Jeff, Emily and three crazy little angels: My spoiled children

Jeff and I have decided that until we get passed his DPT program, birthday/Christmas gifts for our kids will basically all have to be used (unless we find a phenomenal deal). Which doesn't really matter because all they care about is playing. Let's be honest, kids don't care if it's new or used, as long as it's fun.

We check the DI every now and then, but haven't had much luck as far as toys are concerned. We've decided yard selling is the best route because many of the yard sales, sell things WAY cheaper than the DI (obviously not all, but where toys are concerned, in our experience yard sells are better). This summer we have decided that we are doing most of our kids' Christmas/Birthday shopping on Saturday mornings at various yard sales. Today we began our first yard selling trip for the year. We had to bring the kids because... we are too cheap to pay for a sitter, and I hate asking my family to babysit too often because I feel like I'm taking advantage and that is the last thing I want to do.

I figured it would be fine, if we did find something we wanted to buy, we would have one put the kids in the car while the other buys and secretly puts it in the trunk. Today we found two rocking horses (the ones with springs), one Katie's size perfect for Christmas and one just right for Kylee, probably for her birthday in August. Try hiding that in a little Chevy Cobalt... better yet try fitting it into a little Cobalt, it just was not happening. The smaller one fit just fine, but obviously we weren't getting both at that moment. Even if we managed to fit it, there was NO WAY Katie wouldn't see. We asked if we could come back later and get the second one. Jeff took the girls home and I got my dad's truck to get the 2nd horse and headed to my parents' house to put it in their utility room until Christmas. Since Kylee wouldn't remember that I'd gotten her a horse by her birthday I figured it wouldn't be a big deal if she saw it just as long as Katie hadn't seen hers.

I was almost at my parent's house when Jeff called and said, "Emily, this girl needs that horse, I can't wait."

I told him no, we're not the kind of parents who just randomly get their kids toys whenever they want them and that she could wait until her birthday (decided to push it up at that moment since I didn't think Jeff would be able to wait until Christmas). He told me his little Katie, upon seeing Kylee's horse, said very sweetly, "Daddy, I really really wish Kylee's birthday horsey was bigger so I could ride it too and say YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWW!" He told me he just couldn't wait so... I caved and brought the horse to our house rather than my mom's.

Katie WAS SSOOOOO excited. A little part of me wanted to lie to her and tell her she was getting it because today was her birthday but... being that we're still two months early and I haven't really planned a early celebration, I didn't.

So yes, because those girls have their daddy wrapped around their little fingers and he was able to convince me, my kids got "just because" toys. But they are SO happy!