Christmas 2009 - Ava's First Christmas

In all the excitement of the holiday, I forgot to blog last week. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day and week. It was baby's first Christmas and she took to opening gifts like a duck to water. We had so much fun watching her. She was so happy with all the commotion and crinkling paper. She liked the wrapping paper and tags and boxes and ... oh yes, the gifts too.


Diving right in.


Ava surrounded by gifts. She is enjoying a gift tag here.


"I don't know what is going on, but I like it."

To Ava, to Ava, to Ava, to Ava . . .

"I like to open my gifts by softening up the paper with baby drool."

Fun!

Enjoying her new stacking game.

So cute.

We kept the tree out of reach until Christmas day. When in came down to her level she was very fascinated.

2009!

Eating a bow.

Crawling around in all the stuff. What a great mess!

Mommy and baby on Christmas morning.

Daddy and Ava are really getting in to this.

Daddy likes this gift. "Hey, let me try." says Ava.

Reaching for a star. (sorry, no star.)

Playing with a "Where the Wild Things Are" doll.

Baby is ready to go visit Emerson, Becca and Stan, but first, more crawling through the spoils.

Good times.

Playing at Emerson's. He has a fun new tent.

Emerson in his candy cane jammies.

The Thaynes and the Nielsons on Christmas Day.

Sitting in the chair like a big girl.

Christmas camaraderie.

Love you Daddy.

Love you Mommy.

Lily Nielson gave Ava a wonderful Tickle-me-Elmo. It was a BIG hit with both the kids. Emerson is taking a turn here.

Ava crawling through Emerson's play tent.

The day after Christmas and ready for a walk in the park.

Sunny and cold.

Ava looks so cute in her purple fleece cover-up.

She likes her shades.

I just love to watch Ava and Daddy take walks together.

One more pic of them together.

Ava and Elmo. Tammy gave Ava this cute outfit at my shower. It has just started to fit her.

She loves to climb up on the ottoman.

Starting to walk with help.

Helping us pack for our trip to Washington, D.C. (That's another post)

Zoom Zoom

Well, I have to say this has turned out to be a pretty great week. Rex had a milestone birthday. Becca, Stan and Emer came over to celebrate. Rex opened gifts and we all ate some cake. Also this week ...we got a new car! Wow. We finally settled on a 2008 Mazda CX-7 and we couldn't be happier. It's red with tan, leather interior and has 32,000 miles on it. It's a crossover vehicle--not a car and not an SUV but something in between. A perfect size, especially when it comes to parking. I'm sure I could go on and on but let's get to the pics.


Side view. (I got these photos off the Carmax website.)


Front.


Back.
_

Dash.

Interior.

Plenty of cargo space.

They have a play area at Carmax. This was a lifesaver. We could take turns on our test drives and baby was super happy. We had a great experience buying from them.

Ava is growing out of her little play gym. Soon baby girl Thayne will be playing in it.

Pretty baby. I think this is a Lucy outfit. So cute.

She can pull up to a standing position now.

Playing before bed.

Looking out at the Christmas lights.

This banana pillow we got from Target, years ago, makes a great door cozy.

Blue, blue eyes.

Emerson is over his cold and came to play on Rex's Birthday.

Sweet cousins.

A little light reading.

Always check your sources.

Bath time is the best time.

Beautiul angel.

Thanks for coming to see me on the blog. xoxo