Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We had so much fun playing Santa this year. We had to build a dollhouse that Avery had been asking for since Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun making sugar cookies for Santa. Avery was so excited to leave cookies and milk by the fireplace. On Christmas morning we woke up and Avery immediately went to see if Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk. And sure enough, the cookies were all gone! Then she turned around and found her dollhouse.


She had a blast opening gifts. She was so funny because every time it was her turn to open a gift, she would say, "Don't tell me what it is." It was pretty funny. Christmas was a lot of fun.
Jason got a subwoofer for his theatre system in our family room. And here is Avery in her sleeping bag that she got. She is really into the Disney princesses so she was thrilled to get her pink sleeping bag.
Here are some more pictures of our Christmas with my family. Jason got an internal frame backpack which he was pretty stoked about. I got some sewing stuff so I can do some more sewing, and Avery got a tent, a sled, and a remote control car that she loves.


And we spent Christmas day with Jason's family. We had a wonderful Christmas.

Partners in crime

I just had to post these pictures because I think she is too cute.

This is Aiden, her partner in crime!

Our New Addition...no, it's not a baby

This Christmas season has been a really fun since Avery is a little older and really understands Christmas and Santa. We kicked off the season with the new addition of Curby to our family. He is our elf from the North Pole that we adopted this year. He watches Avery every day and flies back to Santa each night and reports about her behavior. It is so FUN because each morning he is in a new place in the house. Today Avery found him sitting high on our shelf. He has been found sitting in the Christmas tree, in the chandelier, and in her Christmas stocking. His rules are that he cannot speak to children and he cannot be touched because he will loose his magic. It is amazing how a little elf can change Avery's behavior in a matter of seconds! It has been a lot of fun to start a new tradition in our family.

We also have been busy making gingerbread houses at our own home and at Grandma Shauna's Avery is getting pretty good at decorating. She loves doing it. It has been so much fun with Avery this Christmas because she is SO excited for Santa and everything is exciting! As a parent, Christmas is fun again because we re-live our childhood through our child's eyes.

November is National Adoption Month

Just a reminder that November is National Adoption Month. We want to remind everyone of our hopes for adopting a baby. Please keep your ears and eyes open for our birth mother. We pray that a miracle will happen in our lives soon. If anyone would like some of our pass along cards, let us know.

Halloween

Before we left for Disneyland, Grandma Shauna had a Halloween party for the family. She dressed up as Cookie Monster. It was pretty funny watching her eat cookies. She made us all laugh. We also stopped by my parent's house so they could see Avery dressed up as Pocahontas. Here are a couple of pictures from the night.

It's a small world after all

This last week we went to California to Disneyland and to visit family. It was a lot of fun especially with Avery being older and taller! We spent 3 days at Disneyland and 3 days in San Diego. It was a lot of fun but I told a friend that I now need another vacation to recover from this vacation!

We flew out of Salt Lake and had to sit on the runway for 45 minutes before take off so they could de-ice the plane. Let me tell you, it was a very painful wait because Avery could not wait to fly in the air, so it seemed like forever before we actually took off. If you look closely at my jacket and window you will see the snow. I was glad to be getting out of there, heading to warm weather.

Disneyland was a lot of fun. Avery loved the Disney princesses; she could have probably just met all of them and done without any of the rides. She got to meet Cinderella, Snow White, Cruella Deville, and Jafar. If any of you remember Snow White's wishing well- this was Avery's FAVORITE place to be. It was a great time of year to go because the lines were short. We only stood in line for about 15 minutes-even for Finding Nemo! It was great because we got to ride a lot of the rides two or three times each. There were some rides where we had to go alone since Avery was not tall enough to ride. Jason rode the log ride and got really drenched and I love Indiana Jones ride. We saw a couple of shows including Aladdin. It was awesome, well worth the 45 minute wait in line. We had row 5 so many of the characters during the play came down our row and interacted with Avery. It was a lot of fun and would recommend it to anyone going to Disneyland.

After Disneyland we headed down to San Diego to spend some time with Jared, Kris, and their new baby, Jack. Jared is Jason's brother. We planned our trip around his baby blessing. It was great to spend some time with them and meet Jack. He is the cutest baby and looks a lot like his mom. We hung around their house on Friday and Saturday evening so Avery could go Trick-or-Treating in their neighborhood. The weather was absolutely beautiful and warm so Avery could wear her costume without a coat! She was the cutest Pocahontas and everyone knew who she was which made her very happy.

On Saturday, we headed to the zoo. It was fun and Avery liked looking at all of the animals. But I think once you have been to one zoo, all of them are alike.

On Sunday we attended Jack's blessing. Jared gave a really nice blessing and Jack was an angel during the blessing. Then Kris made a yummy lunch for us. It was nice to spend time with them. Then Monday we came back home to freezing weather! It was a fun vacation!