Holiday Magic

Count down until Dec 24 was way to quick.  We had so much fun playing, cooking, eating and enjoying new little Owen.  David's squadron put on a activity packed kids Christmas Party.  Unfortunately Dave had to work that day so I took the kids by myself. The first thing Ava made was a loot bag, to put all of her crafts and prizes in.

 Present Bowling

 Holiday Colouring

 Cookie Decorating

 Foam Picture Frames

Face Painting

 Beaded Candy Canes

Bean Bag Toss

Hot Dog Lunch

Ava was so excited to see Santa land his KC135 Airplane.  It was the perfect short and sweet holiday party.

I got a call from Ava's head teacher Miss Sue one afternoon.  I immediately thought something bad had happened (like Ava breaking her arm.) Instead I heard "Mrs Miller don't be alarmed but we want to tell you that Ava has cut her hair this afternoon.  She hid with a pair of scissors while we were wrapping presents.  Apparently a child told a teacher that a girl had cut her hair behind the dress up clothes.  Ava had taken the scissors and cut 2 large chunks of hair from both sides of her face!

I had to do something, and I didn't want her to go through a fuzzed out, pain in the butt stage if bangs so I decided to just cut everything shorter and clip back the cut pieces. She actually looked very cute.

We decorated Christmas cards for her friends at pre school, with stickers and stamps.

Owen took his first bottle

 Ava made her first Gingerbread house! I would squish the icing on, she placed ALL the candies.

Owen was cute and sweet

On Christmas Eve we went to the Zoo.  It was bitterly cold but we needed to be distracted from the excitement of the day.

 The Giraffes were Ava's favorite!

Santa was at the Zoo too.  Ava was able to put her last wish in to him and received a stuffed Tiger as a special gift.

 After we got home we took the train track out from under the tree and played with it for a while.

We opened new Christmas jammies and put cookies and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer.

Owen was an adorable candy striped reindeer.

 Off to bed with excitement butterflies, her new tiger and a beauty rest mask. Christmas Eve is the best night of the year.

Grandma has to go home

Our last few days with Grandma were awesome (too bad Grandpa couldn't have made it out with her.) Grandma took lots of pictures of us doing FUN things.

Ready for church

Roasting marshmallows over the fire

Egg Nogg

Long mornings in Pajamas

Christmas pheasant anyone?

We ended her stay with a visit to the London Temple, a fabulous dinner out and over night stay in a B and B close to Gatwick Airport.

Last morning together at breakfast

Huge Christmas tree at Gatwick Airport

Thank you so much Mom for taking the time and money to visit us and make the holidays that much more exciting.  It will be a Christmas to remember.

Owen's Baby Blessing

Owens baby blessing was a bit of a blur.  Like every Sunday, I was running late and decided to put my make up on in the truck, only I forgot my mascara.  I know most people didn't notice but my eyes are my favorite part of my face.  Then when trying to write down the words Dave was saying my pen kept bleeding dry.  I have half written words and scribbles to document his sweet blessing to our little boy.  Dave unfortunately said a few words out of place and we had to do a repeat blessing in the Bishops office.  But to top it all off we took a few photos at church (which are nice) but I completely forgot to take any at home with just Owen in his darling outfit.  NOTHING!  What kind of mother forgets to take pictures on blessing day?