American Girl

We had a nice long weekend for Thanksgiving.
Thursday we had lunch with my family. It was the first Thanksgiving I have spent with my family since 2007. And only the second in seven years. It was nice to stay here for a change and get to participate in the Thanksgiving day events. Dustin even got to do a little Black Friday (on Thursday night) shopping! We spent Friday getting up most of our indoor Christmas decorations. Grace has her own tree (well, it is for her and Olivia but Olivia is too young to help with it this year) to decorate all by herself.

Since the weather was not too great on Saturday, Dustin couldn't get to the outdoor lights. We wanted to do something fun rather than hang around the house so we headed to the American Girl Store. I had a couple of the American Girl dolls growing up and we recently pulled them out of the attic for Grace. I had never been to one of the stores though so it was a real treat for both of us. Both of Grace's dolls got to visit the hair salon and get their hair combed, trimmed, and styled. Grace really enjoyed that!

Grace took this picture of Kirsten in the salon chair with her cape on getting her hair done.

And here is Grace with her doll, Sophie. This is one of the dolls that you choose the eye, hair, and skin color so it didn't have a name so she chose Sophie.

Afterwards, we walked through the Galleria (huge mall that is just next door to the American Girl Store). We were looking for Grace a dress (she is going to be a flower girl in a few weeks!) but didn't find anything. She did get a few new pairs of jeans because all of hers are too short.

While we were walking around we saw this HUGE Christmas tree in the middle of the ice rink.

It ended up being a great way to spend the day! Grace said her favorite part was seeing all of Kirsten and Sophie's friends. And she has fixed their hair numerous times since :)

Play Park

The park in my parents' neighborhood was recently built. We have been waiting for this park for a long time and we finally got to try it out! It was built just the right size for Grace! She LOVES going to the park. There is a pond down by the park that she likes to fish in. Now she can play on the park and go fishing at the same place.

Olivia even got to try out the slide. She is a little too small to keep up with her big sister though.

Can you believe how big Grace is getting? She will be 3 in less than a month!

Jumpin' Jax

Grace was invited to a birthday party at Jumpin' Jax this past Saturday. She has some friends that recently moved into my parents' neighborhood. They are both girls and the youngest was turning two, her big sister is 4. Jumpin' Jax just recently opened in town and we were excited to check it out.

Grace in her train

There were several bounce houses and slides. As soon as Grace saw her friends she took off!

This blue one was her favorite. She went around and around in it and up and down the slide several times. She was too quick for me to get a picture of her on the slide!

Olivia got to try the piano with Grace.

Grace looks so small on the big throne!

But she was ready for cake! I think all the bouncing wore her out.

Olivia even had a good time too!!

Halloween

I forgot my camera on Halloween night so we dressed the girls up the next night and took a few quick pictures. On Halloween we went to the fall fest our church had. They had a chili cook-off and Dustin got to be a judge! They had some games set up for the kids and they gave out candy. After we got home there was still a little time left to trick-or-treat. We only went to about 8 houses before heading back home to get the girls in bed. Grace had been practicing for weeks saying "Trick Or Treat" and she had fun running up to all the houses with the little boy who lives across the street from us. Since we weren't going to be home we left a bowl of candy on the porch. We only had a couple of pieces left when we got home.

Olivia is 8 Months!

And now she is 8 1/2 months already. Oops! We got back from vacation the day she turned 8 months so I was behind on getting her picture with her 8 sticker. I also forgot to take pictures of the girls on Halloween. I took these in Nov. 1st :)

I was going through them last night and it was really cute to see them in order but when I uploaded them they got all mixed up :(

Someone is a little more interesting than looking at the camera

I know this one of both girls was the second picture. Grace decided she actually wanted her picture taken too! And she wore her Halloween costume pretty much all day. She can take it off and put it on herself.

I think this may have been the first picture... the first picture was probably my favorite!

After getting her picture taken, Grace wanted to jump in Olivia's bed.

Pumpkin Patch

Before we left for vacation we took a little trip to a pumpkin patch. I found a deal on groupon for 2 admissions for $10. After my Mom bought her tickets I got a $10 credit and got ours with that. So we all go into the pumpkin patch for $10 total! Last year we went to a pumpkin patch ran by the same people just in a different city. We wanted to try the other one this year. My Mom and Brandy and Brilyn came along with us. Afterwards we went and ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant that we have been wanting to try for quite a while.

Here are some pictures that I stole from my Mom's blog:

Vacation

We are back from a short vacation that included LOTS of time on the road.
We started off last Thursday at naptime. Both girls were asleep before we got on the interstate (only about 5 min from our house!). We made it a good 2.5-3 hours before we had to stop. We stopped by Dustin's parents' house for dinner since we were passing by that area of the country. Then at bedtime we drove until all the way to Fort Campell, KY. It was about an 11 hour drive that day. We got a few hours sleep at a friends house before checking out the area, having lunch, and then driving on to Nashville. We were looking for something fun for the girls to do and found a cute little place called Monkeys Treehouse. It was PERFECT! The girls had a great time playing and it was a good break from the amount of time we had spent in the car. While we were there a lady told us about the Loveless Cafe & Hotel which we ended up eating dinner at. It was delicious southern food! Elvis filmed there too and the walls were covered with pictures of famous people who had been there.

On Saturday we explored Nashville a little before heading to the Army football game. They ended up losing to Vanderbilt but it was a fun game. We also went to the official tailgate beforehand and got a little free food which was much better than the expensive food inside the stadium. I put pictures on facebook of the girls in their Army gear!

Sunday morning we got up and hit the road again. This time we only had a 3 hour drive down close to Atlanta. We finally Dustin's brothers family. While we were in Japan his brother got married and now they have a little girl who is already 19 months old (who is SO cute!). It was so great finally getting to spend some time with them. Hopefully it won't be this long before we see them (and their new little boy!!) again.

On Monday we visited the Tellus Science museum and Grace got to dig for fossils and pan for gold. Anything that involves digging or water she LOVES so this was the highlight of the museum for her. Then we drove about an hour to Atlanta and visited the World of Coke. Grace loved the sampling room. She would tell us which one she wanted to try and we would put a little in her cup. After she took a little sip she poured the rest out and then picked another one. She tasted one that she really liked and went to pour the rest out and I told her she could drink it all and didn't have to pour it out. She was excited about that and then wanted more! We enjoyed seeing some of the products that we saw on an almost daily basis while in Japan. Things like Georgia coffee, Aquarius, and Qoo. We even saw a Japanese vending machine!

After we left the World of Coke we headed for home. We made it to Memphis on Monday and then finished the drive on Tuesday. We had thought we would break it up a little more and find things to do along the way back but we were all ready to get home. Olivia spent about 15 minutes laughing once we got home she was so excited!

The total driving time (not including driving around Nashville and Campbell) was about 30 hours. Next road trip is to Houston at the end of the year for a friends wedding!v