Ava taking a Bath

Christmas with the Montandons

No, she had not just stuck her finger in a light socket.
Always watching over her shoulder

Elle and the goofy reindeer called Papaw
My PJ's that say "Up all Night"--how true sometimes!

Christmas with Gramme and Grandma

Gramme, Grandma and us

Elle got a feather boa for dress up
Outside tea set for her sandbox...we were in dire need of new sandbox toys!

Gramme and Ava with Ava's very soft sweet bear.

More Lanier Pics

Ava looking overjoyed as Aunt Shawnette holds her...sorry Shawnette, she really does love you!
What could be better....a pink chair, a pink ball, and free rein with the m&m's
Poppy pushing Elle on her Big Wheel since she couldn't pedal.
You think Ava's going to have blue eyes??? Shawn took this artistic pic...we love it!

Christmas with the Laniers

The grandkids

The Big Wheel that she can't pedal.

What's in there???

Now she can iron our clothes....starting her early.

Of course, Nana got her Chiclets!

Christmas Day

Going through the stocking

Putting on the tiara and Cinderella glass slippers

Ava, excited as usual, with her Bumbo

Priceless...playing golf in her tiara

Santa came!

Well, now that everything has settled back into normal routine, it's time to update the blog. Elle must have either paid Santa a little extra or been perfect all year because Santa brought her a ton of stuff! Some of her personal favorites are her pink boots, her pink rain boots, and her doodle art sketch board. She loves everything she got, but those three things seem to be her favorites right now. My parents got her a Big Wheels and it was hilarious because when she got on it to pedal it, her legs weren't even close to long enough so we're going to have to get creative and rig it so she can pedal it. She really enjoyed Christmas this year but I think next year we are going to scale back a bit or add an addition onto our house to put everything! Ava enjoyed Christmas also. So far, her favorite gift has been a humongous box of diapers and a little blue monkey that she can hold and chew on. It was nice to see all the grandparents but Shawn stayed sick most of the time, I got a really bad cold, Elle was trying to get over a cold, and Ava got a cold and was pretty sick. I guess that's winter for you. Maybe if we had had any actually cold weather we wouldn't be getting sick, but it's hard for the body when it's in the 70's in December....I HATE TEXAS WEATHER, just in case you didn't know that about me! Well, here are some pictures that we took. It's hard to pair it down from 180 to just a few! Oh by the way, we got a little bit of cash for Christmas and so far I've bought an indoor grill (like a George Foreman but a different brand that's cheaper). I'm enjoying using it and can't wait to make hamburgers and chicken breasts since we eat those a lot! Hope you all have safe travels as the holiday season wraps up. Our plans for New Year's Eve are once again pathetic. Shawn is going to preach at Wieland both times Sunday and then we might attempt going to the church party but I doubt Ava will be up for that. I can almost guarantee I won't be around for midnight. How pathetic!

Oh No, It's Already Here!!!

Ready for Sunday morning worship

Wearing their traditional matching Christmas pj's--I love this picture!

Ava modeling her pj's

Elle taking the cookies to the fireplace for Santa.

I have been dreading this day all week....Christmas Eve and Day. That may sound weird but it's not because I don't LOVE christmas. It's because it's over. I love the week before xmas and the anticipation but I dread the eve because it will be over in a blink. But, that is how it goes! Christmas Eve was interesting. Shawn has gotten sick with fever and pretty much was on the couch asleep the entire day. Hopefully this morning when he wakes up, he will be feeling much better. We are suspose to head to Tyler after doing our own xmas so I hope he's feeling way better. Xmas eve was very busy with doing laundry, cleaning the house,making cookies for Santa, packing myself, Elle and Ava, taking care of Shawn,and then getting all the Santa stuff ready! Elle and I read The Night Before Christmas out of the same book that it was read to me from for the last 28 years. Ava slept through the night after 2 previous nights of waking at 4:30 am to eat--merry christmas to me! Well, I have rambled but I just had lots of little things to update with. Here are a few pictures from yesterday. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
And yes, if you noticed, it is 6:45 in the morning and I've been up since 5 am because I'm too excited to go back to sleep--some people just never grow up....thank goodness!

Charlotte's Web

We took Elle and Ava to see their first movie on the big screen yesterday. The movie was an hour and a half long and Elle did very well. We went to a noon showing so there weren't many people in the theater. We sat on the back row so she got to roam a little when she got squirmy. At one point she laid on her belly on the floor with her hands under her chin and watched. That was pretty cute! Ava did FABULOUS! She ate some lunch, then hung out in my lap and smiled at me. I turned her around for a little and she watched too. After a while she got sleepy and I rocked her in the stadium seating they had. She fell right asleep and slept through the rest of the movie. She didn't make a peep. :) Elle was quite interested in what the pig and spider were doing and asked a question about every 2 seconds. It was a great movie and I'm glad we went to see it.

Santa's Lap

We went to the mall today to have our first official family picture taken and also to take a pic of the girls on Santa's lap. The family picture went ok, I was happy with the pic, but it could have been better and Ava was ready for a nap as we took it, so it was hard to keep her from crying. Elle did great even though she's sick. Her fever hasn't been back since Monday but she has a pretty bad cough now and we're just playing a wait and see game on whether to take her to the dr. or not. Ava had a little bit of a fever this afternoon and has coughed a little but maybe she will skim over whatever Elle has. Her fever I believe is gone now, so we wonder if maybe she had just gotten hot...she had been sleeping in her carseat in the car so maybe she just got a little too warm??? Anyway, here's the picture. It went MUCH better than last year. Elle walked right up to him and he picked her up and plopped her in his lap and she didn't bat an eye. I believe this was the same Santa from last year so that was neat :)

The Gingerbread House

We started on the house yesterday morning. Let me say, making a homemade house is not for the faint hearted! It took lots of little steps to just bake the bread and hope it holds up! Although we did this thinking Elle would have fun, Shawn and I actually had way more fun! We have decided to make it a tradition between us and if our kids want to help that's fine. Elle was far far far more interested in taste testing the decorations. We are very proud of our little house. From our "house" to yours....Merry Christmas!

What a busy weekend!

I realized it was Monday night and I haven't really written anything in days! Unlike me...so we had a very busy weekend, esp. Shawn. Friday night, the Spanish congregation invited all the staff from church to a meal. It was delicious and I'm not a mexican food person, but this is way different than El Chico. I could have eaten and eaten and eaten.
Saturday morning he headed to the church building to make/deliver fruit baskets to all the people 75+ in our congregation. Then at noon we headed to Elle's friends b-day party. She enjoyed that of course. Then Saturday night we had a Christmas party with some friends.
Sunday, since Shawn is on "vacation" we went to the church across the field from us. It was pretty decent except that Elle freaked out about Bible class. So, I stayed in there with her and when they were each given a car to "drive" to bible class she shoved it across the table real hard at the teacher (on purpose--it was her way of being defiant) So I spanked her and she started bawling loudly so I had to apologize to the teacher and excuse ourselves. It wasn't too good. Anyway, we did make it through that and it was nice to be home way earlier than usual on a Sunday morning.
By that afternoon Elle was complaining that her stomach and head hurt. We took her temp and it got to 103. We didn't go to church Sunday night because of her fever and couldn't really get it to come down much. Today it has been better and it will go down to normal then raise back up to about 100 every once in a while. Her body's fighting something and let's just hope no one else gets it. We have been pretty careful but how careful can you be when you're breathing the same air???
So, that leads us to this evening. Shawn and I have been working on and off since 3 this afternoon on a homemade gingerbread house. I was inspired by my friend Brandi who just finished one with her kids and it turned out quite nice. It has been constructed and now it just needs to set all night so the icing can get nice and hard. Tomorrow we will all decorate and I think I went alittle overboard with the candy...you'll see when I put up pics in a few days.
I am done with christmas shopping and wrapping and now and in full excitement mode for christmas day, though it's getting here too fast. I LOVE THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS! I am baking like crazy lately. We are having some friends over tomorrow night just to hang out and I'm making all kinds of breakfast foods. YUMMY So tomorrow promises to be another busy day full of cooking, cleaning, laughing, decorating, and FUN!
Wow, I had a lot to say. Hope you enjoyed catching up on the minute aspects of our lives. If you're reading this and have a blog....better update it...I'm making you look bad! ;)

Elle amid all the chaos at the bday party.

I'm not sure a caption could do this picture justice...and the shirt says "No Autographs Please."

Ava my bet fwend

Elle trying to Hopscotch

3 months and stuff

Ava was three months yesterday and if you didn't know, I take a picture of her every month in her car seat so you can see the difference over a year. I did that with Elle and made it into a scrapbook page and it turned out so cute! Anyways, here's the monthly picture. Under it is the pic of Elle at 3 months. There's also a random pic of Elle from yesterday. I just thought she looked so cute in her new shoes and shirt (which I got for free from JC Penney because I had a coupon!!! I LOVE FREE STUFF!

Weight Check

Ava will be three months old tomorrow so I decided to have her weighed to make sure she's doing okay. It has been 3 weeks since she was weighed and in that time she has gained 1 lb 1 oz!!! That's a very good thing. She is now up to 12 lb 7 oz!!! I knew she was looking chubby! :) Just wanted to share the good news. Have a great Tuesday. In 3 days Shawn will be on "vacation" for almost 2 weeks. YIPPIE!!! p.s. we're working on the not-so-somber look with Ava but that seems to be quickly becoming her signature look.

Preschool Christmas Party

This was a first for us this year. Elle's class had a Christmas party at church Sunday before evening services. Elle is in the "Preschool Department" now so that means a party! It makes me feel old to have a "preschooler." Oh well, we were very excited to go since this was our first time. I think Elle's favorite part of the party was having a Capri Sun. She downed it in about 2 seconds flat. She also liked getting a present from Santa (who knew her name!) but would not for one second sit on his lap at all! She had a great time and we had fun watching her. We love to watch her play with other kids her age. She is dying for interaction with other kids--daddy and mommy are no fun to play with--we poop out too fast! Enjoy the pictures. Hope you are enjoying the holidays and not getting too overloaded with all the stuff going on (good luck!)

More pics

Spontaneous Snow!

It's going to be fun elle!

I'm going to die!!!

I don't feel a bit guilty :)
She's using me as target practice.

I got a call from my father-in-law's wife yesterday that it was about to be snowing in Tyler! She said that the paper said that they were going to produce fake snow and let people tube down it and also have a play area for snow. I immediately called shawn and said, pack up, we're headed to tyler for the afternoon. We left yesterday around 1 pm and by 4 we were at the park waiting to play in the snow. We had a great time...except for going tubing down the hill. Let's just say elle didn't get a choice in going down. But she did enjoy very much picking it up and running after us and then throwing it at us :) Anyway, enjoy the pictures and thanks Carolyn for the heads up! We never get snow in Texas so this was a real treat.