She's Officially 2!!

I have no idea how this happened, but our Gwennie Pooh turned 2 today! These past 2 years have been the fastest of my life. I can't believe my baby is already 2.  She is a joy to our family and makes us smile and laugh several times a day. She also knows how to drive us crazy and panic when we find her on top of the counter or in the middle of some other dangerous adventure. We love her happy personality and her independent spirit! She gets so quiet and shy around other people. I wish everyone could spend a day with this cute girl and get to know her like we know her!

Some fun Gwen facts: 

Her favorite words are "No" and "Mine". She loves to read. Her favorite book is currently, "No No, Yes Yes". She also loves to watch TV. He favorite movie is currently, "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas". We watch it at least twice a day. She loves to play outside, but hates the snow. She loves animals, especially dogs and cats. She is the bully of Nursery. She is a great eater! She has warmed up to most of her uncles. She loves to watch basketball games and football games with Adam and she loves to torment Tessa. She has been binky free for over a month and moved into a big girl bed about 3 weeks ago. She hates getting her hair done. She loves shoes. She loves bubbles. She loves babies. She loves to climb on anything and everything. She loves music! Right now her favorite song is "In Summer" from Frozen. She knows all the words. I could go on and on, but those are some fun things about our girl. 

Her birthday started out with her insisting that she dress herself.

 That didn't work out so well.

After our dressing battle, I had enough time to make her favorite breakfast of bacon and eggs before we took the older kids to school. Gwennie loves bacon!

 Gwen and Mommy spent the day together running lots of errands. If you know Gwen, you know shopping with her is less than fun. She refuses to sit in a cart and she likes to "help" by pulling things off of the shelves. But, I love looking back and seeing that cute face once I have her strapped down in the car.

We took a lunch break from shopping and came home to make her favorite lunch of chicken nuggets and pirate booty with lots of ketchup. 

 We picked the kids up from school and headed out for more errands. The birthday girl got a quick nap in the car. We went to the grocery store and got a birthday ice cream cone. She wore more than she ate. Note all the wardrobe changes throughout the day....

We had a pizza party for our dinner/birthday party. They kids ate their pizza and watched a movie. Gwen loves pizza and this is one of our favorite Friday night activities-especially when Daddy is gone at school for the weekend. 

 She refused to wear clothes all evening. I have learned there is no reasoning with a two year old, so naked she stayed. 

 We bought a square of a birthday cake at the store for a birthday treat tonight. She was so happy to have us sing to her and blow out her candles. We have come a long way since last year! She even did the traditional Nielson "cha cha cha" during the birthday song. 

 We love you beautiful birthday girl! Thank you for filling our hearts and home with love and happiness!

Sledding Day

The day after Christmas, we met up with some of our Nielson family for a fun afternoon of sledding. Gwen had to be woken up from her nap, so she wasn't terribly excited about being out in the cold, but Adam and Tessa had the time of their lives!

 When we first arrived, Tessa was too scared to try anything. Mamma finally convinced Tessa to slide down the hill on her bum. Mamma was wonderful and slid down with her. That's the two of them playing at the bottom of the hill. A while later, Aunt Lisa was about to go down the hill on a tube and she grabbed Tessa and went down the hill with her. When they got to the bottom Tessa yelled, "That was totally awesome!!!" We couldn't keep her off the tubes after that!

 Gorgeous Aunt Lisa and sweet baby Milo

 We kept trying to take Gwen down to see if we could cheer her up, but she wasn't loving it. 

 Beautiful Aunt Briette and Gwennie

 Uncle Matt and Uncle Alex started to get a little crazy with their tricks. I was sure we were going to leave with a head injury.

 She was a happy girl and would have stayed all day!

 Uncle Ben and Clementine

Clemmie wasn't so sure about being there at first either, but after a while, she warmed up and wanted to keep going down the hill. 

 Right before we left, Adam decided to be a little dare devil. He rode down on his belly, specifically trying to hit a jump. He nailed the jump and got some serious air. We thought he would be hurt, but he loved it and did it over and over again. We had such a fun afternoon!

A Very Merry Christmas!