And Then She Was Two.....

Well, our little bugaboo has rounded the corner and turned two yesterday! Sometimes, I'm amazed at how much joy God has given us w/ her. I guess I didn't expect it to be this fun. I thought kids were a blessing, sure, but I never really understood the good part about how they change your life. Life has certainly not stopped for us these past two years....in fact, I think it's deepened and changed, and we've grown to know more about ourselves and each other. The fact that we've had fun doing that too is really a blessing. We're both enjoying these current days, but really, we're also looking forward to Rachel's days ahead of us. I'd never want to go back to time w/ her as a baby....not b/c I didn't love it - b/c I did, but b/c I'm excited to see how Rachel will develop into a little girl and then a woman. I'm hopeful that the Lord will work in her and that she will grow and flourish and that we would prepare her well for that.

We really had an enjoyable weekend. Rachel's Nanna and Pop-Pop came down from PA to ring her into her second year of life. Both Rachel and my parents had a great time together. We did some super exciting things like go to Ikea for the morning of her birthday......a memory that I'm sure we'll scrapbook about (seriously, I'm kidding!), but Rachel had fun going through the store....she especially loves the kids section where everything's made for the little people, and then we had a really special birthday lunch at Chick-fil-A (do we know how to make our kid's birthday special or what?!?!). We did decorate the dining room while she was sleeping and give her some yummy cake after dinner (which is what she told someone about at church when they asked about her birthday). We spread out her gifts throughout the day, and she actually had a lot of fun playing w/ them all. She didn't get too overwhelmed w/ everything all at once, so I'm thinking it might be a good tactic for future birthdays.

Her 2nd birthday was a lot of fun actually. She enjoyed her gifts and was really laidback throughout the day. She made her grandparents think that she was a little angel.....I had to remind them only a few times that they were letting her get away w/ far more things than my brothers and I ever did. They laughed.....sometimes you have to remind grandparents that we don't have to give 2 year olds options since generally their response to questions is no (or "nope" in Rachel's case). LOL.

At any rate, we took 76 pictures...so here they all are. I'm kidding! I'll try to keep it to the highlights over the next few days:-)

Friday night, we let Rachel open up a gift from Ben's co-worker. We were over their house last weekend, and Rachel played w/ some beads and really liked them. So, Rachel received her very own beads.....when she opened the package, she said "I love it!" w/ a big smile on her face. The interaction level and vocabulary is exploding lately. I don't know when I have specifically said, "I love it" before and maybe I never did....which makes her using this expression even cuter!

Then, my parents brought me some yummy peppermint sticks from Cracker Barrel. I broke one out before remembering that what Rachel sees I have, she wants. So, she got her first taste of a peppermint stick....which she, of course, loved. What can I say, she likes sugar like her mommy does. And here she is the morning of her birthday...playing w/ her Little Peoples scooter w/ her Daddy.

And here's our awesome Winnie the Pooh party decorations....Ben and I have mad decorating skills;-) But, she loved the decorations....that was a gift in and of itself, I think. It probably was a fun way for her to wake up from her afternoon nap.

....More to come later!