So Long, 2013!

Since we are saying goodbye to 2013, I thought it would be fun to go back through the blog and highlight the many things that have happened throughout the year!  (All of these photos were taken by Nicole Howard Photography when Ava was 8 days old!)

 

January: I started the Siesta Scripture Memory Team (Beth Moore's blog) with Michele, Anna, and Chanda.  I memorized several new Bible verses! 

 

February: I helped plan our SIS women's retreat in Shipshewana!  It was an awesome weekend with awesome friends!

 

March: We got to celebrate with Shane when he graduated from the police academy and started working for the Huntington Police Department!

 

April: This was a big month for our family!  On the 4th, we found out that we would be adding a new member to our family and on the 17th, Alexis turned one year old!:)

 

May: I got to celebrate my first mother's day as a mama of 1 1/2!:)

 

June: We had lots of summertime fun, including lots of trips to the FW zoo!

 

July: We found out that our baby was going to be a sissy!  Alexis went to Minnesota for the second time!

 

August: Bryan and I had fun teaching the primary class at VBS!  We also enjoyed watching Dad's volleyball team play!

 

September: Bryan and I enjoyed a weekend by ourselves in Indianapolis, while Lex stayed with Grandma and Grandpa!  We also went to the County Line Orchard with both Blair families!

 

October: Alexis turned 18 months old and also had her first cousin sleepover at Aunt Michele and Uncle Shane's house!

 

November: Our sweet Ava Lynn Hall was born on November 24th!  Definitely THE highlight of the year!:)

 

December: We had so much fun celebrating the Christmas season as a new family of four! 

 

I am still somewhat in shock that we are ending 2013 with two children!  Now that it's our reality, I cannot imagine it any other way.  God knew exactly what we needed when He decided that Ava would join us 19 months after Alexis.  I am so grateful for the blessing of our girls and the many other blessings that God gives us each day!:)  

Christmas Gatherings

We had a total of five family Christmas gatherings to go to this year!  Sometimes it gets busy, but we are so thankful to have such wonderful families to spend the holiday with.  We spent the Sunday before Christmas at Mom and Dad's house.  This was a little bit of a change from our usual Christmas Eve plans since Shane had to work then.  It really turned out to be nice to have the whole afternoon and evening to spend together!

 

We made appetizers for lunch and then we made some Christmas cookies!

 

Of course, Alexis used M&Ms to decorate her cookie.:)

 

The boys had fun decorating their cookies!  Zaya did probably half of the cookies by himself!:)

 

Five sweet cousins!  I love watching these kids together!!!

 

Lex was really out of sorts that day, unfortunately.  She really didn't want much to do with opening presents at all, but we managed to get her to be in the room with us for a little while!

 

Lillian got some new princess gear!:)

 

We got the boys these sweatshirts that zip up to make them look silly.  Here is Peyt in his monster jacket!

 

And here is Zaya the dinosaur!:)

 

Lex and Ave in their matching jammies...this somehow managed to be the best picture I got of that!:/

 

We got Lill a new outfit and boots and she had to try it on right that minute!:)

 

On the afternoon of Christmas day, we went to Pat and Linda's for the Drewes family Christmas!  Here is our littlest girl with her great grandpa and great grandma!:)

 

Alexis and her best buddy Cheaney!

 

The whole family!

 

Grandpa and Grammy with their grandgirls!

 

Our baby girl on her very first Christmas!

 

Uncle Drew got Lex a Minnie Mouse...he knows her well!:)

 

I loooooove this picture of my sweet girl just smiling away!  

 

She is such a happy, happy baby!

 

Time for presents!

 

Ava with her birthday buddy!  She was born on Tim's birthday, November 24th!  We joke that now we have to have a third baby so that he/she can be born on Rachel's birthday!:)

 

We are so blessed to have families that we genuinely like to spend time with.  They love our babies so well and spoil them rotten!

Ava's First Christmas

We celebrated Ava's first Christmas and Lex's second Christmas with lots of family fun!  Unfortunately, Alexis had a cough and runny nose and was really quite grumpy for most of our festivities.  We managed to have some fun at home on Christmas morning with just our little family!:)

 

Bry got our big girl out of bed and brought her downstairs for presents!

 

Our family of four!  Being with my people was the best present I could have asked for!

 

Alexis immediately noticed her Minnie Mouse wrapping paper!:)

 

Opening her Minnie Mouse ball hut that Daddy picked out for her!

 

She loved it!

 

Daddy had fun with it, too!  I think we'll get lots of entertainment from this!

 

Alexis had to check out her stocking, too!  This year we got her some candy, books, bath toys, a  DVD, food and dishes for her kitchen, a beanbag, a table & chairs, and her Minnie Mouse house.  She wasn't really that into opening gifts this year, but she had fun with the things that she got once they were open!

 

Our little miss Ava also had to check out her stocking!  We got her a few things even though she had absolutely no interest whatsoever and actually slept through almost all of the gift opening!:)  We gave her a DVD, a book, a doll that Lex picked out, some fun alphabet blocks, and some clothes.

 

Alexis helped her with her new dolly!:)

 

Testing out her new beanbag!

 

She loves it!

 

Checking out her new table & chairs and her new kitchen stuff!

 

We had so much fun playing with her new things!  She loves to pretend to feed us.:)

 

Ava with her new baby.  She pretty much did this the whole morning!  She is just the sweetest baby!

 

We put Alexis down for a nap around 10:30 and opened our gifts from each other!  It was kinda fun to do it with just us.:)  Bry spoiled me ROTTEN!  He got me DeBrands chocolate, lottery tickets, a new cake pan, and a gift card for the spa!  I can't wait to go get pampered!:)

 

I got Bry some coffee, lottery tickets, deer calls, an Andrew Luck jersey, Colts sweatpants, and the Little Mermaid!:)  It was a really fun morning with my family!!