Sarah is Two!

walking on the trail all by herself

Tallulah Falls State Park

Riding the carousel with Mimi and Paw Paw. She would NOT sit on a horse by herself, but she rode on the bench three times!

The duck ride (she sat there for a few minutes but then cried and had to get off before the ride started)

Pigeon Forge trolly ride, one of the highlights of Sarah's week

Fun at the pool

Eating ice cream with Mimi

Reading stories with Paw Paw

Jammin' at the family reunion

Building a block tower with daddy

WoW. Sarah turned two years old on Saturday, and I can't believe my baby is two! Here's a list of fun things Sarah is doing these days:
1) Running, running, running (Her new Sunday School teacher told us the other day, "I think she's going to be a trip.").
2) Forward rolling all the time, with a little jumping in between.
3) Talking about EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME ("favorite" phrases now are..."Oh my gosh," "What," and "Noooooo,") and understanding most things we say.
4) Trying to be quite independent.
5) Paci is gone! She understands it's for the "little babies."
6) Napping in her big girl bed and getting ready to transition to the big girl bed at night time.
7) Going to gymnastics and swimming lessons.
8) Always ready to give hugs and kisses to mommy and daddy.
9) Easy to excite, even about the simplest things--it's so cute!
10) In love with trains, trollies, and mountains (thanks to our recent trip to Pigeon Forge).
11) Learning Bible verses and how to pray (She can say "trust the Lord with all your heart." Too bad that's JULY's verse and she has no clue how to say June's- I got a little mixed up).
12) Repeating everything (last night Nana and Papa were over for dinner. Papa was joking around and said something about someone named "fat boy," and the next thing we heard was Sarah saying "who's fat boy?"----a gentle reminder that we need to watch what we say around her!).
13)Taking good care of her favorite stuffed animals (bear, beaver, and doggie) and baby dolls. She loves putting them night night in her new big girl bed-- enjoy the video of her smothering the baby doll.
14) Putting on purses, bags, belts, jewelry, etc., loading up her bear in his stroller, and going "shopping".

As I am watching Sarah play and grow this summer, I'm constantly thinking about how blessed we are to have such a delightful girl with SUCH a personality. She definitely shows us how to have fun! Also, realizing that she's already two reminds me that I need to savor every little moment because they are going by way too fast!

We went to Pigeon Forge, TN last week for Jeremy's family reunion. Jeremy followed us up there and stayed one day,but then he had to get back home to teach. Sarah and I stayed three more days after he left, and we had so much fun watching the mountains, riding the trolly, swimming, visiting with Mimi, Paw Paw, Joseph,and Alecia, and going to Dollywood. We had several really late nights for Sarah where we were eating dinner around 8 PM and not going to sleep until almost 11. She surprised me, though, and her behavior throughout the trip was SUPER. We dilly-dallied on the way home because we didn't want our vacation to end. I think we stopped 6 times, and the typically 4 hour trip took 7 hours! We stopped for ice cream and visited a local park in Cherokee, we stopped at a couple of McDonald's, and we stopped at Tallulah Falls State Park. All in all, it was a fabulous trip, but we were glad to be back home to our normal crazy routine.

Sarah's birthday was on Saturday, but unfortunately, I had to go to class at LMU that day. Luckily, we did get out early and I was home by mid-afternoon. We took Sarah out to Stevie B's pizza, and she had so much fun eating spaghetti and actually playing real games with tokens. She won some prizes (a candy bracelet which was way messier than I imagined, a bouncy ball, a Dora tattoo, etc.) and loved all of the action (I just love the pizza!). She also had fun exploring some gifts (especially the blocks). On Sunday, my parents came over and we had a little Father's Day BBQ dinner. Papa brought over the big girl (toddler) bed and a schoolhouse tent that we set up in the playroom. Jeremy says next time we bring something into this house that large, something equally large must go :-) He does have a point...

Enjoy all of the pictures and videos. I can't resist these days!