Pumpkins and Bday Cake

We had a special treat this week, Auntie Mary and her boyfriend Andy came over for a visit with the then soon to be birthday girl. We had plans to carve pumpkins, eat yummy pizza, and a beautiful birthday cake made by Auntie Mary. We were celebrating her birthday early because Mary won't be able to join us tomorrow for all the festivities. We definitely had a good time!

Alice was still sleeping when Mary and Andy arrived.
In true Mommy fashion I decided to take a pic of her looking like an angel.
(By the way, that's "Daddy Doll" she's sleeping with.
One of the many items that we rotate at bedtime.
If we didn't she'd be lost in a sea of stuffed animals.)

The camera flash woke her up. Good thing too, Auntie was ready to scoop her up!

We started the pumpkin carving with out Daddy. We would have been up very late if we had!
Big thanks to Andy who played photographer for the night with my camera.
I really didn't want to get pumpkin guts on it!

I thought she'd be all over touching the pumpkin guts,
but she really didn't care one way or the other.

She sure did love using the big giant spoon though!

Surprisingly she didn't loose interest once.
I thought for sure after 20 minutes she'd be ready to get out of the booster seat and go play.
She was still sitting there when Daddy got home!

She was pretty upset that I wouldn't let her use a knife herself.
I had to resort to telling her to play blocks with the pieces to distract her.

When we were done and just waiting for the pizza to arrive,
(and for Matt to finish his pumpkin)
we decided to let her open her present.
I can't wait for tonight when she opens some from us
and the one from Mike, Rae, and Kaylee
because she totally gets what presents are now.
In fact I've been dealing with constant meltdowns since the package
from AZ arrived because I won't let her open it NOW!

She very much enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to herself.
Yes, she sang it, very enthusiastically I might add, to herself.
I'm hoping she does the same thing tomorrow so I can get it on video.

And here are the pumpkins - one for every member of the family. ;)

I can't believe my little girl is TWO! It's so amazing to see how much she's grown in just two short years. They've definitely been some of the best years of my life! Well we've got a lot left to do today to get ready for tomorrow (one of the big things is making the cakes) so I should probably run. Will hopefully update with pics from tonight before I head off to bed tonight, don't hold your breath though. :)

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

I know it's been forever, should have some updates this week though as we have a lot planned. So for right now we'll just keep this post for Uncle Ryan who turns 22 today.



Hope it's a good one and we can't wait to see you!!

Uncle James Would be Proud

Ok so I'm not going to address why I've been absent because you've heard it all before from me. All that really matters is I'm posting now, right? Thought so. So tonight I decided that since we had quite a few green peppers to use up before they went bad that we'd have Texas Hash (for those of you who don't know what Texas Hash is, think the stuffing of a stuffed green pepper except a bit less meat and with the peppers cut up into it) for dinner. Man does the smell of that dish bring back memories! I can vaguely remember one night at Grandma's house and a certain Rice boy decided that he wasn't going to eat the mush Mom put in front of him. Little did he know that Mom and Dad practice cruel and unusual punishment and they made him stay at the table until the last bite (it probably took him a good hour to swallow that last one) was gone.

Alice must have the same Texas Hash hating genes that James does for as soon as I opened the lid to the pot she turned up her nose and said "Ahh dun." Pfff, at least give it a chance before you decide you hate it will you kid?! No I didn't force her to stay at the table and finish what was on her plate (had she been a few years older though this story might have a different ending), but I did make her eat about half of it before I gave in and let her have a piece of my chocolate caramel bar I saved for desert.

Though now that I think about it, Texas Hash must be an acquired taste because I remember not liking it so much when I was a kid either. I, however, was never teased for refusing to swallow a measly little mouthful of it. And I'm sure one of us had his windmill cookie for desert that night too.

My bet is on Dad.

Damn Canadians

As of late Alice has two shows that when they are on she has to see them. You already know one and that's Sesame Street. The other is this cooky one out of Canada called Caillou (pronounced Kai-You). Now I'm not a big fan of this show, but it also hasn't given me a reason to HATE it until yesterday.

You see, yesterday Caillou was making cookies with his babysitter (just happened to be the creepy old man next door) and Alice goes BONKERS wanting a cookie. Well Caillou comes on RIGHT before nap time and I wasn't about to give her one until she woke up. It was all I could do to convince her that she couldn't have one now, but if she slept good she could have one when she woke up. I eventually convinced her that this was a good idea and off she went to dreamland. Fast forward a few hours later when I hear stirring coming from her room. I enter and instead of getting greeted by lovely things like:

MOMMEEEEEYYYY! or
HIIIII MOMMA!! or even the occasional
WAAAAAHHH!
I hear:
Mommy, COOKIE?! COOKIE MOMMY?!

You would have thought I was torturing her the way she screamed and waled when I told her:
Let's change your diaper first.

I thought this would be a one time thing, but apparently I underestimated the power 4 year old Canadian CARTOON boys have over my daughter. This morning it was the same thing. No usual cute greeting, no hugs for Mommy, no cuddling for a few minutes while baby girl wakes up. The first thing out of her mouth this morning was:

COOKIE?!

Are you KIDDING me?! You're killing me kid.

FYI: I don't REALLY hate Canadians - some of my best friends are Canadian. Now Matt, HE'S another story (I'll let you decide if I meant Matt hates Canadians or if I hate Matt).

It's Self Explanitory

Expect a package from us sometime next week. I'm not quite done with your gift so it will have to be late. :) Happy Birthday Grandma Cindy!

Ok, Quit Your Whining

Just for Maggie

Doh, thought I uploaded the edited version. Oh well, I'm not going to spend another 15 minutes waiting for it to upload. Happy Birthday Maggie!