First Christmas

I am just getting around to posting on our Christmas. We enjoyed lots of relaxing time with family. Ava enjoyed opening presents more than I thought she would. It makes Christmas so special to share it now with her! We had a great time and will always cherish this special first Christmas.

A new yummy Christmas tradition...

I love trying to think of family traditions for Ava to remember as she grows up. I've decided one of those traditions will be making homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas. AM and Izzy came over last Friday and helped make them. The nice thing is you can make them ahead of time and freeze them, then just reheat for a holiday treat! We used the pioneer's woman reciepe. I think they turned out pretty yummy!

8 months old

Today our sweet girl is 8 months old! She's come so far in so many area's... just when I thought the smile and then the laugh could melt my heart like nothing else she does, then came along "the reach" and none of those have anything on that, when she extends those sweet little arms up in our direction, ah there is nothing like it! While she make advances in many areas, her sleep has regressed to newborn phase over this month, things have been better the last few nights with only a 2-3 wakings but after the holidays we will be implementing some of the sleep lady techniques (I'm reading her book that a friend loaned me, she seems to be in the middle area, not for straight crying it out but also steps it up from responding to every waking with rocking and holding, all about knowing your baby and her cues to help you make an appropriate plan for improved sleeping.) to help all of us get back on a better sleep schedule as at this point, I've ruled any medical issues, including teeth, think its more related to the separation anxiety that comes along with this developmental phase that maybe carrying over into night. Well thats my latest theory anyways. She says "ma ma ma" alot and "Da Da Da" while its not purposeful yet, I love hear her try to talk to us. I've started modeling some baby sign language for her so that we will have some of the basics down when she's ready to communicate that way. Can't believe this time last year she was in my tummy and I tried to imagine what the next Christmas would be like with an 8 month old. Its of course better than anything I pictured.

The fun things you get to do...

when you and one of your best friends have baby girls only months apart! Aren't they sweet in their matching Christmas outfits! Of course getting a picture of them both smiling at the camera is almost impossible here's the best shots we got before our Christmas shopping trip.

Ava meets Santa!

So she lasted a few seconds before she was like "Wait a minute....who is this guy!?"

We had our children's Christmas program at church Sunday night. so she got to meet Santa and Ms. Claus...

Holiday photo shoot

Over Thanksgiving Daicia was sweet to do a holiday photo shoot for us. I love her work and love how these turned out!! Here's a few favorites:

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving before the stomach plague of 2010 hit us. We enjoyed a relaxing time with friends and family. My Thankful thoughts over these days include my girl friendships. All my dear friends that were my bridesmaids I am still close too and know we always stay connected through our life long friendships and most importantly through our bond in Christ. I love how they all are so familar and so easy to get along with and have warm converstaions with even when we haven't seen each other for awhile. I also love how they are different and I appreciate very different things about each those friendships that I cherish.

Here's all the girls from the holiday get together:

Q is such a sweetie to share with Ava and show her the ropes. These two are getting to enjoy each other's company more and more with each visit: