Happy Birthday, Jenna!

We can't believe our little girl is already 2!!! Time has flown by so quickly! This year we weren't able to have her party the weekend of her birthday, but we still "celebrated" today anyway.

I don't know why, but for some reason we didn't have a birthday card for Jenna last year. I guess I figured she was too young to understand or care, which is still partially true this year, but I just couldn't let her birthday go by without making a card for her. Of course I didn't decide this until about 11:30 pm last night! :) So here's Jenna's birthday card - I thought it might be neat to keep her birthday cards from us for each year. We'll see if I actually remember to do that.


This morning Jenna had a few presents to open at breakfast. We got her glow-in-the-dark stars to put on her ceiling since she's been so interested in the stars outside and also a LeapFrog Jr. A friend of ours has it for her son and he just LOVES it, so when I found it online for a good deal, I thought I'd give it a try. (Oh, and the birthday balloons are from my cousin's surprise birthday party on New Year's Eve - perfect timing!)

Here Jenna and I are using the LeapFrog. You run the little hand held thing over the pictures and words in the book and it will make sounds and read the story. It's interesting, but I'm not sure Jenna's patient enough right now to sit and play with it. We might have to put it away for a few months and bring it out again when she's a little older. We'll see. :)

Daddy and his kids

And the birthday girl

Of course we have to include a picture of her happy brother....always smiling!
(And notice he got a haircut...I'll post those pictures another day.)

Jenna's wearing a dress she got for Christmas from
Uncle Keith and Aunt Mary - so pretty!

Grant just hanging out on Daddy's lap while he reads the Sunday paper. :)

We were originally planning on having pancakes with the candles in them for breakfast, however, we had to go to early service this morning so we just didn't have time to make them. So we had them for dinner instead! That's a tradition I'd like to continue with the kids - pancakes with candles on the morning of their birthday. Sounds fun to me!

Then to top off the day, we watched a short "Bella mooney" (Cinderella movie). You can rent them for free from Family Video, so I rented a Princess Stories DVD. We popped some popcorn and enjoyed a quick half hour movie. Jenna did well and seemed to enjoy it.

Lastly, we took a video of us singing "Happy Birthday" to Jenna.
Please ignore (or laugh at) the terrible lack of singing talent. Ha! :)

Happy 2nd birthday, Jenna! We love you!!

Chicago Trip -Part 2: DuPage Children's Museum

On Sunday we decided to go to the DuPage Children's Museum before we traveled home. We thought it'd be good for Jenna to play and run around before being trapped in her car seat for the next 5-6 hours. Plus we were wanting to drive during her nap time to help her pass the time (and make it easier on Mommy and Daddy!). My friend, Angela, and her husband, Mike, met up with us there so it nice getting some more time with them before we left.

Jenna and Daddy building with PVC pipes

Jenna loved putting the balls into this tube and then tilting it so the balls would roll out.

Her most favorite area of the museum was the water play area.

The bubble station was pretty neat too.

She wasn't so sure about the wind tunnel...

What's more fun than getting to bang on things?

Jenna enjoyed the light/prism area too.

This activity was like playing the Tetrus game. Then you move a piece at the bottom and they all fall out. She played with this over and over.

There were a few "early learning" areas for the younger kids. Grant and Mommy hung out there for a little bit so that he could wiggle around too.

My friend, Angela, and Jenna exploring the pretend car.

Jenna then brought a chair over and sat down to join Mommy and Grant...for about 20 seconds before she was ready to do something else. Haha!

A pretend space ship with a spiral staircase.

How high can you stack the blocks?

And of course a family picture at the museum.

We tried to get one of the kids, but it just wasn't going to happen. We were already pushing lunch and nap time. Jenna had had enough and was ready to go.

Angela and me

On the way home, Grant was getting fussy so we stopped so I could feed him and let him move around a little. I just love Grant's expression in this picture.

We had a great time visiting our friends and getting away. Thanks Jamie and Ang for taking the time to visit with us!

Chicago - Part 1

I started this post last week and then got busy with other things and forgot all about it! Two weeks ago we drove to Chicago to visit two of my good friends from high school. With all Drew's traveling, he's accrued some free hotel nights, so we were able to stay at a nice hotel for FREE!! It even came with a cook-to-order breakfast - YUM! :)

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Jenna sleeping in the car on the way there

We took full advantage of the pool especially since it's so cold outside now. It helps that Jenna's such an early riser. We were able to hit up the pool before it got crowded. In fact, one morning we arrived and had to wait on a guy to finish cleaning the pool. :)

We haven't bought any swimming trunks for Grant yet, but we figured he would be just fine in a swim diaper for now. He wasn't in the water for every long anyway.

Jenna enjoyed walking around inside the hotel and looking at the fish in the little ponds.

Up next: Chicago trip part 2 - Our visit to the DuPage Children's Museum.

Miscellaneous

Just some random pictures from the past few weeks...

Enjoying my baby boy

Love that smile!

Daddy has the special touch for getting his little boy to fall asleep.

The first time I thought to put both of them in the bathtub together. Grant's getting too big for his baby bath and the water tends to spill over the edges as I'm washing him so it definitely helps to have him in the bathtub. Jenna LOVED it and she'd "help" me wash him by pouring water over his body and using a washcloth to rub him. I was impressed - she was very gentle with him.

Grant has recently started reaching for objects, although he can't grasp them yet. And his reaching is sporadic too and still a little jerky, but it's fun to see him developing.

As I was trying to get a picture of Grant on his tummy, Jenna decided to lay on top of him.

Up next: Our trip to Chicago this past weekend to visit a few of my high school friends (and then I think I'll be caught up...at least for the time being.)