You know what that resulted in? Me deciding that we were just going to do a pink/black theme and not be matchy matchy- which really the girls would probably appreciate more in the end anyway because really no one cares but me. So I gussied up the girls and we headed to the mall. I hate the mall. Despite living less than a mile from the mall since we’ve moved here I’ve not been even once… Beth called me on my way out the door and wanted to know what she could do to help me after reading my last post. She’s a good friend, so she decided to come with me on my quest. Unfortunately she now knows my deep, dark, secret- I’m a clepto.

First we went to Kohl’s since I was hoping that I could find dresses there and not have to go to the mall. I scored a lovely dress for Ashley, an unnamed gift, and found a cute picture frame on clearance. Since I had the triple terrors I also had the double stroller, which meant that I was throwing stuff underneath. But since Megan actually found the dress for Ashley she was insisting on holding it. Since Megan was holding that one then Annika was insisting on holding the unnamed gift, which meant that I forgot about the picture frame until the girls were buckling up and I was putting the stroller away. Dangit! Luckily I could leave the girls in the car with Beth while I ran in. When we were checking out there were a ton of cashiers and a ton of long lines. When I went back in to pay for the picture frame all the lines had magically disappeared. It was a Christmas miracle!

I still had two more dresses to buy. (I’m in love with the pink and black plaid dress I found at Costco for Cori- I’d been holding out for them to stock the other girl’s sizes). So we hit JC Penny first, who, it turns out, doesn’t carry dresses for kids between 2T and 7… But they did have a super cute something for my sister (sorry- I’ve got to be vague about the presents!) I stuck it on top of the stroller so I’d not forget it- and from the time we entered the store (when Cori was insisting on the sunshade being down) and the time we left (when she was insisting on it being up) it went from being in plain sight to being well hidden. You’ve probably guessed it by now- but I stole that too! I did go back and pay for it though.

I did find a dress for Megan (which is totally adorable and was on sale for 50% off and then I got another 15% off because it had some smudgey stuff on it that I’ll totally be able to get off) but I was still short one dress. After scouring the mall I ended up going to Target (where I found Annika’s dress) and I’ve succeeded in my quest! I also picked up the final presents I needed (including a cool one for my inlaws). I ended up going to walmart too since we were out and about and I was running low on diapers. I’ve also given up on trying to night train Annika until I can know that she doesn’t have bladder reflux (the test is in Jan) so I picked up some pull ups as well. The lines were forever long (of course) so I decided to do the self checkout. I’m pretty fast at it (since I’ve got prior experience) and since we had one cart and three kids who’d now been shopping for 4 1/2 hours they were all in it- but their coats were on the bottom of the cart. By the time I got the cart to the car and pulled the coats from the bottom? Yup, the pull-ups were still there- and I hadn’t paid for them. This time there was no Beth (she’s got a kindergartener who needed picking up) I just left. I’m at Walmart enough, I’ll be back, and I’ll pay for the pull ups later.

Anyway, it was a overcast day- which is supposed to be good for picture taking. So I even got our pictures done! Wanna preview? Aren’t they adorable? I guess I should take another picture of them standing up so you can see the fullness of the cuteness of the dresses. But in this picture? Annika is wearing her pink princess boots, Megan is wearing her ‘running shoes’ and Cori is wearing her grey and teal moon boots that I picked at the thrift store for $3.

In other news, the party for Ashley’s class? Everything is delegated. So I did let some stuff go (proud of me Hope?) I’m making serious progress on my list and really most everything that needed to be bought is bought. Just not being in pain is doing wonders for me feeling like I can handle Christmas. Pray that it continues tomorrow.

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