He’s sweet. He’s huge:9 lbs, 5 oz. 22 inches long! He’s loved. He’s ours. He’s nameless.

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For the past several weeks, I have been in nesting overdrive. Primal hormones are not a thing to be taken lightly. They have overtaken my body and I can no longer shut a drawer without first reorganizing it. My husband comes home each evening to pile of miscellanea waiting to be shuttled to the basement. [...]

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As we celebrate the birth of the Christ child this evening, we are also eagerly awaiting the birth of another sweet babe. Ava likes to put her face right up to my stomach and say, “Mama, don’t you wish it was like an oven so we could turn the light on and take a peek?” [...]

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I love that in Minnesota, Christmas truly falls in the dead of winter. All vegetation is either encased in ice or locked under the frozen ground. Snow covers the rooftops, the sidewalks, the railings and the lampposts. And by 4:30 in the evening this world of white is shrouded in darkness. These are the darkest [...]

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Before Thanksgiving, Ava’s Kindergarten class was studying the early explorers. They stowed away on the Nina to learn all about Christopher Columbus adventurous voyage and then they packed paper trunks to join the pilgrims on the Mayflower. Yesterday, I was helping out in her classroom and noticed that they still had some pilgrim art on [...]

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The month of October is marked with two emotions: fear of all the spooky displays in every shopping center and excitement about an evening of costumes and candy. This year Ava started planning her Halloween costume as soon as the streamers from her birthday party came down. To say that she loves to play dress-up [...]

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It’s no secret that I love summer. I like it hot. Very hot. So hot you have to swim to cool off hot. I like it sundress hot. Flip-flop hot. Tall glass of ice tea hot. When the temperature drops, my mood wants to take the same path. This year, I’m flirting with the idea [...]

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Ava received this delightful CD for her birthday called “You Are My Little Bird.” Accompanied by a acoustic guitar, Elizabeth Mitchell and her daughter sing a round sweet songs about birds. Since Ava’s name means bird, the CD quickly became the number request from the backseat. One afternoon last summer I was driving to some [...]

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When you find yourself on the cusp of a milestone, you pack all the necessary devices to capture the moment. Like the first-time parents that we are, we arrived at Ava’s school with more cameras than children. While Ava’s first day of Kindergarten is well documented in still and motion pictures, there are pictures that [...]

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Early this morning, we were off to the doctor for Ava’s five-year-old check up and the much dreaded shots. She shed not one tear, and was doubly awarded with four brightly colored bandaides and four trophy prizes. Her doctor confirmed our suspicions that she is growing like a weed, more than ready for school and [...]

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