Paul's Birth Story

Now that Paul is already a month old, I'm finally getting around to posting about his birth.  I started this post when he was two weeks old, and it's seriously taken me three weeks to finish it. At this rate, I'll be lucky to get his one month update finished before he's crawling. :)

Paul Xavier Lontine was born on February 18th, 2015 at 8:05 pm.  Unlike his sister, he decided to make his appearance six days ahead of schedule.  (Fine by me, little guy!)

Here's a timeline of events leading up to his birth.

Feb 16th- My birthday!  After having a little family birthday party, I started feeling some stronger contractions in the evening.  But after going to bed, they went away.

Feb 17th- Continued having stronger, but irregular contractions throughout the day.  I really wasn't expecting him to come for another few days at least, but I could tell it wouldn't be too long!  I spent the day cleaning the house and packing a few last minute things in the hospital bag.

Feb 18th, 5:30 a.m.- Got up to go to the bathroom and felt a little gush.  Went to the bathroom and saw that I had lost my mucus plug along with some clear fluid.  I told Derek, "I think maybe my water just broke...maybe?"  I really wasn't sure.  I knew that if it was, I would probably go into labor in the next few hours.  So I decided to just wait and see what happened.  I changed and went back to bed, and then I started having some stronger contractions that were about 10-15 minutes apart.

7:00 a.m.- Got up for the day, and Anna woke up shortly after.  We ate breakfast, I got her dressed, then showered and got dressed myself.  I was still leaking something, so I was pretty sure it was amniotic fluid. Contractions continued to get stronger and closer together.  I decided to wait until they were 3-5 minutes apart for a hour and then we would go in.

8:00 a.m.- Contractions started coming every 5 or so minutes.  I called Derek and told him I thought we would need to go to the hospital within the next couple hours.

9:00 a.m.- I finally sat down to time my contractions, and as soon as I did, they stopped.  The next one didn't come for almost 30 minutes.  During that time, Derek came home from work, all ready to go to the hospital as soon as I decided it was time.  After only 2 contractions in 45 minutes, I told him to go back to work and I would call him if anything changed.

11:00- I put on a show for Anna and took a little nap on the couch.  When I woke up a half hour later, the contractions had started up again.  They went on and off like this for the next couple hours. Frustrating!  I didn't know if I should just go to the hospital or not.  I tried calling my doctor's office, forgetting that they are closed on Wednesdays because that's the day my doctor is at the hospital.

1:30- I put Anna down for her nap.  I finally decided to call the doctor's office in Provo where I went with Anna because they have a nurse you can just call to ask questions.  I was all prepared to describe what it felt like when I thought my water broke, what the fluid looked like, etc, but she just told me, "If you think you might be leaking amniotic fluid, you need to go into labor and delivery right away."  So I called Derek again and he came home.  I called my Aunt Beth and she came to pick up Anna, and then we headed for the hospital.

3:15- We arrived at the hospital.  They admitted us and I changed into the hospital gown and got all hooked up to the monitors.  My doctor was still at the hospital and saw my name at the nurse's station, so he stopped in to check on us.  Then the nurse checked my fluid with a little strip to see if it was amniotic fluid, and it immediately turned bright blue.  That was exciting because it meant we got to stay and have a baby!  The nurse also said I was dilated to a 3.  Pretty quick after that, the contractions started coming every 3-4 minutes, and this time, they didn't slow down.  They were strong, but still not horrible yet.  By the time I was at a 3 with Anna, the contractions had been way worse and going on for hours already.  So I was pretty happy about that.  I decided to hold off on the epidural until they got to that point.

4:30- The nurse came back to check me again, and I was still only at a 3.  My contractions were starting to get pretty painful...to where I had to squeeze the bed frame as hard as I could during each one. I also started shaking, probably just from the adrenaline rush.  Around 5:00, I told the nurse I was ready for an epidural.

5:30-The anesthesiologist came to administer the epidural.  With Anna, they had me lie on my side, but this time, they had me sit up.  When I got the epidural with Anna, my water had just broken, and the contractions got like 10 times more painful, and I was literally screaming in pain.  So I honestly don't even remember feeling the needle.  This time, it kind-of hurt!  Not nearly as bad as the contractions, but still not pleasant.  But it did it's job, and I was no longer in pain. The only bad thing was that the shaking seemed to get worse.  I couldn't even hold my phone to text or do anything.  But it went away after about an hour.

6:30- I was now at a 5.  Dr. Nance wanted me to get a small dose of pitocin to get things moving a little faster.  It sure did the trick.  By 7:20, I was at a 10 and they called Dr. Nance to come deliver our baby!

7:40- Dr. Nance arrived and we got all ready to start pushing.  My epidural had worn off a bit so I could feel the contractions again, but still not nearly as intense as before.  Just like it was with Anna, I couldn't really feel myself pushing, so it was hard to tell if I was pushing hard enough.  I felt like I pushed for a long time, but it was only about 15 minutes.

8:00- Baby crowned, but he was turned at an angle instead of face down and was having trouble getting out.  Dr. Nance decided they needed to help him out a bit by doing an episiotomy.

8:05- With the little extra space and one more push, his head was out.  Then Dr. Nance told me to stop pushing because the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck.  He was able to slip it over his head, then one more big push, and he was here!

He weighed 7 lbs, 2 oz and was 19 inches long.

After cleaning him up a bit, the nurse brought him to me for some skin-to-skin time.  He latched on and nursed right away.  Then all the nurses left and let us have some time alone with our new baby.   I nursed and snuggled him for almost an hour before we had to move to our new room.  I didn't remember getting that much time with Anna, and it was really nice.

We stayed in the hospital for two nights.  Because of the RSV season, they only allowed visitors over 14 years old, so Anna unfortunately couldn't come visit us at the hospital.  Uncle Trevor stayed with her Wednesday night and all day Thursday, and then Derek went home Thursday night to stay with her.  Paul and I were able to go home Friday morning.

Apparently he wasn't as excited to go home as I was!

All ready to go home!

When Anna first met Paul, she was so cute. She pet his head and touched all his fingers.  She was really interested in everything he was doing for the first little bit.  Now she's usually off doing her own thing, except for when he cries.  Then she runs over and rubs his tummy and says, "It's otay, Paul!" Or, if she's busy eating or doing something, she calls out, "Just a minute, Paul!"  :)

Our family of four!

Anna seems so big next to her baby brother!

Kisses!

Paul had a little bit of jaundice, and we had to get his levels checked twice at the hospital during the week after he was born.  But the levels went down enough that we luckily didn't have to do any treatment for it.  At his two week check-up he had gained over a pound from his birth weight and had grown an inch and a half!  So he's a pretty healthy little guy. :)

Paul is a really good baby.  He is a great eater and eats every 2-3 hours, day and (unfortunately) night.  But other than waking up during the night, I really don't have anything to complain about.  He doesn't cry very much at all, usually only when he's hungry or when he's getting his diaper changed. And his cry is really adorable...his bottom lip sticks out and trembles and it's super cute.  It's also pretty quiet; I have to turn the monitor on when he's asleep in his room because otherwise I don't hear him until he's really wailing.  He's definitely a snuggler.  Pretty much as long as he's being held, he's happy.   He is also a grunter.  He is almost always making little grunting/growling noises.  Derek and I were mimicking his grunting the other day, and then Anna started doing it too.  Now if you ask her, "Anna, what does Paul say?" her response is always, "Paul says, 'hmmph'"  Too funny!

We sure love our sweet little guy!

Summer of Weddings

I am back to playing catch-up, starting with the end of last summer.  On August 30th, my brother, Trevor, married his beautiful wife, Megan. The wedding was here in Utah (which was nice for us!) at the same LDS temple Derek and I were married in. I'm going to copy and paste what I wrote in an email to my sister Maggie (who is currently serving a mission in Florida and was unable to attend the wedding.)

"Yesterday was wedding day!  It really was a nearly perfect day. The weather was fabulous...cloudy and cool in the morning at the temple, then sunny in the evening for the reception. Megan was stunning. Trev smiled the whole day. I got to see them kiss in person for the first time...and first twenty times after that. The sealer was long-winded but had great insights and a sense of humor. (He told Trev to "give her a real kiss, none of this little peck stuff.") Dad gave a little speech at the luncheon, and it was really nice. Mom was lovely in peach, and Haley and Maren were the cutest bridesmaids ever. Anna was adorable and happy all day. Derek stayed busy chasing her around and suffering through too many pictures. I only cried twice, once hugging Trev after the sealing and again during the mommy-son dance. (Trevor had to go and pick that darn "sleep my baby" song from that lullaby CD, and he was crying and I just lost it. I'll blame it on pregnancy hormones.) They had so many well-wishers the receiving line went on for over two hours. The flowers and pictures looked great and mom's slide show was a hit. The cake was beautiful...until it started melting off the tray and looked more like a frosting avalanche. And they actually had lots of willing dancers so it seemed like a real dance and not a Sioux Falls stake youth dance like some wedding dances I've been to.  I was exhausted by the end of the day, but so, so happy for Trevor and so excited to have Megan officially join our family."

It really was such a happy event!  We all love Megan and are so happy that Trev found someone so perfect for him.

It was kind-of too bad for us that Derek's cousin Connor's wedding was also that same day.  We left Trev's reception early to try and catch the end of Connor's, but we pretty much showed up just in time to help clean up.  It was really fun, though, because we got to see all of Derek's family who came out for the wedding.  The evening before the wedding, we had everyone over at our house for dinner. Anna had so much fun with her second cousins, Lexi and Chelsea, and it was so nice to catch up with those we hadn't seen in awhile.

Little cousins

Anna & Lexi on the trampoline

The following Saturday (September 6th), my best friend, Ashley got married.  The wedding was in Mitchell, and it worked out pretty nicely because Anna and I just drove back to South Dakota with my family after Trevor's wedding.  Then Derek flew out that Friday evening, and we all flew back together the following Monday.  

I was honored to be one of the bridesmaids in the wedding party.  The only problem was that the dress I ordered no longer fit over my baby bump. I had been trying it on almost every week to make sure it still fit....and I could still squeeze into it until the week right before haha.  Try as I might, there was absolutely no way I could get that zipper up!  I borrowed a couple of black dresses from friends, spent a couple days running around Mitchell trying to find a similar dress, but none of them really looked like the original.  Finally, one of my mom's amazing coworkers offered to alter the dress for me.  She was able to take the seams out just under my arms and add two black panels to increase the width of the dress.  It worked great, and you could hardly tell it was a different material.  I was so grateful! 

Ash's wedding day was amazing and so fun.  We all got our hair done together that morning and then took pictures in the afternoon before the ceremony.  I was super nervous about tripping in my 4-inch heels walking up the aisle, but I made it with no problems.  (I was so happy to take those shoes off afterward though!  My feet were killing me by the end haha.)  The ceremony was really beautiful, and the reception/dance afterward was a ton of fun.  I was so happy for her, and I was so happy I could be there for her special day!

The author of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" must have had a 2-year-old

You know the classic kids' book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?"  My child is the mouse.  I am completely convinced the author had a 2-year-old who inspired that book because it is seriously my life these days.  Anna is just SO easily distracted by little things that it takes forever to get her to do anything or go anywhere.  And she also has to do EVERYTHING herself, which also means it takes three times as long.  She really is a ton of fun 90% of the time, but boy, oh, boy, there are some days when she REALLY tries my patience.

Let me walk you through our morning today as an example.  Around 8:00 a.m., I hear her knocking on her door (she can't open doors yet), and I go to get her.  We snuggle for a little bit, then I tell her it's time to change her diaper so we can go downstairs and eat breakfast.  I tell her to go get a diaper; she pull three out. She says, "Two diapers!"  I tell her she has three.  She counts them about 10 times.  I tell her to choose one to wear, she stares at them for about two minutes saying "choose one, choose one" over and over. (FYI two are exactly the same, and the one that's "different" has a picture of a monkey swinging on a vine instead of a monkey holding a leaf).

Finally, I pick one and tell her to put the others back, she says, "No, I want this one!" and grabs the other diaper that looks exactly like the one in my hand.  I say fine.  I tell her to come lie down.  She comes over and notices the tag on the changing pad.  She points to it and says, "Tag!" (a word she just learned).  Then she spends another two minutes trying to tuck the tag underneath the changing pad, with no success.  I help her.  She gets mad because she wants to do it herself.  She finally succeeds in doing it by herself.  I tell her to please lie down.  She doesn't.  I try the "puppy trick" and tell her to pretend to be a puppy and lie down so I can rub her tummy.  This time it backfires because she suddenly is reminded of her stuffed puppy and has to go get it from her bed.  She brings the puppy over and lays HIM on his back and rubs his tummy.  She notices her puppy has a tag.  She points to it and yells, "Tag!"  Then she pulls out the tag on the changing pad (that she spent two minutes tucking away) and yells, "Tag!" She points back and forth to both tags.  "Tag. Tag!  Tag. Tag! It's the same!"  I say, "Yes, they're both the same, good job!"  I then rub the puppy's tummy and say, "Good puppy!  Can Anna lie down and be a good puppy too?"  She finally lies down, and I change her diaper.

I then tell her it's time to eat breakfast.  We head into the hallway, and she sees the bathroom.  She immediately wants to wash her hands.  She climbs on her stool and I help her wash her hands.  She notices the medicine on the counter and immediately wants some.  I tell her she doesn't need any because she's not sick anymore.  She then remembers the "momter" (thermometer) and wants to take her temperature.  Luckily, the thermometer is downstairs, and I tell her so.  We go down the stairs.  I pull out two kinds of cereal and ask which kind she wants (she's forgotten about the thermometer by this point).  She says "oatmeal."  I tell her no, we're having cereal today.  I ask again which kind she wants.  She picks Life.  I pour two bowls of Life and set them on the table.  I pull out her chair so she can climb into it by herself.  She sits down and I push in her seat and put her bib on.  She looks at her bowl of Life for a second, then pushes it away and says, "Krispies!" and points to the Rice Krispies on the counter.  I tell her, "No, you picked Life.  We're eating Life today."  She cries for about a minute.  (I give myself an internal reminder to stick to my guns and not give into her every demand and also pray desperately that she'll just please eat the cereal in front of her because I really, really don't want to have to put her in time out over cereal.) She finally picks up her spoon, takes a bite, says, "yummy!" and eats happily.  Crisis averted.  I breathe a sigh of relief.

About three bites in, Anna gets frustrated with her hair falling in her eyes and cereal.  I ask her if she wants me to put it in a ponytail. She says yes.  She almost never wants her hair done, so I quickly go upstairs and get her comb and hair ties before she changes her mind.  I fix her hair while she eats. She eats most of her cereal and asks for more.  I give her more.  She takes one more bite and then announces she's finished.  She climbs down and goes into the living room where she finds the thermometer.  She tries to unzip her pjs so she can take her temperature.  She can't get the zipper down.  I try to help her.  She gets mad because she wants to do it herself.  She struggles with it for a few seconds and then finally gets it unzipped far enough to put the thermometer under her arm.  She drops the thermometer down her pajama leg.  She starts crying.  I fish the thermometer out of her pajamas and give it back to her.  She finishes taking her temperature.  It's now 9:00 a.m.  I already want to pull my hair out.

The bad news?  The rest of the morning was equally terrible, and by nap time, I was almost in tears. The good news?  I laughed out loud probably 15 times writing this post.  I hope you got some good laughs in too.

Now go find a copy of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and imagine the mouse is Anna and laugh some more.

2 years old!

Our favorite little girl has officially completed two full years of life.  I remember thinking when she was around 6 months old that time seemed to be moving rather slowly and that I was doing a good job of really savoring all the special little moments and changes of her life.  Now two whole years have passed, and I can't help but feel a little nostalgic thinking back to the first days, weeks, and months of her life.  It really does seem like so long ago! Our Anna-girl is growing up!

The best part about age two has been her skyrocketing verbal skills.  Just in the last month or so, she has started putting together three to four word sentences, and her vocabulary seems to be growing exponentially. One of my favorite phrases she says right now is "I love _____!"  She says it about almost everything.  ("Anna, would you like an orange?" "Yeah! I love the orange!") There are still times when I can't make out what she's trying to tell me, but most of the time she is really able to communicate exactly what she is thinking.  It is so fun to hear all the things she has to say!  She is also bringing to my attention phrases that I probably need to say less.  I didn't realize how much I say "Oh gosh" until she started parroting, "Oh josh!" :)

In addition to words, Anna is learning lots of other new things.  She can count to ten, sometimes twelve by herself.  She's starting to figure out colors and usually gets green, blue, red, pink, and white correct...although if she's not sure, her default is always, "Green!"  She can name tons of different animals.  She knows a few shapes including star, circle, and square.  She can sing her ABCs and can correctly name at least two-thirds of the letters. She loves playing with her alphabet magnets, and she points out the "Letters a Aph-bet!" on signs, t-shirts, cereal boxes, etc wherever we go.  Basically, we think she's pretty smart. :)

Turning two has also brought a big streak of independence. She is definitely a strong-willed little thing.  If you can't convince her to do something of her own accord, you can bet a tantrum will ensue if you make her do it anyway.  Brushing her teeth is a fight every single time, as is getting her hair brushed, washing her face, and getting her nose wiped. (Notice a common theme?) She likes to do all of those things herself, but if you try to do it for her, it is the end of the world! She also sometimes decides she does not want to wear pajamas to bed.  The first time, we forced her into pjs anyway, and she threw the biggest tantrum I have ever seen.  Now, if she insists on wearing her clothes to bed, we just don't fight it.  Pick your battles right?

We moved Anna into a "big girl" bed and new room just before Christmas.  I was really worried about how she'd do with the change, but it's actually been great.  We bought twin bunk beds (knowing we would need them eventually) from our neighbor, painted them white, and separated them so she has two single twin beds in her room.  It's perfect because the top bunk has railing on the side so she can't roll out, and I can lie down in the other bed when she can't go to sleep on her own at night.  We also painted her walls blue and a dresser white with blue knobs to match.  It turned out pretty cute, and she loves her new room!

Anna continues to be a bookworm. Some of her recent favorites are The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli, the Froggy books by Jonathan London, and the Five Little Monkey series by Eileen Christelow. She loves going to the library every week for story time, where we get to learn lots of fun new songs and nursery rhymes. Here is a video of us singing one of our favorites.

Another fun thing has been watching her start to play pretend.  She often pretends to be different animals, usually a puppy or a frog...she jumps and yells, "Riddit!" haha. We got her a kitchen and play food for Christmas, and she loves pretending to cook.  She also got a doctor kit for Christmas, so we've been playing doctor a lot (which has been good, because she's actually been to the real doctor FOUR times in the month of January...more on that in a minute).  It's also fun to watch her talk to and take care of her dolls and stuffed animals.  Her two baby dolls, Rosie and Sally, sleep with her every night and usually each have to have their own blankets and get tucked in too.  She also likes to change their diapers and usually has to change them first before getting her own diaper changed. Sally also gets to take a bath with Anna.

Besides her dolls, Anna's favorite toy to play with is definitely her Lego train that she got for Christmas.  She loves Legos and she loves "choo choo trains" so it is basically the best toy ever.  I don't think a day has passed that she hasn't played with it!  She also loves building towers with blocks (or whatever is available), and she's getting pretty good at it.

So like I mentioned before, Anna has had several doctor visits this month.  First was her routine 24-month check up.  Anna's right foot has been slightly curved since she was born, and her doctor has been keeping an eye on it.  He kept hoping it would straighten out on its own, but it hasn't, so he referred us to a pediatric orthopedist for that.  Then he also discovered that she has a heart murmur and suggested we get that checked out by a cardiologist.

The pediatric orthopedist called her foot condition "metatarsus adductus" which basically means the bones of the front of the foot curve away from the back of the foot.  It's actually fairly common in infants and usually corrects itself in about 90% of cases.  So there's still a slight chance it could fix itself (although it's not too likely since it hasn't already).  But the doctor said there's not really anything they can do for it until the bones have completely set and hardened, which isn't until age 4 or 5.  At that point, if her foot is causing her any pain or keeping her from walking/running normally, they can do surgery to fix it.  But if it's not really causing any problems, then we really don't have to do anything.  He actually said his son had the same condition and his foot is still slightly curved, but he was able to run track and play soccer and everything, so that was encouraging to hear.

The cardiologist appointment was a bit more lengthy.  He listened to her heart, then wanted to do an EKG, then an echocardiogram.  She was such a champ and sat so still for all the exams, even the echo which took almost 45 minutes.  Everything came back looking normal, and the doctor said the murmur wasn't anything to worry about and will probably go away after time.  So that was good (but expensive!) news.

Then Anna also had a follow-up eye appointment this month.  Her eyes haven't really worsened, but haven't gotten better either.  We got a slightly stronger prescription in her right lens, so hopefully that will help some. Her ophthalmologist thinks she will probably end up needing another surgery, but he wants to wait another couple months to see if they'll improve with the glasses and patching.

Pretty much, we're anticipating that with all Anna's doctor bills and with the baby coming next month, we're likely going to meet our out of pocket maximum before March!

Let's see what else?  Anna still loves dancing.  She got some pretty dress-up skirts for her birthday and she likes to wear her "twirly skirts" when she's dancing.  She also frequently asks me to put in my Zumba DVDs (even though I haven't been doing Zumba for months now) and dance along with the instructors haha.

Anna has also mastered the somersault.

Anna loved playing in the snow while it lasted.  Too bad we've hardly had any this winter!

Anna still loves being like Mommy and Daddy.  This is one of my favorite pictures.  She's "working" like Dad.

Here she is washing dishes like Mommy.

And here she is wearing my boots. :)

I seriously love her more and more every day!  She brings so much life and light into our world!

Baby #2

I'm obviously way behind with updates on our family news, so as everyone probably already knows, we are having another baby--a boy!--in less than 5 weeks.  Here are some pictures from when we announced we were having a baby, and then later when we revealed the gender.

I have definitely hit the "I'm-ready-to-be-done-being-pregnant" stage of pregnancy.  My mom has a theory that God purposefully designed the last month of pregnancy to be completely miserable because it makes us forget how awful labor is and actually ANTICIPATE labor so we can be done with pregnancy. :)  I think this pregnancy has been harder than my first.  I battled nausea for 20 weeks instead of 12.  I've had more back pain this time around...probably due to the fact that I've already gained almost ten pounds more with this kiddo than I ever did with Anna. And he is currently sitting really low, so I have a lot of pelvic pressure/pain which isn't too fun.

But laying aside all the unpleasantness of pregnancy, I'm starting to feel pretty excited about having another baby.  I knew I wanted my kids to be fairly close in age, so I was excited as soon as I found out we were having another child.  But it took me awhile to really feel excited about having another BABY.  The newborn stage is honestly not my favorite.  I know so many people love newborns...how they cuddle with you all the time and the "newborn smell" and all that.  But while Anna's newborn stage was incredibly special for me (getting to be a mom for the first time and feeling all the love and emotions that come with that), I think I've enjoyed every subsequent stage of her life more than the first.  I just enjoy babies more when they can actually smile and giggle and interact with you.  (And also when they sleep for more than three-hour chunks at night).  But as it gets closer to my due date, I'm feeling more excited about holding a newborn baby--MY newborn baby--again.

And right alongside my growing excitement is a fair amount of increasing nervousness.  The thought of having an infant AND a toddler overwhelms me just a little bit.  Some days, I feel like we're barely able to manage Anna.  Those days I think, "How in the world are we going to take care of TWO kids??" Sometimes, I start thinking through different situations, like going grocery shopping, and how it will be with two kids. (Should I get the baby all buckled up and in the car and then take care of Anna?  Or will it be easier to get Anna all situated in the car and then give her a snack or something to keep her happy while then get the baby ready to go?  Then when I get to the store, do I get Anna out first?  Or is it better to get the baby out first and then Anna so she can't run off?  And putting the baby's car seat in the shopping cart is definitely not going to work because it will take up too much space. Is my best option going to be using a baby sling? Is that going to be annoying to put that on and take it off every time?? Etc, etc)  I get stressed thinking about it!  But then I remember how I felt going anywhere with Anna when she was a newborn and being so paranoid that she would CRY (heaven forbid) while I was at the store and I wouldn't be able to get her to stop and people would think I was a terrible mom and all these other ridiculous thoughts.  And then I think about how she threw a royal tantrum the other week in the middle of Wal-mart, and I didn't even bat an eye!  And I remind myself that it will be challenging at first because it will be new, but then it will get easier and easier.

Two kids. We can do this, right?

Happy Birthday, Anna!

I know I have tons of catching up to do on the blog, but at my mom's request for pictures from Anna's birthday, I'm just going to do that first. :)  Anna turned 2 on Thursday!  Her birthday party was so much fun!  I had planned to keep her party super simple...but then I got this magical idea to do a Candyland themed party (Anna loves the game) and couldn't get it out of my head.  So I just decided to go for it. Luckily, my mother-in-law flew in on New Year's Eve and jumped right in to help with all the food and decorating.

Anna woke up at about 6:30 a.m. on her birthday...not because she was excited for her birthday, just because she does that sometimes.  So with staying up until midnight the night before, it made for a short night for Mom and Dad.  After trying to get her to go back to sleep for an hour, we gave up and got up with her.  I made her blueberry pancakes, which are one of her favorites.  I tried to make a Mickey Mouse silhouette, but it didn't turn out so well.  But we decorated it with a whipped cream "A" and sprinkles, so she loved it anyway. :)

We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon cooking food and decorating for her party.  Everything was actually really easy and cheap to do...colored paper squares for the "gameboard" and tissue-wrapped paper plates for giant candies made simple decorations.  (At least it was simple in theory.  Unfortunately, the tape didn't stick to the wall very well, and since we decided to do that first thing, we spent the rest of the day re-taping them because they kept falling off the wall, haha).

Karry re-taping right before the party

"Quick, take a picture before they fall down again!"

But the thing I was proudest of was the food table. We made cupcakes and frosted them different colors to make the game board "squares."  Then we frosted a few pink ones to mark the different destinations of Candyland.  I found a bunch of pictures from the board game on google and made simple labels for all the food.  We had the "Peppermint Forrest", "Lollypop Woods", and "Chocolate Swamp" (all using leftover Christmas candy).  Then we had "Plumpy's Fruit Salad," "Rainbow Pass-ta Salad," "Gramma Nut's Trail Mix," "Lord Licorice Wands," and of course, "King Kandy's Castle Cake."  Oh and we made sherbet punch for "Queen Frostine's Ice Cream Sea."  It turned out so cute!

Karry did an amazing job on the castle cake!

We had a crowd of over 30 family members and friends, and Anna received quite the load of gifts.  It was so much fun to watch her open her presents.  Her reaction was, "Whoa!" or "Wow" or "Oooh!" for everything.

Opening gifts

Blowing out candles

She also had a blast eating the tower off of her castle cake.

Happy birthday, Anna!