Christmas 2007!!

Merry Christmas from the Princesses!

merry merry

love

tripp, julie, mary austin and jane harris

And, no, this is not our house!!

Christmas Past

The following are our past Christmas photos with Santa Claus.

Mary Austin's first Christmas home - 2004. Age 12 months

Mae had been home 5 months when this picture was taken with Santa Claus. She did not seem to mind sitting on his lap but she was also not very certain that she liked it!

Christmas 2005

Jane Harris' first Christmas age 3 1/2 months. I love her big bald head and gummy grin!

Mary Austin was 2 years old and would not even let me unbuckle her stroller. She did swipe the sucker from Santa's hand, yelled thanks and looked up at me commanding "Go Mommy Go!"

Even Santa and Mrs. Claus had to laugh!

Christmas 2006

Mary Austin was 3 years old and Jane Harris was just 16 months.

Mae was not sure she wanted to see Santa until she learned that he would bring her toys and that "yes, he is sweet to you". She would always ask us "are they sweet to me?" if she was unsure about a person or thing!

Jane Harris did not realize what we were doing until the minute we sat her up in Santa's lap. Her tears were delayed until we were done; I suppose it helped to have her big "tita" with her!

Baby R's Christmas Baptism

Baby R was baptized a couple of weekends ago. It was a beautiful service and a fabulous lunch! Since this was their second child, the entire family was invited to the lunch that followed. Here are a few pictures from the day!

The staircase was the favorite place to play!

Jane (from behind), Mae, Mary Catherine and Bobby.

Yes, the 3 girls all have on the same dress and no, we could never get the 3 to sit still long enough for a group photo!

Sweet sisters!
The girls dote on Baby R.

Mae declared that she wanted a princess dress like that!

I had to pull out her gown to prove that she did have one similar!

Sliding down the stairs is always fun!

My angels!

Only a Christmas parade in Alabama....

would have the following:

Mudd trucks
muscle cars
and John Deer tractors!

There were also some pimped out Ford F-150s, horses and dogs along with the standard parade favorites of bands, firetrucks and beauty queens!

This was the local Christmas parade in Tripp's hometown. We ventured into "town" from the lake, met some friends, and had a blast at the parade!

Mae and Cap talk to Santa about a certain swing set that needs to be on his sleigh!
Look Mommy! Candy!
Yes, Santa, I have been good this year!

Who me?!??!!

No, I have not been eating the above candy!

Christmas Tree Farm 2007

Below is my first attempt at a picture collage. Can you tell I could not figure out how to move the pictures around in the collage? Please comment if you know how to do this with Picasa.

The day after Thanksgiving instead of hurrying off to the malls and hoards of people we bundle up (or not as some years it is HOT) and go to the tree farm to pick out our tree! This has become one of my favorite traditions!

What a difference a year makes. Mae was terrified of the blow up Santa and Frosty last year and this year she was "best friends" with them! She tried to get Jane Harris to warm up to them; however, Jane was not that impressed!

THE Birthday Gift!!!

Before the gift is opened!
Is it what you think?
OOOHHHH!! It is! It is!
American Girl Doll - Julie
Mae and Julie!

Julie is the new American Girl Doll. Her best friend is Ivy Ling, a Chinese American girl. I tried to get Mae to pick her but she wanted Julie with her long "sparkly" hair.

(Side bar: I bought Ivy and put her up for another occasion.)

Just so you know..Julie and Ivy are growing up in the 1970's and they meet when Julie's parents divorce and Julie and her mother move to an apartment above her mother's store. Julie comes with accessories including a groovy suede bag. Inside that bag was a dime. As Tripp was reading the info that comes along with it he looked at me with raised eyebrows and said

"she's from the '70's and comes with a dime bag??!!!?!"

Nice.

Happy Birthday Mary Austin

Happy Birthday darling Mae! Today you turn four years old and I can hardly believe it. Where have the years gone? It seems like yesterday that you were placed in my arms halfway around the world in China. I can still remember the room, the sounds and the smells from that day. It was the day I had been waiting for all my life. You gave me the precious gift and title of Mommy. You were so sweet and tiny and I remember the first time you laughed a big belly laugh playing with Daddy on the bed at the White Swan. I remember visiting your SWI and how the ladies cried when we left. I hope and think they were tears of joy mixed with the sadness. They knew that you were meant to be our baby girl and were happy for our family but sad because they knew this meant that they would not see you again for a long time. One day we will go back so you can see your beginning.

When you blew out your candles today you made a wish. What you did not know is that I made a wish too.

I wish for you many things....

I wish for you to be gentle and kind and sweet in spirit. I wish for you to always know peace in your life. I wish for you to always have the thirst for knowledge. I wish for you to be graceful in all of life's travails.
But above all I wish for you to be healthy, happy and to always have God close in your heart.

My last wish is not for you or me. It is for your birth mother in China.

I wish for her to have peace and to know

that you are safe and warmed and loved.

Darling Mae, always know that I will always be honest with you and that no matter what happens in your life I will always love you and there is nothing that could ever change that.

Love always,

Mommy

Our first glimpse of you.

I thought you were beautiful and in an instant knew that you were mine. I felt as if I had known you forever.
My impish little baby!
All grown up and
if possible even more beautiful.

Two Firsts for Jane Harris today!

This morning she had her first trip to the dentist. Mary Austin had a check up as well so Jane got to go back with Mae. At our dentist office the parents wait in the waiting room so I did not get to see what happened but they said that Jane watched Mae have her teeth cleaned and then she hopped right up for her turn! Mae held her hand and the check up went smoothly!

Very glad since it is like wrestling an alligator to brush Jane's teeth let alone floss them!

Then after lunch at Chick-fil-A and a nap, Jane had her very first haircut!

The mullet is gone!

There goes the baby mullet!

Cute bobbed back!

I'll still need a bow so people will not call me a boy!

Jane, Mr. Tim and The Grinch.

Jane now loves the movie!

2 Important Milestones!!!

You may have noticed in the most recent pictures that Mary Austin has pigtails! YES!! Finally the child has enough hair to do something with it and something more than the side ponytail like she is sporting above! Her hair grows slower than sludge! The child came to us with a minimal amount of hair and has had only 3, yes 3, haircuts her entire life!
First day with the pigtails!
Look! 2 side ponytails = pigtails!!

What is the other milestone?

Mary Austin is now 30 pounds! 30.4 to be exact and while this was with all her clothes and her tennis shoes on and at the end of the day we will take it! I guess when she is 15 and the only cheerleader still in a booster seat I will let her get out but only because I do not think technically you can drive and ride in one at the same time!

Happy Thanksgiving and Fall Y'all

Thanksgiviing at school

Jane the Indian eating lunch with her class!
Pilgrim girls Mae and Sarah

The teachers had us send one ivory pillowcase and they made the girls dresses and the boys were Pilgrim men! It was so precious!

My attempt at being creative!

A "turkey" brownie! The homemade mac and cheese was much better!

Christmas

Some of the things I love most about Christmas (besides the obvious ones) are the Christmas cards! I love to send them. I also get an album every year and put the cards that we receive in it. I set out the albums every year to look at past years. I am in the process of finalizing our card and would love to send some of my new friends from blog land an actual, tangible card!

If you would like one please email me privately with your address. (You can access my email off my profile). Happily listening to the all Christmas music radio station!

Julie

One last Thank you!

One last HUGE THANK YOU to the princesses that came to our princesses birthday party!

You made their day and they are still talking about it! Even though Mae thinks that you were "babysitters" in costumes she still believes that you are all indeed princesses!

We love that you took 1/2 of your Saturday to make our girls happy.

You will all make fabulous princess nurses very soon!!

With Love and gratitude!

Julie

Happy Thanksgiving!

Primrose Pincesses' Birthday Party!

This year I decided to combine the princesses' birthday parties into one huge

Princess and Pirate blow-out!

The party was last weekend and we had a blast!

The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time meeting Cinderella, Belle, Ariel and Aurora as well as Pirate Tripp and Pirate Jeff. The girls that were the princesses are some of my nursing students and they did a fabulous job! All the little girls were amazed by them and the boys loved playing with the pirates!

That night after Jane was in bed we were talking to Mae and reliving the day. When we asked her if she was so excited that THE PRINCESSES came to see her on her big day she replied

"Mommy, (in a tone that was truly patronizing) you know they were just babysitters in costumes, right?"

Yes, my nearly 4 year old was not quite tricked into believing that the "real live" princesses came but she does still believe and is still excited to meet "the true real live" princesses when we journey to the mecca land in January of 2008!