A Little Trip to Texas

Rusty, the girls and I traveled to Texas recently to surprise my Dad for his birthday. Those pictures are on Rusty's computer, so they may not make it onto this blog tonight. I will have to dedicate a post solely to that surprise and how we pulled one over on our Dad. We've never surprised him before, so this was a lot of fun!

On Monday night while we were in Texas, we had a little family Birthday party for Ava. When we got there she was totally fine and playing. Within thirty minutes or so, she was sick to her stomach. Several times. She ended up going to sleep and resting throughout the entire party. We didn't even sing her Happy Birthday, but it was nice visiting with all of Rusty's family.

I made her this cake. It was so yummy. White cake and strawberry cake layers with a strawberry filling inside. My gosh it was good, and so moist!

Tiana's (Rusty's sister) little guy was such a joy to get to hang out with. He's such a happy, fun, precious kiddo. He and Ava played so well together and we were all just so proud of how sweet they were to one another.

Ava even shared her Daddy with cousin Tyler. She doesn't share her Daddy with just anybody!

I loved that Ava was so concerned about what was going on with Tyler in the kitchen. So much so that she just had to be up high to see what he was eating. Notice the toes on his tray. She's got manners.

Nothin' goin' on here. Just one cousin feeding the other cousin carpet fibers. MmmmMmm good!

Now, Rusty and our Brother-in-Law, Jared, thought that it would be a good idea to go outside and play football with the young whipper snappers. I have compiled a list as to why this was a bad idea and I'd like to share it with you.

1. Just because you play Madden Football on PS2 does not mean you are infact a pro-football player.

2. No amount of deskwork puts you in shape to run a football

3. 16 years old left you more than a decade ago (your gray hairs tell no lies)

4. You actually do have to stretch now before you do any physical activity

haha

I'm just kidding, they had a lot of fun and as far as I know, they won. Somehow. Anyway, it was great to see them outside playing football and having a really good time.

Meanwhile, back inside the warm house, Ava was enjoying playing with some of her Christmas presents. She loved this blow up ball house. So cute!

These next two pictures are from the dinner we went to with my family for my Dad's birthday party. Ava doing what she always does, entertaining everyone. I LOVED this picture. You can only imagine what she must be doing to get this response from Rusty and my Mom.

And I just wanted to share this beautiful picture of my Nanny. I snapped it at dinner and when I looked at it, I just decided I loved it. Love you Nan!

Since we got home on Wednesday, Ava's tummy toubles went away and now she has a nasty cold. Fever, coughing, sneezing. All the symptoms you need Nyquil for. Too bad for her! I took her to the doctor today because it's been going on since Friday and isn't getting any better. She found an ear infection. Poor kid. We're on meds and hope she feels better soon. Now my throat is hurting so bad, but maybe I can get past it quickly.

Well, I hope to get the other pictures loaded to my computer and tell the tale of the the great surprise birthday party of the century! Stay tuned...

~Blessings~