Wow! What a party!!!

Today was Gabbie's birthday party. Tomorrow she will be 2 years old. Let's just say today she had a blast! She was the princess of the party and knew it! I cannot even believe the gifts. She got an insane amount of presents!!! She is truly so loved! What an amazing day!!! Now for some pictures.

We had water time for the kids. They had a slide, pool, and water balloons which I think Gabbie popped 90% of! She likes water balloons!

Gabbie and Jack

Here is the birthday girl!

Gabbie loved her birthday outfit. After I got her dressed and did her hair we looked in the mirror and she tilted her head side to side and smiled so big at herself.

Gabbie and her Elmo cake

Blowing out the candles

Gabbie and Grandma

Gabbie got a big truck full of cars which she loved from Grandma in addition to a very large gift card to Baby Gap!!!! Mommy can't wait to go shopping!

Here she is with her cash register from Great Uncle Steve. She loves this too!

Here she is with her tool box!

Pinata time! The kids and adults loved this!!!

I love this picture even though it is from behind.

Gabbie and cousin Joe on the tricycle from Boom Boom and Pa Pa. Joe pushed her around the house over and over again.

I just realized there are no pictures of her kitchen. Let me tell you she LOVED it. Gabbie normally goes to bed at 7:30 but was up tonight until 9:15. She did not want to leave that kitchen. She kept saying mine to daddy and hitting him so he would go away. She is 2!!!!

The look part 2 and a video!

Ah how I loved being slapped in the face, on the head, on the leg, anywhere and everywhere actually! I am hoping if I keep saying it I will believe it eventually. Seriously the whining, hitting and temper tantrums are coming daily and frequently. The wrong question can set Gabbie off. The good news is so far I don't 'think' she is hitting the kids at school but instead just us. We are trying to be consistent with timeouts and not giving in but it doesn't seem to do anything to her. Any recommendations???? Please tell me this will end soon! On the flip side she is just so sweet it is sickening. Seriously she is the biggest cuddle/love bug. When she is happy her personality shines. But when she is mad, watch out!

Now for a video. This was taken a couple of weeks ago. It is sideways though which stinks so just tilt your head to the side when you watch it. Also please ignore my annoying munchkin voice. Thanks!

Cousin Peyton and More Temper Tantrums

Last night cousin Peyton came over to play with Gabbie and they both were perfect. It was so cute to watch them. Today cousin Peyton came over again. Unfortunately Gabbie's terrible two phase was in full effect and after about 30 minutes of playing together with no problems Gabbie began throwing one fit after another. It was crazy.

This whole 2 year old thing is getting rough. Sometimes I cannot believe the fits. They are normally for nothing but turn into something! I have been smacked across the face 4 times this weekend. Two times when I went to get her out of timeout. One would think she would be happy her timeout was done but nah, not Gabbie. Instead she whacked me twice. YIKES!!! So needless to say the fits have not been good. Where oh where has my sweet baby gone?

Here is a cute picture of Gabbie and Peyton pre-tantrum. These two are just so cute together. They are COMPLETE opposites. Peyton is tall, blonde hair, blue eyes. Gabbie is petite, black hair and black eyes.

Waving at the camera

Sweet again

Playing in Gabbie's room

My sweet girl

Still sweet...

They were cracking me up here. Gabbie was jumping so high on Peyton.

Giving Peyton a hug for jumping too much on her. How sweet:)

Still sweet

Adorable....

Let the temper tantrums roll!

This pretty much sums up the rest of the night:(

Yoga and the terrible twos

A little over a week ago Gabbie started doing a move where she bends over and lifts one leg up. I remembered reading on her Goddard paper that they did yoga that day so I asked her if she was doing yoga. She kept doing it over and over again and now if you ask her to do yoga she does it immediately. It is hilarious! She loves her yoga!

Another thing she is loving lately is screaming and throwing fits when she doesn't get her way. It has been awesome! Seriously I have never seen a child go from smiling and sweet to kicking and screaming as fast as her the second she hears the word no. She is really something else! At our visit trip when she was just 3 months old we knew she was going to be feisty but wow she has surpassed all of our feisty expectations! Actually there was a photo our agency sent even before our visit where my mom said she could see the attitude in Gabbie's face. She definitely has attitude! I think we are in for it. It can only get better right?


Here is Gabbie doing yoga. She was apparently a little lazy today with it though because normally she is up on her hands and feet but I thought these were still funny. And yes that is a bandaid on the bottom of her foot. More info to follow on that a few photos down.

More yoga

Doesn't she just look so sweet here?

Aw and here? Sweet again - looks are deceiving!

Finally we seem to be cutting back *some* on the bandaids. She normally has about 4 on each day with two being on the soles of her feet. For some reason she INSISTS on wearing two of them on the bottom of her feet.

Oh no Elmo!

Gabbie will be 2 in just two weeks two days and her party is two weeks from tomorrow. For her first birthday we didn't do a themed party. Her cake was yellow with polka dots and flowers. It was just girly instead of a character theme. She really didn't know any better last year so we were able to do what we wanted.

This year is different! She knows better therefore she is having an Elmolicious birthday party. YIKES!!! Once I committed to buying the custom photo invitations I knew there was no turning back. I must admit, this year though I am kind of excited for her Elmo party. I can't wait to see her face when she sees the Elmo cake, decorations, and Elmo pinata. I know she is going to be so excited and there is nothing that makes me happier than seeing Gabbie excited and happy. So in some odd way I am actually excited this year about an Elmo party. Weird I know....

Today I went to a friend's baby shower. She is having twin boys, God help her. I cannot imagine having 2 Gabbie's right now but luckily these are her first children and therefore she won't know anything else but two at once. I took a couple of super cute pictures of baby Jordyn at the shower. When I whipped out the camera she started smiling non stop. She was too cute! After the shower I went to meet up with Gabbie, daddy, and cousin Peyton. Gabbie and Peyton had fun as usual!

Now for pictures.

Baby Jordyn - She will be 5 month old in less than a week. Gabbie was 5 months old when we brought her home. It is hard to believe now she was once this little.

The soon to be two year old dressed by daddy today:)

Gabbie and Peyton

Once again dressed by daddy:) Just kidding - great job daddy!

London bridge with daddy's legs.

We made it to Peyton's party!

We made it to the party yesterday. Gabbie had a blast. She loves that place! Steve and I were both dragging. We are still feeling poopy today. My body is not aching as much but my throat is hurting and it is horrible. Steve was still feeling yucky today and took a 3.5 hour nap! This bug has been horrible! I will be glad when we are back to normal. Now for pictures from the party.


Here is Steve and the birthday girl Peyton

Here is Peyton opening the ipod we gave her for her gift. This child is 5 years old and has an ipod and a wii, none of which I have!

In most of the pictures of Peyton opening her gifts there is always a little Guatemalan girl standing to the left. Gabbie HAD to be up there with her. It is so cute how she looks up to Peyton.

Gabbie licking her sprite

This is Gabbie's new smile. She smiles really big and closes her eyes. Lovely huh! I am just so thrilled that most of the smiling pictures are with Gabbie's eyes closed now!

Good news and bad news

Good news is Gabbie is feeling better! She is back to her playful, silly, little stinker self! Bad news is Mommy and Daddy have been hit with whatever it was she had and it is horrible:( Last night I started aching in my neck and just not feeling right. I woke up this morning feeling horrible but determined to go to work which I did. Steve complained of an achy neck and I told him he was getting it but he insisted he slept funny. Well once again this woman was right. This woman is always right, maybe one day he will get that!!!

Steve called me on the way home from work to get Gabbie and he was aching from head to toe just like me. I left work and returned home at 4:30. He was laying on the couch moaning and groaning. I was kind of annoyed to be honest because I didn't exactly feel great but he was so bad off I had to care for Gabbie. Thank the Lord she was so good tonight and pretty much a perfect angel! I got Steve 4 Advil and 2 Tylenol and within 45 minutes to an hour he was feeling better which was a good thing because it was about to hit me! Next thing you know I am moaning and groaning just like he was and he was caring for Gabbie. Thank goodness the worst part hit at different times for both of us. I took 4 Advil and 2 Tylenol and finally started feeling better around 8:00. About an hour after the Tylenol and Advil my fever was down to 103.9. This has been horrible. I feel so bad for Gabbie that she felt this horrible.

I am hoping and praying we both feel better tomorrow and the fevers are gone. Tomorrow is cousin Peyton's birthday party at Pump it Up and she would be so disappointed if we all don't go. Even my mom is coming to Peyton's party!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will leave you with a couple of pictures of Gabbie before the illness hit. I cannot believe she will be 2 in three weeks. Gosh I love this child!

Sick baby:(

My poor baby is sick:( I got a call from school today saying Gabbie was running a 102.5 fever. I went to pick her up and she was miserable. We went straight home and had some Tylenol and cheese-its. I put her down for a nap at 12:45 after about 15 minutes of rocking and right after I had taken the last bite of my lunch she woke up. So Gabbie ended up having a 30 minute nap which is not cool! We went to the doctor who said this is likely a virus and that normally kids who go to a new daycare/school get sick in the beginning with a respiratory virus which is what she has and a diarrhea type illness. YIPEE!

Somehow tonight though Gabbie did better than what I thought she would on just a 30 minute nap! She obviously doesn't feel well but there were some happy/dancing moments of which I was able to capture on camera. There were also a lot of screaming/crying/clinging sick moments too but no pictures of those to share.

Her new school has a sick kid policy which may keep her from attending tomorrow so it appears I will likely be home with her. Hopefully she will start feeling better soon because cousin Peyton's birthday is Saturday at Pump It Up and Gabbie loved that place the last time we went. Now for pictures.

This was taken during one of her happier moments. Gabbie was dancing away. This kid loves to dance.

Smiling even though she felt like junk.

More dancing with a little attitude. I think her pigtails make her feel sassy. Everytime I put them in she looks in the mirror and smiles at herself and also shakes her head back and forth so they move. We really get a lot of comments on how cute they look. The nurse said something at the doctor's office today and Gabbie just smiled as she walked by. She had some serious tude. I could tell she was thinking 'thanks but I already know I am cute."

Look at my tall girl reaching the door knob!!! She was only on her tippy toes a little bit!

Gabbie's latest obsession, aside from bandaids, is taking her socks off and putting them back on over and over again. On the way to the doctors she started screaming and getting really mad because she could not get one tennis shoe off. I pulled it off for her and she was happy as could be because she took her sock off and then put it back on. She is so impressed with herself when she does it!

More sock action