Ava's First Christmas!!

Good morning Ava...It's Christmas!!

Some people are gorgeous right out of bed, but I am not one of those people!  I'm sucking up my pride to show you these pictures...just so you know :)

My favorite little present.

Happy Family.

Daddy and Ava...He was so excited to show her our big gift!

Grammy and Ava, pre-Christmas morning meltdown.

Not Ava's meltdown, but Grammy's!  Ha ha!!

We were all set to put our traditional monkey bread and egg bake in my Mom's new double oven when all of the sudden they both turned off while pre-heating.  It took us a few minutes to figure out we blew a fuse...oh the joys of the remodel!  Fortunately, we made it work but it was a little tense when we thought we may not have an oven at all for Christmas day...Especially when a turkey was planned for later!

Grandpa and Ava

We (Travis and I) wanted Ava to open her gifts from us first, so we had them set up under the little family tree in the family room.  We did most of the shopping for her together, which was a good thing because I never would have chosen that blow-up ball castle for her!  But Trav loved it and couldn't wait to give it to her :)

She crawled around the corner and discovered it, all while we took pictures and video...first grandchild, can you tell???

She was intrigued enough to climb in....

And grab a ball to put in her mouth!!

It took her all of 10 seconds to discover that she loved it!  Travis was very pleased with his gift selection!

And before long she figured out she could do a lot more than play with the balls :)

We pulled out the rest of her gifts...

And showed her how to rip the paper open...

And Ryley supervised, probably thinking something like..."Last year that gift was for me!"

Oh the fun we had with a baby this year!

We gave her a lullaby glow worm...remember those??  I had one and I LOVED it, so here's hoping she does too!

We also gave her a baby doll...well, actually I bought her 3 baby dolls!  That was my response to Trav's ball castle :) I love this photo because it is reflective of what stage she is in!

Everything goes in her mouth!!

Surrounded with her new gifts from Mommy and Daddy.

She probably would have been just as happy with an empty box, but we loved being able to pick out some fun things to give her this year.  Makes me realize how true that verse is about how much the "Father delights to give good gifts to his children."  We were delighted to give gifts to our own child.

After we did our own gifts and she took a nap, we crawled into the other living room for more gifts from my family.

She got tons of sweet things from them, but hands down her favorite thing was this pink flip phone from my parents!  She LOVES it and carried it everywhere with her.  It still stops her in her tracks when I pull it out today :) I think she's seen her Mommy and Daddy love their own cell phones too!!

Our traditional Christmas morning picture.

But this year with a little addition!!

After our relaxing morning and afternoon, we got ready for Christmas dinner with some of our extended family.

I was in charge of the tables :)

My Mom found these cute little place card holders, aren't they fun?

Ava dined at the big table this year!

She entertained everyone at the head table, as far from the candles as possible :)

And once again, our dinner was a crazy experiment with the new ovens!  It was a marathon to get everything cooked, but we did it and it was wonderful :)

Stacie with her mother in law and sister in law.

Jennie and Dave.

Travy keeping Ava happy!

Wearing her new dress from Stacie and Jesse.

The annual sister picture!

Ava's aunts aren't the only ones who want to hold her constantly...

Her uncles do too!!

Of course there were even more presents for her open that night, but I think by then she had her ripping technique down :)

Yes, we had a wonderful and blessed first Christmas with our sweet Ava.

She changed everything this year and we wouldn't have had it any other way.

We enjoyed every minute of Christmas, experiencing it all over again through a child's eyes.  We are already looking forward to next year and the many babies that will be added (hopefully) to our family over the years!  Can't wait for the blessed chaos that goes right along with it...

Merry Christmas Ava!!