Remember This?

My little Ava is such a smart, funny, creative, social kid...I would not trade her for the world. But this girl is definitely accident prone. She has a difficult time carrying items across the room. The dogs celebrate every time she carries her plate to the garbage because most of the scraps end up on the floor.

Well, here is a little history of Ava's injuries...it all began with the tricycle crash of '08.

We were in Flagstaff 12/08 and Ava headed down a very steep driveway on a tricycle into a bed of river rocks. She was unable to stop! Nobody was around to supervise...we were all packing up to go home. Her face took a beating...she was so little then...only 2 1/2 years old.

Then the wrestling match of 4/10 on our bed. Todd went to slam Catalina with a pillow, Cat got out of the way, and hit Ava. The pillow threw Ava's head into the head board and she needed two staples. BLOOD! She was the only one in the family to meet her deductible for 2010!

Last weekend we walked to the "big park" to play on the exercise bars. Ava was practicing pull overs while Catalina was showing us she could do 5 hip circles in a row. Somehow Ava let go of the bar and did a face plant on the small rocks below. "BLOOD! Do I have to go to the hospital?" she cried. Luckily, it was all bruises and scratches...her knees looked pretty rough too.

She is in a clumsy, awkward stage right now. I think it's because she is growing so fast that her motor planning skills have not caught up. Boy, I love that little bean sprout!

Happy New Year!

I realize I missed blogging the entire month of December! The Merrill's were busy but that is no excuse. I'm going to try and catch you up quickly...(beware...heavy picture post!).

Jingle Bell Rock on Dec. 11th. The girls did a gymnastic performance, frosted cookies and received a medal from Santa. So fun to see them perform!

The Polar Express the evening of Dec. 11th in Williams, AZ. The girls each wrote a letter to Santa this year and gave it to him on the train. They love this tradition...me, I like to drink wine on the train.

They each bought Reindeer ears after the train ride. We headed back to the cabin to eat pizza and stay up late!

Somewhere in between the festivities, the girls and I managed to decorate the tree. Ava only broke two ornaments this year. She cannot hold on the anything without dropping it...the poor girl!

I flew to Wisconsin (brrrrr) on Dec. 17th to surprise Dona for her graduation. It was Mom's birthday so I got to celebrate that too! Ava called to tell me that the time was not going fast and she missed me so much! She knows how to get to me...

Here is Dona after the very long ceremony! I am so proud of her.

We all had a drink together to celebrate!

The girls went to the Nutcracker again this year. As the show began, Ava leaned over and said to me, "I wonder what mouse is going to die this time." It's her favorite part..."When the mouse got dead."

We celebrated Christmas Eve at our house with Dorothy, Bill, Nancy, Thomas and Elena.

Christmas morning finally arrived! Catalina was up from 1am-4am so excited about the presents. Were they on the good list this year? Ava was very worried!

Of course, Catalina was! Here she is with her American Girl Doll.

And Ava was too! She also wanted an American Girl Doll with a wheelchair. She sleeps in her underwear and sometimes does not get dressed for the whole day. Crazy girl!