Happy Birthday, Smiley Girl

We had Shelby Claire's Second Birthday party a month early.  Baby #3 is due on her birthday, February 21st, but even though we knew we were having a scheduled c-section on the 15th, we wanted to give this special girl a party just for her. I can imagine that those few weeks after the baby is born will be a little hectic.

I am so glad we did! We had the party at a Mexican restaurant that we frequent about once or twice a week. I order chicken fajitas and split them with Audrey and Clay. We order a kids cheese quesadilla with rice and beans for little miss Shelby Claire and she *could* eat the entire plate by herself. She loves Mexican food-- just like her momma!

We invited our families to celebrate and thankfully my mom, Clay's parents, his grandmother, his brother and sister-in-law and son, Garrett,  were all able to make the 2+ hour drive to help us love on Shelby Claire. She was thrilled with every little detail of the party!

I love this picture. She looks like she is just in complete awe of that cake!! Our theme was "Over the Rainbow" and each layer of her cake was a different color. A friend of Too Too's made it for us and it turned out so cute!

Our precious girl is just like her sister in many ways but one major difference between the two of them is that our Shelby Claire loves to eat! She really enjoyed her cake!!

 Each time she would open a present, she would "ooohh and ahhhh" over whatever it was. It was so obvious she was absolutely thrilled with the entire party!!

In this picture, she is kissing her new baby doll from Aunt Melissa, Uncle Shad and Garrett.

 "ooooooooo, ahhhhhhhhh"

 More "ooohing and aching"!!!

 Big Sister is always willing to help Shelby Claire with whatever she needs help with-- including opening her presents! :) I think Audrey had as much fun as Shelby Claire at the party!

Although the party was one of the more "laid-back" parties that we've hosted, it is at the top of the list of parties that were enjoyed the most by the child. Shelby Claire and her precious little two-year-old self made the party a hit!! 

On a side note, my camera BROKE right when the party started!!! I have NO PICTURES that were taken with my camera at all! Melissa saved the day and took all of these pictures with her iphone. You can't even tell the difference between them and my camera!! I have some other pictures that I took with my phone and Too Too took some with hers. As soon as I figure out how, I will add those to this post. 

Snow!!!

The last time I remember it snowing enough for us to make a snowman was when I was about 8 months pregnant with Shelby Claire. It was in 2010 and Audrey was just a tiny little two year old. 

You can see those adorable pictures here: 

Christmas 2010

Fast forward to yesterday, again, I am 8 months pregnant and it snowed just enough for us to make a nice snowman! :D This was Shelby Claire's first snow encounter and she was thrilled by the "no"!! 

Clay is in the middle of an outage at work but due to the snow "blizzard" had to come home early. I bundled the girls up and tried to wait for him but it took him 2.5 hours to make his normal 50 minute trip! I was pretty apprehensive about being out there with the girls and my big 'ole pregnant self (I was afraid I would fall, they would fall, etc.. just worry, worry!) but they could.not.wait! 

 I'm not sure what it is about children but they don't get cold. I was shivering and practically turning myself inside out and all they were doing was running and squealing and plopping themselves down in the middle of it all!!

 When we went out, it was snowing pretty heavily and was getting in the girls' eyes. I do believe that if it hadn't been coming down so hard, we would still be out there right now.

 After about 20 minutes of being out there with just Mommy, we came back inside and stripped down. Our clothes were soaking wet and Shelby Claire had a tiny bit of a grumpy attitude. We decided to wait for Daddy and for the snow to stop coming down. When Clay finally made it home, that's when the real fun began for the girls!!

They immediately jumped out there and started making a snowman- I went along and was the official photographer!

 Monkey see.. Monkey do! :)

 Throwing a snowball she made!

  Shelby Claire was in heaven!! Well, she was until she saw what her Daddy was using as the snowman's mouth (a banana)!  It was all down-hill for her after that-- she wanted to eat that banana and couldn't get it off her mind. I even went inside and got her another one but she wanted "dis one" (the snowman's mouth).

 See her face?!? She's sooo upset over that "ninny". Not my precious Audrey though!! She was absolutely thrilled with everything we did!

We ended up having to come inside and have a banana. Then we stripped them down and they got to go "swimming" in our garden tub to warm up! It was a GREAT DAY despite me being hugely pregnant!!! Maybe next time it snows like this, I can get down and make a snow angel with the girls!

What's Important....

....to AUDREY!! When Shelby Claire was born, she gave Audrey a digital camera. Audrey has renewed her interest in taking pictures and this blog post is what she feels is worthy to be photographed! I love each one of these pictures!!