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.