Baby Love is 2!

Baby girl turned 2 on Mother's Day. It was fun to celebrate the two things, even if it made for a bit of a long day.  Being the awesome mother that I am, I kept dragging my feet on making the cake.  As I was going to start it Brother asked if they could decorate so of course I let them :)

Love this picture of her with frosting on it's way to her mouth.  She definitely inherited her mom's sweet tooth.

Here she is with the cute dress my sis made for her.  It is a good thing my kids have people in their lives who sew for them because I struggle in that area.

While we were in Colorado she loved playing with the shopping cart at Mel's house so we got her one and it was a hit.  She said "woah!" when she opened it.  Giving her presents is starting to be lots of fun; Christmas will be great this year!

We had Nana and Papa with us thanks to technology.  Seriously the best people ever.  I know being long distance grandparents is not their favorite thing, but they have never complained and always find ways to be present.  It means the world to us.

I cannot stop laughing at this picture!!!  I believe Brother is keeping himself from blowing out the candles (which she did by herself; we have been practicing :) ).  He just looks like he is going to be sick though!

At the end of the evening.  You can kind of tell how tired she is, but is still consuming her cake :)

This little girl is such a character.  I feel that words aren't able to describe her.  I have had some guilt about how I handled Brother at this age and am trying very hard to embrace all of the wonderfulness that comes along with toddlerhood.  Definitely not perfect, but I do try to laugh when she wants to wear gloves and carry a package of Kool Aid around.  She loves being outdoors and I find we are all much happier when we make that a priority.  She is shy around people she doesn't know, but is a class clown at other times.  We love our princess so much, happy birthday little one!

Wicked in Colorado

I decided to go to Colorado when Melissa lured me there with Wicked tickets :)  Just kidding.  There is always a reason to go back to one of my favorite places on earth.  I have this thing where I'm kind of afraid to get too much into my visits, because it will make me miss it even more.  I didn't take many pictures; I wanted to focus more on the people and not worry about the camera.  Thanks again to Peggy who put together the park date and Melissa and Erica for letting us hang out with them.  And my Aunts Jan and Tiff for letting us spend time with them.  Erica even made me feel smarter by giving us a lesson on water coloring :)  I took my sister who is my birthday buddy (we are ten years apart, by about six days) to celebrate 30 and 20 and had lots of fun.

I know I've said it before, but my in-laws are pretty much awesome.  The played Monopoly over and over with Brother (Papa lovingly refers to it as Monotony) with the happiest attitudes.  They definitely know how to make my kids happy.

We attempted to get a picture of the kids with the new puppy Lily (who is absolutely adorable, by the way).  This was the only one we got before Sister started crying.

Here we are waiting for the show to start, she looks normal, I look a little weird, but what else is new.

Here we are all together after.  Such a great show and fun time.  Thanks to everyone who was there!  And thanks to my brother in law who saved the day so we could make it to the show on time.

The things kids say-

Brother is full of questions and some days it drives me absolutely crazy.  At those times I look forward to school starting ; ).  He has a couple of jokes that he has made that I need to post before I forget them.  It is cute to see how his mind is developing and the little sense of humor that he has.

Knock, Knock
Who's there?
Ninja
Ninja who?
 . . . . . .

We were reading a Star Wars book and Obi Wan and Yoda are having a conference.  Then Anakin and his padawan show up.  Brother says "Mom!  They're having general conference!"  (For those of you not as well versed in Star Wars as I have become, every Jedi holds the rank of general in the Republic army.)

Even sister has been saying some fun things.  Her vocabulary and memory are astounding to me.  Today when we were reading stories she says to me- "I wanna go on a walk, find a dinosaur!" 

Park, park, park

We have been loving springtime!  Partly because I'm lazy and partly because we are just a happier family when we spend time outside, we have been spending lots of time at the park.  There are two within walking distance and one just outside my work.  My boss commented today on how tan I looked :)  We have also been doing lots of things out in the yard, just basic upkeep and getting our garden ready (I will post about that eventually).

Brother has mastered the skill of pumping in the last few weeks and it has been great :)

I love his face in this one because he is concentrating so hard.

Sister in her happy place-swinging with food.

It is great when kids get old enough to help!

Frowns and Waiting

Here is our princess showing us her frowny face.  Can't remember what made her upset.  One of these days I will get some video of her so all of you can experience the joy of her mood swings right along with me :)

The kids were waiting for grandma one morning and were just so cute I had to snap a couple of shots.

Spring Soccer 2012

I have enjoyed having Brother in soccer.  It is nice to be outside.  He has been progressing a lot.  Majority of the games have been tearless :)  It is fun to see him be proud of himself after scoring a goal and cheering on his teammates when he is on the side lines.

 

 

This picture is cute because you can see him with his fingers crossed which he does a lot when he's on the field.

Love the pose on this one!