Lucy's third birthday

Lucy turned three on November 16th and this was the first year we have really thrown a friend party for her.  She had been looking forward to this day for a really long time.  Every time we would go to a store, she would point to anything and everything and say "need dis my birthday."  Ha!  We were trying to think of a theme for her little party but she is not totally into princesses like most girls her age, but one day we were brainstorming ideas and it hit me that she loves sweets and candy and cupcakes.  So, we mentioned the idea of a cupcake decorating birthday party and she loved it and never forgot about it.  It was so fun doing this party just knowing how excited she was about it.  She really understood the whole concept of birthdays this year and kept talking about the cake and blowing out candles, presents, games, etc.  How can this cute little girl be three already?!  Time flies! Happy birthday Lucy!

There were a lot of people there- friends from our neighborhood, friends from church, and family.  We started out the party with pizza, chips,and fruit.  Then, we moved on to the cupcake decorating.  After that, we played pin the cherry on the cupcake and broke open a piñata.  Following the piñata, we opened presents and had the cake.

(And now for 5 million pictures that all look the same to everybody else but I love all for different reasons.)

Since we cleaned out our basement and had it totally open (besides storage shelves in the back), we decided to throw it in our basement so we didn't have to fork out money to go somewhere else OR worry about kids spilling on carpet. :)

 The cute three year old birthday girl!  She was so happy and excited all morning long anticipating her party!  And now for 8,000 pictures of her because I just for the life of me can't decide which few are the best and they all show a little bit different of a look in each of them (to me).  If I was an awesome photoshopper, I would just put all the faces in a big collage, but that's too much effort for me!

Dancing!

Classic sleep-eating

Every kid has the classic falling-asleep-while-eating pictures, right?  Love this cute Claire girl.  She was eating and totally falling asleep while doing so, then she woke up and smiled real big for me, and then went right back to sleep.  The following pictures are in chronological order.

November randoms

This girlie gets into EVERYTHING these days.  She is in that super busy stage where she wants to know what is in everything and play with it all.  It's exhausting and I feel like there is a mess everywhere I turn.  Good thing there is also a cute smiley face everywhere I turn as well!

 These two girls woke up super early one morning, so we went downstairs and turned on some Curious George while I got to sit and head-nod off for a little longer.  I looked over and saw them holding hands like this and my heart melted.

One day when Lucy had her hair up in a bun like this, I just looked at her and she seemed so big to me and I just love the cute little girl she is so I had to take a picture to remember it. 

 But don't be fooled, she had her grumpy moments just as much! ha.  She got so good at her pout that she started doing it over everything for no reason.  As soon as you answered her or fixed the problem, she was instantly happy again.  Silly girl!

BYU vs. MTSU

We saw that BYU was playing Middle Tennessee State University in football this year and since it is a relatively close drive that we are pretty familiar with since Ryan has work in Nashville area a lot, we decided to go to the game.  We also got to take our girls to their first footballs games as well, which was fun because they both did SO great the whole entire time.  We met up with the Engstrom family there, as we have at past midwest-located BYU football games and it was fun to sit by them the whole game and catch up with them!  One thing I remember about the game was that it was freezing cold that day!!  We had to go to Target right before the game and stock up on hats, gloves, scarves, and long johns.  But, with all of our multiple layers of pants and coats and other layers, we managed to keep ourselves warm enough to enjoy being there,.

Halloween

Sick of hearing about my amazing neighborhood?  I'm not.  We live in THE BEST neighborhood.  TONS of stay-at-home moms with kids my kids ages and everyone gets along and is fun.  So around certain holidays like halloween and Memorial Day, etc. our whole entire neighborhood will get together for a party.  This halloween we had a dinner in our neighbor's garage/driveway with the rest of the neighborhood, took pictures of all the kids, and then went out trick or treating.  It was awesome.

This picture cracks me up because it looks like both Lucy and Hudson are nervous about holding each others hands, but really they are just both chomping on a piece of candy and not wanting to take a picture.

These three little girls (Riley, Elizabeth, and Lucy) are all around the same age.  They all showed up in similar but different costumes, with cute little antennas and wings.

Claire was totally satisfied with her little container of play doh.  She stayed like this for a good chunk of the time.

Pumpkin carving

A little bit of painting and a little bit of carving.  Lucy loved it and Claire was super worried and skeptical about the finished product.  She kept waving and saying hi to them, but would also kind of whimper and cry and be totally worried.  It was funny.

Cupcakes

We decorated cupcakes for halloween with our neighbors, the Haines.  They are always up to fun things and we love hanging out with them!  Their son Mason is a few months older than Lucy and they get along really well.