Party Time!

We wanted to keep Abby's birthday small this year so we just invited a few friends and family over for a pajama and doughnut party. It started at 9:30 am and went for most of the morning. All of her little friends were there and everyone had such a fun time. The kids favorite toy to play with was of course, all of the balloons! Here are some pictures from her fun birthday party!

We asked everyone to sign the book, "If you give a dog a doughnut" as a keepsake from her birthday.

Abby's cake this year was an enormous "Texas" sized doughnut.

Abby and all of her friends chowing down on some Gibson's doughnuts and chocolate milk

Singing to the birthday girl

Taking a bite of her huge doughnut.

Abby with all of her friends. L-R: Giuliana, Jake, Abby, Harrison, Kate and Hollis

Everyone from college- We all went to school together and have still remained close friends after all of these years. Our kids are now good friends, too.

Abby and her bestie, Giuliana.

Time for presents...

and a nap!

And just for fun, here is a flash back from a year ago and the first time Abby had cake!

Abby turns 2!

We celebrated Abby's birthday last Friday and Saturday with lots of balloons, presents, sweets, and friends. The festivities started on the morning of her actual birthday with balloons covering her bedroom floor, and a pancake breakfast complete with her new favorite snack- marshmallows. Brandon had a really good idea to give her a few presents at a time throughout the day instead of bombarding her with all of them at once. Her first round of presents were princess themed and she could have absolutely cared less about them. She was so excited about all of her balloons that the presents were really just getting in the way of her play time. Nice, huh? Finally we coaxed her to the table where she chowed down and thoroughly enjoyed opening her presents.

A little confused as to why we were in her room singing, clapping and taking pictures.

Birthday pancakes

A box of princess clothes, princess tea set, princess night gown...

Right after breakfast she changed into her new princess nightgown, played around the house for a bit, went to the Children's Museum and out to lunch with Grandma and Grandad, came back home and put her princess night gown on again, took a nap, and woke up to find this...

A balloon bouquet from Grams and Gramps.

She LOVED it!

Daddy came home from work early with MORE balloons for her party. She also got to open another gift which was a new tricycle.

Unfortunately, from here, I don't have anymore pictures from the day. Brandon and I had both been sick the week leading up to the birthday, and by Friday night, I was not feeling 100%. Her last round of toys was all bath themed, complete with a matching robe for her and her baby, which she has worn every night since her birthday!

It's hard to believe that Abby is already 2!

Bath Tub Fun

I found this idea off Pinterest (the most amazing website ever!) and it was a hit with Abby. I bought shaving cream, dyed it with food coloring, put it in a silicone muffin pan, and let her "paint" in the bath tub. She had a blast! If you have a silicone muffin pan it will float on top of the water--even better!

Excuse the dirty pan- If you have any tricks to cleaning it I would love to know!

Ballet

Abby is now taking ballet classes on Thursday mornings. I called recently expecting the studio to say that they were booked until the fall, but luckily we were able to squeeze into a spot. The class is for 2-3 year olds. This particular dance studio is one of the only ones that I have found that will take girls as young as 2, or in Abby's case, not even 2! She did as good as could be expected- they had to call me back into the room to sit with her, but they said that is completely normal, and that she will become a lot more comfortable as the weeks progress. She is by far the youngest in the class, so her attention span was a little shorter than the other girls; however, she really did love her ballet class! Mom and I took her to Barbara's the day before to get all of her ballet gear: leotard, pink tights, pink shoes, and a pink skirt. She wore her outfit home and would not take it off for the remainder of the afternoon. To complete the look, I bought some "big girl" barrettes so that her hair would stay out of her face. Here is our little ballerina in training!

"Night Night Paci"

We can now say that we have officially given up our pacifier for good. To our amazement, it took about a day in a half, and was no big deal at all. We started last Saturday night after our dinner and play date with some friends. She was exhausted, and we thought that we be a great time to start. We put her down around 8:30, and by 9:15, she was asleep. Because she did such a good job, we told her she could get a doughnut when we went to the grocery store. We were a little anxious about her nap on Sunday, but that took about 15 minutes of crying and she was asleep. When she woke up, we asked her what she wanted to do for a treat for sleeping without her pacifier, and she said,"paint," so we took her to Seize the Clay and let her paint a bowl. And that was that!!! She has asked for it a few times here and there, found one in the bottom of my purse, but anytime you ask her about it she says, "night night paci."

Here is Abby for the last 2 years enjoying her pacifier

Here is the last picture- she found this pacifier at the bottom of my purse the other day. It was quickly taken away!

A new baby

Brandon and I found out on September 6th that we are going to have another baby. We couldn't be happier, but I must say that we were a little surprised. I had felt strange for a few weeks leading up to the 6th, so finally, after I had a dream the night before that I was pregnant, I decided it was time to really be sure. To our amazement, the test was positive! Originally we were not going to find out what we were having, but the more the pregnancy went on, and how different I felt from when I was pregnant with Abby, we felt like we probably should find out for sure. We realized that if this is a boy we don't have anything that is white, blue or yellow- all we have around here is pink, frilly, sparkly, and ruffly...

We had our first ultrasound on December 27th and found out that we are in fact having a healthy baby boy!

Abby helped us share the good news

We have a few names picked out, but nothing that is set in stone. We would like to wait until the baby is born before we spill the beans. Maybe :)