Blakeley's birthday party

As many of you know, today is Blakeley's actual birthday and we were able to have her party today. Last year on Blakeley's first birthday I had already decided that her 2nd birthday theme was going to be "Ice Cream". Now, what I would do if pinterest wasn't around, I do not know. I'm not extremely creative or crafty - I try my best and usually things come out just ok.

This is Blakeley's birthday invitation I ordered from etsy:

I then simply thought that we could decorate everything in pinks and purple since I knew that would be very easy to find at Hobby Lobby or Party City. 

Now, on to my simple pinterest ideas.  I love looking at pinterest, but I've only ever actually used recipes I've found.  I just haven't had time to exercise my crafty side.   Any way, my two pinterest ideas were "Ice cream cupcakes" and "tissue paper pom poms".

 Clearly mine do not looks as good as on pinterest, but you get the point.

 And again, the pom poms not quite like Martha Stewart, but it was my first attempt!

 

As we were running errands preparing for her party, we couldn't resist this "Tangled" birthday banner (it even colored coordinated with everything).  Rapunzel is Blakeley's favorite princess.  We even got her a Tangled birthday crown, which she loves!

On top of the ice cream/Tangled theme, we also wanted to take advantage of having a decent fenced in back yard, so we bought Blakeley a pool for all the kids to enjoy during the party!

Aunt Amy had a wonderful idea to put the slide by the pool - this may have been a reason why Libbi later said "This was the best fun day ever!"

Now, on to the moment you have all been waiting for....blowing out the big two year old candle!  Here is Blakeley waiting for her cupcake (this promise of cupcake was the only way we got her out of the pool!)

 Her daddy picked out a cute sparkly number two candle!

 She blew the candle out but got a little scared when she did.

The birthday girl couldn't be troubled to really care that we were taking a family pic ;)

 

Because we took close to 150 pictures during the party, I decided to create a slideshow to show everyone that some of Blakeley's cousins were there and had fun!  Cousins make the best friends!

This photo slideshow created with Smilebox Thank you to all of Blakeley's family that was able to make it.  She loves each of you very much - Buddy, Mimzy, Nana, Grandaddy, Aunnie Mags, Uncle Dave, Aunt Lucie, Uncle Jeff, Ethan, Hadley, Aunt Amy, Uncle Jeffrey, Libbi, Laney, and Mawmaw!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

My baby girl is a BIG two year old today! I can't even believe it! On June 16, 2012 at 6:28 p.m., Blakeley Grace Johnson entered our world at 6 lb. 12 oz.

When I first had Blakeley, I would never dream of showing pictures or videos of what I looked like after I delivered because I looked ROUGH! I was in active labor for over 8 hours, and her delivery wasn't exactly easy, though thankfully no complications.  We werer super close to having to have a C-section because my sweet little girl just didn't seem to want to go anywhere.  But I was determined to not let that happen! I had worked too hard (and I've never had a surgery before - knock on wood - and didn't want the delivery of my child to be the first).

In general, Blakeley was an easy baby.  Though I had NO CLUE what I was doing at times, compared to other mommy stories I've heard, Blakeley was a breeze.  However, it did take some time to get her to sleep more than 3-4 hours.  I about cried the night I realized that I slept for 6 hours without hearing a cry.  One reason, was I was worried I was so exhausted that I just didn't hear her, and then later realized that she was finally not need to eat so much!  Another reason was I had never been so thankful to sleep that long!

Now, I've got a sweet, energetic, loving, tender-hearted TWO year old!  She has got her Mommy and Daddy wrapped tightly around her finger. 

Blakeley Grace - you love to run, laugh, sing, SHOUT, dance, splash in the water, to be chased and tickled, go on walks, The Wiggles, Little Einsteins (Annie), and to push your baby in the stroller. You love to eat fruit, nutrigrain bars (bar), jelly beans (j-bees), chips (tips), cookies, and fruit snacks (snacks).  You now go to sleep very well, and only wake up randomly if you can't find your paci or Hop Hop in the night.  You generally sleep from 7:30-7:00 every night, take a nap from 12:00-2:00, and you always wake up talking and singing!

Your daddy and I know you are going to be a WONDERFUL big sister to Mattie Kate! We love you so much! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

So many exciting new things!!!

It has been basically FOR-EV-ER since I last posted.  There is a few reasons I have been MIA - (1) I am getting my ESOL endorsement online, so any time I am on the computer I feel that my time should be devoted to doing my best in these classes.  Thankfully, I will be done in less than 2 weeks! (2) Blakeley keeps me pretty busy and likes to put her pretty little  fingers all over the computer when I am trying to type (and I don't stay up late to do this after she goes to bed). (3) Justin and I found out in February that we are EXPECTING again!  So from February until school got out, I was in the "I'm so tired I could fall asleep mid sentence" phase.  Any way, se are due October 24th with another little girl!  Her name is going to be Mattie Kate, but she will go by just Mattie. (Though I'm sure in the beginning we will call her both, and when she is in trouble we will call her both - HA!).  We decided not to name her Madison, Madelyn, or Matilda because I wanted her to be like me - I'm not Amanda, I'm just Mandie.  :)  And Kate is just because I've always loved that name, and Justin's only requirement for her middle name was that it be one syllable.  Now both our girls have something from their Mommy.  Blakeley has her middle name Grace from me, and Mattie gets a cute short "ie" name like me.  It may sound silly, but it means a lot to me! :)

I'm still going through some typical mixed emotions about having another child.  I am of course, super excited to bring another sweet girl into this world, and I always knew Blakeley would have a sibling (and maybe one more if I can convince Justin).  She loves babies and gets so excited around them.  BUT - I have some mommmy guilt over never wanting Blakeley to experience any negative feelings.  I pray every day that she knows her mommy and daddy love her dearly.  I want her to always feel as special as she is.  She is the one who taught me everything I know! :)  Justin and I have already discussed how important it will be that Blakeley gets special Mommy and Daddy time.  Not just as a threesome, but one on one time with just Daddy and just Mommy.  Though I will be the obvious main care giver to Mattie when she is first born, I still want to have time alone with Blakeley and go on Mommy daughter dates.

On top of my mixed emotions, I have also experience some irrational fears of what Blakeley will think and feel when she sees Mommy in the hospital more than likely looking a little rough. ;)  So today, Blakeley's Nana (my mom) came along to my 21 week ultrasound appointment.  We already knew it was a girl because we went through a third party to find out at 16 weeks.  But this was to get all the measurements and thorough check up on the baby and me!  With Nana in the room, Blakeley did great seeing Mommy lying down in a dark room with a stranger using a weird machine on her.  She did have to keep her eye on me at all times, but I think that is normal.  I'm also glad that my mom was there, she didn't go to any of my doctor appointments last time since Justin came to pretty much every one, and I think she enjoyed seeing the ultrasound in person.

Who do you think this one looks like????  I will say that is not my nose or my lips....will any of my children look like me??? ;)



This is a video of our sweet little girl with the hiccups.

Now that it is summer, and I am on break - I can blog a lot more often.  I still need to catch up on our 4 day trip to Houston, TX to visit Justin's mom's side of the family.  However, that will have to wait until tomorrow!