Lainey is 3!

(Okay, so I wrote this post on Lainey's actual birthday buuuut I'm just getting around to posting it.  OOPS!)

I've heard it said about life with kids that the days are long but the years are short.  I couldn't agree more with that statement today as we celebrated Lainey's 3rd birthday.  That steamy weathered, long, long summer day I spent 3 years ago in a hospital room seems like just yesterday.  Never would I have imagined what life would look like being the mom of a 3 year old girl - a sensitive, bright, intuitive, early rising, princess loving, soft hearted girl.

We started out the birthday celebrating the weekend before with some family time.  My parents came down with my niece Claire.  Unfortunately, my nephew Will was sick so he and Emily had to stay back :(

Lainey's birthday dinner choice was Hickory Park.  No complaints here!

Birthday treat #1...

And #2.  I tried my hand for the first time at homemade buttercream.  Um, yes.  Never buying a can of frosting again!

 

Excitement abounds.  It was as delicious as it looked!

Lainey's 3rd birthday also marks the 1 year of anniversary of us living in our new house, which seems CRAAAZY to me because it still feels new.  Though, the scuff marks and hand prints on the flat painted walls remind me otherwise...  Since last year, we couldn't really offer her the celebration we would have liked, we hoped to make up for it a bit this year.  

Our little early bird was up with the sun.  How can you sleep when you know it's your birthday?!

We let her enjoy opening some birthday presents right away.

Princess helmets are pretty cool when you're 3.

You can see in her right hand is a roll of bubble gum.  She had been asking for months to try gum and we said we'd let her try when she turned 3.  Yeah, don't do that.  She swallowed it.  A few times.

7:00 AM scooter ride!  She scored this sweet scooter from her Ma and Papa over the weekend.  The helmet really completes this ensemble I'd say.  Safety first!

Jed took the day off and we decided we'd take a family day to the Iowa State Fair!  We headed to the Capitol complex to park and ride because when you're 3 and 1.5, the bus ride to the fair is almost as exciting as the fair itself.

(They look so big in this picture, I can't even handle it.)

We hit all of the great kid spots - Animal Learning Center, Little Hands on the Farm, etc.

 Then, Wyatt had had enough.  Passed out with cotton candy in hand.

 We took the birthday girl for an ice cream treat while Wy snoozed in the stroller.

But even the sugar rush couldn't keep her awake.

Then Wyatt woke up!

I'm proud to say we actually lasted over 6 hours at the fair.  My expectation was 3, maybe 4 so I was excited.  It was nice that the kids napped at different times so that we could do and see more and we gave each kiddo a special experience and treat (Wyatt got a fair square but I didn't get a pic :).  The pregnant lady got a treat too... mmm... cheese curds. :)

We rounded out the birthday with some bike practice.  The helmet gave her some crazy new confidence and she's a pro now!

Like I said, last year Lainey's birthday was overshadowed a bit with the move.  I don't remember exactly how the conversation flowed but Lainey pretty much decided on and planned a birthday party all on her own.  I don't even remember if I offered to throw her a birthday party to be honest, but she had the idea and we went with it!

Her requests were "just girls" and she wanted to "paint nails" ... easy enough!

So with a little help from pinterest, we kicked the boys out of the house and went with a spa theme!

A little craft to make some fancy flip flops!

The nail station complete with a foot bath!

Lainey has some of the cutest little gal pals!  The girls all had a really fun time and it was so cute to watch them play together - many of these little ladies have siblings and several of them have brothers so it was extra fun to have just mommies and girls I think!  I can't wait to try to recreate this picture in 5 or 10 years!

All in all, we had a fabulous time celebrating our sweet girl.  Birthdays are so fun to me.  It was especially fun that she had a greater awareness of the fact that it was HER day and we were celebrating her.  She was incredibly thankful for each gift she received and has been so excited to enjoy them too.  Blessed to be her mom and excited to see what the Lord has in store for her life this next year!

Cousin fun!

One of my most favorite things about having children and being a mom these past almost 2 years has been sharing that experience with my sister, Emily.  Emily has 2 little ones, a lovely little girl, Claire who is 10 months older than Lainey and a sweet new baby boy, Will, who is 3 months younger than Wyatt.  I think it's so funny how we both have an older girl and a younger boy - it is just too fun.  We both have great memories from growing up that involve spending time with our cousins and we hope our kids will have the same - that they'll enjoy playing together and growing up together and making fun memories together.

Emily sacrificially and bravely made a cross country trip ALONE with her babes so that I/we could all meet Will and enjoy a visit together.  Traveling with kids is no small task.  Jimminy, I sometimes struggle to travel to the library with my kids, but Emily had to take 2 flights each way and did it with relative ease.  I am SO SO SO thankful she did.  We had a great visit.  I was even able to go to Minnesota with the kids to my parents for a few days to spend some quality time with Em and the kids.

Baby Will is so so so cute.  He is just a peanut.  Wyatt could eat him.

Claire and Lainey picked up right off where they left off the last time we saw each other in August.  Claire and Will (as well as Em and Bud) are daily conversation topics in our house, so I knew they'd warm up easily.  First thing we did was walk to the park by my parents house!

The boys weren't impressed.

Lainey pretty much did everything Claire did, just a few steps behind.

Except for when it came to the iPad ... Lainey was showing Claire the ropes.

We enjoyed a trip to the Como Zoo one day too.  Not many of the animals were out but the girls still had a good time and did a TON of walking!

Crazy how much this crew grows and changes every few months!  Can you believe we got them all to sit still? :)

We spent 4 days in Minnesota, had one day back in Des Moines to ourselves and then my parents, Em and the kids came down to Iowa to visit our family here!  More time together!  Yeah!

This Papa is pretty proud to have 2 extra handsome grandsons!

We were able to spend some time Saturday in Pella, one of my favorite places on earth, to see the tulips!

Claire... she is just the cutest.

Claire running and Lainey trying to keep up :)  Not only is Claire fast, and 10 months older, but Lainey insisted on wearing her rain boots, per her usual, which definitely slow her down :)

Just the CUTEST...!  Lainey loves holding Wy like this, for about 15 seconds, and then he gets a good shove.

Here's Miss Claire showing off her flower from church on Sunday!

We had a fabulous visit with the Thomas clan and wish Bud could have joined us for the crazy fun.  We are already looking forward to July when we hope to make a trip out to North Carolina again!

Vacation!

We just got back from our long awaited trip to North Carolina to visit my sister Emily, her husband Bud and their sweet daughter Claire.  I am not exaggerating when I say we had the BEST time!  Emily and Bud are fabulous hosts - we slept well, ate well and had an all around terrific time.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit anxious about a few different aspects of the trip - flying with an 11 month old, new and different sleeping arrangements, etc. but everything went so well and for that, I am SO thankful!  Lainey was a CHAMP flying - we had 1 lay over both there and back, so of the 4 flights we took, she slept through the majority of 3 of them.  She just laid her sweaty little baby head on my shoulder and drifted off to sleepy world.  And the first flight that she didn't sleep through, she just ate snacks, looked at books and played with her cute little baby iPad apps (not joking, they exist).

Sleeping like a baby!

Happy girl enjoying a snack!

The majority of the 5 days were spent playing, playing and playing some more for Lainey and Claire.  Which meant the 4 adults spent the majority of our time watching, helping and intervening when necessary.  (We also got to relax and watch movies at night!  So fun!)  They had so much fun together!  Claire has the BEST toy collection and Lainey was loving especially all of her Little People animals and Mickey Mouse figurines!

Lainey really didn't take long at all to warm up to Auntie Em, Uncle Bud and even their dog Lacey.  Of course,  a little bribing never hurts... especially when it involves food...

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jed got some good one on one time with Claire one morning while her momma had some errands to run.  She is just the sweetest and she makes the cutest faces!

There is nothing cuter than kids in the bath tub!

The impossible task of getting 2 kids under 2 to look at the camera at the same time...Sigh.

Friday was Emily's birthday!  We celebrated the night before by going out to dinner at Applebee's (her choice - not ours - and if you're wondering, they took my favorite thing off the menu - BOO for no more oriental chicken roll up!).  We didn't really pack anything for Lainey to eat for dinner so we ordered Lainey a kid's meal for the first time - macaroni and cheese (don't judge me).  She ate the ENTIRE thing.  All of it.  She only dropped maybe 5 noodles on the ground.  The girl is serious about her food.  We were giggling at her the whole time as she shoved fistfulls of macaroni into her mouth all while wearing her hoodie up.

Lainey had to sit back and relax after that huge meal!

Another highlight (especially for Jed) was visiting base, Camp Lejeune, and getting to see where Bud works and the ordnance library (bombs, explosives and the like).  I have a hard time wrapping my head around exactly what Bud does as an EOD tech (explosive ordnance disposal) but it's fascinating to listen to him talk about his job and his most recent deployment.  I'm just thankful that the Lord kept him safe for 7 months and allowed him to keep all of his arms and legs intact (as it is not always the case for many EODs).

Just a little shopping trip at the exchange on base

Chow time with the Dads!

Lainey got some good practice at cruising around furniture and walking with the stroller while we were there too!

Sunday we went to the beach!  Bud and Emily live about 15 minutes from the ocean (can you imagine?!?) and while it's still a lot of work to pack up and take 4 adults and 2 kids under 2, it's close enough that we didn't feel bad about only being there for an hour and a half.  It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day!  Claire is a riot at the beach - the girl has no fear!  Lainey was a bit unsure at first but I'd say she enjoyed herself.  I think of everyone, Jed enjoyed himself the most of all.

I just can't get over how cute she looks in that hat.

[Do you like how I strategically placed Lainey in front of my belly? Ha!]

By the end of our visit, Lainey had 2 new best friends (besides Claire...)

Uncle Bud!

Auntie Em!

As a parent, you just LOVE your kids and you know how wonderful and special your children are (even though you might be a little teeny bit biased) but it's also just really fun to share that joy with people you love.  Auntie Em and Uncle Bud completely ADORE Lainey and we feel the same about Miss Claire.  It was so fun to have so many days to share together!

Jed kept saying that Jacksonville, NC is going to be our new vacation destination hot spot and I couldn't agree more!  It's not a place to visit and appreciate for the scenery or restaurants, but there are 3 people there we love very much and that is reason enough for us to go!