Mother's Day

(I realize that I'm about 3 months behind, but that's my life as a blogger!)

Mother's Day was especially meaningful this year as it was the day we chose for Ava's baptism. The service was very tender for us because it was performed by our long-time pastor just one month before his retirement after 16 years in our midst. He performed our wedding and our other kiddos' baptisms, so we were pleased that he could do Ava's before leaving. Here he is with her:

The Reverend John McMullen with Ava

The Buchanan Family

(It was only afterward that we realized all our family photos highlight the back of Ava's head!)

Plan B

We planned to go pick strawberries in April with my parents since we had so much fun two years ago. We had the weekend picked and everything. And then it rained all week leading up to our outing. And more rain was predicted. Instead of driving for an hour to play in the mud, we decided to find something closer to home.

All we could find was the Armed Forces celebration at Camp Mabry, but hey, they had horses, tanks, and helicopters. Something for everyone, right? And when the rain inevitably began to fall, we skipped out on the rest of the show and went to see How to Train Your Dragon. Not a bad plan B.

Easter 2010

Church Picnic

All Dressed Up

Father/Daughter Cruise Party

Another year, another dance. What a difference a year can make!

Spring Break

Spring Break was my first chance to be home with ALL THREE kids at once. It went surprisingly well. We even fit in a trip to the Austin Zoo. And the goat didn't eat our map this time!

We went with our neighbors and I took a bottle for Ava (only her second ever). She refused to take it from me, so Shannon patiently took 45 minutes to give Ava 3 ounces in the midst of her screams (Ava's, not Shannon's!). I think I would have given up on the bottle much sooner. I was so blessed to have reinforcements that day!!

Snow Day

It's hard to imagine snow on this hot, humid May day, but here's the proof of our Austin snow storm just 3 short months ago! You'll notice the grass in the bottom picture is completely visible on the ground (and in the snowman!). The kids had to rake up every last bit of snow to create their masterpiece. But he hung around 3-4 days, despite temps above freezing the very next day.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Will saw a man at the park the other day. He said, "There goes Josh's dad!"

A pretty normal thing for a kid to say except he doesn't know anyone named Josh (see my earlier post about pretend real people). We have had a lot of "Josh" sightings recently. We think it's because that's the name of a character in one of his books.

Anyway, I told Brad that Will had seen "Josh's dad" at the park and the following conversation ensued:

Brad: Who is Josh?

Will: Oh, he works for me.

Brad: He works for you? Where do you work?

Will: At Costco.

Brad: Josh works for you at Costco and you saw his dad at the park?

Will: Yeah.

Brad: What do you do at Costco?

Will: I have a lot of people who work for me. They make robots.

Brad: What do the robots do?

Will: They help do my job.

Brad: So you have people at Costco who work for you making robots to do your job at Costco?

Will: Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Busted!

Okay, so several people have asked about Ava sleeping through the night this week. That was actually 3 weeks ago (note the date on the post). I just now got around to uploading pics from the camera and only published the post this week. Sigh. We've had no more miracle nights, but 2 nights ago, she slept from 7:30-3:45. Technically that's sleeping through the night because it's more than 6 hours. Too bad I was awake for half of it! More updates to come soon . . .

Picture this!

I put Will to bed wearing a long-sleeve Christmas PJ top, a pull-up, and socks . . . on his hands. No pants. No sheets. Just the way he likes it. I went back in to check on him and he was lying face down with his head on a small pillow and his rear raised on a larger pillow. Too bad a picture would have awakened him! :)

No Foolin'

So, I've been gone for a little while. Most of you know Ava Nicole Buchanan joined us on February 3. I was induced and she was born in a record 1.5 hours. Yikes!

She weighed in at 8 lbs. 15 oz. and 21.5 inches.

Needless to say, the ensuing two months have been a whirlwind. I don't really remember anything from February or March. Except the Olympics. I think I watched the entire games straight through! Ava even has a ski jump position (standing in our laps) if that tells you anything about my state of mind! I guess I should have been blogging to help me remember something more substantive, but I've literally had her in my arms for about two months straight.

Abby and Will both do great with her. Abby can actually hold and entertain her while I'm otherwise occupied (okay, so maybe I haven't held her the WHOLE time). She reads Ava books and has also given her a bottle. Will loves to talk to her and hold her occasionally (with supervision of course). He takes it on as his personal mission to stop her from crying the least little bit.

And the biggest news of all--she slept from 11-8 last night!! That's right. Nine hours at less than 2 months. And this is no April Fool's. I just hope she's not fooling us! I'm sure it won't happen every night, but now we know it's possible. And it's way sooner than the other two ever even considered sleeping that long. I feel so rejuvenated today. I really hope we're onto something because sleep deprivation is for the birds!

Risk-y Business

Brad (BradDB) is on the couch watching football and trying to teach Will (Super Will) how to play Risk on the computer. This is after several attempts over the last months to get him to play the Lord of the Rings Risk board game. I keep trying to telling him that 3's a little young to grasp the game, but he is relentless!

After-School Conversation

Here's a rundown on a conversation that took place only moments ago:

Abby: I learned about Martin Luther King in school today.

Emily: What did you learn?

Abby: That he helped black people and white people to like each other. And his wife went to jail because she wanted to ride the bus.

We proceeded to talk about MLK and his significance (and a day off from school!), Rosa Parks, the Civil Rights movement, and how it isn't very nice to judge people by the way they look. Then I brought up slavery and the Civil War . . .

Abby: Yes, we talked about that too. Abraham stopped slavery.

Emily: That's right, Abraham Lincoln was president, like Barack Obama, and he helped to put an end to slavery after the war.

Abby: I know who the first president was. It was . . . (pause to think)

Will: John.

Emily: Well, John Adams was the second president. Who was the first?

Will (without any prompting): George Washington!

How did my kids get so smart??

Impeccable Timing

Will has kept his pants dry for the last 3 days and B3 arrives in less than 3 weeks! Couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried. Hooray for precision timing. :)