Amaya Cheers Her Team On To Victory!!!

Our little Packer Backer cheered her team on to a fabulous victory today. YEAH!!! We are so excited!!! Atlanta here we come!!! GO PACK GO!!!

Sleeping Beauty Doubles As a Ballerina

Amaya and her bff Jessie sleeping. Two cute and sweet sleeping beauties. I thought it was so cute the way Amaya had Jessie sleeping beside her and them facing each other that I had to snap some pictures. I wonder if they fell asleep while chatting. ;)

Below is the way Scott and I found Amaya sleeping last night. Now that must have been the ultimate of deep sleeps. To fall out of bed and just keep right on sleeping. Guess the little ballerina was danced out!

Here is the little ballerina dancing her heart out on New Year's Day. I had dvr'ed the New York Symphony Orchestra playing Tchaikovski music on New Year's Eve. We were watching it the next day and The Nutcracker came on. Amaya recognized the music from her dance class and started dancing. So we got her and her doll all decked out in their matching ballerina outfits courtesy of Grandma Kim and Grandpa John.

Christmas Traditions

Despite having just moved, we managed to get unpacked and settled in time to enjoy Christmas and keep all our Christmas traditions alive. We kicked off Christmas Eve with our tradition of attending Church with the Luedy's.

Here Amaya and Jaxon are enjoying bubbles before heading into "Sunday" school. Do you still call it that when it's not Sunday? It is tradition to meet at the bubble blowing elephant.

It is becoming tradition to eat a yummy Christmas Eve meal at Chili's with the Luedy's. Probably because it a restaurant that is convenient after church, open on Christmas Eve, and liked by all of us.

Amaya is absolutely in love with Maxdyn. And from the looks of this picture, the feeling may be mutual.

Amaya even calls her baby dolls Maxdyn.

After church and dinner, it has become tradition for the Luedy's and Mitchell's to caravan around looking at Christmas lights, then head to our place for cookies and beverages.

Here are Amaya and Maxdyn snuggling on the couch.

So sweet.

I love the still of the night after Amaya has gone to sleep on Christmas Eve, and after Mr. and Mrs. Santa have eaten the cookies and stuffed the stockings. I will always linger a moment after Scott heads to get ready for bed, and sit in the quiet, gazing at the tree with all the lights off except those twinkling from the tree. I love this moment every year. I reflect on the magic that is Christmas, give thanks for all my blessings, and look forward to a fun-filled Christmas day. Then I always snap a picture of the tree, complete with Santa's additions, and head to bed myself. This is a picture of that moment. Yet another tradition.

Christmas morning=our traditional time to open presents. Amaya must have been a very good girl this year. Santa brought her her talking Buzz......

and her Barbie pool. She has been asking for a Barbie pool since JULY! You can tell by her facial expressions.

So excited.

Two down, a bazillion to go. Presents, presents, everywhere. Next year we are starting our long-planned tradition of letting Amaya go shopping for under-priveleged children. She's old enough to "get it" now. And since she gets spoiled by grandparents, cousins, parents and friends, we decided the majority of our Amaya Christmas dollars will start going to this tradition. Such a good lesson to learn that it truly is better to give than to receive. And it feels so good and is so fun to give!

Amaya wearing a gift and getting ready to ride a gift.

Peeling rubber! We had to get her dressed and let her loose outside.

After our new traditional (kind of an oxymoron, huh) Christmas dinner of standing rib roast we headed to the park. Regarding our "new tradition" (this is the second year we did it) of having standing rib roast, that came about because I always thought it seemed a little silly to just repeat the Thanksgiving meal on Christmas. I wanted to make it our family tradition to do something different than a turkey and I came upon a fab recipe online for a holiday standing rib roast. Turns out having standing rib roast is a holiday traditon for many that I am glad we have adopted. It's expensive, but so deliciously worth it. After all, Christmas only comes once a year. I think this idea rubbed off on the SD Mitchells....they 86'd the turkey for prime rib and shrimp this year. Yum. What will you ditch your turkey for? :)

Amaya being chased by daddy at "the green park" as Amaya calls it.

Amaya looking back to see how close Scott is and Scott closing in on Amaya.

Scott looks like Gulliver on that itty bitty slide. ;)

After park time we watched a Christmas movie (Elf) and played games which is also traditional. And it appears I am trying to start another tradition. I neglected to pick my camera back up to snap some pics of Amaya with Grandma Cindy and Papa Jerry...again. Gul darnit. Oh well. It inspired one of my New Years resolutions....to stop forgetting to take pictures of Amaya with the adults in her life.

It was a wonderful and fun-filled Christmas. Can't wait for next year. ;)

Our Journey to the North Pole

Amaya's had a fun Christmas season so far! She kicked it off with a Christmas festival with Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Jerry in their neighborhood. There she got to see a tree lighting, during which she reportedly said, "that blesses my heart." So sweet. At the festival she also got to roast marshmallows, drink hot cocoa, AND, see Santa.

In addition to the usual tree decorating, carol singing, light looking, cookie eating activities of a 3-year-old during Christmas, Amaya also got to go to the Star of Wonder show at Phoenix First Assembly. The production was fabulous. Amaya's favorite part was the flying angels. Mine was the fact that the camel didn't fall on us since it knelt down right next to us. (For those of you who haven't already seen it, check out "Camel Falls into Crowd" on you tube.)

Amaya also had a pajama party at pre-school where they celebrated the season by making Christmas cookies, then watching Polar Express. This was the perfect segway into our weekend because during this past weekend WE WENT TO THE NORTH POLE. It's just a hour-long train ride on the Polar Express. Amaya had a ball. I recommend the Polar Express journey to anyone that has kids that "believe." Here are some photos from our journey.

Living dangerously posing in front of a train. J/K. Obviously said train is retired and on display.

We were cracking up watching Amaya walk to the train from the train depot. She was all shivering with her teeth a chattering away, complaining of the cold.
You can tell she is an AZ native! Cold? This isn't cold my sweet! Cold is January in Minot, North Dakota!!!

"Warming up" on the train.

So excited.

She warmed up enough to take her coat off. This is a picture of Amaya looking out at the Christmas lights as the train embarked on it's journey.

Enjoying her hot cocoa.

She saved the cookie for later. CRAZY!

Laughing at the conductor's Santa jokes. Check out her adorable Santa pajamy's.

Amaya looking out the window as we arrive at the North Pole.

Amaya in awe!

Excitedly waiting for Santa.

The big moment finally arrives. A special moment with the man in red. Note Santa giving Amaya a bell.

Amaya checking to see if she can hear her bell ring. She could! It worked! She believes!

Happy Holidays!