Eileen's Age:

Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

William's Age:

Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Eileen's Actual Birthday (The Celebration on Nov. 22)

On Eileen's actual birthday, we had another celebration.
Eileen wearing the precious Christmas outfit from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Hines... and running off with Daddy's iPhone
This time, we celebrated her Mumsie's birthday!  Mumsie's birthday is actually Nov. 25, but we wanted to celebrate while Thomas was still home so she could have both of her sons present at her party.

Before the party, we took Chichi & Deda's Christmas card picture at the Sanders house.



Eileen dancing for David and Uncle Thomas
The Christmas picture- all nine of us are smiling and nobody blinked!
I think Aunt Lisa had to take about 50 shots to get this one.

Then we took Mumsie & Daddy Dave's Christmas card picture.



Finally, it was party time!



Mumsie and Daddy Dave kicked off the party by bringing Eileen a birthday present- a rocking horse!  It's beautiful.  A little big for her now, but she likes to ride with "help" and will LOVE it as she gets older.

We ended the night with everyone watching Eileen dance around in her tutu and play with her new toys.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with David's family at the Sanders House in Beatrice.

Eileen LOVED her cousin Merytt from North Carolina.

 She had fun showing off for Merytt, Aunt Lisa, and Deda.

 After lunch and playing at the Sanders House, we went over to Mumsie and Daddy Dave's.  Eileen got into the crib made by Granddaddy Don.  She's a little big for it now:
 Here she is in the crib at 1 month old:
We took a picture of the four generations.
David, his mom, Eileen, and his mom's parents
 And Eileen played in the rocking chair:
 And ate turkey & dressing leftovers.
 On Friday, David and I reorganized Finklea's store.  Eileen came to help supervise.
Eileen in a Christmas outfit
 A picture from Friday night, just for fun.  Eileen took off her sock with such force that she fell over:
 And then she reclined in her chair to rest.
 She danced to the music from Charlie Brown until she fell asleep-
On Saturday morning, Eileen was bright-eyed and ready to go finish the reorganization/cleaning at Finklea's.
 She hammed it up for Mommy's camera:
 And pranced around in her tutu-
 The tutu is from Uncle Hines & Aunt Lisa for Eileen's birthday.  I thought she was too little to want to dress up.  Boy was I wrong!  She is constantly bringing the tutu to David and me to put on her... and then she delicately prances around like a ballerina.
Watching Eileen dance in her tutu was lots more fun than watching the Iron Bowl.

David and his adorable ballerina
 On Sunday (the first Sunday of Advent- YAY!), we got dressed up to go to church.  It was finally time for Eileen to wear her Christmas dresses:

Eileen and David before church
 After church, we went to Chichi & Deda's for lunch.
 Eileen and David played with Chichi's giant blocks.  Mostly, David built towers while Eileen knocked them over.

 Eileen showed off her favorite word, "CHEESE", during lunch.
 Sunday evening, Eileen played in the tent that Aunt Amy gave her.

Looking down the tunnel to Eileen inside the tent
We had a great Thanksgiving break- full of fun!  Eileen really enjoyed having her Daddy home for four days... she is going to LOVE Christmas break.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

EILEEN IS ONE

Today is Eileen's FIRST BIRTHDAY!  Our little girl is ONE!
We celebrated with everyone on Saturday- it was a great party for a very loved, very lucky little girl.
All dressed up for her party...

There was a BBQ dinner at the Sanders House.  Eileen's birthday cake was a cute piggy.  It went with the farm theme.
Birthday Cake


Eileen peeking at her gift before the party
Eileen's pile of presents- this was less than half of what she got.
Eileen got ready for the party...



 and then took a nap as guests arrived.



 Then, we sang Happy Birthday and posed endlessly for pictures.

David, Eileen, and me.
Great-grandparents and Eileen
Eileen and Mabel
The Pages
The Steeles
 And then Eileen got to open her (many, many) presents.  She had some great help from cousins Adam and Eli.

  

Uncle Thomas had a great surprise for Eileen- he came dressed as her favorite TV character: DJ Lance Rock from Yo Gabba Gabba.
Eileen is not quite sure what to make of Uncle Thomas
Of course, she had a blast playing with the boxes and tissue paper:
 After presents, we sat Eileen down to have some birthday cake.
 I don't think she was hungry.
 So we put her in her pajamas and let her enjoy her new toys:
She loves her Anywhere Chair!
She was worn out!  She slept a full 11 hours after her party!  (I wish we could afford to throw her a party every night.)