Three?!

i cannot believe that my little girl is three already!  where does the time go?  seems like only yesterday i was holding that new little baby in my arms, totally unassuming of the greatest adventure she was going to take me on.

 it's so crazy to look back and see how much she has grown in three years!  what a fun, energetic, sassy, smart, happy, helpful little girl she is becoming.

one of the best gifts was having my cousin sydney in town for mae's birthday!  she was here last year, and she surprised me and got a ticket to be here for mae's birthday this year.  it was so much fun!
she and my aunt mary got mae this super cute vanity for her birthday.  she was so hilarious opening the box!  so fun.

 i decided not to have a party with her friends this year.  i'm just not ready for that yet.  next year...definitely.  since we weren't having a party i still wanted to make it a special day, so we put up tons of streamers the night before.  she was so excited when she came downstairs that morning.

 she was very adamant that she wanted a cupcake dress for her birthday.  i was happy to grant that request.  and lucky for me sydney was here to help me with it! 

 i don't even want to know how much frosting mae consumed while syd and i were frosting the cupcakes.

 mae picked out the sprinkles that she wanted on her cake, which of course were bright pink and silver.  she also picked the color she wanted to frosting to be. 

she almost blew out the candles before we started to sing to her.  

 she is such a loved little girl.  we got lots of packages and cards from lots of special people.  and we were able to facetime with both my parents and cody's parents when she opened their gifts, technoloy is amazing.  she is so lucky! 
the big present from us was a comforter.  girlfriend was sleeping with a teeny tiny little blanket, poor thing.  finally got an upgrade. (isn't that pillow adorable?  my little cousin made one for mae and izzy, they are so cute!)

 she got a scooter from gram and gramps.  she's actually getting really good at it, i'm pretty impressed.  she doesn't understand how to do the brake yet, so we've had a couple spills.  but she loves this thing.

 she got some money on her birthday as well and was so excited to spend it!  we went downtown while sydney was here and made a stop at the big top candy shop (one of our favorite places).  and mae was so pumped to pick out lots of taffy.  she also had to be the one to give the cashier her monies. so fun.

we've been blessed with such a great kid.  she has her moments, but for the most part this is one amazing little girl. 

learning

since mae's birthday isn't until the end of september, she was too young to start preschool this fall (sad day).  i honestly didn't think she would be ready for it either.  but as the summer progressed, i realized that she needed something for sure.  so i decided to do a little letter craft each week.  she loves it!  it's been really fun for us to do something like this together.  sometimes i feel like she doesn't get enough of my time or attention, so it has been good for our relationship to have that time to work on something together.

 she is quite the little crafter. 

she also has started to help me out in the kitchen quite a bit.  whenever i start to make something she yells "wait for me!", and grabs a chair to see whats going on.  we've had a few mishaps...flour all over the place for example.  but, she really enjoys it, and again it's something that we can do together.

we haven't seen much of daddy the past few weeks, he's been so busy with work.  but, on the nights that he does make it home the girlies love to wait outside for him.  and honestly, my kids are usually the happiest when they are outside. (trying to get these two to smile for a picture simultaneously is no simple task.)

with daddy not home much, it makes for some seriously endless days for me sometimes.  after izzy's nap in the afternoon mae is pretty much over being inside, or playing quietly.  the 4-6 o'clock hours are some of my least favorite of the day.  they never seem to end!  so, the past couple of days we've headed over to the lake to just get out for a bit.

 

i didn't think mae would want to swim, so i didn't put her suit on, but of course she wanted to.  so i stripped her down to her undies, and she thought it was the greatest thing to be able to swim in her underwear...ah the simple things in life, right?

this kiddo pretty much lives in the stroller.  between going on runs with me, the store, library, playground, lake, i'm pretty sure she's spent a good chunk of her life in here.  lucky for me she loves it.

 an example of what boredom can make a 2 year old do.  ripping the paper into tiny pieces and putting them all over the place.  on one side, she was occupied without me for a good 30 minutes.  on the other, we spent close to that trying to clean up!

end of summer

i still can't believe that summer is over!  what happened there?  it didn't really even feel like summer this year. 

we're going to miss our long days at the pool.  mae has become quite the little fish, it took her a while in the beginning, but she's pretty independent (as long as she has her puddle jumper on) now.  it's been fun.

this little one loves the water as well.  the past few times we've gone she's fallen asleep while i'm holding her in the pool.

mae and her cute little friend mylie.  these girls love each other.  so fun.

we've braved the heat and made lots of trips to the playground this summer.  mae helped tommy go down the slide for the first time!

mae is still too young for preschool, sad day.  so i've been looking for activities for her.  my friend is doing a music class in her home this fall, and i signed mae up for that real quick! she loved it, and was very excited about the craft that she made.

this is one girly girl.  she found some old headbands and was accessorizing herself and izzy one morning.  poor izzy is going to have to be a pretty mellow girl.  i think mae has big plans for the two of them. 

this little nugget is sitting up all by herself now!  i honestly thought it would take her longer.  but, she surprised me.   it's hard to believe that she will be 7 months this week.  she seems so big to me know!  this girl can eat.  there hasn't really been anything that i've given her that she hasn't gladly accepted.  one of mae's new favorite activities is to try all of izzy's baby food.

 
this is izzy's home away from home.  she is always in this stroller! 

and this one.  in two weeks from today she will be three...what?!  i don't know if it's her birthday coming up or what, but she has seriously been giving some attitude lately.  just seeing how far she can push the boundaries.  i guess that's what toddlers are supposed to do.  ugh, i'm super excited for when she's a teenager!!

but, she's a happy girl.  always willing to help when it comes to izzy.  she's got a tender heart just like her daddy.