Visit from cousins and new dress-up cabinet!!

After Christmas, Alyssa and the kids came to visit for a night. It was really fun to have them and the kids had a great time together! We loved getting to see Alyssa, too. We love her very much!Katelyn, Thomas, Marin, Ryan, Molly and Abby.Our girls dress up stuff was overtaking the toy room and spilling out of the cardboard castle it lived in. So Toby decided to build a new dress up cabinet for all of us!! This is the stenciling and decoupage (sp?) castle pictures on each side. I was in charge of the sides of the cabinet and Toby did the rest!

Here is the whole cabinet. The drawers were fust purchased at Wal-Mart and toby built the cabinet to fit them. Behind the door is a rod for hanging dresses and hooks for necklaces. The castle pictures on the door are also decoupaged.

He really did a great job on it!!!

Abby turns 5!

For Abby's fifth birthday we opened presents at home. She loved everything. If the saw the word "Disney" on it she would say "I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's Disney!!". It was really funny because almost everything she got was Disney. Here she is with all of her presents: Cinderella dress and tiara, princess castle alarm clock, Cinderella and Prince Charming barbies, a Cinderella card from Aunt Mitzi, and a princess book and pretty shirt from G&G Christensen.Molly LOVED Prince Charming.

After Abby opened her gifts, we went to Chuck E. Cheese just to play games. I should have known before, but now know for sure to never go there on a Saturday afternoon. It was PACKED.

After a little fun at ChuckE's we went to Applebee's for dinner. Abby got to pick the restaraunt and she had been looking forward to it all week. I am very happy that she was not at all disappointed that they don't sing at this particular Applebee's.

Christmas "Vacation"

So for Christmas 2008, we took a road trip to North Carolina. It is about 16 1/2 hours each way. so we took two days out and 2 days back. It was a long trip, but also alot of fun. On our way to NC, we were staying in Nashville, TN. While addressing Christmas cards I discover that some old friends live very near Nashville, so I called them. We ended up going to their home for dinner before we got to our hotel. It was wonderful to catch up with them and hear how well their kids are doing. In between the Allan's home and our Hotel, both Abby and Molly fell asleep in the car. So, we finally get to NC and my whole family is going out to dinner that night. Most of the kids sat on one end of the table, but Abby loves hanging out with Uncle Joe, so he was kind enough to let her play "dress up Uncle Joe" all through dinner.

Another part of our adventurous trip was helping my parents move into their new house 2 days before Christmas. Needless to say, there was alot to do and the kids kind of had to keep themselves busy. Molly was often found pushing around this cart that she found somewhere among the boxes.

On Christmas Eve, we got to put up a tree, so the kids were in charge of the decorating of the tree. They had fun hearing about the significance of all of Grandma's ornaments. Abby's favorite was the one Grandma bought the year Abby was born.

The kids playing with cousin Robbie in the huge backyard.
There are two of these holly berry trees in the new frontyard, they were really pretty among the leafless trees of winter.

The kids had some presents to open when we got back from our trip. Toby's family sent some packages while we were gone. This "My Size Barbie" was one of Abby's favorites.
I found some gingerbread house kits on sale for 25 cents each, so the kids decorated one each while Molly napped. That was a nice quiet afternoon.

I don't have any pictures, but we also visited my friend Maggi and her family on our way home. It was great to see them again, and thank you again, Maggi, for lunch on the road!!!