Blessed Jewels: Build-A-Bear

We are a Build-A-Bear family. It started back in 2005, when we took the girls to the mall on our 5th wedding anniversary. Bella, who was 2 at the time, picked out a bunny that she named Bubbles. Addie, who was only a few months at the time, ended up leaving empty handed... but this marks the beginning of our journey as a Build-A-Bear family. Since then, we have grown our collection by leaps and bounds. We started out marking special events/occasions... throw in a couple random treats... and two rounds of gift cards from their Aunt Jenn and our friends the McIlvaines... and we now have 27 Build-A-Bears in all.
WOW. Here's a quick run-down:
July 2005 - our 5th anniversary - (1)
August 2006 - It's a BOY! post-ultrasound celebration - (3) ... one for baby boy!
November 2006 - Jake was heading out for a 7 month deployment so the girls got animals with Daddy's voice recording inside - (2)
November 2007 - just because - (2) ... Jacob was too young to care
December 2007 - gift cards from Aunt Jenn and Uncle Adam - (3)
May 2008 - just because - (3)
August 2008 - It's another BOY! post-ultrasound - (3) one for baby boy #2 ...but Jacob was uninterested
December 2008 - gift cards from the McIlvaines as a 'welcome baby' gift - (4)
January 2010 - the girls picked this as their 'Disney trip souvenirs' - (2) ... Jacob and Will got stuff at the Disney store instead
July 2010 - just because they are good kids - (4)

We are some awesome customers, I tell you! But it is pretty cool that almost all of them have something special to mark their 'births'. I told the girls that we wouldn't be going back until next year when Jake gets back from his deployment... so another round is slated for August/September 2011. ;) I will say that the kids absolutely LOVE their stuffed animals, and they play with them every day. Here's a photo of the whole collection (plus Bolt because Jacob could not be convinced that he didn't belong):

On Monday we took our latest trip, and it was a lot of fun. Bella had her heart set on an elephant, but they didn't have one this time, so she settled for a really cute flowered bunny she named Elizabeth. Addie wavered between a multicolored pink bear with an ice cream cone, and a multicolored pink bear without an ice cream cone... and finally settled on the latter and named her Pinkie. Jacob saw the Jack Russell terrier and had his heart set. He loves his dog stuffed animals, which now consists of one husky (Dwight), his Bolt dog (from the movie), and his new friend, Biscuit. They are a pack of dogs that accompanying Jacob everywhere. Will had wavered between a black bear and a camouflage bear for quite a while, but eventually settled on his new bear, Sarge.

Will kept putting hearts in... Sarge has 3 hearts total!