She's TWO!

Abby had big birthday #2 over the weekend. It's kind of sad to see our baby reach the "not-a-baby-anymore" age. Her speech is quickly picking up and her personality is shining through more each day. She is such a sweet girl and she loves to laugh. She is very content to play by herself chattering away the whole time. But she is happy to play with us as well. She loves music and dancing. She loves to read her books. She loves to eat and is pretty good about eating what we give her - let's hope that stays. She is just a joy and we are so thankful that she is part of family.

Here is a look at her party. We fit it in during the week because daddy had his 20th high school class reunion over the weekend. All our loved ones were able to join us and she had a great time. Although her picture-taking skills are deteriorating so I didn't necessarily get the perfect shots that I was hoping for - you can get the jist of it. Here is her pretty girl outfit that she wore to greet her guests. She would sit still while grandma and I tried to photograph her and I got her back every time.

But I just couldn't bring myself to let her eat RED cake in her pretty white clothes, so after a quick wardrobe change, we moved on to dinner and cake. Abby' two favorite things - birthday or not - balloons and candles. Easy enough to provide at a birthday party, right? We loaded the cake with candles and I even bought the kind that were supposed to relight so she could blow to her little heart's content but they didn't work. Bummer. And then I forgot to get a good picture of her with her balloons. (I have since decided that I will have to resort to making a list of pictures I want before an event because I always seem to forget something.) She was afraid of them at first because of the giant Minnie head but she eventually warmed up to them and carted them around the house. She loved eating her cake and ice cream then we moved on to the presents. Our boys have never been terribly excited about their gifts. They like tearing paper, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't go much further than that. Abby was such a different story, though. She squealed with delight for each gift and paraded it around the party showing it off to all her guests - especially her friend Mike.

All in all it was a perfect evening. And the prefect way to celebrate our little girl. Happy birthday, Abigail! We love you! Oh, and if you want to stay this age forever, your mom says that is perfectly alright with her...