Happy 2nd Birthday to Our Sweet Emily!

We celebrated our sweet Emily's 2nd birthday this weekend with friends and family over for a princess party! The girls love their Disney princesses, so we thought it would be fitting to theme her birthday around them.

I made Emily a princess castle cake this year. For this being only my fifth cake that I have ever decorated, I was pleased with how it turned out. It made my birthday princess happy, so that's all that mattered. I looked up images of princess cakes on the internet, put my computer on my kitchen table, and just tried to copy one with a few changes of my own. I had fun working on it, and I was just happy to be able to make Emily feel extra special.

Emily and Elaina

The birthday princess was so excited about her cake!

Mommy and one of her princesses

My mom was here to help me get everything ready for her party. I tend to overdo it, so it was great that she was here. She was a huge help! Thanks, Mom! You're the best Mom/MeMe ever! Jeff was a huge help, too. He took Friday off of work because we had several dentist/doctor appointments in the morning and then just had a few hours after we got home in the afternoon to get everything finished up for her party. He is the best husband/father in the world! We had a wonderful party for Emily!

Thank you to all of her friends and family who came and shared in her princess celebration. We are so very blessed that Emily has each of you in her life. She is a very loved little princess, and please know we love you all, too!

Emily opening her gift from Elaina . . . Disney Princesses!

Great Maw-Maw Alice was able to come for Emily's party! What a special treat!

Yummy!

Daddy and Elaina carrying Emily to her bedroom after a long day and a super fun party that evening. She was worn out! Mommy felt the same way, but no one carried her to bed like this!

Emily also had her 2 year well visit today, and she did great for the doctor! Elaina went with us, and was a huge help by showing Emily exactly what she needed to do. She is growing well, and the doctor was impressed that she knew her "right and left" and also came in to her doctor visit in "big girl panties" and is both day/night potty trained. Of course, we do still have our occasional accidents when she gets too busy playing at a friends house or some place other than home, but she is doing a great job, and we are so proud of her! In fact, she went six days straight without any day/night accidents at all last week. She tells us that she needs to potty by saying, "Wa-wa potty!" and to take care of her "number two's" by saying, "Snake potty!" We can all thank her big sister and Daddy for that one! What little ladies he has around here! Auntie Leah would be proud. Emily absolutely wants NO help at all when going to the bathroom. It seems like a 10 minute ordeal. She has to pull her own pants and panties off without help. She has to put the toilet seat up, get her soft potty seat on the regular toilet seat, get her step and place it up to the toilet so that she can climb up onto the toilet by herself, etc. so on and so forth. This is all great, but it just takes her forever. Sometimes I'm afraid it's going to take her so long that she'll have an accident while she's trying to get everything situated, but she ends up making it. If you try to offer help, she demands, "NO, ME! ME DO!" She loves wearing her princess panties! We bought her a package of princess panties as her reward for learning how to potty. She was thrilled with them, so hey, why not. Nothing but princess panties, right?

Dear Emily, you are our sweetheart. We love your snuggles and your kisses. We love to watch you pray with your eyes squinted super tightly shut and interrupt your own prayers with "ME?". We love how you twirl you hair into knots when you're tired and how you love BABY animals . . . especially baby whoo-whoos. We love how you love your sister and "Mommy's baby" that is coming soon. We love how you race out to the driveway to meet Daddy at his truck as soon as he is home from work. Daddy loves how you are especially his girl. We love your love for outdoors and bubbles, and Daddy loves how you and Elaina enjoy loud Toby Mac music in his truck with him. Now, about that temper of yours and lack of patience, your favorite word to Mommy being "NO!", how grumpy you are when you wake up from your naps (just like your Mommy) ummmmm . . . well, we will continue to work on that. We are so fortunate that God blessed you with us and is allowing us to care for you. We pray daily that He will guide us in raising you the way that He desires us to. We love you, Emmy! Happy Birthday, Love!

Emily showing us how old she is, "TWO!"