American girl place | Lessons from my daughter

I love reading about tiny houses and minimalist living… Sometimes I wish we could do it but than we turn around and buy something else we probably (most certainly) could do without.

A couple of weeks ago, my little brother was visiting with his family. We looked into kayaking which reminded me that we have a waterproof digital camera. I located the camera fairly easily and to our surprise, we found pictures…

This prompted us to locate other cameras and find more treasures and many selfies of Emily and even more pictures of Bratz dolls, American girl dolls and Chipmunks.

Some pictures go as far back as 2008…

Leave it to us, the consumers of too many things and always the newest gadget, we almost lost some precious pictures.

Here are some of my favorites:

Meeting my godson. I loved him instantly and he is now 5!

Our godson’s christening! My girl looking super lovely for the occasion!

Tiny Maple… not so tiny anymore. She’s a big 15lbs and the vet says she should lost 5 of those pounds…

Christmas morning

Bermuda! We stayed at both the Fairmont Hamilton and Fairmont Southampton Princess.

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First time putting her toes in the sand. The video is quite funny…!

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We even got Emily to play in the water! The custom guy didn’t believe we would be in the water in November. We are Canadians, this was summer weather for us and the water was fabulous.

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A trip to Dallas. The girls were so little. We miss our traveling buddies! Bestie, we need to do this again! Well… maybe not Dallas but I am sure we can find somewhere to go with our girls!

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Those crazy “Canadians” again, in the outdoor pool at the Fairmont Dallas in winter… Let’s be honest, winter in Dallas is slightly colder than our summer so this was actually lovely!

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Discovering Krispy Kreme donuts. To this day, this is still the only time I have had those donuts and they were delicious!

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Attending a NHL game. Dallas-Chicago

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My nephews are growing up. That’s our godson standing on the trampoline!

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And holding a drill 🙂

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Road trip to Chicoutimi for one of my dear friend’s wedding. Small stop at Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu on the way there 🙂

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All dolled-up for the wedding

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There was hundreds of pictures, some I had been wondering where they were, others, I had forgotten…

We are such consumers of the new gadget on the market that we almost lost those priceless pictures.

Sometimes I wonder, if we could just eliminate some of our stuff… not enough to move in a tiny house but enough to know what we have…

When the doctor told us we were having a girl, Jonathan asked what were the probabilities that he (the doctor) was wrong?

Little did he (Jonathan) know that a father’s love for his daughter can’t be measured.

He had no idea what was coming his way.

More than 17 years later, the bond Jonathan and Emily share is unbreakable. Regardless of Emily’s struggles or maybe thanks to Emily’s struggles, the love between them as flourished and continues to grow.

It has grown enough that Jonathan is comfortable being at an American Girl Store with his 16 year old daughter, looking at dolls and picking out outfits.

If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know that Emily loves American Girl dolls. Before this latest trip, she was the proud owner of 13 dolls. Some we bought, some she bought, some were bought for her from other family members… She has quite a collection of dolls, clothing and accessories.

On May 4th, when we landed in Orlando, Emily knew that the plan was to check into our hotel than get a cab and find our way to the American girl store.