Recap...

Well... Christmas was a blurr.  We both agreed that it didn't really feel like Christmas, although being at my Mom's house with lots of snow did help. 

This year we had hoped to continue to have our own Christmas at our house, but we also wanted to go visit two of our best friends for New Years, so we had to change our plans.  Instead, we planned on leaving out early Christmas morning and starting our journey south to WV.  So, we made Christmas Eve our Christmas.  Thankfully at (almost) 2.5yrs, Ava doesn't know the difference.  Friday morning I got up early and put the presents that Santa had left in the powder room (He knows we have cats who would eat the paper and ribbon - Thank you Santa!) under the tree.  Unfortunately, I didn't read the note that he left soon enough and forgot to put the candy in the stockings.  Oops. 

I grabbed our new video camera and waited for Ava and Na.  The first thing she saw was "Mickey Mouse!!!"  Ava has been in a huge Mickey phase, and it's come out of nowhere.  We don't have cable, so she doesn't watch 'the Clubhouse,' and she's only had one book until now... it's kinda funny how kids just gravitate to these things.  Anyway, she ran quickly to her new beanbag chair, courtesy of Mimi & PawPaw, and sat down with Mickey.  That of course was short lived as she noticed the presents under the tree and she dug right in, opening not only her presents, but also ours. 

 enjoying her new Mickey Mouse puzzle. 

It plays music and Mickey drives his car around the track.

 Ashley got into the Christmas spirit early as well.

Saturday morning, Christmas Day, we headed to Morgantown.  Ava got WAAAAY too many presents.  We actually had to leave some there because we didn't have enough room in our car.  We've already decided that next year, Christmas presents WILL be passed by us before they are purchased!!! (sorry grandparents, our house isn't big enough, and we already have too much)

 proof that I was there... I'm always behind the camera.

 basketball hoop

 Daddy teaching Ava how to run the prized train set, although this is only a small portion of the whole thing.  Right now it's set up on a 5'x4' mat in our living room... it definitely isn't small.

 Lambie even got to go for a ride

That night we made our way farther south to Charleston.  We hadn't even gotten our coats off when Ava found more presents.  Again, we left stuff there, as we didn't have room.  (Thank goodness we're getting a new bigger car/suv next year!)

 Ava received tons of stuff again, but this is the only picture I managed to get.  The number of new DVDs that we brought back was outrageous.

Also while we were in Charleston, we got a chance to see G-Gma Virginia Ann, who has since been referred to as Nana.  My cousins called her that growing up, and although it didn't take with me, it works well for Ava.  She has so many grandparents that we're trying our hardest to distinguish between all of them.  We also got to see my Aunt Mel and a few of my cousins, including Ginny and Jake who were in from NY, via Va.

As I mentioned above, the snow at my Mom's house, made it feel a bit more like Christmas.  We were hit with a small snow storm, and got about 6"... on top of the already 6+" they had.  Have I ever mentioned that they live on a mountain with God?  Most of the time, even when the city gets nothing or very little, you can guarantee that Mimi & PawPaw have a good bit. 

PawPaw bought Ava a small sled so we took it out for a little fun.  Unfortunately, our girl is growing so quickly she won't fit in it next year.  Ava had a blast, we were outside for well over an hour running back and forth down the road.

 we were running, I couldn't run fast enough for Ava, she loved every second

Mimi & Ava heading back up the drive. 

Ava loved the fact that Abbey, PawPaw's dog, enjoyed running with us.  Every time we took out, Ava turned and called to Abbey to come with us.  

Once we finally headed North again, we stopped off in Philippi to see Gigi and the rest of our extended family (the Long's and Armstrong's - minus Uncle Ort.)   Once again, Ava enjoyed the cat toy much more than her own.

Tuesday night was the WVU vs. NC State bowl game.  I debated putting up a post called "A House Divided..."  but didn't have the chance.  Confusing?  Yeah, it probably is to most people, especially WVU fans, but I haven't gotten to that post either.  Nathan has finally chosen NC State and will be starting there next week.  No, we aren't moving, at least yet, but it did make WVU's loss to our "new" school a little easier. 

 Ava and Daddy watching the game... before it went totally downhill. 

And this picture, I love, it's hilarious.  After WVU more or less gave up, so did everyone else in the room.  If you hadn't left the room and you weren't playing on your phone, you were having a conversation that had nothing to do with the game.  Shoot, at one point we even skyped with my cousin Amanda... during the game.  We're such great fans!

After finally returning home to PA, we got one good night's sleep before hitting the road again.  This time, we headed out to Northern VA to see Amanda Jo, Brett, and Trent.  We made excellent time, thanks to our new GPS - I totally feel cool now, everyone has a GPS,  and got there around 4 on New Year's Eve. 

Ava and Trent couldn't have been more excited to see each other and they spent the whole weekend all over each other... literally.  We went to Old Navy to get out of the house on Saturday and Trent more or less sat in Ava's lap in the cart.  It was quite funny, you could tell at times that Ava needed space, and Trent just wasn't ready to give it to her, and vice versa.  They played and played, and watched as many videos as we'd let them.  I was proud of both of them, they really didn't fight and shared toys quite well. 

On the way back from our very small shopping trip, we glanced in the back seat to see this:

They didn't let go until we got to the house.  And I promise it wasn't posed.  They even shifted their hands a few times to be more comfortable.  So very cute!  (the boys didn't find it nearly as cute, and I think Nathan was re-calculating how long Ava should be locked in the basement away from boys)

 the boys... playing with cars...

cuddling watching a movie

We had a great time seeing everyone over the past week, but man are we glad to be home.  There are so many little comforts of home that you take for granted.  (ie, our bed, internet access, schedules/routines, etc)
Hopefully we'll get to update again soon, I'm sure we'll have plenty of things to talk about, 2011 has only just begun.

Happy New Year

2011