Christmas 2011

Family pic with an unhappy Santa. Seriously? Look at his face...

He was nice to the kids though.....

Ava was in the school choir this year in the fall/winter and she had a fun performance. The lighting was awful for pics of the big group...but I got Ava and a boy flirting on camera.....she will love it when she gets older!

My cute boys watching the performance...


Tempe boat light parade!

Ava trying to see up in a tree....

Us sitting by the water. This parade was nothing like we have ever seen. There were a bunch of boats lit up for Christmas, and some boats had loud Christmas music playing. This definitely needs to be a tradition.

My camera setting was off, but here is an example of one of the boats.....

Ava's Christmas dance performance!

Ava posing in the back. They do a lot of interpretive dancing with

choreographed moves as well.

Ava's turn in the dance....they did a dance to the 12 days of

Christmas and they each had a certain move to do when it came to their turn.

Ava being so graceful on her own...no choreographed dance here!

It was super cute because she totally got into it with her face!

Treats and recognition from Miss Rachel.

All the cute dancers in her class.

Ava and Miss Rachel. Ava had so much fun changing into all the different costumes. She had about 7 different costume changes which I think makes it fun, and it is clever the way they did it by just adding to a costume and reusing.

Our trip to Utah!

There was a little sleeping on the way....

The kids first site of snow in a LONG time. They were running around in the gas station parking lot trying to catch snowflakes. Ava was soooo excited to play out in the snow even if it was just for a quick stop.

There was a lot of movie watching on the way up...

....and more sleeping.

The evening we arrived we decided to go out and see reindeer at Thanksgiving Point. Too bad there was no snow in site during our whole trip to Utah and it was FREEZING when we arrived with major freezing gusts of wind! It seriously took our breath away.....

Cousins.....can you tell it is freezing!!

There were some really cool ice sculptures!

The next day we did fun crafts, went to a Christmas movie, and decorated cookies for Santa.

Family Christmas party with the Howard's!

Cheryl (Briant's step mom) knit adorable gifts for the kids!

Grandpa Howard and Brec

Some of the boy cousins....

Girls cousins...

All the cute kiddos..

All the kids did a little talent show and Cole was ruining it all....I think with his lack of sleep he was a little delirious. He was talking and singing to the top of his lungs during every performance and was so loud....it was a happy loud, but still, it was getting a little obnoxious. Cole's talent was when you ask him what Santa says he says, "Ho, ho, ho!" But the way he says ho ho ho is super slow and very animated. It was pretty darn cute.

Christmas Eve

Nativity

Some of the group....

Ava my poser....

Christmas jammies that I made for the fam.....

Funny little reindeer...

Me and my hubs...

Pajama dance party....super fun and super cute. Cole even got into and wasn't afraid of all the big people jumping around. He got right in the middle and starting squealing and screaming.

Cole needs a dog someday....not just any dog...one that will let him sit on,

poke on, jump on, play on etc. Roxy is the sweetest dog I know....

Christmas morning!

Cole was not happy about it....

Ava's first reaction....

Cole is telling me about Dora....yes, he got a Dora doll....he is obsessed with Dora and loves her...good thing I talked Santa into getting it for him!

Happy boy now....

Ava got a Madame Alexander doll. She wanted an American Girl doll, but things didn't work out as planned. Although, when Ava saw it she automatically assumed it was an American girl doll since she isn't THAT familiar with them yet, and ever since she still thinks it is perfect and her "American Girl".

Brec trying out a gift from Santa....

Briant being himself and acting super excited about chocolates....

Only some of the Christmas morning damage....there was still a ton of presents to be opened under the tree.....

Sunday best. After staying up WAY too late, I was so super tired at church

and could barely keep my eyes open.....vacations are exhausting.....

I made the boys ties.....they didn't turn out how I wanted them to. Cole's was too short and Brec's was too long.....weird how that turned out because I followed a pattern with

exact measurements. But, I did sew a lot before Christmas and I could have been going crazy at the time! At least they matched.....

Silly kids....

Christmas day we went to my Mom's and had Christmas dinner, games, pinata, and huge fireworks!

We had so much fun spending time with family and enduring the cold, just wish we could have played in snow! Now on to a new year filled with better days to come!!!