Happy Christmas!

Get ready for picture OVERLOAD!  Seriously...but this is for all the family we love and miss that could not be around for Iva's first Christmas!  I worked Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas (crummy, I know).  So, we celebrated on Christmas Eve.  It was really good!  It is different having a baby!  We had to pause present opening during nap time!  On Christmas Day, Derrick's cousin JR and his fiancé, Amber, came from Indiana to spend the day with us.  Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of that :( But we ate good food and had fun hanging out before I had to work.  Hopefully you all feel like you were with us maybe a little bit!

So cute in her Christmas jammers!  She did not know why we were so excited ha

Exploring the gifts Santa brought!

She did not understand the point of opening presents

Fruit in her stocking!  

Favorite gift yet!

Helping Daddy look in his stocking!

She knows what is good!

Trying to eat Mommy's kiwi!

Here is our big announcement: we are buying a house!  Hence, we are also buying a fridge (the house has no appliances)!  Derrick knew I wanted a new camera, but he decided that our money would be better spent towards a new fridge, so I got an IOU!

Bracelet, Minnie, and church books from Ama!

We got new luggage from my parents!  Now I need to fly home...

Movies from Aunt Amber!

Snowsuit from Grandma Janet!  It is a little big...hopefully it will fit next year too!  

Books from Corbin, our nephew!  Derrick is currently reading Dracula, because that is the one Corby told him to read!

Need to bust out my Cricut!

We got Iva lots of bath toys; these were tied to the top of her towel and she wanted to open them SO bad! She LOVES them!  I also want everyone to notice the L-shaped scrape on her face.  She face-planted on a box while opening presents.  It was quite sad. 

Winger's sauce from my parents!  We miss Winger's

Helping Daddy open his presents!

I surprised him with a popcorn popper!  Then I made caramel popcorn!  So yum!

Family history coloring books from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Dabling!

Gift card from my Grandma and Grandpa Paskett!

Thank you all for such a WONDERFUL Christmas!  We missed everyone and wished we were home, but it was fun to have our own little Christmas!  Especially Iva's first!  

Christmas Eve!

We have the good 'ol tradition of Christmas Eve pajamas!  It was fun this year with it being Iva's first Christmas.  I planned on making us all pajamas that I sewed and it was going to be so wonderful but...I ran out of time!  So, Derrick was GREAT and ran to the store on his way to drop some friends off to the airport on Christmas Eve and got us all some!  It made me a lot less stressed.  Maybe next year when I am not in school!  

Daredevil

We are in trouble...

Zoo Lights

Columbus has an awesome zoo.  We went for zoo lights during Derrick's Christmas break and they did not disappoint.  I think it will be a little more fun when Iva is a little older and can appreciate it more, but she liked riding around in her carseat looking at all the lights.  It was not super cold either, so that was a nice bonus!  

All bundled up!

I bought her brown suit for her Halloween costume, plus I thought it would get less dirty than pink; even if with the purple hat and binkie ribbon three people, Santa included, thought she was a boy.  I guess next time I'll add a HUGE bow on the hat.

Hurray she did not cry!  Her face is priceless.  She started to get a cry-face, but then he laughed and she looked at him like "Who are you?" 

Love the Zoo Lights!

Christmas Packages

This was our first Christmas away from home.  Sad, I know.  But one good thing to come out of it...PACKAGES!  They just kept coming!  It was like Christmas Day all throughout December!

Our Christmas package from Derrick's mom!

We love salsa!  Except when it leaks :( Fortunately it was only one of the bottles and nothing was ruined!

Stuffed snowman from Grandma Janet!

From Grandma BJ!

We LOVE her caramels!

Even Iva does!

Yum 

We love big boxes from Ama!

Especially to play in!

Thank you everyone for the packages!