Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Such a horrible blogger I have been. I'm sorry! Christmas and New Years have come and gone and it all went by waaaaay too fast. 

The week after Thanksgiving was spent getting all of the Christmas decorations out and getting the exterior lights in order. Bobby did an amazing job outside this year and he is just looking forward to going bigger and better next year. I've been told that music will be added to the mix....Oh boy! I'm hoping to have started a little tradition and purchased an 8 foot blow up snowman for the girls to give Bobby for his birthday. The snowman had yet to be received by Bobby when these pics were taken, but rest assured, the big chilly dude fit in quite nicely. 

 

Like we do every year, we planned to have Bobby's mom and his Nina (godmother Tia Marilyn AKA Tina) down to help us decorate the tree on December 2nd. The day before, I bundled up the girls to head ALL THE WAY out to.....Home Depot only to step out of our garage into perfect 70 degree weather and a blazing sun! Thank you Southern California. We rocked our Ugg boots and furry vests anyway, fell in love with the first tree we checked out and took it home with us. I made a crockpot full of Caramel Apple Cider and we ate Costco pizza and Caesar salad for dinner. Festive, right? The tree turned out beautifully and Jordan had an absolute blast seeing all of the lights and decorations. She kept saying, "Look at all the decorations!" and "Lights are bootiful!"

 

 The weekend after that was Bobby's Birthday. His Birthday was on Saturday, but he spent Friday playing golf with some of the guys from work and then I was lucky enough to get a sitter for the evening and go out for a few drinks with him and his work crew. We had a blast and were still home in time to put Jordan to bed. The next morning we loaded the car up and took off up to my mom's. I got Bobby tickets to that Sunday's Laker game, so we were able to leave the girls with my mom while we went to dinner and the game.

Bobby's Surf and Turf Birthday Dinner!

Happy Birthday, Love!

We had another fun night and the girls did great with grandma. Even after enjoying one of Dada's birthday treats that mama made!

 

Thank you for babysitting, Gamma!

The following weekend, Bobby's mom and Nina hosted a small Christmas dinner. His Uncle Acie is battling Alzheimers and seems to respond really well and enjoy his time when Jordan is around, so we welcomed the idea of getting to spend some extra time with them and enjoy yummy food. The prime rib that Bobby's Nina made was to die for! Jordan wasn't a fan of the dinner choices, but sure did enjoy her very own gingerbread man!

 

B in her Christmas outfit and ready to go!

Bobby left for a business trip bright and early the next morning and the girls and I had a little play date with one of Jordan's friends, Sophia. We made salt dough ornaments, ate lunch, and enjoyed our time together. Here are B and J's handprints from the day. 

Bobby returned home late Wednesday night and the rest of our week was filled with Christmas shopping, cleaning, and treat making. I took several of my recipes/ideas that I had pinned on Pinterest and put them to use to put together some gifts for our neighbors. 

From the top left, I made Slower Cooker Cinnamon Almonds that are absolutely delicious and SO addicting! Next, I attempted to make Peppermint Serving Trays. These weren't a complete success or a complete failure. The shape is never quite perfect without a little manipulation before it cools and you definitely need to use parchment paper vs. wax paper. I also used a spray sealer on them to eliminate some of the tackiness, but they were still a tad sticky. All in all, a cute touch, but not amazing. 

Bottom left shows the final product with White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge shown on the right of the tray. As Jordan would say, "Deeeeelishus!" She did manage to sneak a piece off of one of the trays before I was able to wrap it in cellophane! Lastly, I made White Chocolate Peppermint M&M Cookies. Such a yummy treat! I skipped the Peppermint extract in the batter because the M&Ms were enough peppermint for my taste and they were great! The cookie is so chewy, almost brownie-esque. 

Bobby and I also made a tag team effort on gifts for both of our mom's and his dad. We put our own little spin on these picture holders and were very happy with the way they turned out. 

My mom showed up on the Friday before Christmas and was a huge help with the girls, running errands, and with the treats for the neighbors!

Then came Christmas Eve. We dined on homemade tamales, took a walk around the block to look at Christmas lights...

watched A Charlie Brown Christmas (a Christmas Eve tradition), and ended the night by making sure we left some yummy treats for Santa and his reindeer!

B is totally not amused!

Bobby's mom arrived bright and early around 6:30am Christmas morning so she could watch J open presents. B slept in, but once J was up, I made sure that Bobby had the camera ready to catch her reaction when she saw all of the "prizes" that Santa had brought. We got a few good shots...

but she was more concerned with making sure Santa and his reindeer enjoyed their milk, cookies, and carrots. Then she wanted to eat the left over cookie, so I let her. 

We had a lot of fun opening gifts with her and she was in heaven with all of her new toys.
The rest of our day was spent munching on yummy snacks, cooking, watching TV and playing with the girls. Not too shabby if you ask me!

24 Month Update (!!!!!!!!)

It's so crazy to me that Bobby and I have this little girl running around our house. This beautiful little girl, full of spunk, curiosity, love, persistence, opinions, attitude, smarts, etc. 

Initially I wanted to take Jordan to Disneyland for her birthday, or at least some point around this time frame when the Christmas decorations were up, but we have decided to hold off and go with my sister and her family in February. In place of spending the day with Mickey, Bobby was able to take the day off and we took both girls to the Wild Animal Park. It's not too far from our house and always amazes Bobby and me to think that all of those animals are wandering around in our "backyard". We had a fabulous day and of course, this mama shed a few tears seeing the excitement and happiness on J's face throughout the day. She's such a big girl and I love it, but I truly cannot believe how fast she is becoming her own little being. 

She seems so much older than 2, look at her!!! (Check out her awesome personalized Oso shirt!)

Right inside the front gate, we encountered a little show going on with this beautiful Kangaroo. Did you know that baby Kangaroos are born at about the size of your thumbnail??? That's so amazing to me!

We then hit the petting zoo...

"Shhhh, Goat sleeping!"

This guy always has me in awe as well...

and this guy?? Again, I cannot believe these animals live so close to my house!

and no trip to the Zoo or Wild Animal Park would be complete without seeing the gorillas!

and here are a few snapshots from the rest of our adventure...

Jordan passed out pretty fast once we got in the car and the rest of our day was filled with a typical family dinner and leftover Birthday Cupcakes....that J has been asking for every morning since!

On top of all of her birthday fun, here are a few fun facts about the past month in Jordan's world:

• Hello, potty training!!! Jordan started using the big girl potty on October 18th and we haven't looked back since. We spent a few days running around the house nakey (we = Jordan. I did not join in on this fun, I promise!) to cut down on the amount of laundry from random accidents, but really, she only had a few within the first three of four days. I was very impressed. 
• She then graduated to big girl undies on October 22nd. Since then she only wears diapers for naps and bed time. 
• Her legs are canvases for constant bruises! This girl plays hard. 
• She is officially in a size 6 shoe.
• She has taken a liking to Tom and Jerry! How cool is that?? My mom had given me a Tom and Jerry book for her and we started reading it before naps and bedtime. That lasted a week or so until dada got lazy forgot the book and decided to play a YouTube video of T&J instead and now that book just isn't good enough for her!
• When you ask her not to do something, ie: Please don't put your feet on the table, she'll come back with, "How bout dis?" and she'll take one foot off and leave one foot on! Sass much??
• Whenever she sees the letter O or a 0, she'll point at it and say, "O for Oso!" Since she started this, I have now taught her J for Jordan as well. 
• She loves cheers-ing Bobby and me with her cup of milk. It's adorable. 
• If she stumbles, coughs a little, or does something that generally could mean she's hurt or needs help, she will say, "You otay?" and she'll keep repeating it until you ask her if she's ok. Hello drama!
• If you tell her she can't do something, ie: can't go outside, she'll say, "[Mama, Dada, Gamma, etc.] said NO!"
• When I tell her that I'm going upstairs for a second, she then replies with, "Stay right der!" Yup, you're right! Don't move a muscle!
• I'm obsessed with the way she says screwdriver. It sounds something like "stu-stiver".
• She checked in at 27 lbs (71%) and 35 inches (78%).

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jordan Patricia! We hope you enjoyed your special day just as much, if not more, than we enjoy watching your grow! We can't wait to see what this next year has in store for you!

WW: Birthday Edition

1 Day Old

1 Year Old

2 Years Old

Jordan's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 2nd Birthday Party

Get ready for picture OVERLOAD!

This past Saturday we celebrated Jordan's 2nd birthday Mickey Mouse Clubhouse style! But before I dive into the details, I'm going to take this opportunity to record the details of her 1st birthday since I started this blog after that took place.
When Jordan turned one, I took advantage of the fact that she didn't have an opinion about the theme and decided to do a Zebra print with hot pink, green, and blue "theme". I had a blast planning for this party and even though we initially planned on it being a family party, there were those select few close friends that couldn't be left out. Aren't there always?? We ended up with somewhere between 20 and 30 guests and everything was perfect.

I followed this tutorial to make the balloon wreath for the door and even though it took a bajillion more balloons than I expected and a lot of mindless hours to put together, I would do it again in a heart beat. I loved the way it turned out. I also loved the favors.

I made candy apples, but dipped the apples in white chocolate and drizzled them with milk chocolate to look like zebra stripes. I got quite a few raves about them!

Another crafty detail was Jordan's picture banner with her monthly pictures from her first year. 

Lastly, her outfit was and still is one of my favorites! And a 1st birthday wouldn't be complete without some cake smash pictures!

Everyone had a great time and it was so great to see so many members of our family there to help us celebrate. Even those from as far as Sacramento!

Now on to her 2nd birthday!

Like last year, I had wanted to keep the party small. She's two. She wont remember. What's the point in going all out and spending a bunch of money? Well.....I keep forgetting who I'm married to =o) Mr. Social Butterfly.  I love him to pieces and just need to come to terms with the fact that the Floods don't have small parties. With that said, Bobby reserved a jumpy for his little girl and made sure that it was here the morning of the party so that she could have time to enjoy it on her own and get lots of jumping in. And jumping she did! She had been talking about the party and jumpy for weeks and was beyond excited.

She was in it as soon as she was able and Bobby took some time to enjoy it with her as well. 

Then he had to take off and run some last minute errands, so I got in for a bit, till I had to continue tending to B and doing more party prep. My cousin Kaitlin got in with her for a bit and I'm pretty sure Grandma was in there for a little bit as well. Once we all came inside, she stayed out there and I kept an eye on it as I nursed B, but I couldn't see inside the jumpy, I could just see one corner. So when my mom got up to do something in the kitchen, I asked her if she could see J. Yup, she could see her alright. Yup, she was jumping and running around just fine. And YUP, she was doing so completely naked! She had unzipped her jam jams, taken them off and took her big girl undies off with them! I'm thanking my lucky stars she didn't pee in the jumpy.
We used the packaged decorations from Party City/Walmart to decorate the house with some generic colored streamers to match...

 I had a lot of fun planning out the food and creative labels to make everything go along with the MMC theme and was especially stoked on the Mickey Mouse serving bowls that I found on clearance at Target...

Huge THANK YOU to my mom and cousin for all of their help with the goodies!

The jumpy was a huge hit (go figure!) for the kids and the dads! Aside from the complete and utter joy plastered on my daughter's face all day, I had an overwhelming sense of happiness seeing all the smiling and laughing faces throughout this party. We sure are blessed. We have such amazing family and friends to help us make these girls feel incredibly loved and special and I couldn't thank them all enough. 

Special Birthday Balloons

Beautiful Birthday Girl

Jordan and Grandma in the jumpy 

Dads and kids in the jumpy

Blowing out her candle

First bite of cupcake

One big happy family! <3

Ending the night in her new Minnie jam jams