Eden's 2nd Birthday!

When Eden turned one, I was so upset.  When Eden turned two, not at all!  I am SO DANG EXCITED about this coming year.  In my opinion, it doesn't get much cuter than two.  I am so looking forward to watching her vocabulary and personality blossom.  Ahhhhhh, seriously so happy that I have a two year old!

We had the sweetest day on Eden's birthday.  Of course, I had it all planned out in my head for weeks leading up to it, but unlike Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when nothing went the way I had planned, everything was perfect on Eden's second birthday!

When she woke up that morning, her room was filled with balloons.

She ran around kicking them.  I have the cutest video of her doing it on my phone.  But I have no idea how to ever get videos from my phone onto the computer!

Then I brought her downstairs so that she could see her present from me and Dustin - her very own kitchen!

A lot of my pictures seem to have animals in them.

I bought Eden's kitchen MONTHS ago.  It's been out in the shop, in a box, in a thousand million pieces.  All week leading up to her birthday, I was all, "Dustin, can you please put the kitchen together?  Dustin, I want her to see it when she wakes up that morning, will you put it together tonight?  Dustin, Eden's birthday is in two days, when are you going to put her kitchen together?  Dustin, I think it's going to take a lot longer than you think, you may wanna go ahead and start doing it.  Dustin, please just put the kitchen together so we don't have to worry about it."  And he was all, "yeah, yeah, yeah".  I was so tired the night before Eden's birthday and announced to Dustin and my mom (who was here helping me get things ready for Eden's party) that I was going to bed EARLY that night.  But of course, that's when Dustin finally decided to drag out the kitchen to put together.  Then he saw that there were a thousand million pieces and told me that it was a two person job.  You can imagine, I was not pleased.  "ARE YOU KIDDING ME I'VE BEEN ASKING YOU TO PUT THIS STUPID THING TOGETHER FOR DAYS AND YOU WOULDN'T DO IT AND NOW WHEN I'M TIRED AND WANT TO GO TO BED BECAUSE WE HAVE A BIG DAY TOMORROW YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME STAY UP AND HELP YOU WHEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS ALREADY!!!!!"  It took HOURS to put together.  There was a lot of cussing.  We had to open a bottle of wine to make it through.  Good times. 

Moving on... while Eden was playing with her new kitchen, I made pancakes.  Then we sang Happy Birthday to our girl.

She took a few bites of pancakes and then wanted peas.

Birthday girls always get what they want.

Shortly after breakfast, the bouncy house for Eden's party arrived, and Eden and I got to play on it for about an hour before guests started arriving for her party.

**** important to notice:  Eden can now have ponytails!  Spoiler Alert:  It did not survive to the end of the party.

We had the sweetest little ladybug party.  The weather was perfect.  Dustin made amazinnngggg hamburgers.  Eden had tons of little friends to run around with.  We are so thankful to all of our friends and family who came to celebrate our precious girl with us.  Here are a few of the many, MANY pictures from the day.

I was in love with her cake!  I am so happy with how it turned out.  I seriously stressed about this cake.  I knew I wouldn't have time that morning to go pick it up, so I sent my dad.  I was so nervous that it wasn't going to survive the twenty-five minute drive and two railroad track crossings.  I even had a dream a few days before the party that her cake didn't make it.  But it did, and it was beautiful.  And delicious.

 loved these little guys

Drake - always wanting to get in on the action.

While she was opening gifts, I kept thinking to myself, "I'm so glad I have a girl!"  I think I was almost as excited as she was about all the Minnie Mouse and Disney Princess and pink stuff!

 trying out her first pair of high heels (she did pretty good; I was impressed!)

 

After all of our party guests went home, Eden spent the afternoon playing with her new toys and jumping a little bit more in the bouncy house.  Eden had one heck of a good day, and she fell asleep that evening at 5:45 and didn't wake up until 7:15 the next morning!

 

A few hours after Eden's party ended, we found out that Dustin's grandmother had passed away.  It was not a shock; we knew it was coming.  She was ninety-six years old and suffering from Alzheimer's.  God knew what He was doing when He brought her home on Eden's birthday.  I find it so incredibly sweet and comforting that it happened on that day.  It seemed to make Eden's new little life all the more precious.  When I found out, I was so happy for Nanny - her suffering had ended and she was reunited with her husband.  She was a remarkable woman, and we will miss her.  I'm pretty sure it was from her that Dustin inherited his amazing cooking skills.

 

Eden ended up getting to wear my Christmas dress from way back when after all.

Blurry iPhone photos are the best I could manage that day.  And she has crazy hair from sleeping in her carseat.

 

And now we head into the year of two.  YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!