Little Sister

 

Please stop growing so quickly, your sister can barely hold you now!  And oh my goodness does it melt my heart when the two of you snuggle!!

Drama

TWO AND A HALF HOURS.  
Yep, that's right...that's how long it took us to see this guy.  It's a good thing he is the ONLY Santa worth waiting that long for.  He is the most believable Santa I've ever met.  The first time we took Maggie to him was four years ago when we first moved here, and I can tell you I believed in Santa again after their visit!!  We took Fionn to see him his first Christmas, but haven't dared it again since....until this year.  This picture LOOKS like it went okay, and it did...as long as Greg stayed there!  He's trying to hold Cate's hand, I'm not sure if he thinks that Santa is going to eat her or what, but he's making sure she's okay!  Cate WAS okay, until Fionn freaked out, then she started melting.  Of course Mag is looking at the camera, lol...but once again they're all doing their own thing! 

All in all, it was a success...

or so I thought.

(insert the dun, dun, dun here)

UNTIL the next night (two nights before Christmas)

Then as we were getting her bed all set and getting ready for prayers, I looked over and her shoulders were gently shaking as she put her AG magazines away.  I turned her around and she was bawling.  Poor little thing, I knew immediately what was wrong, but I just went with it.  When we went to see Santa she went over and over again what she was going to ask for.  The Glow Dome, AG clothes, and two surprises...it was all she asked for.  Not ONE mention of a new doll.  It didn't even come up.  I knew she wanted one, but she never asked Santa.  She was crying because she realized that she never actually told him (or us) that's what she REALLY wanted.  Through her tears she told me she thought he would just KNOW.  So I kept going with it.  I told her to write a new letter to Santa and I would email it.  But, I reminded her, it was TWO days before Christmas.  So she furiously wrote, and sniffled the whole time and this is what she came up with.

She cried herself to sleep as my heart lept in my chest as I whispered with Greg about different scenarios for Christmas morning.  He told me I was mean, but she was still going to have to work for them.  You just can't whip them out and say see, he did know.  Besides, they were her gifts from us and other family members, not Santa.  

So without further ado...

Christmas Morning

New Years Eve -

December Favorites

It was quite a month here at our house, with lots to still blog about, but I just wanted to share a couple of my favorite moments with you!  The top picture is Fionn when we were getting our tree.  He was leaning over the side of the wagon watching it as we rode back to the truck.  Cate never cried, but only looked at santa for a few minutes, lol.  And of course, the bottom one is Mag protecting Santa's cookies!!  

We hope you all have a safe and BLESSED New Years tonight!!

More of the Same

 

I had a few more shots to show you, but according to Blogger I've used up all my space for pictures....I guess that wordpress is about to get a new blog!  Anyhow, EVERY Christmas they have their little beetle battle...They go over how many, then which ones, how to set them out...and then Fionn samples (LOL) and Maggie gets ticked.  The boy just gives us that grin and we laugh and Maggie grumps a little more.  Santa never complains and always eats them though, so he must not mind Fionn sampling them TOO much!  

We hope you all had a VERY Merry Christmas!

Secret Spice

We have hosted Thanksgiving here in the 'burgh for the last three years.  Greg always has to work, and usually over-nights the week of Thanksgiving so it was always easier (and it's nice to have everyone here) than trying to get home.

This year, however, Greg only had to work an 8 hour shift ON Thanksgiving...so we thought we would make it.  I didn't bake anything this year because all I had to take home was Sweet Potatoes, and we were planning on being home for days so we tried to empty the fridge before we went....

So, on Thanksgiving our fridge was bare and our tummies were hungry.  We did NOT end up going home because two out of three of our kiddos had a slight fever and horrible cough.  We call it a "junky" cough in this house.  So what did we do? 

We snacked all day...don't ask Fionn what his snack of choice is though...

let's just say he had an endless supply all day...

I wanted to do something special for Cate for her first Thanksgiving, so I went and found some great fabric, a great pattern and made her a little jumper.  Usually you wouldn't need the pants with it, but it was chilly in the house, so we went with the pants!

So that our big girl wouldn't feel left out I made her a matching shirt out of left over fabric and a matching headband.  She and Cate looked SO cute!!  

Cate suddenly has a thing for noses, and ears, but she's cute so she gets away with it!!

Maggie was pretty bummed about not going home, so once daddy got home we ran out to Wal-mart since they were open to get some groceries to try and save Thanksgiving for her.  

Instead we found out Cracker Barrel is OPEN on Thanksgiving!!  I was so excited I practically did a happy dance.  I thought there was no way it was going to be busy, but people we had to wait HALF AN HOUR for a table!!  I was beyond shocked.  There were people EVERYWHERE!

Maggie and I ordered their Thanksgiving Day special, so at least we got Turkey...the one thing Maggie was upset about....she ordered Apple Sauce and there was none of Aunt Shelli's secret spice to go on it.  She knows it's just Cinnamon but still calls it that.  

It just goes to show you that it's the little things that mean the most.  We're so blessed to have such a great family, and hope this is the ONLY year we'll ever have to be away from them on Thanksgiving!

AG Fashion Show

Maggie strutting her stuff as Josefina. This is Josefina's everyday outfit. Maggie had two more trips down the runway, once in Christmas dress and another in pj's.

Josefina Montoya...for a Day

now without delay...back to our AG story....

Our princess did SUCH a great job as Josefina, we couldn't be more proud!!  Now if Mommy could have just gotten her camera to cooperate when she was actually looking at me, but that's a whole other post, geesh!  

Change of Plans

This morning was supposed to our annual Breakfast with Santa at Mag's school, and then our trek out to get our TREE.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love our trek out to get our tree?  It is, for me, the ONE  "family" holiday tradition that I will always want.  I don't care how old they get, they're coming home to get a tree with us, I'm a dork like that...

For Greg to get a WHOLE Saturday off, in December no less is nothing short of a miracle....

BUT.

It was not to be I guess.  I'm typing this from a Hospital.  A hospital two hours away from Greg at that.  I got one of THOSE phone calls yesterday...you know those ones that make your whole life stop in just that instant.  The ones where the whole world falls silent while you try to digest what you just heard, just to be sure.  Then ask the caller to repeat what they just said, just to double check....

yeah, one of THOSE ones.

My Daddy had a stroke.  

The good news is it was just a MINI one so even as I type this, there is improvement.  They caught it FAST, and thank god they did as he was headed out the door to take a friend to run errands.  He was seconds away from being behind the wheel of his car.

I packed the kids and myself up, Greg went and grabbed Mag out of school, and we headed up as quickly as we could.  My FABULOUS in-laws have the kiddos so I'm able to sit here with him.  

I was here until 8 last night, not sure how long I'll be here again today.  

Everything looked good as his speech was improving, until today when they stated that they found a mass on his right lung.  Off he went for another CT.  We're still waiting for results....

I'm praying friends, he already has COPD and I'm not sure how well surgery would go. 
If you could, please say a prayer.

American Girl Hysteria

To tell you that Maggie is OBSESSED with American Girls is an understatement....
I mean catalog under the pillow, two dolls in her bed, paper dolls and books on her nightstand, and a Christmas list in her drawer that gets ammended weekly...
What can I say, we ALL indulge her and we can't wait to see her face THIS Christmas morning.
(I'm also confident that she's not going to be reading this post anytime soon so feel safe posting that little tidbit here.)
It's going to be Legend-ARY for her!

She got her first AG doll, her bitty baby "Tasha" for Christmas 2 years ago.

Then for her birthday last year, this HUGE surprise came in the mail...

 Things have spiraled out.of.control (in a good way) since then.

She ripped me a page out of her catalog and sent it with me with her "order" when I went on my mommy trip to Chicago last year!  What's a mommy to do, but go and get her what she wants!

  As one of her Christmas presents last year we went to the American Girl Fashion Show presented by the Junior League and I thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head!  She LOVED it.

So much in fact that I kept tabs and after we got back from FL in August we surprised her and let her go to the model search for this year's show.

I know this pic was posted below but this is her and Carissa after we left the model search!  

We got word that she was chosen in early October and started getting ready for the show...

 

We went to the meeting and found out she was going to be Josefina!  She was THRILLED

(once I explained that if she wasn't thrilled with what she got, we could let another girl have the honor) so needless to say she was THRILLED. We went to final dress rehearsal...

and my BIG girl was not nervous at all, as a matter of fact she ROCKED it...

ONLY one more week to go until her big runway debut!  

Stay tuned for her day as Josefina Montoya!