Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We had a great Christmas-hectic, but so much fun! First off, let me say that these pictures are not in order-I've tried for awhile now to get them in chronological order, and I can't seem to figure it out. Second, I've realized that we only take pictures of Ava!! I swear other family members were around, but I guess taking pictures of Ava is more fun, because no one else is really in them. Mark really was with us!! On Christmas Eve we always go over to Mark's parents' house for a traditional German-style meal (Mark's mom is, of course, from Germany). Ava tried a huge spoonful of sauerkraut and loved it-yikes!! It was a great meal this year-thanks Helga! My parents, along with Chris and Aly, came over afterwards for some drinks and to watch Miss Ava put on a one-man show. She is quite the entertainer! She was dancing, laughing, and living it up-she loves being the center of attention. She got some Christmas jammies that night and knew there was excitement in the air-but she didn't like it when I told her Santa was coming to our house that night. She looked at me like I was crazy. I'm sure next year, she'll be excited about Santa. On Christmas morning we opened up our gifts from each other at home. Ava got some new shoes (she already has a very unhealthy obsession with shoes! We are in sooo much trouble!), a potty, and a few other things. We went to my sister's afterwards where we spent most of the day. There, Ava got a table and chairs, a cabbage patch kid (I'm so old-it's the 25th anniversay of the doll!), a tea set (plastic of course), some books, clothes, and lots of other goodies. We had a great dinner there then headed over to Mark's parent's again to continue opening presents. I swear we opened presents until 9pm that night! It was a little overwhelming, but fun too. Ava did really good throughout the whole day, but was wiped out when it was time for bed. It was so fun watching her open her presents and enjoy all the family members. We hope everyone had a wonderful time!

Omi got Ava a baby that came with a stroller, a car seat, diaper bag, etc. Ben wanted it so bad-there was a slight meltdown by both kids.

Jenny and I both got the Dyson vacuum! I never thought I would be excited to open a vacuum on Christmas, but I was-and it works great!

Touble, trouble, and more trouble. Towards the end of the night on Christmas-all kids in their jammies, looking to cause trouble.

Hmmmm....what could they be thinking?

Christmas Eve, after she had a bath and put her new jammies on-enjoying a book with Opa.

A new potty! She likes to sit on it all the time, clothes or no clothes. She hasn't quite used it yet, but she talks about using it a lot.

Shoes! Shoes! Shoes! She was so excited!

At Aunt Lisa's and Uncle Chris's...as you can see, Aunt Lisa got a drum for Ava filled with symbols, bells and lots of other LOUD toys-thanks Lisa! Next to that, you can see "milk jugs" for the Barnyard Bowling game that Uncle Chris gave to Ava--Ha ha to you...I found the off switch!!

The famous baby stroller.

Merry Christmas!

Well, Ava didn't like Santa Claus too much this year (as you will see in the picture). She loved him last year...this year-not so much. She has been saying "ho!ho!ho!" for the last couple of weeks and is very fascinated with this whole "fat guy in a red suit"-but as soon as I sat her on Santa's lap she had a meltdown. She was looking at me like "how could you?"...The second I picked her up and Santa handed her a toy, she was smiling again. What a stinker! I had to get the picture anyway, I'm sure my mom has one of me just like that. We hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season, and we wish you a very Merry Christmas!






I had to bribe Ava with vanilla wafers for her to sit still. In this picture, she's actually doing the sign language for "more". She wanted more cookies of course!




She had her mouth full of the vanilla wafers in this picture.






I know!! I'm a mean mom--look at that poor face!

Ava in the snow...

Snow Day!!

It started snowing late morning today-we left to do some Christmas shopping and this is what it looked like when we came home! Ava has never really seen the snow yet, and she loved it!! She wanted to be out there all night, and was mad when I took her inside. She kept calling it "ice"... It's supposed to snow for the next couple of days...maybe we'll even have a white Christmas...???

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mark, Ava and I flew out to Washington D.C. to visit some family for the holiday. I was nervous about the flights since Ava had never been on a plane for that long, but she was absolutely perfect (of course she was, right?)! We had to connect in Chicago, but Ava slept most of the way to Chicago from Sacramento. Then she played, colored and read the rest of the way to D.C. On the flights back, she was so tired from all of the activities, she slept most of the way across the country! We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and even got a private tour of the White House that night-it was so cool! I felt very important! :) We had a great time during our visit. Ava and Mark both caught a stomach virus, so that was the downside-but everyone seems to be doing better and I'm knocking on wood that I don't catch it as well.





Mark and I sitting in the Brady Press Room-Mark was sitting in the NPR chair and I was sitting in the ABC Radio chair. Ummm...Mr.President, we have some questions!



Standing in the front of the press room-it's so surreal!




Standing in the doorway of the West Wing.




Our table...before all the food was ready.




Ava, watching the dog across the street-a little pug, named Tank. She loved him!

Tulip Time!

Mark's parents came up to our house today to help plant some tulip bulbs. We already have some that we planted last year and they looked gorgeous, so we decided to plant some more. Mark's mom also taught me how to make one of Mark's favorite dinners (that I've been meaning to learn for a long time now)-it's a ham casserole type dish. It's much better than it sounds! We invited Mark's brother and his family over too. It's so fun to watch of all of kids play together-Ava was excited to take everyone into her room to show off her toys. My dinner didn't turn out to0 bad either!

Ava found a worm and tried to put it in her mouth!! Mark and Ron buried it in the dirt and Ava thought that was the funniest thing!

Ava has her shovel and she's ready to dig some dirt.

Ava surpervising Opa.

Ava showing Opa how she wants it done.

Halloween

Halloween was so fun this year. Downtown Chico holds an event called Treat Street-all of the store owners open their doors to the little kids and hand out candy. Ava was getting the hand of it and would hand the employee her pumpkin, they would drop a piece of candy in and she would say "more..?". She doesn't even know what candy is! How can she know she wants more? Anyway, we did that for a little over an hour, then headed to my sister's to trick-or-treat. Ava pretty much refused to wear her bumblebee hat (it was a little big), but she still looked super cute! Ok, I'm a little biased...In the evening, we went to Cindy's (her daycare provider) for a party, then headed to Raymond and Jenny's for another party!! Good times :)

Kind of a small picture, but that's me and Ava at Treat Street

A little chaotic, but that's Cindy (all of the kids call her Nana) with some of the kiddos.

Ava with her BFF, Nora at Treat Street. They go to daycare together 2 days a week.

Ava at Raymond and Jenny's. She was partied out and would rather push the baby in her stroller. She plays with this every single time we're there. Sounds like a good Christmas present...

Kickin' back, relaxin'-just reading a book....upside-down. :)

Trip to Portland

A couple of weeks ago Mark, Ava, and I took a trip to Portland, Oregon. Ava was good on the plane, considering the last time she flew was when she was only 3 months old. On the way to Portland the flight was completely full, so it was a challenge keeping her in the seat for an hour and a half. On the way back, the flight wasn't nearly as full, so she was able to have the middle seat to herself. She kept busy by watching Finding Nemo, playing with some toys, and reading the Sky Mall catalog! We had a great time in Portland-we saw some family, went to McMinnville to see the Spruce Goose (the enormous plane built by Howard Hughes), and went to the zoo. Ava loved the zoo-she loved the bears, thought the monkeys were funny, and saw a brand new baby elephant!

My Grandma Hutch--Ava called her "G.G." for Great Grandma.

Brand new baby elephant, Sam.

Ava, trying to get off the ground!

The Spruce Goose-it's huge! The wing span is 320 ft!

Ava, trying to figure out this whole "flying thing"

The Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weeks ago we went down to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch. It was so much fun! Mark, Ava, and I went down there with my Mom and John, Alyson, The (other) Coopers- Raymond, Jenny, Macy, and Ben, The Navarres- Rob, Georgia, Drew, and Emma, and The McDowells-Felicia, Jeff, and Nora (Ava's BFF from daycare!). There were train rides, pig races, a petting zoo, a trampoline, and of course-pumpkins!! Ava had a great time, we ended up staying there for over 3 hours!! Here are some pics... Have a Happy Halloween!

Aly, Grandma, Grandpa and Ava

Ava jumping-there's actually a trampoline under all that hay!

Ava was playing the pumpkin like a drum-and giving it kisses!

Feeding the goats in the petting zoo.

Ava and Grandpa

Oui, Oui...It's Halloween!

Ava and I went down to my parents' house this weekend. We went shopping, ate cookies, scrapbooked (after Ava went to sleep of course) and took some pictures. We originally planned on just taking some pictures of her in her bumblebee costume, but then my mom found this cute leopard outfit. Later, she found the beret and we thought we'd try it out. Ava usually pulls her hats off within a few seconds, so we were surprised when she kept this one on for awhile. She looks like a little French girl, don't cha think? It's much harder taking her to get her picture taken now that she can walk and run...fast! The last time we got her pictures taken, she couldn't walk yet, so much easier!! Oh well, it was fun! By the time we were done, my mom and I were both sweating! Enjoy!

The Chico Airshow

We went to the Airshow on Saturday at the Chico Airport--yes, Chico has its own airport! It's kind of like that television show 'Wings'. I used to fly out of it all the time when I worked for United. The same person would check you in at the ticket counter, walk over to security and check your i.d. again, then go outside to direct the plane in from landing, and load your bags onto the plane for take-off. It's pretty funny, but there was a huge turnout for the airshow. I think the temperature was still in the mid 90s, so it was super hot out on the asphalt. We hung in there for a few hours-Ava did really well and liked watching the planes fly by.

By the time we got there, planes were already flying back and forth and doing their stunts. Some of them made me super nervous-- I felt like I was going to be on one of those "Good Times Gone Bad" tv shows.

They actually got this plane of the ground-it's amazing that a plane this big can fly through the air and even do some tricks too!

Ava waving at one of the planes flying in the air. This was one of the only spots of shade-we were under the wing of a plane they had on display. We camped out there for awhile, but had to keep moving to see more stuff...

Ava with Opa....Going, Going...

Gone!...Wiped out from the excitement and the heat. I think it took her all of two minutes to fall sound asleep when we got in the car.