Birthday Photo Shoot

Laurel and I were bored one day this week so I decided to do a photo shoot with some of her cute outfits and the top of her amazing cake (the cake will have it's own post!). I'm not the greatest photographer and Laurel is not the best subject since she hates to stay still, but we got some cute shots. Enjoy!

This is Laurel's birthday outfit which matches her cake. Adorable much!

I let her play with this musical horse to keep her happy.

Outfit change and still playing with the horse!

Looks tasty!

Laurel got hungry towards the end of the shoot!

Happy Happy Birthday!!

I cannot believe Laurel's 2nd birthday has already come and gone. It seems like just yesterday I was driving to the hospital to have her and now she is two years old!

We started talking about her birthday as soon as Christmas and New Years was over. She was so excited to get to do "nastics" (gymnastics) and have all her friends come. Whenever we talked about her party she would say, "Papa come? Emily come" and just go through and name all her friends and family. We also started practicing blowing out candles while singing Happy Birthday to her. I just wanted to do it once or twice so she knew what to do, but Matt seriously did it almost every night in January! It was so cute how she would get so excited every time those candles came out. One good side effect of all that singing was that she learned to sing Happy Birthday on her own. It is the most adorable thing you have ever heard. One day when I was talking to her about her party I said, "and after you blow out the candles on the cake you can open your presents!" She looked at me so confused and said, "Santa Claus coming?" I guess in her mind only Santa Claus brings presents. When I explained that you get presents on your birthday too, she seemed to accept that, but every time I mentioned presents she would say, "but Santa Claus not coming?" like she was still trying to figure it out.

The night before her party she was so excited and kept saying, "I go sleep. Wake up. Party!" Just like Christmas Eve she was too excited to sleep well. It was almost 10pm before she finally fell asleep, which is really late for her. Luckily she slept in until almost 9 (I was worried she would wake up too early and then want to take a nap right when her party started). Her and Matt made pancakes like they do every Saturday. We quickly got ready and it was party time!

She was so excited when we got to Sportz Quest where we were having the party and she does gymnastics. We got the food set up while she begged to go play. Her friends started showing up and she was so sweet and greeted each one. The gymnastics teacher quickly went over a few rules and then let the kids loose to play. Laurel just ran around like a little nut, jumping and rolling, sliding and running everywhere. All the kids were having so much fun; it was just fun to watch them enjoy themselves so much.

After a good amount of play time, it was time for food and cake. Laurel blew out the candles on her cake before we had even finished singing the happy in "Happy Birthday." We lit them again to get a picture and she happily blew them out again. The kids all seemed pretty hungry and they ate their food happily. Laurel ate some of her food and then decided to walk around to the adults and mooch food off of their plates too!

After food it was present time. Laurel was adorable opening presents. She wanted to open and play with each present of course. She cracked me up with some of her expressions like, "so cute!" and of course, "oh wow!" A few times when I told her to say thank you to someone she tried to give them the gift she had just opened.

We opened presents pretty quickly and then the kids got to play a little bit more. Laurel was so sweet telling all her friends thank you at the end of the party. We went home and fed Laurel a late lunch and then she took a nap. When she woke up we opened presents again and she had just as much fun the second time as the first.

We had such a fun day and Matt and I just really enjoyed watching Laurel having such a great time. Did I say I still can't believe my baby is two!!

Here are a few pictures from her party. Enjoy!

Laurel and I before the party started.

Jumping on the trampoline!

Playing with her "boyfriend" Drew

Just having a great time while my Dad and brother watch.

She LOVED this slide so much.

Getting a ribbon while everyone clapped for her. She so loved being the center of attention.

Just blew her candles out...for a second time!

Opening presents!

Thanks to everyone who made Laurel's day so special.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We had a great Christmas this year. It was so fun to see how into it Laurel got. She was so excited for Santa Claus to come and asked every night for a week before Christmas, "Santa Claus coming tonight?" On Christmas morning the first thing she said was, "Happy birthday Jesus" and "I love you Jesus!"

Here is Laurel with some carrots for Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve.

She wanted to stay up and see Santa eat his cookies and the reindeer eat their carrots. We kept telling her she had to go to sleep or Santa wouldn't come. She was so excited that she had a hard time falling asleep though. Then she woke up several times and wanted to know if Santa had come yet.

I enjoyed playing Santa Claus and eating the cookies, yummy!

Laurel got a train table as her big present this year. Matt finished the table on Christmas Eve so it was really down to the wire. He had fun setting up the trains for her while I finished wrapping all the presents.

Santa has come! Laurel had a HUGE stocking which was nice because I really got tired of wrapping around 11:00 and just shoved the rest of her loot in her stocking!

Laurel's face on Christmas morning when she first saw her train table.

She was in awe!

As you can tell she really LOVES her Thomas!

It was really hard to get her want to look in her stocking or open presents. All she wanted to do was play trains!

After a long while of playing, Laurel decided those gifts under the tree looked pretty interesting.

Throwing wrapping paper was lots of fun.

She got lots of neat toys and wanted to open and play with each one before moving on to the next. Towards the end she got tired of opening presents and gave the last few to me and Matt. She said, "one for you Daddy!" and "one for you Mommy!" It was so adorable.

We headed down to Matt's parents and Laurel enjoyed the bounty of Grandma's kitchen.

Yummy!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. I know we did!

Tis the Season

I have to admit, I'm like a little kid at Christmas time. I love all things Christmas and now that I have an almost two year old Christmas is even more fun. I've had such a wonderful time this month experiencing Christmas through Laurel's eyes.

She LOVES Christmas trees and we have to stop and admire everyone we pass. She has "redecorated" ours about 20 times. She loves seeing people's decorations in their yards and houses as we are driving, especially Santa Claus and reindeer. Of course if we are driving at night she goes crazy when she sees Christmas lights. It is so cute to see how excited she gets every time!

We've only seen Santa five times this month. She finally sat on Santa's lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas the last time. It was so funny because she was being shy at first and wouldn't say anything. Santa asked her if she would like it if he brought her some dolls and she said, "No dolls, Thomas trains!" The whole way home she kept telling me that she didn't want any dolls only trains for Christmas.

I have been reading her lots of stories about the Christmas story and it is so great to hear her talk about the angels, Mary, and baby Jesus. I'm not sure how much she really understands, but she remembers the main characters!

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas season so far...lots more to come!

Laurel with the first Christmas tree we saw this season at the Museum of Arts and Sciences.

Running after church in one of her cute Christmas dresses.

Helping to pick out our Christmas tree!

Decorating the Christmas tree!

Dancing to some Christmas music in nursery.

Laurel and her friend Emily on a shopping trip to Toys R Us.

Redecorating the tree!

Petting a reindeer on one of our trips to see Santa.

And enjoying her favorite thing, trains!!

Giving Thanks

For Family Home Evening this week we did a lesson about what we are grateful for. When we first asked Laurel what she was thankful for she looked at us like we were crazy. Then we asked her who/what she loves and she was able to tell us the things that she loves. The more I thought about it the more I have come to understand how love and Thanksgiving are so intertwined. I thought I would take a page from Laurel's book and post about the things I am grateful for and about my love for each.

1. I am so grateful for my home. We moved in when I was pregnant with Laurel and I had many plans and projects of which we have done zip, but I still love it and I can see the potential. I love the high ceilings and the hardwood floors which are so easy to keep clean after carpet. I love the long front porch with my Cracker Barrel rocking chairs I had to get and the swing Matt built. I love our screened in back porch where I can keep Laurel contained. I love that we have four bathrooms, which I'm sure will come in handy one day! Do I love the color paint on the walls? No, but I can live with it for now. We will get to those projects one day...maybe when Laurel is a teenager! I also love how much land we have. I'm so thankful everyday that we have a huge yard for Laurel to play in, woods to explore, a creek to throw rocks in, and of course our long driveway where Laurel can run without fear of cars.

2. I'm grateful for a hard working husband who leaves for work everyday while Laurel and I are still sleeping. I love what a great father Matt is to Laurel and I know the less I try to control the better he is...I'm still working on it! It is so great to see how excited she gets when he gets home and I love how she asks about him doing the day. She will say, "Daddy, work?" and I'll say, "yes, Daddy is at work" and lately she's started answering, "awwww, man!" I love you Matt!

3. Going along with #2, I'm so happy I am able to be a stay-at-home mom. Do I love it everyday? No, but I'm so happy I have the CHOICE to stay at home and I have that choice because my husband is such a hard worker and a great saver. I'm so grateful that he has given me this chance to be there for my baby everyday.

4. I'm so grateful for my Father in Heaven and the MANY blessings that he has given me. I know that our faith will help Laurel to grow up to be a worthy and honorable daughter of God. There is nothing sweeter than seeing her bow her little head and say, "dear Heavenly Father...I love you, thank you, amen!" or when we point to a picture of the Savior and she yells, "Jesus!"

5. I am so grateful for my Dad. We have always been really close and now that I have my own child we are even closer. He is such a good Papa to Laurel and I love how excited she gets every time she sees him or calls him. He is always giving of his time and money and there could not be a more spoiled grandbaby than Laurel. I love you Dad!

6. Finally I am grateful for my sweet baby girl! I never could have imagined the love I would feel for this little person. She is amazing. Everyday is a new adventure. She has such a zest for life and lives every second to the fullest. Life is never dull with Laurel around! I try to enjoy every moment right now and I look forward to seeing her grow and experience life as she gets older.

I love you Laurel!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I did!

Happy Halloween!

We dressed Laurel as Pebbles for Halloween this year. Her hair looks just like Pebbles naturally so it was an easy choice for us. My mother in law made the costume and I was really happy with how it turned out. I don't think Laurel really even noticed what she was wearing, but she did notice the bone in her hair. She kept saying, "bone? doggie food!" and probably thought we were nuts for putting a "doggie bone" in her hair.

Here is Laurel and Hank at the Church Halloween Party. They are pretty good friends since they see each other every week in nursery. As you can tell Laurel was checking out Hank's costume in this picture.

Hugging! I had so many cute pictures of them hugging, sweet babies!

Laurel playing one of the games.

Her favorite part of the night, jumping on the trampoline! The big boys were on this all night, but sat down so Laurel could jump for a few minutes. I thought that was so sweet!

Laurel checking out Arrie's costume.

Best family picture we could get...

Laurel trick or treating with Daddy while I handed out candy. She would not say trick or treat, but did say thank you to everyone who game her candy!

Running to show me her loot!

We went trick or treating with our good friends the Englands and a big group of church friends. Here are all the kids (minus a few) ready to head out treating or treating.

The first house we went to and the only time Laurel said trick or treat.

On the way home from trick or treating...Laurel's had a little too much candy? Haha!