Yes, I know. Weeks have gone by and no update. I would say I'm sorry, and I kinda am. I know that this is a great way to keep our family and friends involved in our lives in an even more personal way, but I was enjoying the holidays. And as much as I love the blog, life just got so hectic for a while and I wanted to slow down and soak in as much as I could. I actually took very few "real" photos this Christmas. I guess that was part of the whole slowing down process. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing moments even when I'm in them because I'm so focused on getting the right camera shot. They might not be the prettiest photos, but I still have plenty to show you!
The girls weren't scared of Santa or "Ho-Ho" as they call him, but as you can tell, they weren't extremely fond of him as well. I'm pretty sure they were confused by the whole outing.
Santa himself wasn't in the best of moods. He got a little snippy with his sweet little elf helper, who was more interested in showing R the reindeer than making sure people left their shopping carts in the correct spot. : )
This was our first real outing since we had come down with the plague the week before. Ok, so not really, but it felt that way. It was terrible. So terrible that I don't remember most of that 48 hour period, but I was just grateful that if it was going to happen that it happened BEFORE Christmas.
I knew I couldn't/didn't want to have to stand in a long line by myself with two very active girls, so Lindsay joined us. Thanks LaLa!
I'm always TRYING to get in pictures when I can. It doesn't happen often and when it does you can bet they won't be looking at the camera. Oh well!
R was VERY excited about the idea of getting in a picture with the two of us. Can't you tell?
Christmas morning. Yes, the photo is completely overexposed, but I still love it. Home. On Christmas morning. It doesn't get any better.
R was up first, which is no surprise, Baby Girl will slept like a teenager if you let her. But she found her doll bed. It was mine from when I was a little girl.
I had tucked her dolly in bed. The doll we had given her on her first Christmas.
Christmas morning is such a magical time.
These girls LOVE anything to do with Rudolph. This little guy Baby Girl is holding plays the music to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and I can't tell you how many hundreds of times I've heard that in the past month. It doesn't have a place to change out the batteries and by the time I had to pack it away for next Christmas his song was already starting to sound very sad. I'm pretty sure it won't be making any noise by the time it gets pulled back out.
The only photo I managed to get in from our Christmas morning before family came over. At least it's a sweet one.
I'm getting less and less impressed with iPhone photos. Maybe I'm just spoiled with my nice camera, but at least we have a picture with all four of us in it from Christmas!
D.C. has his princesses all in a row : ) The other two were running around.
This is Pip. She was one of my favorite presents given this year. I mentioned earlier that we had given R a doll on her first Christmas, but the company has since gone out of business. I searched very hard last year to find one for Baby Girl's first Christmas as well, but to no avail. None of them were right. But this year I found her, and I'm not afraid to admit it, I MAY have teared up when I did.
I was working a Christmas event at my church when I saw her- Pip. She comes in all different ethnicities and lots of different clothing types and hair colors. And when you buy a Pip doll, another doll is given to a little girl in an orphanage somewhere in the world.
It came with a tag that read-
"Hi, my name is Pip and I want you to know
I'm so glad I'm yours and I do love you so.
Since I came to your house to live,
Another dolly was bought in order to give
To another little girl in a far away land --
She is now holding her Pip very close in her hand.
Some children have no mommy or daddy,
And that doesn't seem right.
No hugs, no kisses, no one to tuck them in at night.
So remember to pray each and every day
That God will give her a forever home in which to stay."
Yea….. It's okay to cry.
I'm planning on framing the tag, so we remember to pray for our new "friend."
But seriously, I couldn't have thought of a more perfect gift for my Baby Girl. I know that I sometimes question God on his timing. I wanted her doll last year, and I know it may seem so small, but God knew all along and now we have a new little friend to pray for, and now two baby girls have the perfect dolly.
We celebrated Jesus and Uncle Roo's birthday.
"Santa, I know him!!!"
And someone was perhaps a little enthused by the whole notion that we were having a second Christmas morning when my family came over.
I'm always grateful to have my family around for the holidays, and as strange as it felt to have Christmas land on a Wednesday- I secretly loved it! You know why? Because that meant I got my parents from Tuesday-Sunday. That's never happens! Usually we have a 48 hour window on a weekend or if we go to Shreveport we may have a week, but it take the girls a few days just to get acclimated and me a few more days to get over the six hours alone in the car with them ; )
It was just so wonderful to be able to enjoy our time with them and not feel like we were constantly in a rush.
Us in a nutshell.
We had a VERY special visitor over the holidays as well- Aunt RaRa!
Can you believe my best friend's getting married?!? David better know how lucky he is! :)
But sadly her visit was over to soon, as it always is, and I was left so grateful to be surrounded by so many amazing people, but quickly missing their company.
R likes to photobomb.
The girls still ask for RaRa daily. They drag her picture around the house and try to call her on my phone when they think I'm not looking. (Yes, R IS that technologically savvy!) We miss Aunt Roxie already.
Since everyone left, we've just been working to get the house back into shape after the holidays. The Christmas decorations have been packed away and the toys have multiplied, but I've done my best to keep life at a pretty slow pace. It's been so nice and I know it won't always been this easy to do.
I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but I do agree that a new year is a great time to start fresh. So I'm making a point to soak in these little girls as much as I can, while they are still so little.
(Information on the Pip Dolls for those interested- I'm not sure exactly how they go about selling the Pip dolls outside of the events they put on, but here is the link to their website if anyone is interested in inquiring. For those of you who may not need to purchase a doll but are good at sewing, they have the doll pattern on their site and take doll donations.)
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