"You"

Today Keelia is three! I can hardly believe it. We pretended like it was Keelia's birthday yesterday, so we are not doing much of anything today. This is Hunter's midterm week at school and the weekend is always easier to get people together, so we just had her birthday yesterday. She didn't seem to mind. :) We had a great day. We got her birthday balloons on Saturday and after she went to bed on Saturday night, Hunter decorated the kitchen for her birthday. He did another great job decorating! When she woke up Sunday morning after 11 1/2 wonderful hours of sleep, she had forgotten it was her birthday. She was quickly reminded by all the decorations and the stack of presents waiting for her. Thanks everyone! She was really spoiled this year! :) She loved all of her presents and wanted to take her time opening them and playing with each one. After she finished, we had her birthday breakfast of scrambled eggs and sticky buns. We attempted to watch Conference and I made her cake in between talks. It was my first time making a homemade cake. It turned out okay, but I need some practice. :) Then we just played most of the day. It was super hot in our apartment all day, so it was hard to want to do much of anything. During the second session of Conference, we started dinner. Right after Conference ended my family called Keelia on Skype to wish her a happy birthday. Everyone in my family who lives in Colorado was at my mom's house and she got to talk to and see them all. It was very special for her and for me. I love my family so much and we really miss them. When we finished talking to them, we had her birthday dinner of chicken Alfredo, salad, and French bread. That is what she asks for every year. Creature of habit, I guess. Corey joined us for dinner, and later for cake and ice cream. Then we cleaned up and I started to decorate the cake. Due to the heat in our apartment, the icing was just melting off the cake, so I didn't do anything elaborate. I was struggling just to keep the cake covered. But she loved the cake and that is really all that matters! Tyler, Tory, Brock, and Bradlee, and Sean, Shelley, Ethan, Alex, and Lindsay joined us for cake and ice cream. It was super fun to have the kids play and to get to chat with everyone. We are really lucky to have such great family and friends. By the time we got everything cleaned up, Keelia was more than ready for bed. She had even given up her notion of a bath before bed to play with her new bath toys she got for her birthday, because she was so tired. And when she finally went to bed, it could not have been soon enough. I did TOO much yesterday, and I was really feeling it last night and am still feeling pretty stiff this morning. Such is life, right?! Here are a bunch of pictures from her birthday. Like usual, I didn't take enough. But at least there are some.

















As far as the rest of the weekend, we watched as much Conference as we could. We DVRed it, so hopefully we can watch it eventually. And we did a lot of cleaning and resting. On Saturday morning, my friend Jill and her husband Senthil stopped by and brought us a TON of food. They were so sweet and so generous. We really appreciate it! And they brought some building blocks for our girls, which Keelia loves and plays with all the time. However, she only wants to build with her dad. Which is fine with me because the last thing I want to do is sit on the floor and then have to get up. :)
Well, that about sums up our weekend. It was a super great one. I can hardly even believe my little girl is three. Where does the time even go? She is such a sweet little girl and we feel so blessed to have her in our family. I am so grateful to be her mom and to get to stay home and raise her. She teaches me more than I teach her, I am sure, everyday. She is simply wonderful. And we are growing more and more excited everyday to see her in the role of big sister. I think she will be great at it. Only ten more days. :) Anyway, happy birthday, Keelia. We love you so much and are so grateful for you!!