A Very Merry Christmas!

The whole month of December was so much fun with Averi this year. She is old enough now to understand the excitement of Christmas and she gets pretty into it like Doug and I do. She loved:

-Looking at Christmas lights especially blow-up characters like Santa and Mickey. She would always say "oh so peety" and then "Bye bye Santa/Mickey!"

-Watching Christmas movies... especially movies that had Santa in them.

-Opening presents

-Making Christmas crafts (I would put them on the fridge and every day she would say "I make kissmiss tee!!", etc)

-Eating Christmas goodies. I would be worried if she didn't since both Doug and I can't seem to get enough!

-The Christmas tree. She would always walk into the room where it is and point and say "oh so peety!", or "peety lights!", or ""peety kissmiss tee!"

Avers watching Christmas movies with her baby

 Averi at the ward Christmas party. She preferred to sit by the tree next to Santa and she did so for 15 minutes :)

 I had to just plop her on Santa's lap without asking her but she didn't really fight it. A little nervous maybe?

Reading Christmas stories to her baby

 Making cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve

 She couldn't help but sample a few of them which later contributed to her crazy hyper second wind she got about twenty minutes later.

 Putting frosting on the cookies. She was actually able to do it herself which I was pretty impressed with.

Can you tell which one I didn't help her with?

 Reading Christmas storied on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning!!

 Averi was probably most excited for the candy in her stocking than anything else. Here she is (with her mouth full of chocolate) showing me the sucker that was in her stocking. She was VERY excited about it :) We finally had to hide all the candy so that she would open all the real gifts. haha!

 One of her trusty favorites...a new baby

 Averi always gets into my closet and wears my high heels around the house so Santa decided to just bring her a few of her own pairs. She insisted on wearing them to target the next day which didn't go over to well since she has to shuffle step the whole time she is wearing them. She ended up going barefoot most of the time.

Santa brought me a sewing machine which I am SOOO excited about!

 Averi showing Daddy her new farm set that she got from Grandma and Grandpa H

 The wreckage

 Averi exploring all her gifts of Christmas 2011



Sea World San Diego!

Since Doug and I didn't go home for Christmas this year (tear), we decided to take a quick trip to visit our marine friends at Sea World instead. The third time was a charm for us since we had tried to plan this trip two other times but it never worked out. It was worth the wait and all three of us had tons of fun. We went for two days and went to Sea World on both of them so that we could see everything there and not feel rushed. Lucky for us, Doug's brother Bart lives near San Diego and he let us stay with him while we were there. It was nice catching up with him and getting to see his sweet house right off the beach!

Averi and I waiting for our first show... dolphins!

 Averi LOVED the show and she actually loved the "princess" about as much as she did the dolphins.

 Us with Bart and his giant Shamu, which Averi loved.

Averi giving her baby a ride on Shamu

 I loved how everything at the park was so decked out for Christmas. So pretty!

 Averi going for a "ride" in Santa's sleigh

Checking out Santa's reindeer

 Averi is mostly over her fear of Santa now I think (who she also got to see while we were there). She will now go to him somewhat willingly. She has yet to actually smile at/with him but oh well. I love this picture anyways. SO cute.

 Averi in the cage with the polar bears (not really but doesn't it look like it?)

Looking at a beluga whale

 Shamu!

 The shark tunnel with Daddy

She had a blast at the Sesame Street Play place too.

 This is about as close as she would willingly get to the giant Elmo...not that I blame her! She wouldnt take her eyes off of him either (as you can see!)

She actually had a lot of fun on the rides that we thought for sure she would be scared of. Here she is on the flying Elmo with Doug.

That was all the fun she could handle! Out like a light.

Oh,... I have to also mention that Averi is now fully potty trained! I havent changed a diaper for almost a month now and it's great. The only down side is that she will only go in HER potty for the time being which means I get to take her bulky little potty with me just about everywhere I go... including Sea World :) I tried to suggest that she go in the normal toilet there which apparently was REALLY offensive to her.

Turkey Bowl / Glendale Glitters

Every year the city of Glendale hosts "Glendale Glitters" where the whole downtown area is decked out with christmas lights and live entertainment. On Saturday night we took Averi there and walked around for a bit. We saw a huge white wolf that was on display (meaning some guy had a rope tied to it and was standing just off the sidewalk so people could see him). He was gorgeous. Then we saw some river dancers (that all seemed to be doing their own dance to the same music) and took Averi to the petting zoo. There were tons of larger sized goats that were anything but shy so Averi was actually a little intimidated at first but overall had tons of fun as she always does at petting zoos. Then to finish off our night, we got a delicious bar of fudge from a vendor there and headed home.

Averi got to meet a turkey face-to-face :) Doug got spit on by an alpaca. haha!

 The REST of Thanksgiving weekend....

Here is Doug attempting to put our Christmas lights up on the very top of the house. It didn't really work out so we just put them on the bottom roof and around the windows. Looks so cute!

Here is Averi "helping":

Thanksgiving morning Doug played in the "Turkey Bowl" with a bunch of guys from our ward. It was at the park right across the street (like last year) so that was nice because the kids were able to play on the playground while the boys played football.

It was pretty chilly that morning so Averi was content all bundled up in the swing most of the time (she is finally able to get some use out of the coat I used when I was her age...love it!).

 Daddy and his little cheerleader walking home from the big game.