Moovin' on Up

I've had a hate/hate relationship with Jaggar's car seat this winter. It was horrible to adjust (the straps never came out far enough with his coat), and I couldn't get the cover off to wash it! It was Sage's when she was a baby, and someone recommended it to me. Honestly, I'd just had enough of it. So, my mom asked me what I wanted, and we found it online (for 25% off and free shipping--woot, woot!) and ordered it. It's the Britax Marathon in "cowmooflage" (awesome, right?), and it came yesterday. My only regret about it is that I didn't get it 6 years ago with Sage. It is soooo much more convenient in every way. I highly recommend it for mommies that are car seat shopping.

Cheese!

Now every time Jaggar sees me holding up my phone or camera, he says "Cheeessse." So cute.

American Girl!!

On Saturday, Sage was up bright and early at 6 am. The day had FINALLY arrived! We were going to American Girl! Chrissie, her mom and Isacah got to our house at about 8:30 am to make the trip to Atlanta. Isacah's birthday is February 11th, but with a new sister about to debut just a few days before that, Chrissie wanted to do a double celebration. The girls were giddy with excitement. It really was adorable to see them. Isacah would turn to Sage and say, "We're going to American Girl!" or "Sage, are you having fun?" It was so cute to see them and listen to them.

Ready to go. Aren't they cute?

So excited!

It was quite a drive there. 107 miles from my house. Thank God for dvd players in the car. Once we got there and got out of the car, this is what they looked like. :)

Walking/skipping with their grandmothers

Tah-DAH! It's like when the Griswalds get to Wally World FINALLY~

People told us that we would spend about 5 hours in the store. When we walked in, there was pink everywhere along with babies and accessories galore, but I honestly didn't think we'd be in there THAT long. I was wrong. We were there for at least that. And so was every other person in Atlanta: that store was PACKED. Isacah and Sage had their definite opinions about what they wanted. Both girls look at the magazines regularly, and Sage has always been fascinated with "the one that looks like her." I pretty much knew that is what she would choose....

Annnd, I was correct! There she is: the one, up until that point, that we'd only seen in pictures, face to face with her new owner. Long caramel hair, blue eyes, light skin. TWINS! :) Gotta love it. I wanted her to look around and be SURE but she was sure from the beginning. She went in there looking for THIS doll.

Just a general shot of part of the store. It was pretty fascinating, and you could easily get lost in all that they had. Here's a tip for anyone considering going that was also given to us: take cash. LOTS of cash. I have to say though, that it was worth every penny to see Sage act like she did. It was like Disney World for a girl, and that's no exaggeration.

Sage and her new friend. I haven't seen Sage really play with a doll in a long time, and to see her carry this doll EVERYWHERE with her has made me so happy.

She chose that pet for her and that carry along bag. She also got an ice skating outfit for her and a wintery outfit that we changed her into right after she got her.

Sage and Nonni

The girls and their new friends. Sage named her doll "Aly," and Isacah named her's "Sally." And they each did that separately. So funny.

Lunch with ALL of the Girls

Once their new dolls were chosen and dressed, it was time to eat at the Bistro inside the store. THIS is heaven on earth for girls because they put these chairs on the tables for the dolls. Look at their faces! Isacah could not leave her doll alone. She wasn't close enough to her, so we eventually moved her to the same side as Isacah.

They were so happy they almost couldn't stand it. Life really couldn't get any better than this.

So pretty

But then it did get better: the waitress brought a small cup and saucer for the dolls.

I haven't seen Sage play like this for a long time. Melted my heart! :) Precious.

Each meal came with an appetizer too, so I knew Sage would like the fruit plate. This was really the girliest place ever.

Pretzel bread

I ordered the salmon and orzo. It was really good.

Sage eating her chicken fingers.

After we finished eating, the girls were sung "Happy Birthday" by the servers. Watch it here. Love their precious expressions in that video. You can see how in awe they were. The restaurant basically dropped the ball on the cake, but that's okay because the girls didn't want it anyway. We got them some frozen yogurt later.

Salon American Girl Style

After lunch, we had an appointment for the dolls at their salon. Cute, huh? Apparently, it's REALLY cute because the wait time after you make an appointment was a good 2 hours. That place was crazy busy! But the girls' dolls were not only getting their hair done but also getting their ears pierced. At first, Sage was adamant that her doll not get her ears pierced. Why? Because HER ears aren't pierced and then the doll wouldn't look like her. But I convinced her that it would be fun to be able to change them out and that they would still look alike.

I can't tell you how thrilled I was at how much she loved this doll and this place. It was really magical for her.--and us!So cute!

The girls and their dolls. Isacah kept saying, "I can't believe I got an American girl doll!" Later, she told Chrissie that it was the best birthday ever. We laughed and said, "YES! You too can buy happiness for 100s of dollars!"

So glad that mom was able to be in on this with us. I absolutely loved dolls when I was little, so to get to experience this with Sage was pretty awesome.

I let Sage pick her doll. She went in there and knew exactly what she wanted, as I said in the first post about this place....but I SO wanted her to get this doll. Okay, I wanted the doll. I knew before we went that Sage would want the doll that "looked like her," but apparently, I wanted the doll that looked like me. She had long, straight blonde hair, fun clothes....oh, and her name? Julie. ha! Seriously, I'm not even kidding. And Sage liked her too. But not MORE. SO here I am. I even asked Sage multiple times, "So are you SURE you don't want Julie?" YES, she was sure.

Aly getting her hair done

Sage took this picture.

The finished product. The ribbons didn't survive, but the braid is still very much intact. Sage is doing a great job taking care of her.

Post American Girl

Thank GOD that I didn't have to sing on Sunday! We were absolutely exhausted from our Atlanta trip. Sage slept until 8 am that day after 3-4 days of waking up a few minutes before 6. Her birthday adrenaline had run out. We had a nice relaxing day at home, and Sage carried "Aly" everywhere with her. She absolutely LOVES her doll. She even got out her stroller and put her doll in it, but we heard Jaggar running after her screaming. A few seconds later, the screaming stopped and Sage came BACK into the kitchen pushing her stroller with an added carry-on. He cracks me up.

He apparently likes to get IN things.

When I got Sage ready that morning, we decided to change her doll into the outfit that she received on her actual birthday that told her that she was going to American Girl. THEN we put Sage's matching outfit on, and it was like heaven on earth. But to top that, I braided Sage's hair just like her doll's and that was as good as life could get. How cute is that? I'm so happy about this experience that we were all able to share together. It will be a great memory for the rest of our lives. It is so nice to see Sage be little and play again....not that she's not still little. But this doll is obviously precious to her the way that she takes it everywhere with her. By far, her best present was American Girl.

Believe

While in the midst of Sage's birthday extravaganza, I can't not mention something that has happened just a week ago on January 17th that is very close to my heart. A dear "friend," although that seems like a light term for her, Linda Noe, suffered a severe stroke last week. This is my mother's best friend. She was my pastor's wife in my church from the time I was 5 until I moved here to Alabama (I moved here and lived with her daughter, son-in-law and their children for 2 years), where she and her husband retired from that position as senior pastors not too long after that, though not retiring from work or ministry.

She is family, and I don't have the time or words to say how special and lovely she is. If you could see her and her family's facebook wall, it might give you a glimpse of everyone that loves her. Trust me, it's a lot. She's been a part of every major event in my life. Graduating high school, wedding rehearsal and dinner, reception, having my first child....I cannot think of a time she wasn't there. I love her like I love my own mother. Linda is the prime example of the Proverbs 31 lady. Everyone wants to be like her. Her stroke was very severe, as well as its effects. Her family along with countless others, including myself, are believing for nothing short of a miracle in spite of what doctors say. If you wouldn't mind, take a second and join your faith with our's for this miracle for this precious lady, Linda Noe.

"At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail." Job 14:7

Sage's Family Birthday Party

We've done big parties for Sage for 2 years in a row now, and they were awesome. She loved them, and I was glad to do them for her. But this year, I just wanted to do something a little more simple and not pay $100s to rent out some venue. I just wanted to do a "regular" birthday party with family and people that we knew! For 2 years, I've chased kids (some I barely knew at the time) around a swimming pool, and it was great, but I wanted to slow it down a bit. I told Sage that we could have a few of her friends and go somewhere fun like Chuck E. Cheese or spend the night here, but the American Girl idea formed, so we had a family party here on Friday (day after her birthday) with cake, ice cream, and pizzas. Simple. Kind of. As simple as anything can be.

While Sage was at school, I attempted to make my house sanitary for company. I'm definitely a "Martha," and I have a really hard time just accepting that it's fine as it is, in this case, my house, but I did finally say, "This is as good as it's going to get." After that, Mom and I went to the party store and got a dozen balloons and a Hello Kitty balloon since that was the cake that Sage chose. Sage has loved balloons since she was a baby, so I've always had balloons for her birthday. I love simple things that bring joy.

This is before anyone got there. She was so thrilled with her "set-up." These are Sage's sweet friends. I love these girls, Lydia and Cailin, and their mommies. Lydia, on the left, has taken dance with Sage since right before Sage turned 3, and I liked her mom, Suzanne, instantly. When Sage and Lydia switched from that dance studio, we met Cailin and Jill, who had just moved from Atlanta when I was pregnant with Jaggar. It's wonderful to have friends with children with the same values and standards that you have.

Alex (with the hat) is Cailin's dad and had just gotten back from the Auburn championship game, so you can guess what they are talking about. Wade, Lydia's dad, is the operating manager of.....wait for it....CHICK-FIL-A in Oxford, so you can guess that we had an instant connection when we met years ago.

Suzanne, my mom, and Jill
*We had both sets of in-laws, Meagan and Kylie (who are on the next post), and 2 people and a baby that I'd not seen before (???...I really don't know) in the den that I didn't get pictures of at least in this post. But they were there!

Her cake! Does it look familiar? Yep, she chose the same cake that she had last year. I think she's like me in that she remembers good things and likes to recreate them. Our walmart was out of the pieces to make it. So she chose a Tangled cake, which they were also out of. So I just told them that we'd go somewhere else. I called the Walmart in Saks, and they did have the hello kitty cake, and Sage was thrilled.

Singing Happy Birthday :)

Blowing out her "6" candle, which she also chose. After seeing Jesus' "0" candle, she told me that she would like a 6 on her cake, so that's what we did.

Jaggar. Not singing.

Cailin had another party to go to, so she gave Sage her gift before she left.

She got shrinky dinks (which I've never heard of, but mom and Jill were raving on them, evidenced by Jill's face in this pic), paperoni sets, paints and paper. Sage can't wait to do these projects!

Jill and me: love this girl
She has my same dry humor, and I've never offended her yet, which is more than I can say for a lot of people that know me other than on the surface haha. ;)