Happy 2nd Birthday Emily!

While the boys were off camping, the girls were off celebrating baby Emily's second birthday! We headed to the new house and Lila walked right in and started eating. Who would have thought?

Emily was excited about her party dress, and to show off her dancing moves! She had a lot of room in the new house to twirl and jam out. We didn't get a lot of pictures, since I was keeping Lila fed and off the stairs. But once presents started, Lila was super excited about Emily's tricycle! While we were all eating cake, she hopped on it to try!

She was also happy to be fed cake (and any other food) by Uncle Eric. She shared a plate with me, had cake, and then took a handful of macaroni off of Jeni's plate too! Silly hungry baby!

Happy birthday sweet girl!

Happy 2nd Birthday Lindsey!

We took a quick trip to the other side of Winston-Salem for a sweet little girl's 2nd birthday party! Hayden loves new friends and has never met a stranger, so he was WAY excited to go to a party.

Lindsey was a shy little birthday princess but once we were there a bit she started to warm up. It warmed up outside and once the toys were out, everyone had a good time!

Lindsey really liked handing me Lila's cup, which Lila kept throwing down so it gave us a lot of time to bond :-) Lila liked driving the car so she spent most of the time in there.

The birthday girl was extra sassy in her "invisible" sunglasses and princess hat! She is too cute.

She was super good at opening presents! You can tell she's had some practice. Once they were all opened, the bubble machine was filled and open for business!

The kids all had a great time, and the mommies got to catch up a little too!

Hayden's birthday party

What a great set of events we had to celebrate this little guy's birthday! On his actual birthday, we took cupcakes and juice to school so his class could celebrate his birthday. They had a sign on the door for him and he was super excited about it! When he got home, he and dad went to Target to pick out a special toy, and then onto the Coliseum for Disney on Ice. It was a great line-up: Cars, Toy Story, Little Mermaid and the fairies. Jay sent me a few pics from the event, and Hayden brought home popcorn and a fun light-up toy!

On Friday some of our dearest friends from the Army came to stay with us for the weekend. Addie was Hayden's first girlfriend (at under year old) and this was the third birthday she was here for. We caught up with them for a few minutes before heading to Monkey Joe's to party!

Hayden was really excited to have his birthday at a "bouncy place". When we got there we dropped the presents and cake off in the room and headed out to play. He was happy to see his cousins, other family, school friends and my friends there to help him celebrate!

He was super excited for cake and presents, and when Monkey Joe himself came in to wish him a happy birthday and bring his "first present". He still reminds me that Monkey Joe gave him the first present, before he opened any others. So cute! After lots of jumping and games and cake, we headed back home with the King girls in tow!

Once we settled in, we had pajamas and pizza and movies and were ready for a sleepover! The kids played, the moms talked and we all went to bed exhausted but happy! Our friends left the next afternoon and we were sad to see them go, but glad they made it out to see us!

I hope Hayden remembers this birthday as one of the best ever!

Back tracking a bit

In my haste to keep you all up with our lives via the blog, I left out our Welcome Home Party!! Monique threw us a welcome home party the first weekend in December. This was a chance for us to see a lot of old friends all in one place, and enjoy the hospitality of one of my favorite hostesses. She had invited friends from Salem, people we worked with and of course, Uncle Ben. We had a great time catching up with everyone, and Hayden had a blast going up and down her stairs and watching "How to Train Your Dragon" on the big tv upstairs. There was tons of food, lots of sangria and great efforts at keeping Lucy from eating our food. I can't wait for Lucy to meet Oscar. We just can't tell Emma...

We also got our first taste of NC snow! It snowed for almost the whole day without being a dreadful mess. Just enough to blanket the ground and trees with the white stuff, but not enough to make the roads too dangerous. My favorite kind of snow! We are now waiting for the next round so we can take Hayden out sledding in it. Last year we didn't do too much out in the stuff because Hayden was still pretty unsure of it and dad wasn't home to do all the fun things. But this year we are armed with snowsuit and gear (and new tires!) and can't wait to get out and play in it. Most likely we'll get a few flakes here and there and maybe a good snow or two, but you can't expect this old NC gal to get too excited about winter weather. We left Germany, right?