Ava's new Christmas dress, "poopy", and baby...

My pictures just don't do this cute dress much justice, but she was very INTO her "pwitty" dress-- sashaying around like she was Beyonce... we should watch out!

Beboo sent Ava this stuffed dog and she LOVES it... seriously, between riding it like a horse ("WEEEEEEEEE!!!!!) and cuddling it like a baby ("soff pooopy" translation: soft puppy), she cannot part with it.

Squeeze that dog, girl!

Great news! Our friends just had their baby boy, he's just precious and we're so glad he's FINALLY here! Ava hasn't met Hinder in person yet, but she gets the "gimme hands" when I've shown her pictures of him. "Gimme gimme gimme!"-- yikes, watch out Hinder, she'll eat you up!

Christmas Morning Take One

We didn't want to haul all of our boxes and such to Wyoming so we had our very own Christmas morning the Sunday before the real day! I had so much fun, mostly recording great video of the morning (that are WAY too long for Blogger to allow me to upload on here). I know Ava isn't at the point where she really "gets it"; the Santa, the reindeer, celebrating the birth of Christ... all the great parts of Christmas, but I got so excited for her. I can't wait till she is old enough to join me in the thrill of it! She still had a great time ripping into the gifts (once she realized that she's Finally allowed to touch them!) Ava got some great toys and cute clothes from her Beboo and Papa Wilson, Grandma Hi Suk and J.C., and Nana and Papa Aaron-- thanks to all, we love you!

What's All This??? Ava looks a tad dazed-- between all the pretty gifts (we held out on putting all of them out until the night before... knowing that her itchy fingers would not be able to hold off!) and me jumping up and down, squealing "Merry Christmas!!!!!"
















Isnt' this robe the cutest??? I love it, thanks so much Hi Suk!


The Fallout



This year, Taylor and I decided that we are going to be giving each other homemade gifts... from the heart, to each other. I wouldn't realize how much I love this idea until I opened my gift.


Of course, you've seen this one already, Ava in her tutu from me


T made Ava the cutest bookshelf (a few months ago) and it looks pretty great up in her room (that I'll finish one day-- hopefully before she moves away to college!)


Looks great, doesn't it!



For my gift to Taylor (and Ava) I made them a hardback photo book of all the pictures of the two of them from when Ava was born till about 18 months old.


I had a lot of fun making this book for him-- The two of them have so much fun together!





My gift made me choke up. Let me give you a little background. When I was in 16 years old and in Young Women's we all wrote a small letter to our "future husbands" and picked out a porcelain heart to one day give both to whoever we marry. Well, on our honeymoon I gave the letter and heart to Taylor which was pretty amazing that I still had it. At the time I said, in passing, that I'd love to have this framed one day- since it was special to both of us. Four years and four months later, after four apartment changes and all the stuff that comes with that, I lost the letter and heart. You can probably imagine my surprise and how touched I was to open this gift and see the heart, still unscathed, and my letter just looking so pretty in the frame. What a wonderful gift!


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Christmas Adventures

This year we spent Christmas with my family in Wyoming-- this is the first time since we've all been married and out of the house that we have been together for Christmas... ALL OF US!!! It was crazy, packed, full of laughing AND crying, kids running EVERYWHERE chasing the dog... the mayhem was endless and just so fun! The unfortunate part was that Taylor, Ava and I had to make it such a short trip due to work schedules. We were just so glad that we got to see everyone-- what a very Merry Christmas this year!

On the way to Grandma's House... Ava was singing and pounding out some great car tunes on her bitty piano... she's our little Billy Joel-lette.


Roads: Terrible... took us SO LONG to get there!


Through the Pass


Finally!!! We made it! Here are just a FEW of the pictures-- just wanted to capture some of the fun highlights!


Nana and Parker reading together


Wes and Evelyn with their newest, Baby Bella


Ava and Bubba playing on the stairs


They were really funny bantering back and forth with each other


Ava's tower-o-blocks... ok, so she didn't make it, but boy was she proud of it!


Merry Christmas Daddy and Ava!


Look at that beautiful smile!


Ava and Maya playing


Ava really loved cuddling with Evelyn... we tried to get everyone to smile... in the end, just getting them to both look up at the same time proved to be quite the feat!



I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't get more good pictures of the other kids playing with Uncle Wendel, Uncle Kevin, and Aunt Liz and of the opening of the presents... they all just turned out fuzzy, crooked, and dark... darn camera!


ALL of us... in one room, looking at the camera--- this was history in the making


After Christmas breakfast and some playing around, Taylor, Ava and I had to leave to make the trip back home. The roads were great for about 45 minutes, then turned into a total white-out blizzard! We were so blessed many, MANY times in this LONG trip home. Here are a few of those blessings:
1. we were the only crazy people out on the roads
2. Ava was really pretty sick this entire week with a cold and didn't sleep very well at Nana and Papa Aarons so she slept for a VERY long time
3. our car... it worked like a gem, even did a great job on terrible, non-plowed, snow-covered roads
4. instead of the pass closing down while we were in the middle of it (yes, we got stuck), the closure happened when we were right between two pretty rough passes-- only an hour from Rexburg (argh!) but thankfully there was a vacancy in a hotel (trashy and creepy as it was) that we spent the night in.
5. we felt so blessed to be with each other- and in pretty good spirits, considering the situation. I'm thankful Taylor has a FUN sense of humor that kept me from going crazy with frustration. I'm thankful that we both have families who kept us in their hearts and prayers.


Ava was SO tired that when I undressed her for her bath, she literally fell asleep in the middle of the process


Christmas Night... complete with Bing Crosby's White Christmas and Donettes-- memories in the making!


Ava's make-shift bed


Our view... note the "doors" leading to certain death


This is the pass we just barely made it through... Hoback Pass



Well, we made it! The next morning we woke up to even more snow... still falling and unplowed. The Palisades pass was STILL closed-- sooo disappointing! We waited around until about 11am and heard that another route (about 4 hours OUT of our way) was open... for now. So we decided to press our luck, considering the skies were looking very dark and ominous over the pass we needed to get through! In short, WE DID IT!!! All the way down to Pocetello and back up to Rexburg we came home to this:....


More. Snow. Surprise, surprise.


Immediately putting Taylor to work!


This Christmas was definitely full of some surprises, but fun and merriment and just good old fashioned family time was the theme... I'd do it all over again just to see all my sweet neices and nephews, brothers and sisters, and my parents--- and That's saying something!

Hope this finds you with fond Christmas memories!
Love,
The Wilson's

Sitting Pretty

I'm SO EXCITED for Christmas!!!!!


Ava's razzing me from her Throne of Presents


Gimme a Bitty Wave

Ava's Christmas Tutu I made for her (Thanks, Shalee-- couldn't do it without your tips!) She saw me making it and couldn't (WOULDN'T) wait for the Big Day... but boy she was rockin' it... dancing, twirling, swaying.... so very cute!

She couldn't even part with it to watch a movie!


Hi there, Sweetface!


"Pensive Thinker" contemplates life...


I'm sure there will be many more pictures of "Adventures of Ava and her Tutu"... to be continued...

Worst. Santa. Ever.

Going in to visit Santa yesterday, Taylor and I knew full well that Ava would most likely not take to the Jolly Fellow with his bowl full of jelly.

We were SO RIGHT.

Apprehension about him at first, Ava wouldn't sit on his lap- hence Taylor in the pictures. But then her apprehension turned to a total meltdown, arching her back and clawing to get out of arm's length from the freaky man in the red poly-blend suit. And to add to the festivities, Santa was terrible! Seriously, he was wretched! He didn't Ho Ho Ho like a sweet old man, instead he growled, "She can just sit next to me instead". "Santa" was sure NOT Jolly and his bowl full of jelly was actually a bowl full of dysentery- yes, you read that right, he was just full of crap! This Santa was hard-as-nails, rolling his eyes and heaving HUGE sighs of boredom and displeasure. I wouldn't even cast him as the Grim Reaper! Well, Taylor and I left the North Pole laughing (AT him) and chasing Ava who was Booking It down the mall to escape the man with no twinkle in his dead and lifeless eyes. Oh Memories. Sweet, sweet memories.

Why does it look like they are both sizing each other up for a brawl?

Look at Santa's eyes, he's literally rolling them!! Hahaha!! Granted I would never EVER take on the duty as mall Santa, but really, they should screen for someone who doesn't reek of animosity!

All's well in the world now that we're at TGIFridays and coloring.