Christmas 2009

The Book Find-

Another great year of one of my favorite traditions from growing up.

Waiting for our wrapping paper that our books are wrapped in.

Owen found his book- Disney Scary Storybook Collection. Which thankfully isn't really scary for our tender little Owen.

Ava opening her book- Five Little Monkey's Jumping on the Bed with little monkey dolls to go with it.

Our family Christmas photo- Merry Christmas.


Ava- Christmas Eve

Getting ready to do the Nativity. Cute angel & Mary.

Ava didn't last long as a happy angel participant.

New Christmas jammies


Christmas Tree 2009.

Christmas Morning-

Owen & Ava both slept in for a while, which was good for the late night before but turns out they both were sick Christmas Day. When we went down to get Ava out of her crib she had puke all over her. So, after a nice bath with a little kitty Santa had brought her we were ready for presents. And in between opening a present or two Ava would throw up and then be happy again for opening more presents.

This picture is just for your viewing pleasure :).


Owen & Dallin Paul are good buddies and played with these new Trio's one day for a really long time together.

Happy 2nd Birthday Ava!

So, this is super late but I finally caught up on labeling my pictures that I wanted to do before I posted on my blog. So, without further delay... Here's a post about our baby girl and her birthday last December.

Matthew got back from a China trip the night before Ava's big day so we thought it would be fun to hang out for breakfast at Angie's together.

While Matt was at work we went swimming.

Ava was nervous about getting in at first but came around quickly and loved it.

For dinner that night we got food from LaBeau's. Ava was so happy about her fry sauce, she loves that stuff.

Then we did presents and cake & ice cream. Ava loved her presents and just wanted to lay on this one for a long time.

She was a pro present opener and took the task very seriously.

Happy Birthday little Ava!

With Grandma & Grandpa Phillips.

With Grandma & Grandpa Huff

Ava is a curious, busy, little sweetheart! She loves to watch & play with Owen, put her dollies or animals to sleep, make messes, be outside, eat peanut butter or candy, go for walks, eat snow, and visit grandma's & grandpa's.
We are so happy to have her in our family.

Random December Catch Up Stuff-

I think Matt was in China so one night we went and had a sleepover at my parents cause we thought it would be a nice change of scenery. Owen and Ava had a blast, especially Ava. She was so excited to sleep in a new place. She figured out how to climb out of the pack-n-play so I tried to get her to fall asleep next to me & Owen in the bed. She was happy as could be but I kept falling asleep only to wake up to her kicking me or giggling. I think a little after 11 she finally made it.

Some morning snuggles after the "fun" sleepover.

Chocolates- Pretty sweet tradition to have candy all over the place. I love to eat the centers before they are dipped in chocolate so this is a good few days.

My mom & her crazy awesome chocolate making skills.

This is my mom & her sister Shauna after dipping chocolates for many hours one day.

Ava snitching some chocolate before it's melted.

We got a good snow storm that we finally got to enjoy playing in!

On a side note, in the month of December, I took this Basics Photography Class from a very talented photographer. The class was awesome and I learned so much about how to actually use my camera. I would totally recommend this class to anyone. Anyways, here are some of my first pictures experimenting in manual mode.

My kids love eating fresh snow so I try to let them enjoy eating the fresh snow and only pull out the nagging when it's old and of course visibly dirty. It just makes them so happy and I figure I survived.

Yikes, nice muscles Owen.

Thanksgiving Weekend

So, I'm really behind. Here's a little attempt to catch up on some not so recent pictures-

Thanksgiving's- we were lucky enough to enjoy two Thanksgivings this year with both of our families just a week apart.

Huffsgiving- I had really good intentions this day to get more pictures of lots of people but I failed miserably as these are the only pictures I got from the whole day. It was fun and of course we had lots of yummy food.

Thanksgiving Day- Again lots of yummy food was definitely true.

Nice candy turkey.


Ava was a big fan of that yummy cranberry ice- hopefully the first year of many right Jo & Chad ;) ?

Then a couple days later we went to cut down our Christmas tree. I was a little nervous cause Matt wasn't up for trecking through the mountains in the snow with his sutgery boot on (I know woos right?) but I should never have worried- my sister's helped with Owen & Ava, we found a great tree that I was able to cut down myself (that was a first) and we got it down the mountain just fine.

Decorating the .... Owen

He's got two shoes, He's got two shoes

Last week Matt came home from his a foot checkup without the big boot & with two shoes on! It was exciting to see him walking around a little more normal!

First Night Sleeping Under the Tree

We got our Christmas tree this last weekend (I'll post about it later) and I finished putting the lights on it yesterday. We started reading Christmas stories around the tree and last night Owen asked if he could sleep under the tree. After a couple stories with Ava I layed her in her bed and read another book with Owen. He wanted to look at books after I said goodnight with the lights of the tree but he told me he wanted to turn the lights off when he was done looking at books and ready to sleep. Funny kid. So, he slept under our dark Christmas tree. The first night of more to come I'm sure.