Fall cuteness

I was trying to snap some super cute backyard photos of my precious little ones. That proved to be more difficult than I initially thought. I mean I expected some resistance but good heavens! Between JZ eating the pumpkin, grabbing at the scarecrow, crawling away and looking randomly to the skies the whole time, I was a bit annoyed. Then there was the wind knocking the scarecrow over and the dogs playing tag right in front of us that nearly sent me over the edge. So this is what I got, folks. At least they were smiling=) I had to get Natalie to tickle him because the boy was giving me nothing.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em right? I figured I would toss the dogs in for a photo. Ha! You know how that goes....

Birth Family

We were so blessed this year at Natalie's birthday to have her birth family join us! I couldn't believe how much fun Natalie had with them, especially the twins. They played and played together and were so sad to have to quit.  All the girls were snuggled up in similar blankets and we were trying to snag a good picture. However, trying to get this many silly girls to look at the same time with normal smiles was not next to impossible, it WAS impossible! We captured the moment anyway.

We were not about to let them leave without getting some good pictures. I have one more hole to fill in a frame of Natalie's upstairs so we were making this happen! Misty noted that this was the first good picture we've had in awhile. The last few have been after a day at the water park=/ That's not good for anyone!

This picture will be the one I put in Natalie's frame. We always want her to know she is loved by us both.

And this one is just priceless! This was the first time our families got to meet Misty and her girls. I was thrilled that both sides were there so, again, we had to capture this moment too.

How neat is this? What a memory!

Thanks for making the effort to be there, Misty. We love you guys!

The Doc Is In

The Party!

On October 27th my sweet baby girl turned 3 years old! I cannot believe she has already been in our lives for 3 years but what a blessing she has been. She's my helper, my buddy, my clown, my smarty-pants, and my first long-awaited gift from the Lord.  We celebrated her birthday the day before and had a great time. Last year she received a $5 consignment store doctor set and it was the beginning of an obsession. One year later, we still play with it at least 100x every.single.day. Therefore..........the Doc is IN! Thank you, Disney, Jr. for the precious little show Doc McStuffins! I'm going to break this party down for you because we only took a few (hundred) photos. Sheesh....

This is when she received her dress up gift and Doc shoes. We finally got a reaction from her and she was SO excited!

The Decorations

Adults had breakfast burritos & blueberry muffins and the kiddos had a cup of purple m&ms with a chocolate muffin on top.  It was a morning party so I went with a breakfast theme. Plus, NJ is not big on cake and icing, but she is on chocolate chip muffins! 

 As a side item they also had 'band-aids' make from sugar wafers and icing!

The Activities

When the guests arrived, they went to the red paper to make a door sign out of popsicle sticks that showed the doc in her clinic on one side and out on the other.  While that was happening, mom was giving the girls a check-up, getting their weight and height.  "Doc McNatalie" was of course there to assist her with some stethoscope work of her own! They each received a stat sheet to put in their "file."

Next up was the game! 

I paired a big kid up with a little kid for this one. Each team had a character from the show to operate on.  In their bags they had doctor supplies and the outside of the bag had instructions on what to do with those supplies (hence the big kids being a buddy)! 

1. Put a stethoscope on Stuffy's neck.

2. Put a bandaid on Doc's leg

3. Put cotton balls on Hallie's ears.

I explained the game and made sure the big kids knew to let the little kids do as much of the work as possible.

This is when NJ shut down on me. She wanted nothing to do with this game. Therefore, we snapped a whole lot of pictures of her friends having fun with the game!

They all worked really well with their buddies. I was so impressed. I do think little Miss Audrey had the most fun though=)

The Birthday

The Gifts

Natalie got such a wide variety of gifts; it was so much fun!  I think her favorite of the day was one of her cards, not a gift! She opened it and it sang, "Bow wow wow yippee yo yippy yay" She didn't want to put it down. We all got a good laugh from her reaction!

She got her gifts from Grandma and Grandpa once the party died down and folks were gone.....a bag of new books, new clothes, new boots and a game for her computer!

The Friends

Really wish we could have gotten one big group photo of the kids, but it was way too chaotic for that.  Once the gifts had been opened the kids had a blast outside between the trampoline, dogs, tractor, sand box, etc. It was fun to watch them all enjoy themselves. We were so very thankful that the Lord held off the rain. It was perfect weather.

The Party Favors
The party ended with favors for all! Since we had such a wide range of ages at her party I had two separate favors for the bigs and littles.

The littles got a bag with a big book of boo boos, a red pen, doctor stickers, and a doctor set.  Along with that they received their files complete with their check up sheet, Doc McStuffins coloring sheets, and a checkup sheet for their stuffed animals.

The big kids received a purple journal and special matching pen.

The party was a big hit and we are so blessed to call all of these people friends! 

The best part of her party this year was that her birth family got to be there for the first time. Looking forward to posting those pics soon......