Katie's birthday

Just so everyone is aware we really are alive. It's just been unbelievably busy around here since the beginning of October! Between preschool parties and church parties and all of Jared's overtime, then getting ready for the holidays (which still didn't get shipped on time), and cutting my finger (another story for another day!) I feel like I haven't taken a deep breath since September! Can I just say I'm not sad to get all the chaos behind us!

I thought I should post about Katie's birthday before Christmas since it happened first. It's mostly just a lot of fun pictures, but we had a blast! I invited our friend Ydais and her girls over since they're practically family anyway. Katie has been nuts over The Little Mermaid for quit a while now which is fun for me since she's always been my favorite for obvious reasons! I just love that Katie says 'Momma you have hair like Ariel's. It so boo-tiful!' So at any rate I promised her an Ariel cake, but I wasn't going to make it. I have this problem that if I can make it then I simply can not buy it. However, in the hope of saving my last shred of sanity I decided to pay someone else to take care of that for me. Small problem. NO ONE MAKES ARIEL CAKES!! Can you even believe that!? I really only had time to check four or five stores and at that point I threw in the towel and made the stupid cake! It turned out ok because the girls got to help and we had a fun doing it, so even though it really didn't look that great, Katie loved it!

She was super excited about all of her gifts which mostly revolved around Ariel :) She got Ariel pj's from Ydais, a soft Ariel doll from Mom and Dad (Mellie got a tinkerbell one too), a snake that Melody made her from one of Daddy's old ties, and a fun sparkly Ariel purse from Denny, Alexis and Sophie. She's so funny about the purse, Melody is absolutely NOT allowed to touch it. She fills it full of random toys and carries them around the house. Silly girl. Then the last gift we didn't even get a picture of her opening because Melody uncovered when our backs were turned. She's kinda a turd like that! We bought her a bike and a princess helmet. Melody wasn't overly happy about it, actually Melody was really unhappy about it, but I figure by the time we get her one for her birthday Katie should be a pro at riding hers so hopefully she can keep up!

After presents and cake we went to Going Bonkers. It's this absolute dreamland for kids that can't sit still. There's level upon level of climbing and sliding and bouncing and even a small zip line. Needless to say Jared enjoys it as much as the kids! When we got home we discovered that Pepper had eaten most of the leftover cake. She didn't even get sick! I couldn't believe it!

I can't believe my baby is already three, but it's so fun watching her grow and learn. The funnest part is seeing how different it is for her because she has Melody to teach her and play with her. She's so different from Melody in almost every way but she's got this little personality that you just can't help but love her. I'm so glad she's mine!