Dear this past week,

Thank you for being awesome, once again.  I really don't want to sound like a talking cliche, but in the last week it has really started to feel a lot like Christmas in our house.  We got a few of our decorations up - which includes our tree - and I can't wait to crank up my favorite Christmas albums (this, this, this, and this) while we decorate the rest of the way!  Some of the happenings of the past week...

We took family Christmas pictures!
And Presley did amazing, as always, with family pictures.  I think this is the 4th year in a row that Tony and I (and now this year, Presley, too!) have gone to Portrait Innovations to take pictures for Christmas!  They always have such a great staff who are friendly and take such great pictures - not to mention the awesome deal they have for the holidays.  Ideally, I'd like to have more relaxed family pictures taken outside of a studio sometime, but for now - this works!  I'll try not to overload you with too many of our pictures & post just a few of my favorites...

Presley's legwarmers at Sparkle in Pink for such a good price and they are such good quality!

Went to the mall with some of our favorite gals!
As if I need any motivation to go shopping as it is, Megan said her and the girls were going to do some shopping at the mall so Presley and I met them out there!  The girls were so well behaved - despite them taking turns throwing their toys out of the strollers every few minutes.  And on top of the fun outing, I ran into my best friend's sister, Hope!  For the first week in a long time, we didn't get to have our weekly play date with the girls... so no picture of the three of their adorableness!

Got our Christmas cards ready to send out!
Not much to say there... just happy to have them done!  Even if people get them super early in the holiday season - for once I won't be waiting until the last minute!

We bought Presley's first Christmas present!
We didn't go out and do any crazy Black Friday shopping - but we did go to Walmart that afternoon and found a few blu-ray movies as well as Presley's first gift!  Tony and I have always agreed we wouldn't be huge on buying Presley a ton of things and going overboard for birthdays and holidays - but when I saw this I felt like Presley would really like to play with something like this - plus we got a really great deal on it!

Playskool Explore and Grow Step Start Walk n Ride

Made our holiday plans!
This includes booking some flights for the three of us - which I am looking forward to.  We finally cashed in our credit card points so we didn't have to pay a dime for our transportation this Christmas!  Woo-Hoo!  It also means we will be bypassing the awfully long car ride!!!  However, this will be Presley's first time flying - so we aren't sure how she will react but I am feeling optimistic about it.  Have any of you moms flown with your little ones while they could still sit on your lap?  If so, how did it go and do you have any tips to make the trip smoother?  She will be 10 months when we leave and I've heard that breastfeeding during take off will make it easier on her ears - so I hope she can relax enough to do that.  (When there is noise around her she wants to be up and investigating everything!)  Anyways, I'm just really looking forward to the holidays this year.  We'd like to stay put as much as possible next Christmas because Presley will be a little older and we will want to start our own traditions with each other at that point!  But that is a whole year away - who knows what our life will be like twelve months from now!!!

Did some secret shopping for my main squeeze!
Like I said in a previous post, I am the worst at keeping gifts a secret, especially from Tony!  I just get so excited about it that I end up telling him right away.  Especially if it's something he'd really like.  For example, the first two stocking stuffers I bought him I ended up giving them to him right away - I am that awful!  In the last week or so I've found 3 gifts for his stocking that I know he'll enjoy and they are still a surprise... so far.  Too bad we have nearly a month to go!

So, that's about it, really.  Hasn't been a terribly eventful week - but it was another wonderful week in the Duggan household!  Now, I'm going to work on my cousin, Breanne, sharing her labor & delivery story and see how she would feel about doing a guest blog... I don't know about everybody else but I absolutely love hearing birthday stories.  Anyways, I will leave you guys with my Nine months in - Nine months out picture!  I got the idea from Megan! How fun!

Have a great weekend, everybody!