Happy Christmas!

From Ian, Cara, Aven, and Grace

Christmas Dress

When my Aunt Ann was here in November, she bought Aven a darling dress. The best thing about the dress? It has little Scotti dogs sewn around the hem, and since dogs are currently Aven's favorite thing, it's a winner. Enjoy a cute picture of Aven by our Christmas tree:

Also, enjoy Aven's current favorite video from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. We watch this video at least twice a day but she never seems to get tired of it, and I'm not ashamed to say that I'm not tired of it either:

December so far . . .

I've already posted about visiting Santa and partying with friends, but here are a few more things we've done during this very busy, fun filled month:

Aven and I went to the Festival of Trees with my mom. Aven loved the Elmo tree.

We went on a carriage ride downtown with Ian's parents and brother. Aven loved seeing the horses and the lights downtown.

After our carriage ride we walked through Temple Square. Aven was most impressed with the fountains. This kid loves water.

Aven "performed" in her daycare Christmas program. Here she is as a darling reindeer.

When I say she "performed", what I mean is that she didn't cry as much as she did during her Spring program. She stared out at the the audience like a deer in the headlights until she spotted me, then she started crying.

Zoo Lights! We went to Hogle Zoo to see the holiday light display. It was really a lot of fun. I highly recommend it to anyone with kids. In the above photo you can see mine and Aven's silhouette. We had to choose between silhouette pictures or flash pictures that completely washed out the lights- oh well.

I can't believe that Christmas is in 6 days! It's been an incredibly fun holiday season so far. Having a child has made everything seem magical again.

Christmas with the Kids

I am grateful that my three best friends have kids. It makes getting together super fun. Tonight, we had a Christmas party for the kiddos. My very brave friend Natalie volunteered to host the party since she has the largest house and more toys than any kid could ever hope for. Aven is the youngest, but she still managed to get involved in plenty of the action:

She wasn't thrilled about my insistence that she sit on the bed with all the other kids for a photo. Sweet little Gwen was nice enough to hold her while I took the picture.

I loved seeing the two girls at the party playing with a big bucket of plastic bugs and snakes.

Present time! We did a gift exchange for the kids. I believe everyone was quite satisfied. Aven got a really cute pony that makes horsey noises and also works as a flashlight.

Then came the fun part- decorating sugar cookies and eating them. Aven was mostly interested in eating the m&m's and frosting off her cookie. By the time she was done she had chocolate frosting smeared all over her torso, arms, and face.

Partying with the kids is always fun, and even though I'm usually so beat by the time we're done that I'd like to lapse into a coma for a couple days, I can't wait to do it again.

Visiting Santa

I decided to take Aven to the mall to see Santa after school yesterday. The mall near her daycare had a "natural " Santa, so I was excited to pay way too much for a low quality picture.

I thought that Aven would be okay being near Santa as long as I was holding her. I was wrong. Despite weeks of reading Christmas stories, playing with a little stuffed Santa toy and talking about how great Santa is she was terrified when we got near him.

The scowl on her face was the result of two very energetic photographers jumping around, playing peek-a-boo, and waving around stuffed toys and squeaky balls. She was previously screaming and squirming to get off my lap, so trust me, the scowl was as good as it was going to get.

Oh well, maybe next year she'll be more willing to sit with Santa and crack a smile.