Birthday Girl!

 

This beautiful, ray of sunshine turned 4 yesterday. I can hardly put into words how much this sweet girlie means to us. What a joy and a delight it has been watching Elanora grow and discover the world around her. She brings light and happiness into our home. For 7 years we prayed for this little miracle baby and how blessed we feel to have her in our family. 

Elanora's personality radiates with a love of life that is palpable.

She fills our home with songs, art, dance parties, an unceasing curiosity of all things and with a boxelder bug that she has named Stewart. He seems to love her as much as we do. He is always waiting for her. In the garden, by the door when we come home. She even found Stewart waiting in her room for her wanting to wish her a Happy Birthday.

She is loving, kind, smart, funny, a great big sister and sometimes a little stubborn. We love this crazy girl! Happy Birthday Nory!

 



Everly Love

 

 

Happy birthday to my beautiful baby girl. This spunky little whip of a thing is now a 1 year old. Her entrance into this crazy world was not so graceful. She had us so worried but this girl is strong.

She has brought us so much joy! She is so happy, always smiling and dancing and boy is she wild! She has been walking for a couple of months and now she runs everywhere, she doesn't ever sit still unless she is flipping through books. She loves to be a part of the action.

She is quite the character. If Nory is telling a us story Evers will look at us and start jibber jabbering louder then Nory. At dinner time she will look at us and shake her head no and then dump her food on the floor. She absolutely loves water. She will dunk her head into the water and not even worry about it. 

 

She loves to get Nora's underwear out of the laundry basket and try to put them on her head or she loops them on her arm and walks around the house with them

 

 

When she drinks from a bottle or a sippy cup she holds the bottle with one hand and puts her other hand on her cheek. She will switch hands back and forth but she has to have one hand on her cheek

 

 

She is already working on her artistic skills

 

 

She is so great! We feel so blessed to have this beautiful baby girl in our family. We love this cute girl so much. Happy Birthday Babylove!!!

 

 

 

 

32 and Counting

32. What? When did this happen? 32, you heard me right people, 32. No worries, it's cool. I'm not too worried about it. I can face that number in the mirror. The reflection that stares at me doesn't feel 32 although the semblance has a few more wrinkles than I remember.

 

I forget sometimes that I'm not that slightly wild, free spirited 18 year old any more. I'm much more grounded...sure, grounded, we'll go with it.

 

For my birthday Chris surprised me with Ellie Goulding tickets. The concert was golden. She sounded so good live. That night my slightly wild, free spirit collided with my mildly grounded, mom of 2 persona.

 

We got to the concert and first thing headed up the stairs to get a good, less crowded spot to relax and let our ears take in the vocal stylings of the blonde songstress .

 

Watching the youngsters below it became very clear I was no longer that 18 year old.

 As I watched those crazy kids, the salt flavored nastalga hit me hard. I remember the excitement of my first concert. It happen to be at that exact venue, the Saltaire.

I was doing extremely well keeping that free spirit in check. And then Ellie Goulding stepped on the stage. Her voice, like a siren's song, calling my inner teenager.

 

And suddenly, there I was pushing my way through sweaty, tightly packed bodies. My kind, supportive, strapping hubs following that slightly wild 18 year old me.

 

The number attached to this body may read 32, securely grounded wife, and mother of 2. But the fine print definitely reads with a heaping serving of free spirited spunkiness.

  

 

 





Pudding Filled Happiness

Birthdays for three year olds are big business. Our little big Babyface's b-day was no exception.

Now, we threw a big party for her first birthday because, well it was her first birthday so it was pretty much a given that I wasn't not going to staple colorful table cloths to my ceiling to make a magical, wonderful, rainbow tent 

Last year's party was pretty low key. Cake at Grandparent Page's house with the cousins and then cake at Grandparent Brown's house with the cousins.

That was the plan for this year but then Everly's baby blessing happened. We had a luncheon after Ever's blessing and I decorated a little here and there...no awesome rainbow tents. After everyone left the luncheon, Nory love looked at Chris and me with those hopeful, baby blues and said, "We'll have a party for my birthday, with a big cake. Just like we did for Everly, right?"

Of course we will!

Elanora talked about how awesome her cake would be weeks before her birthday. Dreaming and imagining the awesomeness that would be her cake. We couldn't disappoint.

The theme for her party was a little confusing because she loves Strawberry Shortcake so much but she wanted an alligator for her birthday (which she got and then promptly named him Sand.)

I compromised, Stawberry Shortcake decor, alligator presents.

Everyone knows that the key to a successful party is the cake. The extent of the birthday girl's happiness is directly proportionate to the perfection of this yummy baked good.

Not having much time in our hectic schedules, I didn't bake anything epic (me bake, ha). So Chris called the local grocery store bakery and ordered a Strawberry Shortcake cake. Easy enough. 

The big day came, we picked up the cake and slowly slid that frosted dessert out of the white box. Imagine our surprise when we were staring face to face with this bad boy

   What the crap? Nora looked at it and said in that sweet little voice of hers, "Who is that lady?" Who indeed. 

Lucky for us we had a bubble machine to save the day

Heaven knows that cake wasn't helping out the party vibe. Although it did add a certain mystery and intrigue to the party. "Who is that creepy lady and why is she starring at me like that?"

She was tasty. There was pudding in the middle, yum.  

  Although, those crazy eyes seemed to follow the camera, they didn't seem to slow the wild child down much.

Who am I kidding? Presents make everything okay. She got an alligator, a princess piano, and Frozen. I think this cute cradle was her favorite present.

My father-in-law made it and my mother in-law made the pillow and blanket to go in it. Those Browns are so darn talented. Is there anything they can't do? The cradle definitely took the cake, which it can have, because, yikes that cake was something craz-o. In case you forgot, go ahead, have a second look.

 

 

 

 

 



1, 2, THREEEEEE

This spunky little love is three whole years old. I have a three year old, crazy. We were so surprised to get this perfect, little lovie. I hardly remember our family without her. We wanted her so bad and it just wasn't happening. It seems like yesterday that we were telling our families that we couldn't have kids. 7 long, hard years and then BAM

All of a sudden we had this wild, whip of a thing.

I've always called her my wild child and wild she is. She is always moving, energy for days and days. We are always running from monsters, singing at the top of our lungs, hiding in tents, painting, coloring and laughing.

Lucky for us this wild baby is so much more than wild. She just happens to be the sweetest girl. She makes friends everywhere we go. If we are at a restaurant or store and she sees another kid, she always yells, "Look mom, there's my friend." She has no problem making friends and including everyone.

My wild child is so curious.

She asks hundreds of questions and loves to learn new things. She retains things like it's her job. She has known her letters before she was 2 and now she is learning her letter sounds. She remembers the name of every band that comes on the radio and most of the time the song they are singing.

One day we were driving to see Chris at work and she asked what he "did for work." I told her he drew buildings. She told me that I work at a school with kids. Then, I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. I named a bunch of occupations. She thought for awhile and then she said, "I want to be a Dr. to help kids when they are sick." She likes to practice on her little sis.

  And boy, does she love her sister. I thought it would be a hard adjustment for her, nope not for Nory. She is so helpful and loves to hold Evers. Just tonight she was playing with Everly and had her laughing so hard. We really haven't had any trouble, although last night we were going for a car ride and Elanora asked if we could leave Everly home and let Ana (her doll) ride in the car seat.

We love this this spunky, wild, caring, smart, Girl so much!!!

 

 



Birthday Baby

 

March 28, 2011, this beautiful baby came into our lives, forever altering our world. I was so terrified to bring this sweet spirit home. Hoping and praying I wouldn't screw up parenting too much.

Here she is 2 years old, still just as spunky and just as perfect

 

(Styling her own hair)

The first 3 months of her life she cried and cried (the voodoo Dr. fixed her right up). Once we took care of the colic and acid reflux my little Babyface never stopped smiling! Here is where I get to brag, right? 1, 2, 3 go... my baby is the happiest thing in the world. She hardly ever cries, mostly when she gets hurt. She has thrown 3 fits in her life(knock on wood). The first one, Chris and I laughed because we hadn't ever seen her do anything like that, it was so funny. She goes to bed singing, wakes up singing and sings all day in between.

Not only is she happy but this wild child is so smart! I know, I know, I am her mom but just indulge me. By January she could identify all her letters. She could spell her name months before that. The other day she wrote an 'E' on her chalk board. She knows most her shapes and all her colors. She can identify her numbers  1-10 and counts to 15. The other day we were watching the news and she pointed to the TV and said "President Obama" and sure enough, he was on the news. We don't shove flashcards in her face making her repeat what is on them, she just picks this stuff up. Crazy baby!

(The letter E and her smiley faces she loves to draw. Notice the top smiley even has hair)

The most awesome thing is she is potty trained (with the occasional accident here and there. The accidents always seem to happen when she is playing with her little friend SJ. She walks in their door and oops :))

 

a couple of weeks ago at church, Chris went to pick Nory Bug up from nursery and when he got up the stairs he saw our wild child with a construction hat on yelling "I'm an astronaut, I'm an astronaut."

 

 

Chris and I are so blessed to have this wild, whip of a girlie in our lives. She brings so much joy to our home. Seven years was worth the wait. We love this 2 year old so much!

 

 

 





What is a Party Without Music?

Did I have a playlist for Elanora's Birthday you ask?... Did I have a playlist? Ha. You better believe it!
Now remember this is what the craziness looked like

if it drives you bonkers that there is no popcorn on the far right of the picture to balance out the popcorn on the far left(really it ruins the picture for me), don't worry, do you think I would have made that horrible of mistake for my guests to have to endure? I was popping another bag when I took the picture and let me assure you that by the time the guest got there, there was proper order and placement on that colorful table.


Because music makes everything more magical, we had a magically themed playlist


'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
'Sugar Sugar' by The Archies
'Rainbow Connection' by The Muppets
'Rainbow Connection' by Willie Nelson
'Candy Man' by Sammy Davis jr
'lollipop' by The Chordettes
'On the Good Ship Lollipop' by Disney Resort
'The lolipop Kids' by The Munchkins
'Reading Rainbow' by Ion Storm
'I've Got a Golden Ticket' from Willie Wonka
'Over the Rainbow' from The Wizard of Oz
'Pure Imagination' by Gene Wilder

We also had 'Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' movie playing...on silent of course.

We had a pinata...it was freezing outside, so we finished it off pretty fast

Nora loved everything she got. She would open one and walk around with it, loving it. We would have to redirect her to the next present and then she would love that one and carry it around. She is the sweetest, silliest girl!

Birthday!!!

Those of you that have stopped by and read my life story unfolding upon the pages of this blog, may have been clued into the fact that I might have a touch of the crazies. I might have the tendency to get a little obsessive excited about things. Just ask Chris how much he loves when I find a fabulous new song to listen to and how many times we have to listen to it(it may or may not be just shy of a million).
Elanora's very 1st birthday may just attest to the madness that is floating around in my brain. But in my defense, I was on spring break and I had some extra time. Also I'm pretty sure the amount of decorations used for the party has a direct correlation to how much I love Elanora.
My Grandma Page made beautiful cakes for all her Grand kids birthdays. For my 1st birthday, the cake topper was a carousel, which my mom happened to still have. I loved the idea of using it for Nora's cake so it became the inspiration for her whole party. I wanted to used the beautifully bright colors in the carousel in all the decorations.


This concludes the boring reading part of the blog, now that that is out of the way we can proceed to the picture overload portion of this blog. *NOTE- NOT ONE OF THE DECORATIONS IDEAS I USED CAME FROM PINTERST, I REPEAT NOT ONE. EVERY THING CAME FROM MY OWN VERY BRILLIANTLY CREATIVE MIND.

This was on the ceiling of our front room and it may seem a bit extravagant but I assure you it was not, I only used one screw in the middle of my newly painted ceiling to hold all that craziness up.



This is the yummy treat table, full of healthy snacks to send home with all my nieces and nephews



The watering hole


I made otter pop slush, which was super tasty(and remember I came up with this stuff on my own, wow!)

A little more decor



If you thought that the cake on the treat table was a little crooked, you may have been right. It was hard to stack those layers. And don't get me started on the frosting job I did.



Baby face liked it, frosting and all



She just shoved too much in her mouth causing her to gag a little...it wasn't because my baking skills are lacking




Don't worry more pictures and excitement to come!