Avaree's first performance!!!!

The Thursday before school let out for Christmas, Avaree's school put on a Christmas musical! :) I begged Brandon to come pick me up early (we rode together that day) so that we could be there early, and then we waited in line to get a good seat!!!!! Of course, I ended up on the floor with my camera, and B was on the wall with the video camera. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have even said excuse me if it meant not seeing my baby girl perform! :) hehe. Just kidding, well, sort of! :) Brandon and I were beaming with emotion as we watched our two-year old dance and sing on stage. Most of the kids were either crying or frozen, but our child was having a blast! She sang "Jingle Bells" with her class, and then joined all the classes in singing "Feliz Navidad." :) We thing she was the cutest little Bell! :) She was front and center for the first song, but then her teacher moved her for the second (to give the other kids a chance, i'm sure!), and she was not too happy about that! :) You'll be able to tell in the pictures!!!!!!!

 The sweet little blonde to the right of Avaree is Cohen. She is Avaree's little bestie at school. Ave talks about her all the time, and she prays for her at night sometimes!

 Poor Harper was so sad that she couldn't go see her mommy. We were told not to get the kids to look at us, but of course they could find us! :)

 Grayson, Avaree, Hendrix, and Cohen :)

 What can I say? She's just not a back row kind of girl! :) (Like her DADDY!!!)

We had to wait until the teachers got all the kiddos back to their classrooms before we could get them, and Avaree had already seen us, so she was just sitting in her chair whimpering (clearly still mad that she had to stand in the back, ha!) and was sooooo happy to see us! Can you tell???

Daddy was making funny faces, so we did too! :)

 Avaree truly loves Ms. Sonia. :) Ms. Sonia has taught her a LOT of spanish too!

 Family pic!

 Avaree and Mrs. Sandra, her main teacher (Avaree calls her fafa, and we still don't know why!).

 Avaree and her sweet little FRIEND, Carter!

Avaree and Daddy walking out of school! :)

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!! :)

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Fun with Papa and Niecey and the choo choo train! :)

Papa had been trying to figure out a way to take Avaree on the Polar Express train out of Palestine, so when we found out there was a similar (shorter and cheaper--yay!) one in Grapevine, he was so excited!!! So, even though Daddy had to be at church all day (it was the second day of the Avalon concert at church), he encouraged us to go ahead since this was our only chance to go! So, even though it was nap time, we went for it anyway, since it would be silly to drive all the way back home just to come back again! :) I hope you enjoy the pictures! We can't wait to go back next year with our Daddy!!! Avaree has been talking about the choo choo train and Santa ever since.

Walking to the "bus" that would take us to the North Pole! :)

Avaree was very skeptical and kept watch on everything!! She finally decided that we just were not ever going to get to the North Pole or the train, so she started crying and came to sit with Mommy! :)

We arrived at the North Pole "village!"

Aunt Shannon entertained Avaree with the "Hokey Pokey." Ave sings this ALL the time now. The funniest part is when Ave "sticks her nose out, sticks her nose in, and shakes it all about..." haha! I crack up every time!:)

And of course just minutes before we are to board the train, she falls sound asleep! :) They even had fake snow falling for us! You can see my Dad trying to block Ave's face from the snow in the next picture. It was some kind of soapy mixture, b/c it got everywhere! So fun!

 The sleeping princess awakes....and she was very confused! :)

 Our conductor!!

 We were so happy that Uncle Spencer and Aunt Shannon got to meet us for lunch and a trip to the North Pole!!! :)

 Avaree and her "Penser"!

Hi-Five for the conductor!

 Giving the conductor her ticket so that he could punch it!! I loved the authentic experience of a train ride!

 Would you like to guess who just walked in the train car??

 S-A-N-T-A!

 Patiently waiting...

She was going bananas at this point (but i must admit that i was pretty excited too!)! He was SO close, and Ave wanted to touch him!

 Our first picture with Santa. We have prayed about the whole Santa thing, and we both feel comfortable talking to Ave about who the orginal "Santa Clause" was, but we want Jesus to be the focus of Christmas. However, our child knew about Santa before we said a word! :)

 Playing with the bell that Santa gave her! :)

 Avaree wasn't too keen on Mrs. Clause... but she loves Uncle Penser and Aunt Shan!

 Papa and Niecey!

 :) Family Fun!

 Avaree had just as much fun running around the big Christmas tree with Aunt Shannon!

 Ave is into smelling trees lately! She smells ours too!

:) Thank you, Papa and Niecey, for a fun afternoon!!!!!!!! :)

A fun December weekend with Gigi and Pops!

Avaree had a really fun weekend a couple of weeks ago! She was beside herself with excitement because she got to see GiGi and Pops AND Papa and Niecey! (and Gimli "big dog" and Speckles "little dog")! Everyone came in to see the First Hurst Choir, Orchestra, Student Choir, and Children's Choir sing with AVALON!!!!!!! The concert was sooooooo amazing! I loved, loved, loved it! The group ended with "Testify to Love"!! :) My favorite part though, was when they sang "Happy Birthday, Jesus"!! Avaree sat with us through the WHOLE concert too! :) She LOVED it! Mark, Brandon, and everyone invloved with One Life worked sooooooooo hard to make everything perfect! I know that so many people were blessed!!! (I'm sorry I don't have any pictures.)

Below are the pictures with Avaree's fun day with Pops and Gigi! Martha had just flown in from the Middle East the night before, and she still looked amazing--even with no sleep!!! :)

Avaree "let" Gigi open a present early! She gave her an ornament with her hand print on it! Of course, Gigi's also had a zebra ribbon on it! :)

 Avaree stole some of GiGi's Sonic Coke, and Gigi let her. That is love. :)

 Silly girls!

 We also made gingerbread cookies!!!

 Well, Gigi and I made the cookies, and Avaree ate the ingredients, ha!

 :)

 Pops approved of our cookies!

 Avaree loving on Gilmi! :)

Love this. :)

More pictures of Avaree's fun time with Papa and Niecey are up next! :)