Fish Face

After a much needed nap, we headed to Bass Pro Shop to look at some boats. Libby enjoyed looking at the fish. This is her best impression of a fish.

Kitchen Nightmares

For those of you all who had never seen my "old" kitchen, these pictures might not impress you so much! My old kitchen was right out of the 1970's...complete with green cabinets and a stained glass window. Luckily, when we moved into our house, 4 year ago, we painted the cabinets, but left everything else just the same. Our counters were white with green and gold specks and like I mentioned, there was an orange, green, blue and yellow stained glass window covering. Very retro. I am pleased to report the transformation!I spent one entire weekend painting the cabinets, re-finishing all of the hardware (as you can see, that's a lot!) and painting the walls. With a new counter top, a new pantry door, a new light fixture (bye-bye 1980's mirrored light) our kitchen looks like it finally belongs in this decade! We still need a few "finishing touches", but are proud of the finished product!

Libby's Mickey Mouse Birthday Party

Ever since we got back from Disney World, Libby has wanted a Mickey Mouse Birthday party (which was highly encouraged by Mommy and Daddy who couldn't stomach the thought of a Dora the Explorer party!). She was so excited and was really into her birthday this year. I just image it getting more exciting each year!

Most of you all who know me, know that I have a tendency to go overboard for parties. Here is the cake table, complete with a Mickey cake, cookies and a personalized banner.

The highlight of my food this year was a edible arrangement fruit basket. I had priced something very similar for over $60, so decided that I could make it for less than $25. If the nursing thing ever falls through, I'm thinking of starting a business! Look hard to find the Mickey, flower, fruit and moon shaped fruit.

And what would a Mickey Mouse party be without Mickey shaped Rice Krispie Treats dipped in chocolate?

My centerpieces...M&M filled vases. Yummy and cute!
The food spread...thanks to Nonna, Pop, Mimi and Mema for pitching in! We had delicious BBQ, Fried Chicken, Mac & Cheese, Potatoes, Green Beans, Slaw, homemade salsa...and...well, you get the idea.

Before the party started, Libby got one of her first presents from Nonna & Pop. A few weeks ago when Libby spent the weekend at their house, she "rode" Grace's cane like a horse. Nonna & Pop searched high and low to find her a stick horse...she loved it (and thanks, Nonna! We almost had to bring it to gymnastics with us last night!) Above, Pop and Libby take it for a ride around the house.

Getting ready to blow out her candles.

Libby did a great job opening her presents (with a little help from her friends). This was an absolute work of art....Libby would open the present, Ally would read the card and Sophia would clean up the wrapping paper. What's going to work? Teamwork!
Thanks to everyone for coming and for her awesome gifts! She is so lucky to have you all in her lives! We love you all!

Happy Birthday, Dear Libby!

Today was Libby's 3rd Birthday! It is absolutely amazing to me how fast time flies. It almost takes my breath away when I think about how grown up she is and how much she is changing into a little girl each day. I think I heard it said best today when a friend of mine said, "It's so exciting and so sad at the same time".

Today I woke her up singing "Happy Birthday". She got so excited and exclaimed, "I'm three today!" She started to lay back down into her bed and put her thumb in her mouth when she said, "Oh, I'm three today and can't suck my thumb". So far, so good!

After work, we headed to gymnastics with an entire cheering section, Nonna, Pop, Mimi and Pop joined the normal on-lookers. Above, it's easy to see where Libby gets her balance.

Nonna, Pop, Mimi and Pop were all pretty impressed with her gymnastic skills. She would do her task and then look up in the stands and make sure that everyone saw her! She even did a flip into the "cheese pit" like she said she would (she previously stated that she couldn't do it until she was three!)

After SIGS, we headed to "The Yellow Cactus" for dinner and a few presents. Even though her party isn't until Sunday, we thought it would be rude to make her wait until then to open anything...so we let her open her gifts from her grandparents and some from us.

Check out that awesome homemade cake from Cousin Dana! It looks like something out of a magazine and was delicious! I love this look (to Pop) while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her!

Blowing out her "3" (dumb me didn't turn it around for the picture!)As you may know, we are currently going through some testing to determine if she has an egg allergy. After one bite of something with eggs, she wipes off her tongue and says, "it's yucky" or "this has eggs in it". She has had a few pretty bad spells, breaking out and swelling up. Needless to say, she was not able to enjoy her cake, but ate the whip cream icing from Nonna's cake and a Popsicle.

Happy Birthday, Monka!

Show us those pearly whites!

Today we took Libby Grace to the dentist for her first ever check-up. I had very low expectations, and actually told myself that if she sat in the chair and didn't scream that I'd be impressed! Luckily, we had been reading "Dora goes to the Dentist" for about a week, preparing for the big moment! Libby could even name some of the equiptment (like an "Explorer") that she learned from the book. It made it a lot less scary for her!

Our good friend, Rikki is the office manager of the office we went to. I think it helped that she saw a familiar face. Here she is getting geared up for the cleaning. Look how serious she is!Ready to open up and say "ahh".

These pictures turned out sort of dark because of the lighting, but nonetheless, it shows off how cooperative that Libby Grace was being. She has 10 teeth on the top and 10 on the bottom.

The dentist said that she wasn't worried about the thumb-sucking (but we are!). Libby told her that when she's three, next week, that she'll quit. I still say we might need a 12-step program!

They were so great with her--let her pick out tons of toys (thanks, Rikki!) and really made this a good first experience. If anyone wants information about this great pediatric dentist, let me know.

SIGS

In a few weeks, Libby will no longer be in the "Parent/Tot" class at SIGS! After almost 2 years of tumbling, obstacle courses, jumps and "play time" with us by her side, she is going to graduate to the bigger class...where she'll go out all by herself. I don't know who's more excited...Libby Grace or Momma & Daddy (now we can sit out and visit with our friends!)

We think it's pretty apparent that Libby is going to be a "teacher's pet"...which makes us confident that she'll do well in the next session without parents. Here she is with Miss Chris, practicing her "bigs and littles".

After class, we went to Big Boy for soup and salad. Our little girl wanted to meet the Big Boy!

May the 4th Be With You!

4th of July weekend, Shawn, Sarah, Justin, Gary, Libby and I headed down to the lake for a soggy weekend. We took full advantage of the warm and sunny weather on Friday and went out on the boat. The water was amazingly warm and it was not too crowded out on the lake, especially for a holiday weekend.

All of that swimming makes a gal hungry. She was double fisting pretzels and twizlers.This was the first year that we let Libby have sparklers (Daddy was a nervous wreck!) We spent most of the 4th under the lovely tarp-porch handcrafted by yours truly. Between rain showers we went on go-cart, 4-wheeler and golf-cart rides, ate, drank and laughed our butts off. We sure did miss having JP around, though....he is always good for a laugh (or someone to make fun of!)

J-Dog and Libby Grace on the 4-wheeler.

What a soggy, but fun long weekend!