The Big TWO

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but yesterday (November 27th) Haiden turned TWO!

We spent the holiday weekend up in Seattle with our family (Jason's family came too). Had some yummy turkey and probably too much pumpkin pie. Thursday was a great day.

We woke up later than normal - just 7am this time, and did our black Friday shopping. Jason tagged along for the first stop, not planned, but fun to have him there. He took our goodies back to Grandmas and then was off to play paintball. The girls continued our shopping and ended the day with pedicures! I was a little nervous about how Haiden would do, but she did great! Especially after shopping all day. The lady giving my my pedicture was super sweet also - Haiden got to put her toes in the "bath" and then got to have her feet scrubbed and massaged with lotion. She thought she was pretty special.

On to Saturday - Haiden turns TWO! We spend the morning being lazy and had brunch at Grandmas then off to get our Santa pics done. This year Haiden was a little cautious but with the promise of a candy cane, she quietly sat by Santa for the picture. Then all 10 of us cousins squeezed along side Santa for the big family photo. We haven't gotten it back yet, but I'm excited to see it and hoping that it turned out great.

After Santa we went to go see Tangled - unfortunately neither Jason nor I got to see much of it as Haiden was being a pill. We thought she'd like the movie, but it was a bit too old for her and it just didn't keep her attention. Add that to the fact that she hadn't napped, and only had snacks for lunch...it was more stressful than fun. Bummer Huh!

Then came the fun part. We met up with the rest of the family at Godfathers Pizza and had a wonderful evening eating and watching Haiden celebrate her birthday. She totally loved opening the presents - it was awesome watching her. The part I don't think I'll forget though is the look on her face when we all (17 or so) of us started singing Happy Birthday to her. Pure happiness on her face, she grinned from ear to ear, taking it all in - then she blew out her candles. It was such a joyous time for me, and I'm certain Jason too.

We've had a lot of stress and hard times in our family lately, but last night it all went away. I even forgot about how tired I was, and cranky too after the unsuccessful movie. Celebrating the 2nd Birthday of our little girl was just the medicine we needed.

We drove back home (to Grandmas) played with her toys (the popper/vacuum toy was her favorite) and then I took her to her bed where she snuggled with me and went quietly to sleep. We are SO very blessed. Sunday we visited more family at the cookie party in Seattle, and then headed for home. Haiden talked nearly the WHOLE WAY HOME and drove me crazy, but I wouldn't trade her for the world. My life would be boring and way too quiet without her.

If I could close this blog with a prayer request: my grandma isn't doing so well with her health. She fell and thinks she broke some ribs, but is refusing to go to the dr. She looked pretty bad on Saturday, but PRAISE GOD, by Sunday was starting to look better. Please keep her (Lorriane) in your prayers.