Sari's 2nd Birthday and Other Stuff!!

This is going to be a two part post, with the pictures following this post. Sorry, but there were too many pictures to make it all part of one post!

I know...it has been a LONG time. We talk all the time about posting, but just never seem to get around to it. So, because of our laziness, this it going to be a long one to update you all on what has been going on the past couple of months!

I'll start with the house. The kitchen is pretty much 100% done, which is SOOOO nice! We love our kitchen and are quite proud of how it turned out. Hopefully before the new baby arrives we will be able to have the family room done as well. After the long weekend we will be starting on the kids rooms and will hopefully have those done within a couple of weeks of starting. We are just tackling things one room at a time. We definitely have no desire to have the stress of renovating that we did in our last house!

Sari is doing really well. We still can't believe that our little baby is 2 now! Where does the time go?! Soon we'll be a family of 4 and then time will really fly! Sari is really starting to look like a toddler. Her hair is really filling in and she is getting so tall! I am now going to take the time to brag about how smart she is! As most of you know, she is a little chatter box! She is really starting to repeat pretty much everything that we say, which is a little dangerous some times! We are becoming more and more aware of what comes out of our mouths! She is stringing little sentences together. Some examples: "how doin'?"; "where did you go?"; "Wicki, come come". That's all that I can think of right now, but I know that there are many more words that she puts together. Sari is also really obsessed with numbers and counting. She counts everything! She can count to 15 and recognizes all the numbers between 1 and 10. Hmmm, what else is there?? We are working on her alphabet as well. She loves to sing the ABC's and does recognize some letters, but only a few. I think that's it in the bragging department!! :) Sari is definitely starting to have a mind of her own and really likes to test the limits right now. I find it quite amusing and am trying really hard to stay on top of things and not laugh because we are working really hard to have a well behaved child! I don't know why people call it the 'terrible two's', I quite like this age!

Ok, on to the birthday party!! We had her party last Saturday and celebrated as a family on her actual birthday, which was this past Monday. Sari had a blast at her party! First I am going to back track a little and start with the pre-party excitement. My parents came in Thursday night and stayed until after the party on Saturday. Their dog, Abby, who is a 4 lb. Maltese decided in the middle of the night to eat an ear plug. This wasn't figured out until probably an hour before the party when they finally took her to an emergency animal clinic and had an X-ray done. Needless to say Abby had emergency surgery and is now as good as new! Such a trooper! By the time mom and dad got back to our house, everyone had arrived for the party. It was filled with screaming kids, presents, cake and a whole lot of fun! Like I said before, Sari had a blast. Friends of ours, Nicole, Derrick and their kids, Elle and Macy spent the night here, which made the fun and celebration last until Sunday night. Macy and Sari are just 4-1/2 months apart and the best of friends. It was so cute watching them play together and interact with each other. They would be sitting at the table having a conversation that only they could understand and then each would start laughing, like one of them said a joke or something. Elle, their oldest, was such a good girl and played so well with the younger two. Nic, Elle and I went shopping on Sunday and she was SOOOO good. I can only hope that Sari is that well behaved when she is 5. They ended up staying over on Sunday in a hotel, so after a nice dinner out, we took the kids back to the hotel to go swimming before we parted ways. As you will see in the pictures, Sari really enjoyed herself. All in all it was a great weekend. We had such a good time at the party and such a great weekend with our friends.

Monday, Sari's actual birthday, I had to work. Chris volunteered to drive Abby back to Brandon for my mom and dad, so he and Sari made their trek to Brandon for a quick trip. They were home in time to pick me up from work and have a simple birthday dinner. We opened presents with Sari that morning before I went to work. I just love birthdays and have decided that each of my children should take after their mother and try and stretch the birthday celebration a week instead of being just one day! :)

Now we are just looking forward to, and getting ready for the new arrival that will be coming in June! I can't believe how close it is. We are planning a trip to Minneapolis over the Easter long weekend to get away one last time before the baby comes. We are really looking forward to it.

Anyway, I think that is all. Sorry it has been so long and I promise that we will update sooner than we did this last time! Enjoy all the pictures below!!

Oh, I almost forgot...I would like to welcome the newest addition to the Crowe family! Berk and Christy had a baby girl on the 31st of March weighing in at 9 lb. 6 oz., the exact same weight as Sari! Her name is Edan Jolaine...beautiful name! We are very happy for them and can hardly wait to meet her!