When did this happen?!?!?

My lil girl is 2 years old!!! 

What?!?!?

It is true!  Lil Miss Eden had her 2nd birthday this past month.  I cannot believe it!!!  She is growing way to fast!  How do you make it stop???

I had to face reality and figured we should plan a little celebration for this growing girl.

Lately, she has been on a "Tangled" fix so we decided to go with that.  Plus it worked out perfectly for a little tradition that I want to start that I will tell you about at the end.

It was several months ago that we discovered this cute movie.  However, it has never been known as Tangled in our home.  Eden calls it, "horse."  She loves Max the horse.  Unfortunately, all the Tangled decorations are all about Rapunzel so we had to work with that.

A dear friend of ours is a cake decorator and we spent an entire afternoon into the evening working on the CAKE.  I spent all morning baking it then took it over to her house where she did the decorating.   

Isn't it cute how her little boy watches her so intently

All I have to say is I don't know how she does it.  There were a few times where I was getting pretty nervous because we had a very top heavy tower to stick on top of the "grassy" part and I know there were several times when I stopped breathing.  

Not to mention the stressful ride getting home!!! Oh my goodness!

But it made it in one piece and I think it turned out pretty good!

Carrie you are a life savor and we owe you big time!!!  Eden loved her cake!

For decorations we just had to do incorporate the lanterns so I was able to use the exact sun from the movie and download it onto my Silhouette software and cut it out.  Then I used it as a stencil and painted the sun onto 1/2 sheets of paper.  Next we rolled and attached them together and strung them on Christmas lights.

And......Yes, of course we left them up for a few days.

For her birthday dinner we had spaghetti.  Ya know sticking with the hair theme.

It was a wonderful evening.  Several friends stopped by and it made it so special for our little girl.

Last year on her first birthday she was not feeling so well and struggled eating the cake.  

This year she had no reserves.

Now you may be looking at all those presents and be thinking what a spoiled little girl! You are right!!  But just for the record only 3-4 of those came from mom and dad.  The others were all grandparents and friends.  You can keep telling them but grandparents just never stop!  ha ha

A New Tradition

So I decided that wanted to start a new tradition with our children.  On their birthday they will be given the number of balloons associated with that birthday (so of course Eden had 2). 

  For each balloon they will make a wish that will be put into the balloon and then at the end of the day they will let them go.

Now obviously, Eden is a little young for this right now and doesn't really understand, as you can see by the distressed look on her face.  But we had fun with it anyway and she watched them fly away until they were out of site.

She kept saying, "bye bye balloons!"

Gosh I love this sweet little girl!!!  She is my "new dream."  She has brought so much joy into our home and I know that when Colby comes home at the end of long day, no matter what has happened, when he walks in the door and she runs up to him with a hug and kiss all his cares and worries just vanish.  

Eden don't you ever forget that your mom and dad love you!!!

Christmas - Part 2

After spending a few days in Denver we flew to Omaha to spend Christmas day with my family.

And of course we always go to the slides downtown in the old market because Eden LOVES slides!!!

 

Dada and Momma had a race!! Guess who won and watch how Eden celebrates her win!

 Since I can remember it has always been tradition to frost sugar cookies together as a family.  I wish I would have taken pics of the cookies because we can get pretty creative!  So creative my mom had one she had saved for  over 5 years!!!

Christmas morning I must say was RIDICULOUS!!!  In my family we wrap everything!! Even if it is in your stocking everything gets wrapped.  

"Santa" even surprised momma this year when she saw this little tricycle for Eden.  She loves her bike.  She hasn't quite figured it out but she sure loves to try.  In fact at night sometimes she has to tell her bike, "bye bye bike!"

My brother and his kids were there too which made the morning very chaotic having 3 toddlers.  I am sure many of you can relate. Right??

For FHE we decided to go bowling.  We had a blast!!!

Even Eden joined in on the fun.  

But the lights on the floor were much more entertaining.

For the record I must state that I continue to be undefeated against Colby.  Well, 95% of the time.  I love to bowl.  I wish I did it more often but just don't get the chance too.

We also hit up the children's museum.  Boy is it loads of fun for adults and kids.

It is Colby's dream to milk a real cow and this is as close as he has gotten.  Any one care to oblige?? You would become his hero!

Doing a little grocery shopping

This area was really fun.  All kinds of kinds with air blowing through them.  You would put the little balls in at an entry point and they all would migrate to this center collection spot and then every couple of minutes it would dumb them all on the kids.

Honestly, I think Colby was having the most fun.  Anyone else's husband like that???

Our time eventually came to an end :(  

The trip was needed and we really enjoyed spending time with our families!!!

They were all too generous and we owe them so much.  

But it is always good to be back home and boy were we exhausted!

Christmas Part 1 - Denver

We headed out of dodge as soon as Colby was done with classes.  We went right to Denver to spend a few days with Colby's family since this will probably be the last Christmas in a while that all the Johnson's will be together. (Colby's youngest brother is awaiting a mission call!!!)

So we got there and and hung out with all of these crazy people!

Jim and Susan

Uncle Brady and Aunt Kelsey

 Colby and his brother spent quite a bit of time in the garage building a sweet frame for their mom.  It is a HUGE sheet metal board that you can put pictures on with magnets and they bought some really beautiful molding and corner pieces.  I will have to get a picture of the completed project.  But it was beautiful!  Good job boys!

Grandpa is a little whacko

It was a very short visit, only 4 days, but we had such a good time!  

Saturday night we got together with some of Jim and Susan's friends, that we have grown to love too, and we all went to a theater downtown and saw a live production of "A Christmas Carol."  My favorite!  I love getting dressed up and going to the theater.  I hope it is something Colby and I continue to do.

sorry for the bad quality - taken with a phone

We did an early Christmas on Sunday night and opened our gifts and gave them their presents as well.  It was Colby's idea to buy, all of his siblings and dad, nerf guns.  So they were all loaded and we had them all open them at the same time.  All I did was to apologize to Susan before they opened them.  

You can imagine what happened next. WAR

Of course we were spoiled by the Johnson's.  Colby got an I-phone, I got some clothes and gift card to my favorite store NYandCo. Also Susan always makes something and this year she made a plaque with pics of Eden and a cook book all decked out with scrapbook paper and made to look all pretty.  It was compiled of all her favorite recipes!!! And boy was I grateful because she has some good ones!  Eden got toys and toys and clothes and more clothes.  

29th Bday!!! Yikes!

My birthday was a while ago but it was a good one!

My parents/colby got me something that I have been drooling over.  I have entered every drawing I could find to win one but to no avail.  So it became a Birthday/Christmas gift for like the next five years!  But I am happy as you can see!!!

That's right a Silhouette Cameo!!!

I really love it!  There are still some quirks and I working out and a learning curve, but it sure is fun to play with!!!

Unfortunately, my birthday always falls during Colby's finals week.  Blah!!  But luckily i have great friends.  My close friend Alyssa came over and took me to lunch to the cheesecake factory and then we did a little shopping. 

 It was good to get out and have some girl time while Colby stayed home with Eden while she napped and got some studying done!

For Dinner we headed to the Macaroni Grill.  I usually love going there but this time I was really disappointed in my meal.  

But Eden was having a ball eating some noodles and that made it all worth it!

                                         

It was a good birthday and I know that this last year in my 20's is going to be a good one!!!

 Fingers crossed :)