Christmas... a little late

   Well I have been super busy.. with the baby and other things! However here is finally a few christmas pictures. We have always done Christmas on christmas eve, so this year we kept the tradition up and did it all at my moms.. we decided to change it up a little with some mexican food and margaritas instead of the traditional!  

  On Christmas day we had a turkey but decided to make it just a small casual thing. Ava was pretty much exhausted after all the present opening and box and paper playing and then she discovered her toys and well.. took very long naps for a bout 3-4 days! 

Ava's Birthday

 Ava turned one year old on Dec 18th, we had a small family party. It started out a little scary because neither grill that we had planned on using worked!! Thanks to my brother and sisters boyfriend we had hotdogs, and hamburgers, soda, wine ,beer, and water! Wow I didnt expect so many toys or people to come!! We are blessed to have so many friends and family that care about us! Elmo was the theme of the party and well lets just say Ava made out with WAY too many elmo toys!! At this point I have learned to block out that squeeling noise of a red monsters voice! Thank you all who came and contributed to such a fun day!!

Christmas card pictures

    We decided to take some special pictures of Ava for our Christmas card this year since Ray isn's home and we couldn't do a family one! I saw some pics of a little girl in a tutu and thought it was a great idea!! We headed to a location i had seen off the highway, my friend Silvia offered to be my assistant in getting Ava's attention because these days she is learning to ignore her name!! It was a little chilly out so we did them as quick as possible and I wanted to share a few of them eventhough you will be recieving a christmas card very soon if my address labels would get here already!!! Im hoping not to address them by hand.. if i end up having to do that I think I will be wishing Ava was learning to write so she could help!!

Thanksgiving was full of turkey, stuffing, cranberries, potatoes, and messy Ava!! Ava had a wonderful first Thanksgiving we had it at my Moms house (Granna). It was the first time we didn't have it at my Oma's house. Unfortunately Ray was very much missed, Next year he should be home for the Holidays!!! Here are a few pictures to share with everyone what we did. Now we are on to Holiday shopping and Christmas decorating my favorite!!

Here comes santa claus!

The day before thanksgving everyone is cooking and getting ready to eat... I decided to take ava to the mall to see santa before the craziness begins the day after thanksgiving! I got her all dressed up like a little elf with her chuck taylors on and a big bow of course! We headed to North Star mall... we were the first ones in line for santa! Here comes santa claus and right when Ava set eyes on him got a big lip like she does when she sees the nurse at the doctor's office comming at her with needles!! Here is a hillarious picture!! She wanted nothing to do with him by herself so  I decided to sit with her and she still hated him... I guess he is scary looking after all!!

Voting

 

 I am very proud to annouce I did early voting today. Ava and i arrived at the polls about 9:30, it was crazy how busy it was for that time and it being early voting and all. I waited a while and then cast my vote I am very excited for this is the second time I have voted not including the primaries. 

   However, it is very sad to me for those who do not vote.. many people would kill to vote and we have that right and I think everyone should have to take part in it because it is part of being an American. Oh and i voted for McCain!!  Im done!! I wish i could have found ava a cute voting onesie!! 

Long time...

It has been a long time since I have written a new blog, we have had a very busy September - October, Ray came home and we traveled and spent family time. It was amazing but as always not quite long enough. Ava played with daddy the whole time!! Ava and daddy spent a weekend together while i went to California with my mom for a nice relaxing time. I think he is now aware of what goes into staying home with her and its not chocolate bon bons!!  Then we took a vacation to Vegas to watch a friend get married and have some alone time! The day we came home we took Ava to a pumpkin patch and it was already time for Ray to leave the next day.  Time goes by way to fast! We cannot wait for the end of January it cannot come fast enough to have another family vacation time!