the good ol' days

The past few days my girlies have been sick, and last night BOTH of them had fevers and Ava even threw up - in the toilet! It's a bizarre world when you realize how grown up your children are when they start vomiting in the actual toilet versus all over your persian rug. Not that I own a persian rug. But if I did, it would have been vomited on by now.

I was feeling a little nostalgic and spent some time today browsing photos of when the girls were young and innocent. I'm at that stage where when I watch Ava's expressions and hear her speak, I automatically go back to the day we brought her home from the hospital, and I spent an hour watching her swing, in complete awe and disbelief. With Stella, I was of course much more busy, but her first months were spent under serious protective armor because Ava was not okay with having a new little someone in the house. They're little buddies, now, as different as they are . . .

So here is Ava, brand spankin' new at three days old. When she came out, she was covered in hair from her ears to her ankles and to this day her nickname is "Monkey Butt." Yes, we will lose it before she's old enough to remember the trauma :) But she is just such a beautiful little girl, and always had such a unique look . . .

(by the way, most of these photos were taken with a point-and-shoot camera and are not to be considered professional at all! this is a purely personal post and nothing has been touched in Photoshop, if ya can't tell!)



This photo was taken the next morning, and it's been quite the family favorite with her eyes wide open and such :)



This one I love so much and used it in her birth announcement.



And this was taken right after the full-blown smiles came along, which is just such an amazing time as a mother. She was born with these huge dimples and they're just her trademark :)



Ava was born on May 3, 2005. Carson and I had originally wanted our kids 3 years apart, but one night decided, what the hell, let's just get this baby stuff over and done with and have them 2 years apart! And literally, like that, we were pregnant. Stella arrived the day after Ava's second birthday! So May 3rd and 4th are the big birthdays here in the Roof house :)

I love this photo of us in the hospital the day after Stella was born. The expressions are priceless!



And this is just comical because normally Stella was being slapped by her sister :)



And believe it or not, this is actually the very first time Stella smiled when it wasn't gas and I got it!





Happy Friday! We're actually expecting over a foot of snow this weekend so stay tuned for some wintry photo shoots I have scheduled!