The big trip and a new addiction!

If you have a little girl, you MUST plan a trip to an American Girl store. Man, do they know what little girls like. I think the girls walked through the store with their mouths hanging open for the first thirty minutes.
There were lots of dolls to touch and feel, and lots of scenes (with little pieces) behind display cases.

Mara and Emily very quickly decided that they wanted the twins, but Becca Sue had a really hard time making a decision. She would see the twins and pick one up and say, "I want this one." Then I'd pick up a boxed one up and she'd say, "Noooo."
Then she'd walk over to the Bitty Babies and say, "I want this one." I'd pick up the box and she'd say, "Noooo."
I finally realized that she didn't care which baby she got, she just wanted it out of the box! So we helped her decide on a set of twins since the other two were getting twins.
Here's what my little baby doll did the entire time we were in the store on the first day. Guess all this girl stuff was just too boring.
All three of the girls got a set of twins from Mom and Dad and a bag and t-shirts (for them and their dolls) from DeeDee and Grand.
Check out their patient little faces as they wait to pay....
This next picture is my favorite...
And then, what Becca had been waiting on....they got to get them out of the box! Mara's doll's names change about once a week. (This week they're Hannah and Karena...what great names Rachel!)
Becca got a girl and a boy and named them Becca and Dawson.
And Emily named hers Elizabeth #1 and Elizabeth #2.
Here's my baby doll with the girls' baby dolls!....(love, love, love this picture!)
We had such a sweet family time hanging out at the hotel, playing/shopping at the mall, and IKEA too. Next up is our lunch date with our dolls at the American Girl store.....

Oh my word....

Squeeeeee!

Can. Not. Wait!

The fat guy in red came!

First of all, I've got to got on my soapbox for a minute and talk about the controversial fat guy in red. We 'do' Santa at our house.

We know a lot of families who don't 'do' Santa because they don't want to confuse Santa's realness with Christ's realness, and they want Christmas to be all about the birth of Christ. I totally understand their decision and am grateful that we each can make decisions for our own families. We have decided to 'do' Santa at our house and that decision was not taken lightly. We talked and prayed about it before we had children. Here's why we 'do' Santa.....

-The birth of Christ is not downplayed at all in our house, and we teach our children that Christmas is celebrated because of the Christ-Child.

-We talk every day about the realness of Christ.

-We do not talk about the realness or the fakeness of Santa.

I got so frustrated this last Christmas with adults (who don't 'do' Santa at their house) talking too openly about the fact that they don't 'do' Santa in front of my children. Hang in there, I'm almost done with my soapbox! So...if you decide not to 'do' Santa in your family, please do not spoil the fun for mine! Whew, I feel better now...jumping off my soapbox.

Now, on to what Santa brought to our house.....
The girls got a new kitchen, earrings, boots that they had been asking for forever (thanks to the Gap commercial), and some new books.

Nana and Papa got them new dress up clothes.
Aunt Carey made them these fun outfits. Oh and btw, did you see their new haircuts?!
And here we are looking at their main present. We surprised the girls with a trip to the American Girl Store for the next day. We're looking through the magazine here trying to decide which dolls they want to get!

Up next...pics of them picking out their dolls in the store and eating lunch with our dolls too....so fun!

Still Kicking...again!

I be you thought I'd be back the same day to show you what Santa brought.....yeah, me too! Not sure where the last several weeks have gone but once again I'm going to try not neglecting my poor little piece of bloggityville. SO....I really will be back in just a little bit to tell you about Christmas!

Waiting for Santa

I have a list of blog posts to catch up on again. I'm going to skip a few and jump to Christmas. Here is my quartet the night before all giddy for Santa.
Stay tuned to see what he brought....

Flood Warning

Bath time....
...in the sink....
...for not much longer.
I'm tired of having to put the kitchen rug in the dryer after every one of Sam's floods, er I mean baths!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Phil and Carrie

Mara, Emily, Becca, and Sam

Rain, rain...go away!

On a cold rainy day like today, the girls and sunshine in these pictures warm me up a little bit.

Motherhood Lesson #393

Check to make sure that hubby put the baby's diaper on straight BEFORE putting him in the johnny-jump-up. Be prepared to clean poopy off of toes if you don't.

Motherhood Lesson #392

Remember this lesson from last winter?
Well, I guess this could be an addendum to it.....
If you have a newly potty trained child and hear, "I'm done...", take your scarf off first.

Gobble, Gobble

Turkey cookies for Thanksgiving. The girls loved making them almost as much as eating them.

Mmmmmm, Cake!

Doesn't have much taste though!

So Lucky

...that God picked me to be the mommy of these three hoodlums...
...and that my husband is a fabulous photographer and is so good at catching these priceless memories.

I've never seen cuter pumpkins.

We've finally reached the end of my catch-up posts. I know most of you are getting ready for Christmas now, but how could you resist looking at these super cute pumpkins. I'm not sure what's cuter in this picture, Emily's hat or her "Seriously?" face or Becca's "Cheese" face, or Sam's butterball-ness!
We started our trick-or-treating at Nana and Papa's house. That poor cat....he gets abused by Mara about once a week and still hasn't learned to go hide.
Then we hit a few houses on our block.
And ended the night with some candy bowl diving.
If there are cuter pumpkins out there, I haven't seen them!