Jillian is 2!!

Thursday was not only Thanksgiving Day, but our little Jillian's 2nd birthday! WE didn't really celebrate that day, because of the holiday, but we sure did the next night! It seems that in our family, we tend to group birthdays. Steve, Andy and I all get one party in August. Katie, Juliet and Jillian celebrate all together in November. Mom and Paul actually get to have their birthdays alone. Anyway, we had a party for all the birthday ladies Friday night and it was a blast! As you can imagine, Jilly kinda stole the show, but hey, she's just that cute. :-)

We got the night rolling with a tantrum when Auntie Katie wouldn't let her play with the camera. Yeah, she's just kinda 2.


One of the things I was most excited for was the 'No Man Cake. When Katie was 3, she was obsessed with Snowmen, or as she called them "'No men". For her birthday, my mom made her a No Man cake and she got a No Man ornament for Christmas. This year, Mom offered to make a coconut cake for the party. We were trying to think of ways to make it more fun for a 2 year old, and Mom remembered 'No Men. So a 'No Man Cake came to be! It was a collaborative effort for sure. Mom and Katie baked it. Mom cut and frosted it. I "snowed" it with coconut. Paul bought all the embellishments. Then Mom and I decorated it. (Yeah, Mom did most of the work.) It came out SUPER CUTE!



My mom, amazing seamstress that she is, also made Jilly this BEE-YEW-TEE-FULL dress!! She saw the pink ribbon fabric and dreamed up the rest of the dress. We found the rest of the material bit by bit and a pattern to work, then she just adjusted it to her specifications. It came out absolutely lovely and suits Jilly just perfectly, color, shape and all. Mom is still going to add some embellishments to the bodice and make some hairbows, but the dress itself is all together. Isn't it just gorgeous?!


The first present Jilly wanted to open (and I mean that, she dragged the bag off the table) was from her parents. She reached in and pulled out this!


Yep, we got her a dump truck! I think it's way fun and it has duplo-block thingies she can stack or put in the back. She LOVED it right away and ignored the rest of us for like 10 minutes, pushing it all around the kitchen.


You can't see Katie at all, but this is the pretty scarf she got. She asked for one, since it's cold over there in Pullman and she needs to keep her neck warm! It's also kinda silky and big enough to use as a pajmina (did I spell that right?) for fancy occasions.


Auntie Katie got Jilly a very exciting gift. A fairy wings dress up set! Complete with wings, tutu and wand, and all in its own nifty case too. How fun!


Jilly helped open her last present from Auntie Juliet. It was a nice leggings & velour top outfit. The top is ice blue and the leggings are cream with blue and purple stripes. I can't wait to put her in it.


After the presents were over, it was time to play with the loot! We put the wings on Jilly and handed her the wand. She immediately (and I'm not kidding on that) headed over to the mirror to check herself out. She would go over, then turn so she could look at the back! Hysterical!


Check out the awesome wand.


The little fairy ran off to cuddle with her Granny and Grandpa for a few minutes.




Later, after No Man Cake, we put on the tutu as well and let her run around in her full regalia. She had such a good time showing off for everyone.


And I thought she was the most adorable thing EVER!


She even went over to her Auntie Juliet to ask to be picked up.


And here's a final shot of the back of the fairy wings.


I didn't get any pictures of her blowing out the cake with my camera, because the dratted battery died in the middle of the night. But I got some with my mom's so as soon as I get them to me, I will post them here. They're precious with the candlelight on her face.

We had a wonderful night celebrating all the birthdays. Our little girl is pretty much the luckiest little girl in the world, to have so many people who love her and want to make her happy. We love our Jilly Beans!!

Been a little occupied

Has it really been over 3 weeks since I last blogged on here? Shame on me! Unfortunately, you're not getting anything exciting.

Jilly will be 2 next week and I can't believe it!! Wasn't it just like a month ago that I was moaning and whining about being 9 months pregnant for Thanksgiving and desperately trying to get the baby OUT of me? And now she's two?! She's throwing tantrums and being Little Miss Independent (shocking). If she doesn't want to do something she shrieks, "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" and flops face down onto the ground. Which usually sends us into giggles. Not sure if that's sending the right message to her, but what else are you gonna do? Get upset over it? Laughing is better. At least I think so. ;-) Jillian has also developed this new trick of grabbing my hand and pulling me off the couch and leading me to what she wants. The usual suspects are the kitchen (for food and/or drink) and her bedroom (for bed and/or diaper change). Yes my kid (sometimes) asks to be put to bed. Hands down, usually the highlight of my day when that happens. But strangely, she only does it to me, not to Steve. Well, just another one to add to that list. But she still is our happy, sunny little Beanie Breath and we love her more than we ever thought. :-)

Steve and I aren't up to very much. We're both plugging away at work and Church. Steve fills his Saturdays with lots of college football (HOOK 'EM HORNS!), that is when he hasn't been roped into working. I am still working at the same place, same hours. I've been rather tired as of late, so Steve's had to pick up the slack at home. Luckily, he doesn't mind too much and is always happy to serve his girls. But I don't think there is much else going on with us. We're boring.

So that is my mini-update. I felt bad I hadn't blogged in awhile, so this is my Band-Aid fix. Hopefully, I'll get back in the swing of things soon. Until then, persevere my loyal subjects.