The "not a party" Party

This year we decided not to have a big birthday bash for Emma Claire. We did invite a few friends over to trick or treat then have dinner and cupcakes to celebrate our two year old. So of course I decorated the house for our "not a party". Ha!

Since it was also Halloween we had all of our fall decor up, and I let the hubs put out some of "his" decorations. Aka: anything scarier than mine.

From left to right: Miss Tylar the bumblebee, Emma Clarie the pink poodle, and Gracie as the cutest blue monster ever.

She had SO much fun with her friends.

We decided last minute that we would dress up too. As a frat guy/sorority girl. Sadly it wasn't too much of a stretch for us... ;-)

Friends!

Hubs turned the visor sideways...time to party ;-)

Emma Claire loves our friend Chris and Bekah so so much. Sometimes I'm pretty sure she'd rather go live with them. So naturally she was thrilled they came to celebrate her birthday.

These two were so cute together.

Mr. Jake was the only little guy at the party. They showed up after dark so I don't have any pictures of him trick or treating with the girls but he was the cutest little monkey!

After all of our friends left we had some family time, just reading books and talking with Emma Claire.

Love her little toes.

Sweetness.

Sometimes I just can't believe she's MINE.

And just like that she is TWO.

Emma Claire's Second Birthday

On October 31st, 2013 miss Emma Claire turned TWO. We had such a fun day and I can't believe I'm just now sharing the pictures.

 The exact time she was born. 7:32am.

Opening her presents. She was SO excited.

The day before her birthday we let her pick out her balloons. Naturally she chose Elmo and "cupcapes" :-)

 Happy girl with her presents.

  
After breakfast we practiced blowing out her birthday candles.

 Cupcakes for breakfast, why not?

  
Thumbs up for the lunch of champions. Chick-fil-a.

 It was Halloween...so we had to pull out the dog costumes. And let them all try some on.

 After she got up from her nap we just had a little bit of time before friends were due to come trick or treat. We finished prepping the house, and someone eyed the candy...

I wanted some birthday pictures of my TWO year old in the birthday shirt I made her. She was obviously going to make me work for it. 

Such the little sass pot. Love it. 

My sweet two year old. Still seems surreal. 

There we go. Such a stinker when it's time to take pictures. 

I just love her. 

 Celebrating Emma Claire's birthday was so fun. I will share details of her birthday night tomorrow. We didn't' do a party this year but we did have a few of her favorite people over to trick or treat, and have dinner.

Christmas Card Photoshoot 2013

A few weeks ago we had some winter family pictures taken. Read: Christmas card pictures. ;-) I am so grateful to my sweet friend Sonja who braved the cold to come snap some pictures for us. Since all of our cards have been delivered I wanted to share our pictures.

This one is just classic. I made that "NOEL" banner but was too windy for most of the shoot. I was determined to get one of her under the banner. This was the best I got. I think I love it the most. :-) 

First Snow Day 2013

Hey there. How about a little blog post? I just spent some time reading back on old blog posts from Emma Claire's baby days and I am just SO glad I did them. It makes me sad that I've stopped blogging regularly. So I'm back at it! 

We had our first big snowfall this week. Emma Claire loved it. She insisted on walking the dogs in the snow. She is always so proud when she can get the dogs to go potty. It really is the little things in life ;-)

This is "thumbs up for snow" 

About to go sledding with Daddy. 

Sledding all on her own! That's our neighbor Karen behind EC. Aka one of her favorite people on this planet. 

Dixie loves Karen too and wanted to go with. 

Sweet girl and I. No makeup and all. Snow days are perfect no-makeup days. 

Excited Face

I wish I had a more substantial blog post for ya right now. But this is all I got. Two of my most recent favorite pictures. She is so excited about everything lately and I just love it.