1st half of November-

 Coloring is so fun!

 Lily wore a nightgown for the first time.  She looked so cute.  

With Isaac's speech just coming along I was happily surprised when he combed his own hair and called it "dude" hair.  And he's right, his natural mohawk is awesome.  

When I buckled Lily into the car to go pick up Owen from ice skating lessons I was hurrying fast so I wouldn't be late and noticed Lily had something in her hand but didn't take the time to investigate to know what it was and hurried off to pick up Owen.  When we got to the ice skating rink I opened Lily's door and was surprised with this face!  For half a second I was nervous what was happening to her then my mind pieced it together and I realized the "thing" in her hand was actually some play makeup of Ava's.  This picture is her face when she looked at the camera facing her on my phone. Ya, shocking. So,  to collect my mom award points I grabbed her out of the van and we went in to get Owen.  It was a pretty great ice breaker.  

 One night Isaac attacked, I mean loved Cathrine with some big hugs.  

 Owen's friend showed him how make these finger pointy things and Owen was sort of obsessed with them.  He made every paper that was garbage into one for a few days and 'recycled' them for us.  

Ava & I had an early morning coloring date before school.  It was a great way to start the day. 

Lily's Birthday!

Lily turned 2 years old! 

 For breakfast  we had candles in her french toast.  

For some reason these spunky, happy piggy tails match Lily's personality so perfectly and she loves them.  She sits still while I put them in usually and loves her piggies.  

Had a fun elevator ride after Isaac's speech.  Very exciting stuff when your 2.  

 For lunch Matt & I decided Tandoori Oven would be the best place to go since Lily doesn't care.  It was so good.  

 Double kisses from Grandma & Grandpa!

 Good big brother for the birthday girl!

 Lily got to go on a date with her Aunt Cathrine to pick out her present.  She loves her Aunt Cat!

 Lily helped me make a pumpkin cake that didn't actually eat that night but was ready to go the next day.  

I recently became part of the Young Women's presidency and we had our Evening of Excellance on the night of Lily's birthday so.. since she doesn't care when we celebrate we had a good dinner together and then I went to mutual.  For our YW's night I got to take pictures of the beautiful young women with lots of light in the pictures.  The idea came from this blogpost with the awesome idea that everyone is Photogenic because Photo=Light and Genic=Life.  The young women are all so pretty with such bright countenances and it was fun to practice taking backlit photos.  I actually had a goal of learning how to take back lit photos a few months before and had figured it out mostly so this was a fun way to practice! 

So back to Lily, the next day we ate the cake.   

And opened presents with just our family.  

 She got this cutest purse with this chunky fake lipstick tube that she constantly rubbed on her lips for  most of the night.  

Then... on Saturday (so much partying) we had a pan"cake" breakfast to celebrate with family.  Matt makes the best pancakes and it was a lot of fun!

Can't ever get enough candle blowing!

 Lily hardly got any attention, ya right.  It was so fun!

 It was a great birthday!  Lily brings so much fun wherever she goes.  She has a lot of happiness and energy that she loves to share. She's a daddy's girl and works that for her benefit well.  She's very independent and loves to do things herself.  Lily is quite chatty and can say so much already!  The phrase we hear the most is  'I got it' and then is very determined to do it herself.  She loves her blankies and sucking her thumb.   We love our sweetheart Lily Kate!