Happy Birthday Joel!

     Joel turned one on Wed. Sept 4th. I can't believe it! Where did this year go? It has flown by! Joel is the dang cutest kid I have ever met! I might be biased though. He is seriously so happy all the time. He takes everything in stride and he laughs so so much. Everyone who meets him tells me he is the cutest sweetest baby ever. It's true. His new favorite thing is to open his mouth and go AWE! It sounds weird but it is so funny! He is taking tentative steps but hasn't totally switched over to walking yet. He still has no fear for his life, he dives off, into, and through everything. Pulls anything he can and off and out of anything. We lovingly call him baby hulk. His weight has kind of evened out since his surgeries but he is still nice and tall and has the biggest feet! He is my cuddle bug and I love it!!! All you really need to know is we think he is pretty awesome and are so lucky to have him in our lives!

     So his birthday was on Wednesday and we wanted to do something fun. If you know me, you know I am a birthday party crazy lady so the fact he was really going to get one was breaking my heart. So Monday morning I decided we needed a party. So this was very last minute and I planned a cute little car themed dinner party for us for to have. Sophia loved it and Joel had no idea what was going on!

Birthday Boy! 

Balloon Wall. This was so easy to do and so cute! I will have to do this for more indoor parties!

The whole get up!

Sophia thought the cones were party hats! She kept trying to wear it.

The birthday cake! Turned out cuter than I expected and was fairly easy!

That's right! Digging right in there! After a little help he was ready to attack that cake! 

Joel did a little redecorating on the cake! We thought it was pretty good!

The after mess.

All Joel wanted to do was eat the presents!

This was how present opening went, Sophia opened, Joel played.

His sweet new motorcycle walker, which I got for a steal of a deal!! 

It's hard to believe this precious boy is one! I am feeling very nostalgic right now! What happened to this last year? How I love this boy! 

~A 

My 3 year old.

     That's right folks this little lady turned three! I can't believe I have a three year old. It's weird, I will probably say that for every birthday but it's true, it's just crazy how fast time flies!

     This little girl is full of spunk and sass. She is also very sweet and kind. She loves all things princess and dirt. She is friends with just about anyone she meets, and all though her brother can get on her nerves she really gets along with him well and I can tell they are already friends. She loves it when he follows her around the house and they just giggle together most days. She loves to give compliments and helps with baby Joel all the time. She will be the first to tell you she doesn't like something or she doesn't want to do something. If a kid is mean to her she is not afraid to fight back, which I actually really like about her!

     I wasn't going to do much for her birthday this year because we had such a crazy summer going on but my mom mentioned she thought Sophia needed a princess party and I knew she was totally right. So I went for it, and I will be the first to admit I went total crazy mom! I don't know what my deal was but I just had to make everything I saw! So with out further ado, Sophia's 3rd Princess party!! 

     It was such a fun day! The kids loved the party and Sophia was so spoiled, she got way to many presents! haha Sophia has so many good friends! It made me sad to think of the friends we are leaving behind in a month to move to Cali. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us! A huge shout out to my mother for making the cake for me, and to my sister Tiff for coming early and helping me get stuff ready, and to my wonderful sis in law Hanna for taking pics!! You guys are fabulous!

~A

Sophia's second birthday!!

     You read the title right my baby is 2! That is just crazy to me. Why? It's crazy that my baby is 2, she isn't really a baby at all anymore. Tyler and I have been parents for 2 years! We have our second kid coming in 2 short months. All of this is crazy to me but I have loved the last two years of being this girls momma! I am one lucky lady! 

     Anyway some quick stats on this little one. She weighs 32 lbs. and is 40 inches tall. She is in the 92% for weight and the 97% for height, meaning she is basically the size of a 3 year old. She is giant. Tyler is hoping that will mean a basketball scholarship! She loves Minnie Mouse, Sesame street (Ernie is what she calls it), and tangled. She Will eat any fruit you give her, corn is the only vegetable I can get her to eat, I am not even sure that counts as a veggie. She loves steak, pasta, and Homemade french bread (seriously the only bread she will eat willingly). She is learning some many new words everyday, I can almost always figure out what she is talking about. She is getting more and more polite it is so cute! She waves by to anyone who drives past us in a car, or walks out any door, or walks in a general direction away from her. Bye Bye, See ya is typically her phrase it's stinking cute! And of course her curly hair just gets curlier as she gets older, it's actually getting quite long but you can't tell because it just curls up! 

     Anyway enough bragging here is her party. It was Minnie mouse themed. I pretty much made everything myself and it was a great success. I always warned Tyler our kids would never have simple parties growing up because my mom always did themed parties and I loved it growing up so till my kids tell me to stop they will get them too! 

Sophia's birthday outfit. Minnie headband and dress.

Minnie Plates! We had hot dogs for the kids, on the Mickie mouse club house they always sing this hot dog song at the end of it so they tied in great! The grownups got pork ribs.

Mason jars filled with drinks.

Chocolate covered oreos in mickie head shapes.

Sticky chex mix thank yous! These were a big hit I didn't have any left over! Here is the recipe I used. 

Mickie head sugar cookies for a fruit pizza bar, so yummy! Also there are minnie cupcakes in the corner of the pic that turned out so cute, and the table center pieces made of pink tubs and paper pom poms.

I found a bubble machine at walmart for like 5 dollars and the kids all loved it! 

Blowing out candles she made us do it like 3 times because she thought it was so fun! ha ha

Opening presents, she did much better with her birthday then she did at Christmas! She actually ripper the paper and wanted to see what was inside.

The amazing table fort Hanna made Sophia. She loved it! All the kids loved it ha ha they were all under there together at one point. It is seriously so cute! and we play with it all the time! 

Sophia's big present from my brothers and sisters was this bike! Sophia loves the little boy's bike who lives next to us so we figured it was time to get her one of her own! She loves it! She asks to ride it everyday.

     The party was a huge success! Thanks to everyone who came and for all the gifts she loved all of them! A special thanks to my mother who showed up early and with out my asking took care of putting everything together and putting everything away so I could visit with the guests! And one for Hanna for taking pics for me so I didn't have to worry about it! And Sara and Jess for helping me Friday, chop all the fruit and fill gift bags and watch Sophia and all my last minute things! And everyone who brought food, mom, Shelby, Briana! You guys are all great! 

                ~A