Our American Girl Adventure

Santa brought the girls an American Girl weekend for Christmas. We left on Friday for our adventure. We had soooo much fun in Atlanta.

Christmas Morning

Look who I saw...

... in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve night.











I heard some noise outside of our window and went downstairs to "catch him". I took the second photo and then he saw me so I ran back upstairs and went back to bed until I heard him leave. Then I got up and printed the pictures out for the girls to see the proof. Santa left us some great gifts this year. I will post more on that soon.

Photo made possible with the help of the great people at
www.capturethemagic.com

Goodbye Sweet Dixie

Our sweet, loving black lab died during the night Friday night. She was just the sweetest dog I've ever known. So loving and loyal, she will surely be missed. She was not feeling good on Thursday evening, she wouldn't eat or really even stand up. I knew she wouldn't make it much longer. I tried to pet her and give her as much love and attention as I could those last couple of days. At least now I know she's not hurting anymore. She was with us for just over 12 years. We got her the year after we got married, she was our first baby. Here is the most recent picture of her, taken in November.

All she wants for Christmas...

....is her two front teeth. Little Sister lost her other front tooth last Friday morning. She looks sooo cute with out those two teeth. But, now as a mommy, she will never have that little girl smile. At least she lost them pretty late, so I got to enjoy the little girl smile for a little longer than ususal.

Cute new polymer clay charms

I just got a shipment of some new charms to make more polymer clay necklaces and I had to share. There is a lady in Texas who does the most beautiful work. I have ordered from her several times and am always amazed at how super cute her work is. I am posting a few pictures, these new necklaces should be ready soon and I will list them on my website by the end of the year.

puppy, zebra, belle

Helpful online shopping hint.....

If you need to order anything online, please search the retailers name and the words "coupon codes". I just ordered from Land's End and while I was at my check out page, I saw that the shipping was over $15. I opened another window and searched for "Lands end coupon codes" and I got a code for free shipping on any order. It's so easy to do and can really save a lot of money. In less than 2 minutes, I saved $15. Stephanie~ if you read this, they have a really cute denim skirt on sale. I ordered one!!

The Tooth Fairy flies in!

Little Sister finally let me pull one of her loose teeth. Those two front ones have been loose for about 4 months now, the one on the right had gotten really loose and I finally convinced her to let me get it. She looks just adorable, I can't wait until the other one comes out. Maybe it will be before Christmas and she can sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

The Christmas Play

This year the play was called "The Christmas County Spelling Bee" Both of the girls had speaking parts in it and they both did a great job. This is a picture of Little Sister acting silly, big sister is in the background sitting just to the right of LS. They play was held at Spring Valley Baptist on Sunday, December 7th.

Thanksgiving and the start of the Christmas season

We had a great Thanksgiving, we went over to my in-laws house and had turkey and all the fixin's. It was so nice for my husband to be home for 4 days straight. We always go to get our Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. I went shopping in the morning with some friends, we started at 5:40. That's unbelievably early, but I've never done it before, so I wanted to experience it. It was crazy, but lots of fun. After I got back home from shopping, I was exhausted, but we went to the Farmers Market to get our tree. Little Sister got to pick it out this year and boy did she get a big one. We put the lights on it on Friday evening, and got the ornaments on it on Saturday. Here is a picture of the finished product. Very pretty if I do say so myself. The Holidays have officially begun and I have decided I am going to enjoy every precious, crazy, stressful minute of it. They always go by so fast, so this year, I'm going to be making lots of memories with my family. I've already added the picture of my family into the main header, here is a picture of the tree in all it's shining glory. How pretty!!

Happy Anniversary Honey!!

Love ya,

Karina