A Fantastic February!

Well hello blogging world! I am taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity of spending Spring Break at Erik's parents' house with internet access to finally put up some pictures! Hooray! Pretty much the only pics I have on my camera are from the month of February so that's what I'll put up :)
February was a very busy month for us! Erik's birthday was at the beginning of the month, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures :( We spent the weekend in Boise for our sweet niece Karlee's baptism. It was great to spend time with family! Then of course there was Valentine's day. I usually go candy crazy with this holiday, but this year decided to change it up a bit and we didn't get any candy at all :) Shocking I know!
To cap off our busy month, our sweet angel Noelle turned 2 years old on the 25th! Time has flown so fast and I still find myself wondering where my baby has gone. She is very much a little girl now! It is so much fun to be her mommy, she brightens every day. It has been a little bit different having a two-year-old. Although it really hasn't been as "terrible" as I thought it would be. A least not yet :) Our biggest struggle has been getting her to eat much of anything. She had a few months where she would only eat cereal and crackers, and of course treats, but even hardly any of that stuff. We were just starting to really get worried about how skinny she was getting, when I guess she finally had enough and decided to eat again. She's still pretty picky, but the beauty of being two is that now she can understand that if she eats what we want her to eat she will get a treat when she's done, and if she doesn't eat what we want her to eat, there will most definitely be no treat :)
For Noelle's birthday she was of course a very spoiled little girl again this year. She got cards and gifts from all our family, and she got to have two birthday parties- one with friends at our house and one at my grandparents' house in St. George. She got lots of toys and clothes and books, just what a little girl needs :)
Noelle is so big and capable now. She speaks so well, has so many words in her vocabulary, and loves to try and say any new words we ask her to say. She knows all of her cousins and family members and can name them all in pictures. She runs around and dances and tries to jump, but still can't get off the ground so it looks more like she's galloping along as she runs. I absolutely adore her! Some of the things I love most about her are:

• She still gives the best kisses
• She doesn't understand that hugs usually include putting your arms around people, so when other kids go to give her hugs it usually freaks her out :)
• She asks about what people are doing-- where's daddy?, daddy school?, daddy work?, grampa go?, things like that
• She notices sirens and car honks and other various noises and ever time makes sure I notice them too.
• She loves to point out any kind of truck, which there are a lot of in Cedar City :)
• She knows her numbers 1-10, knows about half her letters, and knows most shapes, but still doesn't understand colors lol.
• She says hi to the baby in my belly and kisses my belly, it melts me every time.
• She has finally started saying "love you"! Most of the time we still have to ask her to say it, but every now and then she will just bust it out all by herself and make me want to hold her forever.
• She loves to be tickled, especially by her daddy, and has the sweetest, most infectious laugh ever!

So this is a really long post, but now for the pictures (in no particular order):

She grabbed this hat and put it on all by herself. She usually hates hats so it was pretty surprising and she looked like a little hoodlum :)

Helping clean up the streamers from her birthday. She is a great helper!

Her favorite thing to do with the wagon my Grandparents gave her- read in it!

Grammy, Gampa, Noelley, and Mommy :)

Opening presents how fun!

Who doesn't love birthday cake and noise makers?

Trying oh-so-hard to blow those candles out!

She is the queen of fishy-lips. She does it all the time, mostly when she wants you to leave her alone, or when she does not want to do what you are asking her to do.

Doing beads at her birthday party. She loves it so much and loves seeing all the different colors and shapes of beads.

Blowing out her birthday candles at the party at our house. She only got one, oh well :)

Her presents were waiting for her when she woke up on her birthday. We were so excited for her to have them that we opened them before breakfast even.

She built a "fort" with her daddy and LOVES to go play in it.

In the fort with daddy. She looks so big. I usually don't go down in the fort much cause, well, it;s on the floor and my pregnant self and the floor aren't very good friends right now.

This was the first incident of beading with Grandma, the one that started it all :)

Daddy's Valentine's Day presents: Gloves and a Carbon Monoxide Detector :)

Noelle's Valentine's Day presents: bath foam, and a stuffed lion. She loves the huge eyes.