoe a hug because she was missing her daughter. We loved that her school invited an author who looks like her for her to meet!

Ava has been working on perfecting her pie making skills this fall. One assignment for her home life class for school was a pumpkin pie….DJ really enjoyed the benefits of that project. Her work is paying off because she won the family pie contest at Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2023

This year’s Halloween plans were ever changing. We originally planned to go trick-or-treating with some friends from church but they ended up sick. Ava also decided she didn’t want to trick-or-treat this year (she realized last year that she wasn’t a big fan of the event). So, my mom invited us to bring Zoe to her neighborhood to trick-or-treat and DJ’s parents came to stay with Ava. The last minute changes ended up working out great for everyone. Zoe dressed up as Gabby from Gabby’s Dollhouse. She looked so cute when she would sing Gabby’s song with her costume on. She had a blast trick-or-treating in my mom’s neighborhood. It was the perfect size neighborhood with not too many kids (we aren’t fans of the chaotic trick-or-treating in the big neighborhoods). And mom’s neighbors were very generous with the candy…Zoe racked up and is excited to enjoy it all!

Happy Half Birthday, Zoe!

I still cannot believe that Zoe is halfway to 7! 

Zoe is growing so much these days. I feel like she definitely hit a growth spurt recently, although she is still petite. She is wearing mostly size 6 clothes. She wears size 12 shoes. 

Zoe is loving 1st grade. This is such a fun year for school because the class size is small (16 instead of 25). Her teacher said they end up becoming such a close knit group because the class is so small. Unfortunately, her best friend from last year is not in her class this year but they see each other at recess most days. She is making new friends this year too. She’s learning so much too. She is a little behind in her reading but is catching the hang of it more these days. She is showing more interest in reading things as we are out and about too, which will help improve her skills. She knows most of her early level sight words and can sound out simple words. It is amazing to watch her figure it out. She knows her numbers and can do basic addition and subtraction facts. 

Zoe still isn’t a huge fan of eating (well, she loves snacks). Zoe still loves most fruits but strawberries are her favorite. She also still loves any kind of pasta, brown rice, almonds, pretzels of any kind, quinoa, and any kind of bread. She still loves breakfast for supper foods. And she loves lasagna soup. Her favorite restaurant is still Mexican. But Tropical Grille is a close second. She also likes Cheesecake Factory, Culvers and Chick-fil-a.

Lately, Zoe has been more interested in playing games on the iPad instead of watching TV. She loves the Talking Tom game and Giggle Babies. When she does watch TV, she usually chooses between Gabby’s Dollhouse, Bluey and Dora. She’ll occasionally watch Fancy Nancy, Doc, and The Floor is Lava (which she usually watches with Ava). 

Zoe loves to read books at bedtime and loves to go to the library to pick out new books. Some favorites are still any Disney book, Pete the Cat, Berenstein Bears, Fancy Nancy, Amelia Bedelia, and any book about dancers or fairies.

Zoe still loves being outside and wants to go outside every day she gets home. She loves bubbles, chalk, the swings and the trampoline outside. She can do all kinds of flips on the trampoline. Her most recent accomplishment outside was learning how to ride a 2 wheel scooter and even bigger, her 2 wheel bike without training wheels. She kept putting it off for so long but once she finally made her mind up to mastering the bike, she picked it up in no time. Now she is fearless on it and will ride down the hill in our backyard, squealing with excitement the whole time. She is also still obsessed with her baby dolls. She loves to dress them up and they are by far her favorite toys. Most of her Christmas list is doll accessories or new baby dolls. And she still loves to craft with anything she can find, especially boxes. We always have some sort of box creation like a car or a doll house or a doll swing. We love watching her creativity fly when she gets into a project!

So one of Zoe’s goals to accomplish while she is 6 was to learn how to swim and she did that this summer. She took a few weeks of lessons and then picked it up. We got a small above ground pool for our yard this year and I think the extra time in the water really helped her. She also loved going swimming at my grandmother’s neighborhood pool. 

Zoe also wanted to learn gymnastics this year. Well, she hasn’t mastered gymnastics on any equipment but she is mastering floor gymnastics in her acro class. She can do a cartwheel (going both directions, leading with her dominant side and not), a cartwheel starting on her knees, multiple forward roll variations, getting into her bridge from standing and she almost has the handstand mastered. She loves acro and loves to practice it everyday. It is so fun to watch 

Zoe is still a silly extroverted kid who loves to make people laugh (as you can see in a couple of the pics). She is a perfectionist and gets upset when the project she has envisioned doesn’t turn out quite right, which is something we are working on with her. She loves to cuddle and still wants to be carried everywhere. She’s getting more willing to walk but I think she still wishes she was a little baby. She loves big and we are so thankful for her. We never take our role as her parents lightly because we know someone else is missing out on that role. She is such a special girl and we hope that as she grows her birth mama can be part of her life and get to know this awesome kid. 

Happy half birthday, Zoe!

Zoe’s Accomplishment!

This fall, Zoe had a major accomplishment….she learned to ride her bike without training wheels! We’ve been trying to encourage this for a long time. We thought she’d get it long before now because she had mastered the balance bike so well but she ended up relying on the training wheels on her big girl bike too much (I think because the bike was a little too big for her when we first got it). But, she was finally ready to try this fall and it didn’t take long before she figured it out. Now she is fearless with the bike and loves to go down the hill in the backyard, squealing with excitement the entire way!

Ava is 11!

So this post is SUPER late but life has been hectic since school started and I got very behind on things. I also kept wanting to take more pictures of Ava but that never happened. We took these pictures when her hair was straight and I wanted to get more when her hair was in it’s normal curls but she isn’t a big fan of having her picture taken anymore so I decided to just stick with the ones I got.

It is crazy that Ava is 11 years old. She is a true tween and we are having a hard time believing she is almost a true teenager! I asked Ava her regular birthday interview questions again this year to give a glimpse into her life at 11 years old.

How old are you?

You know how old I am, I’m 11.

This question made more sense when she was younger, I’m starting to realize that I might need to change up some of the questions as she gets older. At 11, Ava is growing so much into a young lady. She is getting so tall and looking so grown up. Her stats are:

Height - 61” (91st percentile)

I won’t share weight as she gets older since girls are more private about those things.

She is wearing mostly size 14 clothes, although the pants are big in the waist, she needs the 14 for the length. She can wear a women’s 7.5 or 8 size shoe…which means most of my shoes fit her now!

What is your favorite food?

Mama’s tater tot nachos with cheese, chicken and beans

This meal idea came from her elementary school. Tater tot nacho bar was her favorite lunch item at school so she asked me to recreate it at home. It has definitely become a family favorite. Her other favorite meal that I cook is lasagna soup. She also likes black bean burgers and any form of tacos/nachos. 

What is your favorite color?

Navy blue 

She had a hard time deciding on this one. I think she had a hard time deciding because she doesn’t have a true favorite. She likes navy, light pink and mint green a lot. Those are the colors she’s working towards in her bedroom.

What is your favorite show?

Wednesday 

This is a new Netflix show based on Wednesday Addams from the Addams Family. It definitely has some horror scenes in it and surprised us that she liked it since it is very different from the original Addams family. She also loves Fuller House, Sam and Cat, Sister Sister, Hannah Montana, and KC Undercover. She’s also a fan of baking shows, especially baking competition shows. I think her favorite ones are the Kids’ Baking Championship and Bake Squad. Now that she’s older and staying up later at night, we’ve been watching shows with her in the evenings. We introduced her to Full House, Fresh Prince and her favorite Family Matters. It is fun to rewatch these shows with her. DJ also started watching some of the Marvel movies with her and she is enjoying those.

What is your favorite toy?

My iPad

Sadly, Ava is not playing with toys anymore. This is another question that will need to be changed now that she is older. It is so hard to believe she is this old! But there is no doubt that the iPad is her favorite thing. She loves playing Roblox and other games like it. 

What is your favorite song?

Set Fire to the Rain

Ava recently started listening to Adele and loves her music. We love that she can recognize the quality in Adele’s voice. She also loves Kelly Clarkson and is starting to really like Taylor Swift. She also likes boy band music like One Direction and Backstreet Boys. She’s still a fan of Lauren Daigle, Jamie Grace and Toby Mac as well. And of course, she still loves Disney music and some Broadway music. 

What is your favorite book?

Number the Stars

Ava read this book in 5th grade and fell in love with it. It is about a girl in WWII and how she helps her Jewish friend. She also enjoyed reading The Diary of Anne Frank in school. Ava is a big fan of graphic novels these days and there are a lot of different ones that she looks for at the library. She is also really enjoying the Dear America historical fiction series. And she recently started Harry Potter because she wants to go to Universal and see Hogwarts at some point so we said you need to read the books first to really appreciate it.

What is your favorite restaurant?

Mexican

She still loves going to eat at Mexican restaurants. Our favorite is Molina’s. She even branched out this year and started ordering bean nachos instead of just the quesadilla. Of course the chips and queso are her favorite part of the meal. She also loves Tropical Grille, Cheesecake Factory, Culvers and Moes.

What is your favorite outfit?

Light colored distressed jeans with the light pink shirt 

Ava is very much into clothes and fashion these days. She loves to go shopping and is all about the clothes. It is crazy to me to see how so much of what she likes is what I wore at her age or a little older since the 90s fashion is so big right now. The jeans she likes are the flare jeans, exactly what I wore at her age. She has a couple dresses that are so similar to ones I wore. I remember my mom commenting on my clothes at that age saying so much of the style was similar to what she wore…it always comes back. Ava definitely prefers pants/shorts over dresses these days. And she is getting into the athletic wear, like all other girls/women, and realizing how comfy it is, which I cannot blame her for wanting to wear it all the time.

Where is your favorite place to go?

Trampoline parks with another kid or Frankie’s Fun park

Ava loves trampoline parks. We went a few times this summer (including her birthday) but she decided she prefers to go to them with other kids instead of just us. She said they are fun but are way more fun when there is another kid (other than Zoe) to run off with, which makes sense. She is a huge fan of Frankie’s Fun Park, the arcade place in town. She loves the challenge of trying to get as many tickets as possible and the ever challenging claw game. She didn’t mention this place, but she also loves the waterpark and especially loves the slides there. But I think she would agree that the water park is also more fun when we go with kids her age.

What is something special to you?

My family 

What a sweet answer! She may get irritated with us (she’s at that age, ha) but it is nice to know that we are something special to her, not an object. She loves her family dearly and that includes extended family and birth family. We pray she always feels that strong pull to keep her family close.

What is your favorite thing to play?

Roblox

Like I said before, the iPad and Roblox are her current favorite activities. A friend from elementary school introduced her to Roblox and it instantly became a favorite. 

Who are your friends?

Karis and Maisy and Ella 

These are three super sweet girls from church. Karis and her family are newer to church but she and Ava hit it off really well. We’ve had a few play dates with them and it is sweet to watch the friendship grow. Ella and Maisy have been Ava’s friends for several years now and we are so thankful for them. Maisy and Ava are so similar that even though they are 2 years apart, they are the best of friends. Ella and Maisy even celebrated Ava’s birthday with her very first friend sleepover and those girls had a blast, even though there wasn’t much sleeping that happened.

What do you like to do with your family?

It’s always fun when we play a game together

For a while DJ, Ava and I would play card games after Zoe went to bed. Our favorite was Monopoly Deal. Ava also really enjoys playing Quix with DJ. If we all play a game together it is usually Uno or Go Fish. A fun “game” Ava started with us at dinner some nights is “Would You Rather” where each person asks a "would you rather” question to everyone else. It is always fun to hear each other’s answers to the sometimes very crazy scenarios the girls come up with.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I’m still figuring that out right now. I want to be with animals. I want to be a singer, that would be awesome if I could become famous for singing.

Now that Ava is getting older, she is really thinking about this question more. Although we keep telling her she has PLENTY of time to figure it out. She does love animals but knows she could never be a vet because she couldn’t bear to watch an animal suffer. Plus, she is grossed out by any medical thing so a vet is definitely off the table. She does love to sing and sings all the time. She has a really great voice and enjoyed her time in chorus during elementary school. Her voice is changing a little as she’s getting older and she can’t quite hit the notes she used to be able to hit so I told her she seems to be developing a really nice alto voice. Another future career she’s talked about is a baker and wanting to open her own cafe. DJ and I are gluten and dairy free so she says she wants to open a GF/DF cafe that serves breakfast and lunch. Her cousin, Grace, is also DF and has an interest in baking so they talked about opening their restaurant together. It will be so fun to see what path she takes as she gets older and figures out more what she likes to do/wants to do with her career.

What is one thing you hope to do before your next bday?

I want to get back into ice skating. I also want to go to New Orleans.

Ava recently started talking about how she regrets stopping ice skating and how she misses it. We took her cousin ice skating when she came to stay with us for a few days and Ava remembered even more how much she does love it. We are hoping this is something we can get her back into soon so she can get back out on the ice regularly. The trip to New Orleans is something she just started talking about. She loves that her American Girl doll is from New Orleans, as well as Princess Tiana, so she said she wants to go see where their stories take place. She’s also seen pictures and videos of New Orleans (especially the French Quarter) and thinks it looks like an amazing place to visit…not to mention the beignets. 

What is the best thing that happened to you when you were 10?

I made it into Bob Jones for middle school

This was a pretty big deal for her. She had to take extra standardized testing because BJA didn’t accept the state testing, it had to be national testing. I served as the proctor for these tests and we did them over the course of a weekend. She did amazingly well and scored high on all of the tests, even though some of the questions covered topics that she had never learned about. It is still so hard to believe that her time in elementary school is over and she is going to be in middle school. In some ways it seems like just yesterday that we were dropping her off for kindergarten but then it also seems like a lifetime ago. She is just growing up so fast!

Since this post is so late, her answer to the last question is actually out of date. She started middle school at BJA but it ended up not being the right fit for her. After a lot of prayer and consideration, we decided the best move for Ava was to pull her out and let her do virtual school. So she is now doing Connections Academy online. It definitely seems to be what she needs at this stage in life.

We truly cannot believe that the tiny baby girl we met in Texas is now 11 years old, a preteen! That tiny baby is a beautiful young woman now who gets compliments on her hair or how pretty she is all the time. She feels big feelings but that makes her very empathetic as well. She loves big and that love is what gets her through the hard days of being a tween girl. We are blessed to be her parents and to get the chance to watch her grow into the young lady that God has planned for her to be. But, as I always say, we know that us having that front row seat means that a very special person is missing out. We never take that for granted and we pray that her amazing birth mama knows how loved and missed she is in all of the big moments and in the daily moments of this beautiful girl’s life.

Happy 11th birthday, Ava girl! We are so thankful for you and we love you to the moon and back!

Straight Hair

Ava talked me into straightening her hair one evening. It killed me to straighten her beautiful curls but she convinced me to try. She definitely looked even more grown up with straight hair and she loved her straight hair. It took a long time to do so I doubt we will do it often but she was so happy with it that I am sure we will give it a go again sometime.

Ava’s First Days of School

A little trip down memory lane to all of Ava’s first days of school…

Ava’s First Day of Middle School

This school year is a big year of transitions for Ava. She started a week after Zoe because not only is she no longer in elementary school, but she is in a completely different school all together. We decided to take her out of the public school system and put her in a private, Christian school. She began 6th grade at Bob Jones Academy Middle School. This has been the best decision we could have made for her. She absolutely loves Bob Jones and is making great friends already. She’s not crazy about the uniforms but it is nice to not have to worry about fitting in with clothing choices. Her teachers are all great. The school has been amazing at welcoming her and the other new kids. They connected us with another girl in 6th grade who we met over the summer. That girl made sure Ava was never left alone the first week of school. They also had a special welcome night for all the new families before school started where they had an older middle schooler walk the schedule with each family and Ava got to set up her locker (and practice the lock) without the chaos of the whole middle school being there. Then, she went back for the full back to school night and got to do it all again. We are so thankful for how well Bob Jones is taking care of her and how happy she is there! We are so excited for this new adventure in her life.

DJ’s Birthday

DJ’s birthday fell the day before Ava started back to school. So, we had a little celebration by riding up to Skytop just for the apple cider donuts (and apple cider slush for me since I can no longer eat the donuts).