Christmas with Me-Mommy

Today was the start of many Christmases this year. We did a little gift exchange with Me-Mommy today since we will be headed to Conroe in a few days. Here is Ava waiting for her big surprise...

a dollhouse! Thanks Mom. Ava was super excited by all the fun gifts and it was a great way to start the holiday season.

Yeah! New Family Dolls!

So way back when Ava was little, I came up with the idea to do custom dolls of family members who did not live in Austin so that Ava would know who they were and could play with them at any time. The first 2 attempts were not great so I went back to the drawing board.

Many many months later, I finally figured out how I wanted to do them and so I enlisted the help of my AMAZING graphic designer friend, Brooke, to help me accomplish my goal. (She is also the one who painted this super awesome portrait of Ava--she's talented!)

She was able to create the blank doll bodies, attach the heads and provide them to me in a jpg so that I could print them, sew clothes on and sew backs on them too. I love the results and can't wait to give these 3 little dolls to a very special someone (can't tell you who!...yet).

Best part is that the clothing/backs are made from fabric scraps (and Darren's clothes are made from a tshirt and pair of shorts we were giving to Goodwill...good way to go green & recycle if you ask me!)

Front:

Back:
Thanks again Brooke for the help! Now I want to make Ava a set of all of our family and make these for other people....although not all at once and not that soon. Bit tired from all my projects :)

PS. Need to get better photos of these but it's been wet outside and the lighting was not quite right.

Ava's Sing-a-long

Ava's school had their Christmas program today and we were very excited to go see the children sing. They all walked in with crowns on their heads and then got up front and sang 3-4 songs. We were really proud of Ava b/c she danced and kind of sang. And when she spotted us in the crowd she gave us a huge smile and wave and was so proud of herself.

I only got shots after the program...this one she is making her classic silly face at me...

and here she is waving good-bye as they left to go back to class. So cute!

Unexpected Babysitting

So Gabe & Lyndon went to Mexico for a wedding and Me-Mommy was all set to watch the kiddos that weekend. UNTIL...she got violently ill. So much in fact that Darren & I had to step in. No big deal since we were planning on hanging out anyways but it was sort of an adjustment for the girls to come stay with us since they expected to be at home with Mom.

So to fill the day we did many fun things with the girls including playing with playdough, playing hide & seek, and bathing the dog... (they actually enjoyed this and Smokey surprisingly sat still enough for them to dump cups of water on him).

We took them for Amy's ice cream (and took a group photo in the photo booth with not so good results).

We also took them to see Santa (Lexie would not get near him, Sawyer hid behind my leg and told me she was shy, and Ava decided to show off and go hug him, go figure).

And finally after dinner we took them to the Lakeway Trail of Lights. Best part of the day in my opinion. Never seen Lexie so happy or talkative. She was so cute, running around with our flashlight (the girl was obsessed with it...if we did not already have her a gift I would get her one for Christmas I swear), saying "Lights lights lights" and then "Run run run." Too. Cute. For. Words.

We even tried to take a group shot but of course I ruined it. In all fairness the guy working my camera did not know what he was doing and since this was set to Night Portrait, it takes the photo at a weird time and I guess I blinked. Oh well!

We had fun and I had to wonder all day long if people thought all 3 of the kids were ours...man if they were, I would be one TIRED lady. Not that I'm not already. :)

Serenade

This is Ava during one of her many serenades to us....we were laughing at how funny she is. At the same time I was thinking she looked a lot like someone you would find down on the Drag begging for money back when I was in college...maybe it's the hair? Who I am kidding, it's the whole ensemble really.

The Tilson Girls Sleepover

Ever since Ava slept over at the Tilsons, we thought that Sawyer & Lexie needed to come stay here. So they did tonight.

Group shot! They were excited!
Storytime with Darren.

Playing hide and seek...this was the big hit of the night.

Lexie loved hiding under the trampoline...

And on the couch!

Snow!..All 10 Minutes of It