Christmas 2012 was good

All for the purposes of going back in time (and ultimately catching up!)... Christmas 2012 was awesome!!!!

Every year we have a "family" ornament for the tree that is typically purchased/acquired during our "family trip" that typically occurs to close out the Summer of that particular year. For 2011, the big trip was Hershey Park (because we had free tickets) and the ornament was a glass Hershey bar. For this year we went to the Baltimore aquarium and it was this dolphin in honor of the dolphin show that was previously a paid extra but is now F-R-E-E.

We have previously gone to the aquarium but this year was special simply for the fact that Miss A really remembers it now rather than it being a partial memory within a bit of randomness that she might recount on any given day that makes her seem like she is a "crazy person" who makes things up all the time. (Anyway.)

The cute little dolphin ornament hanging on the tree!

And for one more, Miss A also gets an ornament for her to commemorate the year. 2011 it was Dora the Explorer that was purchased at Hershey Park but this year I picked up a very well priced (read: CHEAP!) glass ornament of Hello Kitty at a local Home Goods. Miss A was THRILLED to have it be her personal ornament and it was a bit of a battle at least every other day to keep her from picking it off the tree (secretly) and hoarding it in her room like everything else she likes very much.

Miss A with her Hello Kitty ornament. On the back (that you cannot see) I wrote her name in sharpie and '2012.'

Let's try this again, shall we?

Hi. Remember me? (Well... really us but that's a moot point, no?)

This blog has been so sadly forgotten since before summer time of last year and here we are in the WINTER of a new year!!! *sigh*

I won't go into the ridiculous laundry list of reasons why I haven't kept up this blog the way I once did but I will tell you that I realized that the Lord has really placed it on my heart that "abandoning" it is something I shouldn't do. Aside from the fact that it disconnects me from all of you fine blog readin' folks, it also keeps me from doing something else that is rather important of life's greatest and most wonderful of moments. And that is? Keeping a proper record of it all!

I am great at compartmentalizing things but in terms of remembering where all of the little pockets and compartments things get tucked into? Well... all of that gets quickly lost and makes me bad at keeping good records of what otherwise might be easily captured and preserved for the purposes of being able to retrieve it all at a later time. This is a bad thing. It is a VERY bad thing and I am not proud of it. And while I can't change or reclaim what I haven't been doing right, well... perhaps I can start doing what I always should have done to begin with.

So here it goes... some favorite moments that have happened in spite of my poor blog keeping...

• Around Christmas time, Miss A became mildly obsessed with this weird version of The Nutcracker from the 90s. She would request it and we would oblige her and then she would put on one of her dress-up tutus over whatever she was wearing and squeeze into her almost too small ballet slippers and then she would treat us to some serious prancing and dancing in our very own living room. It was WAY better than any professional production of the Nutcracker. And it confirmed (to us) that it was officially time to retire her gymnastics lessons and make way for ballet lessons.

• Do you enjoy frozen yogurt? We do. And we do as often as we possibly can. On some days we even enjoy it instead of a traditional lunch and/or dinner. I mean... how can you not? Our favorite place in the world is right smack dab in the area where D and I work and A goes to preschool next to our very favorite grocery store in the world (a brand new location of Wegmans). Miss A will almost always pick "pink" as a flavor and then load it up with most every confection at the toppings bar. D and I tend to prefer less colorful flavors such as "Plain tart" (I know. How adventurous are we?) and we also stick to more natural toppings like fresh fruit and granola. However it goes though? Frozen yogurt is our family 'thang' and it's starting to rank right up there with giant bowls of Pho Tai. If you haven't experienced the joy that is frozen yogurt, we highly recommend that you experience it as soon as humanly possible. Just don't blame us if you get hooked on it too.

This was when we were Christmas shopping. They gave TVs at the place we like to frequent and we were watching the Price is Right which was AWESOME to do while we were already doing something pretty awesome (eating frozen yogurt).

• If you didn't know, Miss A has a signature color and it is PINK. Something else she is very into? Elephants. Her bed is "dressed" in a pink print of flannel called 'elephant parade' and the elephant you see pictured below is a big floppy elephant stuffed animal that she has had in her bed since she was an infant. She changes the name every few weeks (so I can't tell you what it's called) but it is one of her favorite animals that she has ever hoarded. For Christmas Eve this year, her present to open was two "minky" fabric dresses that I scored for a STEAL via one of my favorite flash shopping sites called Zulily. Miss A (being the lover of all things soft and snuggly) didn't hesitate to change right into one of two pink dresses that she got and then she also insisted upon putting the other one on her beloved elephant. We obliged her but in the days following, a (sort of) battle ensued to get the dress off of the elephant so that she could wear it instead.

They are "twinsies" in their matching pink 'minky' dresses. *sigh*

• This year for Christmas we finally breached the territory of American Girl dolls. All last year the one thing that Miss A talked about wanting was the McKenna doll (who was the AG 'Girl of the Year' for 2012 who did gymnastics). In our extended family (the side with all of the girl cousins), it had been a tradition for the girls to get their dolls when they were five but since the doll Miss A really wanted was one that was a limited edition, we obliged her with that one and we were thrilled to see how thrilled she was to receive it. She talked about it incessantly until Christmas day and then on Christmas day is was the very first thing she wanted to open along with the doll-sized gymnastics bars and beam set that we ordered to go with the doll. And since getting McKenna? She has brought McKenna along with her all over the place and insists upon sleeping with McKenna every night (with her elephant and the majority of her other dolls and plush toys). Also? She has a bit of an unofficial list of the next AG dolls that she would like to add to the crew. *raises eyebrows*

This set is amazing. It was handmade in Arizona and I bought it on ebay. It has clips that allow you to free flip the doll like she is really actually using the uneven parallel bars!!! Toys these days are AMAZING.

She lined up all her girls and was teaching them to "knit" with decorative pencils from her Pittsburgh Christmas stocking so they could pretend to make the pre-fab gift bows she had secretly collected/hoarded and put in her suitcase from our trip up north. Miss A and her hoards and stashes... I tell you something... nothing is safe. NOTHING.

• We celebrated NYE and New Year's day in grand fashion by NOT watching any of the traditional festivities on television and instead playing iPad games (namely American Girl brand games) and drinking hot chocolate and leftovers from Christmas. It was pretty much the best New Year's celebrations I have ever experienced in all of my life and I don't mean this sarcastically - I mean this completely seriously.

D was probably watching "Top Gear" in the background while Miss A and I were at our usual stations in the dining room/home art studio. I was on my laptop and Miss A was happy to be on the iPad.

Pink elephant mug from two Valentine's days ago and her pink princess snuggie from two Christmases ago. All pink, all the time!!! She had just taken a bath and was sipping on hot cocoa with rainbow marshmallows and watching an American Girl movie on the iPad. Good times. Good times.

Last year's Christmas gifts meet this year's in this picture as Miss A took all of her petite princess dolls on a ride in "grammy's car" around the house. She is all about mixing up her toy sets and putting them to as much use as possible.

There was a slightly promise of snow and Miss A was all about keeping her eyes peeled to catch the first flake that might have fallen. (Not one did though.) Standing in the big picture window is a favorite of both Miss A and our dog. *sigh*

• Miss A thoroughly enjoys both dressing up and role playing as much as possible and because of this we just never know how we should expect to discover her.

My mom got this horse set (for her American Girl doll) at a local yard sale (both of them for, like, $5 - RIDICULOUS) but Miss A is so small that she can sort of sit comfortably on them. She is wearing a cheerleader uniform from good ol' Pittsburgh courtesy of Christmas from a cousin.

Being a "married butterfly girl" while she chows down on her latest obsession of the food sort (bread with butter) with a side of alphabet chicken nuggets and watching Disney Jr.'s "Sofia the First." She lives the life!

... And that about brings us mostly up to date.

So. Where do we go from here? Well... I don't want to abandon this blog because I have realized it's importance of being a great holder and keeper of some of our fondest memories as much as our most cringe worthy (but ultimately super sentimental) moments. While I am hesitant to endeavor to do such a thing as say that I will blog every day or even every few days seeing as how my track record is hardly good for that type of a thing, I will at least say that this blog is no longer forgotten and I will attempt to not let it go the way of the dinosaur. Deal?

Thanks a bunch. See you next time! Whenever next time ends up being.

Making time to be silly

Hello! I've hardly been around but not because I haven't wanted to be. It's been a very busy semester so that's the reason for my disappearance on the whole. Any time I have had? I've spent it with D and Miss A and tried to give my undivided attention to that which means I've not gone crazy with pictures of whatever we occupied ourselves with.

Anyway, found these pictures that I haven't posted anywhere online (even on my personal FB page!) that I took with Miss in the photobooth app on my new Macbook from not too long ago. I completely forgot about these but I'm glad to share them here and now for your amusement. Miss A loves doing photobooth on the rare occasions when we do it so these are definitely fun to look at since you really get to see how much fun she is obviously having.

And again? Blog postings will continue to be few and far in between because I have a ton of classes that I am continuing to take this summer to try and finish my Masters program on time (and that is still two years away).

Miss A + Taylor Swift + Mulan = quite a show!

Miss A's got a new hat

Such a labor of love to do these every year but I know doing it helps keep Miss A's childhood memories packed to the brim with nothin' but joy, happiness, and whimsy. No matter what my priorities in life giving her memories that she will happily recall is the topmost thing I will always devote myself to.