Peach Blossom Festival

This was the first year we went to see the blossoms on the peach trees at the farm. The kids loved playing on the toys and we had to take a ride on the train. The blossoms were really pretty, and I convinced the kids to let me get their picture near the trees. (But not too close as Eli pointed out the bees near the flowers. I guess he takes after me and my fear of bees.) It's even better when we have friends come with us!

February Recap

Wow, I feel like the month of February just flew by. I got a nasty cold the 2nd week and it is still hanging around. It was so bad for 3 days I pretty much stayed in bed or layed on the couch with movies going to keep my kids entertained. I've never had a cold this bad! I felt like someone punched me in the face and my top teeth were so sore I could only eat soft foods like yogurt and smoothies. At night I kept the humidifier close and used the Vicks drop-ins for it to help me breathe so I could sleep. Our entire house smelled of Vicks! Before I caught this, I went with Kelsey to get some valentine pics of our kids. They were so fun! (Check out her brand new website beautifulpassionphotography.com.) I wanted to do a "hope you have a rockin valentine's day" card so I brough along some sunglasses & guitar case for Eli. Loved them! And Ava even smiled!

Ava's Ice Cream Party

I decided to have a little ice cream party for some of our friends to celebrate Ava turning 2 on Jan 19th. She loves ice cream! And she was trying to lick her cup out after she ate it all! Thanks to all our friends who spoiled her with lots of girly gifts.

Trip to Idaho

The kids and I flew up to Idaho the weekend before Ava turned 2 to celebrate her birthday and see family. Our flight left at 7am, so we were there bright and early! Eli started crying after the airplane took off and was gripping the arm rests so tight. He was on a window seat so I'm not sure if he was scared of how far up we were or what. Poor kid! He has never done that before, but he kept saying he wanted to go back home. Ava did pretty good sitting on my lap. The girl sitting next to me was so nice and let the kids play fruit ninja on her itouch. When we landed Eli said, "Mom, look at all the snow!" This was pretty funny since there was hardly any snow. So strange to be in Idaho in January and have no snow! The kids loved visiting grandma & Auntie Jill at school. We ate lunch with them and then went to GG's to play. They had a blast playing in the snow. We celebrated Ava's birthday at Craigo's pizza buffet with my family & Kaelub's mom, Denny, & McKenzie. I made ballet tutu cupcake toppers and tried a new recipe for chocolate peanutbutter cupcakes. She was spoiled with gifts & attention. It went by too fast, but we loved seeing everyone!

The Hunter

Back in October Kaelub went up to Idaho with his brother for his first deer hunt. They were down near the Malad area and spent about 5 days doing their thing. He was so excited to get his first deer and it was a pretty nice one. (This is all according to him and those more experienced in the hunting area than I.) We now have a lot of jerky added to our food storage and a set of antlers that I told Kaelub he could proudly display in his man cave, aka the garage. I refused to let him put them above our bed, which I'm still hoping he was just joking about. :)

Not her hair!

It was two Sundays ago while I was at choir practice. Eli cut Ava's hair. I came home and saw her hair out of it's pigtails. When I got closer I noticed hair on her shirt and then realized the top half of her hair on both sides was really short! Eli denied having anything to do with it. He even said Ava cut it herself. I found the pile of hair in their playroom and later found the scissors in Eli's room. He finally admitted it was him to Kaelub a day later. While the kids and I were in Idaho visiting we took Ava to see what could be done to fix it. She ended up with a short little pixie cut and I'm still getting used to it. But she does look cute. Kaelub took this picture on his phone, so it's not the best, but it looked the same on both sides. Poor Ava had a mullet for a few days.

Ball Family Pics 2011

For Christmas I wanted to get pictures of my mom, Aaron, and all of us. So I asked Kelsey to work her magic, which she had to seriously do to get Ava to even be in the pictures. That girl is constantly in motion! But I love how they turned out! My mom still hasn't seen them...so here's a few of my favorites.