Leah Turns 2!

Wow! Where did the time go? Our little girl just turned 2! And it was such a fun event! I think I like celebrating a little one's second birthday even better than their first one. This year, Leah understood a little more what birthdays are all about, so she was SO excited for her birthday to come. We hyped her up for it all through the month of May. Although, she still hadn't caught onto the present thing yet. Whenever anyone would ask her what she wanted for her birthday, she would say "Candles!" and then "Treats!" She didn't quite understand that presents could be so much greater than that. But I'm pretty sure that she gets it now.

The celebration started the Monday before her birthday when we went to the Miller's for a BBQ dinner. As it turned out, none of the Millers were going to be in town for Leah's birthday, so they surprised us by throwing a little party for her at the BBQ complete with presents and Elmo cupcakes (obviously they know what our little girl likes). They even invited Leah's Grandma Leslie to come join in the fun. They gave her lots of great gifts including several cute summer outfits and pajamas which she really needed. Here's a couple pictures of her opening the gifts.

Here are some of our wonderful Miller family members that were there for the little party. These guys are so great! We love them so much!!!

Leah loved getting clothes! She couldn't wait to try on her new shoes. And she tried to put a new pair of shorts over the ones she was already wearing.

Leah loves these girls--Madi, Makenzi and Morgan. And they adore her too! (They belong to Ross's cousin, Brad.)

Can't forget the candles! She blew them out before we even got done singing.

The frosting was messy, but Leah and the kids loved eating them.

Leah was so happy when her actual birthday arrived. I had put up some balloons, streamers and a "Happy Birthday" sign for her to see when she came down in the morning. She loved them. Later we went to the library (one of her favorite places to go) and then to the store, where they gave her a balloon because she was wearing her "Birthday Girl" ribbon. Here's a few pictures of her hamming it up for the camera.

For dinner, we invited a couple from our ward (Frank and Penny Brown) who have a little boy Leah's age to join us at a local pizza place. Parker is only a couple weeks younger than Leah and they are good buddies. Parker slept through most of dinner, but when he woke up Leah loved playing with him and his Woody doll.

After that, we took them over to the Provo Beach Resort to play on the toddler playground. They had a ball! They went down the slide a countless number of times. It took Parker a little longer to get brave enough to go down, but once he figured it out, he was hooked. (I wish the netting hadn't shown up in this picture. It was so cute to see them checking out the slide together.

Leah couldn't wait to ride the carousel. She went nuts anytime she saw it! She was a little unsure when she actually got on it the first time, but then she just wanted to ride it over and over again and cried when we wouldn't let her. It's too bad it cost money every time she rode it, otherwise she would have been able to ride it all night.

Leah and Parker also loved the arcade dance game. They didn't actually play it, but they seemed to think they were. They played on it every chance they got! Here's a little video of them "dancing" together.

The day after her birthday was Saturday and we had invited our families and the Browns to join us for a BBQ lunch and party at a local park. That morning I decorated Leah's cake. She LOVES Kermit and the other Muppets. So I wanted to make her a Kermit cake. She loved it. And it turned out even better than I had hoped it would.

 I love this picture. She likes to help unload the dishwasher and thinks she needs to wear my apron to do it because that's what I wear when I do the dishes.

 As luck would have it, the morning of her party a storm rolled in. The wind was strong and cold with rain imminent. So about a half hour before the party was supposed to start, we quickly straightened up our little town home and told everyone to come there instead. I was glad I hadn't taken down her birthday decorations yet. It was a crowed fit, but turned out to be just fine and was much better than sitting out in the cold trying not to let our plates of food blow away. Here's some pictures of us all crowed into our little town house.

When it was time to open presents, Leah was excited at first. But then she just wanted to sit on her Grandpa's lap. He had to keep sending her back to open more presents. But Parker wanted to be right there where all the action was.

Money from Great Grandma and Grandpa Putnam. I was so glad that they could be here to celebrate with us. I love them SOOO much!

She loved it when we sang happy birthday to her and just wanted to blow out the candles. I had to keep pulling the cake away from her until the song was over. And of course Parker was right there to help her blow them out.

After the party she got to go shopping with Aunt MoMo and picked out a baby doll and stroller which she has pushed all over the house every day since. Since Lyndsee, Jason and Kynee were going to spend the night with us, we took the girls over to the park after dinner and let them run the rest of their energy off. By then the weather was a little better and they had a blast playing on the playground.

I took Leah to the doctor today for her check-up. She now weighs in at 22 lbs. 4 oz. and is 33 1/2 inches tall. We were surprised at how much she had grown in the past 6 months. She gained about three pounds and three inches during that time. She is a little chatter box lately. She can string several words together and speaks more in sentences now. She loves to count and can sing most of the ABC song with some help. She can remember people's names with amazing skill, yet can't figure out colors (we sometimes joke that she's colorblind). We love our little girl and we are so excited that we could celebrate this special time with her. We're so glad you had such a happy birthday, Leah Ru! Here's to another great year with you!