Diedre's 2nd Birthday Party

Diedre turns TWO on February 26th. We decided to celebrate early with a small family party because Auntie M was visiting from California for just two days.

tasty kitty cake

the setup

i decided to have diedre open gifts throughout the party so she could play with each one without having to rush on to the next one. it worked really well and she didnt get overwhelmed with gifts. i will definitely try this method again. unfortunately, i didnt get pictures of her opening all the gifts because i was videotaping mostly.

here she is playing with her new larger, magnet doodle toy

she wanted to put baby inside her new jacket (just like mom and grandma do when we sling baby ezekiel).

she's pretty excited about carrying her baby like this.

Auntie M enjoying baby zeke

she loves cheesies and her giggling Elmo chair from Auntie M.

waiting for more cheesies

blowing out her candle (it didnt stick into the cake very well, so i had to help a little).

miles and diedre enjoying cake (well, the candy on top mostly)

here diedre's asking "where's miles? where's grandma?" because they had to leave the party a little early.

opening another present (behind her is some play food, books and a top from Miles and in front of her on the floor is a new train track from Grandma and Grandpa).

art supplies!

baby brother. he's such a happy baby!

Auntie M Visits From California

diedre hasn't seen her Auntie M (derek's sister) since she was 5 and a half months old. they reconnected very quickly...she's alot like daddy, loves to play and tickle!

diedre pretends to go potty

the Salmon massage line

princess diedre

she took a break from watching her show to go put on a princess dress.

here she is dancing

Valentine's Day

Here are my two sick (with bad colds) and sleeping babies

although diedre was quite sick, i managed to get her to help me decorate cookies for daddy. this is my first time making Valentine cookies, although i bought the cookie cutter several years ago with the intention of baking but my Pampered Chef Cookie Press was my favorite cookie tool back then.

diedre was asleep by the time daddy came home.

here ezekiel is getting his first card from mommy. derek buys for deidre and i buy for zeke.

he loved the book i got for him (diedre loves it too).

derek finally enticed a very grumpy (read: sick n' grumpy) diedre to open her gifts.

she loves her new monkey. she even tries to share her with ezekiel.

ahhh, chocolate :D

making pizza with daddy

Toddler Gym

here she is blocking a goal in the toddler soccer game ;D

walking on the balance beam

playing with hoola hoops

Grandma tries to show her a thing or two

ezekiel is not impressed

parachute fun!

here she is putting her whole body into it...she kept getting nearly lifted off the ground!

biiig smile

outside with daddy

cool tiger on the outside, lion on the inside coat

cute slinging baby

kiddos

david and diedre hanging out watching TV (yes, diedre is wearing big girl undies over her pjs).


another manly-man shot of ezekiel :D

finally outdoors!

sliding on our back porch


ezekiel sleeps soundly inside


diedre is such a careful artist


here is some of her work

loving the bouncy seat

happy baby

diedre really wanted to wear her "princess" dress again today. but i signed her up for a Toddler Gym class so i figured she should wear something a little more sporty. i dug through her summer dresses looking for a stretchy cotton one. i convinced her that she should wear this other princess dress and some princess pants too :D

thankfully, for all my lack of sleep, i can still outsmart my toddler!

i forgot the camera (ezekiel was crying hard) so next week i'll try to get pictures of the toddler gym. it was cute and she had fun.

long pigtails

i heard diedre say "princess" while looking at her dress. she cried and said it again when we tried to change her for bed.

diedre's brother

my brother!