An Orange Has Fallen

Well, today we were all a little bit sick and in need of some rest. I (Tony) have had a head cold for the past couple of weeks that turned into a pretty painful sinus infection. Have you ever not been able to blow your nose, because every time you do, your teeth hurt very very badly? Hopefully it will be gone soon. At least it's not contagious :-)

But I did get to spend a few minutes taking some fun photos today. My "lovely assistant/wife/excellent orange dropper" was an excellent help. We got a few nice shots. Enjoy :)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Tony and I agree that we think this Christmas was our favorite one yet. For one, it's hard to beat the Christmas Miracle of having a white Christmas in Dallas (the first one in 80 some years). But we've been looking forward to this Christmas for months now because we knew Ava would love, love, LOVE the doll/stroller/crib/highchair set we bought her. And she did. She loved all of her presents. A lot.

She opened a few little gifts in her stocking first and really dug down into it to make sure she got everything out and then looked at us and made the "more" sign. So she then proceeded to open our stockings too. Then we ate some breakfast and read the Christmas story together and opened presents. Ava did not need any help getting them open and she got pretty excited about each one! After presents we bundled up and went sledding, made snow angels and built a snow man in our front yard. Ava had a lot of fun and so did Tony, he's been wanting to take Ava sledding all winter so far and we never thought he'd actually be able to!

When we got back Ava took a nap and Tony became fully initiated into fatherhood by spending the next couple hours assembling her new trike from Papa Jim and Grandma Margie and the doll set we got her. He had them all set up in the living rood when she woke up and he and I went into the living room and called to her "Ava come find baby" She came trotting into the room on the hunt for her new doll and got about half way into the room before she saw the stroller and everything. She stopped dead in her tracks and her mouth literally dropped. Then she got a big smile on her face and headed straight to the stroller, pushed it around for a second, then took out the doll and put in in the highchair and drug that and the stroller around, then went to the trike then back to the stroller. . .she could not decide which to play with first! She spent the rest of the afternoon taking the baby doll, the stroller, the highchair and the crib from one room to the next and playing with them. It was so fun to see her get so excited! And I think Tony and I are enjoying seeing her play with gifts as much as she is. And we probably will for awhile, with these new toys it will be like a vacation for me, or at least the next couple of weeks!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas morning. Thank you Jesus for everything you provided for us!

Straight out of the oven.

And flipped. Caramel and Apples. Yum.

Ava opening her stocking.




Making sure nothing got left in the toe.

Reading about Baby Jesus with daddy. Ava points to Jesus in our nativity and says. "Jee, Jee"

"Let's get down to business!"

Yay! Bells to shake!

"I love monkeys!"

"Thank you Grandma Margie for my tiny baby doll!"

Taking a break to eat some banana.

Opening presents can be a messy job.

SLEDDING!!!

Pushing mama on the sled. . .or Tony's boogie board rather . . .

Trudging back up the hill.

"Pound it Mama" One of our favorite moments Christmas morning was while we were opening gifts and Ava gave Tony and I both a "pound it" . . .and then gave her new doll a pound it. . .and then her Lambie a pound it and then she crossed her arms like a gangsta like she does when we tell her "whadup homes" THEN she proceeded to cross her baby's arms and then Lambie's arms. It was a very gangsta Christmas. . .

My sweet baby girl.

Snow Angel.

Isn't that the most perfect little snow angel? I wanted to keep it forever.

Dada's snow angel. Ava's snow angel

Our Snow Man. Ava loved helping pack in the snow around the snow balls.

And dinner with some friends later that night.

A Christmas Miracle

Once upon a time, in a small Texas town, it began to snow on Christmas Eve morning. It continued to snow all day and even provided enough snow for families to play in that evening. The temperatures remained low throughout the night so that many families could enjoy a beautiful snowy Christmas morning.

Sound impossible?

What a fun gift!

Ava had lots of fun throwing snowballs at us. Here are a few shots I took out front of our house tonight. :-)

Fun Christmasy photos? I think so.

We went to downtown Carrollton to see all the Christmas lights and listen to the music.
Ava had lots of fun! It was her first Gingerbread house.
And she is learning how to dance with her Dada.
Here she is blowing some kisses.

Melting.
My.
Heart.

I LOVE this photo.
Ava likes to wear hats now. When Teressa's sister Megan was in town, they made a really big deal about Ava's hats and her shoes whenever she put them on. Before, she only liked one pair of shoes. Now she loves wearing all the different kinds of hats or shoes. She woke up the other day, looked out of her crib, and yelled "Hat." It stayed on the rest of the day...

She's starting to lose those chubby cheeks.
Nothing that her mama's homemade Christmas cinnamon rolls can't fix.

The last shall be first.
This photo makes me happy.
So happy.
Thank you Jesus.

In the midst of some sickness this Christmas month, we have been blessed with some fun fellowship! There was a Gospel for Asia party and we had our annual Christmas party at our house. Right now it's pretty outside. It's technically sleet, but were pretending it's snow.

Amy and Matt - some good friends of ours. Arn't they so cute?

This is Troy and Pam. Troy is the brother that I serve with every day here at GFA. Pam also juggles raising their two kids and comes into our department a few days a week. They are so much fun.

The two amigos.
We encourage each other on the phones.
And try to make each other laugh.
It's good to have someone to spur me on!

Pam, I thought you would like this one.

Preston.
Nuff said.
I like this one.

Taryn was so excited when he opened this baby doll during the white elephant gift exchange.
I'm not sure what I think about this...

Megan.
She had no idea that about 5 lbs of jalapenos were about to be bestowed upon her.

I can usually find JD by looking for the guy with a beverage of something good in his hand.

I like this one too.
Megan, what do you think?

This is Casey.
He is available to watch your kids anytime you would like.

John found the best seat in the house.
Close to the chocolate fountain.
There were so many good treats that everyone brought.
Some of my favorites were:
Blackberries.
Oranges.
Rasberries.
And of course... Twinkies.

Ava was helping me clean up the back yard.
While I was raking, she was trying to water our dead plants.