Sam Nolan's First Party

Although he isn't here to enjoy the most AWESOME family ever, Sam Nolan was lucky enough to have a baby shower thrown in his honor by the coolest people I know, my family :). My aunt Mary Beth and cousin, Terri Lynn, did such an amazing job with everything from decorating...

 preparing...

and planning the most special celebration I could imagine for our newest addition to the family...

I was thrilled that it was held at a very special place to Eric and I (the place we had our wedding reception)...

Before heading out and not too much longer, Delaney was dressed in her new clothes, complete with gold shoes. :) She was so excited about "Sanolan's party." (that's what she calls him)

We enjoyed the delicious meal with close family...

The wonderful gifts!!!

 And the gorgeous view we had from the room...

 I was so happy to see all our family members that mean the most to us...

THANK YOU TO OUR FAMILY who were there to celebrate with us. We love you!!!

THANKFUL

When we ask ourselves what we are thankful for, it's not too hard to find those things...

 We are thankful for the things in life that we too often take for granted...

And on those beautiful days, we are reminded of...

We are thankful for family time with those who love us as much as we love them...

And the way they love us "crazy" or not...

 We are thankful for the times that we have together to celebrate miracles only God can create...

 

 We are blessed without a doubt with the most thoughtful, loving people you could imagine. And the view couldn't be more amazing...

Happy Birthday, Mickey and Minnie!

This is a short post, but I had to show how excited and cute she was the morning of Mickey and Minnie Mouse's birthday.  They were coming to visit her class at JCA!!! She couldn't stand the excitement! :)

 We must have partied WAY too hard, because the next day all of us were sick and stayed inside the WHOLE day..

 Pitiful girl...

 But this guy made us feel a little better (For those who don't know, this is the guy from Yo Gabba Gabba)...

Halloween 2011 Part 2

On the night of Halloween, all of the kids from our street went trick-or-treating together. They rode in the back of several trucks loaded with bales of hay. Even though we are the "newbies" on the street, we were invited to the Halloween festivities, too. :) The only little girl that Delaney already knew was our sweet neighbor, Ava (the pink ballerina next to her).

 Group shot...

 When Delaney is feeling shy, she puts that finger in her mouth. :)

 We need to get our camera fixed pronto. This photo is pretty blurry...

 But her shyness quickly vanished when it was time to do some "trick-or-treating." Eric came home telling me she would say, "Wait on me!" when all the bigger kids would get to a door before her. :) Eric would tell her it's okay because there would still be candy left for her. :)

On a funny note, Eric also made the JCA newsletter for November 2011. :)

The caption for the newsletter said, "The two's play a game during their Halloween party." Okay, so I guess he gets the Daddy of the Month award for October. :)

We also mananged to squeeze in some family pictures on Saturday. Although it was blistery cold and Delaney was CRAZY, we managed to get a pretty cute "sneak peek" before our other pictures are ready...

I would have to say, I am enjoying every bit of this two year old stage. We are also blessed that our doctor's appointment/ultrasound confirmed that the placenta has risen to a safe place, and we are good to go! Now I just wonder how long he'll wait in there.)

Cute things Delaney can do:

She can now spell her name.

She can count to 30 by herself, or 35 with our help.

She loves to go on dates to Mexican (our favorite is the cheese dip).

She loves playing with makeup brushes, and to "make you feel better" (that's what she says) she will give you a makeover. :)

Everytime we go somewhere, she automatically thinks we are "going shopping." I really have no clue where she gets that from!

Not-so-fun things that are happening at two years old:

Our bedtime schedule could be a bit better. She is having a harder and harder time going to bed without sleeping with us. She has never slept with us before, but now it has become something really important to her. We are working on it. :)