mini me turns 3

wow. i have a three year old! that was a fast three years, but worth it in every way. she is the light of our life and the reason we exist. she is brave, fabulous, smart, courageous, loveable, hilarious, strong, imperfect, capable, graceful, and enough. she is loved more than words can say.

this year's birthday theme - because i'm all about the birthdays...and the themes...and the decorations...and really, let's be real, the pictures - this year's theme was vintage woodsy tea party since she loves tea parties, picnics, and birdhouses. i got it in my head to do a ton of DIY decor for the party this year {shame on you pinterest!}. i thought it'd save money while on maternity leave but i think i actually ended up spending more because i am the type of person who can never just pick a couple things to do, but want it all. and i'm a last minute person so to pull it all off i'm pretty sure it was about 4:30am on saturday morning when i went to bed....or i should say when liam woke up for a feeding and i had to stop and then fell asleep in the recliner with him until 8:30 when the decorating continued. lack of sleep is nothing a giant pot of coffee can't fix.

lexi was stoked and the party was a success! now onto the details and picture goodness:

a big thanks to my dad who always has the hookup on the best and freshest cheese. i have told him that every time he comes to my house he should pretty much just assume he should bring some cheese to get access into the door. wish i still had some gouda left {which was my main request}, i could sure go for some right now!

yeah...nobody wanted to hold liam...NOT...he was a bit spoiled :)

earlier in the week we ran errands for the party and spent some time browsing the toy aisles and riding bikes. i tried to distract her down another aisle as dad snuck the bike out to the car. it was safe to say she was not a happy little girl when we told her she couldn't have it and had to leave. while opening gifts, justin managed to sneak the bike upstairs and down the hall out of sight until the last gift. as murphy's law would have it justin got a phone call in the middle of gift opening and for some reason lexi ended up at that exact moment running across the room to where she had sight down the hall. i really don't even remember why she did that but all of a sudden i heard her squeal "MY BIKE!!!"  so much for making her close her eyes to surprise her {she is on this massive "close your eyes, now open them, surprise!" kick so we were going to do it to her too but it didn't work}. at least she loved it and had to ride it around immediately.

<3 <3 <3 photo of the day 

my poor little old man. wish his hair would grow back in. he truly is looking like bald grandpa gary these days :)

april showers....err...icy....day activities

today was a nice wintry icy day. i say nice in the aspect that for once i got to enjoy the bad weather and spend the day with the kids instead of having the feeling of "can't i have a snow day too?"  there was a little bit of painting, birdhouse building, gem gluing, glitter pen bedazzling, snuggles, kisses, and a semi-following-the-rules game of go fish. and lots of eating, some pooping, and not much sleeping.

 

liam has been in an "i don't want to sleep much during the day" mood lately. at night it seems he wants to go down for the night around 7-9pm and will sleep until about 3am on most good nights. the problem comes when mama just can't quite make herself go to bed that early...even 11pm would be nice, but nope, it's usually midnight to 1am which leaves me with only a couple hours of sleep before he's up again. if he would just go back down after his feeding at 3am i wouldn't be in such bad shape but he usually wants to just cluster feed or sleep in mama's arms. on one shoulder sits a little imaginative figure dressed like justin that says "make him sleep in the crib! make him sleep in the swing! stop holding him! making him sleep on his own!" and then on my other shoulder is me saying "listen to your heart and not your head, just hold him, you know you want to." we had this issue with lexi and in the end she never slept on her own but usually in my arms in the recliner every night so in justin's defense he's just trying to learn from past history and make our lives easier. however, i am not so easily persuaded and i admit, i like to snuggle them and really don't mind that they want to sleep with their mama. it won't be like this in a few years.

 

i was also glad to be able to step outside for a few brief moments to snap a few shots of the beautiful ice.

lexi got to go to a birthday party last weekend which she LOVED! she is the life of the party for sure and it was re-confirmed that my daughter is the ring leader of the circus. and the loudest. she was the youngest there, but she definitely is independent. "hey, let's play shopping! hey, let's play castle with legos! hey, let's eat cupcakes! hey, let's go outside! hey, let's do this! hey!!" yes, folks, we have our hands full with this one. i laughed because when we left for the party dad told her "now don't boss all the kids around!" grandma always calls her a leader, but i just call her a dictator. in a good way of course ;)  fortunately on top of being the leader, she is also the biggest cheerleader. she was ecstatic shouting and jumping up and down for joy when playing hit the pinata and the other girls were able to whack it a good one. she can be very encouraging, shares well, and just generally is the social butterfly at the party. and always, always, always the last one to leave. she is after all a schmidt. they say their goodbyes ten times and finally leave a couple hours after they started goodbyes. hey, it's a good thing i married into this family because i can sure talk forever myself ;)

 

at least she's my daughter a smidge...a true romantic...kissy, kissy with the king and queen. she's a lover and that melts my heart the most.