Merry Christmas!

We will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas day here with family and friends and then Saturday we are off to South Carolina for 9 days to play and eat and rest and eat and relax and eat!!! Jeannie and I had better hit the pavement, that's all I have to say.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year celebration!

Christmas Sunday and other things

In the hustle and bustle of OUR LAST (!!!!!!!) 9am church we didn't get a picture before church of everyone in their Christmas finest. Late in the afternoon I got 4 people begrudgingly back into their church clothes so we could get a couple pictures. I tweaked and post-edited as best as I could - we need to remedy this camera situation soon!

My three babies. This year, I did something I have yet to do - make Christmas dresses for all my girls. A few years back I made 2 flower girl dresses for Meghan's wedding but this is the first time making 3 Christmas dresses. I adore each one of them. All simple and fit their personalities and they fit well too! Phew! Made headbands as well.

Now on these dresses. It is no secret that in the past year I have become an even greater fan of thrifting and recycling clothes. In fact, it has been since August that I bought something brand new for myself to wear. Anyway, I made a decision a couple months ago that I would follow suit in making my girls Christmas dresses. Every component would be thrifted or something I already had in my stash of fabrics. For me, the sweater I bought years ago at a thrift store, I don't remember where or when. It is from the 50's, I think. My skirt was a recent goodwill find. For the girls, the red taffeta (L & K) came from the skirt I wore for Meghan's wedding and the leftover fabric in my stash. The black fabric (C) was in my stash of fabric too. I can't remember why I bought it. The white accents came from a goodwill $1 shirt that I bought knowing I would use it for the accents - it was the perfect fabric. (I have bought a few things like this on dollar day - a great way to buy buttons too.) It is the sash on Lindsay's dress and the fabric flower on her headband the tuxedo accent on Caroline's. The black accent on Kate's is also from my stash. It was literally scraps. I then had all the interfacing, elastics, and buttons needed to complete the dresses. The only thing I purchased ($3) was the pattern for Caroline's dress. The other two I either didn't use a pattern or modified one I already had. So not counting items from my supplies and stashes of fabric, I spent a grand total of $4 on 3 Christmas dresses for my girls. (And several hours...)

I am going to do a big fat toot of my own horn. I am quite pleased with how they came out!

Obviously someone wasn't interested in modeling. You can't see the matching black band at the bottom. It looks like the sash.

Now this one knows how to pose. All perfectly tied up from head to toe. We went thru a few fittings to get this right and now she is in love! The first try on erupted in tears. The arms felt wrong. The neck was wrong. But I tweaked and altered and pinned, added a temporary sash, took her to the mirror and her face lit up like New Year's Eve. She loved it. The final verdict? "Mommy, I love it. It is so comfy!" Not something I expected from the first tears about weird armpits.

And Caroline can pose too. Once we found the idea for this tuxedo inspired dress, we knew it was perfect and it fit right on the money. I love this kid - her missing teeth might possibly be my favorite part of Christmas 2009.

We also celebrated Caroline's birthday and had our Christmas with Dad, Debbie, and Molly's family. I gave up taking pictures... We had a yummy lasagna dinner and Caroline received some super fun gifts - a magician set and a gift card to Old Navy - that is quite the grown up gift and she cannot wait to use it. Debbie selected personalized ornaments for everyone celebrating their accomplishments, talents, and interests of the year - soccer, gymnastics, running, work, and my perfect little angel received an angel ornament. Lindsay finally got a Taylor Swift CD and Caroline a baseball glove - for our little south paw. Steve and I got a little help towards big items on our wish lists. Thanks Dad and Debbie - very thoughtful gifts indeed!

Oh, and a couple other things:

1. Last day of school....

Caroline's class party - Caroline was not feeling well so I took her home early.

Lindsay's class party - as long as she wants me at school I will be there!

2. I am a working girl again. Read my bio here. 7th bio down. I will be working with a friend from the girl's school who has a small marketing firm. It looks a bit fancy pants but in reality I will have 5-10 hours a week of work writing, research, and some social media marketing. Honestly, it feels a bit like junior high school - one of my main assignments as a "copywriter" will be summarizing articles to use a blog posts for client websites. Sounds like Friday current events in 8th grade. I will also be occasionally tweeting and facebooking on behalf of clients. I was nervous adding something else to my day but a) I like how it forces me to re-structure my day and b) I liked getting my first paycheck!

Date night - The Nutcracker

Lindsay, Caroline and I went on a Friday night date to see Ballet Arizona's production of The Nutcracker. Lindsay has seen a couple smaller regional productions but this was her first time to see "The Big One" and I soon realized Caroline had never seen anything in a theater like this before - have I failed her?? We had so much fun together that we decided it is for sure going to be an annual tradition. We were not able to leave with enough time for a nice dinner out (darn that busy Apollo Group IT department) but Steve felt bad we got going late and gave his blessing to find whatever we could to eat at or near Symphony Hall. One mini (mini!) cheesecake, 3 chocolate dipped strawberries, to bottles of water and $22 later, we still went to Cracker Barrel on the way home!

We arrived as one of the dancers was sitting at the tree reading the story - her costume was so lovely. Lindsay knew immediately she must be a snowflake.

The lobby tree was grand and the girls and I loved soaking up the atmosphere of Symphony Hall. (darn it broken camera!)

The girls had been learning about The Nutcracker in music class at school and both were quite well versed on the story. Caroline would lean over to me and tell me what was happening and who each character was. All three of us were fixated on the stage - it was all so lovely.

The following photos were lifted from the official website gallery.

The mice costumes were a riot.

Lindsay's favorite - The Sugar Plum Fairy and Caroline loved the Angels.

My Favorite - Marzipan. I just cannot imagine the construction required to make a dance costume like this!

Caroline Celebrates...

...Also known as the day I broke my camera. :( I dropped it 3 feet to the tile the night of Caroline's birthday. Steve claims I did it on purpose because a new SLR has been on my wishlist for quite a long time but breaking this one means I need TWO new cameras instead of just one. Even with an SLR I still need my purse size point and shoot. It is a bummer to say the least.

Anyway...back to our scheduled programming.

Lindsay and I planned a birthday breakfast - homemade donuts - a favorite treat we had not made in a long time. She got up early and helped me make a special morning for Caroline.

We had not yet done hair...either of us. I was fresh from bootcamp. I am guessing not all that fresh.

I picked up Caroline for lunch and if I was a betting woman, I could have hit big knowing she would choose Chick-fil-A for lunch. And since it was her birthday and all, we had to share the chocolate peppermint milkshake. Darn it. It was tasty.

After donuts and the milkshake lunch we opted for a low key dinner - loaded baked potatoes and fruit. Caroline chose the menu and she arranged the fruit plate. So cute! She only allowed us to eat the fruit in a certain order - no bananas before kiwi! No apples yet! Finish the clementines! Funny girl.

Speaking of funny girl...it was after this picture that I dropped my camera.

And then we start getting pictures that look like this.

And this. In natural light they are a little better...

Friday - the first day of winter break and we celebrated with several of Caroline's nearest and dearest with a Polar Express Birthday Party. Jammies, jingle bells, hot cocoa, cookies and crafts.

Lindsay and Ellie were my helper Elves and they worked hard! Handing out jingle bell necklaces, helping the little crafters, crowd control - I could not have done it without them!

Decorating their cups...

....I know it looks like I created a bunch of coffee addicts but these cups can also hold hot cocoa...and the intent was to keep from spilling while we watched The Polar Express movie. (We still had one massive spill but I am fairly certain it could have been worse.)


We painted and glittered ornaments

We had a birthday cookie

Caroline received some fun gifts including a cute dog that I just heard barking in her bed and an adorable Twizzler's t-shirt. A new favorite - I can tell already. Move over Monkey shirt!

A super fun time for a fabulous little toothless 6 year old!

SIX is a big deal!

Then - Caroline at 2 months old (this dress...oh, this dress!)

2 years old

4 years old

And now...November 2009

Last night as we sat around the kitchen table digging four forks into a cheesecake and reading our Christmas stories, I asked if anyone remembered what we were doing 6 years ago at this very time. It was a Monday night and Steve, Lindsay and I were finishing the last of the Christmas run around, delivering goodies to dear friends and even dropping off a baby gift for twin baby girls, dear friends of Caroline we would come to know as Zoe and Lucy. (Sara, I don't remember what the whole gift was except that it included a lot of diapers!) We then stopped at Mom and Dad's house to drop Lindsay off for a sleepover with Nama Sue while we prepared to go to the hospital the next morning for my scheduled c-section.

As Steve remembers it, he was able to see Caroline before me, of course, and as she was delivered, he announced "We have Lindsay Jr. here!" He wasn't far from the truth. The hair - check. the chubs - check, 9 lbs even. The eyelashes - not quite the same but oh, the blue eyes and the dimple!!!

Today I will pick Caroline up from school and take her to lunch (Chick-fil-A I am sure she will choose) and she chose Rocket Pops to bring as her school birthday treat. Popsicles? That's my Caroline!

Our sweet Caroline has really grown in the last year - she is a kinder but wears Lindsay's 2nd grade hand me downs. Her hair is long again. She can ride a two wheeler. And by George, she found her inner graceful girl and can dance!

Friday we celebrate with a Polar Express inspired birthday party with several of her best new buddies from school - sure to be a fantastic party!

A few fun shots from the last couple of months:

Typical sideways goofy smile.

The Monkey shirt. She would wear it every day if she could!

End of the soccer season, fall 2009.

Happy Birthday Baby!
And sweetie, thank you for letting me call you Baby.