Marilla's 2nd Birthday (And My 100th Blog Post!)

So blogger tells me this is my 100th post. Everyone who knows me is quite surprised, I know, to think that I have managed to blather that much! :-) Most bloggers have a big giveaway or some such thing when they reach a big milestone like an 100th post, but the only thing I have to offer is pictures of my daughter's birthday. It would be nice to have something to give people, if only to have people write comments! It's SO nice to log onto my e-mail and see someone has commented (i.e. read my blog!) However, the point of this blog is to give me a place for the aforementioned blathering, and to put pictures up for my family, not to browbeat people into stroking my hungry ego. If you're feeling gracious, though, feel free to say "Hi!" in the comments!

Little Rilla started out her birthday in Marilla fashion-- trying to see the other side of the camera while I'm taking a picture of her.

I bought her this Cabbage Patch Doll when she was about 6 months old. I planned to give it to her for her first birthday, but when that rolled around I decided she wouldn't really care for it at that time. Of course, me buying it had nothing to do with my own Cabbage Patch Kid obsession...

Thankfully, she loves playing with dolls right now, so it works out perfectly. The doll in her other arm is Gilbert-- one of the many dolls named "Gilbert," but he's the favorite Gilbert at the moment. He's actually a present from Abigail and Lydia to Cheyenne when Elliott was first born!

Yup, still wanting to "See?! See?!"

The doll's name was Vincenza Carroll. It seemed like a bit of a mouthful, so I took the liberty of rechristening it "Tillie." I've always thought it was a cute name, and now that I don't think I will ever have another daughter, it was begging to be used for something!

Elliott wanted his pictures taken with his stuff, too!

Cheesy grin!

Yes, Marilla, you have a cheesy grin, too!

Elliott, with his train from Hopie, and his bear-- a present from the NICU doctors at one of his follow-up appointments.

"I have a boo-boo. OUCH!!" Besides the nice bite mark on from Marilla's little temper tantrum yesterday, he has two big marks on his forehead from falling off the swivel computer chair this morning.


Marilla, rubber boots on as usual, busily maneuvering the doll crib to be SMACK in front of the stairs!

Cheyenne, hugging a fairly reluctant Rilla.

Daddy thought Rilla needed a bit more for her birthday, so he stopped on the way home and bought her a couple of cute summer dresses. I love this one, though, as Evan has pointed out, it doesn't REALLY go with her purple polka-dot tights.

Right before we lit the candles on the cake, Rilla got a call from the Alaska cousins. She loves hearing "Happy Birthday!" Orianna and Lily called her earlier today, too. She doesn't quite get birthday etiquette, though, and sings along when people sing to her!

Cake!

Puffing the cheeks out nicely, but a little too far from the candles to do much!

Quite the little puffer fish.

NOW we're close enough!

Elliott watching.

Silly Cheyenne.

AFTER we took off the pretty new dress, Rilla got into the cake.

AND said, "See?! See?!"

This is Miss Cheyenne's 2nd birthday...

And Elliott's 2nd! Man, two-year olds are CUTE! Looking forward to my busy little girl's next year!

I did slightly tweak my blog design in honor of having 100 posts-- I added a search bar on the right. Not that I think many readers will really need it, but now that I have so many posts, I like to be able to go back and see what I wrote about something. This blog is kind of like a baby book and diary all rolled into one, so I like looking back to see what's happened in the last two years!

Road Trip to FL (Or, Lots of Cloud Pictures)

Evan drove to Florida with Dad, Tori, Olivia and Cheyenne. For some reason, it seemed better not to take a pregnant lady, toddler, and wiggly 4-year old on that leg of the trip. They left Tuesday night and drove all night. (The kids and I flew down late Wednesday night.) Anyway, I gave Olivia my camera to take pictures of the trip, figuring (rightly!) I would be too busy corralling kids to take many pictures in the airport.

The only problem with that scenario is that Olivia likes taking pictures of clouds.

A lot. So I had to scroll through 400+ pictures of that part of the trip.

It was NOT a good night to be driving through Pennsylvania and Virginia. In fact, not long after Dad and Evan drove through that area, they closed down I-81. This was the snow in Virginia.


The temperature just kept dropping, the further south (or west) they headed.

When Olivia wasn't busy taking blurry pictures out of the window, she took pictures of her seatmate.

Little brown-eyed girl.

Tsk, tsk, such disrespect.

Pensive.

And silly.

I don't know if this was a self-portrait or if she let Cheyenne man the camera for a while.

Then it was back to pictures of clouds, of course.

And snow-covered southern states.

And road signs. It isn't really legal to take a road trip over a thousand miles and NOT take pictures of road signs.

Apparently, she got creative with drawing.

Don't know if Olivia and Tori drew this name card for Cheyenne. Note the Professional Driver in the driver's seat.

Pictures of Mountain Dew are only permissible after you've been in the car a LONG time.

And more clouds!

They finally arrived at my cousin's place in South Carolina Wednesday afternoon. It's a shame Evan doesn't feel at home here.

Mr. Wilson.

Katie and Tori playing a game.

Does this child not have a mother??!! Actually, not a present mother.

Olivia took pictures of the back of a chair-- I like the light here...

And a bird in the window.

Then, it was time for a play. I haven't heard the whole plot, but judging by the pictures, it was complex!

Wilson reading his part.

Cheyenne READING!

Cheyenne, backed by more of the cast.

Katie, looking way too tall and grown-up. The last time I was at her house, she was little.

Olivia's costume is one of the best parts.

Tori with the emotion.

I think Wilson might be hamming it up slightly for the camera.

I like Olivia's stance. SURE wish I could have seen the play!

Cheyenne with a hand-me-down barrette.

Not that she thought she was spiffy or anything. The pile of barrettes Sheri gave her have almost replaced the bag of Mom's outcast scarves as the kids' favorite toy.

Wilson, exuding calmness.

I think that's the lemon meringue pie Katie made. Which was quite alright with her Uncle Lee.

Tori Alice.

Hmmm, is Wilson now Princess Pretty Braids?

Cheyenne thought her big cousins were pretty cool.

The Cool Kids.

I think Wilson is a boy.

Quite the pose, Livie.

"Evan, you really took a picture of that?"

Katie protecting her mother from the camera. I'm not even posting the portrait of you that Olivia took, Sheri.

Then, back in the car for the remaining trip to Florida.

Which means, of course, more pictures of clouds.

Swamp, looking southern.

A bridge across the bay, when they're finally in Florida!

I just realized I blog about other people's cool road trips-- this takes me back to captioning all the pictures Cody sent me for his blog. It's kind of interesting to try to figure out what's going on from the pictures. I'm sure Olivia will be writing to correct me on some things, but the gist of it is-- they drove a LONG time from NY to FL, and Olivia took lots of pictures-- especially of clouds!