Letter to Sadie #1

On Friday, November 16, we got a visitor to our house. Her name is Polka Dots, and she will be staying until Christmas Eve. She is magical! If you are a good girl, Polka Dots gets to travel to the North Pole (You call it the North Hole) and tell Santa how much of a good girl you have been! We are very excited to host Polka Dots for the next month. She has made herself at home. The first night that she was here she went on a date with Buzz!

You are sitting right beside me begging for "Buzz Lightyear movie". This Toy Story fascination has been going on for a full year. We are going to have a Toy Story themed birthday party for you! Grandma and I have been brainstorming for a few weeks now. I'm sure I'll post pics of it.

You just asked me for a princess picture of Sadie.

I took you to Target the day after Halloween. The costumes were all on sale and you just HAD to have this Rapunzel wedding dress. You love it! You even wore it out on a day full of errands. We went to Walgreens, the pet store (you like to watch the dogs get haircuts), and to Staples. Everyone that saw you thought you were the cutest thing. You told everyone that you were a princess. 

With the break coming up, I plan on writing more letters to you. My wish is that 10-15 years from now we can access this and read them. 

I love you, Sader Tot.

"Jessie Birfday, Momma!"

I heard that from the backseat on the way home tonight. Jessie has been a member of this family for 3 whole months now.

She goes everywhere with us. Sadie sleeps with a Jessie doll every night. She has a smaller one that she calls "Baby Jessie" that she plays with as well. Baby Jessie has a pull string and talks. Sadie has become accustomed to putting Baby Jessie in her "pocket" like this.

So when the kiddo announced that today was Jessie's birthday, I knew just what to do. We threw our girl Jessie a birthday party.

One thing that I learned tonight is that nothing is more precious and enjoyable than feeding your child's imagination and playing along. We had an amazing time. We got out her little play cake that lights up candles and sings "Happy Birthday", we got some mini cupcakes from target and put a candle in each one. (apparently Jessie is ewebenteen years old, so I thought two candles would suffice) Her eyes lit up when Jessie blew out the candles...wink wink.

Season's Greetings!

We enjoyed every bit that December threw at us. We started with a bang! On December 1, Brian graduated from the Academy. I am so proud of him. He endured a lot in those 5 months to make it to where he is today.

He is the closest guy on the last row in this picture. They were taking their oath at this point.

Now Brian is riding with an FTO (field training officer). He will be with a new FTO every 6 weeks for the next 6 months. He gets to be on his own in May. From the stories that he tells me, I can tell that he is excited and is doing what he needs to be doing. I love him for following his dreams.

We had an amazing Christmas. Last year Sadie wasn't really old enough to get excited about the "magic" of Christmas. This year she loved seeing the lights, laying under the tree, spending time with family, and learning about Santa Claus. However, that by no means meant that she wanted to spend one on one time with him. She let him know by saying "No Claus, Bye Claus, GO AWAY Claus."

We did take her to ICE at the Opryland Hotel, and to see the lights. The entire Ice exhibit is made from...well...ice! It is very interesting and changes every year. This year's theme was Madagascar- the children's movie.

Everything behind us in the picture is made of ice!

Sadie will be TWO on Thursday. I can't believe how fast she has grown!

She requested an "Olivia" themed birthday party. I've been busy this week making the preparations for it.

We rang in the new year with Sadie at home. We went to 2 different parties and made it home by 10:30. Sadie had no intention of staying up until midnight, so we all went to bed. Brian and I watched the ball drop and then called it a night ourselves. We talked about how we used to spend New Years Eve and how much we have grown since then. We are old, but we are accepting it and moving on to the next phase of our life with our little girl (who is not a baby anymore...) in tow.