birthday festivities...

So...I know it is a week late, but it has been busy around here! We had fun celebrating Layla's 2nd birthday...Nathan started her day with some birthday pancakes:

She's pretty excited!


So her actual birthday was last Wednesday, but we celebrated it the next day (Thanksgiving!) when we went down to Bluffton. We had a party for her at my parents' house, and it was lots of fun! Here are Daisy and Israel (good friends!) pumped and ready for the party:


And these 2 were excited, too! Surprise, surprise, huh? I love these crazy kids:)

I usually try to make some kind of cute cake, and as our kids get older it is more fun, because they can choose their cake. But...Layla is too young for that, so I just found these fish cupcakes online and I did this school of fish:)

Layla loves blowing out candles! She's pretty good at it, too!

She is ready for presents!

Layla got some cute things...here is a "wiggle car" that she got from my parents. The school here has these wiggle cars in the gym that the kids use, and they love them. So we thought it could come in handy since she doesn't have a bike or scooter like Kaine and Halle do.

The last present that Layla opened was a note that said, "Give this to great-grandpa." So we told Layla to take it to my grandpa and the note said, "You are going to be a great-grandpa again for the 10th time!" Here is his reaction:

I think he is sternly looking at me in this picture--that was his first reaction: he was appalled because he thought I was the one who is pregnant! But he was wrong...my sister Jill is pregnant!!! How exciting! We are praising God for His goodness. It was fun to see Aaron and Jill tell everyone the good news over Thanksgiving:) Check out Jill's blog for more details:

www.hut-sweet-hut.blogspot.com/



Some of the guests:

My aunt Susie playing with Daisy. Our kids love Susie!

My grandma Leona holding Israel...such a cute picture:)

Jill and Ivy--I love this picture!!

Nathan's parents were just getting home from Florida that day, so we went to their house on Saturday to celebrate. Here they are with our kiddos after supper (notice Kaine's crossed eyes? He always does that for pictures lately!!)

Uncle Kyle helping Kaine with his legos...

I couldn't believe this...I found Layla like this. She had taken off her diaper and found the wipes in the diaper bag, and she was wiping herself! She is so funny!

An update on Daisy...she is now sitting up pretty well! She still falls over all the time, but she is doing so much better! Nathan is such a great dad...he has been working with her a lot on this!

And....she is finally starting to like food! Tonight she ate some squash and she actually liked it! This is a big step for her:)

So...that is my update! We are starting to get ready for Christmas now...and it snowed today! It looks so pretty outside:) Dad, I know you hate snow, but I am kind of excited about this:) I love snow at Christmastime!!!