Hailee and Hannah's 2nd Birthday!

Hailee and Hannah's 2nd birthday is today!  I cannot even believe our little babies are now two years old!  It is so crazy to think about the past two years.  These babes have been such a joy in our lives.  They have made everything a little more crazy for us and they definitely keep me on my toes!  But I would not change anything one bit.  I am so in love with our big, crazy, happy family.

If you remember last year, we had a 1st birthday party planned for our sweet girls and they ended up in the hospital with RSV over the party date.  You can read about that experience here.  Hailee and Hannah having no party thrown for them as of yet was the perfect reason for us to go all out for their 2nd birthday party!  I have been planning their party for weeks.  I had one goal in mind for the party:  I wanted them to have FUN!  I really wanted the spotlight to be on them for the day.  I wanted to have their favorite food, their favorite friends, their favorite everything.  I prayed and prayed all week that no one would be sick.  With all of the flu and illness going around, I was terrified someone would wake up with a fever or something.

The day was really perfect!  Everyone was happy, well, and excited for the party!  Ella was SO excited too!  She helped me with preparing some things which was cute.  The weather was fine, as I always get worried about some unknown snow storm.  My family came down and helped us to get ready and get everything to the venue where the party was.  We had the party at Firefly Play Cafe.  Hailee and Hannah LOVE going to Firefly.  They always have so much fun.  I think it is perfect for two year olds.  The theme of the party was Sesame Street.  They both love Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie, Abby, etc.  Everything turned out so cute!

I wanted tons of photos of the party!  If I wasn't taking pictures, I had delegated someone else to take them.  Enjoy!

I made this sign for the outer door of the venue.  Yes, this photo was taken on my fridge, but I forgot to snap a photo of it yesterday and wanted to include it!

I love the fun details!

These fruit kabobs added a measurable amount of stress to my morning, but turned out super cute.

H, 2, and Elmo cookies.  No, I did not bake them ;)

Abby Cadabby cake!

Waiting for the party to start..

and for friends to arrive!

Ella!

Hailee and her cheese face.

I wanted everyone to know who was who.  I'd say 85% of the friends we and the girls play and hang out with cannot tell them apart.  So, they wore shirts with their names on them.

Love this photo!  All ready in their party outfits!

Giving my Hailee some love.

I think this photo is so funny.  It's like she's saying "My mom hasn't gotten me food yet, and I'm the birthday girl, so can I have some of yours?"

Needless to say, I hurried up and fixed each of them a plate!

Mmmm, chicken, cheese, and fruit!

"Look at me, mom!"

The best we could do for a photo of me and both girls..

Sweet girls

Hannah LOVES going down the slide on her belly!

They were both hilarious at cake time.  While everyone sang, they just sat there, with no expression at all. 

Wondering what the heck was going on and why everyone was singing..

also unsure.

Family photo!

Our kiddos with their cake!

Nom, nom, nom.

Mmmmmm

The kids love the bounce house!

Cheese!

Lots of friends to help celebrate!

What a fun day!  We carried Hailee and Hannah out, kicking and screaming when the party was over.  Even after two hours of fun and excitement, they still wanted to play!  I know they had a great time!  Happy birthday sweet girls!  You are so loved!

Big Change!

Well the New Year has brought a pretty big change to our household.  Paul recently got a new job and will be working from home!  Yep, you heard it right, he will be working from home.  This new position will have a home office.  He will be traveling some, and I'm sure is already looking forward to that ;)  We are both very excited for this change!  The new job is with a great company and will be a fantastic opportunity for him and for our family.

Paul traveled all of last week for training.  The girls and I had a super busy week by ourselves.  We kept busy, but were sure ready for daddy to be home by Friday evening! 

We are technically only on our 4th day of the working from home part and I must say so far, so good.  The only thing I have had to deal with is "Mommy, why can't I go work in the basement with daddy?" about a hundred times per day.  Ella is used to being able to help Paul when it comes to fixing things and "working" around the house.  It is difficult to explain the difference of that and working at a job to a three year old.  It has been exceptionally nice to have the morning and early evening help with the girls.  Paul used to travel 45 minutes to and from work each day so having that extra time with him has been nice. 

Since I have no photos to go along with my post, and not that I will ever probably have photos of Paul working from home, I decided to post some recent phone photos!  There are a lot of them since I was constantly taking photos to send Paul of the girls while he was gone.  Enjoy!

This is of Hailee and was actually taken right before Christmas.  I've started putting H&H on the potty to get used to it.  Neither has gone yet, but they sure do love sitting there! 

Hannah was in a zone.  Still sleepy I think.

Hannah in a Cinderella dress, with a chef apron and hat, and sunglasses.  You just never know what you'll get around here!

Ella's first haircut!  Yep, first haircut at 3 years old.  She did great and loved it!

While daddy is gone, the girls will play (or shop).  Doesn't get much better than shopping at Target and eating cake pops :)  Ella made this crown in school and didn't take it off for two days straight.

One evening I took the girls for frozen yogurt and met a friend and her son.  Hailee decided to finish off her and Hannah's yogurt.  Love this photo of her!

Every.single.morning H&H stand at the toaster, pointing and yelling until their waffles are done.  It's really relaxing and comforting (insert sarcasm).

Hailee all of a sudden loves getting her photo taken.  I tried to get this one just of Ella to send to Paul.  Hailee ran right in front and gave a big cheese.  Notice the crown was out again this morning.

Sweet, lovely little Hannah.  My easy baby (for this week anyways).

Big smiles before school!

Hailee was reading this little book to her baby doll.  It was one of the top 10 cutest things I'd ever seen.

They have their own way of playing in tents.  This was an early birthday gift for them from a friend of mine and has been a huge hit!

The Band.  Hannah singing into a baby doll bottle, Ella playing the guitar, and Hailee was the backup dancer.

It was so nice one afternoon last week that we got out for a walk!  So fun!

You can't watch Sofia the First (a new Disney show that Ella LOVES) without all of your princesses lined up next to you!

Another photo bomb by Hailee.  I tried to get this picture of Hannah pretending to sleep in Ella's bed.  Hailee jumped right in and gave me a huge cheese.  Good thing she's cute ;)

NYE Resolutions 2013

I've been thinking about my New Years Resolutions for 2013.  I generally do not make resolutions.  I see them as things that are normally broken or not achieved (at least for me) so what's the point?  This year, however, there are a few things I would like to accomplish.  I figure if I have them down on paper (or the internet) I am more likely to work harder to accomplish them.  Below is the list I have come up with:

• Run a 5k.  This is something I've wanted to do for a while.  I had talked about it with a few friends casually last year and what do you know, it never happened.  I am really working on my health this year and exercise/running is a huge part of that.  I am thinking of going for the Color Run in July.
• Grow my photography business.  In 2011 I had 26 photo sessions.  In 2012 I had 44.  I am hoping for 75 photo sessions this year.  Yes, it seems like a large number.  But, I feel like I finally have it.  My clients are always happy, and I am happy with the images I deliver.  Of course I can get better and can certainly improve, but I feel confident with the way business is going.
• Spend more time with my children individually.  I spend a lot, really a ton, of alone time with Ella.  We shop together.  We run errands together.  We do a LOT of things together.  It's easy to take her along and leave the twins with Paul.  I really want to spend more time with Hailee and Hannah individually.  I know it will be hard on Ella for me to take one baby somewhere and not her but she will have to learn that she is not the only one that gets to do "fun" things alone with mommy.  I really don't think Hannah or Hailee know what it's like to even be apart.  Like, ever.  The only time that they ever go anywhere without the other one is to the doctor when only one is sick.  I hope that can change this year. 
• Vacation to Disney.  I don't really know that this is a resolution, more of a goal.  Well, not even a goal.  Maybe a wish?  Ha!  Well, I really want to take the kids to Disney.  When our trip to Disney with Ella was cut short last year because of Hannah and Hailee getting sick, I have wanted to take everyone back since.  Ella still talks about Disney all the time!  She constantly wants to look at the photos from our trip.  She always says "wanna go back, wanna go back to Disney!".  I want to take Hailee and Hannah before they are three and while they are still free to the parks.  At $85/person per day that is a big savings!  I am thinking September time frame, around Ella's birthday.  My challenge will be talking my husband in to the fact that yes it would be fun, yes it will be challenging with all of the kids, but they would love it and it will be worth it.  
• Have this house paci-free!  This resolution really needs done like now.  I'm really hoping by the end of this month or beginning of next we can conquer this one!

I think that's it.  I'm sure if you follow this blog, you will know which resolutions I accomplish!  I am hoping to achieve all of them! 

Enjoy a few photos from our low-key New Year's Eve!

Ok, how often do I get a photo of all of them smiling (without Photoshopping in a child)?  Never!  Well, until now!  This is now one of my favorite photos of the three girls!

Cute and happy girls!

Somebody wants their paci...

and she's better!

This little girl stayed up until 12:30am on New Years!  H&H stayed up until almost 10:00pm.  We were real party animals :)