Make-up

For Alex's birthday, Jason & Suzy and family gave her a gift certificate to Build-A-Bear Workshop. She has been asking for a couple of years if she could go there and since she hadn't mentioned it in awhile, I completely forgot. Thank you Suzy for saving the day! She was so excited for our girl's night out tonight. She earned a kid's meal from TGI Friday's for being an excellent reader at school so we went there for dinner. It was below freezing out and we were bundled up pretty good. But when I asked her if she was warm enough on our drive over there she said "ya, but my hams are a little cold". You're hands? just put them under your legs or in your coat pockets then. "No my HAMSTRINGS are a little cold, not my hands." I didn't have an answer for that one, just one of many laughs we shared tonight. At dinner she decided on a blue raspberry slushy to go with her dinner, I was surprised she picked blue over the many pink drinks she could choose from. On our way out the door we picked a mint out of the basket and her's had another mint attached to it, the wrappers hadn't been cut apart like they were suppose to. The hostess told her it was her lucky day, she gets to have two mints instead of one! Alex smiled, thanked her and skipped out the door.

After dinner we headed over to the mall to pick out her new friend. On the way, she stopped at the quarter machines and bought me a handful of Mike and Ikes (with her own money) and wanted to get two gumballs for herself but decided to get one then and the other one after Build-A-Bear. Well the machine gave her two gumballs and she couldn't believe it, it really WAS her lucky day!

It took her no time at all to pick out the girliest, pinkest, most magical animal they had there, the unicorn. She then picked the pony sound to go with it and helped stuff her so she was "snuggly soft". When the girl was done stuffing her Alex gave her a good squeeze and asked her to take a little out to make her softer. So she took a tiny handful out and Alex said that that was enough, now she was perfect! She made a wish on her heart, stuffed it inside and her unicorn was quickly sewn shut. Then the real shopping began, she spent quite a long time browsing through the different outfits and accessories in the store. At one point she had a volleyball outfit in hand (no persuasion on my part I swear) with little knee pads and her own volleyball. Then she realized there were too many pink, sparkly outfits to choose from to waste her choice on a sporty outfit. In the end she ended up with a sparkly "rock star" outfit and a Hello Kitty party dress, as well as a pair of wings so she can make her a pegasus whenever the need arises. She then, groomed and fluffed her at the "fluffing" station, dressed her in her rock star outfit and went online to register her and give her a name. The name she chose? Make-up. She decided on it so fast I never had a chance to give her suggestions (not that any of them would've been good enough). What kind of nick-name can you give a unicorn called Make-up? Well, Shadow of course (for eye shadow). So now Alex can go online and carry Make-up around in her little backpack and play with her virtually as well as snuggle up to her at home. Oh, and since she bought her a pair of wings, Make-up can fly her all around Build-A-Bear land as she wishes. On our way back to through the mall we stopped off at See's candy for a chocolate truffle (or two) and of course said hi to Santa to show him her new friend and remind him about her Littlest Pet Shop house she wants for Christmas.

When I asked her if she was going to buckle her unicorn up on the way home she said no. Then I asked her, what if we get in an accident and she flies out the window? (because it's never a bad time to remind her of the importance of using her seat belt). She just explained "I'll just put her wings on her!"

Stay young my little one. I loved spending time with you tonight! Love, Mom

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I love Christmas decorations! It's a shame they are only up for a few short weeks. If it was up to me, I'd start decorating in November, but alas, I have to keep peace with the hubby.

This is my village that sits in the nook above our TV, it'll stay up until Spring!

I love my Willow Tree nativity.
Let's hope they all survive the holiday, they are set up out in the open where the kids run by it every day.

My cute little nutcracker that I got from my sweet Grandma when she passed last October.

The only time of year my living room gets put to use. I love the two extra stockings added to the end of the mantel for Ri and Hunter. :o)

Then my favorite part of this time of year is the snow!

If it's below freezing outside, everything had better be covered in white.

It snowed enough this morning that the kids had to wear their boots to school today. Of course Alex is in a skirt and thank goodness the snow was too dry to make snowballs for the kids at the bus stop. I can't wait for a white Christmas up at the cabin!

And this isn't a Christmas decoration, but I just got these up and I'm so happy to have updated pictures on my wall! Yay!

Time to Celebrate!

The crew came over tonight to help Alex celebrate turning 7. These last few days from her birthday until today were very long for her. She asked every day if she could open another one of her presents. So far she had opened clothes and one toy from Johnny (a FurReal kitten that moves and meows and purrs. About as close to a real pet as she's going to get any time soon). Well tonight she was showered with Littlest Pet Shop, Barbie art supplies, a beading kit, a pet-care Barbie, puzzles and a Build a Bear certificate (she's been waiting years to make a visit to the Build-a-Bear workshop!). The house was packed, the kids ran wild, the cupcakes and ice cream were de-lish, and Alex is on cloud nine!

Birthday Epilogue

This is the main outfit my Mom got for Alex. She picked it all out, head to toe. Alex felt a little self conscious in it, not wanting to draw attention to herself (go figure). I'm sure she'll get plenty of compliments at school and it'll be her new favorite outfit. Please forgive all of the lame shots, she wasn't in the mood for posing for any of them and we were rushing to get then taken before the bus came to pick her up. I'm sure I could take some darn cute ones of her in this sweatshirt/jacket though. I'll bring it to the cabin with us for Christmas and coax her outside amongst the pine trees and snow for some cute winter shots. All I have to say is, she'd better not have a huge growth spurt between this winter and next, it'd really be great if she can get more use out of all of these cute clothes!

Oh, and I asked her this morning about her letter to Santa. The "nobude" part of the list was to state that she wanted a cake makin' thing that nobody else could touch. Then I asked her if this meant she didn't want any Littlest Pet Shop Stuff anymore and her eyes got big and she rushed to add it to her list. We're good. :o)

Happy Birthday Baby Doll!

So my little Peanut turned 7 today. Quite frankly, I've been thinking she was 7 all year long anyway so it wasn't much of a shock for me. She's tall enough, smart enough, and a lot of her friends are already 7. But now that she is 7 and her next birthday is 8, it seems strange. We already got her baptism letter in the mail, the date is set (BTW, it's Dec 5th). Is she really old enough be a year away from Activity Days? I'm afraid I'm going to blink and she's going to be entering into Young Women's. And speaking of growing up, I mentioned in an earlier post that she has taken an interest in picking out her own clothes. Well, she always has had an interest in it, but she's always accepted the fact that I pick out her clothes for school. Since she's put a stop to that, my Mom and I went out on a mission to stock her closet with plenty of cute clothes to choose from. She has insisted on skirts (not dresses) and wants to wear them, not only to church but to school as well. I let her open her "clothes" presents a little early so she could sport her new clothes starting on Sunday when they sang her Happy Birthday in Primary. She also got a new winter jacket (because the jacket she's been wearing is a boy's jacket and she hated wearing it). Here are a few outfits she's put together so far.....

I'm trying to not make suggestions because then she's automatically pulled in the opposite direction. I did let her open a gift from Johnny today so she got something other than clothes on her actual birthday, but her party isn't until this weekend.

Then tonight I came home from a meeting and Sariah shows me the letters the kids wrote to Santa. Usually I like to be around when they're writing out their lists so I can persuade them in a certain direction. I've already finished all of my Christmas shopping so they are already getting certain things whether or not they are still on their lists. Well Alex has been asking for Littlest Pet Shop stuff and wanted a big adoption center for them to play in and everything. Here's is what her list says (I'm going to have to ask her to clarify a few parts of it for me tomorrow morning).

Dear Santa
I want a prinsus actin figyrs.
grl spi stuf.
cak maken thing and nobude.
sowen stuf.
I love you
Love Alex

I know she was copying off of Hunter's list for the first two and making them girly (princess action figures, girl spy stuff); but my favorite ones are the "cake makin' thing" and "sewin' stuff". I don't see Littlest Pet Shop on there ANYWHERE!!! I think we are going to have to have a redo for Santa letters in the morning! Thanks Sariah!!!
Then once she was done with her letter I guess she asked Sariah, "can I just address it to my Mom?"