Finger Painting

Thursday night I got to finger paint! Once I got my fingers into the paint I didn't want to quit! I made quite the masterpieces.

 "Look Mommy! My hands are all dirty!"

Watching Dora

Watching Dora is hard work and requires a lot of concentration!

I LOVE Cereal!!!

I got a little messy with my milk, but the cereal sure was good!

Cinnamon Rolls

Sunday night we went to Nonna and Papa's for homemade pizza and cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon rolls were just finishing in the oven when we got there, so I got to frost them for Nonna!

What's frosting cinnamon rolls if you can't taste the frosting that's left?

 I was proud of my work and wanted to dive right in!

Play dough Ice Cream

Last weekend, Mommy and I got out the play dough ice cream maker set that I got for Chrismtas. I made icecream cones, sundaes and sprinkles.

First Snow Fall of the Season

We had our first snow fall of the season yesterday. When we got home we went outside to play. As soon as Ava's feet hit the snow she said, "Momma, I lost my boot!" I don't think she realized at first that her boots were under the snow.

 I love that you can see the snowflakes falling!

Stoller Ride with Big Baby

Tuesday was so nice out that we went for a walk when we got home. I had to bring my big baby with. Of course I couldn't leave without food for her!

Bike Rides in January?!?

This afternoon was nice enough that I got to go outside for awhile and ride my bike.

Mommy Ava

Ava has been quite the "little Mommy" lately. She got a new baby and some baby equipment for Christmas. She literally spends hours taking care of her babies at home. Each morning she gets out of bed with at least two babies, lays them in the hall and covers them up for the day with her Dora blanket. When we get home from work and Miss Zivka's house she goes to the babies and begins taking care of them for the night. She discovered some of her old bottles and quickly turned them into hers for the babies. She now has three babies. They have very original names: Little Baby, Medium Baby and Big Baby. This first picture Ava is taking the babies for a walk into our bedroom.

As you can see all of the baby equipment had to be moved into our room. One baby is swinging while the other is being taken out of the stroller.

Kisses for "Little Baby."

Bella Vita

For awhile I've been hearing about the 365 Photo Challenge. Basically, you challenge yourself to capture a moment in your life each day for the year. It encourages you to take photos of things you typically might not photograph. I started on January 1st and am hoping to stick with it. I decided since it would have a lot of randomness to it, I didn't want to post it on this blog. I started a new blog specifically for my 365 photos. The blog name is Bella Vita and the link is http://bellavitatzp.blogspot.com/  I will also put the link on the side of this blog.

iPad Hits the Passe House

Last night we got our iPad. We got some apps for Ava to use and it's quite scary how quickly little ones adapt to technology! She already likes practicing her colors, shapes, numbers and letters on the iPad.

Happy New Year

We were a day late because of celebrating Christmas last night, so tonight we went to Nonna and Papa's house for our New Year's Eve dinner of french onion soup, crab legs, steak, desert, grasshoppers and wine.

I brought my blue Cinderella sparkly nail polish with and painted EVERYONE's nails for them. Josh was a great sport and happily let me paint his nails too!

 After dinner I sat with Papa to watch "the bug movie."

I couldn't let Papa be alone when he made the grasshoppers.

 Then I shared a piece of pie with Nonna. Happy New Year!!

2011 In the Passe House

2011 was a pretty low key year for us! We didn't have any home improvement projects and we had a pretty healthy year.

Chris accepted a promotion in April and began his new position as a manager of rehab services at the end of May. He helped coach his wrestlers to their first state team qualification in Tremper's history. He was able to get out on his boat with my dad several times over the summer to go fishing. His 7th wrestling season began in November and the team is doing fairly well this season.

I began my 6th year teaching kindergarten at Union Grove Elementary and am really enjoying my class this year. I've gotten into my photography quite a bit more. Thanks to my friends for having babies this year; it was fun doing newborn photo shoots!

Ava continues to grow and amaze us each day. She turned two in November and acts like she's 12! She loves reading books, playing with her babies, playing outside, and doing anything related to Dora! Her favorite books are Good Night Moon and Tickle Monster. She started gymnastics in August and really seems to enjoy it. She does somersaults and jumps all over the house now. She takes after me and loves her Bon Jovi! When we get into the car she asks to listen to him loud. She's started to listen to him to fall asleep at night. When Chris turns it on for her she says, "Rock out, Dad!"

We hope that 2012 treats us well and we'll be able to get into a new home before the next school year starts. We hope you have a happy and healthy 2012!

Final Christmas of the Year

Yesterday we celebrated our final Christmas at Grammy and Grampy Uhlenhake's house.

 I showed Grammy the things I got from Santa.

 Brookie and I had fun seeing the gifts each other got.

 I got some new coloring books.

I was super excited about the Dora coloring book!

I showed KK and Josh my new snow globe.

Brookie sat on Grammy's counter and told Desi and Nonna what Santa brought for her.