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.
