My Girl

Many years ago, when I turned eight, my best friend and I spent a day in Salt Lake with our moms shopping, eating at nice restaurants, sightseeing, and having a great time. It is still a treasured memory. I wanted to have that same opportunity with my soon-to-be-eight daughter. So after chatting with her best friend's mom, we came up with a plan that entailed some much-needed girl time, combined with their current favorite thing...American Girl dolls. Santa brought the girls a "Day at American Girl Place" package. So Madison and I and Coralee and Mindy set off for a weekend in LA to spend a day at the American Girl store.

First on the agenda, get beautiful!

Just before setting out for our day--aren't they gorgeous?

On our way to the American Girl store, we stopped to see the LA Temple. The visitors center was being remodeled, but we did get to walk around the grounds and take some pictures.

We have arrived at the American Girl Place! The dolls in the display case are called Just Like You dolls, and Madison examined every one to find the one that looks just like her. The girls shopped and spent every last penny of their allotted gift card money. (But thank goodness not too many pennies more!)

We took a break from shopping to browse the Farmers Market across the street. Madison had crepes with strawberries for lunch. Yummy!

Then we made our way back to American Girl Place where the girls had a photo shoot with their dolls. Madison's picture was then put on a personalized magazine cover.

The doll hair salon was so cute. A whole line of doll-size salon chairs, with the stylists working their magic. Madison's doll even got her ears pierced at the salon.
We finished off the day with a dinner in the American Girl Cafe. The cafe was so girly, all hot pink and black and white. The napkin rings were hair ties that the girls got to keep. The dolls got their own little seats next to their girls.
Is this girl excited or what? This is the dessert plate--flower pot chocolate mousse, a tiny heart-shaped cake, and a tiny star sugar cookie.
The whole girly group...two moms, two girls, and four dolls! (Oh, and don't forget the little girl in my very large belly!)
Since we went all the way to LA, and we had one more day, we rounded out our weekend with a day at Disneyland.

Two sweet girls! They had a great time and I think they even realized how very lucky they were to get to go on this trip. They were very well behaved the whole time. And the moms...well, we were well behaved too. I sure love my boys, big and small, but I enjoyed every minute of our girl time. I can't wait to do it again in eight years with the next little girl!

Levi...growing up!

We took pictures of the kids the other day against the wall, so the next time I pulled the camera out, Levi ran to the wall again for his pose. Then he got back to business of cutting fruit. This task has occupied a lot of his time the last few days. He is growing up so quickly and has such a cute personality. He finally stayed in nursery for the whole time on Sunday. He is sleeping better--in his room with Wyatt, and only waking up in the night occasionally. I am starting to have a little hope that I might be able to handle both him and the new baby sister!

Our New Ride

In 96 days and counting...(or maybe even less), we will officially outgrow our 5 passenger Saturn Vue. So we finally have upgraded to the typical mormon wagon. We now have a minivan! It is a Nissan Quest, smoke gray. It has some little extras that the kids love (built-in DVD player) and some that I love (mostly that the kids can buckle themselves because their seats are not so crammed in). It's a few years old and has a couple of minor scratches and dings, but overall it's in good shape. We're loving our new ride!