What a powerful message...

Take two minutes out of your day to watch this video. I think it has a very powerful message.

Happy Birthday Gramps!

Happy Birthday to Kenneth (aka - My Dad, Gramps)! Hope you had a great day! Here is a little message from Ava.




And here is a little extra something left over from Halloween.

10 on Tuesday

Here are 10 random facts about Life at the Rogers's House right now.

1. Ava loves her milk, juice (1/2 juice and 1/2 water), and water (at bedtime). If she notices that she does not have a juice/milk/water cup, she gets hysterical. "My JUICE! Where's my juice!" This is usually yelled until the cup is tracked down and she has guzzled it down.




2. I was definitely not an Obama supporter, but seeing what he is planning and the changes he is working on making, I actually have hope for this country that I have not had lately.




3. Bradley and I actually went to the movies Sunday night and out to dinner. Alone! With no little Ava!




4. With the holidays approaching I am getting out my cookbooks and planning what I am taking to various family get togethers.




5. "Our" new outside cat now has a little home. Bradley has been calling her Ms. Whiskers, so Ava calls her Whiskers.




6. Someone we know has a birthday this week...




7. Life is not complete unless you have a princess/fairy costume to wear around your house. On this particular night she wanted to scare Daddy. So we hid and when he came in Ava started saying, "boo!" So she wasn't really good at hiding, cosidering she was giving herself away!





8. Today Ava grabbed this object off the counter and said, "I'm driving a tomato!"





9. Today is the first day Ava has looked at a picture of herself and said, "That's me!" instead of, "That's Ava!"





10. Right now Bradley is in awe of Ava who seems to have memorized an episode of "Wow, Wow, Wubzy," and is repeating it and saying lines before they say them.

Ava painting

These pictures were taken in October when Ava and I painted one afternoon. I drew a tree trunk and Ava painted the leaves onto the trees. She really wanted to use prurple and pink, but I made her stick to the standard fall leaf colors. To my knowledge, this is the first time she has painted with something other than her hands. She did a good job, but as time went on, she wanted to splash paint onto everything.

She was mad in this picture because I had taken her paintbrush away to switch colors.

Catch Up

It has been a while since I have posted a catch up post on the recent happenings at the Rogers' house. Since I like lists, I will list these in a bullet style list.

• As most of you know, Bradley did not win his election. However, he was not the last of the vote getters either. So I suppose he will try again in 4 more years.
  



• Ava is just getting so big. She basically says anything she wants and repeats anything. Now, I am sure not everyone understands her, and I don't all the time, but for the most part she is easily understood. One of my favorite words she says is blanket. She says "Blankelet." So cute!
  



• Our cats have been going crazy lately because of a stray outside that has adopted the fallen pecan limbs in our yard. Zoe has even escaped a couple of times in an attempt to confront the other cat.
  



• I am so glad that Cloris finally got the boot on DWTS, but I really don't have a favorite couple this year. Although I like Lance and Lacey... but most of the others are just so so to me. And I don't see what the fuss is about Brooke and Derek.
  



• I can't believe that Thanksgiving is not much farther away. The holidays are fast approaching!
  
• I did a photo shoot with Ava on Tuesday and true to form, I received very little eye contact from Ava. (that is my fave picture above)



• I had a photo session yesterday afternoon with some friends. Check them out on my photography site.
  



• Ava loves money. Smart girl! The other night she said, "Mommy, I need 2 dollars for me purse."
  



• I have started working on some special Christmas projects that I will be posting later and using this holiday season.

A Princess Photo Shoot

Right before Halloween, Ava and I did a little impromptu photo shoot on our porch. It was not an ideal time because it was actually way too sunny. However, I did get a few that I liked. Of course she was not looking at the camera, but do any of you expect that anymore....

Don't Forget to Vote

As you all have been hearing all over the place, tomorrow is time to vote. Bradley and I have already voted during the early voting, so tomorrow we don't have to fight the crowds.

I am hoping we have something to celebrate tomorrow night with Bradley's run for office. I guess we will find out soon enough. Keep your fingers crossed for us and don't forget to vote!

Test

Testing the wonky pictures.

Trick or Treating

Friday night marked Ava's 3rd Halloween, but the first one that she had actually went trick-or-treating (at least somewhere other than Nana and Pop's). She dressed up as Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast. This year trick-or-treaters did not start as early as they normally do, but this year they started closer to dusk. We left right as it was getting dark. Ava was so beautiful in her costume and loved saying, "Trick or Treat!" (In fact she kept saying it yesterday while we were in the car headed to Wal-Mart.) There weren't a lot of houses on our street handing out candy, maybe because of the ball game, I'm not sure. The ones that did have candy just fawned all over Ava. Here are a couple of Ava quotes:

• "I want to see inside your house. Can I come in?"


• At the house of someone we go to church with as we were inside having her picture taken: She said - a) I want to see inside your kitchen. and b) Can I see your cat?
  
• Lots of trick or treats and thank you's


• "Hey girls, what's up?
  

A little bit of embarrassment, but cuteness none the less.

Bradley stayed home to pass out candy and at the end of the night we had had about 118 little ghouls come through. Ava visited with Jenna when they came over and then we ended the night with a visit to Nana and Pop's.

Happy Halloween

I hope some of you get your cards in the mail, but I am afraid they will arrive Saturday or Monday. But anyway, Happy Halloween from the Rogers' Family!

Pumpkins at the Rogers' House

(I have no idea why the pictures are showing up so HUGE!)

This year we carved two pumpkins to sit on our porch. Usually we have several because it is an activity at the Halloweenie Roast, but this year we have only these two. I carved the Little Mermaid/Ariel pumpkin and Bradley carved the Jack Skellington pumpkin. Ava enjoyed watching, but refused to get her hands dirty. You can see her disgusted look when she saw the pumpkin guts. She did enjoy playing with the little hammer and trying to hit stuff. But the funny part was the conversation at the table. It went a little something like this...

Ava: Whatcha doing Daddy?

Daddy: I'm carving a pumpkin.

A: What's this Daddy?

D: Pumpkin stuff.

A: I help Daddy?

D: No.

A: Whatcha doing Daddy?

D: Carving a pumpkin?

A: What's this Daddy?

And on and on in a neverending Q & A session. Hilarious!