Christmas 2011

    The 2011 Christmas was such a great time for us this year.  We were able to do our little Christmas as our own little family in Portland before we flew done to Arizona.  We put up the tree and opened a game for us to play on Christmas Eve.  Ava loved decorating the tree and also wrapping herself up in some of the ribbon.  We were able to spend a great amount of time with our families by doing family Christmas parties and Christmas itself.  We were also able to spend time with some of our friends as well.  We were so glad that we had the opportunity to go down and be with our families for the holidays.
   

Here are some pictures of Ava during our time in Portland and Arizona for Christmas

(The game Lets Go Fishing for Christmas Eve)

      Here was Ava looking under our Christmas tree admiring her gifts that she could not wait to open.  Santa Clause came over to pay a visit to Ava while we were at Kim & Dave's house.  Ava is still not a fan of being close to him.  I decided to sit with Santa and kiss his Rosy cheeks.  We did the Nativity at the Markham family party and Ava was the camel for the wise men.  After the Nativity we all rode on the back of trailer with hay and went around singing Christmas Carols.
 

 Here we are at the Adair's Family Christmas Party where we had food and fun as always.

Top left: (Tyson & Kaci) Bottom Left:(Jared & Megan) Middle Top: (Charlie & Dave)            Middle: (Kaci & Kim) Bottom Middle: (Howard & Tracy) Right: Kristy & Shawn

We did an activity called the Nativity Ball that the kids love to do and requested it.  They unwind the paper ball and as they do there are little papers inside the ball every few feet that have specific kids doing something while a story is told with it.  The kids did a cousin exchange this year while doing the Nativity Ball.  Me and Tyson announced to his family that we were going to have a baby by pulling a baby doll out of a bag saying, "We have a gift we brought from Portland and it is.... we are having a baby!!!"  It was exciting to be able to tell them in person.

Here is Ava and her cousin Tessa playing together.  They had each other for the cousin gift exchange and they were both very excited to give the gift to each other.  We did the Nativity again with his family with Ava playing the role of the camel again.  She really liked it.  We did a big pinata that Ava just wanted to hug and ride the reindeer until we told her that there was candy inside and she changed her mind and wanted to hit it with a bat like everyone else to get the candy out.  Lets just say that it was so big every kid had a full bag of candy and there was still a ton left on the ground. 

It is a tradition in my family to go and see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple every Christmas Eve.  We love all the lights and how they decorate all the trees and flowers.  We love to be at the temple with our family and have memories.  Kristin and Ryan and there kids came as well and we got some pictures with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Mikki with all their grand kids.  Ava was so happy to see the lights and was being loving and cuddly the whole time. 

Another tradition is to get a new pair of pajamas to open up on Christmas Eve to sleep in and wear for Christmas morning.  This year was the Little Mermaid.  Christmas morning at my parents house with all the grand kids waiting to see what Santa brought them.  Ava received in her stocking her favorite thing Cheetos.  That was all she wanted and carried it around just eating them.  We had to try to convince her to put them down and open presents and she refused so she had some help from daddy and her cousins.  She's just like her daddy and loves chips! 

Here are some other pics taken at Christmas