Christmas Eve . . .

We had such a great Christmas Eve. My Uncle Craig and Aunt Susan's family and my Grandma and Grandpa Warren came down. We had pizza (traditional Christmas Eve dinner right?), played Catch Phrase (You have NOT played Catch Phrase until you've played it with my Grandpa), and opened the traditional Christmas Eve jammies. Ava was beyond thrilled with her Princess and the Frog jammies and made sure everybody put them on as quickly as possible. I got Kai Frog jammies (aren't I clever?)

Ava looking at the present my Mom and Dad got for her and Kai. There's a reason my mom didn't pull this one out until Christmas Eve.

Opening Christmas Jammies. Who knew they'd be so thrilled?


The Princess and the Frog. Hee Hee.

Ava with her new kitchen. She was SOOOO excited and was SOOOO difficult to get to bed after this. :)

Ava with Grandma Annie, Papa, and her kitchen that she still "just loves."

Little Man . . . .

Kai looks like this 99.9% of the time. Seriously.

Right before his very first plane ride! Me and Kai flew to Vegas for the weekend to meet up with Randy and find us a house to live in. He was so great on the plane and made everybody fall in love with him. On both flights I had two or three people come up to me and say they could't believe how happy he was! Fun fact: Kai took his first flight on his 7 month birthday and Ava took her first flight on the day after her 7 month birthday. Funny.

Fun with Daddy.


We just started giving him these little Puffs to eat and he LOVES them! He literally grabs as many as he can in his little hands and then stuffs them in all at once. It's hilarious!

Miss Ava . . . . .

Ava loves her dolls and princesses. Here's a picture to prove just how much.

Sledding with Robert. She could stay outside in the snow all day! The cold just doesn't phase her.

Ava told me she wanted to go outside and play, then pulled on her boots and put her purse over her shoulder. Never mind it was 10 degrees outside.

A little more prepared to go outside and help put up Christmas lights.

Playing with my camera about 2 seconds before she dropped and broke it. Sigh. Anyway, who do you think taught the Little Miss drill team "kissy face?" You can thank Jessica for that.


"Helping" my mom and Jessica bake.

We made a Christmas Countdown chain a few days before Christmas and I never thought Ava would be so excited to take a chain off each morning! This is a picture of her taking the last chain off on Christmas Eve. She was so pleased.

Meet Ava the Dolly . . . .

Ava was able to do a Christmas Performance with her dance class at the rest home. She made the cutest little dolly ever. I could not wipe the smile off of my face because I have never seen anything so cute! She did a really good job and really got into it by the end!

Ava and her darling dance teacher Lisa, who, by the way, happened to be my dance teacher growing up too!



Ava pointing to Kai and telling her teacher, "There is my Baby Brother!"



After her dance performance. She wanted so badly to play outside with the dogs and had a great time!

Annual Family Christmas Party . . . . .

We always have our Family Christmas Party on my Mom's side the Sunday before Christmas and it is a BLAST! My Grandma Warren is awesome at giving gifts and everybody has such a great time. We have so many great appetizers that by the time dinner actually happens we're all stuffed, but we still manage to lick our plates clean. It is so great to see everybody and laugh and talk. This year my Grandma and Uncle Craig put together a fantastic video of my mom and uncles when they were younger. It was so neat to watch. The night got even better when we watched a video of the Savior that Craig also put together. We are so lucky to have such an amazing family and can't wait for next year's party!

Christmas Feeling . . . .

I LOVE the feeling of Christmas in the air. There is nothing better than getting all of the Christmas Decorations and Tree up after Thanksgiving. It is such a magical feeling when you turn off the lights and see the glow of the tree and the Christmas Village. We were lucky enough to be at my parent's house during the Holiday Season and my mom has AWESOME Christmas Decorations. Here are some pics of Ava getting the house all ready for Christmas!




Some family fun time . . . .

Gingerbread Masterpieces . . . .

I know that most people have Gingerbread houses. Well, we have Gingerbread masterpieces. After the amount of fun that we had putting these houses together, my Mom has officially decided it's a yearly tradition for the grandkids (and the rest of us too). It was so fun to laugh and watch everyone in action. Some of us were a little intense when it came to exactly how it should look. Ava was so proud of the Gingerbread house that we did with Grandma Annie that when she heard she was doing one at preschool she was so excited! I helped in the class that day and Ava took the decorating very serious. She sat at her table for a good twenty minutes after everybody else was done in order to make it perfect. In her eyes, perfect meant making sure that every last piece of candy was attached to that house with icing. I seriously started sneaking pieces of candy in order to hurry her along, but she was very proud of the end result.

Ava's beautiful preschool house:

And the Gingerbread Party that I'm sure has inspired years of Gingerbread Parties to come: