Ava's First Christmas

I'm a little late on the posting, but Ava's first Christmas was wonderful!  Warning: picture overload.  We got to have a little Christmas at home.  Then, we traveled to Texas and visited with both of our families.

The week before Christmas, we had a little Christmas morning celebration at our house with presents, cinnamon rolls, and breakfast casserole, and it was a great morning!

Ava loved her stacking cups and Mozart cube from Winnie & Papa C.

It was a special treat to get a personalized kid chair from Mimi & T!  The grandchild and grand-dog both enjoyed it.

OK, get off my chair now, Blazer!!

On December 23rd, we made the trip to Texas.  Here's our little traveler on the way to Des Moines and then at the airport.

The Ergo carrier was key on this trip!

 

Mimi had a special brunch at her house on Christmas Eve morning with family & friends.

Santa came to visit at Mimi & T's house during the brunch!!

This face...!

On Christmas Eve, we went to church and had a lovely dinner at Al & Cindy's house.  

We spent Christmas morning at Wendy, Luke, Luke II, and Cole's house opening presents.

Cole & Luke loved all of their new toys!!

On Christmas night, Vicky cooked an amazing turkey dinner for the whole family, and we had a happy birthday Jesus party.

Houston wore us out, but it's on to Dallas!

We had a second Christmas with my family and enjoyed opening more gifts!

We visited the Arboretum with Grammy, Grampy, Aunt Julia, Uncle Darrell, Winnie, and Papa C!

Texas in December is NOTHING like Iowa in December!  Clearly!

Ava loved getting to know Uncle Darrell!

We went to Keller to have a fun family day with Melissa, Robert, Ethan, Aunt Susan, Uncle John, Aunt Robyn, Haley, Travis, Grammy, Grampy. and our whole fam.  Ava got to play with her second cousin, Ethan! 

"Hey!  You have my bow on, Travis!"

Ava's First Birthday

Ava's first birthday was one of my favorite days ever.  In the months leading up to her birthday, I went Pinterest crazy planning an elaborate first birthday party with food, crafts, games, decorations, and 30 of our closest friends.  And then.... I came to my senses.  Thankfully, I ditched the entire idea of having a $500 party for a small baby and decided to have a fun day with just us.  I'm so glad we did!

We woke Ava up in the morning by singing Happy Birthday and putting balloons in her crib.  The first time we did it, she HATED IT!  Typical.  She screamed and cried hysterically.  So, we tried again when she was a little happier after her morning nap, and that's when these pictures were taken.  This time, she liked it!

We had Ava's favorite breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bananas.  She shovels pancakes in her mouth and gets so excited when we make them.  She even helped me stir the batter this time!  She wore her birthday crown, of course.

After breakfast, we opened a few gifts.  My parents got her a ride-on giraffe which she absolutely adored.  She figured it out right away and loved being pushed around.

She got a little overwhelmed by the first two gifts and had a mini-meltdown.  It's hard to be Ava.  So, so glad we didn't have a party with 30 people!!  

But, she recovered quickly to open a drum and instrument set.

We ate lunch out at one of our favorite restaurants and then just played all day!  

After lunch, Ava enjoyed her gift from Mimi and T - a cozy coupe car!

Our gift to Ava was a play kitchen!  She was a great 1950s housewife cooking in her little tutu.

To round out the day, we had cupcakes and FaceTimed with both of our parents at once.  That was a feat - holding two cell phones and a video camera and having 3 conversations at once.  It was fun that our parents could "be there" for that moment, though!

I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that she loved the cupcake.  It took her a few minutes to figure out what she was supposed to do with it, but she got the hang pretty quickly.

A few minutes and way too much icing later.... she was done and birthday-ed out.  Happy Birthday, sweet girl!  We love you and can't wait for the next year of adventures!