our little Christmas elf.

we had a children's Christmas party at gfa last week. ava had her first chance to devour a present. It took a few seconds, but once she recognized it, she had it in her mouth. yep- box, wrapping and bow... take no prisoners. :)

we had our family Christmas this morning. i'll have to put up photos soon. it was a blessing to spend time together. we'll be travelling to florida for Christmas, so we wanted to have some time together and do some of the traditions we enjoy. we had the fireplace roaring most of last night and this morning. ava got to open a couple more presents. she even helped me turn lots of pages in the Bible as we read the story of Jesus coming to earth.

we took a walk to subway and kroger for lunch today. wow. cold. in the thirties, but it was nice to get out.

ava can sit up well on her own now. sometimes she'll sit up for about 10 minutes or so. she has some pretty funny falls though and loves making sounds to let us know that she has fallen. she has learned how to make spitting sounds pretty well and enjoys squeeling.

i (her dad) sure enjoy holding her. i'll be pretty sad when shes too big for me to carry around with one hand. we got her some beatrix potter books for Christmas, because we really enjoy reading to her. now we just need to get her a cd player of some sort, because she loves dancing when she hears music. really! she starts moving, singing and even the occasional swaying.

well, i better head to bed. i hope you all had a great weekend.

yummy

matt and simon opening their gift