Why are They in Christmas Dresses? - Photo Shoot and Small Update

Well hello, my friends!! How are you guys this fine day? Hope all is going well and that you're having an EPIC 2025 thus far! :D Sorry that I kinda disappeared for a minute there, I do have a bit of an update at the end of this post for anyone wondering. Before that though! I FINALLY got around to doing the photo shoot of the new dolls I got for Christmas/my birthday!! And yes they are in Christmas clothes, my mom made a bunch of Christmas dresses and I really like them (and this photo shoot was supposed to happen a little closer to New Years and in turn not so drastically far away from Christmas like it is now, lol whoops! *-*) so they're wearing them because yolo XD Also just want to make it clear that I'm not trying brag or anything like that AT ALL, I'm very grateful for these dolls and all of them were bought used so I'm really excited to give them a second life here on ADU :) So without further ado, here they are!

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First up is Mitchel! He's an Our Generation boy doll and I honestly adore him so much!! I'm SUPER picky about boy dolls (Most the ones I've seen companies like My Life As and Battat make I'm just not a fan of), but I actually think they did a really awesome job on Mitchel, one of my favorite boy dolls I've seen that hasn't been customized actually! So well done, OG!! I tip my chip hat (with the guac) to you!

Fun thing about his name, he's actually named after a character I had created for a story I started writing forever and a half ago about Disney's Haunted Mansion ride (Stella was also named after a character from that story, Stella and Mitchel were the main characters). I have a few dolls named after stories I've created over the years, which is really fun for me even if they're stories I've kinda left behind. It's like a nod to my storytelling throughout the years, a reminder of the stories that contributed to making me the writer I am today. It's also cool because most of the characters I made growing up where based on or inspired by my dolls :)

So a little about him before we move on, Mitchel is 15 years old and is a friend of the ADU family. He knows them through the dance school several of the ADU siblings attend. Him and Aspen are in the same hip hop class and became quick friends and you'll find them hanging out pretty frequently. On top of dance, he also really enjoys skateboarding (him and Gemini go skateboarding together often), he works at the local theater, and has a twin brother named Trevor :)

Next up is Miss Bryce!

I have wanted this Truly Me for so long y'all, lol!! 'XD Her name I've been saving specifically in the case I ever got a #58 actually, she's named after Bryce Canyon in Utah, where I did a 3 hour horseback ride to the bottom of the canyon, then back up again. Though I had never really ridden a horse before this point and I was pretty messed up afterwards (I was so sore y'all it was so painful to walk XD), it was an absolutely unreal and breathtaking experience that I'd HIGHLY recommend if you ever find yourself at that particular National Park :)

SHE IS LITERALLY SO PHOTOGENIC AND PRETTY I CANNOT!!! 

Fun fact, I'm still terrified I'm going to mess up her hair, LOL!! XD

So I'm still figuring out some of the details for her personality, but here's a bit about Bryce. She is a spunky 13 year old who loves Sonic the Hedgehog (Tails is her favorite character) and playing volleyball! She also enjoys hiking and hanging with the next doll you'll be meeting...

Harper!! Now usually dolls with wild hair colors aren't really my thing, but goodness has she taken a special place in my heart! She is so fun and different and I literally love her so much!! <3

All the other dolls in this post I named pretty quickly, BUT HOLY BANANA SPLIT DID NAMING HARPER TAKE FOREVER LOLLL XD And sometimes that's just how it works for me, sometimes names and personalities come upon seeing a doll, and sometimes they really just don't 'XD So though her personality came quickly, Harper went through multiple names in the effort to make one stick. I don't know why she was so tricky to name but I was literally googling name lists, I've NEVER had to do that before XD But the name Harper stuck, and her middle and last name are after a very dear friend of mine who helped me through some REALLY rough stuff several years ago and I genuinely don't know where I'd be without her. Harper reminds me a little of her, so it seemed fitting :)

In case anyone is wondering, Harper is a custom Truly Me #55 with (to my understanding) a ZaZou doll wig. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a match for it on their site though. I do suspect that maybe her wig was cut? But I could be wrong.

Harper came in these really cool boots and I'm honestly obsessed with them XD

Okay, so Harper here is a true rebel. She does not like structure or people trying to fit her into their ideas of "normal" or just people telling her what to do in general LOL! XD she is her own person and has absolutely no intention of being like everyone else. She's bold and confident in who she is and isn't afraid to voice her opinion (even if that opinion only makes sense to her lol). She's a graffiti artist (responsibly, Harper doesn't believe in vandalizing other people's stuff and neither should you!) who loves creating unique pieces wherever she can and sharing pieces of herself with others through her work.

And because she's a graffiti artist, I really wanted to take her pictures in front of a mural or some kind of wall art. It took a bit because I didn't want to take pics in front of actual graffiti for a couple of reasons lol, but we finally tracked down this mural that I think is so beautiful!! I think it ended up being a perfect background for her :)

Here we have Autumn!

Funny thing about Autumn, that was originally going to be Aspen's name right up until she arrived in the mail and I saw her in person. That's another thing I do a lot when I order dolls online. A name will come to me immediately, it will seem so perfect, then I'll see the doll in person and realize it doesn't fit at all 'XD So that happened with Aspen after having been pretty set on the name Autumn, and though I think the name is PERFECT for this doll, I keep confusing their names now XD I keep interchanging their names and I've never done that with any of my dolls before. It's been super weird LOL!

She's so stunning, I've always kinda wanted this doll, but, like Bryce, her hair also scares me, LOL! But my mom found her right before Christmas at Goodwill for like $3.00 USD, so that was a really neat surprise to open on Christmas :)

I sent a few pictures from this photo shoot to a group chat I have with my friends and one of them said her hair matches mine, and now I can't unsee it 'XD Also, the Addy face mold will always have my heart look how pretty she is!! <3

Autumn is a poet. Shy and reserved, she likes observing the world around her, but she prefers to do it quietly. She doesn't always have much to say verbally, but her words on paper are truly something to treasure. Her perspective of the world and how she translates that into words is both so unique and special, and being let into her world even just for a little while is such a blessing to experience :)

Autumn's pictures were taken on this really pretty covered bridge, which I thought was really fun so just wanted to show you lol :) Also the stress to get these pictures taken before anyone came walking through or the wind knocked her onto the asphalt was INSANE! Oh the joys of being a doll photographer XD

And last but not least, I received this Molly for my birthday! :D

Now I know what you're thinking, why on earth do they call cheesecake cheesecake, when it is so clearly a pie? It's a great question, but unfortunately I don't know the answer to that one, so I'll answer a different question instead. Why another Molly? We all know I already have Molly, I think it's impossible to be unaware of her presence LOL XD But this Molly is a bit of a dream doll for me, as this is a White Body Molly! If you've never heard of White Body AG dolls before, basically there was a short run of Pleasant Company American Girl dolls from 1986 to 1991 (when Felicity was first released). The reason for this was because Gotz, who made the dolls for Pleasant Company before Mattel bought AG, made their dolls with white cloth. It was too expensive to switch to a different cloth when Pleasant Company first started, so they stuck with it until they figured out if the doll line would be a success. This is also why Felicity, even though she was one of the first American Girl characters Pleasant Rowland came up with, wasn't released with the original three, as the necklines of the dresses in that time period would show the white cloth. That's also why all the outfits for the original three dolls had collars and necklines that always came all the way up to their necks, as to not show the cloth. The money thing that kept the cloth white was also why Kirsten has bangs, which was NOT a common hairstyle in her time period (if you look at the pictures in her books, absolutely none of the other characters have bangs), but the machines were only made to make one style of wigs and it was even more expensive to change over the machine or make a new one to do wigs without bangs. So all the original three had bangs and they waited to do Felicity until they could switch cloth and change machines for bangless wigs. Anyway, that was way more info then I intended to give, sorry about that. I got carried away 'XD Anywho, long story short, these dolls had a very short run and are INSANELY expensive and collectible. They are most AG collector's dream and I never thought I'd have one in my collection because the usual $300 AT THE LOWEST is not worth it to me LOL XD But my mom managed to find one for an insane deal so she was a very special birthday gift :)

Please don't mind how messy her hair is, I didn't realize she needed a re-braid until I took her out of her doll carrier *-* 

I don't know if she'll be on the blog very much as in general I'm afraid to breath in her direction, LOL!! (the rarity of this particular doll is making me a bit nervous lol, not to mention this is the oldest 18" doll I have now and I'm scared something will break if she falls over or something. She's not fragile, but goodness am I still paranoid she'll disintegrate or something XD) But I am considering having her make an appearance every now and then as Molly's older sister Jill, so if you'd be interested in seeing her around in that context please let me know :)

I DIDN'T REALIZE HIS SHIRT GOT MESSED UP UNTIL JUST NOW NOOOOOO!!! :0

They got that friendship thing going on and I'm here for it ;)

Shoe pictures are a legal requirement for me at this point, like if I don't take a picture of the doll shoes I'm pretty sure I'll go straight to jail without passing "GO" or collecting $200...

My mom did such a good job on these dresses, they're all so pretty!!

I also love Molly White's (as my mom calls her, lol!!) tights, I just think they're so pretty!! Mom said she found them on a My Life As doll at the thrift store.

<3

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Annnd that's all my new dolls!! Thanks for taking the time to check out my post and surviving my AG history dump LOL!!! (I have way too many fun facts on way too many different things and sometimes it's just like opening that one cabinet with Tubberware in it. You open it for one lid and EVERYTHING is coming out with it XD) I've been hoping to do this post for a bit and I'm so excited for these dolls to appear in more posts to come! :)

So, onto the update! Like I said in my last post, over Christmas I had a bit of a health emergency. I assumed at the time that I was either having a really REALLY bad flareup of the usual stuff I've had going on since 2023, I had a minor version (somewhat, it was still really awful though lol!! XD) in January of 2024 so I was guessing it was that or a health issue both my sisters have had surgery for (which would have been a HUGE bummer), but it ended up being neither, LOL!! I ended up having several things going on and was considered to be in "borderline serious condition" and that if we waited much longer to do something about it I'd end up in the hospital in pretty bad shape. Hurray for random health problems LOLLL!! XD Thankfully it didn't come to that though and we were able to take care of the problem without going to the hospital, praise the Lord <3 I started feeling better pretty quickly after that and I had plans to go somewhere to take pictures of the dolls in January. But then, after finally starting to feel better from all that jazz, I got the most wacky viral infection ever. I was running slight fevers everyday for a week, a lot of joint pain, freezing in our 80 degree house with two layers of PJ's on and drowning in blankets, a super painful cough, all paired with weird dreams and not being able to take cold medicine anymore because I started having a bad reaction to it (Honestly what the actual heck to my body though, like I'm still a little bitter about that considering I've never had a problem taking it when I got sick before. Then I couldn't sleep because all my symptoms were keeping me up and it was the biggest 0/10 -_-). So, needless to say, I had to cancel my plans to go take doll pictures, which I was REALLY sad about. Because I'm super stubborn I almost decided to go anyway, but I'm really glad I didn't because in retrospect that would have been an AWFUL idea 'XD because of all that though, I had to go to the doctor again, where I was prescribed antibiotics which ended up making me feel super duper ice cream scooper terrible. So I ended up being down for the count for quite awhile, which is why this post didn't come out until now (that and weather problems...). I'm so SO sorry about that!! I really try to post once a month so I was really upset about missing January, so I really tried to make sure this happened before February ended. I really hope it was worth the wait! At the very least I had a lot of fun photographing them :) I'm really sorry about missing the comments on my last post as well, I'll reply to those as soon as I can, but y'all are so amazing and nice and I'm so grateful for you!!

On a brighter note, I did do some fun things while I was gone too. I went on vacation with my friend which was so SO fun!! We went ice skating, which has always been a dream of mine to try. I was TERRIBLE at it LOL! XD But hopefully I'll be able to improve and actually leave the safety of the wall someday lol, I even found ice skates at the thrift store for $2.00!! :D We also went thrifting (I found a Wellie Wisher, a Gotz doll, and lots of books! :D), mini-golfing, went o a science center, and the zoo!! I'm not gonna lie I ended up nerding out so hard-core over the zoo, LOL! I love the zoo so much, I hadn't gone since I was a kid. 

This is a goat that was at the zoo, her name is Apple. Both my friend and I were very big fans of her LOL!! XD

So yeah, that was definitely the highlight of this year so far for me, it was literally so fun and I'm so grateful to have such an epic friend and that we had the opportunity to go do something so fun :)

Anyway, I have a lot of doll bios to make I'm now realizing lol, I promise I'll try to get them done faster than I did last time 'XD I have a few thrift store dolls to add in there as well, but I've already started taking profile pictures though so I'll get them up as soon as I can :) I have so many posts I'm so excited for, y'all!! I have a Disney lyric photo shoot, a non-Disney lyric photo shoot, two regular photo shoots, vacation pics I still haven't posted yet from 2023 (whoops), and that introduction photo story I still haven't finished yet. I'm so excited about everything and I genuinely wish I had more time so I can just start working on all of it!! Hopefully I'll get at least one posted for March though :) 

Well, I should probably skedaddle, I was super determined to get this post done tonight and now it's super late and I have to get up super early tomorrow. I missed you guys though!! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year and are having a fun 2025 so far!! I would love to hear about what fun things y'all have been doing this year thus far and if you have a favorite out of the new dolls or the Christmas dresses please let me know!! You guys are amazing and I hope you have an absolutely AWESOME day!! Love you all and see you soon <3

-Katie :)