Hello Jovie!

We FINALLY got to meet Jovie! We have been so excited to get our hands on  meet baby Jovie!

Mike and Cori came to Minnesota for Christmas and we couldn't wait to set up a time for a visit! We went over to Sherry and Charlie's house on Friday morning afternoon! It took us 3 hours to get out the door on Friday after Avery was all off of her schedule and had too many days of running around and cookies! I swear to you... it was THE hardest day I have ever had with her! But once we got there, and laid our eyes on that adorable babe, it was all good! Avery couldn't wait to show Jovie all of her new toys. She shared her horses and all of her Doc McStuffins toys with her! We stayed for lunch and then headed home for a nap! It was great to see Mike and Cori too, they seem to be settling in to the parenting role fairly easily! :)

Here she is...

Christmas Night

We had a wonderful Christmas evening at Sherry and Darin's house! Dinner was fabulous as usual; prime rib, roasted veggies and wild rice soup. Avery wasn't hungry in the least, since we had just eaten a few hours earlier and she didn't know to save room for Prime Rib, but she LOVED being so fancy using a big girl glass and fancy plates and silverware. After dinner, we had the most delicious chocolate torte and grasshoppers to celebrate Grandma's Birthday.

We sang our Twelve Days of Christmas, Avery got her own number this year! She was #1, which everyone was glad about since it gets sung the most! She did a great job!!! I LOVE this tradition and am so glad Avery was able to enjoy it with us this year as much as she did!

Then we opened gifts and ended our evening lighting paper lanterns! This was our first year sending wish lanterns into the sky... it was really fun and I hope it can become a new tradition we can add! The weather was perfect for lanterns this year.... and our brown Christmas turned into a white Christmas after all!

After Sherry and Darin's, we headed over to Mom and Larry's house with Andy, Jenna and Jess for a smaller family gathering. We had to empty our stockings and exchange gifts among ourselves! Avery was VERY tired, almost falling asleep on the way over there, but she did great once we got out of the car. Avery's pile of gifts was a mile high and she was ecstatic when she opened each of  them!

                                     

We bundled up at 11:30pm and hit the road for home... AND WE TOTALLY PAID FOR IT THE NEXT 3 DAYS!!! Yikes!! NEVER AGAIN will we try to cram so much into one day! Lesson learned!!

Advent Book Calendar!

Christmas Eve was our very last book to open for our Advent Book Calendar. I am SO glad I found this idea and decided to do it! This will be a family tradition every year for our family. Not only does it encourage reading and family togetherness, it is so much better than candy in a traditional advent calendar! I didn't take photos every night, I usually tried to put my phone on silent and leave it in the other room while we were snuggling and opening books. I did take a few in the beginning (and already posted those) and here are a few photos from our 24 days of Christmas books.


December 12:

December 18:

December 22:

 December 23:

I found this photo of Avery last year reading her Elf on the Shelf book for the first time and couldn't even believe how little she was! Here is a side-by-side comparison from last year at this time to now! Where did my baby go?!?

Christmas Day

Ben was home for Christmas this year, he hasn't been home in 3 years and has never met any of the kids. No one knew he was coming until right before he arrived! The Benders and Woodruffs were also here as usual... the house was full but the company was great. We weren't able to see everyone as much as we would have liked to, but we did our best! 

Avery and Lucy had fun playing together. I made a snowman factory kit for the kids to play with (home made play doh, buttons, ribbon, pom-poms, twigs and google eyes). It was a hit - the girls spent a lot of time creating all kinds of things, not just snowmen! 

We ate a delicious meal at 1:00 on the dot, just as planned! Ben had to head to the airport at 2:30 and we had to leave around the same time to make it to Sherry and Darin's house for a 4:00 meal. Right after we got our meal cleaned up Kristen, Dawn and Ryann came! We didn't think we were going to be able to see everyone on Christmas, and it wasn't for long, but we did get a good family photo!