Tubing in Park City

Harrison and Jordan loved the tubing hill (and the rope tow that took them back to the top of the hill), and Ava just loved eating the snow and her upside down diva sunglasses!

Christmas

Christmas morning was magical - Harrison was THRILLED with the presents, Ava was THRILLED with the stocking candy and sugary Christmas cereal, and Matt Matt slept through it all!

Christmas Jammies

Getting Ready For Christmas

The Photo Shoot

So the other evening, just before taking our annual (sort of) family Christmas card photo, Ava scampered over to me, demanded "Up!", immediately struggled in my arms (as always), and somewhat angrily gestured towards the point and shoot camera with a crazy half-smile. In my usual pathetic inability to understand my children, I asked Harrison to interpret. He rolled his eyes and told me she wanted to take some pictures. I picked up the camera, turned towards her, and she was in full mugging mode, no instructions necessary. A small sampling of the results:

Ava is a wild, hilarious little girl, who has me seriously wrapped around her finger. Just when I think that her level of cuteness can't get cuter (sorry for the parental overspeak -- I get in this bloggin' atmosphere and I just can't help myself), she figures out a way to step it up and give me a right hook to my heart. Like how she started speaking little words here and there, with "da-da" being one of them, and "mmm-hmm" as an answer to every yes/no question (but never to an open ended question -- that was always "ummmmmm ..."), now she's graduated to exclaiming "DA-DDY!" every time I turn the lock on the door coming home from work, answering "Yesh", "O-shay!", or a defiant "No!" to every yes/no question, and answering most open-ended questions by naming a Sesame Street character -- "Eerrnie", "Melmo" or my favorite, always said with an almost Southern accent, "Ahh-bay!" (Abby). Can't wait to see her reactions to things Christmas morning. Love my daughter. -- Guest blogger Jordan

A Christmas Twist - by Harrison

Currently in my living room, the Autobots are saving baby Jesus from the three bad guy kings...who were then promptly eaten by a T-Rex.

Happy December from the Howe Family!