Tea with Santa

Merry Christmas from two sweet cousins! Taken at Images by Rainy in Fayetteville, LOVE HER!

Black Friday

The big girls in the family have a tradition of shopping on black Friday. We left right after eating Thanksgiving dinner around 8pm and did not arrive home till around 10am. We like to shop. Here are before pictures. Mom was being silly.

We drove about an hour to the north side of Atlanta and got in line for Toys R Us to say the line was long is an understatement, it wrapped around the building and parking lot several times. At 10pm the doors opened and we waited in line another 20min to get into the store. Once inside we had specific item we wanted. I had already gotten Lucy's big gift several months ago ( I'm really not that organized I just knew it would be a hard toy to find later)  We did great! Mom got in line, Tiffany and her best friends Amara searched for their items. Tiffany and Amara's girls are both almost 4 so they were looking for Leapster items. They found a few things they wanted including a trampoline for Evelyn and we were out of the store in 45mins and on our way to the mall across the street. The Disney store opened at Midnight and that was the BIG store for us this year. I got Andy, Lucy and I matching PJ's with a matching Minnie doll for Lucy. The deals there were crazy, Tiffany  got 2 big princess dolls for 8.50 a piece! We walked around the mall and shopped some then headed back to Fayetteville. We arrived back in town around 2am but the next store to open was Kohl's and it did not open till 3am so we made a pit stop at the Waffle House. We had the worlds worst waitress, we waited an hour and never got our food :( So we left.

We went to Kohl's, Target and Walmart. Then we headed to the Gap which had EVERYTHING 50% off till 10am. It was 8am by this time and we were hungry! The rest of the ladies were done, but I knew Andy needed some blue jeans and when would they be that on sale again?! So I went and picked Andy up and got him 2 pairs of jeans. It was 10am by this time and I was tired!!!!! I did not go crazy this year with Lucy's gifts I know she will get a lot of things at Disney. Her one big gift is Dance Star Mickey and I am soooo excited to see her face when she gets it!

Gobble Gobble

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. We went to Andy's family's house for lunch and had a great meal before he had to go to work. I always love visiting with his cousins they are all teenagers and crack me up with what is going on in their lives. It's so fun to listen to their stories and think back on when I was that age. Hannah and Gabrielle are seniors in high school and I am so excited for then to start college next year! After lunch we came home and Andy got ready for work and I headed over to my mom and dad's house to eat with all of my family. Andy got to stop by for his dinner break. Lucy and Evelyn played and got their first reading of the Elf on the Shelf for the year, I think Buddy the elf will be very busy this year!

Girls Weekend

This past weekend Lucy, my mom and I went on a mother daughter trip to Pigeon Forge with my best friend from college (Erin) and her mom. Erin was my "big sister" in Phi Mu's at GC&SU. God really blessed me when he put the two of us together! She is always calm and keeps me in check :) She does a lot of dirty work behind the scenes for me and is there to laugh with me (or at me) when things get crazy. The day before Lucy's 1st birthday party all the big white party tents we had set up in the back yard got blown into the lake. (Yep, I can laugh about it now) Erin was the one with a level head who looked at my mom and me and told us to calm down :)  She is also Lucy's God mother. Whenever I get to spend time with her I jump on it.  She lives about an hour away from me, so my mom and I rode to her house and we all piled into her car and drove up to the mountains, listening to Disney music the whole way.  Saturday morning we had breakfast at the Apple Barn and then did some outlet shopping, it was really crowded and I had a hard time getting the stroller into most of the stores.

We went back to the hotel took a nap and ended the day by having dinner at the Old Mill.
Andy and I ate there for our anniversary in 2009, this is Lucy and I then she has changed so much!

Sunday we headed over to Gaintlinburg and ate breakfast at the Pancake house  and did some more shopping (see a theme). We were very tired by the time we made in back to the room and had pizza ordered in for dinner.

Little Mouse

I have been working on one of  Lucy's outfits for the Animal Kingdom and I'm almost done with it (Whoohoo)! I just have to sew the ruffles on the top and put the yellow rick rack trim on.  Not bad for over a month till we leave.

Lucy loves this hat so much she kept saying MORE when I took it off her!

I promise I will stop talking about Disney at some point! (but half the fun is planning!) I am sooo excited!

Santa Southern Style

Never a dull moment!!! We have been home all week working on crafts and projects (and reading books, playing kitchen,doll house, doing laundry and dishes etc...) Most of the craft projects are not complete yet so I will hold off on talking about them till they are done :) Next week we are going (Lucy, Mom and I) on a weekend girls trip with my best friend from college (and my "Big Sister" from Phi Mu) and her mom to Gatlinburg. I am so excited to spend some quality time with these ladies they make me smile and Erin is always so encouraging with whatever is going on in my life, and goodness knows I need that right now! Back in June, Erin told me for Christmas she wanted to get Lucy an American Girl, it was one of her favorite things when she was a growing up and she wants Lucy to experience it too. So on Monday we are going to  to the American Girl Store to pick one out! We have decided on the Bitty baby, Evelyn has one and Lucy is in love with it. Being the planner I am, I  started buying clearance clothes for Lucy's baby. Disney is getting rid of their My Disney Girl and coming out with a new line of dolls so they had all the clothes marked 50% off and I got some great deals in Downtown Disney. I picked up a Snow White, and Minnie dress for the doll.

I have also started working on Lucy advent calender for Christmas. Anyone have any suggestions for small toys to place in it?

The girls had their Santa pictures today. We did the traditional smocked outfit on Santa's lap (Lucy was deathly scared of him and called MAMA the entire time:( I hope she got some good pictures, we don't go and look at them till next week. After both girls had traditional pictures done we went a little crazy and had a tea party with Santa! Both girls changed into white dresses with pearl, gloves and hats and feed Santa cookies while he wore a pink boa and drank tea (Very southern!)We will see how the pictures turned out! Here is the hat we made for the tea party.

Downtown Disney

What a fun week! Mom, Tiffany, the girls, and I made the five hour drive to Orlando to do some "planning" for our December Disney trip (have I mentioned that I come from a crazy family?!) We found a great deal on a hotel off property for 3 nights so we thought, why not. The week consisted of planning our strategy; we looked at how far the walk would be from the tree houses to the bus stop, checked out the hotel pool and took the boat to Downtown Disney. The United way had a huge benefit sale downtown so we did a "little" shopping too. We also hit-up all three Disney outlet stores around town and got some wonderful deals. I was mostly looking for T-shirts for Andy and I (I have already bought most of Lucy's outfits off of ebay), I found the best prince charming shirt for Andy to wear to Cinderella's Castle! I found a shirt for me that I had seen on Ebay for $45, I snatched it up for 10!!! The girls enjoyed eating at the Rainforest cafe and T-rex, getting mickey suckers and napping in their strollers. It was VERY cold and both kids got a bit of a stomach bug at the end, but we still had lots of fun.

Partying

Saturday morning Lucy and I did our normal routine; gymnastics, park, McDonald's (I know, I know, only on Saturdays:) We got home about 1pm and Lucy took a good nap, meanwhile I made these yummy Oreo truffle ghosts for our friends Halloween party. Lucy and I then headed out to the local outdoor mall to trick or treat till daddy got home. The place was packed, but Lucy enjoyed watching all of the commotion happening around her. When Andy got home, Muv, Lucy and I all got dressed and went to a fun Halloween party as bakers (I did not get a good pic of the aprons, but they were iron ons that said, LuLu's Bake Shoppe) and of course our little cupcake. It was a very exhausting day for such a little girl, but she was a trooper!