Playing together

I just love that Ava & Drew can play-without fighting-sometimes. Not exactly sure what game they are playing, they certainly seem to be having fun.

TV Breakfast

Here's a 1st: letting Ava eat her breakfast in front of the TV. The other morning she decided to sleep until 8:30 & since she often doesn't eat breakfast anyways, I thought I'd give her her milk(which she does ALWAYS finish) in her chair watching TV. I figured I should at least offer her waffle & banana....and whadya know...she ate it! Not that I'm going to let this become a daily routine, but she did really seem to enjoy it!

There's a baby in there?

I can't believe I'm already 38 1/2 weeks & our c-section is Friday! This time has just flown by. Guess that's what happens when you're chasing 2 toddlers all day.
Of course Ava & Drew have no idea of how much their world is about to change, but they have shown quite an interest in my ever growing belly--especially Ava. She'll pat & rub my belly & say 'baby'. Drew's more interested in where the baby is going--the pack-n-play we've set up in the playroom.

Church Clothes

It seems we're always rushed on Sunday morning, but I always want to get pics of Ava & Drew in their dress clothes. This morning I was determined....Ava was in a new dress & Drew had new pants! They, of course, didn't really want to get their pictures taken, but we got a couple good ones:
"Hey, don't we look good!" :)

Freedom

Lately, I've been trying to give Ava & Drew a little more freedom to roam the house. They've gotten somewhat more dependable at obeying me, so I feel like I can trust them a little bit. We're not quite to taking down the gates--they are still necessary sometimes(ie when I'm cooking dinner or need to run upstairs for something)--but I do try to leave the gates open for the majority of the day. At 1st, they would just run circles around the house--you could almost hear them screaming "FREEDOM!!". Now that I've been doing it for a week or so, they've gotten more used to it & usually will settle down somewhere after a while. Here are a few pics of them roaming:

Cry Baby, Cry

Both Ava & Drew can be a *bit* dramatic at times. The smallest thing can set off the biggest reaction with them. In these pics, we were happily playing around the house & all the sudden....crying fit. I can't remember exactly what happened: either Drew dropped the shape sorter bucket OR 'sis' took one of the shapes, but either way, it was devastating for Drew!

What a face! :)

We love to read

Ava & Drew both love books! Drew *has* to sleep with at least 3 in his bed & we often hear him 'reading' to himself in the mornings when he wakes up. We always break out the books before naptime & they'll climb up on the couch to 'read' while I clean up lunch. They still like us to read to them, but often they'd rather look at them themselves...it's so cute to hear them 'reading'!

Wildlife adventure

Today we decided to take the kids to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, which is about 1.5 hrs from our house. Ava & Drew love animals, so we figured they'd get a kick out of it. We put them up front with us for the drive through(the 'speed limit' is 5mph) & they may have enjoyed all the knobs & buttons that the car had to offer at least as much as the animals! ;) We had one moment when a 'bluebell'(small moose-type animal) stuck his head through the window & sniffed Drew & scared him a bit. It took him a while to want to let any of the animals near our side of the car again! And Jeremy got nipped by a zebra....they say throw the food on the ground for a reason! ;)
It was hard to get good pics(these are from my phone) w/ the kids & animals being so close. I didn't really want just pics of the animals!

They got a little bored after a while & climbed into the back to play!

After the drive-thru part, we ate at the little cafe they have, then headed over to the petting zoo. All they had were goats, but that seemed to be enough for Ava & Drew. They got a little too excited a couple of times & we had to calm them down before they scared the poor animals! :)

We got back on the road to head home around 1:00, about 30-45 minutes past naptime, & they were wiped out. We barely made it out the exit before they were snoozing!

Another comparison pic

36 weeks

We had our 36 week growth sonogram & doctor's appointment this afternoon. Baby is measuring right on track & estimated to weigh 6lb3oz. The tech said the baby will likely weigh around 7 1/2 lbs at birth! When I was pregnant with the twins, my doctor's office didn't do the 4D sonograms--now they do. Here is a shot of baby's face w/ a knee pressed to his/her cheek. Hard to believe that 3 weeks from tomorrow baby will be here--especially since we *still* haven't decided on names!

*Sometimes* it doesn't take much..

to make them happy!! I pulled out a bucket of old toys this morning & they happily played w/ them for about 2 hours!! I even tried a couple times to put them away & move on to something else, but they wanted the toys!

Payback

Drew has always been a bit of a bully w/ Ava...knocking her down, climbing on top of her, taking her toys, etc. Unless she's hurt, she usually just takes it & moves on. Or maybe she's been waiting for the right opportunity:

*Disclaimer: no one was hurt in the taking of these picture...in fact, it was accompanied by MUCH giggling on BOTH parts!! :)

New couch

Ava was the only one awake when the new couch arrived the other day. But, she was very happy to get to show it off. They have both had lots of fun playing on it & it's been great to have a place that all 3 of us can sit w/o them climbing on top of me!!