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 :)

Getting ready for CHRISTmas!

On Thursday we had a great Thanksgiving with friends! Grace started eating table food just in time to enjoy a big feast. She has ate her fair share of the pumpkin pie!

{the food almost didn't fit on the table there was so much... but it was all so yummy!}

{best buds - Grace & Maggie}

{they played together all day long}

Friday we spent the most part of the day putting up our Christmas decorations.

{Grace wore her Santa hat and helped decorate the window}

{She really liked touching the stickers!}

While Grace was napping we decorated the tree and started putting lights up outside. The look on her face when she saw the tree all decorated and the stockings hanging up was priceless! She kept pointing and saying "Ooooh! Ooooh!"

{She loves to play with her stocking}

{Mommy said that Santa Claus is going to fill this up with goodies!!}

Saturday we decided to go shopping and finished up our Christmas shopping! We also bought some Christmas candy, an Advent calendar for Grace, and another Precious Moment Christmas figurine.

{Daddy thought I would like this... he was right!}

{Look how messy I am}

And then that evening we went to the Christmas lighting at the hospital. They had booths set up inside where children could decorate cookies, make reindeer puppets out of paper sacks, and make reindeer food. Grace was a little to young for all of the activities but she did get to pick out a new movie! She got a Bear in the Big Blue House DVD and it was FREE. They were also giving out free hot dogs, chili, and cookies.

{The hospital all lit up}

{almost a year ago we were at this same spot taking Grace home!}

Santa also made his grand entrance on a firetruck! Grace really enjoyed watching the lights on the firetruck and watching Santa walk in. We were the second people in line to sit on Santa's lap!

{I think maybe Grace was thinking we should not have even been in line to sit in Santa's lap}

After we recovered from seeing Santa we went back outside where we saw SNOW! Well, not really but it looked like snow from a distance. They had set up a foam machine that blew soap suds out so we went to play in that.

{This is much better than seeing Santa Claus}

Then it was time to go home and go to bed. This morning Grace woke up ready to play. After playing with her toys for a while we went to look at the tree again. She enjoys taking off the ornaments and looking at them and then trying to put them back on. We made sure that all of the ornaments around the bottom were safe for her to play with, which is a good thing since she broke one already!

{how was this on there?}

Now we are getting ready to go to a barbecue at the beach and then tonight we are going to the airport to pick up my Mom who is flying out to celebrate Grace's birthday (and to make the cake!!).

And now, what you have all been waiting for..... some videos!!!!

{at the park - November 11, 2009}

{this is pretty much an everyday occurrence}

{books are one of Grace's favorite things}

{pickle, anyone?}

{trying out her big girl cup}

Long week...

I am sure some of you are just dying to see new pictures and videos of Grace since it has been over a week since I have posted anything so I thought it was time for a little update.

{sorry Grandma, I decided I like your Christmas sooo much I wanted to keep it!}

This last week was altogether too long and the weekend just seemed way too short. Dustin was very busy at work planning his battalion's ball. It took place Friday night and was a success! Grace wasn't feeling too well last week and was a little on the cranky side but has a new tooth as a result. She had a really difficult time sleeping during the day and just wanted to be held and rocked a lot. But this week she seems to be feeling quite a bit better, although I think there may be another tooth trying to pop through sometime soon. I am taking a ceramics class on-base. I won up to $30 off the class fee and this one was less than that so all I have to pay for is my supplies. I am making a pagoda and a Christmas teddy bear! It has been way more time consuming than I thought. I have already spent several hours there the past 2 Sundays in addition to the normal class hours of 6-8pm on Tuesdays. Hopefully after tonight I will have something to bring home!

{don't you think it looks better on me anyways??}

Grace is just getting so much more fun and changing so much every day. She is constantly blabbering about something! She has decided that she is too big for baby food most of the time so she mainly eats table food now. I try to sneak a little baby food in for breakfast sometimes while she eats her cheerios and watches cartoons. Some of her favorite foods are: broccoli, pasta, turkey and cheese quesadillas, and grilled cheese. Last night she had roast, potatoes, and carrots and I think she liked it! I wonder what she will think of Thanksgiving dinner??

{I am ready to go shopping!!}

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we are going over to our friends' James & Kelly (and Maggie's, of course!) for lunch. We made a list of things we want to eat and divided it up and are going to have a huge feast! I am making the pumpkin pie now and tomorrow night I am going to make the dough for the rolls. I am also making mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (since Dustin is pretty picky about his sweet potatoes and this is the one and only dish he just has to have), and the gravy. Mmmmm!!! I can't wait!!

{I try to clean up my messes, I really do}

After Thanksgiving we will be putting up our Christmas decorations. I get so excited to put up our tree each year. Christmas is my favorite day of the year! We have already moved our furniture so we have room for our tree. We will have to go with the fake tree again this year. Getting a live tree when we are back in the states is one thing I am really looking forward to! Here, after about 2 days, they look like what your tree normally looks like when you take it down. We will just put our pine scented wax in the tree so it smells real :-)

{Precious Moments Nativity snow globe that we got as part of our "I'm Thankful for.." gift from Papa Bill. The other things we got were 2 Christmas DVD's for Grace and a stuffed animal that sings a Christmas song. THANKS!!!}

{listening to it play "O Holy Night"}

I will try to put some of more videos on here tomorrow. I can't do it now because Grace just woke up and we have learned that it is not so smart to hook the camera up while she is awake. Last time it was charging (and it has to be on the charger to transfer videos to the computer) she pulled it off the desk and then picked it up and threw it. She has a pretty good arm!

Maybe sometime soon I can get a video of her walking. She can do it but she thinks she has to be holding onto something... even if it is just carrying a toy in each hand!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Psalms 92:1
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High