What a Big Girl!!!

Brighton Rae turned two on November 5. I still can't believe she is already two years old! Where does the time go? She is growing up so fast. I don't have her physical measurements since our two year check-up got postponed due to the doctor being sick, but I believe she is taller than average (and probably heavier than average too!) She is speaking quite well now. Although at first she did not put sentences together as quickly as Will, she seems to be putting new ones together everyday now. Brighton is definitely a unique little girl. She does the most bizarre things sometimes like grabbing Daddy's Tech hat, shoving Ming Ming Duckling inside the hat, and running around with it on her head (duck feet protruding out the front.) She also takes all of her clothes off (and her diaper), gets out her xylophone with mallets, and proceeds to count out a beat before banging with all of her might on the poor wooden instrument. Brighton loves to color, loves to dance, and loves music. She also loves to say, "I love you." She is also a very sweet little girl, who is takes care of her babies and Boo like she is a tiny little mommy. We are constantly giggling and wondering at what a beautiful little girl she is turning out to be. Here are some pictures from her special day.

Brighton definitely knew it was her birthday, and she loved all of the special attention!

We took the birthday girl to The Pizza Man restraunt. She LOVES to eat pizza (I have no idea where she got that from ;) ) The restraunt is great for kids because you get to watch your pizza being made, and the chefs hand toss the dough very high into the air.

Time to eat! Stop looking at my "bubby!" (Brighton's word for belly)

The waitress put a candle in the pizza. Brighton was not happy about this, but Daddy helped her out by blowing it out for her.

Mmmmm pizza!

Big Birthday Hug from Will!

Brighton thinks hugs are so fun, especially from Will. Will loves to hug her as long as she isn't messy. He hates getting food on his clothes, hands, or face!

Yep, pizza's good, now let me eat in peace.

Once we got home, Brighton got to get the mail where she found cards from both sets of granparents!!! Here's a fun fact about our kids' birthdays that you may not know: Brighton shares a birthday with my mom (Nov 5), and Jon's mom's birthday is two days after that (Nov 7). Will's birthday (Aug 23) is a day before Jon's dad's birthday (Aug 24), and five days after my dad's birthday (Aug 18). This makes it almost impossible for them to forget Will and Brighton's birthdays...not that they ever would!

One of her presents from Nana and Papa was a Hello Kitty ride-on that goes on its own!

She was happy to ride on it until she hit the button and realized it could go on its own...I think she's going to have to warm up to it!

I loved getting balloons for my birthday when I was a kid, so I tend to go a little overboard with the balloons on the kids' birthdays.

One of us was having a hard time with all the attention that Brighton was getting.

He did straighten up enough to give her his present.

Nana sent Brighton her very own Vera Bradley bag full of Hello Kitty nail polish and new hair bows. Brighton also thought it was a great place to put her new markers.

Daddy and Will brought out the final gift of the night--a baby bed and changing table for all of Brighton's babies.

She knew exactly what to do. Brighton has the mommy thing down. She loves dolls, and she loves to copy me. I'm amazed how quickly she picks up things that I didn't even realize I was teaching her.

Night night Baby, I need to go eat some birthday cake!

We got her a Belle cake since she got the "Beauty and the Beast" movie from Will and a Belle costume dress from the Raniellas. ;)

Forks are completely overrated.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!

We're very proud of our sweet little lady!

Can you guess what Will and Brighton were for Halloween?

Were we firemen?

An inappropriately dressed baby-pop star?

A speedbump?

A crazy spaghettio monster?

NO!!! Although we did do all of those things over Halloween weekend, but
We were A ROBOT......

AND A BUMBLEBEE!!!
We had a fun Halloween, hope you did too!!! And stay tuned because this little bumble bee is turning two on Friday!!!!

Wild Weekend

Grandma and Grandad came for a visit the weekend before Halloween. We had a very full weekend. The first day out we headed to Folsom to the Global Wildlife Center. We had a great time! We got to take a safari through several miles of open fields where animals can walk right up to you to be fed. I think it's safe to say that this was the highlight of the weekend for the kids and even the adults! What a fantastic place to visit and get up close with wild animlas :) The second day out we went to the annual Monster Mash festival in the park in our neighborhood. This is a huge festival with food, drinks, games, crafts, moonbounces, music, vendors, and a trick or treat village. The kids got to debut their costumes and sample some candy. On Sunday, we went to church and then headed to the Madisonville Wooden Boat festival. This is also a fun festival, and Grandma, Brighton, and I enjoyed doing some shopping while the boys waited with Will to get his face painted. We got to see some really neat boats before the skies let loose with a thunderstorm. Grandma and Grandad stayed one more day, so they could see Will's preschool and do a little shopping for Christmas and Brighton's upcoming birthday. It was a fun visit, and we are very blessed to have family that enjoys visiting as often as they can!

This is what we rode on to see the animals up close.

You get a bucket of feed and several cups, and you can feed some animals from your cup and some by hand, but every once in a while...

...the animals might give you a little love bite!

Grandma got to break in her new camera.

Our little wild thing got pretty worn out.

Will found that walking could be difficult in his costume. Fortunately he had Grandad aka Ed-O-Lantern to help him navigate the tricky Covington sidewalks.

Super Bee!

Brighton decided we had stayed too long, and it was time to eat her candy!

We made it to the Boat Festival on Sunday after church for just a little while before it started to rain...

Will loves to get his face painted! Daddy and Grandad were good sports waiting in line in the rain, so he could have it done.

Thanks for the "Wild" weekend Grandma and Grandad!