American Girl

At the end of every week that Nick was gone, Dannika got to have a little "treat" for making it through the week and being a big helper to mommy.

She had everything from going to get ice cream to Target dollar spot shopping sprees.

It gave her something to look forward to at the end of every week, and it seemed to help time pass for her.

I knew for the last week, I wanted to do something really special for her.

She had recently been inquiring about an "American Girl doll".

Our local mall has a HUGE American Girl store, complete with doll hair salon and bistro (seriously, I'm not joking about a hair salon FOR YOUR DOLL).

Every time we pass by it, I can see Dannika eyeballing all the pretty dolls with their fancy clothes, cars, accessories, etc. etc. etc. 

We went in there once just to look around, and Nick's mouth dropped when he saw the price of the doll.

His exact words were, "I would never spend that much money on a doll!"

We walked out, and never really though twice about it.

Well, guess what?

This guy just bought his princess her very first American Girl doll.

While he was at OCS, we had already made the decision together that we would get her one at the end of the 10 weeks for being so awesome.

She deserved it, and Nick did not even think twice about shelling out the cash for it.

She has been anticipating this day for WEEKS, so to throw her off, we went to the mall today and told her that we could not afford the doll anymore.

She was disappointed, but being the amazing little girl that she is, she didn't throw a fit.

We're so mean....

So when we walked into the store, her immediate reaction was, "We're just here to look, right?"

Seriously...does a child get more amazing than her?!?!

We told her that she could pick any doll she wanted in the store, and her face lit up like Christmas morning.

The store is HUGE, and a little overwhelming, so she had some help picking out the perfect doll.

The employee at the store helped her pick out one that looked like her.

She named her Rosie, and she walked out of the store carrying her.

Seeing how happy she was, and the excitement she had for her new doll was worth every penny.

She was such a rockstar this summer (and the last 2 summers) while daddy was away, and I couldn't have asked for a better sidekick to help the lonely days pass.

 Thank God that she'll have some consistency the next few years with daddy being in school!

No more deployments or separations for a while!!!!!