beach

We're at the beach. Mollie is currently snoozing after the disappointment of no open ice cream places close by in Cherry Grove...
Sydney is playing, Phil is working some, I'm hanging out.

Nancy, Travis, Chase, Courtney, and Cameron are on their way down. We're having our own little New Year's celebration here tonight, just us and the sleeping kiddos. Cam is making the yummy low country boil and we have stuff for chocolate fondue for dessert:) Courtney got me a fondue pot for Christmas so we'll get to try it out.

Most people I know are staying in tonight. I never like to really be out on New Years Eve, I'm afraid of all the crazies. So if you go out be careful!!!

new pictures

are posted to the right----->

more Christmas...

We spent the weekend at Phil's mom's house in Elkin. The girls had the best time and did not step foot outside of her house b/w 4pm Friday and 10am Sunday.
Friday evening we had a small celebration and dinner with Phil's brother, David, and his family. His Dad also came down also. Although his parents have been divorced for like 29 years or something, in recent years they have been pretty accomodating about holidays and hanging around each other. That makes it much more convenient for at least us and David's family because we used to have to have a seperate Christmas with him which usually made about 5 Christmas celebrations, one being with my family:) It was very nice.
Olivia (10) and Emma (5) are a lot of fun and the girls have a great time together.
Saturday Phil and I had planned to get out for a while. There is no way I could have sat around there all day. We thought we'd invite his mom also and have the whole family go, but they didn't want to so just Phil and I went and "shopped" in Elkin. That consisted of Belk, Hallmark, Bath and Body Works, Big Lots, and Wal-Mart, haha all in 2.5 hours. Which is fine. It's a nice little town.
Saturday night is whole extended family on his Mom's side came over. That is always a lot of fun. I think there were 28 people there. Lots of kids ages 3 to 14. Mollie's the youngest.

Sunday we came back home and unpacked and relaxed some!
Off to the beach we go on Tuesday!

Christmas day!!!!

Santa came to our house sometime during the night. I was a little worried about Sydney coming down in the middle of the night, but my mom told her to come to her room first because she had a special present for her. She ended up yelling for me from the upstairs hall at 6:20. I ran up there and said, what are you doing? And she was like, oh yeah, I have to go get Gramma! So they woke up Mollie at 6:30, I woke Phil up, and they came downstairs.
Sydney came down the stairs and said, "no double stroller, oh well" in this fake voice. I said, "yes you do, see, that is a double one" and she says "oh, but it doesn't have a back seat". I told her that Santa doesn't know how to make that kind, just this kind. She was like, oh, okay. And she went to check it out. But she was VERY happy with the purple one! (We just gave her both) So yay! Glad we kept it! She's played with them both a lot and even had her stuffed dog in the double one with her baby. We all tried to make a big deal out of how much better that one was.
Mollie was a little half asleep and happy to see her castle. She also got the Loving Family Grand Dollhouse. My Mother in law was going to give her the Little People Dance and Twirl Palace, but she kept telling every that Santa was going to bring her a castle and a princess so we figured we better put it out just in case. Even though the doll house is the same class of toy, haha. She loved both of them. We're giving my mother in law the set of princess barbie like dolls to give to her instead. They both got some dress up clothes, hooded bath towels, new Jr. Wolfpack club stuff that got her just in the nick of time, haha! Sydney got a new Leapster 2 so Mollie will inherit her very old Leapster that I got from a consignment store over the summer. And a new game. Sydney got a pink guitar from Gramma (last year she was diappointed by the cheap electric guitar that Santa brought, apparently she wanted one like her music teacher at school, but never said that!). Gramma got Mollie more "room sets" for her new doll house. They got several new movies, Enchanted, Sleeping Beauty, Wall-E, Schoolhouse Rock, and the original Annie (we have the made for tv version). And their Wii game from daddy and paint from me. And probably some other things I'm forgetting! Oh, and Elizabeth, Michael's wife, made them these doll slings!!! They are so cute. Sydney has always wanted a sling for her babies (can you tell she is obsessed with babies???), but they don't really make them for kids. So she experimented with one and made some adorable adjustable ones out of Tinkerbell and Dora fabric. Very neat.
Everyone in my family was here for lunch and then gradually left throughout the day as we ate, napped, watched movies...finally showered:)
Then James and Michele, our neighbors, came over and brought the girls those 25th Anniversary Cabbage Patch dolls with matching outfits! Sisters! They are so cute and I think Michele and I were a little more excited than Sydney and Mollie, haha. They smell so good and are just like the ones we had when we were little. Our girls are very special to them and vice versa and that was a great special gift!
We ended up wanting to get out of the house so we went with mom and dad to TGIFridays, the only restaurant open in Apex, for dinner! It was good! I've never been a fan, but it was really yummy.
Anyway, a great day all around!
We are now headed to Elkin for parts 2 and 3 of Christmas with the in-laws:)

Christmas Eve and the stroller situation

Christmas Eve morning we a happy one, Phil off of work, girls playing. We're laying in bed that morning discussing how Sydney had told the Santa in our neighborhood the night before that she wanted a double stroller. She had been asking for this purple stroller at Target for months. Like probably 6 months. We already have 2 umbrella strollers and I was trying to steer her toward something new so I suggested a double stroller. She was pretty set on the purple one so I got it. We then thought she had changed her mind and wanted a double one. So we returned the purple one (stupidly) and went to Toysrus to get a double one we had seen that was front to back and had little removeable car seats. We already have 2 of those also, but thought we could just get rid of those with the 2 umbrella strollers we've had for like 3 years. They didn't have one! Then I realized that I couldn't even find a spot on the shelf where they had been, went home, looked online, and I don't think they even make it anymore! So I ran back to Target to rebuy the purple one. Lesson learned. She still talked about the purple one. Then a few weeks ago she stared on this huge double stroller kick, telling everyone she wanted one. They still didn't have them like that anywhere and I just knew that is probably the one she wanted. And then she still talked some about the purple one and we thought, well, it won't really matter, we'll just give her the purple one, she'll be happy and we'll say that Santa only can fit one stroller in the sleigh. The night before Christmas Eve we visited this Santa house. She told him again that she wanted a double stroller. We were like, what do we do? Still thought it would be okay and if it's not we'll just get her a double one for her birthday in January.
Christmas Eve morning we all get up, are sitting in the living room and here is my conversation with Sydney while she is playing with her baby:
S: this baby sure if heavy. I better not put her in my new double stroller because she might break it if it's made out of plastic.
Me: well, maybe if Santa brings you a purple stroller she won't break that
S: well, if Santa brings me a purple stroller then he wasn't listening to me because I TOLD him I want a double stroller.

Phil looked over her head at me like, "oh crap". I started laughing and tears were streaming down my face. So I called my mom, she said we could bring them over, and we went to Walmart, Toysrus, KB Toys at the mall, and Target. We could only find a side by side at Toysrus, which I thought was very cute. Nancy looked at the Walmart in Holly Springs to try to see if we could find a front/back. None.
So note to self: next Christmas I will buy everything they mention they want. On Christmas Eve we will decide what they really want and take the rest back later!!!!!!
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Gramma and Grandpa met us at Church for the 5pm mass, along with our friends Jennifer and Matthew, at 3:30, haha. Very crowded, have to get there early. We got a seat and they will start as soon as the church is full. They started about 4:30. When we left at 5:30 the fellowship hall was so full for the overflow service that was still going on that there were people standing outside on the sidewalks. Still trying to see and listen.
We then went to Nancy's house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner. Courtney and Cameron were there as well as Travis's parents.
My brother Michael and his wife Elizabeth got to our house about 10:30 so we ended up with a full house!
Courtney, Cameron, and Stubbs, my dogphew, staying the basement so Stubbs wouldn't have to be left at home. We don't have a very dog friendly house, but he is a good crater and slept in the office side in his crate and had frequent walks. Courtney and Cam slept on the futon on the big room side. The girls really enjoyed hanging out with him and Sydney went for a big walk with he and his parents.
Sydney insisted on Gramma being here to spend the night so although their apartment is just a few miles away she and Grandpa slept upstairs in the guest room. Sydney would not let MOllie sleep in her room! She was pitching a fit! We were hoping to have them sleep together and give Michael and Elizabeth a bed, but she wasn't having it. So they slept on an air mattress in the playroom downstairs, haha. Poor Elizabeth. I don't think she got much sleep.
We all went to bed around midnight so that Santa could come!

Merry Christmas from rock star Barbierella

super cold! and presents

It is very cold today! Very! (for NC)
I think it was about 26 this morning when I headed out. The high is supposed to be 38, it's now 34 at 3:30pm.
At our fiesta on Sat. (which was fabulous by the way) we collected things for the children's services division at WakeMed hospital. Their child life division serves the main pediatric floor, they have a Children's ER, and our new Apex WakeMed ER facility serves children. I talked to a girl who is one of their child life specialists and she gave me a list that all of their people have designated as highest needs right now. Anyway, we always collect things at our party for some sort of charity so we chose them this year. We don't want to just ask people for money to contribute because they like to shop for specific things! And I know they trust us, but how to they really know where the money is going? This way it's a concrete thing to support.
I had an appt. at 10am today to deliver the stuff to the pediatric floor. Well, WakeMed Raleigh is pretty far. Well, about 40 min. across town. And it was 26 degrees. I planned to take the girls with me because I thought it would be a good experience to see us donating to people in need and to see that they are very lucky to be happy and healthy and all that. We talked a lot about how some kids will have to be at the hospital on Christmas. I assured them that Santa will still come. We had to park in the parking deck and walk over to the main entrance with 2 huge bags and a box. I took my stroller so we could load it up. Well Mollie was freaking out because she was so cold and wanted me to hold her. She was flipping out. So I was holding a 35 lb toddler and pushing a loaded down stroller and keeping up with Sydney who was trying to help me with the stroller, but was really freakin' cold herself, haha. It all turned out okay, they go to play in the play room a little, the child life staff was very appreciative, especially for the Transformer and PS2 games. Then we ventured back into the cold with Mollie IN the stoller to go back to the car.
Next year, if it's below 40 degrees I'll just tell the girls about how nice it was, haha. Although now I think they had such a good time they might think it's fun to be in the hospital.

I think we're all ready for Christmas here. I have learned to get used to Phil's annual Christmas Eve freak out where he thinks we didn't get enough presents for people even though I keep him in the loop the whole time and we've been shopping together some this year. He thinks everyone might need a last minute electronic item of some sort. And he always gets the girls something just from him. He already got them a Wii game, but I'm afraid that since it wasn't on Christmas Eve he'll find something else too :)
Sydney's been helping me wrap and is quite good at it. I see a future seasonal job for her. Maybe next year. She helped wrap the angel tree gifts from our church and after that she was doing some on her own. They look pretty good! So she wrapped my neices' gifts also and a few more.
This year our family drew names for gifts since we now are all married and stuff. We all buy for the kids and Mom and Dad, but the sibling girls drew a girl name and the boys drew a boy name. It really made it a lot easier and a lot cheaper! And we stopped doing gifts with Phil's brother and his wife last year and just do it for my neices so that helps a lot also. Actually, now that I think of it, Phil did get his brother a gift anyway...but he really wanted him to have it. I'm going to have to have a talk with him about the reason we made these Christmas procedural arrangements I think;)

Last night I went to the grocery store and am going to try not to go back until after Christmas! We'll have Christmas dinner over here around lunch time that day. I should be ready!