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Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Two years ago my world changed forever. I love you more and more each day. I wonder what I did before you! I can't believe what was once my eating, sleeping, and pooping infant is now a funny walking, talking little kid!

Happy 2nd Birthday Carlee!!!

Right after she was born...


On her first birthday...


At her 2nd birthday party...

I love you peanut!

That's so Magical

Sunday we celebrated Carlee's 2nd birthday. Yes, 2nd! I can't believe its been a year since the last party and 2 years since she was born. I know it sounds cliche but time really does fly by!

This year we had an Abby Cadabby party. Carlee is an avid Sesame Street fan. Elmo and Abby are her faves, but I love the girly girl feel of Abby and all her party supplies. So Abby it is.

Plus, look at the cute shirt we had made for the occasion:
For the last several months I was on the look out for everything Abby. I even bought 20 little tins from the Dollar spot at Target. Gotta love Tarjay!!



In addition to the Abby theme, I incorporated pumpkins. I know you're probably thinking "pumpkins???" But I'll have you know that Abby Cadabby is a fairy in training and can only turn things into pumpkins. (Something I didn't know before planning this party). But right before Halloween, there was a ton of pumpkin supplies too! I decided to have a little craft table so the kids could decorate their own pumpkin to take home.
Here's the table before all the kids got to it:

And of course we had a jumper! Actually I shouldn't say of course. I wasn't going to get one. I was trying to cut back as much as possible this year. But our local party rental place was having a special. $99 for a jumper, 4 tables, 32 chairs, 4 table clothes, a pinata, and a dozen balloons. Who would pass that up? I'm glad I didn't because the jumper is always a good entertainer for the kids!

The party signs my father in law made!

The Abby cut out that daddy worked hard on that Carlee wanted nothing to do with. Carlee would look through from the front but refused to get behind it. Her cousin didn't hesitate.

Carlee and Austin found a new use for the pumpkin straws...whistles! I thought they were cute sitting together whistling.

Present time! It was a group effort and a little overwhelming for me. Carlee was the only kid at the party not interested in her presents!

Again, I wasn't going to get a pinata. I was going to do goody bags instead. But I found it hard to do goody bags for a wide range of kids as well as not spending much money. So instead of stressing over it, I just got the pinata included and filled it with candy (a week before Halloween. I'm sure parents love me!)

(I did put pencils and erasers in the pinata. So it wasn't all sugar!)

Happy cake!! Carlee says "happy" instead of birthday. So she was having an "Abby happy" and when she saw the cake she'd say "happy cake"!! (We got our "happy cake" from Albertson's and I was quite pleased).

Taking a bite! Yummy!!

The day was a huge success. Everyone had a blast. After the last guest left, we crashed. Months of planning for a couple hours. It makes me wonder why we do this. Next year I'm thinking we're going to forgo the party and go to Sea World and the San Diego zoo!!

Fall festivities

Every year I look forward to Fall. I do love the summer, but by the end of August I'm ready for cooler weather. Although fall doesn't exactly = cooler weather these days. In addition to the cooler weather, I associate this time of year with my little girl's birthday. Its hard not to when we spent Halloween 2007 in the hospital with a baby who was only 12 hours old in a pumpkin costume. From that day on, she's been my little punkin.

So far this fall, we hadn't done much as far as fall/ Halloween goes. We haven't decorated the house. We haven't even debated/ stressed/ worried about a costume for the little one. We're just using a cheerleading outfit we bought for football season. Easy peasy. So far we've been busy planning a birthday party. (I started to panic when I saw Halloween stuff in Target months ago. It was a reminder to get on the birthday party planning!)

Well, yesterday I got out of work early (woohoo!!) and decided it was a perfect day to visit the pumpkin patch. We had already purchased a pumpkin from Albertson's but we had to go to the pumpkin patch and fake it.

Here's Carlee searching for the perfect pumpkin...

Phew...this is hard work!

This one looks good.

Who needs a pumpkin when there's a jumper?

After searching through pumpkins and jumping (and yes, I'm in the bouncer too. We had fun!), we headed to the petting zoo. We bought a cup with food to feed the animals and as soon as we entered the gate we got attacked by billy goats or whatever the heck they are! So we didn't spend that much time there. So not our thing!

Next stop: Grandma's house!
We went to visit Grandma, Uncle, and Starr the dog.

Making cupcakes at Grandma's

Enjoying her hard work.

Then while the cupcakes were baking, we decided to carve the pumpkin we got at the pumpkin patch Albertson's.

This is the face I get when I tell her to smile. As soon as I laughed, she started laughing.

She liked the battery operated tealight we put in there.

Her "punkins!!!"

After carving the pumpkin, a quick bath, and a change into some pj's it was time for a cupcake.

The girl's got her momma's sweet tooth.

After a fun filled afternoon and evening, we went home and crashed. We have to rest up for this weekend's Abby Cadabby birthday extravaganza.

Slacking

Its been entirely too long since my last post.

This is a busy time of year. In addition to work, having a toddler, and everyday stuff, we have baby showers, birthday parties, playdates!

Not to mention the 2nd birthday bash is in 2.5 weeks!! That alone is time consuming. That reminds me, I need to get pumpkins.

I'll try to post more often. I also need to take more pictures with my good camera. Oh well. Here are some iphone pictures of the little one.

I love this girl! hee hee

Got her hair did

This weekend Carlee got her first haircut. Her hair wasn't long by any means. I was actually dreading cutting it because it's taken so long to get to the length it was at. But Carlee would constantly brush her hair out of her face and rub her eyes from her hair being in them. So I guess it was time for a little trim.

We went to Cool Cuts 4 Kids. I could have trimmed her bangs myself, but I wanted her to have the whole first hair cut experience. (Ok, so maybe it was more for me.) I was really nervous because Carlee has been throwing tantrums when she doesn't want to do something. She also gets shy and clingy around new people. Here I am taking her to an unfamiliar place to have some stranger play with her hair. But with Elmo playing on the TV, a cool little car to sit in, and double fisted with lollipops, Carlee did very well.

Here is a before picture:During:


After:
Hopefully now that we trimmed her hair, it will grow faster.

Training complete

My last post was about this diva in training that Carlee has become. I guess its also called the "terrible two's". Well, I think she has completed her training and is a diva with a capital D! She has graduated from yelling "NO!" and holding her hands up to prevent the paparazzi (aka mom) from getting a good shot to attacking the camera and cameraman!!

Notice the attitude change when she realizes I'm recording her. At this rate I'm never going to be able to document the cute things. I'll only have her alter ego that comes out when the camera's on! I hope this passes soon! All I wanted was to record her shaking her booty while listening to the Handy Manny song!

Diva in training

I have a diva on my hands. Carlee no longer likes her picture taken. Not that she liked it before, but she never minded. Now you'd swear I was paparazzi and she was an A-list star. She'll wear her sunglasses into stores, the bank, etc. She gets mad if I laugh at her. (She cracks me up, I can't help it!!)

Yesterday I tried taking pictures of her to use on her birthday invitation. I knew it was going to be difficult but I thought I'd have some kind of decent picture. Nope. Carlee wasn't having it!

Here are the pictures where she's yelling "No!" Good thing she's not an A-list celebrity otherwise she probably would have spit in my face or tried to break my camera.

Piece of cake

On another mom's blog, she posted "20 things I love about my son/ daughter". I couldn't resist to post the 20 things I love about my little peanut. (although how can I limit it to 20?)

20 things I love about Carlee:

1. I love the way she gives us random kisses and hugs

2. I love how no matter what she's doing and she hears someone sneeze, she says "bless you!"

3. I love how she wakes up and says "Mama...food!" I guess the girl wakes up hungry.

4. I love she "swims" in the bath and kicks her feet

5. I love how she cries TO brush her teeth...she'd brush them 10 times a day.

6. I love how she loves her cousins. She lights up when she sees them.

7. I love how peaceful she is when she's sleeping, paci and all.

8. I love how Carlee wraps her arms around my neck when she wants me to give her a piggy back ride.

9. I love how she rubs Casey's back when he's holding her.

10. I love when she asks me to rub her back.

11. I love how she asks for us to paint her toenails then has Casey paint his! (He'd kill me if he knew I put that, but he'll do anything for his little girl)

12. I love how she makes her little humming sound when she's tired (she's made the same sound since birth)

13. I love how she's learning new words every day.

14. I love the personality she's developing even if that includes eye rolls

15. I love how she's always smiling.

16. I love how she shows enthusiasm over something (Elmo and Abby Cadabby)

17. I love how she tells us "night night" then wants to cuddle

18. I love how she pretends to have conversations on the phone

19. I love how she loves playing "OUTSIDE!!"

20. I love that Carlee is the best part of Casey and I

Partners in Crime

Carlee loves her younger cousin Sydney (and her older cousins too for that matter). I offered to watch Sydney while her brother and sister were busy with art class, swimming lessons, and tumbling class (yes, all in one evening)! Plus Carlee gets excited when she sees Sydney so I figured it be fun for her.

Sure enough when Sydney shows up, Carlee was at the front door chanting Sydney (which sounds more like "Neh-ney".) Sydney had just started walking so she is nonstop. I forgot how they are at that age. Carlee is less than 9 months older but she will play with a toy for periods at a time or sit and "read" a book. Sydney was everywhere. But she's also so easy going and mellow. She didn't make a peep the whole night. Look at that precious face!

I love these pictures. It was fun to see them interact. I got to see Carlee act as the bigger kid showing Sydney how to do things or telling her "No, No, No, Neh-ney" when Sydney grabbed my cell phone. Carlee was so excited to have Sydney around, she wanted to show her everything. When Carlee told me "poopoo" and I asked if she needed to go to the potty, she nodded then stood there and said "C'mon Neh-ney, c'mon"! She wouldn't go anywhere without her cousin.

Towards the end of the night when both of them started to get tired, that was the hard part for me. Carlee isn't used to sharing my attention so I had both kids on my hips at one point. I don't know how moms of twins or even two young ones do it! I had fun with the two of them, but after one night I was exhausted!

4th of July

4th of July is one of my favorite times of the year. Everyone's so patriotic. Great weather. Parties. BBQ's. Good times with friends and family.

This year was no different. During the day, we hung out at home. Had a picnic in the shade under the tree in the backyard. Then Carlee played in her splash pad. Then we geared up for the night festivities. We headed to my brother in law's house for his annual bash.

We also celebrated lil Miss Sydney's first birthday! Can you tell she loved the cake?

Then the best part of the night is the fireworks show. Everyone gathered on the top of the hill to view the high school's firework show. I was excited for Carlee to see the fireworks b/c last year she was already asleep. Well, this year she fell asleep in my arms during the fireworks show. Clearly she was less enthused with them!