Happy Birthday Lillian!

I can' t believe my baby is turning two this week! She is such a character and is becoming oh so independent so I guess I should believe it, but time really does fly. Even though Lillian's birthday isn't until Wednesday, we decided to celebrate while we were visiting family in Utah this past week. It started out as a simple idea: we don't know many people in Morgan Hill yet, and we wanted both of our families to be involved, so why not do a little get-together while on vacation? Jared's parents have an awesome backyard where we hosted, and my family was able to drive down and join us for the occasion. Since we didn't want to leave any cousins out, It ended being about 30+ people with dress up, dancing, snacks, drinks, crafts, games and the all-important Puppy Cake. It was a very fun afternoon that I'm not sure we'll be able to top as far as birthdays go. Hopefully she forgets by her next birthday :)
Lillian started requesting a month before her birthday to have a Puppy cake and with the excellent artistic skills of Jared's sister Kristina and the culinary skills of his sister Rachel we were able to pull off a really cute cake that exceeded all our expectations. Lillian was very pleased and kept reporting to anyone who would listen "Puppy has a tongue, puppy has a nose and legs and eyes." I was a little worried that Lillian would be overwhelmed with the sheer number of people or the overwhelming task of opening more than 2 presents, but she dug right in and had a great time being with all the cousins and kept on telling me "my turn" meaning she wanted to open all the gifts by herself. She has played diligently with all the presents and is especially fond of the barbie and little dress-up puppy she received. Here are some pics from the big event. I am thinking for her actual birthday we'll do something really exciting such as tying her binkys to helium balloons and let them float far far away! I'm trying to talk her into it and as long as we can coax Jared, I think we'll be binky-free for her 2nd birthday!! Wish me luck, as she became extra attached during vacation and traveling...