Christmas---Part 1

This year was our year to do Christmas Day with Trav's extended family, so the Bettis fam (my mom's side) alternates so that we can all still be together at Christmas time. We got together at my mom's house for a brunch on the day after Christmas.




Travis and his pumpkin bars! They were YUMMY! We also had pumpkin french toast the next morning for breakfast and I must say that was awesome too. I think we've finally used all of our pumpkin from Halloween. :) haha




Me and Megan---the bobsy twins once again!



Sisters---Bridgett, Tammy, Steph



Belle and Ava. Isabelle is in the 4th grade (hard to believe!) and is such a good cousin. Olivia was sick and couldn't come (pink eye!).



Some family shots. As you can maybe see, it was quite the crowd! My mom has 4 siblings. I think everyone in the family was there except cousin Anna who lives in AZ and was home for Thanksgiving so 11 of 12 were there plus OUR kids! I am sooo bummed we didn't at least get an all cousin shot of all the cousins that were there. NEXT TIME!


More family shots. :)


Typically we choose a separate day to open gifts with my siblings but it worked out that my sister Tammy and family were home for Christmas on Christmas, so they were able to be there for the Bettis celebration and then we opened our gifts to each other that evening.

Travis and Jeff (Tammy's husband)...Jeff got the cooler so I guess that Fancy Nancy box is Trav's. haha

Ava had some fun playing with her cousins. Ella had these clip-on hair things for her ponies so she 'ever so gently' clipped one in Ava's hair. It was hilarious! She didn't even notice!


My mom still does stockings for us since one year I about had a cow when she stopped. :) She now also does them for the grandkids. Thanks mom! :) Stockings are my fave! She also started the tradition of getting Ava a Holiday Barbie for Christmas.

Jammies!

Ella

Ava just hanging out.

The great-grandbabies born last year. My grandma has 8 great-grandchildren total.

Ava: 7 months

Dasani: 9 months

Reddington: 10 months

Landen: 4 months

Christmas---Part 2 coming soon including Ava's Christmas morning and her 7 month chair pics. :)

Snow Baby

I am not really a HUGE fan of wintery weather, ice, etc---ICK---but mainly because I hate being cold (it could last for the month of December and I'd be happy), however, I will say I always loved playing in the snow and sledding growing up. We lived on a lake so we would occasionally go ice skating at our friends' house and I think I remember a few times that my best friends Kelli and Les and I snuck down to the lake when it was frozen and just messed around. Not very smart but, hey, we survived! and had lots of fun in the process. :)

We took these pics of Ava at my mom's house the day after Christmas. She had just gotten this cute snowsuit and the snowflakes coming down were huge and beautiful! I am not sure she really thought it was too fun but I'm sure she will in a few years and it made for some cute pics of her first time in the snow.

Christmas Eve

This year we made the decision to be at home on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning...something that has not happened since Travis and I have been together. We still traveled on Christmas morning, but it was nice to be at home and get up on Christmas morning to do our Christmas together---a tradition we both had growing up that we wanted to pass on to Ava!

Since we were home, we were also able to attend the Christmas Eve service, which I don't think I have ever done. I was glad Ava would get the chance to wear her Christmas dress again, too! She did great...with a little help from some Gerber 'puffs' :) And it was just nice to be able to celebrate the real reason for the CHRISTmas season!

We went with Kim and Craig and Ava's buddy, Lauren and each of their families. Then Kim's mom graciously invited us over for dinner. I guess you could say we were like honorary family members that night. :)

Christmas Photo Shoot/6month Chair Pics

Well, as I mentioned I'm a bit behind in my blogging so here goes. I am going to try to get caught up as much as I can. I have been too busy over break enjoying the holidays, my birthday, spending time with Travis and Ava and family and friends, and organizing just about every closet, drawer, cabinet, etc. in our house! I even got all of Ava's "too small" clothes put away and labeled in tubs. Whew!!!

Lori came up and took our Christmas family photos in early December and also did Ava's 6 month chair pics. Despite Ava being still a little sick, she did great and as you'll see, we got some AmAZinG photos!!!!

*Remember you can click on the collages/photos to view them larger. :)

I absolutely loved this one. It's like she's saying "Doot de doo...what now?" Lori said she looked like an old lady who forgot to put her teeth in. :)

We had some fun with Christmas props as you can see!

"Daddy's Little Deer"----LOVE this outfit!

Catching up!

Wow! I have some catching up to do. The only other things on my 'to-do' list today are...
Enjoy the last day of break with my lil girl...
Sit on the couch...
and MAYBE (I did say maybe) help Travis with laundry.

So, check back soon for updates of Steph, Trav and Ava.

These Boots are Made for Walking...

Things are going well here in the Cunningham household. hehe! I am THOROUGHLY enjoying break and am excited to celebrate Ava's first Christmas. I am not sure if I blogged that I broke my camera on our St. Charles trip (hence no blog of that yet...short story long, I do have the pics from cousin Megan's blog and my mom's from Snapfish, but haven't done anything with them yet AND I do have my old camera but need to ask Travis about the memory card for it. It says it is full. hmmm!). Anyway, that is why I haven't blogged many pics. Well, and nothing much exciting has been going on. We will be home until Christmas morning when we'll go to celebrate Christmas with Trav's extended family, then Christmas with my extended family the day after Christmas and Trav's mom/dad/siblings on the night after Christmas. Then my b'day on the 28th. I already told Travis I want a CAMERA for my birthday...hehe, and dinner at Red Lobster.

It will be a busy few days!

We made a trip out to the mall yesterday - she loves shopping! :) Can't you tell!?

I wish her cute boots had made it (fully) in the picture. I found them at Target...and they actually stay on her feet! I told Travis that I was going to just buy the baby Uggs since I was on pair #3 of boots NOT staying on her feet but he got lucky I found these and they are really cute--and a little cheaper, too.

She loves paper but we've had to monitor her when she's playing with it (you think? LOL...) since she actually swallowed some the other day and then gagged it up. TMI!? haha

Don't you like her outfit? All we had were the dress pj's upstairs last night so I stuck some of those baby legs (baby legwarmers) on her and socks too. All of different patterns. Quite the sight! I think she's looking at me saying, "I can play with this? REALLY?"

Little Peanut

Ava had her 6 month well-baby appointment last week--finally--after being sick.

Her stats:
Weight: 15 lbs something ounces. It was right under 16 pounds. 50th percentile
Length: 25 inches. 25th percentile
Head Circumference: 17 3/4 inches. A whopping 97th percentile.

I was hoping she'd be average height (and who knows...) but so far she's a little peanut I guess. She seems pretty average to me but it is funny to talk to a few friends with babies her age that are in 9 month clothes or bigger. She can still get away with some 3-6 month clothes but is typically in whatever actual month she is in clothing so most 6 month right now. I have noticed her sleeves are often too long and pant length too long---sounds quite familiar to me!

She's back to herself--funny, smiley, etc. for the most part. She is still coughing here and there with the occasional gagging on her bottle and is continuing to enjoy solid foods so I think we are going to start with more real people food and not just baby food soon.