Annie's 3rd Birthday

Catch up post #2: Annie's 3rd Birthday! Annie's birthday was in March! Grandma Susan came into town and made Annie's day with an amazing unicorn birthday cake - which, almost a year later, she still talks about and remembers vividly. 

We threw a little dual birthday party for Annie and her cousin, Elizabeth, because they are both only 5 days apart. (It was awesome, I visited them in the hospital having their baby while I was still in the hospital with little Annie.) So we had fun with all of their little friends celebrating Annie and Elizabeth turning three. 

This was my first time throwing a kid birthday party - and oh my gosh I loved it. The kids were so happy to do all the things we had planned and had so much fun playing with each other. It was sweet to see Annie and Elizabeth with all of their close little friends from our neighborhood, church, playgroup, etc. It was awesome. We decorated picture frames, frosted/decorated cupcakes, played "pin the horn on the unicorn" and other games and then finished with opening presents. 

This was Annie's awesome birthday present from Grandpa Gene and Mimsy. 

Tyler had fun setting up (and testing) Annie's bike the night before, and Laura had a great time playing with Annie's presents. :)

We love our Annie girl. SO grateful God blessed us with her bright, vibrant, fun little self. She is a trailblazer baby and I'm glad to be figuring out parenthood with her holding my hand. 

Laura's 1st Birthday

So I never posted this, so in the spirit of catching up on all things 2019, here are the pictures from Laura's 1st birthday (back in January - I'm the worst!) As tradition demands - and that I very happily uphold -  we had a little smash cake party. I homemade the cake and frosting - but did buttercream frosting which was a bad idea. That stuff is hard to wash off. But, it was delicious, so it was worth it.

Laura had fun until she realized she was dirty, then this happened:

After that, it was bath time and bedtime. But we had fun celebrating her with some of her cousins. It was a good first birthday for little Lulu. We're so thankful she's in our family. 

We love you little Laura Jane! So glad your sweet, independent, snuggly little self is in our family! 

January 2020 - Sickies and Couple's Trip to Canada

Well, it's official - my family is sick. Booooo.

Last week started off with Lulu catching a little cold, and that slowly spread to our whole family. It just SUCKS. Yesterday was about 90% crying from Laura (I kid you not). I set up some doctors  appointments and we found out the Laura has double ear infections and Annie has mild pneumonia. Our awesome doctor got us hooked up with Antibiotics and put us on our way to recovery! I was kind of a stress mess, because Tyler and I had a couples trip that upcoming weekend. The freaking last thing I wanted was for us to be sick on our trip, and for the girls to be sick for my mom while we were gone. So I went to the doctor, Tyler started taking all of these preventative things (which he now swears by) and we got the girls on a regiment from the doctor.

Poor Lulu. The only time she wasn't crying was when I was holding her (and even then she would still cry half the time). I accepted really fast that it wasn't going to be a productive day for me (even though I was trying to get ready to go out of town that weekend) but it was going to be a mom cuddle day instead. Once I embraced that, it actually was a really sweet day, even though the girls felt so bad.

 On day two with Antibiotics, the girls were in MUCH better moods! AND we had a snow day! After spending an entire weekend and beginning of the week cooped up in the house, we were ready to bundle up for a 15 minute snow adventure. Laura was new to snow, but enjoyed eating it with Annie. :)

 After our snow adventure, I introduced the girls to hot-chocolate. I'm sure you can guess how they felt about it. :)

 Later that day, we went on a short little snow walk (cabin fever is real y'all!). Max was the happiest about this activity!

Nudist, sick babies making the best of it all. :)

 Later in the week, when the girls were feeling a little better, Annie was able to go back to preschool and Laura was enjoying her one on one time with mom again. I'm happy to say Tyler and I were able to go on our trip and my girls were well enough to go to my moms (even though I had to give her a whole medicine run down for them - sorry mom for the high maintenance kiddos! Ha!)

I can't count how many outfit changes Laura goes through in a day with princess outfits and old dance costumes. She's our fashionista I guess. :)