Melody's 2nd Birthday Week

My baby is turning 2!!!  

I can't believe that she's that old already. I hate that the first years go by way too fast.

We had our birthday celebration at Mana's house on Sunday (8th). Before 

dinner Melody snuggled up with Karri to watch kitty movies on her phone.

After dinner it was time for presents. She was being really cranky, 

so in order to make her happy she sat with daddy to open presents.

Karri gave her some personalized books, that have her name and 

Karri's name in it. There's a Winnie the Pooh and Toy Story books.

A newer Toy Story short was released on Blu Ray and since 

Melody loves Toy Story, this is what JD & Chris gave her.

Her awesome cake made by Karri!

She was really wanting to play with the figures right off the bat, but had to wait to be sung to.

And blow out the candles.

Yay!!!

I love taking pictures, but sometimes I hate it because I'm not 

in the picture, but I made sure to get a picture with my girl.

We set her up in the high chair with her cake and toys.

She didn't eat much cake because all she wanted to do was play with her new guys.

She really loved her 'Woody, Buzz'

Happy Birthday my little one. We will have more fun pictures on your actual birthday.

November 12th

Melody's 2nd Birthday

Sadly we didn't do much for her this day. Mara was home sick from school, and the rest of us have been 

feeling under the weather on and off for the last week or so. We opted to stay in and have a family night. It's 

been a struggle to get her to eat normal foods lately, but she really likes the marshmallows in Lucky Charms.

We had some fun taking selfies on my phone.

Pat was eating a popsicle, so Melody had to have one too.

We had to see if her tongue was turning yellow like her popsicle.

Then it just became a game of sticking out our tongues.

Grandma & Grandpa came over on Friday (13th) with their gift. A new pair 

of jammies, a new shirt and pants, and Ariel & Friends Little People.

We already had the Ariel set, so we exchanged it for the Belle set that we don't have.

All in all I think she had a good birthday. You never know when they're 2, if they understand 

birthdays or not. But new toys are always fun! Now we just have 6 more weeks until Christmas!!

Here's a collage that I made of her second year

Jaina's Drawings

Ever since Jaina started preschool, she has gained a love of drawing. Now that she's in 

Kindergarten, she draws almost every day. It's hard to keep everything that 

your kids make, so I took pictures of what she has pinned up around the house.

The following is what she told me about the pictures.

This is a rainbow and it also has Melody that's 'off limits'.

This is the sun burning the grass, next to a tree, and a snow storm protecting the grass.

This picture is about flowers. She also has practiced writing 

Mom and Mara, and for some reason she wrote her name backwards.

Jaina, Xander and Mara going to school. She said "we sometimes 

have fights, but we sometimes are nice to each other."

This is her bracelet that one of her friends found on the grass and gave it back to her.

This is about two trees living, they were growing so tall. The sun was 

growing them. The sky was growing them but we don't know how.

This is Rapunzel, she's my favorite character.

These are my mugs for hot chocolate.

The First Week of November

Melody has become an M&M fan and loves all the tiny packages from her Halloween stash.

On Tuesday night after the kids had gone to bed (or so we thought) Mara came back downstairs

 to tell us that her tooth came out!  She's been saying for a few weeks that it's been wiggly, but 

every time I've wiggled it, I didn't think it was that close to coming out. But sure enough, after 

she brushed her teeth, it popped and came out!  This is the first molar for her to loose.

Wednesday night, Melody just wanted to be held and it was a miracle that she let me hold her 

like this. She was so cute and snuggled up with me for a bit and I enjoyed every minute of it.

After dinner it was bath time. Jaina doesn't like getting her hair brushed and washed because it 

gets too tangled and it hurts, because of lack of brushing. It's so long and pretty but all she ever 

wants is a pony tail or a braid. I've been asking her for months if she wanted her hair cut and 

kept telling her that it would make doing her hair a lot easier. She would always tell me 'no' and 

we would leave it at that. But this time she said 'yes'!!  So I got out the hair scissors and went at it.

I cut off about 6 inches, which is so crazy. When she was smaller I was worried that her 

hair would never grow in like Mara's. But now it's long, pretty and getting thicker 

all the time. I really like the length, even though she said she wanted it shorter.

I'm not a skilled hair stylist, so it ended up a little crooked, but for 

now it'll be okay. She's happy with the change and so am I. But I'm going to 

have Stefanie come down next and fix it up for me so it won't look so crazy. 

Sadly, she still wants it in a pony tail every day, but at least it's easier to manage.

Mara entered the schools Reflections contest in October, the theme was 'Let Your Imagination Fly'. 

She won a Award of Excellence ribbon and her painting is moving on to the next round!!!!

Friday night there was a Carnival at the school. We started the night with 

a pizza and drinks for the whole family. I'm so glad that Melody was hungry, 

because she ate almost a whole piece of pizza. It was so cute to watch her eat it.

We got unlimited wristbands for the girls, and Jaina took full advantage of 

it. We spent most of our time in the gym on all the 'bounce houses'.

This one took her awhile to climb, she fell at least 4-5 times. But she 

finally made it up and over and loved it. She then did it all 2 more times.

Xander and his best friend Josh playing this fun one.

It took awhile, but I finally got Jaina out to play some of the little games.

Xander spent most of the night as a volunteer helping out a football throwing game. 

Mara and Aurora were running around together the whole night and had great fun.

They even had a few things outside to do, a rock wall and this Wizzer. Jaina loved 

this one, but it was too cold for me and we went back inside as fast as we could.

Saturday, we headed to the Mall for some shopping and stopped in at the Disney Store. They 

have the new Mega Tsum Tsums that are $100!  They are huge and Jaina loved hugging the giant 

Minnie. But there's no way we are getting a Mega one, I like the mini ones that are only $5.

Sunday was our Primary Program. These girls did a great job. Watching the program really 

made me miss being in Primary, not that I want to go back, it was more nostalgia.