The Prince is alive and well

Here’s proof!

Now back to my unannounced bloggy break!

Angel’s birthday weekend

We had a jam packed weekend, most of which involved celebrating Angel’s 2nd birthday.

I already shared that Princess came home for the weekend – surprising us! That was Thursday night and so we all had fun hanging out and playing together.

This is obviously not Princess, but Prankster.

Pat and I had taken Friday off and the kids slept in until 8:30 am. It was amazing to sleep in that long. We were up and at ‘em soon after that though because we had family pictures at 11:15 am and still had to do baths and all that fun stuff.  Our family pictures were at JC Penny and they turned out pretty good. I guess my only complaint is that there weren’t that many to pick from. But we still got a few nice ones.

After pictures we went home and the kids crashed for a few hours. I think I cleaned the house or did something productive. Can’t really remember right now!  We always go out to eat for birthdays and of course we had to do the same for Angel! So we went to Pizza Ranch where they have an arcade/game place. Not only did we stuff ourselves with good food but also played some fun games.  Angel (with mommy and daddy’s help) won 250 tickets and was able to get a Dora ball!

Saturday was Angel’s actual birthday. She was up bright and early and the first thing we did to celebrate was go out for donuts.   We decided to get groceries right after that. Not sure what the problem was but she pretty much had meltdown after meltdown. Pat sure did enjoy this little grocery trip. I think it was his first time experiencing the multiple meltdowns of Angel out in public!

After grocery shopping we went home and thankfully the kids crashed. Again. Saturday night we had supper at home and of course had to have birthday cake. Even though Angel’s party wasn’t until Sunday we couldn’t let her actual birthday pass without birthday cake.

Caleb enjoyed it too!

Her party on Sunday was at the Butterfly House. She was very overwhelmed by all the attention. I don’t think she smiled or said one word the whole time. She did give everyone hugs after she opened her presents. And then we walked through the Butterfly display and she finally came alive. She loves her butterflies.

Angel with her “Birthday hat”. Sorry, it was all I could find!

Her birthday cake – two butterflies and cupcakes.

Opening presents…

Butterflies up close and personal!

Even though it was crazy busy and sometimes stressful we had a fabulous weekend celebrating our baby girl’s birthday. And for the third time, Angel crashed!

She’s a generous 2 year old

I have about 150 birthday pictures to sort through so I can write a post about Angel’s birthday weekend.  Unfortunately that’s not going to happen tonight ~ this mama is ready to crash.

But I did want to share a cute story about Angel and her most beloved thing on earth ~ her pacifier.

For probably the past 9 months or so she has only gotten her pacifier at nap time and bed time. But she was still pretty addicted. She kept it in a drawer in her bedroom. We would often find her in her bedroom, sitting on her bed in the dark sucking on her paci. It was hard not to laugh at that.  Well we decided that when she turned two we would completely do away with the paci.

Her birthday party was at the Butterfly House and so for the past two weeks we’ve been telling her what a big girl she is and that she doesn’t need the paci. But that the baby butterflies need her paci so they don’t cry. She was pretty excited about giving her paci to the butterflies. I actually got this idea from Rocks in My Dryer whose daughter gave her pacifier to the squirrels in their backyard.

No I am not crazy.

But I am forgetful. I forgot to bring her paci to the Butterfly House. I realized this after we were home from the party. My family was still at our house and my sister-in-law Leana said, “Why doesn’t she give it to Charlie?”

This is Charlie:

He’s 13 years old and used to be my dog. But for the past two years or so he’s been my sister’s dog. We knew there was a reason he hadn’t went to doggie heaven yet.

When Angel woke up from her nap we start talking about how she’s such a big girl and that she doesn’t need her paci anymore. But that Charlie is just a baby and he’s very sad and he needs a paci. And then we asked the dreaded question. “Angel, will you give your paci to Charlie?”

She didn’t even hesitiate ~ her eyes got big, she shook her head yes and ran into her bedroom to get her paci. We rigged up a little necklace to put around Charlie’s neck.

 

For a minute there we thought she was having 2nd thoughts…

But then Charlie worked his magic…

Of course we had a backup paci just in case. But it wasn’t necessary. Tonight when she went to bed she went straight for the drawer where her paci usually is. We reminded her that she gave her paci to Charlie. She continued to look around the room for her paci. Finally after about 5 minutes of explaining that Charlie needed her paci she agreed and went to bed.

Hopefully the paci is history.  Now the duck, baby, blanket, cup and today’s addition of THREE Dora dolls that she must take to bed with her and tote with her everywhere she goes ~ that’s a problem to be tackled another day.

Happy Birthday Angel!

Our Angel is 2 years old today!

Here she is at 8 weeks old:

And yesterday before we had our family pictures:

Words can’t describe how blessed and thankful we are.

A very long detailed post about the weekend’s birthday festivities coming in a few days!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I always want to start 7 Quick Takes Friday by saying, “It’s Friday!”. But isn’t that obvious? Anyway.

Tomorrow is Angel’s 2nd birthday! I was able to take today off to spend it with my baby girl and Pat surprised me and took the day off too! We don’t have alot planned other than family pictures at 11:30. It wasn’t going to be family pictures just some shots of the babies but we figured since we’re there we might as well get a family picture too. I’m a little stressed about it because last time we went there (JC Penny) they turned out really crummy. Unfortunately they are very cheap and so we’ll have to make do and I’ll just pray the babies are super happy. It’s looking good though because as I write this both babies (and Daddy) are sleeping!

2. I was also bummed about taking a family picture because Princess wasn’t able to come home this weekend.  Well guess who came waltzing in the door last night:

Princess and Prankster!  What a wonderful surprise. They are here for the whole weekend and I’m so excited they were able to come. Angel’s birthday wouldn’t have been the same without them.

Princess is feeling alot better. She still has a long road of healing – probably the hardest part is the up and down of Mono. One day she feels amazing and then the next day she’s hit hard again. Thanks for your continued prayers!

3. We aren’t doing a whole lot for Angel’s party. She loves butterflies and so we are having her party at The Butterfly House. It’s a neat little place that has…yes, you guessed it… butterflies! But there are also a few other rooms with other animal displays and a play room. The butterflies are so tame they usually land on you. Which is very creepy but Angel loves it. This was at the butterfly house last year (sorry bad picture):

 

We’re keeping it simple. Invited just family and a few close friends. We’ll have cake and ice cream, open presents and then go on a tour of the butterfly house.  Angel is very excited though. She’s been counting down the days and also reminds us multiple times a day that she is going to have birthday cake. Pat better come through for us ~ he’s convinced me that he wants to make Angel’s butterfly cake.

4. We had a close call last night.

For the past four nights Angel has been waking up at 3:00-3:30 am wide awake wanting to read her books or play. The good thing is that she will usually stay in her bed and just cry for us. She doesn’t get out of her bed.

Last night we decided to let her “cry it out” a little. She doesn’t really cry too hard, just kind whines and whimpers. She started that at 3:30 am. I waited probably just 5 minutes and she went back to sleep. Or so I thought.

At 5:30 am I heard her crying again. I decided to just go get her and put her in bed with us. When I opened her bedroom door it was about 150 degrees in her room. Turns out she had gotten out of bed, turned up her space heater and for some reason moved her little chair right next to the heater. This is what I saw when I went in there:

The chair was very very hot. And it seriously felt like a sauna it was so hot in her room. It makes me sick to my stomach to think of what could have happened. If she would have put one of her plastic toys next to the heater it surely would have started on fire.  Thank you Jesus for protecting our baby girl – and the rest of us!

And I guess it’s probably time to eliminate her morning nap. Not sure if that’s why she feels the need to get up in the middle of the night or not. And we definitely need to come up with an alternative to the space heater!  And I will probably never let her “cry it out” again!

5. I was writing a devotion the other day for our youth group blog and I was trying to find the scripture that says we need to be in the world but not of it.

Do you realize there is no scripture that says that? At least I couldn’t find it. I looked up every single scripture with the word “world” in it. There are many verse that imply that – to be in the world but not of it – but I always thought that was an actual Bible verse.

If there is a verse with those actual words let me know!

6. Angel does not like chocolate. No really, she doesn’t. And I also did not let her have four Dove chocolates right before bedtime.

And she does not lock herself in the bathroom with the light off. Because that would really annoy her mommy and she’d never do that.

Did I mention that she does not love chocolate. She also doesn’t love our friend (and one of her babysitters) Gloria. Really, she doesn’t.

7. Because I can’t get enough ~ here’s my little man earlier this morning as we played together in our jammies (because I have today off!).

Have a great Friday and a great weekend! Head over to Conversion Diary for more quick takes.