Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning at our house. Ava slept well and didn't really comprehend the whole idea that Santa brings her presents. It was so innocent for us this year, incredibly simple, and yet magically inspirational.



Creeping down the stairs to see the gifts...



Ava sees her wagon...

By this expression...I'm guessing it was a hit!



Opening gifts :)

What's that face for? Probably pouting because we *made* her open her gifts...when all she wanted to do was sit in her wagon.




A CHEESY face... couldn't resist. We always tell her to say cheese for the camera - but this time it was really cheesy!


We've taught Ava that this is day that Baby Jesus was born so it's HIS birthday. We didn't want her to get too confused about the gifts so we told her that we get to open Baby Jesus' presents and celebrate His birthday because He lives in our heart. She has amazed us by retelling that to us like she really "gets" it. I am such a proud Momma!!

We hope that you all have been blessed this Christmas season with the most amazing and precious gift of all...Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

A real live WHITE Christmas!

This souther belle is NOT accustomed to celebrating Christmas with white snow falling and accumulating on the ground! It was an amazing way to spend Christmas Eve.






We decided to be kids again and get outside. We made a snow man...not so bad for a southern belle's first real snow man! We taught Ava how to make a snowball.






Our neighbors kiddos came by to throw some snowballs at Dave, they were WAY out of their league. He had the snow shovel...definitely an unfair advantage :)





Even Ava had her hand in clearing the driveway! She loved using that shovel...can't wait till she's a little older. We will remind her that she loved shoveling snow more than playing in it.

It's that time again...

...Christmas card picture selection! UGH...my little girl is too stinkin' cute to have to pick just one shot. Here are some we had to choose from-

The Santa Parade

On Main Street in St. Charles each year the Christmas celebration is like a day straight out of Charles Dickins. There are people walking around in character speaking in character as if it were the late 1800's. And, every Saturday and Sunday they do a very quick little parade of Santa's. There are different representations of Santa...different eras as well as different countries. They have carolers and horse drawn carriages, fairy princesses and chestnuts roasting over open fires! It is a quaint step back in time. AND...the shopping wasn't too shabby either :) They have an outdoor ice skating rink set up but we decided Ava should make that request on her own!

Fall Time, Fun Time

Well, I LOVE fall for photogtaphy here. It makes the most beautiful back drop and I'm learning to be a better photographer for sure. Of course, I have the perfect subject who doesn't mind having her picture made.

Enjoy the fun day we had at Bee Tree Park...

Cinderella's Ball

This year for Halloween, Ava selected her own costume. As we admired all the costumes in the aisle at Target, I tried my hardest to insist she choose to be Minnie Mouse. It was darling...and she LOVES Minnie. I thought it was a win, hands down. Just as she was about to grab the costume from my hand (so I thought) she reached just past me and pointed to the "Blue Princess" aka Cinderella. There was no changing her mind. She was sold on the blue princess costume. We even brought it home and wore it around the house for DAYS before Halloween.

Pickin' Pumpkins

It's fall Ya'll...so we rounded up some folks and headed to find some pretty special round, orange, pumpkins! Special because we got to pick it out from the patch and bring it home.





Ava picked out this year's pumpking all by herself...well, kind of :)She tried for a big one, then decided it may have been too big.







But her favorite part was of course, RIDING the TRACTOR!! {as always}






She was in HEAVEN when she saw the ponies :)



They also had some little carnival rides and a petting zoo.