Joy to the World, the LORD is Come!...

...and boy, did we celebrate! I've been talking with Isabelle about how Baby Jesus' birthday was coming soon, and so when I went to get her up this morning I asked her whose birthday it was. Her answer? "Baby Grant!" Uhhh...she got the baby part right anyway! She knew her baby Grant was coming to see her, so I can understand the confusion! We got that part straightened out and the rest of the day she was clear that it was JESUS'S birthday :)

I am thrilled with the "big" present I got for Isabelle. For months and months I've been looking for a toy box for her. I knew that this was going to be the Christmas of princesses and dress-up and thought a toy box would be a good storage solution for everything and I just thought it would be fun. I didn't want a plastic cheesy looking thing and I didn't want something that looked like adult furniture...something simple, something in-between and not too expensive, and something she couldn't squish her fingers in!

No luck. None at all. UNTIL...the other night when we went to the park with Guatetots and stopped to shop on the way. And I found The. Perfect. Toy box. At a consignment store. ON SALE. That was the SAME pattern as all her bedroom stuff. YAHOOOO!!!!!! I knew it wouldn't be the present she'd jump up and down with but I hope is something she'll enjoy using a lot in the next few years :)



And the other "big" thing I decided to do was to have a copy of my book printed for her. I have copies set aside for her when she's bigger, but I decided that having her very own copy that she can play with, look at, etc., would really help with talking about her adoption story. She flipped it right open to the page with her birth mother holding her at about 3 months old. Again, not the toy she carried around all day but hopefully something we'll use a lot as she starts to get old enough to talk more about these things with :)



Belle and my aunt "Hat"

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(above: Faith and baby Grant) We all spent a good portion of the day ordering and receiving cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets... Oh, and pizza. My mom managed to find the pizza set she LOVES from the Children's Museum, so our McD's will be serving pizza as well :)


Sometimes it's the simple things... Isabelle loved her little white dog, who she quickly named "baby Faith"



My mom and her grands :)


Okay, a little over the top, and certainly not going to stay set up in the family room forever, but it sure is cute! The dogs had just as much fun as Isabelle did climbing in through the door (and windows!)


The main "toy" gift I got Isabelle was a princess hair set complete with a hairdryer that blows, a flat iron, curlers, and a plethora of other things that she only knows how to use from watching my mom! She's in love with it!!

One of the best parts of the day was later this afternoon after things had settled down and I asked Isabelle (a couple different times, actually) if she had had a good day. Her answer? "Belle eat birthday cake Baby Jesus' birthday!" I'll count that as success! I had decided we'd start the tradition of having birthday cake, so while the rest of the world was eating apple pie or something like that we were eating cream cheese filled lemon cupcakes made by Isabelle and my aunt! She LOVED it!

Oh, and the hats? Another family tradition...




Since, you know, there wasn't anything else going on today, we thought we'd add baby Grant's first haircut to the festivities! My aunt did my first haircut as well as my brother's and Isabelle's, so it is a bit of a family tradition :)





And the house was a complete wreck...

...but a good time was had by all! Happy birthday baby Jesus!

(keep reading...I've been catching up tonight!)