Leda's birthday festivities...

It began the day before her birthday when we made "magic princess wands" for her to share with her friends at preschool. They were a hit!







Then yesterday on her birthday, we went to Disneyland for the afternoon and ended up staying until it closed! It was great fun. The park wasn't that crowded, and towards the end of the day we even walked on a few rides and got to ride twice in a row on some-cool! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for always being up for an adventure. We had the best time celebrating the day with you guys there.



Spencer's first time on Splash Mountain. They practiced beforehand making funny faces on the drop. Looks like all Spencer could do was smile his cute smile...silly boys!


Leda is 40" tall and this opens the door to a few more fun rides! The first one we went to was in California Aventure: Soarin' over California. Here's Spencer and Leda chillin' in line. She LOVED this ride and got to go twice.


Another first for Spencer, the grizzly bear rapids. Spencer got soaked, but somehow Aaron escaped pretty dry.


This is the first time the five of us have been at Disneyland together since Chase was born. It was so much fun to spend time with Daddy there. He's loads of fun at the Happiest place on earth!


The carousel was a hit! We got to ride twice in a row since there was no line and man, did Leda ever have the princess wave down. She had a ball and wouldn't stop waving as she turned. She used to be afraid of carousels, but apparently her turning three has made her into one brave woman!



While the boys were on Splash Mountain; Chase, Leda and I rode Winnie the Pooh. At the end of the ride they have a little birthday party for Pooh, and Leda thought the party was for her! So I told the attendants that, and they let her ride again without waiting in line, and when we exited they gave her a birthday button and signed card from Winnie the Pooh. It was the perfect ending to our day-she couldn't stop smiling.




And finally tonight we had a little family princess birthday party so we could eat cake and do presents. I didn't do a friend party this year, but still wanted to make the evening fun of course, so today I made a Belle princess cake with the help of my friend Aimee via lots of phone calls. Thanks Aimee! I think it turned out cute---though I had one tiny snag...I had to chop off Belle's legs so that she could fit in the cake ;) I tried to cut corners in the baking process and ended up with not enough cake to support Belle super long and lean body. Ah well, what can you do? It looks like I'll have to buy Leda a new Belle doll with legs before she notices this one is missing.

Leda's friend Maddie surprised Leda tonight and stopped by with a little gift--now they have matching necklaces. Maddie turned three five days ago-how cute are these little gals?!? Thanks again Aimee for stopping by and for answering all my cake questions!


A close up of the cake. Belle is her current favorite princess, though it changes almost daily...And, uh Sorry Aunt Kiki for having to ruin the Belle doll you got her for Christmas 1.5 years ago...oops ;)




I see four pretty princesses here...


I found this horse carousel for $20 including shipping on amazon. Gotta love a good b-day deal!

How good of "all boy" big brother Spencer to play dolls with his little sis? Uh, it didn't take much to tell the truth, he was digging the carousel ;)



We always get a family shot in this spot every year.


Grandma and Grandpa with their only grand-princess ;)


I think we are sufficiently all princessed-out! But it was loads of fun. Leda may be the only daughter I ever have, so I'm eating up this fun princess stage while I can! :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Leda Joy!

We can't believe our daughter is three today! We love her so much we can hardly stand it. She's such a blessing to us and so much fun. She was the worlds easiest baby, always happy, always mellow...she's making up for that now of course (hee hee) but we love her anyway ;) She brings a different dynamic to the family, and we love to see her personality develop as she grows.

Right now at three, she likes princesses, any princess movie, coloring, play dough, playing "Mom" with her dolls and putting them to bed (she can do this for hours), playing outside on her bike, throwing fits when she doesn't get her way, teasing Chase relentlessly, taking things away from Chase to make him mad, and shrieking at any given moment for any given reason. Never a dull moment with Leda around and we like it that way. We love you pretty! And yes, pretty is her nickname. I hope that it doesn't go to her head, and perhaps someday I might have to change it, lol... but it started when I first saw her eyes---and I immediately fell into calling her pretty because those eyes captivated me, and still do.

For those of you who might not know the story behind her name, Leda Joy was named after her grandmothers on my side of the family. My Grandma Leda was one of my best friends, taught me about unconditional love and was one of my biggest fans. My cousins might argue, but I'm pretty sure I was her favorite grandchild-lol ;) The reason I say this is because we all felt that we were her favorite-she had that capability-one of the reasons she was so amazing. Our choosing to name a daugher after her had something to do with a special conversation I had with my Grandma a few days before she passed away. I miss my Grandma Leda terribly and know that she would have loved to see my kids---but she passed before I was even pregnant with Spencer. Leda's middle name Joy is after my Grandma Joy who you'll see in the pics below. Other than the fact that Joy is a happy name, it's also a special name because all the gals in my family have the middle name of Joy. My mom, sister, one cousin and I, and now Leda all have the middle name of Joy and I think that is kinda special! So there you have the history behind her name!

Warning: picture overload, but how do you fit three years of cuteness into one blog entry? ;)

May 29, 2005 10:53 am 8 pounds 10 ounces 21 inches---Her first gift to me was coming 2 weeks early when my water broke, only making me be in labor 4 hours from start to finish with 2 pushes! Hooray she came early, or she'd been ginormous!


At five days old she was hospitalized for five days for her first (of many, sigh) UTIs, but how cute does she look here?


I just love Spencer's face here. He missed his sister and came to visit in the hospital


Blessing day


Birth announcement shot


4 months old. For some reason I had to cancel her professional picture appointment I'd had this week and I was bummed, so one morning I dressed her up, plopped her on her rocking chair and snapped away. I was so excited to capture this smile!



Leda with her great grandparents. This one is for my cousins. Isn't it a great shot of grandma and grandpa?


6 months old


First Christmas


7 months old. Her eyes were this blue until her first birthday. Now they are a beautiful green, but I'll admit at times I miss this blue!


First birthday party


15 months here. This is the day Chase came home from the hospital. She put his hospital onesie on top of her head all by herself, and Aaron finished dressing her up with his socks. Her first official dress up picture. lol


16 months in her favorite spot in the kitchen


Leda at 19 months with a major case of bedhead


Second birthday


2.5 years old


Three year portraits



Yes, a banana. It was the only reward she wanted for completing the photo session. lol...the photgrapher thought it so funny that she wanted a banana instead of the candy offered to her, so she snapped a few shots of her eating it. This makes us laugh.

Memorial Day weekend

My moms friend has a beach house in Capo Beach, and she very generously let my folks borrow it for the three-day weekend. It was also my Dad's birthday, and we had such a great time hanging out. We didn't have the best weather (actually a bit cold) but we made the best of it and had a ball. On the coolest day we had chili and hot chocolate, and as it warmed we took full advantage of all kinds of BBQ-yum!

I'd stayed at this beach house before, but it'd been about 8 years since my last sleep over...so I was thrilled to get to bunk overnight twice! I shared a bed with Spencer, while Aaron offered to take the other kids home to sleep in their beds at night. It was such a nice treat to hang out with my folks and Spencer, watch movies, eat some junk food, and then sleep in the next morning. What a considerate husband I have to not give me any guff and take care of the other kids at night and bring them back to the beach the next day to play. Aaron's the best.

Spencer made friends with the boys next door that were here on vacation and we hardly saw him during the days, Leda was in heaven gathering rocks and running back into the back bedroom to watch Snow White whenever she wanted, and Chase just thought he was so big getting to toddle around and explore all by himself. It was such a memorable weekend. Thanks so much Carolyn-xoxo! Here are some pictures in random order cause I'm too lazy to put them in any kind of order:


This was the view from my feet. Gorgeous, eh? I finished a book this weekend lounging like this...


Leda escaping to the back bedroom to take in some Snow White. She loved the R&R in that big bed!


Daddy and Chase. Chase was such a cuddler all weekend-just bouncing back and forth between different laps


Leda collected all these rocks up and down the beach, and then sat here in this spot for quite a while just admiring her collection.

This is me and the kids in their Easter outfits. Why in their Easter outfits in May you ask? Because they were sick on Easter and it's been too hot to wear them ever since. So I pulled the clothes out this weekend and I finally got my picture shot with all three kids on our front steps. Granted this was taken after church, and I'd just taught RS and sweat off all my makeup...but ah well. Still a cute shot, huh?



Snuggling with Grandma on the bed on a Sunday afternoon. Nothing better. I remember doing this with my grandma....

Chase lounging outside with Grandma. He loved these chairs that he could climb up onto all by himself.


Spencer dug some major holes this weekend, and was quite proud of his work when he could fit inside them. He'd run and get me when he was finished so I could snap a picture. Turkey.

Grandpa took Spencer on a night walk to find "sea creatures that could bite your toes" Grandpa is SO cool, and Spencer had so much fun on their adventures.

These little beach chairs were a perfect fit for my cheeze-ball Chase

Okay, this is NOT one of Spencer holes, seriously...check out how big that hole is! We found it a few houses down already dug up one morning!


The kids quickly learned how to make this hole into a slide. Their backsides were SO dirty, I'm not sure I can save Leda's shorts-they're still soaking in woolite. lol


We got some bike riding in...


Love this smile.


Grandma and the room with a view. Even on a cloudy night it was gorgeous!


The boys loved to veg-out on the couch with their grandpa. Especially when Grandpa had fruit punch to share-Chase's face was stained for days.


Oh, and last but not least, on Saturday Leda's friend Maddie turned three and had a princess party. Leda had SO much fun. Thanks for the wonderful party guys! Leda's still talking about it, and we've painted her nails every day since. lol