Oh Santa...why do you haunt me so...

Time for another Katie confession. When I was a little girl I was terrified of Santa. I HATED going to see Santa at the mall so in many of my pictures with Santa let’s just say, I’m not “at my best”. I have no idea why I was scared of Santa, but I have a feeling it has something to do with roller skating and alligators. You may think these could not possibly be related…but you would be wrong! In my fishbowl, everything is related.

Side note: I do have a little Doris Pegg in my genes! A little insight for those of you who never knew my Grandmother, she would often pull a comment out of nowhere, a comment unrelated to any of the current conversation. As Adam says (about me) “you pulled that comment out of the fishbowl (while pretending to reach into a bowl and pull out a slip of paper)”. I do it ALL the time and even more now that I’m older. I’m just always thinking of a million things and every once in awhile my thoughts come out of my mouth! It’s actually pretty funny and I think of my Grandma every time I do it!

Okay, back to my point. I hated Santa, not the idea of Santa, just the actual human being dressed as Santa. When I was 5 or 6 years old Santa decided to come visit my house to see me and my sister before Christmas to ask us what we wanted. This might sound like a really touching and special moment for my family, but in reality it will go down in history of one of the most terrifying moments of my life.

That night when Santa arrived at our house, Wendy and I were roller skating in the basement. Santa rang the doorbell and I heard a faint “ho ho ho”. I was leery anyway because I was not Santa’s biggest fan, but it only got worse.

You see, my sister told me that there were alligators in the basement. However, the alligators only came out when it was dark down there. So once she heard Santa’s bells and his “ho ho ho” she ripped off her roller skates in record speed and ran up the stairs as fast as she could and…you know what’s coming here…she TURNED OFF THE LIGHTS!!! I was still downstairs desperately trying to free myself from the roller skates that seemed to be permanently attached to my shoes just waiting for the alligators to come out of hiding (I guess they would come out of the drain? I never really thought that part through). By the time I got upstairs I was hysterical. I mean totally UGLY crying! I’m not sure who was more damaged by the experience…me or the sweet man from the down the street who dressed up as a Santa helper to visit us.

All this to show you the difference a year makes. We took Sophie to the mall to see Santa. She saw him from afar and was okay with it. BUT as soon as I turned the corner she turned her head into my shoulder and put the death grip on. I had to pry her off me to even put her in his lap. The photographer asked if I wanted the “screaming Santa picture” as if it was on special and I said “of course.” And it is one of the BEST screaming Santa pictures I’ve ever seen, a classic! Poor Sophie…

The cutest baby in the world

This is one of my favorite pictures of her! I could just eat her up with a spoon!!!

Christmas 2008 Hart-Reinbold-Huskins Style

For those of you who know me and my sister well, you will find our selection of gifts for our nieces quite fitting! I am pretty girly. If you haven’t read my baby doll post, you probably should to fully understand. My sister, on the other hand, not so girly. She is more into sports toys, etc. The good thing is that when it comes to gift giving, we can balance each other pretty well. Sophie got a PINK big wheel and helmet (along with an adorable polka dot raincoat, a movie, and a hilarious book). We gave Josie a baby doll set just like Sophie’s (yes I’m obsessed with it) and a magic tea set. I will laugh really hard if Sophie ends up being the tom-boy and Josie is the little girly girl! I just want to make sure Josie gets to play with girl toys and Wendy wants to make sure I don’t turn Sophie into a REAL princess! Before I get myself in trouble, Wendy will let her play with whatever she wants, she just tends to lean towards the less girly of the girl toys while I am all about some pink and some baby dolls! But I did buy Sophie some trucks for her stocking this year, of course she is far more interested in her pink laptop!

Parents' Night OUT...Girl's Night IN

Here are some pictures of Sophie and Josie partying! You’ll notice that Josie has control of the beanbag AND Big Bird. But really, who is surprised?
 

So Far Behind

I am so far behind on my blog postings! I’m not even sure where I left off. But a good place to start is with some pictures of some really good bed head. In the first picture she was trying to hide it. I walked into her room and she was standing up with the best case of bed head I’ve seen in a while. I immediately started laughing and ran for the camera. When I came back in she was curled up in the corner…I think she knew what I was after!

Once I took these pictures I noticed a curious thing…all of her prized bed time possessions had somehow been evicted from the crib and were all on the floor. Sometimes I wonder if she got any of my genes at all (well besides her love of Mexican food). You THREW your FAVORITE babies ON THE FLOOR. Isn’t that some kind of stuffed animal assault. When I was little it was more likely that my animals would stay in the bed and I would sleep on the floor. Even now I have to put her baby doll in her cradle before I can go to bed, it truly makes me sad to see her on the floor, cold and alone. I think maybe they make medication for this. I’m simply not right, but at least I’m honest!